Speaking from past experience, arms dealers generally are referred clients from trusted organizations that they have past dealing with. The twins didn’t look up “arms dealer” in the yellow pages or randomly happen upon him in a parking lot. I assume that the cartel recommended him to the twins. It’s in the cartel’s best interest for him to live because, frankly, a good arms dealer is hard to find. That’s his best protection.
The twins “testing” the vest was a mistake. Chances are the arms dealer won’t do business with the cartel again. I wouldn’t.
Me too. The scene would have been just as effective if there had been more than one guy in the truck. Motormouth was funny though. IMDB doesn’t have a listing for him. Anyone know who the actor was? He looked familiar.
The “previously on” stuff showed Skyler with her lawyer and I was expecting something divorce-related in this episode, but it didn’t happen. Maybe the scene was to remind people who’ve missed episodes that Skyler and Walt are over.
The brothers called Hank because they wanted him to be prepared so he could put up a fight. Remember how the one brother declined to shoot hank because it was “too easy?” Well that’s why they warned him, because it would be “too easy” to just walk up and kill him and they wanted a challenge.
That’s my theory. But I know I’ll be proven wrong the next episode.
Why didn’t Hank just drive away? If I heard “men are coming to your location to kill you” I would…drive away from that location. Immediately.
I think I missed a very important plot point, which is surprising because I was sober while watching this episode. Why did Jesse drop the charges against Hank just because Walt gave him a partnership?
Alan Sepinwall’s take on that. Basically, Walt is a father figure to Jessie. Walt praising Jessie – “Your product is good” – was what Jessie needed to hear, praise from dad. It fits with what I’ve seen in parent-child relationships, especially abusive ones. Kids can be like puppy dogs – they’ll forget being kicked as soon as you scratch their ears.
I think Saul’s comment about making other plans for Jessie is what decided Walt to do whatever it takes to get Jessie back in the fold. Walt doesn’t want another death on his conscience.
This show provided more reason than ever to like Hank better than anyone else on the show. What he did to Jesse was horrible, but he turned himself in and took his lumps–more lumps than he had to. Did he turn himself in only because Jesse needed medical attention or because he did something wrong? Doesn’t matter, really, but I got the feeling that Jesse’s needs trumped all.
Marie really redeemed herself as well this episode. She has been portrayed fairly unsympathetically so far, but throughout the course of the season, we’ve begun to see her good side and also her frustration and pain. It must be very very difficult to be married to a DEA agent and a man like Hank. But when Hank got himself into trouble, she was totally supportive. I don’t remember her chastising him at all about what he did and/or losing his job, either temporarily or permanently.
I hope the fact that he was suspended without pay doesn’t affect his benefits, etc., with regard to the costs of his medical treatment.
Someone IDs him in the TWoP thread, but I can’t access it at work to check.
Do you mean the scene in the show or the “previously on” stuff. I don’t think they’re bothering to explicate stuff for people who missed episodes except during the opening segment. The scene served to further demonstrate the deterioration of the relationship, and the way Walt lashed back at Skyler could have been foreshadowing. Though I absolutely think Skyler was right to kick Walt out, her method of handling it served to anger Walt more than necessary. I guess it’s going to come back to bite her.
And isn’t a major theme of the show how actions lead to unexpected consequences?
I disagree with that. I think Gus probably DID plan for Gale to learn the method, either in anticipation of getting rid of Walt or just as insurance, but there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t be willing to change his plans, even if we don’t know exactly why.
Maybe Gus realizes that Walt just has “the touch” with making meth and that he should preserve him as long as possible. Jesse’s wasn’t as good as Walt’s regardless of what Walt said. It might have produced the same high, but it was cloudy instead of clear. That’s not as good from a marketing standpoint. Nevertheless, it was extraordinarily good for a first solo effort, showing that Jesse might have more potential than Gale to be the second-best meth maker ever even though he’s no chemist.
And, as it turned out, that arms dealer/truck driver guy was right: those hollow-point bullets really do “shred your head like a cabbage.” (As soon as he said that line, I knew we were going to get to see what that would look like.) I love it when there’s actually truth in advertising.
Hot damn! My favorite episode since “Fulminated Murcury”. Also, give the actors who play Jessie and Hank the Emmys this year, they deserve them just from this one episode.
It almost had to be Gus or one of his people because he ordered the hit and presumably, was the only person who knew about it. Perhaps he wanted Hank to have a chance to take out the brothers, knowing they were a threat to Walt. Of course, he’d have no way of knowing that Hank had just been relieved of duty and did not have his gun anymore. The brothers bought the Kevlar vests because they knew a DEA agent would be carrying.
Remember him telling Marie that he’d been freezing up in high-pressure situations and, what was the word, unraveling? He completely panicked and froze up. Frankly, he should be suspended from duty for that reason and no other, nevermind the Jesse beatdown.
That’s a neat theory, I guess it could be true (though I don’t think they speak that much English…but I just watched the scene again with headphones, and for some reason I really think the voice sounds like Saul’s. Even with the distortion, it sounds like his enunciation and every now and then the modulation seems to mix in a normal voice tone that sounds right for Saul. If Gus wanted to give Hank a heads-up, there’s no way he’d call him himself. We know Saul has Hank’s cell phone number and I think has used a voice modulator before. So it leaves us with the question of why, and it seems obvious that Gus thought the brothers were psychos who would keep causing problems. I doubt he expected they would both be killed, but he probably expected Hank would make a call for backup and generally make things very difficult.
Also, I wasn’t sure the “too easy” remark referred to the level of difficulty in killing Hank, but rather that a gunshot to the head would be a “too easy” way for him to die in retribution for Tuco. I can’t imagine it would be any more challenging to kill a severely wounded man with an axe than with a gun.
I would’ve enjoyed the episode more if my *FUCKING DVR HADN’T CUT THE RECORDING OFF JUST WHEN THE GUY WITH THE FUCKING AXE WAS WALKING TOWARD HANK AS HE FUMBLED WITH THE FUCKING BULLET!!!
*
Dammit.
It was horrible but completely understandable. And which of us wouldn’t at least want to do that under the same situation?
Also, Gus knows that Walt has terminal lung cancer. He may or may not know that it’s in remission, but even if he does he probably knows that could end at any time.
I’m thinking it was the bald guy we met earlier. It had to be someone who was tailing Hank, and was somewhere in the vicinity. (Otherwise, how would he know the twins were a minute away?)
IMDB doesn’t have a listing for him. Anyone know who the actor was? He looked familiar.