An elderly man, collecting money which Jesse has thrown away, discovers him parked in a playground and absentmindedly spinning on a roundabout. Meanwhile, after his confrontation with Hank, Walt frantically tries calling Skyler, but cannot get through as Hank has already reached her. Walt rushes to the car wash, but Skyler has already left to meet Hank at a diner. Hank, believing Skyler to be a victim, unwittingly reveals that Walt's cancer has returned and unsuccessfully tries enlisting her help in building a case against him. Sensing that Hank has his own aims to control the case and have Walt swiftly brought to justice, Skyler panics and leaves. Walt goes to Saul's office, angered that Skyler went to Hank before him. When Saul asks whether Walt has considered having Hank killed, Walt sternly admonishes him, reminding him that Hank is family. Rushing to hide the money he has amassed, Walt has Kuby and Huell deliver it to him in container drums. He then drives to the Tohajiilee Indian Reservation and spends the whole day burying it. Meanwhile, Marie has learned about Walt's criminality and visits Skyler. After learning that Skyler knew about Walt’s activities prior to Hank being shot, Marie slaps her, despite a tearful Skyler's attempts to apologize. Marie attempts to leave with Skyler’s daughter Holly in a heated confrontation. Hank enters the house and tells Marie to give Holly back. In the car, Marie tells Hank that he must get Walt. Walt encodes the GPS coordinates of the buried drums with a lottery ticket, which he posts on the refrigerator door upon his late return home. Unresponsive to Skyler's questioning, an exhausted Walt collapses. When he awakens, Walt offers to surrender himself on the condition that the money be kept for their children. Instead, Skyler tells Walt that they should simply keep quiet since Hank has no real evidence. Elsewhere, Lydia confronts Declan, now in charge of cooking and supplying meth, at his desert lab. She is critical of the poor standards and working conditions, but Declan rejects her suggestion to hire Todd, Walt's former protégé. At Lydia's behest, Todd and his uncle Jack arrive and massacre Declan and his men in a one-sided shootout before taking over the operation. Believing his career with the DEA will end if he reveals his unsubstantiated suspicion that Heisenberg is actually his brother-in-law, Hank needs evidence to apprehend Walt. Marie insists on putting the whole DEA on the case, but expresses concern over how they might respond when learning that Hank did not share his revelation with them immediately. Hank returns to work, where Agent Steven Gomez reveals that Jesse is currently detained and under questioning. Hank, realizing Jesse's connection to Walt, asks for time with Jesse alone before entering the interrogation room.
Production
Walt's burial scene is on Navajo land, the same spot where Walt and Jesse did their first batch in the RV. The GPS coordinates displayed on Walt's device and on the lottery ticket are in fact the coordinates of the Albuquerque Studios location where Breaking Bad is filmed.
Dedication
The episode is dedicated to Thomas Schnauz, Sr., father of the writer of this episode.
Music
The song played over Walt's digging is Chancha Vía Circuito's remix of Argentine José Larralde's "Quimey Neuquén".
Reception
Viewership
The episode was watched by 4.77 million people on its original broadcast, down from the series-high 5.92 million of the previous episode.
Reviews
The episode received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. TVLine gave Anna Gunn an honorable mention in their "Performer of the Week" feature for her performance in this episode. In 2019 The Ringer ranked "Buried" 52nd out of the 62 total Breaking Bad episodes.
