Walt races home. He tells Skyler to pack. She refuses. He forces her at knifepoint to give him the knife, then takes Holly. In a desperate, heartbreaking scene, he leaves Holly at a fire station and calls Skyler, knowing the DEA is listening. He pretends to be a monster, snarling that he did it all for himself, that she was just a hostage. He takes all the blame, clearing Skyler of any charges. He then disappears, using the vacuum repair man to get a new identity.
Hank and Jesse set a trap: they bury Jesse's $5 million in a desert spot and have a fake phone call saying they've found Walt's money. Walt, paranoid, races to the site. He finds Hank and Gomez. Walt is arrested. Then, the Nazis arrive. Walt, desperate, called Todd to summon Uncle Jack as a "distraction," telling him that "the DEA agent" (Hank) was a problem—but he never told them to come armed. It's a colossal miscalculation.
Overall Arc: The season is a Greek tragedy in two parts. First, Walter White ascends to the throne of a meth empire, drunk on power and ego. Second, that empire crumbles, taking everything and everyone he claims to love with it. The central question shifts from "How does a good man become a criminal?" to "How does a criminal destroy a good man?" Part 1: The Empire (Episodes 1-8) The New Order: Season 5 opens minutes after Gus Fring’s death. Walt, Jesse, and Mike are in the superlab, facing a monumental mess. They destroy the lab, but their real problem is the nine imprisoned ex-Gus employees who know about the operation and could talk to the DEA.