ASSISTANT A & E EDITOR

Aside from last week’s heart-breaking, epic installment, “Ozymandias,” I have never had more difficulty in reflecting upon an episode of “Breaking Bad” than I have with this past week’s “Granite State.” To see the characters who we have come to know (and possibly love, depending on whom we’re speaking of) plunged so deeply into the depths of misery and despair has not been easy to watch, and this week things have somehow gotten worse.

The episode picks up almost immediately where the story left off, with the vacuum salesman’s minivan still traveling the roads of Albuquerque. However, we quickly learn that it is not transporting our antihero, but rather everyone’s favorite “criminal” lawyer, Saul Goodman. As he contemplates his now-ruined life and prepares to receive a new identity in Nebraska, Saul gets a glimpse of his malefactor Walter White, a scene which serves as an accurate representation of almost everyone’s state of mind at this point in the series.

On a CCTV feed, we find Walt alone in a room, kicking and screaming because his world has come crashing down in the blink of an eye. After Saul elaborates on how irreparable the damage is (and his pathetic hopes of maybe managing a Nebraskan Cinnabon), we begin to see the cogs turning as Walt tries to muster his “Heisenberg” persona once more to intimidate Saul into coming with him and plotting revenge on the Neo-Nazis.

But in a fitting turn, Walt cannot do it. He is interrupted by a particularly nasty coughing fit, reminding us of his rapidly-impending mortality. In what may have been Saul’s (very fitting) last line of the series, he grabs his bags, heads for the door and offers one last comment, completely devoid of that charming Goodman sarcasm: “It’s over.”

Unfortunately for Jesse, the hell in which he has now been living for weeks seems like it will never end. His meth cooks with Todd have been producing “Heisenberg” levels of purity, and even Lydia has reconsidered ending her relationship with Jack’s gang because of it. This bleak set of circumstances seemed to finally be changing, however, when Jesse uses the paperclip attached to the photo of Brock and Andrea to escape his underground cage. The excitement is palpable as Jesse runs for the fences and finally seems to be out of the hole (literally). But just as Vince Gilligan gives us an inch, he takes a mile. A camera catches the escape, and Todd and the gang stop Jesse him before he can even get out of the compound; It seems like Jesse may finally be put out of his misery when he begs not to cook for “you psycho f****” anymore.

But that would not “Break Bad” enough. As I said before, it seemed to be impossible for this story to get any darker, improbable for any more lives to be ruined. I was wrong. Competing with last week’s family fight, the most awful thing to watch on “Breaking Bad” thus far is Todd, that “pie-eyed psychopath,” leading Andrea out to the porch as calmly as ever, just so she can be executed before Jesse’s eyes. At least Todd has the decency to add, “This is nothing personal,” before gunning her down. However, things have never been more personal, and I’m getting the feeling that Todd will rue the day he met Jesse Pinkman.

Unlike last week’s episode, “Granite State” does not descend much further into violent chaos, as it seems Gilligan and company are funneling everything into next week’s series finale. We see Walt transported to the purgatorial New Hampshire, where he lives alone in a cabin, visited only by the man who helped him disappear. He still takes chemo, but knows the inevitability of his death. Several months pass, and a withered Walt finally decides to make a last ditch effort to get some of his “life’s work” to his family. He manages to get on the phone with Flynn to give him instructions for receiving money, only to be rebuffed for the last time. Flynn heartbreakingly asks him why he has not died yet, which seems to be the last straw for Heisenberg. Walt hangs up, calls the DEA and prepares to be taken in to answer for his crimes.

It is only when he sees the Schwartzes on “Charlie Rose” that he has a change of heart. Gretchen claims that, “The Walter White I knew is dead and gone,” just after discrediting everything he did in helping to form Gray Matter, their chemical company. It seems this is too much of a knock on Walt’s pride, for just before the police arrive he disappears, headed for Albuquerque, where this train will finally crash into the station.

I do not know where these characters will ultimately end up, but I know it will be messy, tragic and, as many of the actors have commented, “unapologetically ‘Breaking Bad.’” Hold on tight, fellow viewers.