Yeah, you’re right. Seems I got a little dyslexic there or something (I am not normally dyslexic). I was probably thinking 830 and typed 380.
Cash-based businesses (like a car wash) make it easy to just declare some of the illegal cash as profit, but of course a small business can’t suddenly go from a $100K profit to millions without arousing suspicion.
Thus, many money laundering schemes are set up to “multiply” the fake profits added to the business. Increased profits, for example, justify hiring more employees (whom no one working the line ever sees) and increase ordering of more expensive materials (from shell companies that are actually owned by Walt, and boy do those companies charge a lot for that high-quality soap the car wash needs). Of course Walt and Skyler can’t access this money directly, but they don’t need to while the business is running; they grab it after they sell the car wash to a friendly buyer willing to state he paid more for it than he actually did (giving him a nice tax break and depreciation write-off in future years).
Like most criminal operations, this won’t hold up under intense scrutiny, but it’s probably good enough to avoid initial suspicion.
How is it hurting the show? From what I can tell the show is more popular than ever. The viewership has jumped another 30% this season vs. last season. Also from wiki:
On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the first season scored 74/100, the second season scored 85/100, the third season scored 89/100 and the fourth season currently scores 96/100, receiving the status of "universal acclaim.
I admit that it’s not non-stop action or Walt looking over his shoulder in every scene, but so far this season is unfolding very well. We see Jesse dealing with the post-traumatic stress of having murdered a person, Hank acting all bitter from his injury, Marie trying to deal with the Hank situation by going back to her old ways, Skyler breaking bad like Walt, and Walt still trying to figure out things from day to day. I’m expecting the action to pick up more now that Hank is “on the case” and the result of last season’s Mike vs. cartel activities to come back to torment Gus.
As to some comments about Skyler going all paranoid about the champagne purchase. My feeling is that they’re just trying to show how more forward thinking is Skyler vs. Walt. As a scientist, Walt is more methodical and tactical. Skyler thinks ahead of the consequences. With their complementary skills, they’re setting Skyler and Walt up to be the one-two punch in a meth business, IMO.
X2
-5
Doesn’t matter what they are trying to show, it still didn’t make no sense.
I agree. There may well be some plausible explanation within the situation as already established, but the fact that we’re arguing about it so much clearly means that it’s by no means clear. So if there is such an explanation (ie, there’s some tax reason why it’s super important that the gambling windfall not be known about yet or be backdated or what have you) it should be mentioned at least in passing, lest both Skyler and Walter end up looking ridiculously foolish.
Maybe it’s not supposed to make sense, and that’s the plot point, that they’re all in over their heads, focusing on stuff that doesn’t matter, not seeing the big picture. This is their first venture into money-laundering – it’d be unrealistic if they were good at it.
I don’t want to see Walt, Skyler, and Saul sit down and go over the details of the car wash purchase, or discuss how they’re supposed to spend their money. If you think the show is slow now, that’d be even slower. Let’s assume they’ve either thought things through and covered their butts, or that they haven’t thought things through, and it’ll bite them in the ass later.
Why are you assuming that Skylar is only worried about the IRS? It seems to me that she’s more concerned about someone who knows Walter seeing him buy the champagne and then asking questions.
I think the champagne scene made perfect sense.
Walt was emasculated before the whole cancer/meth thing. Then he got his cojones back (and then some) by doing things that Skylar didn’t know about and wasn’t involved in. Their separation furthered this.
Now they’re back dealing with each other again, and Skylar is trying to re-establish the old patterns. She was looking for something to go off on him about. The champagne just provided the opportunity.
For about the fifth time: I do not question that Skylar said it, my objection is to the idea that Walt didn’t point out how ridiculous it was in light of the car was purchase!!!
A) EIther they have a boatload of money right now <insert explanation here> that is allowing them to offer nearly a million dollars for a car wash, and by definition ALSO MUST be allowing them to buy a $300 bottle of champagne, maintain two households, and pay the huge medical bills of two family members! (Not to MENTION the fact that as far as “being seen spending” goes, there’s WAAAAAAAAAAAY more risk involved in maintaining two households and paying all those medical bills than there is in some fucking liquor store guy who sold a single bottle of champagne!)
OR
B) They are broke and desperately waiting for the unemployment.
And if they are trying to sell the world-IRS-Police-ANYONE on B, then how the fuck do they plan to pull off A, and doesn’t lying to one group of people by saying you are broke while telling a different lie to a different group of people explaining why you are now flush kind of make the whole fucking thing look pretty fishy???
If Skylar isn’t thinking straight about this, then Walt should be, and having neither one point this out is incredibly bad writing for the usually superbly logical and believable BB team.
This is a great insight. From the beginning of the series Walt has essentially been emasculated by Skyler, the cancer, and his history with Gretchen and Elliott. Then he found some balls when he took on his Heisenberg personna. He spurned Elliott’s job offer. The cancer is currently under control. But now we are reminded about Skyler’s control on him. He did not contest Skyler too much about the champagne because he’s still the old weak Walt when he’s with her. That old habit is still there. He won’t be truly free of the old Walt until he has, ahem, taken care of Skyler.
Walt would never do such a thing. He’s already a pretty unlikable hero character as it is - he’d lose absolutely all audience support if he ever killed her.
However, I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if she eventually gets offed (probably by one of Gus’ men, and more toward the end of the series).
Nor would he WANT to! No matter how far down the road Walt goes, he’ll never go THERE, even if he no longer loves her! She’s his children’s mother! He’ll NEVER be that evil (and very rarely are super-nasty criminals that evil…family is family.)
I can see this show ending with only Walt alive. The show started because he was going to be the one dead and wanted more for everyone in his life.
I disagree. Dopers arguing incessantly about insignificant minutia is pretty much the raison d’etre of the boards.
That some people can’t seem to grasp that maybe, just maybe, the scene wasn’t stupid isn’t surprising at all. Dopers live to show off their intelligence by complaining about how stupid something is in a movie/tv show/whatever. The fact that the vast majority of times it turns out that it wasn’t the show being stupid is one of the reasons I enjoy the dope so much.
I don’t see how it takes great intellect to spot a plot hole a mile wide. It makes no sense on the day they buy an $800,000 business to fret over a $300 purchase because they can’t look like they have money. Maybe the speculation as to why Skyler said it was correct, but it’s inconsistent for Walt to say anything but “wtf, are you an idiot?”
Really? I want to watch whatever special TV and movies you have access to, because the vast majority of what I know about is filled with illogic, inconsistencies, plot holes and general stupidity that we mostly overlook in order to just enjoy being entertained.
One of the many reasons this show is so superior to most others is because the writing is very tight, logical, intelligent, consistent and above all, believable in spite of the wild premise. Which is why this $300 champagne issue sticks out like the proverbial thumb. If it were just about any other TV show it would barely rate a mention in the sea of dumb shit.
If you doubt it, please pull up a chair and enjoy some Criminal Minds or L&O SVU - two shows that entertain me and can barely put ten coherent minutes together.
And speak for yourself.
Why is it that we can accept Skyler acting illogically under pressure, but not Walt, who is arguably under even greater pressure?
His biggest concern right now is protecting himself, Jessie, and maybe even his family from Gus. He wasn’t, at that moment, thinking clearly about all of the financial logistics. Why is that so hard to swallow?
Or maybe, as other’s have said, he still sometimes reverts to the old meek pushover Walt when Skyler raises her voice.
I don’t see why any of that is so hard to accept. I think no one calling the police about Jesse’s party/meth den is harder to explain than the champagne thing.
The parents still live right next door, don’t they?
I don’t think so, but I might be confused about the house. Didn’t the house belong to an aunt, and Jesse’s parents let him live there in the first season? Did the parents ever live in that house?