The biggest problem isn’t the money laundering, it’s where the dirty money is coming from. If someone starts looking around for suburban drug dealers, you don’t want the neighbors saying “well, Walt’s son did get a new car last week…”
The money for the business can be explained as a loan. People normally borrow money to invest it, where they can expect a return so that they can pay off the loan. A $300 bottle of champagne and a Corvette is not something people would buy on loaned money. Those purchases would raise more suspicion than an investment which makes some financial sense.
Keep in mind that only Hank and Marie know Walt’s gambling story. The ban on extravagant purchases is probably so that everyone else won’t become suspicious.
Hank and Marie wouldn’t call the IRS if they found out Walt bought a new car. For now at least they believe the gambling story. The only thing Walt and Skyler need to cover up from them is their extra future income, which is why they bought the car wash instead of a laser tag arena.
Walt is both stupid AND an asshole. He’s two…two…two jerks in one!
Other people may have lost all sympathy for Walt when he let Jane die. I think my sympathy reserves got drained when he made Bogdan give him the dollar, AFTER he had felt the need to INSANELY wag his “I"m-a-murdering-badass” dick at his wife whom he JUST reconciled with.
The icing on the “Jesus, Walt, do you ahve fucking Asperger’s or something?” cake was his standing there cluelessly stating that everything is “all about ME”… Holy shit.
But, to give the WRITERS credit… it was all completely believable. He is that much of a tiny-penised, insecure, narcissistic and thoroughly wretched excuse of a man and we’ve had plenty of evidence.
NEXT:
Oh for FUCKS sake could someone PLEASE explain whatever logic we’re supposed to be following on the whole “we can’t afford anything EXCEPT a million dollar carwash” thing? It’s now clear that the writers mean for us to be understanding something I definitely do NOT understand.
And as always… poor jesse.
I think Gilligan and Co. are going to succeed in making me actually ROOT for Walt’s death by the end…
Weak. So weak it barely rates as an attempt.
As I’ve said before: when both of them were working full time in the early 21st century they couldn’t have borrowed $800,000 to buy a business. It’s supposed to be plausible that in 2008-9-10, with both of them unemployed and Walt in the process of dying to boot that some magical bank in fairyland said “Sure! Let’s give these good folks almost a million bucks! Why not?”
That wouldn’t happen unless Gus finds a new chemist. Without Walt, there’s no need for Jesse, he’d be out of a job. In fact, the reason Walt had Gale killed was to secure his (and to a lesser extent Jesse’s) life and job.
Can someone remind me of when Skyler found out it was meth that Walt was involved in? I remember she initially thought he was just dealing pot. Did he tell her? I can’t remember.
He told her when she accused Walt of collaborating with Jesse to sell pot. She figured it had to be drugs after finding out that Gretchen never gave them any money. but their bills were paid up.
It did, but I’m not sure where that would come in to play. That was for any transaction to/from vendors. Basically, the car wash (in this case) will have to issue a 1099 to every one of their vendors who they give more then $600 to in a given tax year. I don’t think it’ll affect the laundering side of things other then maybe a few of their vendors that did under $600 will now do more then $600 because of the fake increase in business (they’ll buy product, ring in the sales and toss the product in the garbage).
That was masterfully done… right as Gus asks Mike how Jesse did, we cut out to Jesse waiting outside and don’t hear a damn thing.
This show just gets better and better.
(although I’m not going to nit it to death I agree that Skyler’s paranoia over flashy spending is a little extreme but it’s believable enough given her character and the circumstances that I choose to let it slide)
Can anyone answer this? Was she flipping the coin to decide on a state to move to or something? Why drive all the way out there to flip a coin and not just say, for example, heads Colorado, tails New Mexico, and flip a coin at home? Or do people normally flip coins there for some reason?
It’s still plausible. A bank is likely to give you more money if you’re using it to start a business, and there is no reason that the neighbors have to know the exact amount of the loan. The loan also doesn’t have to be for $800,000 and it doesn’t have to come completely from the bank.
The car wash is also a lie that the White’s can’t avoid. They need a way to launder money that’s believable to Hank. There is no reason they have to buy a new car at the moment. That’s a purchase that they can wait on.
The point is that one prudent investment raises a lot less eyebrows than one flashy and extravagant purchase.
Terrified for her fucking life, and the lives of her children
an accountant by trade (or whatever her job was officially; it related to managing financial records)
the type of person who feels a need to maintain control over her husband
So in light of these facts, her reactions are believable. We’ve been over this before - it’s easy to sit there from your omniscient armchair-economist’s point-of-view and make calculated, rational judgments about these fictional events. But the characters do not have the benefit of omniscience, nor can they afford to be so clinically detached from matters that impact their lives in such enormous ways. And since they are characters, we’re not supposed to expect that they would always behave in the most logical manner anyway. If that is your expectation, then you fundamentally fail to grasp the concept of television/storytelling.
I can’t remember why Skyler decided to stay married to Walt. If I were her, I’d be rethinking that whole thing. At the very least, I’d have to do something about Walt Jr.’s perceptions of the situation.
I don’t mind that the season’s plot progression is going slowly but some of these character interactions are getting really old. How many more times can we see Walt and Skyler bickering and dancing around the same issues? Walter Jr. is a completely useless character who just eats breakfast. If Skyler and Jr. died at this point would anyone care?