Walt and Jesse must construct convincing alibis to explain their multi-day disappearance. Walt devises a plan: he strips naked in a convenience store, feigning a fugue state caused by his cancer, and is taken to the hospital. Skyler rushes to the hospital, relieved but deeply confused. Walt maintains the fugue story to doctors and to Skyler, claiming he remembers nothing about where he has been. The doctors run tests and find no neurological cause but acknowledge that cancer-related stress could trigger a dissociative episode. Skyler accepts the explanation with visible doubt, and Hank, visiting Walt in the hospital, does not question the story because he is consumed by the aftermath of the Tuco shooting. Hank is placed on administrative leave pending a review of the shooting, and the DEA treats him as a hero, but Hank is privately disturbed by having killed a man, an emotional response he hides behind bravado. Jesse, lacking Walt's resources, takes a different approach: he checks himself into a motel and calls his friend Skinny Pete, asking for a ride back into town. Jesse arrives home to find that the DEA has searched his house and impounded his car because of its connection to Tuco. Jesse calls Walt at the hospital, furious, demanding to know what to do. Walt coldly instructs Jesse to stay quiet and say nothing to anyone. Jesse worries that Hank will connect them to Tuco, but Walt assures him the only link was the car, which contained no evidence of their meth operation. The DEA interviews Hector Salamanca at his nursing home about Tuco's death and his operations. Despite Hector's hatred for law enforcement, he refuses to cooperate — but crucially, he also refuses to identify Walt or Jesse, not out of loyalty to them but out of his code against informing. Hank interprets Hector's silence as simple defiance. Walt is released from the hospital and returns home, where Skyler has arranged a family gathering. Walt Jr. is visibly relieved to have his father back. Walt sits through dinner performing normalcy while internally calculating his next move. The episode ends with the ricin, still concealed in a vial, tucked inside one of Walt's jacket pockets — a weapon he chose not to discard.