By the way, I thought it was pretty funny that Walt Jr. did not eat in this episode, but he did complain of being hungry!
This is when I first realized. I shouted out to my husband that it was poisoned, and then Don Eladio **definitely **waited for Gus to drink first. I guess each of them (The Don & Gus) had their bodyguards who didn’t drink, and that’s who Mike took out with the garotte. BadASS!
Damn, this was the fastest 1 hour on TV!
An impressive range acting reel with Some bad language but doesn’t include this totally not safe for work8 second clip.
Giancarlo is one of those actors who doesn’t age. He looked 50 when he was 20, looks 50 now that he’s 50, and will probably look 50 when he’s 75.
He did order pancakes.
True, but they’ve left us hanging over whether he actually ate some pancakes, and what, if anything, he had to say about them.
Perhaps a future episode will show the pancake-eating scene in flashback, to fill in this yawning gap in the story line.
With Gus still reeling from the effects of the poison and Mike incapacitated and possibly dying, this might be Walt’s only shot to ameliorate his situation. As per the episode, Gus has been keeping Walt cornered for most of this season, and the one and only time he’s stepped up to act against Gus, Tyrus slapped him down. There’s no way he’s going to gain an advantage over Gus only Gus makes a strategic mistake, which this vendetta operation may very well prove to be.
And if Walt does, in fact, take this opportunity to remove Gus from the equation, he’ll almost certainly kill Mike, too. I hope it isn’t true, but I have an ugly suspicion that Walt might also find it necessary to kill Mike. If the previous episode was any indication, Mike scares the shit out of him.
What was the significance of Mike ripping the necklace from Don Eladio’s body?
If Gus dies from this, or Walt finds a way to take him out, That would give Mike the option to move on, or become protection for Walt & Jesse as they become the biggest methlab and distributor in the US.
OR
Bury everything that can, and burn all connections to the whole deal and put this mess behind them.
At the start of season 2, Walt worked out that he needed $747k (heh) to leave behind for his family. Had this amount really changed? He’s got plenty of that now, so now it’s time to hatch an escape plan… so he can die from cancer in front of Walt Jr. with dignity.
Wasn’t that the necklace he took from Gus’s old cook/partner (lover?) when they shot him?
I thought there were keys on the necklace that they would need to open a gate.
No—I just replayed the entire poolside scene in episode 8. Don Eladio was wearing what appears to be the same necklace at that meeting also. Gus’ partner wasn’t wearing a necklace.
The riveting events in Mexico can’t help but overshadow the rest of the episode, in particular the fantastic scenes with Walt and Jr. BB followed the usual pattern of having a character “confess” behind a veil of deception, but here Jr.'s response indirectly called out Walt for his choices. That scene could have been series kryptonite in the hands of lesser actors, but not here: Mitte in particular sounded just right in challenging both his father’s reasoning and his behavior since he started breaking bad.
The incredible humiliation of Walt this season has followed a careful, step-by-step logic, but it still stuns me to see how far he has fallen. At work he’s basically been reduced to the level of the machines in his lab; something you need to get a job done, but can be easily ignored any other time. At home his choices are once again managed by others. And the one friend he’s made thru this ordeal has outgrown him both personally and professionally. Sure he’s still plausibly the greatest chemist in the business, but the respect that may generate is more than squandered by his unpleasant, overblown pride and a misdirected rage born of his own impotence.
Nice guess. Vince said that’s exactly what happened on this week’s Podcast episode. They tried get some product placement, but no company would go for it.
Minor point. Isn’t he British Chemist who speaks Spanish? I think he’s the guy who played Chloe’s husband on 24.
Holy Jeebus, but that may have been the bestest episode so far! Everything about it was just perfect. Down to the bit where Walter Jr tells Walt that this is the first time in the last year that he was being real, as Walt is lying through his teeth. Loved the flight down there. Loved the Mexican lab scene. Loved the pool party. Loved the poisoning. Loved the crazy getaway w/ Jesse using his video game skills at last. As Russell Edgington would say: FAN-TAAAS-tic!
Only one question in terms of script. How could Walter Jr already have his license if that was his birthday? I know his parents are up to their eyeballs in illegal activity, but it seems like Skyler, at least, would not allow him to drive the car alone w/o a license.
They could have used Turtle’s fictional Tequila from Entourage. 
Most states allow you to get a learner’s permit as young as fifteen-and-a-half. Looking at New Mexico’s DMV site, drivers there can get them at age fifteen, which can become a provisional license at fifteen-and-a-half, and then finally an unrestricted license at sixteen.
Plus his former monkey, Jesse, who flunked chemistry and used to put pepper in meth, can now make meth almost as pure as Walt’s (possibly as pure if the vats and lab were cleaner).
Liked Don Eladio’s pragmatic complimenting of Jesse to the real chemists: “I don’t care if he’s a pig farmer, he cooks better product than you guys with all the degrees.”
They also probably lost any chance of getting sponsored by Lysol.
Hey, that’s cool. I’ll have to have a listen. All those years of working on crappy TV shows, asking for free stuff, and making up fake names and fake labels has finally paid off! Alcohol was usually the hardest sell because they always insisted upon “responsible drinking”. Funnily enough I once made up stacks of cold and flu tablets for a “junkies rip off pharmacy for pseudoephedrine to make meth” scene.
This episode really made me think about just how far TV has come though. The Walt/Walt Jr./death of Walt’s father scene, which was basically a monologue, was riveting and beautifully written. To follow that quiet moment with such a tense and action packed ending, which still managed to draw upon the subtleties of the characters and their relationships, was brilliant.
Jesse shooting the Cartel guard was a lot like the way he shoots zombies in video games.