I woke up this morning thinking to myself: Did last night's episode of "Breaking Bad" really happen? Yes. Yes it did. "Ozymandias" can be summed up in two words: Holy. Crap. Until now, my favorite episode of this absolutely fantastic show has been "Face Off," the Season 4 finale. Gus Fring gets his face blown off, Walt poisons a kid. That pivotal episode now seems like child's play compared to what went down last night.

I'd like to call this the Red Wedding of "Breaking Bad," except that this whole episode had the same level of intensity and shock value as those last ten minutes of the infamous "Game of Thrones" episode. Hell, Walt's pleas for Hank's life even mirrored Catelyn Stark's pleas for her son Robb. When Uncle Jack had his gun pointed at Hank's head, Walt's desperate attempt to save his brother-in-law was something only he thought might work. Yes, Walt had $80 million in barrels in the desert, but why would this stop Jack from killing Hank? Hank put it best: "You're one of the smartest guys I've ever met, and you're too stupid to see -- he made up his mind 10 minutes ago." The shootout culminated with Jack and his white power companions leaving with the barrels of money, and Gomez and Hank left to rot in a hole in the desert. Walt lost Hank along with $69 million, and there was no one to blame but himself.

Oh, but that wasn't all. A shattered Walt spotted Jesse hiding under his car and in his lowest point, he outed him to Jack and Todd. And that still wasn't all. In a pure act of vengeance (let's remember that although it was Walt who contacted Jack in the first place, Jesse set Walt up to get arrested by Hank in the desert), Walt told Jesse that he could've saved Jane from her overdose, but watched her die instead.  For me, this was the most jaw-dropping moment of the episode. There was no mention of him doing this for what he thought was for Jesse's own good. It was just a malicious and sickening statement, meant to ultimately tell Jesse that he was just a pawn for Walt and nothing more. Todd ends up "saving" Jesse, only to chain him up like a dog and order him to help cook the blue meth that he couldn't cook himself. 

The other big event in this episode was the unraveling of Walt's family. Walt started cooking meth in the beginning to not only raise money for his cancer treatment, but "for his family," which is a phrase he used so often. Marie, who didn't know Hank was killed right after he arrested Walt, forced Skyler to tell Walt Jr. the truth about everything. In tears, she spilled everything off screen and Walt Jr. finally realized his dad was a monster. The confrontation at the White home was just incredibly difficult and exhilarating to watch. Skyler realized that Hank was dead at Walt's behest and yes, she went for the knife and not the phone. Seeing Skyler and Walt tumble across their living room with a kitchen knife was excruciating, but seeing him take Holly once Jr. called the police was even worse.

Walt realized in his "we're a family" pleas that he has destroyed his family. His only hope left was Holly, who is too young to know what's going on. Once again, I spoke too soon. Holly's "mamas" after Walt changed her diaper made me tear up. I'll admit it. Walt came to the realization that even Holly didn't want anything to do with him. In an effort to give Skyler an alibi, Walt called his wife, knowing that police were at the house. The speech that came next was the cherry on top of this horror sundae. In what seemed like a speech of a madman, Walt actually saved Skyler. Calling her a stupid bitch, a whiner and a complainer made it seem like he had pulled Skyler in this against her will, which we know wasn't the case. While Walt ultimately did this for his family, as Skyler finally understood, it also seemed like he had been wanting get this off his chest anyway.

In the end, Walt was the one who was waiting for the red van to take him away to Saul's sketchy witness protection program, not Jesse. He left Holly at a local fire station, and that was that. Except his final words to Skyler on the phone were, "I still got things left to do." What could this mean? The obvious explanation is that he'll avenge Hank's death and his stolen money by retaliating against Uncle Jack and Co. Is this why he has a machine gun and ricin on hand in the flash forward? There are only two episodes left to find out, and if they can top this episode I may need an inhaler. 

Leftovers

- I believe the flashback to Walt's first cook was meant to show the beginning of his transformation into Heisenberg. He concocted his first lie to a pregnant Skyler, while getting into one of his first harmless arguments with Jesse. He, Jesse and the RV all disappear and are replaced with the present day shootout. In other words, that first harmless cook led to all this destruction, in the desert that is basically hell on earth.

- Poor Marie. She was high on Hank's phone call, knowing that he had arrested Walt. One scene later, she finds out she her husband is dead and she may never be able to bury him properly.

- Walt Jr., who I'm not a huge fan of, was brilliant in this episode. I had to cheer when he protected his mother and called the police. Walt's surprised look was even better. What did he think was going to happen? 

- Props to the actress that plays Holly, because those cries were undeniably believable and heartbreaking.

- This episode had better rule the Emmys next year. The directing by Rian Johnson and the acting by everyone was beyond top-notch.

- "My name is Asac Schrader. And you can go f--k yourself."

- "I watched Jane die. I could've saved her, but I didn't."

- The song that plays while Walt is rolling his only barrel is "Take My True Love By The Hand," by The Limeliters, which appropriately boasts the lyric, "Goodbye to everyone."

- "Ozymandias" is a poem by Percy Brysshe Shelley, which is about a desert wanderer who comes across the ruins of statue of a once-powerful King Ozymandias, who saw his entire empire crumble before him, just as Walt is doing now.