( CNN ) -- Sunday night brought the beginning of the end for Walter White of `` Breaking Bad . '' The first of the final eight episodes featured an unbelievably tense scene , one that left fans with two words of wisdom as they barrel toward the conclusion . They were uttered by Bryan Cranston 's corrupt meth kingpin after his brother-in-law , DEA agent Hank , tells him he does n't even know who Walt is anymore . Walt 's advice ? In that case , `` tread lightly . '' ( Mindy Kaling 's advice on Twitter was n't half-bad either : `` If you did n't see breaking bad tonight , tomorrow you better take your spoilers like a man . '' ) Keeping that in mind , we 'll tread lightly on revealing too much in case you 're still catching up or somehow nodded off during the mid-season premiere . The expectations were intimidatingly high for Sunday 's `` Blood Money , '' but in the eyes of critics , creator Vince Gilligan and his team delivered -- as did stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul . The journey kicks off with another flash-forward , showing the White home in disarray , its pool drained of its contents with a yellow `` Heisenberg '' tagged on a wall . We watched Walt grab the ricin capsule from behind an electrical socket , and then we 're back in the present again . And that 's when the real fun begins . We knew that Hank suspected that Walt was the meth kingpin he 's been chasing , but we did n't know how he 'd put those pieces together . Sunday 's episode wasted no time answering one of our big questions , and by the end of it , Hank and Walt were stunningly face-to-face . It was at this point that we sort of wished AMC would go the Netflix route and just give the episodes to us all at once , and we 're not the only ones . `` This TV version of a literary thriller has reached the point where the pieces are finally coming together and all we want to do is whip through its pages and finally devour that much-craved resolution . But we ca n't , because there are seven more episodes to go , '' said Salon 's Jen Chaney . `` There 's a lesson in it ... After watching a show about a man who comes to think he can have everything his way , whenever he wants , it 's good to be reminded that most people ca n't . We are not in control , so we must accept it , respect it and patiently savor the prolonged , delicious agony . '' The New Yorker found the climactic scene to be `` a classic opener for the season : a cowboy showdown that placed Hank , once a minor , comic character on the show , dead center in the role of hero . '' And yet , the magazine 's Emily Nussbaum predicts , `` Based on that terrifying cold open , it 's a solid bet that Hero Hank is a red herring , and the show 's real endgame will be Jesse , the one most damaged by Walt . '' Esquire 's Alex Berenson agrees , believing that there 's no way Walt is making it out of this series alive -- flash-forwards to his 52nd birthday with a head full of hair , be damned -- and that Jesse is going to be the one to do it . `` Like all good psychopaths , Walter has convinced himself that his prior crimes do n't matter as long as he lives decently in the future , '' Berenson writes . `` But Jesse ca n't forget what they 've done . Jesse has grown a conscience , and it 's killing him . And if Jesse is to find any kind of peace for the rest of his life -- even in prison -- he 's going to have to destroy the monster he knows better than anyone else . '' With just seven more episodes to go , we 'll find out soon enough . Judging from the premiere , though , the rest of the season is bound to be just as fantastic as whatever end we find . As Time magazine 's James Poniewozik put it , `` Game freakin ' on . ''
`` Breaking Bad '' returned for its final eight episodes on Sunday . The show is the most watched drama in U.S. history, with an average of more than 20 million viewers per episode and a whopping $180 million (U.S.) earned from DVD sales alone. Expectations were high , but the mid-season premiere delivered .