i consider myself a particularly patient person. i really do. but when season 3 of my favorite show on television—amc’s award winning breaking bad—held its finale on june 13, 2010, the legions of fans who follow the complex life of chemist walter white never anticipated that nearly a year later, we’d still be waiting on the follow-up season.

the wait is almost over.

yesterday, amc announced that season 4’s premiere episode would air on sunday, july 17 at 9 pm.

last june, after the finale, i wrote the following about the cliffhanger that viewers were left with until season 4:

season 3 ended sunday night with a scene that has stirred, already, quite a bit of debate and speculation about what the future of season 4 holds. if you didn’t see it, the final scene has walt being taken to be executed because of his involvement in the death of some of his boss’s drug dealing underlings. as walt faces imminent death, he’s forced to enact what is likely the most devious and morally bankrupt plan he’s ever been involved in. in order to save his own life (and, potentially, the life of his drug addicted/dealing partner, jesse), he’s forced to kill his meth-cooking would-be successor, gale. unable to do the deed himself, he has to call on jesse to proceed with the plan. the final moments show jesse arriving at gale’s house, shaking and in tears, pointing the gun at gale’s head. as the camera pans around to where the viewer is looking down the barrel of the gun, the screen goes black and a gunshot rings out. whoa.

in case i butchered that description as much as i think i did, here’s the video of the final few minutes.

even if you’ve never seen any of breaking bad beyond those few minutes, you can see that there are plenty of questions to answer in season 4.

along with the announcement of season 4’s arrival, amc posted a teaser trailer, primarily (if not completely) comprised of footage from season 3. in it, we’re reminded that walter’s actions have led to to a near breaking point with both his family and his drug dealer-turned-killer partner, jesse pinkman. in the beginning, the show was a quirky plot about a chemistry teacher who cooks meth, but quickly spiraled into a deeply layered moral epic about how far a man will go to provide for his family and at what point he simply becomes a power-hungry monster. it seems that season 4 will continue with that complex trajectory.

on july 17, we’ll dive into the next chapter of an amazing show. until that time, check out the teaser trailer and get ready for an intense ride.