A spoilery summary from TV Guide:
A frustrated Walt takes on a risky gamble; Skyler encounters problems with her latest business venture; Hank requires Walter Jr.'s services for an unusual reason.
They have the exact same model of coffee maker I just bought last week.
Oh Jesus Christ. Hank making that connection is huge.
Man, I sure hope Gus isn’t bugging Jesse’s house.
I wonder if they planted the Madrigal Electromotive reference in this cold opening of ep. 9 of the third season knowing that they were going to use it later.
Just go ahead and give Aaron Paul the Emmy now.
So…the beginning of the end? I’m thinking Jesse kills him next week and Hank is at square 1. 6 more episodes left this season and an extended last season coming up. It seems to me there’s to much time left for Hank to make the connection just yet. However, I think he will come back to the Chellenger conversation with Jr when he starts figuring Walt into the equation (as well as the missing lab equipment from S1).
Also, I think too much is just beginning to happen for him to be on the run for a full season and half.
So, the question is, what will happen with Gus dead? Will Walt handle distribution? Can Mike take care of it? They’re in the middle of a (cold) war, it’s certainly not going to take care of itself like a well oiled machine. Someone needs to be in charge and we (the viewers) really have no idea what happens to it after it gets put into the tubs and Victor/Tyrus rolls it away. With no Gus, it might just pile up at the top of the stairs.
Also, if Gus is dead, what will Mike do? I’m guessing his loyalty will switch to Walt and Jesse. He’s a protector and I think he’s going to protect whomever pays him. Hell, I think he’d move over to the Cartel if they gave him enough.
Lastly, he told Jesse his loyalty may be to the wrong person. Was he suggesting that he was loyal to Walt and shouldn’t be or that he was loyal to Gus and shouldn’t be. Kind of a big difference.
Skyler pointed out the exact problem with the money laundering that I pointed out one or two weeks ago. At least the writers realize it’s a problem.
The $50 bill issue is another problem. How does a car wash explain depositing so many fifties?
And how and why does Fring pay Walt in fifties? Do tweekers overwhelmingly pay in fifties? Do consumers of fried chicken overwhelmingly pay in fifties?
Random guess. He’s laundering the money first and that’s how he get’s it back.
OTOH, if he’s laundering it, it’s legit and he could withdraw it however he wanted.
Also, that money was in perfect shape, brand new, strapped like it just came from the bank. That money never saw a register or the inside of a junkie’s pocket.
I’d just like to say: welcome back, BB; we’ve missed you muchly these past weeks. Stellar acting jobs by all parties, especially Hank and Jesse. The plot has advanced nicely, good suspense build-up, intrigue, new people introduced into the drug mix, and the DEA is becoming a player in a serious way. I feared that the series was drifting off course, but this has snapped it back.
My remarks about junkies and fried chicken eaters were rhetorical. Obviously neither group supplies the $50s,
Would Gus be using laundered money to pay Walt? I would think his illegal expenses would come out before the laundering, not after. The point of laundering is to be able to explain the income as legitimate, and you have to pay taxes on that legitimate income. So why pay taxes on money he’s paying Walt? I presume he’s not going to be able to deduct those payments to Walt. That’s a rather large expense to have to explain to the IRS.
If it isn’t laundered then I would think it would consist of whatever bills came in from the street.
Thinking about it, I can imagine that there are illegal operations that will buy up all of those random bills at 95 cent on the dollar or whatever. They could pay in $50s. It seems like this might be a needed service to reduce the sheer weight and bulk of the smaller denomination bills that drug operations would have to handle.
I, too, would think that Gus’ ‘other’ employees would receive their payments in pre-laundered money as well, but that was just one thought I had for why it looks like it just came from the bank. Paying them with unlaunderd money means that much less dirty money that he has to deal with.
Also, if he was going to pay them with clean money, he might as well take them on as legit employees (Jesse/Mike/Tyrus etc) and Walt as a consultant or 1099 and they would have that much less crap to deal with as well. Gus has presumably been washing money for years without anyone noticing but he’s leaving Walt to reinvent the wheel. If Walt gets caught laundering money, he’s going to end up taking Gus down with him, even if inadvertently.
If you didn’t see Hank connecting the Pollos Hermanos flyer to Gus, you must have been dozing. As I expected, the number was the serial number for a piece of equipment for the lab and the finger print in the Gale murder file was Gus’. So it all tied together. Here’s what I think is going to happen. That DEA boss guy, Merket, is dirty and has been giving Gus a free ride. So I think he’s going to try to slow Hank down. Between the cartel and Hank, I don’t expect Gus to survive the season. How all this ends up in Walt’s favor will be interesting to see unfold. After all, you know that Walt has to make it through this season and next. One other thing, I was wondering how they were going to tie in the title of the episode “Problem Dog”, and they did it with Jesse’s “confession”. What Aaron Paul did with the Jesse character was just brilliant.
Sweet blind Jesus that was a great episode. Aaron deserves the Emmy from last season, and yet again he pulls off an even better performance than last year.
My wife mentioned the same possibility with the head of the DEA being corrupt, but I don’t think that’s BB’s style. It would also be lazy writing as there’s been zero indication to the possibility.
All I know is someone’s going to be swallowing that rison this time around. And I’m not entirely sure it’s going to be Gus, as according to plan. I’d also love to see a Walter concoct another genius mad science weapon of his, like in S1 ep6 and his fulminated mercury. That was one of the best TV moments of all time.
Also, who else was giddy watching Walt burn rubber making those donuts with the Challenger. The call for the cab, the explosion, then the last shot of the curly skid marks leading to the carnage was priceless.
Good call on the part no. nivlac!
That makes two muscle cars that Walt has blown up in scientifically implausible ways.
Did we ever see Gus in Gail’s apartment?
Gus has contacts with the DEA and law enforcement. Whether that rises to the level of a totally corrupt cop on the take, or just a friend that alerts him to his name and business coming up in the investigation, remains to be seen.
As for the potential of Walt, Mike, et al. taking over the operation, they would still have to deal with the cartel issue. Maybe they do a deal to get rid of Gus and smoothly transition the operation into a partnership with the cartel? As soon as its clear that Gus has been compromised, everyone involved (maybe even including Gus himself) will want Gus out of the picture. He pretty much has to go one way or the other.
As for Hank, who knows, maybe he becomes disillusioned with the DEA, makes the connection to Walt, and winds up turning to the dark side. Seems far-fetched, but he would definitely be an asset. Maybe when he finds out Walt has been paying for his care he’ll realize what side his bread is buttered on. It would be a fun turn, because Walt, Skyler, and Hank would all be in on it, but I doubt any of them would want to tell Marie. LOL
Ricin
Yeah, Gus paid Gale a visit when he was asking him if he could take over the operation if “something” (cancer) happened to Walt.
I wondered about that as well due to their reluctance to accept Gus was a criminal. The reason it occurred was that even without that fingerprint the connection between Pollos Hermanos/the Hanover based company/Gale Boetticher/non payment/etc. all were suspicious- far from enough to get a warrant of course but enough to warrant some further investigation. After the fingerprint of course there’s no way the men could say “just coinkydink”.
Has Gus Fring met Walt Jr. before?
My suspicion (and as mentioned I’ve rarely if ever guessed anything right on this show) was that Gus had bugged Jesse’s place and was deliberately giving him access to his food and drink to test him. No idea if this will come to pass.
I was surprised Gus had $50 million in cash to pay the cartel. Any idea what the cartel wants instead? I’m sure the execution or surrender to them of Walt is a part of it.
They want to maintain their monopoly. Gus was a part of the cartel before his coup, and likely hasn’t been paying his dues since then. Gus either returns to the fold, or is destroyed.
The interest in Walter White depends on the fate of Uncle Salamanca. I don’t believe it’s been revealed what happened to him amidst Gus bringing the Federales on the Cartel’s head. Still, the problem has grown much larger than Walt and Gus is the main target of their ire.
I actually have a feeling that this is not going to go well for Hank. Gus sees him in the restaurant, realizes that he gave him his own fingerprints and presumably he finds out somehow that he’s being looked at. Great way to send yet another message to Walt about who is really in charge would be to hurt someone in Walt’s family.
I just really have a feeling that we’re going to see someone big go down this season.