Open spoilers for discussion of the show. Please spoilerbox stuff in the previews.
We left off with Mike dragging Jesse to somewhere mysterious and Walt refusing to work without him. Hank may be showing a little bit of suspicious towards Walt.
Walter White, you are a vain, arrogant fool. In vino veritas, indeed.
You just had to set that cop-brain of Hank’s going again, didn’t you?
It rankled you that damned bad, to let Gale take the fall for you? To get the credit, at least in the eyes of the law, for your work?
The thread has been tugged; presently it will come loose, and the whole thing will start to unravel.
That was odd wasn’t it. I can only assume it was there for no reason other then as a device to move the plot forward. And they really did push the purple in the scene as well, didn’t they.
Also, who the hell set up the overhead camera in the bedroom scene? “Ya know what guys, I think I can just hold it…are you done yet, my shoulders are getting tired”
ETA “push the purple”…that sounds funny now that I re-read it.
Yeah, what a dumbass!
It was a nice touch for Walt to become the weak link just as Jesse seems to be regaining his composure and sense of purpose.
Walt is really the one that needs recognition or else he doesn’t do well. He always wants to feel needed and important, and the last straw was when he saw Jesse working in the lab without him after his field-trip with Mike. He feels like the lowest man on the totem pole again, and he predictably does stupid shit when he feels that way.
I’m kinda pissed I accidentally saw some of next week’s preview. I usually try to avoid those, and this one seemed particularly egregious spoiler-wise.
Almost certainly they were trying to hide Skyler’s extra weight. Anna Gunn has put on a not inconsiderable amount of weight since the show first began. She’s been wearing a lot of loose, flowing clothing lately, too.
Incidentally, I loved the audio call-back to this scene of Jesse wasting time in the lab.
Hmm? Walt’s ego has been a driving force in his bad decisions since the start of the show. Refusing Elliot and Gretchen’s offer to pay his medical bills could’ve got him out of the meth business entirely being the biggest example. Walt hates that he can’t be recognized for the work he’s doing - he hates that Skyler is making him act ashamed of what he’s done. It’s entirely in character for him, if he’s drunk, to get too annoyed at someone else getting his credit to keep his mouth shut. This isn’t out of place at all - Walt’s need for recognition has been a driving factor of his character from the start.
The Jesse subplot was… a little convenient. Everything had to go exactly to plan for Jesse to be the hero there. What if he killed one of those guys? What if he just shit himself and stayed put - how does that scenario end? What if he ran, and hid, and they couldn’t find him again? Pretty convenient. But I guess as a way of snatching Jesse from the edge of where he was going, it sort of makes sense - make him feel empowered, useful.
They should change the name of the show to “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Walter White” now.
I wanted Walt to just shut up at the end, but I also wanted him to get what he deserves. I don’t have any sympathy for him for what’s coming to him anymore. The look on Skylar’s face as Walt opened his mouth was great. After so many “slow” episodes, I think this picked up the pace a little, plotwise.
Gus was counting on Jesse to do the right thing, so to speak. He’s seen from their previous entanglements that Jesse is willing to put himself at risk – trying to kill the drug-dealers, then trying to kill them again, then killing Gale – if it means that he’s protecting somebody important to him. So Gus was counting on him not running, which I think was a reasonable bet.
What bothered me most about Mike and Jesse was how quickly Jesse went from being totally nihilistic and dreary to wanting to play along. It’s true to his character that play the role of assistant and try to help, but he went from being being depressed with possible suicidal ideation to pretending to be a bodyguard in the space of what, ten or twelve hours, at the most?
And additionally: If I were in Jesse’s position, and I saw somebody approaching me with a shotgun while Mike was away, I’d think I had been set-up. I wouldn’t think that I was being robbed – I’d think that Mike had finished doing his chores and had taken me to a reclusive spot to be killed. Maybe it’s a testament to Jesse’s naiveté that he didn’t consider that.
What’s Gus playing in making Jesse a hero?
I’m not so sure about this. Surely if Mike’s plan was to waste Jesse why didn’t he do that a lot sooner? He had plenty of chances. Why wait until the last pickup? It’s not unreasonable for Jesse to assume that the thug was there to take the loot. At first I thought Gus was taking a big chance on Jesse driving off with the car. However, when you think about it, Jesse’s best option was to return to Mike. In his mind he saved all that money for Gus and he still had a well-paying job, so why run? As to Gus’ motives, it must be to shake Jesse out of his funk and feeling better about himself. For the moment he still needs Jesse for the meth operation. I must admit this was a plot twist I did not expect. Nor did I expect Walt in his drunken state actually getting Hank back into the case when he already said he’s off the case. I particularly like this episode for these unexpected directions in the plot.
Jesse was never suicidal. Suicidal people (on TV) don’t keep their keys between their fingers. What was odd, however, was that Mike never raised an eyebrow at that.
Mike only raises an eyebrow… on the inside. He’s a pro. He knew Jesse was scared, if anything, he was laughing at Jesse… on the inside.
Besides, he had a shovel.
Breaking bad will have a final, 16 episode 5th season.
I hate to think of it ending, but this way they can go out on top of their game.
Wow. Bitter-sweet for sure, but a show like this could only go on so long before the plot became insufferable. I think I knew that from the first season.
This 4th season has been a slow-burn, which I’ve been okay with, as there’s certainly been some very tense moments for sure. But now that all the pieces are in place, it’s time to let the end-game unfold.
I’m ready for all hell to break loose.
Too late, imo.
Too early to say too late, IMO.
At about this time in season 3 I was thinking the season was going pretty slow (the first real action, with Hank finding the RV, was episode 6), then it ripped my face off.
I don’t mind the slowness anyway. This is by far the best show on TV and even the slow episodes are great.
This show has more than enough equity in blowing my face off as well, in giving it the benefit of the doubt when it comes to taking a slow burn.
In fact, I’m willing to bet it’s almost intentional. After the incredible, kinetic season 3, what better way to come out of the gate with a slow boil, gradually building pressure until – BOOM! Why… you could almost say it’s basic chemistry.
I’ve been wrong before, giving shows the benefit of the doubt (cough LOST cough), but I think Vince and the gang have proven they know how to plot a season. It seems his style to set a different, yet calculated approach for every season.
I do think they need to bring the series to an unambiguous end, come Ep 16 Season 5.