It’s a sort of religious devotion. There are pilgrims that crawl on their knees to shrines in other parts of the world. I don’t know why this particular shrine would have this particular type of devotion, but I’ve heard of these kinds of signs of piety before. Generally with religious pilgrims, and it’s not clear if the crawlers are locals or came from outside the village. But the other villagers are certainly used to it.
Wait, how did Walt cause the crash? If anyone was “responsible”, it was really Jessie.
Walt stood by and watched Jane choke to death. He could have cleared her airway and called an ambulance but chose not to. So not directly responsible, but he definitely had a role to play.
Well, to be fair to Walt, she did have puke all over her mouth.
But if they were going to be picked up, they wouldn’t have had to change clothes.
I’m not worried about them walking the desert. They were probably pretty close to their pickup spot, or they would have waited. You’re right, it could have been their plan all along, but it was still unnecessary violence. If they were worried about being identified by their boots, then they should have worn different boots.
Sepinwall says the explosion wasn’t CGI, which was a surprise. He said the guys were about 60 feet from the truck when it blew, and they had instructions not to flinch. I’m getting a little tired of guys walking away from explosions. I’d have to turn and watch – wouldn’t anybody? It’s like taking a book to a fireworks display. Watch the fireworks! 
I’ve thought about it more, and now I think that shooting up the truck wasn’t planned, but instead a response to being recognized by their boots. You’re right that they should have worn different shoes. (I wonder about them grabbing clothes off the clothesline. Did they just stop at the nearest house with clothes hanging outside, assuming that they’d fit, or was it planned in advance?)
How important can these guys possibly be though? That kid did shut up once he saw those boots so they do have quite the rep.
I was physically uncomfortable watching Walt’s speech about the crash. Hell of a performance.
I’m thinking they’re pretty important. It seemed like half the show was their scenes.
There’s speculation at Sepinwall’s blog that their aim is to find and protect Walt/Heisenberg. If they’re Tuco’s cousins, that seems unlikely.
And let this be a lesson to us all – when you’re shot and left for dead, play dead until the bad guys have gone.
So true. To hear him voice how he’s justifying and denying what he’s responsible for, how torn up he is, while at the same time the school was probably thinking of his recent battle with cancer and how death is bothering him, and making him say inappropriate things… So layered, it was brilliant.
And how he had all the newspapers and statistics on airline crashes, how there were 50 crashes worse than this. It’s obviously bothering him but he won’t be able to get through it in a healthy way, not by himself. How do you forgive yourself for something like that? And Jesse – has he forgiven himself? Is that what he meant when he said “I’m the bad guy”? Has he given up? Does “acceptance” mean you don’t try to change? I’m anxious to see what the writers do with all this.
Does anybody think Gustavo (the fast-food-chain-as-meth-cover character played by Giancarlo Esposito) is really going to take no for an answer? I hope not because I like his character (as a character I mean- not saying I’d like to know meth lords who channel it through fried chicken franchises). So far Walt’s two pieces of luck were hooking up with Saul and (through Saul) with him.
Jessie is just such a dumbass. I like the actor fine on Big Love so I think it’s just the character, not the performance. I liked last season that Gustavo wouldn’t play with Walt until he was sure Jessie was a junior partner.
I suppose I’m more of a pathological liar than I should be. I’ve been thinking forever that Walt needed a cover story if Skyler ever found out, and since they’re in New Mexico the best one would be “Consulting work with a top secret project involving a government contracter with a multibillion dollar contract for new explosives is really more than I should say and had to move heaven and earth for them to let me tell you half that much. We’re doing explosives testings in the desert- where is not important other than you can reach me by cell phone if it’s an absolute emergency. Sometimes I’ll be away for days at a time. I have moral qualms with the work I’m doing but the money is too good to refuse and if it wasn’t me they’d get somebody else, and I’ll just say I hope to Og you never hear about this bomb in the news.”
I am definitely not an expert on this. But after many years living on the border, I have an idea. When I lived in El Paso, it was not uncommon for the devoted to make a pilgrimage to the “jesus on a popsicle stick statue” that was at the peak of Mt. Cristo Rey. There was an annual trek, and some of those climbed the convoluted road to the top on their hands and knees. Believe it or not, we could actually view these people doing this from my kitchen or outside by the pool.
(a little easier to see with binoculars–it was always well publicized when this was to occur, as there were frequently bandidos on the way and it was only fairly safe to do when there were a lot of people making the trek).
Now that I live down here on the border by the tip of Texas, Tamaulipas, & Nuevo Leon, we frequently see on the local news, drug busts that are characterized by the people’s own shrines to Santo Muerte–the protector of the narcos. That’s what I figured was featured in this episode. And the fact that it was in Michoacan–not a border state–emphasizing that “Heisenberg” is known throughout the country. They get a lot of stuff right in this show–I especially get chills hearing “Negro y Azul”. He just doesn’t know he’s dead yet–ewwwwww!:eek:
hellpaso has it right. They’re crawling to worship at the shrine of Santa Muerte.
Wiki on Santa Muerte. It’s a sort of Meso-American peasant religion, similar to voodoo in the way that its followers may consider themselves devout Catholics even while praying to very anti-Christian deities. Unlike the Virgin Mary and the saints and Jesus, Santa Muerte does not make moral judgments so if you want your enemy to die or your neighbor’s wife to fall madly in lust with you or to get rich from a drug deal, things the Christian saints can be really preachy about, you ask Santa.
See, that’s why I love this show. They don’t have to include that kind of stuff.
Just like I do at Christmas!
Our Santa doesn’t make moral judgments either- long as you keep him happy.
Yeah, he can be a real bastard.
Of course not. It’s a Chekhov’s Gun thing. The scene was there for a reason. Though it could play out with Walt going back and asking for the opportunity instead.
That would be a fantastic cover story.
I often wonder why Walt doesn’t try to come up with cover stories, or better ones in any case. But maybe that’s part of the whole “breaking bad” thing–he has no experience being a bad guy so he doesn’t know the right way to go about it.