# Breaking Bad 5.01 "Live Free or Die" 7/15/12 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323 "2012-07-15T18:26:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/101 "2012-07-16T17:14:58Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Well, he got the meal for free.😃 > > Apparently he’s more liquid in the hairier future. The gun wasn’t cheap and apparently included a car. > > The van going on its side was one of the few but great LOL moments of the series. I’m not sure what made it a three man job though? I’ll give it ‘two people’ but I don’t see why the driver couldn’t have controlled the magnet as well. I think that speech was just a way to keep Mike in the group. I’m always surprised he sticks with them. Especially for how often he keeps telling them all to take their money and just run…run really far away. You’d think by now he’d take his own advice. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/102 "2012-07-16T17:15:10Z")
> [@Reverse](#): > > Well, that certainly makes a lot more sense than trying to sneak across the border with a giant machine gun in your trunk. FYI, there is no border security crossing from the U.S. into Mexico - you can just drive right in. It’s only coming back that you have to go through security. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/103 "2012-07-16T17:16:10Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’m not sure what made it a three man job though? I’ll give it ‘two people’ but I don’t see why the driver couldn’t have controlled the magnet as well. I think that speech was just a way to keep Mike in the group. Nah, they also needed Mike for his badass gate hot-wiring skillz. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/104 "2012-07-16T17:16:30Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Can somebody remind me who the bodies were in the lab? > . Either nobodies (laundry workers) or did we leave boxcutter victim and someone else in blue barrels? ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/105 "2012-07-16T17:16:50Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Can somebody remind me who the bodies were in the lab? They’re the two men Walt killed in the process of barging his way back into the lab — one from the outside, who brought Walt down on the freight elevator (under duress), and the other who was already in the lab, watching over Jesse. Walt shot both of them. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/106 "2012-07-16T17:19:14Z")
This was a great episode. Not much more to say that hasn’t already been said except for me to go off on my own wild theories: Ted, Mike and Skyler, in order from most to least likely will be dying before the show ends. Skyler’s death was mostly just a pipe dream to me, but I think it took a good step towards reality with this episode. Walter couldn’t kill her if he was still angry at her or had some other sort of “loose string” with her. His forgiveness of her is the closure he’d need to allow her death to even be a possibility. The hug they shared was not an emotional, passionate, I love you hug. It was a cold and calculating move by Walt, saying good bye to any real emotional tie he had with her, even if the emotional tie was anger and bitterness. And judging by the look on her face, she knew this too. Additionally, she even specifically stated she was afraid of Walter. Her time is limited if she continues on her own path of breaking bad. All of this is also backed up by Walter now feeling and knowing he’s the only one in charge now. Who else did any of the various characters take orders from first and foremost? Gus. Where is Gus now? Who’s left? Heisenberg is left and he’s fully aware of it. EDIT: The magnet thing was a three man job, as will future jobs, because Mike has skills and knowledge that Heisenberg and Jesse don’t. If Mike didn’t shoot Heisenberg in the desert, he’s not going to, he’s a follower. A very trained, disciplined and dangerous dog, who’s old master was killed by his new one. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/107 "2012-07-16T17:21:43Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I can’t remember if was mentioned here or on another forum, but if you watch the last episode of season 4 closely, one of the documents that Saul’s secretary shreds is a school schedule for Brock. Saul found a way to get the lilly of the valley into his food. Awesome catch! A lot of people were complaining about how implausible it would be for Walt to have a delivery method for that. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/108 "2012-07-16T17:30:58Z")
Maybe I’m being nitpicky, but I’m pretty certain that the sudden wiping of a hard drive wouldn’t cause a computer display to fail in that manner. I think that kind of drive failure would by itself either freeze the screen or cause some sort of BIOS error message. It wouldn’t automatically wipe the screen like that. Sure, it could be that, before a message could be displayed, the magnet killed the screen (Would a magnetic field do that to an LCD display? I have no idea.) but they seemed to be acting on the assumption that the display failure was a direct indication that the drive had been wiped, an incorrect assumption. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/109 "2012-07-16T17:34:44Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Maybe I’m being nitpicky, but I’m pretty certain that the sudden wiping of a hard drive wouldn’t cause a computer display to fail in that manner. I think that kind of drive failure would by itself either freeze the screen or cause some sort of BIOS error message. It wouldn’t automatically wipe the screen like that. > > Sure, it could be that, before a message could be displayed, the magnet killed the screen (Would a magnetic field do that to an LCD display? I have no idea.) but they seemed to be acting on the assumption that the display failure was a direct indication that the drive had been wiped, an incorrect assumption. Yeah that bugged me too. Not only that, but even if the display didn’t fail (And no, a magnet doesn’t effect an LCD) I figured a magnet destroying a (resting) hard drive probably wouldn’t do anything noticeable. IMO he should have been doing something that would access that hard drive. Run some calculations on a database or something along those lines. But I think they got their point across. Also, I thought it was odd that they bought a brand new one instead of finding some one one for the project. Surely someone somewhere had an old laptop that they could have donated to the project (or sold to them for a few bucks). ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/110 "2012-07-16T17:35:01Z")
I think that was so general audiences knew their plan would work, which in opinion, it’s going to. Laptop is destroyed, let it go. The new lead the DEA is going to have are the bank routing numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/111 "2012-07-16T17:35:15Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Maybe I’m being nitpicky, but I’m pretty certain that the sudden wiping of a hard drive wouldn’t cause a computer display to fail in that manner. I think that kind of drive failure would by itself either freeze the screen or cause some sort of BIOS error message. It wouldn’t automatically wipe the screen like that. > > Sure, it could be that, before a message could be displayed, the magnet killed the screen (Would a magnetic field do that to an LCD display? I have no idea.) but they seemed to be acting on the assumption that the display failure was a direct indication that the drive had been wiped, an incorrect assumption. You may be technically correct, but it’s a television show and they needed a visual shortcut to show it to the average viewer. I hope Gus had a solid-state drive. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/112 "2012-07-16T17:44:19Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Yeah that bugged me too. Not only that, but even if the display didn’t fail (And no, a magnet doesn’t effect an LCD) I figured a magnet destroying a (resting) hard drive probably wouldn’t do anything noticeable. IMO he should have been doing something that would access that hard drive. Run some calculations on a database or something along those lines. But I think they got their point across. > > Also, I thought it was odd that they bought a brand new one instead of finding some one one for the project. Surely someone somewhere had an old laptop that they could have donated to the project (or sold to them for a few bucks). I think a wiped hard drive would become evident pretty quickly even if you’re not doing much. Unless it’s in sleep mode, a Windows machine is always doing system stuff in the background and is going to be accessing the drive for one reason or another pretty regularly. As a fan wank I’ll say that the screen reaction indicated that a strong magnetic field had reached the distance to the machine and therefore the drive had been exposed and therefore the drive is wiped, but that’s an indirect, rather than a direct indication of a wiped drive. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/113 "2012-07-16T17:44:44Z")
> [@Invisible\_Chimp](#): > > You may be technically correct, but it’s a television show and they needed a visual shortcut to show it to the average viewer. I hope Gus had a solid-state drive. I’d be surprised, unless it got backed up somewhere else, that looked like a cheapo Samsung. Do any Samsung laptops have SSHD? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/114 "2012-07-16T17:45:24Z")
I wonder if that strong a field could have some kind of effect on a solid state drive? ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/115 "2012-07-16T17:48:08Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think that Mike was headed back to New Mexico after hearing about the death of Gus Fring, while Walt and Jesse were, presumably, trying to get to Mike to get his assistance (and, perhaps, talk him out of killing them). I assumed that it was a meeting set up by Jesse. Them randomly meeting on stretch of dirt road seems ridiculous. re: timeline They said several times last season that roughly a year had passed since Walt’s diagnosis. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/116 "2012-07-16T17:48:12Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It wasn’t meant for the average viewer. It was an Easter egg. Yeah, I’ve yet to see anything that _required_ close viewing like that on this show. However, there are many times in which the show has _rewarded_ close viewing - situations like this where you can marvel at all the little details they throw in there. I think the “52” in the cold open wasn’t any grand scheme by Walt. I think it was just TV shorthand to let us know that what we’re seeing is in the future and apparently, shit gets real in the future. Now that we know the destination, we get to enjoy the journey. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/117 "2012-07-16T17:48:57Z")
Would police generally take a framed photograph from an office into evidence? What’s the cut-off I wonder, because you could easily conceal stuff inside a desk chair or inside a writing pen, or behind the wallpaper or under a floor tile, yet you can’t just dismantle an entire office and take it all in. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/118 "2012-07-16T17:50:23Z")
It’s not uncommon for laptops to have SSDs, and Gus wouldn’t need to buy a cheap one. But this is fairly nitpicky. If anything, the nits should be the sort of cartoonishly over the top caper in general, rather than specific nits about hard drive types. Maybe what they did was plausible, but it seemed kind of extreme to me, over the top. Anyone know better than I do? And… the screens would likely not fail like that, instead you’d have windows trying to access the page file (which happens frequently for small stuff during normal windows operaton), getting a bizarre error from the drive, and blue screening. Which the audience would’ve recognized too, so you might as well go for that. Unless the magnetism would affect the ram in the computer or graphics card - then you could get a sudden glitch out like that. But I don’t think ram is magnetically affected storage. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/119 "2012-07-16T17:52:48Z")
I thought the magnetic field broke the RAM in the video card. No video card RAM, no display. And I’m fairly sure that a strong enough magnetic field can indeed destroy RAM and maybe even solid state HDDs. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323/120 "2012-07-16T17:53:45Z")
> [@interface2x](#): > > I think the “52” in the cold open wasn’t any grand scheme by Walt. I think it was just TV shorthand to let us know that what we’re seeing is in the future and apparently, shit gets real in the future. Now that we know the destination, we get to enjoy the journey. If the 52 isn’t some grand scheme, why is he celebrating the date on his fake ID (unless, this is really far forward and it’s his new life…as I said earlier, I could see him doing that) > [@Sampiro](#): > > Would police generally take a framed photograph from an office into evidence? > > What’s the cut-off I wonder, because you could easily conceal stuff inside a desk chair or inside a writing pen, or behind the wallpaper or under a floor tile, yet you can’t just dismantle an entire office and take it all in. They probably took that in on the assumption that those people are likely friends or family that they’re going to want to get in contact with at some point in the investigation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-01-live-free-or-die-7-15-12/628323.md?page=7)