It just shows that it was a very compact sequence of events. Jesse basically goes straight from beating up Saul to the White home. He is only there for a few minutes before Hank apprehends him. Meanwhile, the moment Jesse leaves Saul, Walt gets the call from him, retrieves his pistol, and heads straight home, where he just misses them. I don't how far apart all of these locations are supposed to be, but presumably everything I've just described happens over the span of 20-30 minutes.
If anything, I have more trouble swallowing Hank's Batman timing in stopping Jesse from setting the house on fire. We later learn that he's been tailing Jesse since Saul's, but, um, why would he have been doing that?
If anything, I have more trouble swallowing Hank's Batman timing in stopping Jesse from setting the house on fire. We later learn that he's been tailing Jesse since Saul's, but, um, why would he have been doing that?
Spoiler
Because Hank had to have Gomez call off his official tailers so he's been doing it himself?
domino's correct. In fact, in the previous episode we see Spoiler
Hank cancel a meeting and leave the office immediately after that conflict with Gomez over the Pinkman surveillance team. Now we know where he was going. And this is one of my favorite aspects of the storytelling in these late/final episodes. The way the writers so carefully withhold or elide certain events to increase the mystery and suspense. But also to keep us guessing as to what's going to happen next by being willing to completely skip over moments others might see as obligatory -- like the implied scene rrot mentions above, where Hank reveals (some of) what he knows about Walt to Gomez and convinces him to come over and help debrief Jesse.
The spoilers thing is getting ridiculous. I'm adding a warning to the thread title and people who read the thread should be aware that if they're not caught up, they shouldn't open the thread. Speculation and details about events yet to take place / episodes yet to air should still be spoilered. To wit:
Jesse teaches Hank everything he knows about cooking, and Hank soon becomes an even better and more notorious meth cook than Walt ever was, wounding Walt's pride. Against Skyler's wishes, Walt agrees to attend a "cook off" against Hank at which the best cook of the greater ABQ area will be decided once and for all. In a heated contest, Walt wins but his victory is bittersweet as it is thereafter revealed that several of the judges were in fact undercover DEA agents.
Ending in the middle of the fire fight was a stroke of genius. From the moment Walt channeled Mario Andretti to the end, I was literally on the edge of my seat.
Last edited by flyonthewall2983 on Mon Sep 09, 2013 2:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
Overall a great episode, but I found it a bit disappointing that none of those bullets appeared to strike anything human. With both Hank and Gomez initially standing out in the open, that seemed implausible. Of course, I'm sure this will be resolved with the next installment.
My prediction: Hank and Gomez are killed, but Jesse has escaped. Walt, under duress, will do the agreed-upon final cook then disappear only to return after his 52nd birthday to avenge Hank's death.
Eh, automatic weapons and handguns like that from a range like that... it's not completely implausible that two trained DEA officers who know how to move to avoid catching fire would manage to slip behind a vehicle. They're not exactly sniper rifles. That being said, what I recall as the action slipping in and out of slow motion made it feel more false than it needed to. A lot of emphasis on the amount of ammo being gobbled up and fired directly at Hank and Gomez. One of the only times I can say that the [usually best in class] editing of this show fell short.
Slo-mo stuff aside what was nice about that ending was my joy in seeing a recent action scene where I didn't lose sense of where everyone was located. True, it's not like anyone could move too far off, but most of the actions scenes I've seen in films lately can even screw that up becoming a shaky, jumbled mess where you have to wait for the outcome to get a sense as to what happened.
Even stuff like Pacific Rim, which was made by a largely great filmmaker, was nearly impossible to follow in that regard. I'm with you, Chris. I just think this could have been edited to create the appearance of Hank and Gomez beginning to rush to crouch behind the vehicle before we start to see bullets fly. As it stood (and I'll have to re-watch), they were still sort of just standing there at first, which made it seem silly that they weren't hit with any fire. That being said: It was an incredible moment and I am willing to forgive this show even if it ends like Newhart and Bryan Cranston wakes up next to Jane Kaczmarek, so. We're all good, Breaking Bad.
mfunk9786 wrote:... even if it ends like Newhart and Bryan Cranston wakes up next to Jane Kaczmarek
God, that ... would ... be ... AWESOME! Now, anything else will be a disappointment. Prove me wrong, Gilligan. Prove me wrong.
Glad I wasn't the only one who thought those officers seemed awfully confident standing out in the open vs automatic weapons. Some part of me wonders if the white-supremacists are going to figure out what's at those coordinates, though I can't really figure out how they would make the logical connections. As soon as Hank made that phone call to Marie I started remembering McBain telling Skowie to "stop talking crazy."
The more I think about it: If Hank wasn't going to come out of that alive, wouldn't we have seen that last night? Something tells me everyone's walking away from this somehow. Not that things won't get dark in another way, but... since the big Gale season finale, this show rarely gives us what we expect on the other end of episode-ending cliffhangers.
I'm thinking that the phone call, granting Hank a satisfying bit of "closure" with Marie, is meant to take the sting out of the reveal next week that he does not survive the shootout. Or maybe that's just what they want us to think!
Exactly. This show is anything but predictable. I'd be fine with either outcome at this point (I just want to see what happens, damnit), but most of me is expecting Hank to survive. I mean, someone has to out Walt as Heisenberg at some point, right? The spray paint in the abandoned house is a clue that someone with knowledge of who Walt was (and even though Marie knows, does she know about all the Heisenberg stuff?) outed him publicly in some way shape or form either before or after he escaped to New Hampshire.
