ha that would be epic!
Ooh! I bet it’s Hank who winds up taking out Fring.
You know, Hank turning might not be so far-fetched. We’ve seen how he acts towards tweekers. It’s not like he has any respect or concern for them.
He’s an insecure blowhard, so he may do what he does more for the macho image than for any concern for the victims of the meth trade.
We know he brews alcohol, maybe for him “brewing” meth wouldn’t be such a big step.
I don’t see this happening at all. While Hank might sometimes compensate for his insecurities by being an obnoxious blowhard, he is still a man with rock solid integrity.
Remember that he called the ambulance after he beat up Jesse knowing it could cost him his job. He didn’t lie about what happened either.
Wasn’t that simply to demonstrate that Skyler’s financial acumen, thus she might be good at hiding improprieties? Money laundering, for example? Or perhaps it was to demonstrate that she thinks she is really good at it but is now getting in over her head.
That makes sense.
Walt’s gone against his best interests to protect Jesse, and Jesse had real concern for that little boy in the tweekers’ house and for children in general, and Mike was truly concerned about that wife in his story and he’s crazy about his grandaughter. Hell, even Saul put himself on the line to protect Jesse.
Having a certain amount of integrity and caring about people doesn’t necessarily stop someone from rationalizing doing some pretty terrible things. I think that’s one of the points of the show.
Ah, I just learned that it’s this game — an as-yet unpublished title from id Software.
Rage Showcased on Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad […] had a little video game ode in its most recent episode. The seventh episode of the fourth season, entitled Problem Dog, showcases main character Jesse Pinkman (played by Aaron Paul) playing id Software’s upcoming first-person shooter Rage.
So now we know that Breaking Bad is set in the future.
(Kidding.)
Ya know, I’d like some help remembering the particulars about the Beneke financial situation. As I remember it, it wasn’t tax evasion per se, but more cooking the books to keep the business afloat.
If that’s the case, maybe his business would be the perfect way for the Whites to launder their money. He’s already exposed and at risk of having it all come crashing down. So if he were to receive a cash infusion to cover the shortfall, he might be inclined to look the other way if there was money being laundered through the business.
One thing is for sure, the car wash ain’t gonna cut it. They need a business that can more reasonably explain larger sums of money coming in.
The reason I think Hank won’t “break bad” is because he’s been tested already and doesn’t do it. When all the other characters were given a choice to walk away from their crimes, they chose not to do it.
It was the exact opposite case with Hank. Like everyone else he was given a choice between doing the right thing and getting away with doing something bad, and he chose to do the right thing. That’s what makes him different from everyone else on the show.
That’s very true. I personally know an accountant Saul. Nicest guy you’d ever want to meet in your life. Adopted two Russian kids. Generous to a fault. When I was exploring the possibility of doing humanitarian work in Central America, he donated notary services to me free of charge. Always makes sure everybody in the office has a good lunch. But the guy can’t make an honest dollar to save his own life. When he pees, the stream comes out crooked. Three stints in federal lockup didn’t do much to set him on the straight and narrow, either. When it comes to money laundering, he’s the goddamn Iron Chef of cooking the books. And I still have his card.
In what way could Ted have been cooking the books other than for tax evasion?
I can only think of a few reasons to cook the books.
You could do it to embezzle money, which wouldn’t make sense in this case since Ted owns the business so he’d be stealing from himself.
You could do it to increase the apparent profits in order to inflate the stock price. That wouldn’t make sense in a privately owned company; which Beneke appears to be.
You could be under reporting income in order to save on taxes. This has to be what Ted was doing. I think I even recall him mentioning the IRS. As I recall he was cheating on taxes in order to keep the company afloat, and even with the tax evasion he was still having difficulties paying his suppliers, etc.
So I think you’re incorrect about it not being about taxes, but you are correct that his situation might in theory make him amenable to laundering money.
The only problem is that it would require selling the whites partial ownership, otherwise how would the laundered money get back into their possession?
Buying a car wash was unusual enough. Also buying ownership in Beneke, a company that’s struggling, would look downright suspicious. Also, since it’s not a cash for service business, it might be difficult, if not impossible, to launder money through it.
Ah-ha! I was right about the gun - the article says the peripheral is a fake and the real game doesn’t actually use a light gun.
Speaking of taxes and the car wash… the purchase must have been meant to fool only family and friends. You can’t report a big gambling win on a tax return without the 1099s involved… that method of laundering money would be too obvious to the Feds.
The other thing I’ve been wondering about is Jessie’s house…seems like the word would have gotten around (to both ends of the legal spectrum) that it was a hangout with money being thrown all over. It’s hard for me to believe he can just close the doors, paint the walls and not have problems.
As I remember Saul’s explanation, a 1099 was generated for the supposed gambling win. The casino was happy to be able to report an equivalent loss, so that they could pocket that money.
Yeah, the neighbors must not have been paying attention at all.
Or the house could have been extremely well-insulated. I’ve slept through some horrendous storms at our place.
Something that bugged me this episode was that Walt didn’t offer to help Jesse with the painting. I guess it would have been out of character, but it would have been a nice thing for him to do.
[QUOTE=What the … !!!]
The other thing I’ve been wondering about is Jessie’s house…seems like the word would have gotten around (to both ends of the legal spectrum) that it was a hangout with money being thrown all over. It’s hard for me to believe he can just close the doors, paint the walls and not have problems.
[/QUOTE]
Definitely deserves explanation. I can only assume Mike & Co. must have really put the fear of God into the resident tweakers.
Ted Beneke also serves as a foil/comparison to Walt. Skyler discovers Ted’s shady dealings and Ted essentially parrots Walt by saying that he had to do it for his family and his employees. Ted is a lot like Walter without the ego and the edgy Heisenberg personality that Skyler has been occasionally attracted to.
Ted has lived in the back of Skyler’s mind as a potential safe place to run but when she finally starts to make a break for it she finds out that Ted is just a weaker, ingratiating version of Walt. Without the Beneke storyline we’d have to wonder why someone as ostensibly smart as Skyler would stay with Walt.
Good points about Beneke. For some reason I never thought of it that way.
Although I think her staying with Walter also has to do with having access to funds to help her sister and brother in law.
Duck Hunt was on the NES, not Atari. And I’m not sure about the PS3 or 360, but there are light gun games on the Wii. They have to use a different technology for them now because the old light guns won’t work on plasma or LCD sets, but they still are around in some form.