Breaking Bad

[domino harvey]

If Breaking Bad was a Middle School Musical

Love it

[The Narrator Returns]

I really hope Lil' Gus Fring makes it far in the business.

[flyonthewall2983]

Well, today's the day. The beginning of the end. Can't help but reiterate how thankful I am that I managed to catch up on it all before the beginning of the 5th season.

Spoiler

I also can't help but think how this will lead to the cold opening from the first episode. The general consensus seems to be that Walt loses everything. I think what follows will be him at his most dangerous and deadly, because he has nothing to lose.

[mfunk9786]

Spoiler

I want to know why Walt doesn't just pick up and disappear, like he wanted to at the end of Crawl Space. I'd imagine there'll be some reasoning to that - or perhaps Hank will keep his discovery under his belt until he can cuff Walt himself.

[flyonthewall2983]

His way

[The Narrator Returns]

Spoiler

Anyone notice what fell out of Carol's grocery bag? Some oranges.

Looks like Heisenberg isn't long for this world.

[flyonthewall2983]

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I seriously thought it would be a slow burn between Hank and Walt, thus I did not see that ending coming, or rather that garage door coming down.

[domino harvey]

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At least they're not dragging it out. Best part of the episode was of course Skinny Pete getting super invested in Badger's spec script

[The Narrator Returns]

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"Why do you think McCoy didn't want to beam nowhere? 'Cause he's a doctor, bitch! Look it up, it's science!"

[Drucker]

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Anyone notice what fell out of Carol's grocery bag? Some oranges.

Looks like Heisenberg isn't long for this world.

Spoiler

Can you refresh my memory about that?

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I seriously thought it would be a slow burn between Hank and Walt, thus I did not see that ending coming, or rather that garage door coming down.

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Which, on first thought, I like and think could be more effective. I was enjoying the episode, but once Walt outright lied about Mike being dead and playing naive, I thought that play just seemed tired at this point. But if Walt goes from being an anti-hero to just an outright villain, I think that could go really well. And Hank kind of reminding everyone why they should hate Walt seems like maybe it's headed that way.

[The Narrator Returns]

Spoiler

Can you refresh my memory about that?

Spoiler

In the flashforward, when Walt left his house, he saw Carol and said hello. She looked like she had just seen the devil, and she dropped her grocery bag. Among the items that fell from the bag were maybe two or three oranges.

[Drucker]

Spoiler

Can you refresh my memory about that?

Spoiler

In the flashforward, when Walt left his house, he saw Carol and said hello. She looked like she had just seen the devil, and she dropped her grocery bag. Among the items that fell from the bag were maybe two or three oranges.

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Sorry if I wasn't clear, but why does that imply he's not long for this world?

[mfunk9786]

Spoiler

At least they're not dragging it out. Best part of the episode was of course Skinny Pete getting super invested in Badger's spec script

Oh, you love it, domino. One of us, one of us

[The Narrator Returns]

Spoiler

Can you refresh my memory about that?

Spoiler

In the flashforward, when Walt left his house, he saw Carol and said hello. She looked like she had just seen the devil, and she dropped her grocery bag. Among the items that fell from the bag were maybe two or three oranges.

Spoiler

Sorry if I wasn't clear, but why does that imply he's not long for this world?

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All throughout The Godfather, oranges are seen right before someone dies. Of course, this could also mean that Carol is dead meat too.

[flyonthewall2983]

Spoiler

That punch lasted only a few seconds but it felt like slow-motion for some reason. Wanting to savor it all, I guess.

[Murdoch]

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The best part for me was Jesse's gift to the homeless man, and the following paperboy-style money delivery. I'm still holding out hope for some sort of redemption for Jesse, but those scenes made me think he's headed for another spiraling out as he desperately tries to use his blood money in a way that soothes his conscience.

[flyonthewall2983]

Spoiler

I seriously thought it would be a slow burn between Hank and Walt, thus I did not see that ending coming, or rather that garage door coming down.

Spoiler

Which, on first thought, I like and think could be more effective. I was enjoying the episode, but once Walt outright lied about Mike being dead and playing naive, I thought that play just seemed tired at this point. But if Walt goes from being an anti-hero to just an outright villain, I think that could go really well. And Hank kind of reminding everyone why they should hate Walt seems like maybe it's headed that way.

Spoiler

I think Hank will be a different man from here on out. The way he told Walt "screw family" means he will become a man obsessed at getting him, at all costs.

[Murdoch]

Spoiler

But if Walt goes from being an anti-hero to just an outright villain, I think that could go really well.

Spoiler

Are there really people who still see Walt as an anti-hero? He passed the point of no return on that a season ago with poisoning the kid. At this point he's more of the science geek version of Macbeth.

On another note, I'm hoping this all ends with Hank or Jesse shooting Walt, if only because there have been a couple clever visual allusions to it in the show. There was the one shot where Walt looks into some type of reflective surface, notices a bullet hole-sized mark on the surface right where his forehead is reflected. Another was during the scene where Hank corners Walt and Jesse in the RV, pulls off the tape covering the bullet holes, and as he does this we cut to the interior with the light shining through the bullet holes directly onto Walt.

Sorry for the pointless speculation, but it's a theory I've been kicking around since I rewatched the series over the summer.

[flyonthewall2983]

Spoiler

He kind of passed the point of no return for me after letting Jane die, which can be considered a baby step to ultimately what he did to Brock. As reprehensible as those acts were, he did them out of desperation towards saving his own ass and his family, in that order. He's been on a mental victory lap ever since killing Fring. I've found it hard to call him any kind of anti-hero, especially against men like Gus and Mike. Men of honor, of which Walt has none.

Ultimately what makes me sympathetic towards Walt is the memory of how broken he was at the beginning, and during this season, how much more so he'll seem towards the finale.

[swo17]

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At least they're not dragging it out. Best part of the episode was of course Skinny Pete getting super invested in Badger's spec script

Spoiler

I was skeptical when he first started talking about a pie eating contest, but I have to confess the idea's got legs.

[JamesF]

Since people are throwing in their predictions on what's going to happen in the final seven here...

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Who else thinks we'll finally meet Walt's mother soon? I think that's where he hides out before he comes back to town in the flash-forwards.

[domino harvey]

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Did anyone else notice that Jesse Plemons is now listed as a member of the cast and not a guest star? Looks like Todd's gonna play a bigger part in the forthcoming episodes

[Professor Wagstaff]

I'd be devastated if Dean Norris wasn't recognized at next year's Emmy ceremony for his astounding work on the show. His transformation over the course of the series from heehawing braggart to the steely-eyed super agent has been beguiling. The show seemed content to make Hank the cuckold for awhile, but the Tuco incident (and the aftermath with the twins) changed him dramatically.

Spoiler

Hank's listing of Walt's different atrocities, all the while tears streaming down his face, was hard to watch. However much we've enjoyed Walt's skills in getting away with certain crimes, to hear them laid out by a rational character on the side of justice made me queasy. We can sympathize with Jesse or Skylar who have both let their souls get corrupted and struggled with the aftermath, but Hank seems like the biggest victim now. I think he's held Walter and the Whites in such high regard, an encapsulation of an American family worth fighting for based on the principles and image they project to everyone around them. Now he knows it all to be bullshit. I'm assuming that's why Gilligan leans a bit heavy on an overly cutesy Walter having the baby wave goodbye. The last cornerstone of decency that Hank knew is nothing but a mask for murder and mayhem.

[domino harvey]

Someone posted an interesting observation on the AV Club

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Walter White has basically turned into Gus Fring: Coolly professional at his workplace front, ruthless in his business dealings, and he even folds the towel when throwing up like Fring did before the cartel murders

Oh, you love it, domino. One of us, one of us

Not really, but it's a huge part of the current cultural climate and I'd rather experience it on ideal terms than have it almost surely spoiled for me down the road

[warren oates]

I noticed the Jesse Plemons credit too. I like what Wagstaff says about Hank. Unfortunately, it's too late for it to end well for him either. Even a best case scenario of building an unimpeachable case and bringing Walter to justice peacefully would destroy Hank's family and likely his career (finally catching the region's biggest drug lord kind of pales in comparison to not catching him for years when he's at your house every weekend)*. And we've been given many reasons to doubt that things will end that neatly. Not the least of which are the series of flash-forward teasers which elevate the art of the teaser and give new meaning to the word.

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Is anyone else obsessed with the future state of the White residence and all that it might imply? Doesn't seem like there was a shoot-out there, but there may have been some murders... So, if it wasn't some sort of violent crime scene, why might it be in such a decrepit state? If the family had bugged out with Saul's help or Skyler had turned state's evidence against Walt and gone into witness protection, you'd think the house would be sold and reoccupied. Likewise if the feds took the property under the drug seizure laws. If the Whites just abandoned the house altogether, left all their stuff, somehow it doesn't seem like it would be so totally empty. How was Walt so confident he could waltz right back in there after a year? And who spray-painted "Heisenberg" on the wall -- local squatters and skate punks like the ones we see in the empty backyard pool or was it a more personal and sinister message? And of course, it's worth nothing that, one year from the events we see unfolding right now, Walt takes a cross-country journey with a giant machine gun in his trunk and he surely can't have come all they way back to the ABQ just to get his secreted poison. The man's got some unfinished apocalyptic bidness around town. When Vince Gilligan said Walt's arc was Mr. Chips to Scarface, I wasn't sure he was being literal, until we saw that machine gun in the season opener. Now, I'd be genuinely surprised if Walt doesn't ultimately go down in a blaze of g(l)ory.

*Now that, my friends, is a real fucking conflict. Not merely hard to do as in "challenging." But on just about every level and in every respect and consequence, hard to want to do as in "gut-wrenchingly difficult to willingly choose."