This is a great episode but the poisoning bugs me. Is there any actual real poison that would have that kind of delay, incapacitate or kill within minutes and not have an obvious taste? The show’s about chemistry and the writers have been accurate and let us know what it is with every other chemical gimmick thats been used, I’ll be disappointed if it’s hand waved away and we never find out what was used.
It also seems way too risky for something Gus would pull. Suppose Don Eladio decided to not share it with his men? Or suppose he puts it away for another day. Also, in reality the poison would effect different people at different rates depending on their body mass, the shows portrayal of a 20-30 minute delay then everyone dropping within seconds makes no sense.
I agree. She’s looked good the last two episodes, which makes sense if she had a baby in the off season and was still dropping that last 20 lbs when they began filming.
And I agree that the poisoning scene was over-the-top, but it was still awesome, and it’s one fast way to cut the cartel storyline so they can move on to other things. Now they can have the Gus/Walt/Hank battle without a bunch of loose ends with regard to the cartel. I think it was a good move, plotwise, and it was a great payoff for the audience.
Thanks for that. I haven’t seen those episodes since the original airing, but that is consistent with my recollection, as well. In one of these older threads I stated something along those lines and was corrected, so I just figured my memory was off. (Actually, now that I think about it, it’s when I predicted that Skyler would be bailing out Beneke in the future.)
They certainly used a bit of artistic license on that, but at least with the taste issue, liquor should hide the taste of a super-poison quite nicely.
Again, they used some measure of artistic license. But as for making sure they drank it then and there, Gus is a master manipulator and he used some social engineering. He said something along the lines of, “It’s yours to decide what you want to do with it.” Which, had Don Eladio decided to squirrel it away for later or not share with everyone, would have made him look cheap and stingy. By cracking it open and sharing, he got to act like, although it was a gift he greatly cherished, it was no big deal for him to share it with all the underlings.
Regardless of what happened, I have no doubt that Gus would have had some sort of Plan B, just in case things didn’t go as planned.
“Oh hey, the brownies! I forgot I brought brownies. Here, let me open the Tupperware. And now, I’ll just pick a random brownie from the pile, for myself, and eat it by way of demonstration — of how awesomely delicious these are. Mmmm, that one looks good, I’m pretty sure. Let me just take a quick peek at the underside of it … yes! Yes, I shall now eat this brownie, and uh, leave the rest for you all. To eat. All of them, please. Help yourself.”
“No? No one likes brownies?? Unbelievable.”
“Uh, how about some Pringles! I brought Pringles too. Here, watch as I eat the topmost Pringle …”
Another line of reasoning could go like this: Gus would be aware of the mutual antagonism between them and hence the suspicion (we saw that the Don waited for Gus to drink first). So he could count on the Don wanting to vet the gift at the meeting itself, and most likely using Gus himself. And once the bottle was opened publicly by the poolside, everyone had to have some.
