Breaking Bad

[LMN8R]

I trust the creators to not be stupid enough to kill one of the two main leads. He is too vital to Walt's arc.

What makes it inherently stupid? How is killing a character vital to Walt's arc not a valid way to make that character affect Walt's arc?

[Pogo]

Holy hell what an episode.

[Strollen]

I hope when Forbes or Businessweek make there list of the top business managers, Gus makes the list.

What an inspired way of turning around an employees performance.

The last couple of episode were merely good, this one was great. I so love this show.

[Brian Seiler]

LALALALALALALALA I AM NOT LISTENING, on account of this show airs after my work night bedtime and I haven't watched the recording. However, I thought we might like to know that it's been picked up for the fifth season. There are some notes about that season that some would consider to be spoilers, so, you know, link (http://tinyurl.com/3ulmbrr).

[Pogo]

I don't watch any previews for this show, so no thanks on spoilers.

[delirium]

Really, you guys liked that? Another snoozer of an episode for me. There just doesn't seem to be any great tension in this show anymore, even when they are trying to make things suspenseful.

Out of this entire season so far, I think the episode before this week's was the only one I actually liked.

[Pogo]

What was there not to like?

I mean, at first I thought "what the FUCK is Walt doing saying this shit to Hank?" but it makes perfect sense. Walt is once again feeling like he's not as important as he should be. His wife has gained a bit of power over him with the car wash, and with knowing (most) of what he does, and that final scene was a way of him asserting his pride and dominance over his situation.

The genius of it is that it kills two birds with one stone, as it also sets Hank up into a motivated state. You can see how happy Marie was to see him downstairs and in good spirits, and the final moment of a clue reveal was excellent. Hank was sort of setup as this crass type of meathead but throughout the show we've been shown little moments of genius from him, allowing him to grow into much more of an admirable investigator role. I think it's great. I'm not sure if Walt maybe knew that Hank needed the motivation, but if he did then it's even better.

My only problem with the episode was the final cash drop scene for Jessie. It seems like they wanted to let the audience pre-emptively figure out what was going on, but also have a degree of tension so that some people wouldn't realize what was going on, and it kind of failed a little just because Jessie's escape wasn't fleshed out. I understand it was meant to make him feel more empowered and give him a sense of place, and in that way it was a brilliant plan by Gus who "doesn't believe fear to be a good motivator." It was just that Mike was being acted as if he didn't know what was going on, but for the scene to happen the way it did it only made sense if he did know what was going on, so there was some ambiguity there that made the whole thing a bit less powerful.

[Mike O'Malley]

Hank's clue can also lead to external pressure on Gus. Right now, Gus' biggest problem seems to be Walt and he's got that one well in hand.

I'm annoyed at Walt lately. He's gone from being a bright guy learning a new trade to a whiny, pouty twit. He used to shift from meek to aggressive; now he's bouncing between caring and throwing tantrums. He's been consistently off the mark; instead of acting, he reacts poorly. Mike (and therefore Gus) has his number and blocks every move.

I want Walt to _do_ something, not benefit from an external event like Hank investigating Gus.

[Pogo]

Yes, which is why he does what he does at the end. He has lost any upper hand he had before with Gus/Mike, and if he's feeling that he's losing his influence over Jessie, then his ego is bruised even more. I think it's pretty easy to explain what everyone does in this show if you try to put yourselves into their shoes, which is why even the parts that make me go "WTF?" are actually make sense.

[delirium]

I actually did like the end of the episode that you're referring to. I also liked the beginning part where Walt is frantically racing down the road in his Aztec. Mostly everything in between that bored the hell out of me. How many minutes did they spend on Jesse and Mike sitting in a car doing absolutely nothing?

One thing I liked about the first couple of seasons is that things progressed at a good pace. It slowed down a bit in Season 3, but there was so much tension in almost every episode that I still enjoyed it a lot. In season 4, things are moving painfully slow. There is neither the pace of S1/S2 or tension of S3. I hope this shit starts to get interesting soon.

[Strollen]

Yes, which is why he does what he does at the end. He has lost any upper hand he had before with Gus/Mike, and if he's feeling that he's losing his influence over Jessie, then his ego is bruised even more. I think it's pretty easy to explain what everyone does in this show if you try to put yourselves into their shoes, which is why even the parts that make me go "WTF?" are actually make sense.


Exactly. Half the fun of the show is replaying it my mind from the POV of the main characters. Walt cares about Jesse and about Skylar which is why he does what does, but not nearly as much as cares about being recognized as brilliant. In particular he is pissed of that Gus is almost always a step or two ahead of him. Walt is convinced he is always the smartest guy in the room and he gets pissed off and acts irrationally in situations (like with his old friend the successful business guy) where he fears he may not be.

I found that whole episode to be extremely tense, hell if got worse I might get ulcers.

[Pogo]

I wrote down what Gale wrote down on the Los Pollos Hermanos paper that Hank is looking at, and I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas on its connection:

MI - MB042266 - GER

Not ringing any bells for me. It's a photo of the piece of paper actually so I think it was something that was written on the fast food bag, maybe when Gus visited Gale back at the end of S3? I can't remember.

[Mike O'Malley]

I'll randomly throw something out there and say that it's
<Manufacturer> - <Part number> - <Country of origin> for a piece of equipment in the lab. It'll give Hank something to track.

[Pogo]

Yeah I thought that GER = Germany perhaps.

Some other site's comments make some sense too, it could be a number to a bank account of some sort too.

[Athryn]

Wasn't there a reference to a european company before? Like in the Pollos Hermanos ad they showed last season.

[Pogo]

I don't recall that.

bestweekever.tv (http://www.bestweekever.tv/2011-08-15/breaking-bad-recap-shotgun-season-4-episode-5/) brought up something else that was pretty funny that crossed my mind:

http://www.bestweekever.tv/bwe/images/2011/08/Breaking-Bad-Jesse-Lab-1313442465.jpg

They have millions of dollars in lab equipment and yet they dislodge the meth from the cooling trays with the handle of a scraper? Hrm...

[Tom Chick]

Remember when Breaking Bad totally blew up an airplane? Man, those were the days.

And speaking of blowing up, uh, what's going on with Anna Gunn? The haircut certainly didn't help. I mean, she's a lovely woman, but am I the only one getting weirded out by what her weight gain is doing to continuity?

-Tom

[Papageno]

She has put on a bit of weight, hasn't she? Is she (the actress) pregnant or something?

And Pogo, that was my thought too (about breaking up the product in such a low-tech way).

[Pogo]

They have several air compressors in there. At least get some kind of impact gun with a big flat rubber saucer that has small metal nubs on it or something.

[lordkosc]

She has put on a bit of weight, hasn't she? Is she (the actress) pregnant or something?



IMDB doesn't mention anything , maybe she is a bit bloated? :p

[Brian Seiler]

I didn't hate the episode. I think I've got a general feeling for the direction they're going.

However, is anybody else getting sick of these time lapse jittery music video style segments? Because I'd be just as happy if those never showed up again.

[Drastic]

I figure they're the price to pay for not having "Opening Scene->24 Hours Earlier!" framing.

I would have been amused if Jesse had ran over Shotgun Guy, because that's exactly what that kind of motivational masterplan deserved. Plus it would have added more weight to Mike's "what the hell, man?" weary looks at Gus if making Jesse the hero of the day would have removed yet another employee instead of just upping Mike's car insurance rates.

[Mike O'Malley]

Speaking of hand-crushing meth...one of Jesse's observations about Walt's initial batch of meth was how well it shattered- the pieces were very big and clear. Ever since he's hooked up with Gus, the crystals have been small pebbles with lots of white edges, probably from the shattering.

Doesn't that make it an inferior product, or are the smaller chunks intended to make it easier to dole out regularly-sized doses?

My ignorance of the drug scene is showing, I know.

[magnet]

I don't think meth is valued as an ornament.

[Brian Seiler]

Pulling stuff out of my ass, basically to test my science knowledge.

Crystal Methamphetamine is a crystal. Well, obviously. If you have impurities in the crystalline structure, that would cause it to fragment into smaller pieces on initial impact, for the same reason why your cornbread will fall apart if you don't have enough egg in it - the structure is interrupted by the chili powder. Big, clear fragments on the initial impact imply a product with very few impurities, and a purer product means less ballast and a cleaner delivery of the active ingredient.

Big clear fragments, however, do not distribute particularly well. The more granular you can get your product, the more flexibility you have in weighing things out. Think buying scallops at the meat counter - you can't always get a pound of sea scallops, because sea scallops are effing huge and they might not add up to a pound. Pulverizing the meth to smaller granules, in this case, means that you can make your bags closer to their target weight. When you break ANY crystal, you're going to get white edges, but that doesn't reflect directly on the quality.

Also, I would think it would be easier to smuggle something illegal if you could make it small and put it in a bunch of places, which is kind of hard with a jagged shard of crystal.

All of this is conjecture, however, based on absolutely no authoritative knowledge about how this shit actually goes down.

[Cyrano]

I kind of assumed Anna Gunn is pregnant, but a google search didn't turn up anything.

[Brian Seiler]

I can't tell if she's putting on weight or not. I got that impression, and I can't remember seeing her in full profile a whole bunch this season, but I don't know whether that's on purpose or not.

I do, however, absolutely love the new hairstyle. I never found her particularly attractive before, but they went ahead and fixed that.

[Athryn]

Who cares if she's gained weight? Completely irrelevant to the show, other than to make you guys sound a little creepy.

[Gladguy]

Great ending to this week's episode. I certainly didn't see it coming, but I can see where it's going.

As for Anna Gunn's weight gain... it is totally noticeable, particularly if you rewatch an episode from the end of Season 3. She's put on more pounds than when she was presumably pregnant! And it's not just us pointing it out. The topic comes up on message boards 'net-wide.

[Drastic]

Scylla:Charybdis::knees too sharp:putting on weight.

[Brian Seiler]

I'm not busting her balls on it - it's just noticeable in the way they're shooting her. Because of the nature of the show and the fact that I have a very poor conception of precisely how much time passed between when she kicked Walt out and now, I can think of at least one way it could end up being very relevant to the show if that's where they're going with it. I don't think that's where they're going with it, though.

Also weird? All of this led me to check up on Anna Gunn's IMDB page to see what else she was in to see if there was some kind of a role she was trying to get in shape for, and she's in Red State. There's just something vaguely incorrect about that.

[Pogo]

Who cares if she's gained weight? Completely irrelevant to the show, other than to make you guys sound a little creepy.

Actually it's pretty jarring. I'm sure most people don't actually care what here weight is, but it's an inconsistency that's pretty noticeable, and that's the (very minor) problem.


As for timeline conceptions, read this:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/07/breaking_bad_calendar.html

Seems pretty accurate, this whole story has only gone on for about 7 months.

[Tom Chick]

Athryn, why does that make me sound creepy? I don't care if she puts on weight and I'm not making any value judgment about that. As I said, I think she's a gorgeous woman and more importantly, I enjoy her interaction with Bryan Cranston. I really liked that they had a sex scene this week.

However, it affects the continuity in the show the same way RJ Mitte hitting puberty affects continuity. Or Walt in Lost. Both of which have also been discussed on this forum. I find it distracting and it seems to me the producers of the show are well aware of it given how they've been dressing and shooting her.

-Tom

[Mike O'Malley]

That's what's really been catching my eye- the wardrobe and angle selection. It makes it seem like the crew doesn't want the viewers to know that she's putting on weight, which makes it the elephant in the corner. If they took it in stride, it wouldn't be nearly as distracting.

[Athryn]

Creepy is a poor choice of words, and for that I apologize, but it's honestly something I didn't notice until you guys pointed it out, and I feel that it's irrelevant.

[Blips]

I haven't noticed her weight at all. Is it fluctuating between shots or something? If she's just looking heavier in general, attribute that to her character stressing over all the legality of her situation and the purchasing of the car wash.

[Tom Chick]

Creepy is a poor choice of words, and for that I apologize, but it's honestly something I didn't notice until you guys pointed it out, and I feel that it's irrelevant.

Since when it relevance a criteria for talking about something? :) But, yeah, you're absolutely right. As I said, it's just a continuity issue for me.

-Tom

[BigRedCat]

What makes it inherently stupid? How is killing a character vital to Walt's arc not a valid way to make that character affect Walt's arc?

Well, because Jesse has an arc of his own. This show is not about just Walt. Jesse is the co-lead here. Every bit of promotion is focused on them as a duo. Remove Jesse from the equation and Walt has no counterpart to play off of. The only way he dies is as a part of the end run. But he won't.

[Robert Coffey]

My DVR cut off the last bits of the show, stopping right when Walt started badmouthing Gale's "genius." Did something notable happen after that?

[Brian Seiler]

I remember Hank going back over the case files, seeing a flyer for the Chicken Man restaurant, and reflecting on how stupid it was that a vegan would go to a fried chicken joint.

[delirium]

Hank takes another look at Gale's files and notices a Los Pollos flyer with a number written on the back. He questions why a guy who only eats vegan would have this thing from a fried chicken place.

[Pogo]

Yeah his questioning of Gale's genius to Hank gets some wayward looks from Skylar like "what the FUCK are you doing," and Walt basically says that Heisenberg may still be out there.

Marie comes home to find Hank downstairs in the breakfast nook looking over a bunch of files that his police friend brought over for him, and Marie is happy that he's involved in something and in generally good spirits as he goes back on his hunt, and then yeah he sees the Los Pollos flyer like the other posts explained.

[Robert Coffey]

Great, thanks. I've pistol whipped my DVR appropriately so I don't think it'll be making that mistake again.

[Jon Rowe]

Remember when Breaking Bad totally blew up an airplane? Man, those were the days.

And speaking of blowing up, uh, what's going on with Anna Gunn? The haircut certainly didn't help. I mean, she's a lovely woman, but am I the only one getting weirded out by what her weight gain is doing to continuity?

-Tom

I agree, she looks way older in this season than some of the earlier ones, I thought it was due to the blonde hair, but I don't know. She is probably heavier due to the baby weight? Something has felt off with the way she looks lately though.

[Mike O'Malley]

Aw yeah! Walt continues to do the completely wrong things for the wrong reasons. Spending Bogdan's dollar was a tremendously dickish move.

Great episode!

[LMN8R]

Well, because Jesse has an arc of his own. This show is not about just Walt. Jesse is the co-lead here. Every bit of promotion is focused on them as a duo. Remove Jesse from the equation and Walt has no counterpart to play off of. The only way he dies is as a part of the end run. But he won't.

You're assuming an awful lot here. Pretty much anything is possible and perfectly reasonable as long as it's written well and reasonably. Right now you're simply assuming that there is absolutely no possible way that a hypothetical death of Jesse could be done well, because you're assuming that the writers are inept or something.

[Papageno]

I thought that those women would end up dead, not sent back to Central America.

[Strollen]

I thought that those women would end up dead, not sent back to Central America.


People in the drug business don't always tell the truth.

Another wonderful episode, I loved Gus's answer to Jesse's question why me; "I like to think I see things in people." He is obviously is driving a wedge between Jesse and Walt.

[Two Sheds]

I'm the one who knocks.

[Mike O'Malley]

Can any of you TV/movie snobs explain the shakycam in the last scene? Breaking Bad usually has some really creative and striking cinematography, and this episode was no exception- the overhead shots during the meth theft in the beginning and the over-the-shoulder shot of Jesse carrying the shovel up to the house were very well done.

That last conversation between Walt and Skyler, however, was annoying for me to watch because of the shakycam.

[Papageno]

Can any of you TV/movie snobs explain the shakycam in the last scene? Breaking Bad usually has some really creative and striking cinematography, and this episode was no exception- the overhead shots during the meth theft in the beginning and the over-the-shoulder shot of Jesse carrying the shovel up to the house were very well done.

That last conversation between Walt and Skyler, however, was annoying for me to watch because of the shakycam.

Wow, I didn't even notice the shakycam in that last scene. It was nothing like in the some scenes of Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives, anyway.

I recognized the "shotgun meth-head" from a role he did on Justified.

[Papageno]

People in the drug business don't always tell the truth.


We'll see. I think they'll be sufficiently out of the way back in Honduras. I think the show would have shown us if anything less pleasant happened to them.

[Athryn]

If Skyler was smart, she would have followed the quarter.

[Warning]

I recognized the "shotgun meth-head" from a role he did on Justified.

Yep. I saw him and told my wife "That's Dewey!"

And shovel-cam was great!

[Drastic]

Can any of you TV/movie snobs explain the shakycam in the last scene? Breaking Bad usually has some really creative and striking cinematography, and this episode was no exception- the overhead shots during the meth theft in the beginning and the over-the-shoulder shot of Jesse carrying the shovel up to the house were very well done.
Both of them are trying to speak very calmly and softly, but there's some serious tectonic strain and tensions building ever higher beneath it all. Fault lines keep getting ratcheted up. Visually, the minor amount of shakiness is a little camerawork flourish; it's sort of the equivalent of a foreboding musical score in umpty other shows or movies during such moments.

I think Walt should definitely put the crumpled-up soda can that he bought with Bogdan's first dollar somewhere on display.

[Pogo]

I'm the one who knocks.

Too bad that brilliant line was followed up at the end with the melodramatic and hokey "Someone has to protect the family from the man that protects the family." Ugh.

[Syzygy]

Walt's analysis is that Gus is trying to drive a wedge between him and Jesse. But I'm wondering if the goal in trying to make Jesse feel like a hero is to make him overconfident, then put him in situations where he can try to play the hero and get killed. Then Gus can disavow any responsibility.

It seemed like Mike was trying to rub Jesse's nose in how long they'd have to wait outside the meth-head house.

[Brian Seiler]

So, does Walt drink my milkshake before or after he knocks? That's really all I could think when I heard him rattle off that line. I guess I just can't take him seriously as any sort of a threat to anything or anybody if he's not in a motorized vehicle.

And boo on them for crapping on my theory that Jesse hadn't been using because they never showed him actually using. I think maybe I give this show too much credit sometimes.

I don't think that Mike is actively trying to get Jesse dead. Gus is hard to call, since he's had like five minutes of screen time this season, but Mike seems to genuinely like him. I do think that Gus is trying to drive a wedge between Jesse and Walt, and succeeding largely on the basis of Walt's own self-centeredness, which was the real theme that I got out of this episode. It's easily the least sympathetic I've seen the show go with him, treating him like a spoiled child who can't even conceive that any of the things happening to the people in his life could possibly relate to anything other than the things he personally does.

[madkevin]

And boo on them for crapping on my theory that Jesse hadn't been using because they never showed him actually using. I think maybe I give this show too much credit sometimes.

Seeing as you have a tendency to misunderstand a lot of key elements of the shows you comment on here, it seems a bit mean to blame it on the show.

[Jon Rowe]

I'm the one who knocks.

I got chills for this one. So good.

[Paul_cze]

So how the hell did Jesse play Rage, with a god damn light gun?

Also, it almost seemed like they wanted to conflate playing videogames with killing people.
Almost.

Good episode though.

[Wing of ilium]

Yeah, good episode. Lots of things moving forward, but I still just feel reminded that they're aware of the plot threads at their disposal. I hope they put them to good use onwards. And I'm not all that adverse to the idea of videogames triggering PTSD in someone unstable.

[Athryn]

Jesse's monologue at the NA meeting was Emmy worthy, although after that I was worrying a little that he might go into full on Lady MacBeth mode.

[Two Sheds]

So how the hell did Jesse play Rage, with a god damn light gun?

With artistic license.


Jesse's monologue at the NA meeting was Emmy worthy.

Was going to say the same thing. That was the highlight of the show for me. Next best thing was watching Hank lay out the trail from the HEPA filter manufacturer to Gus. That was brilliant.

[Strollen]

Was going to say the same thing. That was the highlight of the show for me. Next best thing was watching Hank lay out the trail from the HEPA filter manufacturer to Gus. That was brilliant.

On the off chance that Aaron Paul didn't clinch an Emmy nomination for his performance on the opening episode, where he says nothing for 40 minutes, this wonderful soliloquy vividly demonstrates his range. As my friend said, "I was sure he was a real life junkie.".

I also loved the opening, I guess the beauty of having too much money is you can torch your sport car when you get pissed off.

My favorite episode other than the first.

Does anybody else find themselves wondering why can't the rest of TV be this good.?

[Brian Seiler]

Does anybody else find themselves wondering why can't the rest of TV be this good.?

Not particularly (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/08/23/sunday-cable-true-blood-kardashians-entourage-lead-breaking-bad-glee-project-much-more/101035/). If the rest of television was done in this fashion, television wouldn't exist. The response from the average viewer is more like (http://twitter.com/Seanbabydotcom/statuses/105578097813893120) this (http://twitter.com/Seanbabydotcom/statuses/105578227195592704).


Breaking Bad seems to have a problem this season with getting things done. All of the major plot points and moments that don't involve Cranston fully Daniel Day Lewising are about people not doing things. Jesse doesn't get shot. Jesse, in fact, doesn't do much of anything in Shotgun, and even the thing that it looked like he did was staged. Hank doesn't become a bedridden crazy guy - he goes back to the way he was before, except he's a lot slower on his feet. Walt doesn't shoot Gus - he just walks about halfway across a street. Mike doesn't help Walt - he just punches him and gives him the world's fastest-healing black eye. Walt doesn't get his son a badass car - he has to take it back, wrecks it, blows it up, and does all of this in such a way that Skyler never finds out if Saul is to be believed. Jesse doesn't kill Gus. Jesse's eternal party doesn't attract any outside attention. They've still done some pretty excellent scenes (both Jesse and Walt got obvious items for their Emmy reel), but I can't help feeling like nothing is actually happening with the story and everybody is standing around and waiting for Gus and the cartel to get into the inevitable gunfight which I think we all know has to happen. It's kind of a weird change of pace.

[Staff Sergeant]

Not particularly (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/08/23/sunday-cable-true-blood-kardashians-entourage-lead-breaking-bad-glee-project-much-more/101035/). If the rest of television was done in this fashion, television wouldn't exist. The response from the average viewer is more like (http://twitter.com/Seanbabydotcom/statuses/105578097813893120) this (http://twitter.com/Seanbabydotcom/statuses/105578227195592704).


Breaking Bad seems to have a problem this season with getting things done. All of the major plot points and moments that don't involve Cranston fully Daniel Day Lewising are about people not doing things. Jesse doesn't get shot. Jesse, in fact, doesn't do much of anything in Shotgun, and even the thing that it looked like he did was staged. Hank doesn't become a bedridden crazy guy - he goes back to the way he was before, except he's a lot slower on his feet. Walt doesn't shoot Gus - he just walks about halfway across a street. Mike doesn't help Walt - he just punches him and gives him the world's fastest-healing black eye. Walt doesn't get his son a badass car - he has to take it back, wrecks it, blows it up, and does all of this in such a way that Skyler never finds out if Saul is to be believed. Jesse doesn't kill Gus. Jesse's eternal party doesn't attract any outside attention. They've still done some pretty excellent scenes (both Jesse and Walt got obvious items for their Emmy reel), but I can't help feeling like nothing is actually happening with the story and everybody is standing around and waiting for Gus and the cartel to get into the inevitable gunfight which I think we all know has to happen. It's kind of a weird change of pace.

Skylar is now not only fully aware of Walt's career (and earnings), but she is now completely involved and responsible for laundering his money. I'd say that's forward progress of some kind at least.

[Nawid A]

Breaking Bad has always had a lot of waiting around. Only last season had things a bit faster paced.

It's fucking awesome.

[belouski]

stuff I can't link to.


Breaking Bad seems to have a problem this season with getting things done. All of the major plot points and moments that don't involve Cranston fully Daniel Day Lewising are about people not doing things. Jesse doesn't get shot. Jesse, in fact, doesn't do much of anything in Shotgun, and even the thing that it looked like he did was staged. Hank doesn't become a bedridden crazy guy - he goes back to the way he was before, except he's a lot slower on his feet. Walt doesn't shoot Gus - he just walks about halfway across a street. Mike doesn't help Walt - he just punches him and gives him the world's fastest-healing black eye. Walt doesn't get his son a badass car - he has to take it back, wrecks it, blows it up, and does all of this in such a way that Skyler never finds out if Saul is to be believed. Jesse doesn't kill Gus. Jesse's eternal party doesn't attract any outside attention. They've still done some pretty excellent scenes (both Jesse and Walt got obvious items for their Emmy reel), but I can't help feeling like nothing is actually happening with the story and everybody is standing around and waiting for Gus and the cartel to get into the inevitable gunfight which I think we all know has to happen. It's kind of a weird change of pace.
It's a fucking chess game with 50% more players. Walt and Gus are positioning their pieces. Unfortunately for Walt, Gus has his queen and Walt is left with a pawn that Gus is trying to pull an en passant against. Meanwhile Hank is back in the game and if Walt was as smart as he is egotistical perhaps he could make use of his brother-in-law in a more productive manner.
Actually Hank completely obliterates my weak chess analogy since he isn't even playing the same "game" as Walt and Gus. He's about to dump the entire board over.

[delirium]

The last couple of episodes have been pretty good. The plot is finally starting to move forward now that Hank and Jesse are no longer simply moping and that shitty Marie subplot has disappeared. Great scenes with Jesse at the rehab meeting and Hank laying out his case against Gus. It took awhile to get going, but I think we're on the right track now and I'm expecting good stuff from here on out.

[Christien Murawski]

Apologies for parachuting into the Breaking Bad thread like this, at this late date, but I'm not quite sure where to post something like this without starting a brand new thread called "Breaking Bad I'm Only On Season 2 Episode 2".

I loved the first season, and because I always see this thread at the top of this forum I decided to rewatch the end of that and jump into 2 with the intention of catching up to you all.

Ugh. It just feels so tv so far. The first one didn't feel like that. This just keeps feeling like Three's Company on Meth. Oh no the money is in the diaper box! Oh no they're gonna think he killed that guy and hide a gun in the diaper box too! It feels like shenanigans instead of story.

Does it settle down? I assume it does, since you all are so crazy about it. How long does it take to settle down? Because right now I just feel like ditching it.

Feel free to keep posting current stuff and spoilers. If you want to answer me, quote me and I'll read it and skim everything else.


-xtien

"We need a plan."

[drake113]

It picks up by Episode 4, IIRC.

[Christien Murawski]

Thanks Drake.


-xtien

[erikg88]

Ugh. It just feels so tv so far.

That feeling will pass. Breaking Bad is just an abnormal TV show, which comes with positives and negatives. It takes risks -- particularly with pacing and plotting -- that other shows don't.

BB is frustratingly content to be boring. The "deliberate pacing" sometimes feel like the writers are trying to squeeze another season's wages out before they initiate the end game. The cinematography and editing can be laughably obtrusive. All these failings just show why no other show does these things. But the ones that pan out are amazing. As a result, the show is simultaneously great and terrible, sometimes flip-flopping between the two mid-scene. I stick around because I like a show with ambitions, and I'm optimistic this season will get good at some point.

[Christien Murawski]

Thanks Eric.

I just watched the third and fourth episodes. I totally get what you're saying with the flip-flopping. There was a moment there in 3 where I really sat up and took notice. It just feels content to lapse into soap opera too much right now. Especially with how they're having Skyler act like petulant pre-teen all of a sudden.

So here we have the curse and blessing of DVD vs. Instant View. I send the disc back and have to decide whether to order the next instead of just continuing down the rabbit hole. Interesting when considering the life of a TV show.


-xtien

[BleedTheFreak]

The lead, Cranston?, is on this weeks Nerdist, for those interested. I'm only in the first few episodes of season one but I love this guy and it was a terrific interview, covering things from Malcom in the Middle to his upcoming films (Contaigen, and... uh, something else) and even Rainn Wilson and a real life super hero dropped by. Which was weird.

[Warning]

...feels ...feel ...feeling ...feels ...feel ...Feel

"I feel for you. I think I love you."
-Chaka Khan

[Eilonwy]

We're at the end of season 3 right now and holy shit, is there anyone in this show that isn't amazing? I love that the pacing of the episodes is different--the slow episodes make me just as anxious as Walt probably is for things to get on track or progress and the fast episodes? Jesus Christ.

The end of this season? Fuck. I love Jessie.

[Pharaoh]

While I loved the episode, I am wondering how they will maneuver Walt talking over Gus's operation at the end of the season...cause you know that's coming.

[Eilonwy]

All caught up. I love Hank. They could have so easily made him an unlikeable character but he's great.

I want to give Jesse a hug :(

[Mike O'Malley]

Gus is the only thing protecting Walt from the Mexicans. Given how short-sighted Walt is, he'll end up taking out Gus and have to deal with the cartels next season.

He just can't leave well enough alone.

[Eilonwy]

He's the one who knocks!

[Bahimiron]

All caught up. Love the show. Think all the actors are great. Love the direction they took with Hank. That said... I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to buy into the connection between the Albuquerque meth scene and a German industrial manufacturer. I trust the creators at this point, but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to indulge in the occasional 'Whatever, Breaking Bad!'


...hate Skyler...

I never get sentiments like these. Hating Skyler. Hating Ryta. Hating Joyce. It's like people are angry that these characters have someone holding them back, but that's a strange notion. Just because these grounding characters are holding our protagonist's hands doesn't mean they're holding them down. They keep our heroes human and as such are every bit as important to the show as Walt, Dexter or Buffy.

[Staff Sergeant]

I never get sentiments like these. Hating Skyler. Hating Ryta. Hating Joyce. It's like people are angry that these characters have someone holding them back, but that's a strange notion. Just because these grounding characters are holding our protagonist's hands doesn't mean they're holding them down. They keep our heroes human and as such are every bit as important to the show as Walt, Dexter or Buffy.

Skylar is better now but in the first season she was a passive aggressive bitch and I really didn't see any reason for Walt to be putting up with her other then the kids. She has developed a lot more as a character since then.

Out of curiosity are you referring to Dexter when you say Ryta? Who hates Ryta, she was awesome. (also I thought it was Rita)

[madkevin]

When I say "I hate Skyler" - and God knows I do - it's a compliment. I think the show does an admirable job of showing that people can be bad for each other in ways that are not movie-of-the-week obvious.

[Bahimiron]

Out of curiosity are you referring to Dexter when you say Ryta? Who hates Ryta, she was awesome. (also I thought it was Rita)

It almost certainly is Rita. I work with someone who insists on spelling it Ryta and it's gotta to a point where I must have accepted it as default.

And if you hit the Dexter thread you'll see a person or two who hated her.

[Athryn]

Don't forget Betty on Mad Men.

[Mike O'Malley]

All caught up. Love the show. Think all the actors are great. Love the direction they took with Hank. That said... I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to buy into the connection between the Albuquerque meth scene and a German industrial manufacturer. I trust the creators at this point, but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to indulge in the occasional 'Whatever, Breaking Bad!'

I don't think it's a true "connection". Gus buys, presumably, a lot of equipment from them for Pollos Hermanos. He asked someone to, just this one time, keep the transaction off the record. The guy does so, pockets some cash, and moves on. Then Hank calls up, the woman who answers the phone has no idea, and the corporate lawyers take over because they can't explain what happened and they're worried they're somehow liable.

It's not some kind of grand conspiracy, just an employee who took a bit extra and a company compelled to cover it.

[Athryn]

I don't think it's a true "connection". Gus buys, presumably, a lot of equipment from them for Pollos Hermanos. He asked someone to, just this one time, keep the transaction off the record. The guy does so, pockets some cash, and moves on. Then Hank calls up, the woman who answers the phone has no idea, and the corporate lawyers take over because they can't explain what happened and they're worried they're somehow liable.

It's not some kind of grand conspiracy, just an employee who took a bit extra and a company compelled to cover it.

No, Pollos Hermanos is owned by the German company as well. I remember it first coming up last season when I noticed it on the TV ad that they showed during one episode. Hank mentions that Pollos Hermanos is also owned by them.

[Kirian]

No, Pollos Hermanos is owned by the German company as well. I remember it first coming up last season when I noticed it on the TV ad that they showed during one episode. Hank mentions that Pollos Hermanos is also owned by them.
Yes, this. I suspect that the German company is a 'legitimate' front of some sort that the cartel own. I mean, they did say it was the biggest meth lab 'North of the border' and a large company in Germany that deals in expensive industrial equipment could be used to launder money abroad. Either that or something related to Gus's other businesses (the laundry?). We'll find out soon enough.

[Staff Sergeant]

Yes, this. I suspect that the German company is a 'legitimate' front of some sort that the cartel own. I mean, they did say it was the biggest meth lab 'North of the border' and a large company in Germany that deals in expensive industrial equipment could be used to launder money abroad. Either that or something related to Gus's other businesses (the laundry?). We'll find out soon enough.

It might also be an international meth cartel that is trying to push the Mexican/South American cartel out of New Mexico. Gus' machinations wouldn't make much sense if he is totally going it alone, presumably at some point something will break and the German company will need to sell him another part.

[Mike O'Malley]

Hmm, I did not catch that.

[Warning]

Wow. Now we know why there's only one pollos hermano.

[Brian Seiler]

While I loved the episode, I am wondering how they will maneuver Walt talking over Gus's operation at the end of the season...cause you know that's coming.

It seems kind of inevitable, but I'm forced to wonder if they're going to intentionally try to do something a little bit less obvious.

However, I do have questch - was I supposed to know what Less-Fuzzy-Gus asking Wheelchair-Guy-Hector-Who-Constantly-Looks-Like-He's-Having-A-Stroke if today was the day was supposed to mean, particularly with respect to the assassination of Fuzzy-Gus's chemist friend? This theme of having characters ask questions that I don't know what they mean and then not answer them is really confusing me.

The no crappy time-lapse shot theme for the episode was a welcome change, though. They can keep right on doing that. Unless they're going to do a Benny Hill joke at some point over the course of the series, in which case I will forgive them.

[DT]

However, I do have questch - was I supposed to know what Less-Fuzzy-Gus asking Wheelchair-Guy-Hector-Who-Constantly-Looks-Like-He's-Having-A-Stroke if today was the day was supposed to mean, particularly with respect to the assassination of Fuzzy-Gus's chemist friend? This theme of having characters ask questions that I don't know what they mean and then not answer them is really confusing me.

I took it that he was asking if today was the day he took further revenge for Hector killing his partner. It seemed that he basically rubbed it in that a call was placed to Hank that ended up with Hector's nephews being killed.

I don't know why he doesn't just bump Hector off but maybe that's part of the code. I guess we are also supposed to assume Gus is a made guy or is related to someone in power in Chile.

[Bahimiron]

Seems to me that Gus has decided that killing Salamanca would end the old man's pain. Not something Gus is yet ready to do (thus the "today?") since he doesn't feel Salamanca has suffered quite thoroughly enough for what he did.

I guess we finally got the closest thing the show is going to give us to Gus' bio. Now can we see a young Mike going from beat cop to mob cleaner?

[DT]

Seems to me that Gus has decided that killing Salamanca would end the old man's pain. Not something Gus is yet ready to do (thus the "today?") since he doesn't feel Salamanca has suffered quite thoroughly enough for what he did.

I guess we finally got the closest thing the show is going to give us to Gus' bio. Now can we see a young Mike going from beat cop to mob cleaner?

Good point. Hector is also clearly a made guy and I'm guessing that Gus would prefer to act discreetly when it comes to knocking off people with connections.

[Mike O'Malley]

The presentation of Gus' background was well-done, but I don't like the decision to do so. He worked much better as an unpredictable, unreadable foil to Walt. Now we know he lost his Walt years ago in Mexico, he's been looking for someone to replace that guy in his heart ever since, and he's a well-connected Pinochet-era Chilean.

Humanizing him is a mistake. Esposito's flat affect is almost perfect, and brings impact to little displays like Gus tapping his fingers in the elevator in this past episode. I don't want to see behind that curtain, I want to see how Walt reacts to what's presented to him.

Also, it's increasingly difficult for me to reconcile Gus' textbook American Spanish with his supposed background. He's never at a loss for vocabulary, but his accent is far from native. At first I thought he was doing it to conceal his origin, but given that the Mexicans he met with last night were aware he was a Chilean national, there was no reason to hide it then.

Edit: Unless the reason for the lack of accent is that Gus isn't Chilean, he just lived there for a while. If that's the case, I'm surprised no one else in the show has caught that yet.

[Two Sheds]

At first I thought he was doing it to conceal his origin, but given that the Mexicans he met with last night were aware he was a Chilean national, there was no reason to hide it then.

Edit: Unless the reason for the lack of accent is that Gus isn't Chilean, he just lived there for a while. If that's the case, I'm surprised no one else in the show has caught that yet.

Well, there's the question of his real name, which Hank brought up. Don Eladio said "I know who you are" and "you're not in Chile any more," neither of which gives us anything concrete. I don't think we're sure he's Chilean at all.

[Brian Seiler]

Well, there's the question of his real name, which Hank brought up. Don Eladio said "I know who you are" and "you're not in Chile any more," neither of which gives us anything concrete. I don't think we're sure he's Chilean at all.

I don't understand why they're being cagey about this. What possible reveal could they have for his actual identity that would carry any impact, let alone any significance for most of the audience (who, I guarantee you, don't even know how to spell Pinochet)? I get that he's a connected dude with somebody who could make things uncomfortable for the Mexican drug cartels in the late nineties, but beyond that, is there really anything important that they could possibly bring out by getting into the details? I can't think of anybody in the recent history of the show that we would see and go, "Oh - he's THAT with THAT GUY," and I can't think of any real-world figures they would tie him to that would have that effect either.

[mystery]

My guess: Son of a Nazi war criminal. You heard it here first.

This would provide an explanation for the ties back to German manufacturing...maybe.

[Euri]

I just started watching this today, and have been breezing through episodes. It's astonishingly well done.

[Demon G Sides]

The last two episodes have been amazing. The season was definitely an "eh" for me, and I'm a huge fan of the series, but the past two episodes, what with Jesse's speech and this new one with the Walt/Hank scene, as well as the revealing of Gus' background, really have reinforced how awesome the show really is.

And the reason we don't know why his background is important yet is because we don't know why it's important yet. It has yet to be revealed, and just because we can't think of osmething right now as to why it's important, doesn't mean it won't be sometime in the last season, or even an episode or two down the road.

[Mike O'Malley]

I'm concerned that his background reveal will lead to Prison Break-esque plot bloat, where a neat concept (getting in to break out) turned into some global conspiracy hacker/shadow government crap.

Keep Breaking Bad in Albuquerque, please.

[Brian Seiler]

Keep Breaking Bad in Albuquerque, please.

Given the budget arguments and the details of the renewal, I don't think you need to worry too much about this. Maybe it'll go to a room in another country, but that's about it.

I just hope that the show picks the right time to stop introducing new players. Given where we are in the series, I think we're pretty close to the cutoff point, if we're not already past it. That's why the fact that I can't imagine anybody we currently know being usefully related in any way to Gustavo's Secret Origin worries me a little. Gilligan and the writers have done an exemplary job so far, though, so I doubt it will keep me up nights.

[Bahimiron]

I'm concerned that his background reveal will lead to Prison Break-esque plot bloat, where a neat concept (getting in to break out) turned into some global conspiracy hacker/shadow government crap.

Keep Breaking Bad in Albuquerque, please.

This was the concern I was trying to voice last page regarding the German connection, but better stated. Keep Breaking Bad in Albuquerque!

Keep meth local!

[alexlitel]

I'm concerned that his background reveal will lead to Prison Break-esque plot bloat, where a neat concept (getting in to break out) turned into some global conspiracy hacker/shadow government crap.

Keep Breaking Bad in Albuquerque, please.Unlike, say, Prison Break, Vince Gilligan and go actually have an overall arc for their show and a set timeline to finish it; they're not just bullshitting it to prolong the run.

Albuquerque is Breaking Bad, I don't think you need to worry about them moving it at all.

[Mike O'Malley]

Ohhhh...Gus is a sneaky little bastich, if he's up to what I think he's up to.

Tell the cartels Jesse can cook the blue, send him down to Mexico. Once down there, prep him to kill the cartel's chemists with Walter as a hostage for good behavior. Mike will no doubt be down there as well, but the cartel will be watching him- he's a known dangerous quantity. He can distract them while Jesse does the deed.

Gus knows that Jesse is loyal to Walt, can be trusted to do what he's told, and has killed people (particularly meth chemists) before. While Walter would certainly present to the cartel as a better chemist, he's unpredictable, stubborn, and may not be physically capable. Jesse's a low-cost loss for Gus, he's very replaceable. Walter's too valuable to risk.

The best answer would be for Walt or Jesse to use their ricin down there, though obviously Gus can't plan for that.

[LionelThompson]

Hadn't thought about that. I don't think Jesse going to Mexico adds any risk to Walt being killed although Walt certainly does not know any better. Wonder what adding a little ricin to the Mexican meth will do for its customers?

[Mike O'Malley]

I'm still a bit uncertain about one thing. What does the cartel want from Gus? The cousins wanted revenge, but was that a sanctioned hit or a family affair?

When Gus met with the cartel representative, we were never explicitly told what the cartel wanted- both sides were already on the same page. Do they want Walter's head or the blue meth? If it's Walter, do they know what he looks like? The cousins knew, but they're dead.

If they want the blue, they'll willingly take Jesse if they think he knows how to cook it. If they want Walter, what good is Jesse to them? They've established that they're not interested in negotiation for whatever their demands are. If the latter, why is Gus sending Jesse?

[Two Sheds]

They want Gus' distribution network, and they want a cut of his profits. A big cut. I don't think the cartel gives a shit about Walter. That was a family thing.

[Chuck]

Did anyone spot the bug in the vase on the table as Skyler was on the phone to Walt?

It ties in with her converasation with her old boss. "They can wiretap anyone connected with this ( read: me) without a warrant!"

Going to be a wild 4 episodes.

[Brian Seiler]

Let's not forget that the operation runs on a pretty tight timeframe. Gus would send Jesse to Mexico because they've already proved that Jesse isn't necessary to keeping the operation that's already running working on schedule. Sending Walt to Mexico would mean risking the production schedule for an uncertain return.

Also, Walt's been kind of a giant bag of dicks lately and he's got a family that they have to explain his absence to. All of that would add up to not wanting to deal with his nonsense if I were in Gus's position.

I like the fact that they're putting pressure on Skylar now. She's easily the weakest link of the whole criminal enterprise and she already has some outstanding criminal activities it looks like they're going to use as leverage. It'll be fun to see where things go (random aside - I thought that Hell on Wheels was supposed to be in frigging January, but it's apparently coming out in November?), though I'm starting to feel increasingly certain that they're going to kill Marie before the end of the season, because why the hell else is she there at this point?

[Houngan]

So yeah, this show. I just started watching it . . .

The pilot episode was better than 2/3 of the big budget movies I see. Writing FTW.

H.

[Mike O'Malley]

Wait'll you meet Tuco. I love me some Tuco.

[Pogo]

Tight TIGHT WHOOOOOO

[Gabe Lewis]

RE: This week's episode -

I love a good pathetic fist fight. As nearly all fist fights are in reality, that's how I like to seem em' on the screen.

[RedHerb]

Dear Breaking bad,

More of the last 15 minutes and less of everything before.

Muchas gracias!

[Pogo]

I will never say that Bryan Cranston is wasting my time when he goes into an emotional monologue. Some are worse than others, tonight's being average, but it's an important part of healing for when life+pride kick his ass.


I think tonight's events might seal the DEAl for Gustavo in one specific way I can tHANK of, with Jessie as the collateral damage once more.

I wish Skylar had said what she later said sooner, to go with her linear rise in intensity, because the scene ended when the reveal dropped. Blah.

[Therlun]

I wish Skylar had said what she later said sooner, to go with her linear rise in intensity, because the scene ended when the reveal dropped.

I wish Skylar would drop. Drop dead that is.
I feel they invented that whole thing with her boss just to mirror the early seasons' "get lots of money, lose lots of money, end up at zero".

[LionelThompson]

It makes it very easy now to finish off Gus and nobody would be the wiser since he purposely ingested poison to begin with, assuming anything more needs to be done. Mike, for a guy who nearly killed Walt, I hate to see him go, but I expect he will succumb to his wounds.

With no cartel left, this just leaves black Mike as an issue to deal with and Walt and Jesse can have a nice little empire.

As for Jesse, let this be a lesson that video games (especially Rage) can be a great learning tool.

[anaqer]

Yeah, Jesse really did quite well at the shootout... must have been Mike's tutoring, too bad they decided not to show us that part.

[Papageno]

My brother and I were trying to count the rounds that Jesse fired. Must have been one of those extended magazines. I think it was at least 14 shots.

[kerzain]

Yeah, Jesse really did quite well at the shootout... must have been Mike's tutoring, too bad they decided not to show us that part.
Not only did they repeatedly show us his training, they rubbed our faces in it with the Rage product placements over the last few episodes.

[Mike O'Malley]

My brother and I were trying to count the rounds that Jesse fired. Must have been one of those extended magazines. I think it was at least 14 shots.

Given his video game training, he just pointed the pistol off to the side and pulled the trigger to reload.

I have no idea if this works in Rage, but it worked quite well in the various arcade shooters.

[anaqer]

Huh, I remembered the Rage sillyness but not the actual gun training.

[Blips]

Loved the latest episode. Laughed and cringed when they revealed Walter White, Jr's car. I thought the poisoning of the alcohol was done sloppily by Gus - why not use a poison that could be countered with an injection (either preemptively or while in the bathroom)?

[kerzain]

Maybe he is scared of needles.

[anaqer]

I thought that pill he took was meant to be some kind of antitoxin. It would make sense that it can't nullify the poison completely but gives you a good chance of survival.

[Blips]

I thought that pill he took was meant to be some kind of antitoxin. It would make sense that it can't nullify the poison completely but gives you a good chance of survival.

Ugh of course. Completely explains why the poison took longer to hit him.

[mystery]

I thought that pill he took was meant to be some kind of antitoxin. It would make sense that it can't nullify the poison completely but gives you a good chance of survival.

I wonder if he was swallowing caplets of activated charcoal (http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/charcoal.html).

[Pogo]

Ahh good catch on the pills, I thought the writers were just giving us a glimpse of some possible angle of attack for Jessie's rycin capsule.

[Papageno]

My brother totally called the poisoning angle.

[Athryn]

As soon as I saw the bottle of tequila, I knew those pills were something to counter poison.

What a pair of fantastic episodes. This whole season has been absolutely stellar.

[Midnight Son]

Revenge is a dish best served in Tequila....

[Bahimiron]

My brother and I were trying to count the rounds that Jesse fired.

I was pretty sure that they were using jump cuts to show us some of the same shots over and over again so as to indicate that to Jesse it felt differently than it might have looked were we seeing it outside of his head. If you watch closely he just guns down the same guy like three times, blue jeans, black jacket over a white shirt with black hair. So counting the shots wouldn't necessarily be an indicator of how many times he actually fired.


I like the fact that they're putting pressure on Skylar now. She's easily the weakest link of the whole criminal enterprise and she already has some outstanding criminal activities it looks like they're going to use as leverage. It'll be fun to see where things go (random aside - I thought that Hell on Wheels was supposed to be in frigging January, but it's apparently coming out in November?), though I'm starting to feel increasingly certain that they're going to kill Marie before the end of the season, because why the hell else is she there at this point?

I wouldn't be surprised if Skyler ended up deciding that she needed to deal with her old boss/lover in a very Saul-approved fashion.


I wish Skylar would drop. Drop dead that is.

Always fun.

[Brian Seiler]

And then some things happened. I knew we'd get around to it eventually. It looks like the home stretch is starting to take shape. I'm guessing we're going to see Walter try to turn informant while still keeping Jesse out of jail, Skylar might indeed start doing more excessively criminal things, and Marie dies because I still can't figure out any other useful thing she could possibly do for the story. Maybe she steals a bunch of meth chicken or something, but that's about it.

Random question - is Huntington's, like, en vogue now or something? This is at least the third show where it's come up as a plot point. Is there, like, some important Hollywood guy that died of it recently? If it were any other disease, I would expect that to kill Walt by the end of the season, but he seems to have already aged past any normal onset point for it. They could still give the danger gene to the daughter we never, ever see, though. Or WalJu.

[Mike O'Malley]

I'll be very disappointed if Walt becomes an informant. There's potential of a big power vacuum right now if Gus is incapacitated and Mike's not 100%. If Jesse's earned credibility and experience on the enforcer side, he and Walt could step up and get a bit more influence.

Next season could be Gus trying to take his organization back from Walt and Jesse. The last thing Gus wants is to be recovering from poison with a ricin-synthesizing chemist who wants him dead hanging around. They showed some IV bags in the previews for next week; if Walt's in one of his moods, he could slip anything in those lines and make life very entertaining for Gus.

[Blips]

Was I imagining things or was there a bit of foreshadowing hinting that Walt Jr may have huntington's?

[Athryn]

No, he has CP. (Both irl and on the show, although his real life case isn't as severe as on the show.)

[Brian Seiler]

Well, he could have both things (basic internet research tells me they're not mutually exclusive, though they're somewhat similar in their behavior, and the diagnosis standard for CP simply being that the lesions occur before or shortly after birth strikes me as a touch arbitrary), though it'd be kind of an ass move to dump a terminal degenerative condition on the kid with cerebral palsy. I'd also think that Walter would have had the presence of mind to have him screened at birth (if not earlier) for the gene, given his traumatic experience with it. I can buy him forgetting to take care of The Magic Invisible Baby because of all the other crap he had going on, but not WalJu.

[Kalle]

I'll be very disappointed if Walt becomes an informant. There's potential of a big power vacuum right now if Gus is incapacitated and Mike's not 100%. If Jesse's earned credibility and experience on the enforcer side, he and Walt could step up and get a bit more influence.

Next season could be Gus trying to take his organization back from Walt and Jesse. The last thing Gus wants is to be recovering from poison with a ricin-synthesizing chemist who wants him dead hanging around. They showed some IV bags in the previews for next week; if Walt's in one of his moods, he could slip anything in those lines and make life very entertaining for Gus.

Except Jesse doesn't exactly like or trust Walt.

[Mike O'Malley]

He'll come back around, Walt just needs to calm down a little.

[Morkilus]

Revenge is a dish best served in Tequila....

Never go against a Chilean when death is on the line!

[mystery]

The Magic Invisible Baby

Hah! My wife has watched maybe 30 minutes of the entire series, all told, but inevitably I'll be watching some scene and she'll come into the room and say: "There she is without the baby, again."

[lordkosc]

Good episode, loved the ending where Jessy pretty much has to step up and prove his worth.

[Bahimiron]

Good episode, loved the ending where Jessy pretty much has to step up and prove his worth.

I loved the beginning where Jesse has to prove his worth.

"I speak English."
"Then you know what asshole means, asshole."

[lordkosc]

So we agree it was an awesome episode from start to finish! :D

[LMN8R]

I've read some people writing that Mike was actually pulling his gun to shoot Jesse before the shootout started at the end. Did anyone else notice that? I haven't been able to go back and watch it for myself.

[delirium]

I've read some people writing that Mike was actually pulling his gun to shoot Jesse before the shootout started at the end. Did anyone else notice that? I haven't been able to go back and watch it for myself.


I rewatched the scene, and I very much doubt it. Mike lifts his gun at about the same time he gets shot. From the camera angle it looks like it could possibly be in Jesse's direction, but it could just as easily be something behind him, and it happens a split second before he is shot. This reminds me of people on the internet saying that Jesse didn't shoot Gale but pulled his gun to the side at the last second.

[Pogo]

I just checked and he's definitely just raising his arm to get into the car.

Also, Jessie does fire more than 14 rounds, but the cutting definitely does a flash repeat of him firing while the guy is trying to run to cover behind the water fountain. I think without those repeat cuts you get 14 rounds.

[Wholly Schmidt]

I can't actually read the thread at this point, but wow, season three. After watching season two a while ago, I was a little tired of it. I always planned to come back and catch up again, but wasn't in a hurry.

When I saw it was available for streaming I started on season three, and just finished up tonight. Quite an improvement, and I'm definitely eager to catch up on season four now. I've got a friend who still has all of 4 DVR'd, so maybe I'll be back soon to participate in the thread for real, but I just had to say again how great season three is.

[Nawid A]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUCK.

[kerzain]

Were the oranges a nod to The Godfather perhaps?

[Blips]

Hahahah. That laughing and the look on Skyler's face... oh man. Brilliant episode.

[Mike O'Malley]

Were the oranges a nod to The Godfather perhaps?

Had to be, it was about as subtle as the rest of that scene.

[Gabe Lewis]

That was my favorite episode in the entire series. The cackling! Awesome. are there 2 episodes left or 1?

[Mike O'Malley]

This thing better turn around 180 degrees pronto. Walt turns Jesse, Jesse kills Gus, and we end the season. Otherwise, Walt's got real problems.

Speaking of real problems, Skyler has gone insane. She's completely traceable, way outside the boundaries of good sense, and completely missed the fact that if Ted could just turn her in to the government in return for reduced charges.

Also, did he seriously expect her to just take a check for $617k to the bank? WTF?

[Pogo]

It doesn't make sense to me that Gus is going through with his threat against Hank.

Hank has been keeping notes on Gus for a while and has had two meetings so far about his possible drug involvement. To off him now, even if it looks like cartel vengeance, would have to bring down more heat than it's worth.

[Gabe Lewis]

Also, did he seriously expect her to just take a check for $617k to the bank? WTF?

I think if we've learned one thing about Ted, it's that he's kind of a moron. Captain of the Football got a buisiness degree that he didn't understand at his fathers command kinda guy.

[delirium]

That really was a great episode.

-The ending...wow. Breaking Bad goes horror?
-The scene where Gus takes Walt out into the desert. What a great effect where the cloud passes over and turns everything to silhouette.
-Gus shone throughout the whole episode. His underlying menace has reached a new level.

[Papageno]

So we can safely assume that Ted bought the farm there?

[kerzain]

No idea. If he died I don't understand why Saul would be kept from actually saying he's dead instead of tip-toeing around the truth (except to encourage people to tune in next week.. but seriously, did the rest of the episode not already do this?)

So, they intentionally withheld Ted's fate, but to what end? He was twitching though, so maybe he'll end up like Tio, and Skylar can carpool with Gus to go visit and taunt them both at the nursing home.

[Strollen]

That really was a great episode.


-Gus shone throughout the whole episode. His underlying menace has reached a new level.


I have run out of adjectives to express my admiration for the show so I'll stop trying. My wild ass guess, is that scene with Jesse at the nursing home is an important one. Jesse looked pretty terrified at Gus's taunting of Tio. It is one thing to be a ruthless businessman and kill everybody who is a threat. It is another to take sadistic pleasure in torturing others, and helpless old guys at nursing home certainly qualify. Jesse still retains a shred of humanity, and as his speech NARCON shows still believes in some level of good and evil.

My guess is that Jesse will ultimately side with Walt who despite his many failing and horrid treatment of Jesse, isn't pure evil like Gus.

[Mike O'Malley]

So we can safely assume that Ted bought the farm there?

There were oranges in the shot. He's dead.

[kerzain]

Not necessarily true though, Don Corleone didn't die when he was shot up.

[Mike O'Malley]

That's...an excellent point.

[wumpus]

This thing better turn around 180 degrees pronto. Walt turns Jesse, Jesse kills Gus, and we end the season. Otherwise, Walt's got real problems.

This seems like the only tenable outcome -- I tend to agree that Jesse ultimately doesn't have true allegiance to Gus and that's the key. Scenes supporting this:


The obvious: Jesse won't support Walt being killed and tells Gus this. Like he said before being dumped in the desert, Walt knows this has to be true without being told (even after asking Jesse at his house and getting no response), or he'd already be dead.
At the nursing home, with Jesse witnessing Gus become just as cruel as the people he killed. (And there was that box cutter incident in episode 1..)
The priority treatment Gus gets over Mike at the makeshift hospital. Mike is treated decently, but when push comes to shove he is ultimately disposable, as is everyone else who isn't Gus.
Jesse knows that he's only alive as long as he is useful to them, just like Walt. So in that sense, Jesse's fate in the best case is the same as Walt's... just delayed a few years.
Jesse promised he would kill Gus, quite definitively, but no timeline was specified -- could be any time. Now that Gus trusts Jesse based on his Mexico performance (and Mike is out of play for a week to recover) it'll be easier to make it happen.


So.. yeah. There are some other options, like


Walt somehow comes up with the big cash money necessary to do the disappearing act, which seems unlikely given that he's been fired from making meth by Gus. Where would he get several hundred thousand dollars in a few days? Selling the car wash?
Walt turns Jesse in for the murder, which takes Jesse out of play and makes them need Walt again for meth production. I can't see Walt doing this, but who knows.
Walt partners up with his brother-in-law to become informant and turn in Gus. I don't know how he could do this without indicting himself (and Jesse), and also painting an even BIGGER target on his back.


(or maybe something I haven't listed here, but Walt doesn't have a lot of ways to go here, does he?)

... but, again, none of those alternative options seem tenable.. do they?

[Mike O'Malley]

Or maybe: Walt kills Jesse. Gus is once again without a lab chemist and needs to choose between Walt and having no money. Probably won't happen, but it would be satisfying on a few levels.

Alternatively, Walt breaks stuff in the lab (or rigged stuff to break before he was fired). Jesse's competent enough to follow the blue recipe, but he's not by any standard a chemist; he can't fix things or work around problems in the cooking process.

[Athryn]

Yeah I think it's something of the latter (although I doubt Walt would be let anywhere near the lab to sabotage it, I think something more like accidental.)

Jesse is a cook, he can follow a rote recipe. Walt is a chef.

[Corey Krosting]

I haven't been able to predict where this show is going like most shows. I originally thought before Season 4 began that this season was going to bring Hank head to head against Walt with Hank knowing what Walt was up to.

But now I wonder if, as we saw in Walt's breakdown scene from Salud, his remorse for his betrayal of Jessie and the hints at Gus's unrevealed past. Maybe Walt will redeem himself and might turn to being an informant for Hank and the last season will see Gus still alive and as "the villian" But I don't really know what to expect and it makes the show so much more exciting.

And the ending of Crawlspace last night with Walt's break down upon discovering that all his effort and sacrifices to provide this money for his family has been given to the man you cuckolded him. What else could he do but laugh at the tragedy of it.

[Two Sheds]

Christ, what an episode.

[lordkosc]

D:

This was so good , I watched it twice.

I think there is 1 episode left this season, seriously how can it get any better! :D

[Corey Krosting]

D:

This was so good , I watched it twice.

I think there is 1 episode left this season, seriously how can it get any better! :D
You are in luck. There are two episodes left in the season. The Fifth and final season will have 16 episodes in it.

[Corey Krosting]

In rewatching the episode I noticed a nice touch, when Skylar goes to Ted's place, Ted catches his foot on the floor mat and puts it back in place.

[Pogo]

Well yeah that was... the joke. That's why I laughed hardest when he was fractions of a second from breaking his neck.

[Demon G Sides]

Seriously, if they keep outdoing themselves every episode, I don't think TV will ever recover.

[drewl]

He needs what. 125K per family member to disappear?
They spent like 700K for the car wash, 600K plus to Ted.....where's the rest of the money he made?

[kerzain]

He hasn't made it yet, all the big numbers him and Skylar were tossing around a few episodes ago were estimates about future yearly income, not what he's already earned. I don't think time in the show is supposed to be moving as fast as it does IRL, it's probably only been like a year or so in-show, and he wasn't working for Gus that whole time.

[Two Sheds]

Yeah, exactly. He had a contract with a good salary, but he just got fired well before that contract was up.

[lordkosc]

Plus don't forget Hank's medical bills, and the car he blew up.

[Strollen]

Plus don't forget Hank's medical bills, and the car he blew up.

And the biggie the car wash wasn't cheap. I know the guy started at $10 million but didn't they end up buying for a nearly $1 million.

[drewl]

Guess it adds up, didn't he say he was making 7mil a year?
Not that he's worked for Gus for a whole year.

Anyway, incredibly great show.

"a little faster mister Mulder....please...."

[Pogo]

The timeline is really really short. Actually I don't think it's been much over a year since Walt first heard about his cancer and broke bad, and his time since starting to work in the superlab has been maybe 3 months or less.

[Pogo]

So much nail biting.

[Mike O'Malley]

I hate to say it, but this was mildly disappointing. A very slow cook.

[delirium]

I hate to say it, but this was mildly disappointing. A very slow cook.

I'm OK with building the suspense, but I'm slightly turned off by the way these plots are beginning to resolve. Did Gus really poison the kid to get Jesse to kill Walt? I suppose we don't actually know right now, but if that were to be true, it seems like a very risky, roundabout triple level mind games way to get rid of Walt. I find it hard to believe that Gus would believe there was a high percentage chance of that working. I'm also wondering how the hell he detected Walt's car bomb.

[Pogo]

The poison was a stretch, but it's sometimes hard to separate what we would do from the irrational shit Jessie does.

Gus' paranoia at the end was pretty spot on. If he planted the poison, he knew Jessie wasn't being straight up with him, which could lead him to decide it may have been a setup. It's not like his car hasn't been fucked with before.

[kerzain]

I think the plan was a little too prone to failure for Gus to have been the one to poison the kid. Walt has a tendency to come up with some really far fetched plans and explanations for shit, but Gus is much more straight forward about things. He wouldn't just put a plan in motion and then sit back and hope Jesse has the wherewithal to figure out what's up and react... Walt would though, because he's a risk taker, and ironically, a gambler (though not in the way his son thinks).

Walt needed Jesse on his side, and I can imagine him thinking this was the only way to go about it.

Also, Hank fucking knows something.

Finally, it's convenient to have Mike out of the picture for the last couple episodes, because even if Gus was the one who pulled it off, Mike has been earning some empathy points lately, and it would be weird to see him dump them all by poisoning a little kid. We already know Walt is going off the deep end. As for Tyrus, he don't give a shit.

However, Walt isn't exactly a super spy capable of just sneaking around into people's houses stealing poison and feeding it to kids. He can't even trick people into car bombs.

[Blips]

Initially when Jesse was freaking out in the parking lot, I thought that the kid had simply smoked the poisoned cigarette.

Gus' paranoia about his car was a bit of a stretch, as was his poisoning of the kid (if he really did poison the kid). I kept expecting Gus to catch a flash off Walt's glasses when he was scouring the rooftops.

[kerzain]

...or is gleaming bald head, hehe.

I don't think they did a very good job of conveying to the audience exactly what was going through Gus' mind when he just stood there evoking his telepathic powers (which was probably intentional, but it was so far fetched that it really just begs the question of how & why). I mean, there's that whole dialog with Jesse, but it doesn't really tell us if he truly knew or not, because of course he's going to deny it to Jesse, knowing Jesse won't ever cook for him again if he had harmed the kid. But, making subtle threats could be much more motivating, which is why he emphasized how much control he can exert in the daily operations of hospital.

[Papageno]

Yeah, I thought Gus was totally going to spot Walt's chrome dome.

[delirium]

The more I think about how the kid got poisoned, I'm wondering if Walt did poison the kid, but gave him a non-lethal dose. As kerzain mentioned earlier, Walt NEEDS to turn Jesse against Gus. The only way that is going to happen right now is if Gus harms someone Jesse cares about. I don't believe it is in Walt's character to kill an innocent child, but he's smart enough to make the the whole thing look like he was poisoned by Gus. I still have no idea how he would have poisoned the boy AND removed the lethal cigarette from Jesse's pack, though.

[Mike O'Malley]

Both the ricin and bomb points came out of nowhere and knocked the show off the smooth tension-ratcheting that it's been so good at the past couple of weeks.

If Gus or Typhus found the ricin, how did they ID it? They're not chemists. If they found it and knew it was ricin, why would they permit Jesse to be anywhere close to Gus? How would they know that that was the only dose, or that he wasn't carrying anything else lethal? When did Gus have the opportunity to poison the boy?

Gus' sudden magical telepathy was annoying also. He's an intelligent, canny plotter with a great poker face. I don't buy that, just when it's convenient, he has a suspicion regarding his car and a solid hunch as to where the bomber is.

Hopefully next week will have a few more dots to connect.

[Two Sheds]

I don't think they did a very good job of conveying to the audience exactly what was going through Gus' mind when he just stood there evoking his telepathic powers (which was probably intentional, but it was so far fetched that it really just begs the question of how & why).

I took it as Gus didn't live this long in his business by ignoring gut feelings, and he had a gut feeling. Something was off. Walt left a pebble out of place next to the car, who knows.

[Gabe Lewis]

The poisoning plot was just silly, and far fetched, as was the car bomb. I mean, what if Gus had parked, I dunno, on the other side of the parking garage? Can Walt get up to literally any rooftop in the city?

I hate it when TV logic is applied so blatantly in a show.

[Pogo]

I hate it when TV logic is applied so blatantly in a show.

This is the fault of an excellent show, really, but at this point it should be enjoyable and somewhat expected. This show has always had some ridiculous circumstances to break up all the character-driven situations.

[mixuk]

I don't think it was that implausible.

First of all, what made Gus suspicious was Jesse saying that he knew it was poisoning (nobody in the hospital had any idea until Jesse mentioned that it was Ricin) and his very notable recoil away when Gus tried to pat him on the shoulder. I'm sure Gus is able to read such body language.

Considering that, I think it was obvious that Gus was behind the poisoning and he also realized it was Jesse's plan to simply get him to the hospital. Meaning essentially that the car would be unsafe.

[Gabe Lewis]

@Pogo

I'm always pulling for Breaking Bad to be just a little bit above that. And it usually is, which makes that failure a little more frustrating. I tend not to complain about silly TV logic in a Law and Order for example.

There are just moments where this show does things that are much more interesting than I expected them to be, followed by moments that just totally fall flat. All of which is why I always try to calm the "best show on television" people down a little bit when we talk about Breaking Bad.

[Gabe Lewis]

I don't think it was that implausible.

First of all, what made Gus suspicious was Jesse saying that he knew it was poisoning (nobody in the hospital had any idea until Jesse mentioned that it was Ricin) and his very notable recoil away when Gus tried to pat him on the shoulder. I'm sure Gus is able to read such body language.

Considering that, I think it was obvious that Gus was behind the poisoning and he also realized it was Jesse's plan to simply get him to the hospital. Meaning essentially that the car would be unsafe.

Just speaking for myself, the Gus telepathy moment wasn't the problem. It was the poisoning plot itself, and Walt's bomb plan that kind didn't really add up.

[Abiding Dude]

Doesn't it make more sense that Walt took the cigarette out of the pack? They made a point of Jesse saying that he had switched packs recently for some reason. But honestly I don't know how Walt could have taken it out given the fact he was getting all abused and shit.

If Walt did take it out to get Jesse to blame Gus for the "poisoning" that would make sense except how would he make the kid ill? I don't know :)

There is just no way that Gus' evil plot would have worked. He didn't know about the ricin or the cigarette. There's gotta be another explanation and it makes more sense that Walt had something to do with it since he and Jesse were the only ones that knew about the poison.

As for Gus' spidey sense, he knew that Jesse thought he poisoned the kid so he knows that he is probably working with Walt and would be extra careful. Also, the dude is bad-ass and has lived long enough to avoid getting killed (so far)!

[Quaro]

I don't like the idea that Walt did it, and not because it makes Walt even less sympathetic.

It's just so labyrinthine, so tv-villain. I'll make it look like I did it, which will make it look like Gus did it to frame me (which I'll sell with some amazing acting), when really it was me all along?

And the bomb plan is an off-the-cuff idea he puts together at the last second, just doesn't seem to fit with a deliberate setup beforehand.

It also seems kinda nuts for Gus to do it too, but at least it's one level less of crazy. And he did not just need Walt dead, but he needed Jesse to sign off on it.

[Blips]

The more I think about the poisoning plot, the less sense it makes.

Walter: Ok, so he saw a kid for a split second when Jesse opened his door. The only possible way Walt could have even found the kid would have been through Saul. And even if Walt thought to ask Saul, and Saul was even able to locate the kid, how would the poison be delivered to the kid and how would Walt even get access to the poison to begin with in such a short span of time?

Gus: This makes more sense than Walt. Gus needs Jesse to be against Walt. If Gus has Jesse's place bugged, Gus would have more than enough information on the kid as well as the poison. The poison could have been lifted off Jesse while at work and perhaps even used by Mike to poison the kid. That said, there would be too many variables for Gus to effectively control to ensure that the poisoning played out as he intended. Would he really risk losing both cooks just to wrap up a loose end?

Saul: When Jesse arrives at Saul's offices, Jesse is patted down quite aggressively. Could the poisoned cigarette have been identified and removed during that instance without Jesse noticing? Seems pretty unlikely. And how could Saul have known of the poison? Saul would definitely have enough information to locate the kid, but to what end? Saul's getting out of town, it doesn't make much sense to start burning bridges on his way out.

And one common issue with all 3 possible suspects is that it would be pretty damned hard to determine just how Jesse would react to the whole thing. Would Jesse discover that the poison was missing in time? Would Jesse for some reason assume Walt was to blame?

If it weren't for the fact that Jesse had explicitly said that he had possession of the poison earlier that day, I would have to assume that the kid had simply smoked the poisoned cigarette and that everything else simply spawned from that.

I had no issue with Walt's attempted bombing though.

[Pogo]

Walt's desperate? He's not exactly in a stable emotional state. This isn't the type of show that you can forget what happened last episode or this whole season, because all the tension has been there the whole time, it's never been resolved, and this is just a new plateau of that.

[kerzain]

I just think there are too many red herrings pointing at Gus, with him already making it clear he'll hurt kids, and his promise to Jesse that an "appropriate response" will be doled out. It just seems far fetched for Gus to execute a plan so overly-reliant on Jesse acting precisely the way he's predicted to. However, Gus did demonstrate a certain level of psychic ability this episode, so perhaps he's also a pre-cog.

Also, sorta missed not hearing a verdict about Ted's actual fate this episode.

[Quaro]

I think the best explanation for the whole thing is that it is revealed to be an accident after all. You still get the interesting plots that develop from it but without actually needing anyone to be resorting to Xanatos Roulette (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosRoulette)

[Gabe Lewis]

Also, when has this show ever let Walt do something bad off camera and then tell us he did it later? Every nasty move of plotting that Walt has done has been shown to the audience.

The "Walt did it" theory does not fall in line with the way the show deals with that kind of information.

[Blips]

Also, sorta missed not hearing a verdict about Ted's actual fate this episode.

Aha! Ted is behind the poisoning! It all makes sense now :D

[Drastic]

Plus, Walt's never really been much of a planner; he's much more reactive about things, willingly increasingly violent but straightforward. I'm thinking fondly of the first time he really Heisenberged up with homemade explosives way back when, and of course the series of terrific endings capping off last season. Walt'll run you over with his car and execute you when it comes down to it, but elaborate schemes, not so much.

Gus is also problematic, but to be fair he's been under increasing pressure, too; he just does better at bottling things up. Still, my very first thought when Jesse dug frantically for missing poison was that the kid just got into it by accident, and it'd be sort of satisfying if Gus ends up getting killed for something he didn't actually do.

The car bomb not working out was not surprising, though I was expecting it to not work in a flashier fashion than Gus getting all spidey-sense-tingling about it. Primarily because they've been chekoving the heck out of Walt's gun for awhile.

[Papageno]

Chekoving?

[kerzain]

Chekoving?


Chekhov's gun is a literary technique whereby an apparently irrelevant element is introduced early in the story whose significance becomes clear later in the narrative. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun)

[Drastic]

It couldn't be mistaken for a minor or irrelevant detail even at the start, of course. I just wanted to verb it.

[Mike O'Malley]

Given Walt's problems when testing the walkie-talkie detonator in his kitchen, I figured the bomb just wouldn't go off. It would've been more plausible than Jedi Gus.

I may be being a bit too hard on that scene, but following on the heels of the poisoning didn't do it any favors.

[Blips]

Given Walt's problems when testing the walkie-talkie detonator in his kitchen, I figured the bomb just wouldn't go off. It would've been more plausible than Jedi Gus.

A potentially awesome compromise: they get in the car and Walt starts pressing the button but nothing is happening. The car starts and Walt becomes more and more frantic trying to detonate the bomb to the point where he's standing up on the opposing roof. Gus sees Walt waving the remote about and manages to dive out of the car seconds before the bomb finally goes off. His henchmen die but he escapes relatively unharmed.

[kerzain]

The problem with the bomb going off with Gus there it is would prematurely validate Hank's theory to the rest of the DEA. I get the feeling Hank will be directly involved in whatever transpires to prove his theory true, to have it validated in this manner would be a sort of let-down, given Hank's performance to date. I also think this needs to play out a bit more before the big reveal to the DEA, assuming there ever is one before Gus dies.

[Mike O'Malley]

How's Hank going to get any further in his investigation? The only hope I have is that one of the pictures showed the hydraulic lift for the secret entrance under the washing machine, but I don't think Hank would know that if he saw it and it doesn't seem like reasonable grounds for a warrant.

[kerzain]

/Stream of consciousness: GO!

I'm not sure how he's going to go about it, but the whole air conditioning unit thing was out of left field, but makes complete sense when explained to the viewer. It was also a wonderful way to demonstrate Hank's detective skills, and give him back his mojo. I can imagine a similar clue being found to further the investigation a bit more without completely cementing Gus' guilt in the matter (though if Gus dies before the investigation in complete, Hank can play it off like he's moving on, but still being home-ridden, and now mobile thanks to his new hand-operated SUV, the investigation will still continue on Heinsenburg, as I don't think hank considers Gus and Heinsenberg one in the same). However it happens, I'm not sure it will be based on anything in particular that has been set up for the viewer just yet.

Although I've seen nothing to indicate this, I truly expect the last season to be more Walt trying to worm his way out from under Hank's persistent investigation. I also expect Gus to be removed from the picture some time very soon, with maybe a new cartel boss stepping in to fill those shoes -- one that has no idea who Walt is, but is eager to find out (which will probably lead directly to Jesse first, which might make him a massive liability -- causing Walt to be forced to make some very difficult decisions regarding him) -- as I expect Walt to get back to cooking as soon as possible, since the money's gone and he's still going to want to provide for his family. In for a penny in for a pound and all that. I suspect that the climax of the final season will be Walt's death, or imminent death, no money to show for his efforts, and Skylar only left with the Car Wash to make ends meet.

I also expect the last season to be Walt vs Hank vs cancer vs a more aggressive cartel once Gus is gone. Although I'm not to keen on cancer suddenly turning the last 16 episodes into a long ride of watching Walt succumb to his illness, something will probably be done to instill a greater sense of urgency to his plans, thus forcing him to take bigger and bigger risks.

Even though he's recently been showing remorse and regret over much of his actions since getting into the drug business, getting Gus out of the way would be a massive boost to his sense of security, and his ego (because god knows he has one)-- causing him to really stick his foot in it going forward from there, unaware of the other storm brewing on the horizon. I really feel that Hank thinks he knows something about Walt, and has been involving Walt in his investigations merely to turn the screws on him to see what happens. When Gus dies, Hank may pretend that it's all over and done with, but Hank knows there's still another cook out there.

[Nawid A]

I'm giving this episode wiggle room, it feels like it's a two-parter with the finale.

[kerzain]

You know, Hank said something about Pinkman an episode or two ago, and has me wondering if he'll be snooping him out again. This could be how he starts to tie more things together, leading to all sorts of fun drama. Jesse being sort of a spaz when under pressure could start dropping all sorts of hints unintentionally.

Plus, if that kid really was poisoned with Ricin(!).... there's going to be some sort of official inquiry, much more than if the kid simply had some sort of accident. I can't possibly see Gus wanting to invite that sort of scrutiny, while Walt was ready to start blowing up fucking bombs at a hospital.

[Andrew Mayer]

For those wondering about he ricin, watch "Frisky"'s right hand after he pats down Pinkman...

[Therlun]

For those wondering about he ricin, watch "Frisky"'s right hand after he pats down Pinkman...

It's definitely empty...

[Abiding Dude]

For those wondering about he ricin, watch "Frisky"'s right hand after he pats down Pinkman...Dammit I just watched it again and deleted it. What did you notice?

[delirium]

What are you saying? That he deftly swipes Jesse's pack of cigarettes right off him without anyone (including the audience) noticing? There appears to be nothing in his hand.

[tolwyn]

It seemed to me that the closeup on Hank's glasses after Gus walks away was a pretty definitive indication that Gus saw enough to at least give credence to his gut feeling.

[kerzain]

What?

[Mike O'Malley]

Huell is a screwup. His every appearance centers on him being huge and completely ineffective. No way he's capable of pickpocketing a pack of cigarettes.

[kerzain]

And replacing them with another.

[Eilonwy]

Yeah that's what Bahimiron said when we were going through this thread--that the big guy was shown time and time again to be nothing but a fuckup. I don't buy that he could make that switch in that short amount of time.

I honestly don't know who did it though. I mean...Walt appears to have been holed up in his house waiting to die and Gus did seem to threaten that he'd take another route...I NEED TO KNOW, BREAKING BAD! WHO POISONED THE KID?

[Bahimiron]

Huell is a screwup. His every appearance centers on him being huge and completely ineffective. No way he's capable of pickpocketing a pack of cigarettes.

He's happy to teach you about California's gold, though.

[Pogo]

It seemed to me that the closeup on Hank's glasses after Gus walks away was a pretty definitive indication that Gus saw enough to at least give credence to his gut feeling.

What?

[Gabe Lewis]

I've got 7 days until I'm potentially proven wrong, but nothing in this series has lead me to believe that they would pull that kind of bait and switch. Usually, situations like this are fairly straight forward, and when the characters discover the truth (Walt and Jesse showdown) so has the audience.

There aren't many red herrings, and hopefully no red herrings that would be as silly as Walt or some other player being poisoner.

If it wasn't Gus, which it most likely was, it was an accident. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

[kerzain]

The only thing leading me to believe it was an accident (gee, what timing, the plot needed something like this to get Jesse/Walt back together just at this particular moment) is that Jesse wasn't detained, and there were no cops around when he: told his girlfriend the kid was probably poisoned, then left for a while, and then returned sometime later to no fanfare. Nobody so much as raised a suspicious eyebrow at him when he returned.

If it were indeed ricin, I just can't believe they'd be so nonchalant about it.

[delirium]

I've got 7 days until I'm potentially proven wrong, but nothing in this series has lead me to believe that they would pull that kind of bait and switch. Usually, situations like this are fairly straight forward, and when the characters discover the truth (Walt and Jesse showdown) so has the audience.

There aren't many red herrings, and hopefully no red herrings that would be as silly as Walt or some other player being poisoner.

If it wasn't Gus, which it most likely was, it was an accident. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

I agree with you. I've kind of thus far been assuming that what we know is the truth, but it just seems so implausible based on what we know about Gus' character. It's an incredibly risky move that hinges completely on Jesse making certain connections that hardly hold up to reason, and it gives Walt a huge opportunity to flip the tables (as he did). Either Breaking Bad if pulling a fast one on us, or this is some uncharacteristically shitty writing. I prefer to believe the former, but you're correct that there isn't much precedent for the show to do that to us.

[drake113]

Well, I don't believe for a second that Walt poisoned the kid-- first off, harming a child is contrary to his character, but more importantly, Walt is way too self absorbed to work machinations on Jessie. Walt has demonstrated time and time again that he's the star of the Walt Show, and he's given little thought to the other players unless they're in a position to threaten the Walt Show. Jessie is not exactly an afterthought at this point, but right now, Walt is focusing on bigger issues that he hasn't even factored Jessie into.

[wumpus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricin

That seems to support the "oral is less deadly and treatable" idea

[Mouzone]

In the scene where walt is spinning the gun on the patio table - the first 2 times it points at walt but the third time it points at a plant. That plant is toxic and can be what got the kid sick.

[Therlun]

In the scene where walt is spinning the gun on the patio table - the first 2 times it points at walt but the third time it points at a plant. That plant is toxic and can be what got the kid sick.

Hmm... I wondered about the plant thing.

[Papageno]

In the scene where walt is spinning the gun on the patio table - the first 2 times it points at walt but the third time it points at a plant. That plant is toxic and can be what got the kid sick.
But again, at what point does Walt get the chance to deliver the poison to its intended target?

[Eilonwy]

And he'd still have to get the ricin away from Jesse at some point. Or know that it was taken.

[Mike O'Malley]

If Walt's taking advice from that gun, he would've shot himself twice already.

I'm not a botanist, but how much of that plant would have to be force-fed to the kid to make him that sick that fast? I can't imagine Walt's keeping a truly poisonous plant around the house.

[Mouzone]

The scene is kinda like when slyar goes to the 4 corners and twice the coin lands on colorado but she moves it with her foot back to new Mexico.
I am sure walt can use his chemistry wizardry to extract the toxins from the plant. And then arrange Saul to swap cigarette packs with Jessie. Why was saul so anxious to get in touch with Jessie if he's skipping town otherwise.
I just think they need to make walt worse than Gus or else he will not truly be breaking bad.

[Abiding Dude]

None of it makes sense. But I think what would make the least amount of sense is that Gus' camera's picked up a suspicious cigarette being exchanged, deduced that it was poisoned, and decided to set Walt up by poisoning the kid and hoping that Jesse would blame Walt. If that's what the writers really want us to to believe, that's crazy.

Personally, I think the Magical Invisible Baby did it.

[Athryn]

Anyone notice that before the whole hospital scene, Skylar asked the guard for a cigarette? I dunno if that was supposed to hint at anything (and no, not that Skylar was involved,) but I thought it was an interesting touch.

[Gabe Lewis]

None of it makes sense. But I think what would make the least amount of sense is that Gus' camera's picked up a suspicious cigarette being exchanged, deduced that it was poisoned, and decided to set Walt up by poisoning the kid and hoping that Jesse would blame Walt. If that's what the writers really want us to to believe, that's crazy.

Personally, I think the Magical Invisible Baby did it.

Unfortunately, pretty much all roads lead to stupid. I think the best outcome writing wise, is to basically not try to explain it any further than has already been done and move on. I also happen to think the writing in the series so far backs that up.

[kerzain]

I'm thinking the plant = fertilizer = bomb.

[kerzain]

Anyone notice that before the whole hospital scene, Skylar asked the guard for a cigarette? I dunno if that was supposed to hint at anything (and no, not that Skylar was involved,) but I thought it was an interesting touch.Based on past episodes, it probably means she's pregnant, har.

[Bahimiron]

The scene is kinda like when slyar goes to the 4 corners and twice the coin lands on colorado but she moves it with her foot back to new Mexico.

Was this before or after Peter stopped him from killing Claire?

[tolwyn]

What?

Was I the only one that saw this? In the multiples cuts between Gus in the car park and Walk on the roof... closeup on Walt, then slight pan up to the shiny glasses on his head. Gus saw the glare off the glasses, that was enough to scare him off.

[kerzain]

Well, you said Hank.

[Pogo]

Was I the only one that saw this? In the multiples cuts between Gus in the car park and Walk on the roof... closeup on Walt, then slight pan up to the shiny glasses on his head. Gus saw the glare off the glasses, that was enough to scare him off.

Eh, I don't think so.