Board 8 > So this Breaking Bad show, it's pretty good.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Finally, the baby is born, and we'll get to see Skyler without that belly. Still got lots of standard newborn drama to deal with. Not looking forward to baby cries either.

And naturally, Jesse does not remember Walt storming through. Would be hilarious if Walt uses that against him and keeps the full amount.

Alas, Jesse figures it out off screen and confronts Walt who justifiably is withholding the money.

Pretty hilarious plan by Saul to let Flynn's website work. I think it is a horrible lesson to teach the kid. Yellow text on a green background is horrible to read. I should know, I paused and read it. Take a webpage design class ya noob!

I'm sure there's some parallel to be made here with the baby being put on its side and Jesse being put on his side. Does this make Jane the mother teaching Jesse valuable life lessons on doing heroin?

Weeelp, that escalated quickly. Somehow Jesse is not dead after being assaulted by Q.

Ahh, so Jane finds out about the money owed and blackmails Walt to pay up or else get burned. Honestly, this is kind of a weird situation where I think nobody is in the right. Jane clearly just wants a piece of the money, Jesse wants to explore this new heroin world and peace out from responsibility, and Walt wants Jesse to be better than Jesse will ever realistically be and is being a dick, regardless of narrative justifications he has for being so. It isn't his job to be Jesse's dad, he's got his own family to look after, especially with the new kid.

Chance encounter with Jane's dad in a bar as Walt has just had a door slammed on him by Jane. No Walt, don't do anything to John de Lancie!

...ok, so he doesn't buuuut instead goes back to Jesse's place just in time to watch Jane die. RIP

I kinda liked her at first, but the more we got to know her the more I saw the negative influence she was having on Jesse, so it is probably for the best she exits the scene, though this means Jesse will probably have to move or buy the house or something.


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who do you most identify/sympathize with currently?
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Just finished a rewatch with someone who was watching it for the first time

Such a great experience

I envy you dude

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I'm not sure I identify with anyone in this show, they're all walking breathing piles of secrets and some degree of scummy behavior. Sympathy-wise, I think it naturally falls on Walt more than anyone because of the cancer as well as his falling out with essentially Bill Gates. He had a solid middleclass lifestyle going on but is now trading it for a criminal lifestyle.

Jesse I might have felt more sympathetic to in my younger years, but from an adult perspective he's an irresponsible mess who contributes almost nothing but still manages to just barely squeak by in narrative necessity. He's a good foil to Walt, but I grow weary of his outlook. If he changes for the better and sticks with it, maybe I'll like him more.

Skyler and Flynn...I don't really care what happens to either of them, though they're not bad characters by any stretch...they just don't really excite me in any way. I like that Skyler is starting this story already mostly through a pregnancy and that Flynn is not just a normal teenager. Different than the usual it might be, but it's ultimately just background stuff for Walt to manage.

Hank...I do quite like Hank as a character, although I can't say I sympathize with him. He's pretty blunt by design, very much an average joe sort but no dummy either, particularly when it comes to anything DEA related. Marie's barely a blip on the radar. The shoplifting thing has come to a close after she finally apologized, but it's not a very endearing personality trait to have.

Jane's dad, whatever his name was, now him, I can sympathize with. Dude just wants his daughter to grow up well and is now gonna have to grapple with losing her thanks to some jerkface who waltzed into her life and messed everything up. He's probably got secrets and other nonsense too, but at this point in time with one episode to go in season 2, he's been a reasonable character and will likely remain so as long as he's not given enough screen time to prove otherwise.

Saul I love, but he's less a character and more a solution to problems. I can neither relate nor sympathize with him, but I doubt many can or would want to. He's great though.

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The fact is we're all Gomie

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SovietOmega posted...

...ok, so he doesn't buuuut instead goes back to Jesse's place just in time to watch Jane die. RIP

This was a powerful moment and it always feels like a significant and calculated decision made by Walt.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

This was a powerful moment and it always feels like a significant and calculated decision made by Walt.

Absolutely. He had time to save her, and seemed to weigh the pros and cons a bit before settling on being passive. If I had to guess the primary thoughts would have been along the lines of 'she's too far gone already' and 'if she dies, Jesse will be able to become a better person'.

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SovietOmega posted...

He had a solid middleclass lifestyle going on but is now trading it for a criminal lifestyle.

Except he didn't. It shows in the first episode or two that he had to work a crappy second job and they are still barely scraping by.

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He was still middle class. The economy sucked and he was at a dead end job living above his means but still. That's extremely middle class, and he was also exactly middle age. That's the whole point, that he did everything right and felt like he deserved more. So he starts taking it by force to make it a reality. That corruption of the american dream is a common theme.

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I find it amusing so many of you are envying me as a first time watcher. The show is definitely solid, and there have been hints that it will remain or exceed its current status. I'm definitely interested in how the larger story develops.

So...maybe now we will solve the mystery of this furry animal in the pool. If I had to speculate, I'd say it is something Walt and Jesse did because that thing probably has one of those baby camera things in an eye socket that saw something it shouldn't have and they needed a plausible way to dispose of it. Dunno who would be in the bags though. Definitely not Walt and Jesse, but what side characters are disposable enough to fit?

"I know just who to call" Got a body you need to dispose of so that nosy cops don't destroy your budding meth trade? Better call Saul!

This dude who shows up to the house to wipe it clean is alright. They really do have to be getting bald people on purpose, it isn't enough to qualify as a running gag yet, but I'm pretty sure I see what they're doing. At this rate, all bald people will be suspect. One day you will tell me your story, bald person who was just helping Walt choose a water heater!

Hello there Windows XP. Shame on you Flynn for using such a goofy non-maximized browser aspect ratio. Probably some agreement with Microsoft to get enough of the iconic rolling hills background shown, which means I also can't give Flynn too much flack for not changing his background. But cool. operation funnel money into donations is off to a good start. Extra hilarious watching this in the future before gofundme or kickstarter were much of a thing. I wonder how high it will get before the family get suspicious.

Next scene...Jane's dad comes over to visit. He knows she's got drug issues too, so that's gonna be a fun problem for Jesse and Saul to tackle. Superb acting from de Lancie. No anger to Jesse, just complete shock at his misfortune.

Super cool watching Hank demonstrate how 'Heisenberg' has gone regional. Some fun callbacks to that likes-to-be-in-prison guy and Hank's beer too.

Ahh...show is smart. Getting a news story about Flynn will 'naturally' increase donations. It isn't half-a-million plausible, but it isn't too far off.

Oooh. Gus is financially supporting the Fun Run, whatever that is. Pretty ballsy considering his careful disposition, though not out of line for such a demeanor. Interesting way for him to discover his new partner in crime has lung cancer.

And now the news story is TV. Well played show, that'd do it. Heck, probably a significant amount of legitimate donations too. "My dad is my hero" D'aww...it's hard not to at least like Flynn as a character when he goes and says stuff like this.

Like 15 minutes to go, and still no pool or furry action....instead we're heading into surgery territory. "Which one" yeah, that'll be a future conversation full of TV logic. No, it can't be that the drugged brain mishears or misthinks about earlier cell phone related conversations, no, it's gotta be that he definitely has more than one cell phone.

Oooh, I love the use of the baby as a means of keeping track of time in this show. How old is the baby now? 7 weeks. Nice.

And heeere's the cell phone convo. Sigh. Well, at least they've got the sense to give Skyler more ammo here with the Gretchen angle. Walt's mom too. I thought the confrontation was gonna be less extreme, but Skyler's selling it here.

.....oh. What a tease the show is. Last minute. WHAM. XD

Still a number of unanswered questions, but what a way to end season 2!


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Yeah I liked how they didn't just have Skyler accuse him based on the 2 cell phones alone - it started her thinking and then she started uncovering stuff in the meantime. Gave her greater, I dunno, agency as a character. She knew she needed enough evidence to overwhelm Walt and make it impossible to deny. I really like that whole scene where she just lasers right through all his attempted lies.

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Season 3 seems to open in a parallel dimension where Earth's sun is more yellow and gravity is so intense people have to crawl around to move anywhere.

I quite like how we the viewer are painfully aware of the sequence of events that lead to that plane crash, how everyone is ultimately connected to everything else.

Walt's feeling some guilt...almost burns the money too before deciding not to be an idiot.

You know, this whole 'Walt moves out' thing might be for the best for him, as that means he's more free to cook without suspicion. It also kinda hilariously parallels Jesse's situation as drugs are ultimately the reason both of them are being kicked away.

Notable that S1 Walt was like "What's the matter, you don't like the crust?" to basement boy, but now here he is obsessively removing the crust. Quite a fine little detail that again underscores the guilt he's feeling.

One history lesson of a speech later and we're back in bizarro world where the Car Tribe who have made Heisenberg their new god (as signified by the opening scene and their ritualistically shaven heads) have donated some of their worldly goods to some local peasants before strolling out to train in 10x Earth gravity for the next martial arts tournament (presumably).

Haven't talked about it yet, but I'm taking a shine to this drug rehabilitation clinic place that Jesse is attending. Great for the character, and it's just got some cool aesthetic design going on too. Really hope it helps Jesse out. Someone needs to make some positive progress on this show.

Beautiful seeing Jesse go the 'what make's you an expert' route not expecting anything substantial and then getting 'I killed my daughter' as an answer. Remember when this was a goofball show about bumbling idiots pretending they could be tough guy drug dealers?

Holy shit...Skyler coming to Walt with divorce papers and then fishing for truth goes "you're a drug dealer" and even more crazy, Walt starts correcting her and admits its meth. Buuut, rather than caring about the truth she decides to use it as leverage to force the divorce. Whew, for a second I thought she was gonna become a good character and I'd have to start paying more attention to her or something.

Meanwhile, Jesse's now back from rehab, possibly even fixed. He's spouting off crazy about how he accepts he's the bad guy. I'm curious to see where this new outlook takes him. The Jesse-Walt pair might just have gotten a new pair of pants.

Walt cutely tries to pretend he is not a bad guy to Gus, who honestly is probably in the running for one of the best characters on this show despite me knowing precious little about him other than his extreme work ethic and professionalism and general disposition. Faced with a 3 million deal, Walt still manages to turn it down. He just wants his family. A laudable goal, but with the kid being clueless and the wife unwilling to listen, idk how he's gonna manage that without some extreme outside assistance.

Back on alternate Earth: "Yo dude, think we should walk faster away from this exploding truck?" "Nah bruh, pretend there's a camera focusing on us all dramatic-like. Besides, this is literally as fast as we can move on this planet until we train more."


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Walt's having a fun little drive when a cop pulls him over because that darn windshield is unsafe. Using the flight as an excuse is no excuse. All perfectly reasonable of the cop until Walt decides to escalate things. It goes exactly as you would expect.

As Walt falls, Jesse rises and he seems to be starting down a path of mending some fences with his parents. Heck, one more good drug run and he might just buy the place and surprise them.

Saul has no limits to his scumtastic worldview. Just get a new wife from Thailand or Czech Republic Walt, lawl. Also get back to cooking meth. As part of the viewing audience, I agree with Saul. Didn't start watching this show to watch a middle aged man go through a divorce after all, the viewing public demand meth! Give us meth! We want the meth!

Ok, so, why is there an N64 next to Flynn's monitor that has no controllers or anything identifying it as a nintendo console? More disturbing, why is his computer open on one side? That doesn't seem very safe, especially with it resting on the side of a box. At least his monitor is on fullscreen now, but even that is wrong because it's like suuuuper fullscreen. He's not playing a game, it's just a website. I just want some consistent internet using habits from you show! Is that too much to ask?!

Finally, Flynn has decided he wants to be called Walt Jr. again. Even after he was all 'dad is my hero' he persisted with Flynn. But only juuust now has he decided Walt's a fine name again. It's fine, more of a nitpic than anything, but it just feels a smidge delayed to me.

Great...now Marie is catching a case of the suspicions. This will end well.

The two Mexicans enter an old folks home. Look at bell guy like they know him. I guess these are of a relation to Tuco then? Looking to settle a score with Heisenberg, I wager? But how did they cross from the other universe into this one? Joking aside, they know how to work with this old man, I love it. Now they know his name.

Never cared for Ted, but Skyler connecting the dots between his actions and Walt's is a fun little mental exercise.

Ah, so Jesse is using Saul as a proxy to buy the house. Smart? Nice to be back to some comedy after all the drama going around. "You're not that lawyer on late night television are you?" "Better call Saul! I get it all the time!" Excellent technically true answer.

Oh hey! I've heard about this bit! Throwing the pizza onto the roof. Wasn't there something on how that was physically impossible or something given the angles involved? Or some story about that house being sold and a pizza put on it? Regardless, I remember this being an iconic moment for fans of the show. What a waste of good pizza.

A whole mess of bald people all converge on each other at Walt's place. You can't make this stuff up. Thankfully the bald guy called a bald guy who talked to the just-a-few-millimeteres-from-being-bald guy which lead to the two other bald guys leaving before the main bald guy was done with his shower. The only tell that they were there at all was the plastic eye slightly moved from where Walt had left it.

I bet this will be something that drags Walt back into the meth game.

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SovietOmega posted...

I bet this will be something that drags Walt back into the meth game.

Now who ever could've guessed that?
I think the pizza thing is really just from the outlandishness of it all. The show is usually grounded in it's own, dramatic way but then you just see a guy throw a pizza on the roof and the show makes a point of showing it to you and it just feels like a different show for a little bit

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Fun fact: They set almost an entire day a side to film Walt throwing the pizza on the roof due to how difficult it was deemed to be through testing.

He nailed it first try, which resulted in him doing a double-take

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Whats funny about the pizza is that the creators ultimately decided that the pizza can not be sliced because it would make the shot impossible. But then they had to justify non-sliced pizza. So they have Badger talk about how this pizza place doesnt slice the pizza and have the pizza at a lower cost in Season 5. Classic Breaking Bad attention to detail and tongue in cheek self-referencing.

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SovietOmega posted...

But only juuust now has he decided Walt's a fine name again. It's fine, more of a nitpic than anything, but it just feels a smidge delayed to me.

he's doing this because he thinks his dad is being persecuted by his mom. nothing makes you admire someone more like being a martyr

also skyler coming hard at walt at the end of S2 is fantastic. woman didher homework!

SovietOmega posted...

Remember when this was a goofball show about bumbling idiots pretending they could be tough guy drug dealers?

also i mean they kill a guy in episode 1 and dissolve his body in episode 2! those two are played for comedy to be fair, but then walt has to kill a prisoner after bonding with him in episode 3!
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Ah, I think I remember the pizza thing I was thinking of. Some years back the current owners of that house were complaining about breaking bad fans throwing pizza on it to imitate the scene. Apparently the owners put up an iron fence to detract would-be tossers.

And yeah, the sliced bit was where the impossibility I was thinking of came into the picture. Has to be a whole pizza which is naturally pretty weird for a pizza place to do.

Heey...it's Danny Trejo...who I did not recognize as Tortuga the first go around. Man, I've really got to get my head in the game.

Back in Waltville, Walt is being such a child going 'nyah nyah nyah you can't make me leave' and is even ok with Skyler calling the police and threatening to tell everything. There is probably some hidden meaning in Walt's address being Negra Arroyo Lane. Black stream...Walter White. Eh...black and white are obvious opposites but that's about the extent I see, or care to see at this time.

Really bizarre scene playing out, I literally don't know what to say. XD

Cartel meeting with Gus at Chicken HQ demonstrated some interesting conflict of interests. Cartel wants vengeance for Tuco, while Gus wants sweet sweet profits.

Jesse continuing to call Jane's voicemail is pretty sad, but I get it. It is the last connection he has with her, the only way to hear her voice again. Hey, remember when we all used to have flip phones like that? Different times, those were.

Getting a little worried about Hank here....what's he trying to prove in this bar? That he's still a tough macho guy?

So...let me get this straight. After Walt goes on about how he didn't steal his money, Skyler decides to get in bed with the guy who is literally stealing money. Her sister steals things, so I guess that's just how her family rolls?

And then she tells Walt about it. I guess now he'll want a divorce and everything will go according to plan for Skyler. Or maybe the beast inside him will finally awaken and he will start earning mad money with Gus.

edit: The episode title is 'I.F.T.' and damned if that doesn't make sense now XD

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Tag

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SovietOmega posted...

Getting a little worried about Hank here....what's he trying to prove in this bar? That he's still a tough macho guy?

walt does this a lot too. when he feels control slipping away from what gives him his sense of masculinity, he tries to assert it onto others. you can see this in how walt is abusive toward skyler and jesse. hank i think does it a bit less, but this definitely counts.
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Well, here's the 'getting gas for the RV' scene I wanted, although sans noticing bullet holes. Instead, Jesse's bribing the cashier with meth. Of course a cop happens to walk in for extra tension. Deal is accepted regardless. I bet she gets busted later or OD's.

Walt's not having a good day either with this IFT thing. Just wants to talk to Ted. Yup. Good thing that fixer bald guy shows up to kidnap Walt to help him come to his senses. Really, this guy's one of the most reliable characters. I get in a bind, that's the guy I want at my back!

Saul using colorful euphemisms to describe what Skyler did? Better maul Saul! Geeze, Walt is a very angry guy when he wants to be.

I felt sorry for that box of chemistry stuff the second Walt set it on top of Jesse's car. Destiny slowly conspires to rope them back into the game, but there are some bumps along the way apparently.

Hank seems to think Heisenberg's back, thanks to Mjesse's new batch. Gomey rightly tries to confront Hank about this using logic and reason, but Hank has his mind made up and is having none of it.

Ahh, so Matt was indeed the name and somehow Hank works his police magic to connect this back to the gas station. Poor Cara though, getting grilled like this. She's obviously feeling worked up about the ordeal, Hank could probably use some sensitivity training, would probably help cox out details from people better than his 'Tell me all the things I NEED TO KNOW THEM" approach.

Still, he makes tangible progress, but his boss, who might very well have some turtle dna in him, really wants Hank in El Paso. Ultimately Hank holds firm, forcing turtle boss to let him pursue this blue meth case.

At episode's end, Walt gets a payday. Even doing nothing is something it seems, which will undoubtedly force Walt to get in touch with people who will then be able to cast their nets around him.

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the slow section of the season is almost over!
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It's great that this doesn't even feel like a slump. A bit of a return to normalcy after what last season ramped up to, but a higher high than what season's 2 stretch of blah was.

So the RV was stolen all along eh? That does explain why there was no talk about further payments.

And Gomey is now the one going to Texas. Actions have consequences, sorry Hank.

I really enjoy watching Walt be in his conversationally angry mode. Not hotly raging, but cool and well reasoned, as if all that he says makes sense and all that say otherwise are just not thinking right. Also enjoy any scene Gus is in, so this is particularly satisfying.

This is like Christmas come early for our beloved chemistry nerd. However, he's still reluctant. Gus proceeds to give Walt the ol' "What is a man" speech. A miserable little pile of providing for one's family, apparently. I think it's a neat offer by Gus, but it also feels so very sterile and corporate. Not like the home grown RV cooking that put Walt and his pal on the map. There's no way this actually goes through as intended.

Gomey's cake is cut through the flag. Allusion that he will betray his pals at the DEA? Granted, Hank's cake has so far failed to manifest so who knows. Cake can still just be cake. I wish I had some cake. :(

I find it weird that Skyler is confiding so much to this divorce lady. Not that it is so unfathomable for her character to do it, just that it....it's just weird. Who does this? Does nobody in this town know that the more people know about a secret, the harder that secret is to keep? Hell, Skyler herself knows a thing or two about uncovering secrets. It's rather amusing, and probably something that will come back to bite Walt.

Speaking of coming back, Walt's apparently decided to agree to the Gus lab proposal. Watching him spout off about his formula to Jesse is so silly to watch, it's adorable how possessive he is about his illegal drug formula.

At the end of it all, Hank gets yet another piece of the puzzle needed to solve his case. Suspiciously, what he finds is something that couldn't have existed until this episode which goes out of its way to throw back a sequence of events that Hank could then uncover. Maybe Saul's gonna have to do some legit lawyering soon, that'll be interesting to watch.


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Interesting to see Walt's decision making process at work. He decides flat out that he wants to buy the prototype home rather than look at others. I want to say realistically these aren't put together with the same rigor as a real home would be, although I suppose given Walt's circumstances built-to-last isn't a top priority.

Walt's new lab assistant is an ok sort of bloke. He seems tailor made not to stand out much. Aside from his superb coffee experiment. Leave it to a chemist to make a better brew. "Why the hell are we making meth" truer words...

Some bonding time with him and White too...they seem to get along reasonably well, certainly more than Jesse and Walt ever did. Still waiting for that other shoe to drop.

Hank moving in on the RV situation....knows Jesse has it. Walt leans of this realizing he needs to tell Jesse, but that Jesse's lines might be bugged. Goes through Saul instead. Good thinking on Walt's part, although how he'll dispose of the RV is a mystery. Perhaps he could make use of more thermite? It's what the mythbusters would do.

And heeeere we go. Been waiting a while for these pieces to fall in place together. Wish I had some popcorn. This probably won't be the final showdown, but definitely a prelude of things to come.

Buildup and execution of the scene is fantastic and really makes you wonder how Walt and Jesse will get out of this pickle.

They've got one option...call Saul. The most beautiful aspect of this solution is that causing a wreck is entirely within the scope of what the show's done prior, but it ends up being just a fun little scam.

But booooy do I feel sorry for whoever ends up on the other side of Hank's wrath...superb scene of him busting onto the hospital scene and then Marie calling and him connecting the dots. Intense!

RIP RV Season 1-Season 3 You will be missed. I guess Gus' lab is the way forward after all.

Ahh...Gus you magnificent bastard, getting these two elite goons to go after Hank instead. Neat and tidy and solves most of the problems everyone has that is on the criminal end of the spectrum. I bet he takes one out, but the other gets him.


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"Family" really is a recurring theme on this show. It's Walt's motivation, Jesse's reason for being in his situation, what prompts Tuco's cousins into action, and what drives Hank here to beat the snot out of Jesse.

When confronted about Hank, I like how Walt can legitimately claim that Hank is 'not currently' family. It is technically true, but even still you can see that Walt is still feeling the familial ties, regardless of what he might otherwise say.

Fun little meeting with the two Tuco boys and the pee fetish armsdealer. The vests do indeed work. Thought for a moment they might aim for his head, but then that'd splatter all over the goods and wouldn't be a legitimate test of the vest. They really do like injuring people in trucks, don't they?

One small little number error later and Walt's ready to replace Gale with Jesse. Next he'll be insisting that the lab is too big and start demanding RV sized workspaces. Really, it is a silly situation to begin with...just a touch more communication between Walt and Gale and the situation would resolve itself. Meth can't be that exacting to make, methheads make it all the time! Heck, if Walt were to codify his recipe down, he'd not be needed at all. Admittedly, he probably knows that, but still...there's a clear formulaic way to produce the stuff that could be back-engineered given enough time. Perhaps even...three months time?

Man...the me of like 10 posts ago talking about how he isn't likely to sympathize with ol' druggie Jesse...jeeze. Think I have to revise that with this speech he's giving Walt. Not even 1.5 million dollars is tempting him to have anything to do with Walt because Walt is the primary reason Jesse's life went to pot. Stirring stuff, but Jesse...1.5 million could buy a looot of psychiatric help!

But yeah, Walt's actions coming back to bite him here. Hard to cross bridges when you burn them and all.

Or maybe not that hard...guess all it takes to win back Jesse is to validate his existence a little, huh.

Neat little camera shot suggesting Jesse is at pain level 10. Maybe not physically, but it's gotta be up there mentally/emotionally.

Then the rest of the episode happens. Wasn't gonna be no pausing there. Knew once the badge and gun went away that things weren't gonna look great for Hank. But he did it! Got them both, just barely! He might even live too!

Man...what a great buildup and execution of it all though. The way this show lets a threat like that linger all season and ever so gently pushes them into the sights of their prey is not something many other shows could accomplish. Fantastic through and through, and I bet next episode's gonna be filled with all the fallout this situation causes. Worried family, opponent's next move, etc.


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3x06 and 3x07 back to back are really incredible

hank vs walt and jesse in the rv is amomg the tensest scenes in the show

3x07's character work is great. it's agonizing how jesse is so easily won over. meanwhile hank has been shown to be a jerk but effective at his job - having him give up his badge and refocus on his home life is a fantastic turn for him too.
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SovietOmega posted...

Heck, if Walt were to codify his recipe down, he'd not be needed at all.

It's about the purity not the recipe

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Walt's reaching awfully hard to try and spell out why he doesn't want Gale around anymore. Only Jesse will do, who has just been released from the hospital and very conveniently witnessed Hank's admittance to the ER.

Exceptional irony here with Marie blaming Walt and Skyler stating that she's just looking for someone to blame and that it isn't Walt's fault. What isn't Walt's fault in this series? XD

Definitely speaks to Walt's character that when Jesse is just a tiny bit reluctant to start instantly it's all 'we got responsibilities to meet a quota' but when Walt needs family time suddenly that quota can wait.

Surprisingly emotional speech Walt gives Marie and his family about an otherwise normal occurrence. Green lights while going to the hospital. Just the tones and cadence that Walt's actor is able to speak will sells it far more than it has any right to be sold.

I've a hard time buying that a cop will just casually let a civilian go see a murderer like that, inviting them to do so like an excited child no less. It turns into one bigass cop conga line too, lol. Naturally, he's awake enough and crazy enough to spot Walt and crawl towards him with bleeding leg stubs. What could he possibly hope to accomplish with that?

Jesse is perhaps the last person I want in a lab...yet another poor decision brought to you by Walt's brain. I'm so sorry Gale, you really were too perfect for this show. Got a weekly quota of drama to meet and all.

The way this show puts characters together never fails to impress. Not long after a phone call between Walt and Gus, Gus shows up in person at the hospital in the role of food delivery for the cops because he also wears the hat of supporting the DEA. It all logically tracks, but we know what his true motivations are...to let Walt see that he sees Walt. Or perhaps...to deal with that lingering assassin. Dude's quite the multitasker.

Ahh, the plot thickens. Now that Gus feels he has a reliable producer he can cut ties with his Mexican pals and forge his own path. Unfortunately for him, the team he has signed on is Walt and Jesse who produce more pounds of drama than they do meth.

Episode ends with a family meeting around what we can only presume is Hank, the camerawork conspicuously avoids full shots of his head and body, preferring the edges. For all we know the actors were staring at a pineapple.

Quite the emotional rollercoaster, it was all the fallout I was expecting and then some.


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Frick...I want some Los Pollos Hermanos chicken now. They've teased it being good before with characters describing their meal, but now we get an ad for them. Also technically a meth ad by the end there. Is meth really all that bad?

Jesse's understandably upset given the fraction of pay he's getting compared to total profit. However, he does not seem to grasp that what he is getting is better than nothing and this method moves far more than he could hope to achieve normally, with less risk.

What is more important than money Jesse? Family, naturally. It's been an interesting experience watching Jesse drift away from his, while Walt has tried to do the opposite.

Life lessons from Saul...you wanna stay a criminal and not become a convict, launder your money. Seems reasonable to me, but Jesse just doesn't seem to understand. Thinks the whole gosh darn world is unfair and out to get him personally. I almost feel silly for feeling a bit sorry for him just the other episode.

Oh cool, Walt's on the same page as my thoughts as to the true game being played. Gus standing to gain the most from recent events and all. So, only question is how much does Gus feel this information Walt knows is worth?

Or Walt could agree to a yearly salary because he further knows that Gus saved his life so they're on somewhat even terms in that regard.

That does not excuse his sudden decision to play peekaboo with traffic though. Wtf? Even more future money and family security. Let's potentially throw that away by getting in a wreck. I don't follow his logic, if the thoughts running through his head here can even be called such.

This conversation between Skyler and Marie is making me think Skyler's gonna start swiping some of that money for Hank bills. Good thing Walt's gonna be earning a lot more, right?

Oh that's rich XD. Jesse is roping his boys into turning his support group into methheads. While skimming just a small bit from the batches he and Walt make.

Ah...not skimming the money then, that's afterschool special levels of drama, no, she's directly saying they can do it to Marie's face while Walt is present. Makes up some bullshit story about Walt winning money by gambling. Hah!

"It's into seven figures" "Holy mother of God" "What can I say, I did very well" Loving this yarn full of almost truths that are so close yet so far.


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Leave it to a chemist like Walt to know pretty much every mol of product he's working with and putting out. 0.14% isn't much, but for a small time man like Jesse it's ample profit. I'm more surprised he actually came up with a plausible enough explanation for the missing portion that sent Walt back to calculations.

We've seen Walt face tough gangsters and imminent death by dehydration and all sorts of tense situations, but they all might get beat out by this fly buzzing around his lab. One after another silly decisions are made, resulting in some Tome and Jerry shenanigans.

"So you're chasing a fly, and in your world, I'm the idiot" I mean, when you put it like thaaat...

I can kind of relate to this episode. A year or so back my bedroom got infested with a type of fly. Was in other areas of the house too, but it lingered in my bedroom. Hanging those sticky traps like what Walt and Jesse are doing here as Jesse drugs Walt's coffee with sleeping pills, these sticky traps are one thing that really helped me out big time. That and mesh masks to stop them going up my nose and such when sleeping.

Walt gets a touch philosophical about how the universe is just random chaos. What does it mean for something so coincidental to happen such as meeting the man whose daughter would die the same day? Means the show has writers Walt, sorry, you live in a TV show. But even tossing that aside, every event that ever happens is technically similarly improbable as the particular ones we decide to take special notice of. There is no intrinsic meaning in it, it just is. Humans have been scientifically proven to have a hard time determining what true randomness looks like. To the extent that video games and music shuffle algorithms have to be adjusted to account for our human biases.

It boggles me how even Jesse could possibly conceive of that ladder being safe, even for a moment. Maybe one or two rungs I could buy. But the dude goes and stands on the top. Knowing his only support is Walt who he knows is also going to take a nap any second. If this were done in a non-looney tunes episode, I wouldn't let it slide, but it somehow fits the whole vibe of this episode.

The fly getting got has got to be one of the best fly swats I have ever seen on TV. This whole episode it has been a menace, and there it is, falling down dead in slow motion. Simply marvelous!

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goat episode

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What happens when you tell a writers room firing on all cylinders to write a bottle episode. It being directed by Rian Johnson also helps.

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Rewatching that episode I forgot how good it is

The comedy of the first half is excellent and as it descends into darker, more dramatic territory it is equally excellent

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It took me a little while before I realized what exactly I was going to be in store for. One thing I didn't mention is how sure I felt that Walt was gonna drowsily mention how he was feeling watching Jane die. Except, should that have happened, Jesse would have murdered him in his sleep.

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Speaking of Jane, we get a little past scene with her and Jesse visiting that art gallery that was hyped up last season. The reality was several flavors of door and a hammering home of how thick Jesse can be regarding other people's worldviews.

He's further convinced that it is just a lack of his friend's skills that are stopping them from selling meth. Obviously Jesse can do much better...dude's got a bad case of the Dunning Kruger effect.

Meanwhile, on the Walt side of the story, Skyler is getting roped deeper into the fold. Makes sense with how number smart she is, although perhaps questionable given the amount of drama that has recently gone on between them. The family chat about Walt Jr.'s car choice was cute...just a normal average family on the surface, but we've seen so much far below this surface that this quaint normalcy can only be seen as a pale imitation. Heck, Walt is earning so much now that he probably will be able to provide the 'stang on top of continuing Hank's bills and anything else, really.

Skyler brings up a supremely valid point. Rather than laser tag...Walt should buy that car wash. Not only is it justifiable to friends and family, it can give some catharsis to us the audience as we remember how Walt was treated by the folks here way back in S1.

Saul also brings up some valid points. Says there's no 'Danny' working at this car wash. No guy willing to trade legality for keeping their business alive. I guess that's valid, but...c'mon Saul, let Walt have this!

Ahahah....Jesse....the girl you're with. Tomas....niiice. Way too coincidental, but that's just how this show rolls.

You know, maybe I'm looking at this Laser Tag/Car Wash thing all wrong. Maybe the solution is 'why not both?'. Laser Tag Car Wash. The Danny can be preserved and we can still get proper closure! How would it work as a business model? Who cares?! Laser. Tag. Car. Wash. Make it happen, show!

Or Skyler could be the Danny and also they're still married. Lawl.

Dunno where this Jesse/Tomas situation will end up, but it's certainly dramatic.


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season finale hype
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With the next two episodes being called 'Half Measure' and 'Full Measure', I gather this is a two-parter, or at the very least thematically connected. Probably best if I plow through them one after another then.

Interesting how Jesse's murder plan to get back at the murder of one of his druggie family members is essentially the same kind of plan the Mexican cartel used to try and get vengeance for Tuco. Violence breeds violence, and Walt has enough sense to see that it is wrong when Jesse tries to sell him on it. I'm tentatively on Walt's side here as self defense is a legitimate claim that can be made, but I've also seen enough of this show to know everyone is basically some breed of scum and all of their sides are colored by their biases. Still, murder is generally bad, so Walt is less wrong here.

So the plan looks like it's to get Jesse arrested, but just for a bit. A month in jail to stop him from being a whiny baby. I...can't see this going well for any party involved. Not even with the great wizard Saul backing Walt up. I foresee a huge stack of dominoes falling in the next hour or two of viewing time.

Interesting scene with Jesse and Wendy, it's a lovely shade of green they have filtering into the room. Dunno what that signifies, if anything, but it certainly feels like a meaningful cinematic choice.

"I chose a half measure when I should have gone all the way" well that explains the titles, welp.

Even when you're dealing in illegal goods, especially when you're dealing in illegal goods, diplomacy is a highly desirable art and Gus seems to have a commanding personality for it. For now, the Jesse/kid-users situation seems to be resolved, but invariably something is gonna happen regardless, I can feel it. Even with Gus' presence, there's only so much give to a situation before it breaks.

...ok, so called it on that. Death of the kid drove sent Jesse into motion. Didn't expect Walt to suddenly go Full Measure on the two punks though. WHAM came out of nowhere XD

And now I have no idea wtf is even gonna happen with this show, and there's still an episode left of the season. What normal can they possibly hope to return to?


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This topic keeps inspiring me to watch so many Breaking Bad scenes on youtube.

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skullbone posted...

This topic keeps inspiring me to watch so many Breaking Bad scenes on youtube.

I end up wanting to see very specific scenes that aren't even on there so I have to delve into Netflix

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Younger Walt and Skyler house buying scene. Nowhere to go but up. The writer's irony game is on point.

Jeeze...I try to hold off on commenting while watching for maximum viewing impact, but then whatshisname has to go and be all badass with some balloons and a gun. Screw Walt and Saul, THIS is the guy we need a show about!

Mike, his name is Mike.

Pretty obvious the second Gale existed what his true purpose was, but watching Team Walt realize what needs to be done and hide away from Team Gus is great entertainment. Even Saul gets some fun with a false address.

Watching the scene with Walt spending time with his daughter is a treat. It's just a normal moment, but you further know all the events surrounding said moment and what is moments from coming to pass. The calm before the storm.

In a twist that caught me off guard...right before Walt could enact his plan to kill Gale, he's taken out behind the barn to be shot. Amazingly, he's got a counterplan ready to go without hesitation. Jesse's gonna be the one that needs to kill Gale.

Yet, we know that compared to Walt, Jesse will hesitate. Season ends with him angling the gun away a bit and firing. I honestly don't know how this will turn out and I bet people were raging at having to wait more than a day to see what nonsense results.

Definitely a high octane episode. Very little about the cooking of the meth, all about the business model and the machinations of key players. Beautiful stuff. I guess when you take Hank out of the picture, it naturally leads to in-fighting among the criminal elements.

I wonder how it would have ended if it had not been renewed for a new season. Would Walt have died here and the Gus empire rise to higher highs? In this regard, viewing late sucks some of the tension away as I know there will be two more seasons remaining, and Jesse sure as heck can't carry them himself. Still, the events were highly entertaining regardless.

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I watched it live, and I don't think there was any doubt the series was being continued at that point. At the very least I was under the assumption the series was still continuing

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SovietOmega posted...

Jeeze...I try to hold off on commenting while watching for maximum viewing impact, but then whatshisname has to go and be all badass with some balloons and a gun. Screw Walt and Saul, THIS is the guy we need a show about!

Mike, his name is Mike.

Well you'll be glad to know that Better Call Saul is like 40% a Mike show and 60% Saul. The B plot of every episode is usually Mike related

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Run.
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Half Measures, so damn good

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Next episode hype

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Time for Season 4

Which is kind of a masterpiece

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full measures is really good

so is 4-01

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Ooh...Gale and meth lab origin story. Even see him vouching for Walt without knowing the guy. Have I mentioned how great Gale is? His cadence reminds me of Dr. Phlox from Star Trek Enterprise. I just love listening to him talk, you know?

But none of that matters anymore unless Gale had a master tier slap-on wound to fool people with. Show did go out of its way to tease the heck out of the 'is he really dead' moment, but it does seem that he is dead for good. Surprisingly, the situation back at the lab remains as tense as it did before Walt's backup plan sprang into action. Heck, might be even more tense now since they've gone and shaken the hornet's nest.

I think I could have lived a good life not having seen the bedpan scene with Hank. At least they've got the decency to go to a new scene quickly rather than linger. It's a great scene for establishing his condition, but like...did I really need to see them go as far as they did with it? I miss Action Hank. Mopey Disabled Hank just isn't the same.

Oh heck, the cake wasn't a gut thing, THIS is what it was. The separation of his top and bottom through this paralysis. Going back and looking at an image of that cake, it looks suspiciously like a parking lot too. The only flaw is that Cake Hank has a gun whereas Real Hank didn't.

Gus scene. I mean, I could say words, but Gus said it best: "Well, get back to work". chills go down spine

I'm...still watching the same show right? The characters are looking the same, but wtf is going on? It's like the show's flipped a switch in my gut. I suppose it's the looming threat of Gus and doom hovering over Walt and Jesse with all sorts of red imagery and zero humor all of a sudden. Shit just got real. If the season continues like this, sign me up!


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Oh jesus. Jesus. Oh shit!

Alright...so...

Shit!

I absolutely love that line for some reason. I crack up every time I see it.

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i never found the box cutter scene as impressive as everyone else did, or this episode as a whole.

but yeah dis season gon be good, looking forward to more.
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