What’s more amazing to me is that Esposito played this guy in Do The Right Thing.
Yeah, I’m wondering what’s taking so long to get the podcast on iTunes this week. I want to listen to it and the plug-in is blocked at my office so I have to download it from iTunes if I want to listen at work, which is about the only time I’m in a podcasting mood.
Finally showed up at about 2:45 (my time) today…8 days after the last one was released.
I wish I had found out about these earlier.
I mentioned it earlier but there’s another podcast called Breaking Good which is okay. I’ve been listening to it only because (I found it earlier and) it shows up right away. It’s basically two guys that watch the show and then talk about it. But it’s just two regular guys that have no connection to the show. They watch it, they troll the internet and follow discussions, they listen to the Insider and read interviews and then talk about it. But since they have no knowledge that the regular viewer doesn’t have it’s like a discussion here. There’s times where I’ve listened to them and said “Where you high when you watched this…did you really miss that entire scene?”
But, at least I can download it right away.
BTW, was that Martin talking with the lisp in the Do The Right Thing clip?
It is kind of iffy. However, Jesse explains his reasoning, and it’s reasoning that Walt could anticipate: Walt was the only other person who knew about the ricin cigarette, and Walt had opportunity to recover the cigarette during that crazy frisking session before that fairly pointless meeting called so insistently by Saul.
What Jesse lacks is a motive to explain why Walt would poison Brock. And Walt uses this to turn Jesse around.
Against this: What Walt lacks is a motive to explain why Gus would poison Brock. And if Walt wants to poison someone, it’s not like he can’t make more ricin—or other poisons (which, of course, he did).
However, imagine it from Jesse’s point of view. The ricin cigarette was missing. He’s stressed out, and obsessively searching his memory for what could have happened to it. The few facts he’s got all point to Walt.
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My lingering issue with this season is Walt’s acting ability. As was mentioned in the other thread, Walt has one hell of a time when he lies to Hank, he can’t seem to improvise very well. Actually, that in itself may be the answer, Walt isn’t a nimble liar but he’s pretty good when he has some time to think. Planning and desperation gave Walt all he needed to woo Jesse.
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Could be explained by nerves. Though Walt may not admit it since Hank isn’t as well educated he knows instinctively that Hank is his intellectual equal and he’s first class at his job. He’s the only person in ABQ (prior to the bombing) onto Gus Fring and the lab; he’s a human bloodhound who once he sniffs a track can’t be stopped, and in fact if he wasn’t standing so close to Walt he’d probably have noticed him. He’s also family and so anything that affects Hank affects everybody Walt knows, so he’s walking through a minefield.
Jesse he doesn’t consider his equal because in all but street smarts (and arguably moral character) Jesse isn’t. He knows he has the upper hand intellectually because Jesse- even when he hates him- looks up to him (the fact he still calls him “Mr. White” after they’ve been through more scrapes than Batman and Robin go through in a year is proof of this)- and there’s also the factor of Mutual Assured Destruction; either can send the other to prison for life if push comes to hand grenades. He’s far more relaxed around Jesse, knows that (unlike Hank) Jesse doesn’t think in complicated strategies, and that (also unlike Hank) Jesse is already intimidated by him.
Different subject: also on the podcast I mentioned above they asked about Hank’s collecting minerals throughout the season. The explanation seems to be that Hank likes minerals- there’s no great plot significance.
It should really be in spoiler tags. I thought that was standard in the show discussion if anyone wants to mention something about future episodes that is known instead of just conjecture. Anything from the current show or past is fair game, but no reveals from future episode previews or other sources.
I’ve wondered about Walt’s acting ability myself. At the end of season 3, was he really freaked out and begging Mike for mercy, or was that just acting in order to buy a little time? He often seems to respond to pressure by turning submissive and improvising a stream of lame argumentation, especially a lame argument for why it’s not his fault. Other examples: groveling before Gus when Hank gave him the GPS tracker; offering Hank dumb reasoning about why the laundry can’t be the meth lab; comparing the airplane crash to Tenerife to argue people out of their emotions when he had to improvise a speech in the gymnasium.
Your explanation makes sense to me, though: Walt is courageous when he’s had time to think through the situation; submissive, gibbering Walt only comes out spontaneously. This fits with the “intellectual control freak” element of his personality.
I’m a little puzzled. What bad acting did Walt do with Hank? He basically acted like Hank thought Walt would - mild mannered chemistry teacher who’s being asked to do something that’s probably illegal. So he’s jumpy and nervous and ineffective - exactly how you’d expect Walt to act. And that gives him a chance to essentially be ineffective at what he’s doing, which is what he’s looking for.
How else should have Walt acted around Hank?
Some alternate thinking about that: A good writer writes what the story wants, which is not necessarily what the writer intends.
The story did not turn out to be “Mr. Chips becomes Scarface.” It turned out to be, “50-yo man-child visits the criminal underworld and returns a man.” In hindsight, that’s what it always was, and no one, not even Vince Gilligan, has the power to change that.
Hmm, good point.
While watching the scene where Hank says to go to the laundry, I had thought that the smart thing would be for Walt not to talk so much, be passive, and find a way to screw things up. But now that you point it out, Walt’s suddenly turning loquacious gave Hank a reason to think Walt was rationalizing his fear of doing something illegal, which in turn provided a good cover for “accidentally” turning into the oncoming vehicle.
OK, now you’ve got me wondering if “submissive, gibbering Walt” has always been an act. Maybe it’s a part of his pre-Heisenberg self that he learned to turn on deliberately when needed.
It’s not really a spoiler; we have no way of knowing if it’s true as it’s an off-the-cuff comment in a lighthearted interview. As mentioned Aaron Paul was supposed to be killed off in the first season, the cast didn’t know Gus was going to die until they read it, and so long as Norris is paid for however many episodes his agent contracts Gilligan’s not legally bound to keep him around.
There was speculation on the message boards as to whether the older boy (the one who is not the twins) in the picture in Hector’s room is going to be a player next season. It’s never said but I assumed that was Tuko, or perhaps Hector’s grandson Joaquin.
Again, I’ve never predicted a plot accurately for this show, but it is conceivable Hector’s grandson is still alive. It’s possible he survived the shooting, or that Gus either lied to Hector or was mistaken about who Jesse shot (Gus being pretty out of it at the time).
Did anybody else notice that Jonathan Banks (Mike) was listed in the credits for this past episode even though he’s never seen? I wondered if he was lurking somewhere, or if the actors who play Skyler/Marie/Hank/Jr./etc. were in the credits for the bottle episode or others they didn’t appear in. I would think Banks is a guest star rather than a series regular.
Since I’ve never been right in a prediction yet for this show, I’ll go ahead and make my predictions for next season:
-Charlie Sheen will join the cast as Don Emilioestevez, the new head of the Cartel and former lover of Tuko
-Jesse will start law school and join Saul in the firm of GOODMAN AND PINKMAN: HE’S GOOD AND I’M PINK
-One episode will end with Skyler telling Walt “I fucked Huell”
-Walt, now played by Michael York, will respond “So did I”
Walt is still a man child. He only got control of his emotions for the brief time he was faced death and had no other option.
When season five returns you can expect the first few episodes to be about Walt being a totally impulsive dick.
Vince Gilligan said that was Tuco on the Insider Podcast.
Banks is a series regular this season so his name is in the credits of every episode regardless of whether or not he appears.
if we are going for unlikely predictions, don’t mind my hat being tossed in here.
I know I said this in another thread, but the crediting procedures are spelled out explicitly in the actor’s contract and is more indicative of how good his or her agent is at negotiations rather than whether they are officially a “regular” or whether they appear in the episode. If they have a screen credit, then they were paid for that episode regardless of whether or not they appeared in it or did any work on it.
From an earlier podcast, there were actually plans to film a scene with Jesse going first to Saul’s office after he found out his ricin cigarette was gone. Jesse suspected it was Huell who stole the cigarette when he was frisked earlier (what he told Walt). So his first instinct was to blame Saul. But it made no sense for him to go to Saul’s office when it was so late at night when the office would have been closed. So that scene was skipped to preserve the timeline of the episode. Instead the action went straight to Walt’s place since in Jesse’s mind only he and Walt knew about the ricin cigarette. And who else would ask Saul to take the ricin? Makes sense to me.
One other thing has occurred to me. Some people (like me) has speculated that Gus must have had a mole in the DEA. I previously said that I suspected Merkert. The way Gomez acted in the last few episodes made me suspect that maybe it was him. But now I’m not so sure. After all, both of these guys were in the room when Hector “testified”. So they knew that Hector gave the DEA nothing. Watching the episode again there certainly appeared to be enough time for either of them to have passed that info to Gus if they had some connection with Gus. That didn’t happen. So I’m thinking no DEA mole. OTOH, maybe the mole just decided to turn on Gus. Oh, never mind.
Anybody planning on being Gus for Halloween?
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One other thing has occurred to me. Some people (like me) has speculated that Gus must have had a mole in the DEA. I previously said that I suspected Merkert. The way Gomez acted in the last few episodes made me suspect that maybe it was him. But now I’m not so sure. After all, both of these guys were in the room when Hector “testified”. So they knew that Hector gave the DEA nothing. Watching the episode again there certainly appeared to be enough time for either of them to have passed that info to Gus if they had some connection with Gus. That didn’t happen. So I’m thinking no DEA mole. OTOH, maybe the mole just decided to turn on Gus. Oh, never mind.
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IIRC Tyrus said something about their person at the DEA letting him (Tyrus) know about Hector. Obviously Gus wouldn’t have Tyrus and other valuable assets just routinely watching the DEA and a really low level mole wouldn’t know about Hector.
It’s possible that Gus did know that Hector told them nothing, but felt Hector was intentionally baiting him or biding his time or had chickened out, etc., and decided to kill him before he really did go through with it. (I wonder what he was going to inject into Hector? I suppose it wouldn’t have to be that top secret a chemical since a paralyzed old man with emphysema isn’t likely to have a lengthy autopsy anyway, but I’m guessing it was something to make it look natural.)
If you do then be really really sure that whatever party you’re going to is filled with Breaking Bad viewers. Very fine line between a “Face Off Gus” costume and “Assassinated Obama” costume to people who haven’t seen the show.
What I’m wondering now is with Gus gone, who’s going to take care of the chickens? They’ve been raised in captivity and can’t be expected to take care of themselves. Why is it always the innocent chickens that end up suffering the most?