A second vehicle would identify the trucks carrying meth, and it would raise questions about why a delivery truck would need extra protection.
Not related to this particular episode, but does it seem that they are splicing in more commercials than in past seasons?
I thought the cancer surgery scar on Walt’s right side was good continuity.
What kind of car was that Walt Jr. got and any idea how much it would sell for? And is the IRS notified when a purchase of more than a certain amount is made for cash?
I think, but I’m not positive, that any cash transaction for more than $10,000 requires some kind of government paperwork, but that may just be bank deposits and withdrawals, I’m not sure.
looked like a challenger. and they run about 25-30k fully loaded. i’d love to get one, they are suh-weet!
I don’t see how. You have some protection in a random car following behind. Maybe they follow every truck so they can’t use that to figure it out. Or maybe they follow from well out of sight, say, a mile behind. So it’s not that they’ll stop it from happening, but at least they can catch it in progress and stop the bad guys from making off with the goods.
Also, Walt is making, what 100 pounds a week, why do they make such a production out of moving 3 pounds? ISTM it would have been easier for someone just to put that in their coat pocket, get in their car and drive it to it’s destination.
Things are getting complicated and all that complexity comes from various people questioning Walt’s manhood – he just reacts very badly to it and, I must admit, that makes this show very authentic and true. I think his whole attitude is a wet dream of any self-respecting middle-aged man-husband-father who finds himself in some similar situation where the only thing preventing the full rage on is the thought of his family. Walt’s and Skyler’s verbal conflict is at some level so irreconcilable, in fact, so much that you finally get full meaning of the modern divorce cause “irreconcilable differences”. I swear at some point their verbal exchanges (specifically, their underlying fundamental misunderstanding) remind of my own with my wife - albeit, for a much less significant and certainly no dangerous reasons so it’s easier for us to laugh it off. Also, I notice quite a resemblance in the atmosphere and manhood issues of a character in Jonathan Franzen’s novel “Freedom” (incidentally, also named Walter).
My take on that car buying, I think it is a compensating move for Jesse rebelling against him. Walt is essentially offended by Jesse’s rebellion and he did it to feel better.
I wondered about that too. My guess is that there was more than 3 pounds in the truck, and the hijackers just took the first marked bucket they found. It wasn’t about stealing the meth, it was about sending Gus a message.
The writing on the bucket lid was superfluous – the real message was the hijacking. The writing was just for fun, the cartel being all silly. I liked it.
He did it so he could be a hero to somebody. He’s not Skyler’s hero. He’s not Jesse’s. He’s still got Walt Jr. for a minute, even if they both know a buy off is a buy off. I lvoed that line, btw, “If you’re going to buy me off, then buy me off.”
does that mean that walt is making $2 million/week? wow that’s a lot to launder thru a carwash
I don’t know where that number comes from (did it get discussed at some point), but they don’t need to launder all of it at once. They really only need to launder enough to live a very comfortable legit lifestyle from, say somewhere in the million dollar per year range. Plus they can spend probably a grand per week in cash on things like movies, bars, restaurants without a huge problem and the rest they can sock a way in cash and when Walt retires then they still have a nice backlog of money to run through the car wash and into savings.
Also, as they ‘grow’ the car wash and realize how good they are at running a business, they may chose to buy some other businesses which will allow them to launder more money.
But that’s all speculation, I doubt we’ll ever really hear the details on it. They’ve done a good job of staying away from the nitpicky stuff that people spend too much time looking at with a magnifying glass that really doesn’t matter. IOW who cares HOW they launder their money, it’s really not the point of the show, just trust that they’re making it happen and focus Hank and the fried chicken napkin…for example.
There was a good explanation of why so many people dislike Skyler in Matt Zoller Seitz’s review this week:
I like how when Breaking Bad started the audience was tricked into believing that Walt was a misunderstood genius, who was unfairly screwed out of his fame and fortune. Now it’s perfectly clear that Walt isn’t rich or famous because he has serious problems of his own making.
It’ll be interesting to see whether Walter overcomes his emotional weaknesses or if he’ll become a bigger crime lord through sheer luck. I’m guessing that he’s too far gone by this point and that he’ll get a lucky break somehow.
The cartels probably aren’t leaving the chicken trucks all shot up on the side of the road because, as folks have pointed out, that would draw law enforcement.
I assume either Gus (Mike) or the cartels have to clean up each instance of violence to ward off scrutiny.
It does seem ridiculous to just put guards inside the truck and expect that to work.
I really expected new Victor (sorry not sure what his name is, Tyrone?, whatever) to kill those ladies instead of sending them home. Someone upthread said maybe he killed them and just didn’t tell Walt, but that would make no sense. Sending them home is sending a message to Walt, not just getting the women out of there for seeing something they shouldn’t (they already knew something shady was going on as seen by their reluctance to follow Walt until the cash came out). Killing them would’ve sent a stronger message to Walt than sending them home, so if they were going to be killed, no reason to hide it from Walt.
I really don’t understand some fans quibbling over the details of the money-laundering scheme. No money laundering plan is even close to foolproof, and in fact they all fall apart under scrutiny. Sure maybe Walt and Skyler could explain away things like the $300 champagne or Walt Jr.'s new car. But no matter how understandable they can make these things seem, if it prompts one busybody in authority to start poking around the jig is basically up. Like camoflage, it only works to avoid scrutiny, not if someone is actively looking for you.
Incidentally, this works against Gus as well. Now that Hank is clued into Los Pollos Hermanos–and if he suspects it’s more than just a coincidence–his first move will likely be to check the chain’s financial records, shipping records, etc. He is certain to find things that don’t add up–fueling his suspicion–and a wealth of information that offers him a whole new batch of leads. it would be ironic if Gus is tripped up by the same trivial detail that had Skyler nervous about $300 bottles of champagne.
And not only that, just to not repeat the box cutter thing, it could be done off screen. In stead of 'they’re be put on a bus and sent to Honduras" it could have been “They’ve seen things they can’t know about, you’ve left Gus no choice but to clean up your mess” or “They’ve seen things they can’t know about, Gus is sending them out to be taken care of/killed/dealt with/etc”
Mike could then have a stern talk with Walt that any shit he has with Gus is between him[walt], Gus, Mike and Jesse but he CANNOT drag other people into it. That simply can’t happen.
Is Anna Gunn pregnant IRL? She’s really looking porky.
Wow, I thought I was in the True Blood thread and was about to show you this picture of Anna Paquin and ask you WTF your definition of ‘porky’ is…nevermind.
(Link mildly NSFW)
She was even sporting a double chin last night.
I’m still not convinced that makes sense. Either the Whites have a plausible story which explains why they got a $800,000+ windfall or they don’t. If they do, then it makes sense that they bought a carwash, and also makes sense that they would spend some other money. If they don’t, they don’t… in which case a new car for Junior is the least of their worries. There might be a timing issue, ie, they don’t want to “attract attention” until some of the back end laundering details are sorted out, but that doesn’t seem to be what their discussion implies, nor does this “attracting attention” business really hold water. Do they think there are IRS agents who just wander around neighborhoods of responsible taxpayers looking for new cars in driveways to investigate?
That’s an important thing to remember, they are under absolutely no (legal) heat whatsoever right now. Ignoring the Hank thing for one second, no one has any reason to even bat an eye at them.
It reminds me of being in high school sneaking a cigarette with a friend. He suddenly thinks he hears his mom rolling in the driveway, so you put the smokes out, pop in some gum, wash your hands and run down to the basement to play video games. Five minutes later you realize it wasn’t her at all and you think “Phew, that was a really close call” Well, no, it really wasn’t. She’s at work, 10 miles away, won’t be home for two hours and us smoking in your backyard isn’t something she’s even remotely thinking about. It wasn’t a close call, we just got startled by a noise because we’re skittish and paranoid.
I think that’s all it is with Skyler, she’s just skittish and paranoid. Always worried that every car going by is going to shoot up the house and every knock on the door is the DEA even though the White’s, so far as the DEA is concerned, are only connected to this case because they are family with the person who used to head it up…that’s it.
I think they only way she could ever really calm down is for ALL the money to go to some third party who would launder it for them and then give them an ‘allowance’ of clean money each week. That’s sort of what the car wash will do, but I think she almost needs to be removed by one more step. She needs someone else to own it that would hire her on as a highly paid consultant. That way she really has no connection. At this point she’s gone from really having nothing to do with this to having a lot to do with it. Her name is on the paper work, she’s officially a money launderer. She will go to jail when the shit hits the fan.