Just checked, Gus knocked.
“Where’s the bullet point for ‘I fucked my boss?’”
I don’t know, as much as I’ve loved the show up until now, the plot this season is flowing like mud.
What was the point of Walt’s meeting with Sal? Pure exposition. To tell us, the audience, where the suspense is. That’s lazy writing. Golden rule - show, not tell. So 55 minutes of blah, blah, blah then 5 minutes of kidnapping Jesse? Sorry, I’m underwhelmed.
Just my two cents.
Walt doesn’t have many people he can open up to, or turn to for help. In fact, Saul might be it now.
There was one interesting seed planted in that scene: at some point Walt might take his family and “disappear”, or at least try to.
Well, there was Mike’s little gun battle at the beginning.
And then a lot of that “blah, blah, blah” was sparring dialogue (Walt vs. Hank, Walt vs. Skyler), which I’d think would be of some interest, if you’re into the characters by now.
Well I liked the episode anyway. Best of Season 4 so far.
Anyone else curious about what was going on in Hank’s head when he and Walt were discussing Gail’s notebook?
When he was going down a list of W. W. names and ended with “Walter White”, the look on his face didn’t strike me as joking. It was sort of a look of realization and searching, but was just ambiguous enough to keep us guessing about what he was thinking.
I had similar thoughts about his expression when the two of them were in the hall and Walt was going on about how Hank could also talk to him about his problems anytime he needed and then threw out the suggestion about helping with Hank’s work. It was a similar look but with an added hint of puzzlement like he was thinking “why did he throw that in there?”
Reading the cues of that scene and the whole “gambling” story I think Hank is, at least, open to the possibility that Walter has something to do with this. The only thing preventing Hank from full realization is his obvious disrespect for Walter’s manhood (of course, the way hank “understands” it).
Overall, great episode. Very tightly executed and slow intensity getting into higher gear.
The “deeply ashamed” tact is the wrong way to go for the gambling thing. Why in the world would he be deeply ashamed if he came up with a system that changed the odds in his favor? Then he won the money through calculated cleverness. Why work in the addiction angle?
They could simply say he came up with a new novel way of fooling the house because they hadn’t considered and weren’t looking for his method of counting. He managed to make a million dollars quickly, but then they caught onto him, shared his picture with all of the other casinos in the world, and now it’s not practical for him to continue. So he’s looking into buying a business venture instead.
It just makes little sense to say “Walt is a math genius who came up with a novel system to beat the house at their own game, but he’s deeply ashamed of it despite being wildly successful” - I hope they address that angle because they were hinting at it when Jr. was talking about how awesome his dad was, and Walt had to (strangely) interrupt and say no, no, I’m terribly terribly ashamed… obviously it didn’t ring true, and it shouldn’t. The cover doesn’t make sense.
Furthermore, they could explain the marital stress he and Skyler were going through by saying "he didn’t think he had much time - either because of the cancer, or because they’d catch onto him - so he’d spend days away a time not telling me where he was, etc. It explains both how Walt has been successful, yet how his marriage fell apart.
I thought that too. I don’t think he pieced it together obviously, but the gambling cover story has basically shown him “There’s a whole other dark side to this egg head”, one of those things we’ve probably all had when we realize we don’t know somebody as well as we thought we did.
“You’re a stud, dad!” You can totally see why a teenager (especially one who wants a car) wouldn’t see the dark side in this. Skyler needed to work on that aspect a bit more. Of course the most suspicious part of the story to me (and possibly to Hank) would be the ‘Do any gambling addicts go into recovery when they’re WAY ahead?’ That would be like a meth user going into recovery when meth is still giving them a monster thrill and hasn’t yet damaged their health, appearance, or become just a powerful addiction they have to feed.
I’ve no idea what detectives in Albuquerque make, but Hank and Marie have a really nice house. The carved beams are beautiful, and Hank mentioned in one episode it’s 4 bedrooms. I wonder if we’ll later find out that Hank has been skimming a tad (nothing major: not on Gus’s payroll or anything, but perhaps keeping a bit of impounded cash or what not.)
[QUOTE=ekweizn]
A lot has been said about Marie’s association with purple and the symbolism that might carry.
[/QUOTE]
“I think it pisses God off when somebody walks by the color purple in a field without stealing it.”
Well that’s why it doesn’t make much sense - the people who are smart enough to be able to dispassionately devise a system to make positive expectation bets aren’t the addicts - the addicts are the delusional people who are convinced they have some (nonsensical) system to win at roulette. I guess you could play it as “Walt started off being cold and methodical, but became addicted to the success, and couldn’t stop himself”, but even that doesn’t make much sense. If he was making money doing it, then his addiction would be no more shameful than that of a workaholic.
No, “the casinos caught onto me, now they know what to look for” is a much more logical way to do it.
Edit: This hits somewhat close to home, since I play poker for a living. I don’t especially like to play it, and I’m certainly not addicted to it, but I’m good enough at it to consistently make money, but many people who learn this about me automatically assume I’m a gambling addict even though it makes little sense.
Hank would have caught on by now if he wasn’t blocking it because of his personal connections to Walt.
Think about it. The gear being stolen from Walt’s lab at the school and Walt’s connections to Jesse would be enough to have him investigated. Then there was the incident with Walt just happening to show up during the sting operation. And Walt does happen to be a brilliant chemist.
Now there’s this ridiculous story about him winning huge amounts of money gambling. Does someone have to hit Hank with a 2 by 4 to get it into his head? He must be wondering.
I like this. I’ve forgotten what Hank knows about Walt’s relationship with Jesse. Marie mentioned it last season when Hank was still in the hospital. That’s something else for Hank to think about. All it’ll take is for Walt to do something “manly” in Hank’s presence and the light bulb might go off.
I was surprised that Jesse wasn’t upset about the theft. Is Jesse using now or is he just hosting? He’s making it to work every day. Would he be doing that if he was using?
The rehearsal scene went on too long and wasn’t really necessary, plot-wise, but it was fun – kinda meta. “I wouldn’t say that.” “Now you look down at the floor.” Like maybe the actors make those kinds of comments when they’re rehearsing. 
Hard to believe that some fans thought Mike killed Gus. Liked seeing that big salad bowl again. They use that a lot.
Kudos to Tarwater for the “bullet points”.
ETA: Sampiro, re the Schrader’s nice house – isn’t Marie an anesthetist or something? She does something medical, anyway. She might make a good salary, added to Hank’s pay, and no kids to support, the house isn’t out of reach, I don’t think.
I don’t think that Mike plans to kill Jesse (and I’m pretty sure the actor is going to be on the show for a while) but to scare him straight somehow, possibly by threatening others. If he were going to kill him I think he’d make it look like a heroin overdose or something else that Walt would either believe or at least choose to believe that would get Jesse out of the picture with plausible deniability by Gus and Mike. I’ve wondered (and again I’ve never been right so far) if perhaps Jesse’s kid brother or his former girlfriend will be there.
[QUOTE=Auntie Pam]
ETA: Sampiro, re the Schrader’s nice house – isn’t Marie an anesthetist or something? She does something medical, anyway. She might make a good salary, added to Hank’s pay, and no kids to support, the house isn’t out of reach, I don’t think.
[/QUOTE]
I’d forgotten she worked. They haven’t mentioned it in a while. (I remember that she thinks her job basically makes her on par with an oncologist/diagnostician/probably Ear-Nose-Throat specialist and accountant all rolled into one, which is believable: we all know people [especially college professors] who believe that expertise in one field automatically makes them experts on everything else.)
Marie is an X-ray tech. I’m pretty sure they make a lot less than an anesthetist.
If he’s taking him to the chicken farm, he’s going to find out that there are worse things than death.
Hank is a fed (DEA) not a local detective, so he certainly makes a livable wage with the addition of his wife’s income.
Yes! AMC has posted Gale’s karaoke video!
I think the thing that Walter is (pretending to be) ashamed of has more to do with how he treated his wife and his family during this (fictitious) gambling episode. Remember, the story is supposed to cover the fugue state, and everything that let to the disaffection and separation that Walt Jr. and Marie and Hank know about without ever really getting an explanation for. It makes sense for Walt to be ashamed of how he acted even if he’s at some level proud of coming up with his system (which of course parallels how he really feels about his life).
Anyone who thinks this season is slow or didn’t thoroughly enjoy this episode… well, I don’t get it. This episode was fantastic. Skyler and Walt’s conversation planning the ruse was one of the high points of the series.
Close.
ETA: Oh. I see what you did. Please disregard the previous. 
I thought it went in exactly the opposite direction. Started with some high intensity, followed by a slow unnecessarily drawn out scene, then some interesting scenes with Hank, and peteringd out at the end. After the shootout at the Los Pollos Hermanos truck, things went back to the slow pace of the previous episodes. The first act with with Walt and Skyler (who’s getting more unlikeable by the episode) lasted about 10 minutes, about a quarter of the show! There were a few good lines in that scene and it was great to see Walt snapping back at Skyler at her attempts to manipulate him, but it was way too long. It could’ve been trimmed considerably without hurting its objective, which was to come up with a consistent, believable story to shovel to Hank.
Very true. That would have been a better story. Instead, I think that the overly contrived cover story will end up backfiring on Hank and Skyler. It was Skyler who said “the devil is in the details” and I bet it’s those details that will trip them up with Hank down the road.
I’ve been a defender of the slow pace of the show this season, but it’s gotta pick it up, and I’m sure that it will. What has made the show compelling for me in the past three seasons was the unpredictability of the plot. Unfortunately, it has gotten pretty predictable. Except for Victor’s demise, the story has unfolded in a predictable manner. The only source of suspense was Gale’s lab notebook, and it has taken three episodes to get to the scene in Hank’s bedroom where he and Walt played a kind of cat-and-mouse game about the notebook’s contents (very well done BTW). We see Jesse getting taken away by Mike, but we know that Jesse’s not in any real danger. My guess is that they’re just taking him some place to dry out and away from the police. Even though Walt poured out to Saul about Gus wanting to kill him, we really don’t sense that he’s in imminent danger. For one thing, it appears that the cartel will be Gus’ main concern in upcoming episodes.
My favorite parts of Bullet Points:
[ul]
[li]The immediate change in expressions on Walt’s and Skyler’s faces when the door to Hank’s house was opened. All of that was done behind Jr.'s back so he didn’t know what was going on between his parents. Wonderful directing there.[/li][li]The looks on Walt’s face when the Gale video was played. Surprise, dread.[/li][li]Hank starting to be like the old Hank again. We have not seen a smile on his face for too long. Dean Norris is dynamite playing Hank with his telling looks. You can see his mind churning when Skyler was spinning her sob story.[/li][li]Hank actually saying that Gale could be Heisenberg. That was an interesting turn of events for Walt. However, it’s not clear if Hank is just playing with Walt at this point. [/li][li]Saul introducing the “disappear” option to Walt. This is clearly a setup for a future plot device.[/li][li]Mike’s very convincing busted ear. Great job by the makeup team.[/li][/ul]
I don’t know enough about poetry, but can anyone confirm that the line was, in fact, a poem from Walt Whitman? Is it possible that Walter White was trying to misdirect Hank, and Hank might find out later?