Breaking Bad 4.04 "Bullet Points" 8/7

[davidm]

@Yaxche

Crackpot theory time…

If indeed the karaoke subtitles were in Thai, any chance Gale is seedier than we took him for?

A sex tourist or kiddy diddler or something. He seemed a little to eager to work in a meth lab, maybe he’s got warrants or needs the money for something dark like that.

Making him less likeable within the confines of the story might help Jesse, too. What if Mike was taking him out to show what a reprehensible person he shot…

I’ve been wondering about something like this. Gale certainly isn’t afraid to flaunt societies conventions and he calls himself a “libertarian”. The Thai subtitles make me think he may have been to Thailand, and Thailand is unfortunately known to be a destination for pedophiles.

Interesting thought about what Mike is doing. I hadn’t considered that.

Hell, maybe Gale was being blackmailed into cooking and Mike is going to show Jesse the evidence they were using to blackmail him.

[Bytegeist]

@davidm

Hell, maybe Gale was being blackmailed into cooking and Mike is going to show Jesse the evidence they were using to blackmail him.

Possibly — although Gale has always seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the chemistry, and about his role in the lab. A blackmailed person would tend to be grumpy and detached, doing only what’s necessary to satisfy the blackmailer.

[davidm]

It could be a combination of the two things. He’s really enthusiastic about the chemistry and Gus liked him as an employee because he had something he could hold over his head.

Or it could simply be that Gale has a record and can’t find any other kind of work.

If you think about it, it seems likely that there was something disreputable about him to begin with. How else would he have gotten hooked up with Gus?

[Stoid]

@Oslo_Ostragoth

It’s awesome that they would devote so much resources to this.

Many resources. Plural nouns = many/fewer. Singular nouns = much/ less
i.e: “…devote so much time and so many resources” “They should have devoted less time and fewer resources.”

@Bob Ducca

I actually really like this theory. At some point, Gale began “breaking bad” himself. What led him to end up working for Gus? I don’t need his entire story, but something dark like that coming out wouldn’t surprise me at all.

@davidm

I’ve been wondering about something like this. Gale certainly isn’t afraid to flaunt societies conventions and he calls himself a “libertarian”. The Thai subtitles make me think he may have been to Thailand, and Thailand is unfortunately known to be a destination for pedophiles.

Interesting thought about what Mike is doing. I hadn’t considered that.

Hell, maybe Gale was being blackmailed into cooking and Mike is going to show Jesse the evidence they were using to blackmail him.

@davidm

It could be a combination of the two things. He’s really enthusiastic about the chemistry and Gus liked him as an employee because he had something he could hold over his head.

Or it could simply be that Gale has a record and can’t find any other kind of work.

If you think about it, it seems likely that there was something disreputable about him to begin with. How else would he have gotten hooked up with Gus?

You guys are brilliant! Excellent guesses, true or no.

Because that picture of Gale is undoubtedly a mug shot, so he got busted for something. And his character has that childlike air…

[davidm]

@Stoid

…Because that picture of Gale is undoubtedly a mug shot, so he got busted for something. And his character has that childlike air…

That does look like a mugshot doesn’t it? And he does seem childlike, perhaps emotionally immature. Great points.

[davidm]

Have they given a reason for Mike leaving the police department?

[Bytegeist]

@davidm

Have they given a reason for Mike leaving the police department?

Certainly not that I recall, and this page (from a fan-driven Wiki) says so too.

As former police officer, [ Mike ] has an extensive knowledge of forensic evidence, surveillance equipment, and police procedure. … Little is known about Mike’s past except that he was a beat cop back in the 60’s/70’s.

[davidm]

@Bytegeist

Certainly not that I recall, and this page (from a fan-driven Wiki) says so too.

As former police officer, [ Mike ] has an extensive knowledge of forensic evidence, surveillance equipment, and police procedure. … Little is known about Mike’s past except that he was a beat cop back in the 60’s/70’s.

Maybe he’s just retired. Lots of retired cops go into security, but you have to wonder how he go into this kind of security work.

[GrandWino]

Knowing how much Vince Gilligan loves putting little clues here and there (747 Down Over ABQ), can we pick up anything from the books that are showing in Gale’s crime scene photos? Some titles are able to be read and others not. Or anything else shown that might be a hint at something to be revealed later in the season?

[Yaxche]

@davidm

Or it could simply be that Gale has a record and can’t find any other kind of work.

I may be completely misremembering here, but when Walt was going over his work/education history (can you say resume in this context? :dubious:) the very first time around, it seemed like there was a long gap.

I think, at the time, I thought “Oh, that’s why he’s cooking, he can’t find work”, but it may be he can’t find work because he has something preventing it…

[GrandWino]

I’ll start (and hopefully others might join this hunt)… The book under Gale’s right hand, which is shown in several of the photos (including the shot of the table CDs/phone on the table), is “The Rising Tide” by Jeff Shaara. Could be some interesting inferences from this book’s subject matter:

Here is the description from Amazon:

A modern master of the historical novel, Jeff Shaara has painted brilliant depictions of the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, and World War I. Now he embarks upon his most ambitious epic, a trilogy about the military conflict that defined the twentieth century. The Rising Tide begins a staggering work of fiction bound to be a new generation’s most poignant chronicle of World War II. With you-are-there immediacy, painstaking historical detail, and all-inclusive points of view, Shaara portrays the momentous and increasingly dramatic events that pulled America into the vortex of this monumental conflict.

As Hitler conquers Poland, Norway, France, and most of Western Europe, England struggles to hold the line. When Germany’s ally Japan launches a stunning attack on Pearl Harbor, America is drawn into the war, fighting to hold back the Japanese conquest of the Pacific, while standing side-by-side with their British ally, the last hope for turning the tide of the war.

Through unforgettable battle scenes in the unforgiving deserts of North Africa and the rugged countryside of Sicily, Shaara tells this story through the voices of this conflict’s most heroic figures, some familiar, some unknown. As British and American forces strike into the “soft underbelly” of Hitler’s Fortress Europa, the new weapons of war come clearly into focus.

In North Africa, tank battles unfold in a tapestry of dust and fire unlike any the world has ever seen. In Sicily, the Allies attack their enemy with a barely tested weapon: the paratrooper. As battles rage along the coasts of the Mediterranean, the momentum of the war begins to shift, setting the stage for the massive invasion of France, at a seaside resort called Normandy.

More than an unprecedented and intimate portrait of those who waged this astonishing global war, The Rising Tide is a vivid gallery of characters both immortal and unknown: the as-yet obscure administrator Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose tireless efficiency helped win the war; his subordinates, clashing in both style and personality, from George Patton and Mark Clark to Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery. In the desolate hills and deserts, the Allies confront Erwin Rommel, the battlefield genius known as “the Desert Fox,” a wounded beast who hands the Americans their first humiliating defeat in the European theater of the war. From tank driver to paratrooper to the men who gave the commands, Shaara’s stirring portrayals bring the heroic and the tragic to life in brilliant detail.

[davidm]

The homicide report does mention that Gale has traveled extensively. That would fit in with our speculations.

I can’t make out too many titles in the crime scene photo. I see “Black Like Me” and “State Justice”. I haven’t been able to make out any of the others.

[davidm]

I didn’t see Bob Ducca’s post when I posted about the books. Those three titles sound like the type of nerdy intellectual stuff Gale might read, so there may be no other meaning to them.

[GrandWino]

Another book there is “The Tenth Case” by Joseph Teller. Looks like prostitution is a big part of the plot.

Criminal defense attorney Harrison J. Walker, better known as Jaywalker, has just been suspended for using “creative” tactics and receiving “gratitude” in the courtroom stairwell from a client charged with prostitution. Convincing the judge that his other clients are counting on him, Jaywalker is allowed to complete ten cases. But it’s the last case that truly tests his abilities—and his acquittal record.

Samara Moss—young, petite and sexy as hell—stabbed her husband in the heart. Or so everyone believes. Having married the elderly billionaire when she was an eighteen-year-old former prostitute, Samara appears to be the cliched gold digger. But Jaywalker knows all too well that appearances can be deceiving. Who else could have killed the billionaire? Has Samara been framed? Or is Jaywalker just driven by his need to win his clients’ cases—and this particular client’s undying gratitude?

I’m sure this is all random and we could find a connection to anything we want to in any possible book, but we have two whole days before the next episode and I’m bored at work… So why not?

[davidm]

There’s a preview for tonight’s episode up at amctv.com

AMC | Watch TV Shows & Movies Online | Stream Current Episodes

So Hank doesn’t want to be involved anymore? That doesn’t ring true to me. Could it be that he realizes that the investigation may be getting close to home?

[TBG]

@Sampiro

I think it will end with him looking at blue snow falling in a snowglobe that’s a promotion from Pollos Hermanos. You’ll find out in addition to having CP he’s autistic, and his dad Walt Sr. is getting off duty as a fast food clerk whose teenaged boss (Jesse) is going off on him.
OR

It will end with Walt being shot. The screen goes black. Then a bedside light comes on and Bryan Cranston says “Honey… wake up! I just had the wildest dream!” A lamp is turned on at the other side of the bed as Jane Kaczmarek says “Go back to sleep Hal, I’m not in the mood!”

OR

It’s all really just a novel Skylar is working on. The real Walter died of lung cancer a year ago, and it was really Walt Jr. who got roped into making meth with Jesse, who’s actually a girl in real life. And her son doesn’t have crutches, but her sister does, and she’s not married to a DEA agent, but actually a guy who runs a chicken restaurant, but he’s a major dick so she made him the villain in her story.

[Bytegeist]

[QUOTE=TBG]
OR

It’s all really just a novel Skylar is working on. The real Walter died of lung cancer a year ago, and it was really Walt Jr. who got roped into making meth with Jesse, who’s actually …

[/QUOTE]

You know, a Mulholland Drive kind of ending wouldn’t be entirely inappropriate for this show.

The dream is creepy and odd — but the reality is even worse.

[TBG]

I was referencing Roseanne, I’ve never seen Mullholland Drive so any similarities are coincidental.

[voltaire]

SenorBeef: Make the new thread already so I can vent on how much of a stupid asshole Walt is! :mad:

[voltaire]

It’s Dewey!