Actually, I thought *My Dinner with Andre *was more interesting.
Though I cracked up at “Fly saber.”
I haven’t seen My Dinner With Andre, so you’ll have to explain the reference. Was there a fly in a restaurant in that movie?
I usually don’t like series episodes with just a couple of characters. But I enjoyed this one, especially after Jesse decided to humor Walt. And I thought it was perceptive of Jesse to blame Walt’s behavior on a brain tumor (after accusing him of sampling the product). At least Jesse remembers that Walt has/had cancer. 
Walt’s fall should have cracked a couple of ribs – it looked very realistic. And I’ve had battles almost that silly with a fly, so I could sorta relate.
I like that Walt is finally admitting to himself all the grief he’s caused.
Great episode.
Now, just stop it. Breaking Bad doesn’t start here for another hour, and you are making me jealous. Plus I am writing this trying not to look above at what you wrote. Get back to me tomorrow, okay?
This was a great episode, and if you disagree I’m afraid there’s no hope for you.
My only complaint is they dangled too many red herrings (I know that’s mixing metaphors or whatever, but…). Jesse on the precariously placed ladders, Walt talking candidly about the night Jane died, even the trailer for the episode showing Jesse hitting him (but looking much more like an attack than it was).
The final blip was out of nowhere and interesting when he told Jesse- without telling him- “I know you’re skimming, cut it out because I can’t protect you”.
I know the fly was a major overreaction of course, but for those with better knowledge of chemistry, was it a complete overreaction or could a fly conceivable contaminate the area? Of course there’s no way that the RV could have been fly proof in the middle of the desert.
I can’t imagine how one fly could contaminate anything. A fly in one of those vats wouldn’t even be detectable – it’d be obliterated – and if one managed to end up whole in one of those trays, it’d be easy enough to chip out that chunk. If they missed it, the customer isn’t going to care.
I’m not a chemist, but I’ve been on picnics. I also remember an old joke that Peace Corps volunteers tell about flies in their beer. First few days in Africa, you dump out the beer. Few more days, you remove the fly and drink the beer. After a couple of weeks, you just say what the hell.
Does Jesse not know that Jane’s dad was the air traffic controller involved in the crash? If he was in rehab when that happened (I forget), he might not have been reading the papers. I don’t remember that he and Walt ever talked about the crash.
With regard to the fly–one really good moment of character development in this episode was Jesse arguing the level of acceptable quality of the finished product. Though the overall quality of the blue meth is what makes it so desirable, he was right in that the bar of acceptable quality is a little lower than what they’ve been offering.
It was really cool to see Jesse being the rational businessman and Walt being the crazy impulsive one.
Alan Sepinwall explained that this was a “bottle episode,” which is an episode that is designed to be very inexpensive to film, allowing more money to be spent on other episodes. No paying guest stars. Virtually no location shooting and using sets that already exist. No special effects. Although I didn’t care for the episode–too much scenery chewing for my taste–I’m definitely okay with having a “bottle episode” if it allows them to do insane stuff like Legless Leonel.
Interestingly, Sepinwall said that “3 Days” from last season was supposed to be a bottle episode. Walt and Jesse in the RV for 3 days. Simple, right? But as the story developed, there needed to be a lot more location shooting in the desert which drove the costs way up.
Learning of the bottle episode concept, I started to think about what might of been bottle episodes in other series. Maybe I’ll start a thread.
AuntiePam–My Dinner with Andre is a 1981 movie with Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn (of “inconceivable!” fame). It is just the two of them having a conversation over dinner. It is often referenced as the ultimate boring egghead movie because what could be more tiresome than watching two guys having dinner? But referencing the movie is kind of a meta-joke because it’s a really interesting movie.
So comparing the episode with My Dinner with Andre was sort of a backhanded compliment, but implied that it was pretty unexciting, particularly in comparison to the recent action-packed episodes. I didn’t care for it too much, but I totally understand why others liked it.
Hey–I just thought of something! You know how they have little games on the BB website, like “what kind of criminal are you?” I thought of a good game they could add–Pizza Fling. 
No hope for me? 
But what about my family? Well, I might as well do what I can to take care of them financially. Anyone here know how to make meth?
Disclaimer: That was a joke, son. I’m not really soliciting information about how to produce illegal drugs. I can’t believe I feel the need to put this here, but we all know that I do.
Yeah, My Dinner With Andre is just two guys talking, and this episode is just two guys talking.
Whoops. Alan Sepinwall mentioned that it was a bottle show, but didn’t explain it thoroughly. Not sure where I saw that. Here’s the Wikipedia entryon bottle episodes, though.
I was fascinated with the episode. Sure, there could have been more action and more blood and guts. That would have been okay.
But it demonstrated why Cranston got Emmys and why Paul needs one! The acting (on top of some neat writing) was amazing, I thought.
The fly thing was a neat blend of surreal and comic with the outcome always in doubt.
Green Bean have at your
idea. Sounds fun!
Done. And I didn’t mention Breaking Bad because I didn’t want to be a Spoily McSpoilerson.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12491538#post12491538
I wonder if they still have to pay the other regulars- Skylar, Hank, Marie, Walt Jr., etc.- even though they weren’t in the episode. I suppose this would be the same as asking if most “name in the opening credits” actor’s contracts are pay for play or a guaranteed salary per year.
Dammit, I had just about given up on Jesse as a character, figuring him for a hopeless waste of oxygen–then I get reeled back in again. I liked this ep, then again I liked Andre too so what do I know? And was I the only one who kept hearing snippets of “The Raven” every time the fly was in shot? Poor Walt, he was like Lady Macbeth wandering around muttering about contamination.
Jesse was much more reasonable in this episode, and even intelligent if I may say. Hearing “metastasized” coming out of his mouth *almost *took me out of the scene.
I just have to ask this: Did anybody else see this as a dream?
The smoke alarm at the start and ending made me wonder if we’re supposed to treat this episode as some bad dream of Walt’s.
I took it as a marker of the beginning and end to another day in Walt’s miserable life – like punctuation, sort of.
kath94, me too! So surprised he didn’t mangle that word. Maybe because he cared about his aunt and paid attention to what was going on with her?
I think that’s exactly it - there was a point in season one where Walt told Jesse that he’d gotten to stage such-and-such, and Jesse winced and said “yah, that means it’s gotten to your lymph nodes” or something like that.
They talked about this on the podcast - Vince Gilligan didn’t outright deny that, but he did say that he loves it when people come up with alternate story lines online.
I thought for sure that Walt was onto Jesse when he added the pills to his coffee - it seemed that he paused as Jesse plunked the pills in. I’ll have to play closer attention on rewatch.
I loved this episode. I thought Jesse prattling on about hyenas was hilarious. I could imagine what was going in Walt’s head, “oh will you please shut up!”
I think the writers are trying to portray Jesse as actually being smart and curious in his own way. He’s simply ignorant because his schooling was stunted by his drug abuse. He may also have a learning disability, perhaps caused by the drugs.
Remember that he was raised by very intelligent and successful parents (who push their kids way too hard to succeed, but that’s another very interesting conversation).
He watches the Discovery Channel. Not just Deadly Catch or Cash Cab or stupid ghost hunting shows. He watches shows about wildlife and Ebola.
When something catches his interest or he cares about something (like his aunt’s cancer) he pays attention and understands. He tries to work his mind. He often gets the big words wrong but he tries and he’s at least aware of the words and the concepts.
Ever notice how he gets exasperated at the stupidity of his friends?
Jesse standing on the top of the ladder made me think of Jeff Hardy.