And they pass the savings on to you!
Totally unrelated to this episode, but just wanted to mention in case anyone didn’t know: they discussed that scene in the podcast, and while shooting, Cranston actually threw a real pizza on the roof and nailed it on the first try. There was no CGI or anything in that scene.
My Gods, yes. On both points, but particularly #2. Too many shows leave these plot threads just hanging (like, what happened to Valeri the Russian on The Sopranos episode “Pine Barrens?”) whereas Breaking Bad at least attempts to address them in a fairly plausible manner.
He had checked it a week earlier. In the meantime it could have picked up the cigarette while it was doing its rounds.
Ah, yes, good point. Even more evil geniusy then.
I wonder if they had this in mind when they introduced the roomba. Rather than just being something that was first seen this episode, we’ve seen the roomba as a significant show element before.
Mueller wasn’t on Gus’s payroll, Gus worked for him. Madrigal provided the equipment for the super lab and presumably laundered money for the Los Pollos Hermanos restaurants that they owned.
The point of the taste-test scene was to show Mueller’s detached mental state after learning that the operation has been uncovered. (Remember that the German police had already been interviewing him; his assistant interrupts the taste test to tell him that the police want to question him some more.) He kills himself because he’s done for, not out of loyalty to Gus. (And of course, immediately after observing the workmen removing the Los Pollos Hermanos logo from the building. How poignant! 
)
Oh hell yes. This show is usually so good about loose ends but they let a huge one hang last season. How does Saul get Brock the poison? And how does he get him to eat it in such away that Brock doesn’t say to his mom, “Hey, right before I got sick, the lawyer gave me a berry to eat. Weird, huh?”
They did establish that Saul was personally delivering checks every week (which itself isn’t all that logical; it was probably just to service this plot point). But we never see how we go from Saul being at the house to Brock eating the gobstopper of death.
Nitpick: the guy you’re talking about is named Schuler.
It’s also possible he just couldn’t face a world with “Franch” dressing in it.
Speaking of CGI (of Digital Effects as they call them). They said that for last week’s episode it took 3 weeks of post for the U-haul tipping over scene. Originally, they were going to tip it over, pull the rig out, then have the cops (real ABQ cops and a real police station BTW) come running out. As it turned out, the rig was MUCH bigger then they anticipated and they didn’t have time to remove it. It took them 3 weeks to digitally remove it.
They also went on to say that that episode had 53 digital (CGI) effects in it, double the normal number, “but good luck finding any of them”. Kelley, the editor, mentioned that people on the internet will often argue for days about whether or not something was real or fake. For example, Walt falling from the catwalk last week. I guess the big argument for it being real was that there was no cut. As Kelley went on to explain, of course there was a cut. Of course they didn’t throw Walt off a catwalk. But they pay a lot of money to make that cut disappear. They pay a lot of money to make the rig under the U-Haul not exist anymore.
The only one I noticed (not that I look for them), was the fly in Chow’s apartment. I noticed it mainly because they sent the buzzing through the surround speakers.
I don’t think Lydia’s child will figure into the story except as Lydia’s motivation to cooperate with Mike. Making the child’s parentage a plot point is something Desperate Housewives would do. This show doesn’t play like that.
I think Mike didn’t plan to kill Lydia at all, but only wanted to get her back in the game, because of her ability to procure the methylamine. He played her quite well.
True. I would kill myself as well.
I didn’t think he came up with that until much later. Like after the nanny left but before he pulled the trigger. Almost like he was looking for a reason not to kill her.
Either way, I wonder if he’s going to tell Walt about his source or buy it from her and sell it to them. He’ll still get his third plus he’ll get what ever he makes on the precursor.
So, if the child is Gus’ and he has more than Cayman accounts, with her name on them, she could be part of the overall schematic. We learned that 2 mil was in Mikes granddaughter’s name, so this appears to be one way of hiding the money. If it were a desperate housewifes soap opera it ends with the discovery of who is the daddy, but I don’t necessarily see it as a soap opera, but more as another layer to the empire, and a possible source of capital infusion.
One strange thing about this episode is that when they were discussing acquiring Methlamine, Jesse proposed they go back to using a psuedo cook, and Walt just immediately dismissed it. Now if he feels like it would be impossible to obtain in the necesary quantities, that’s one thing - but it made it seem like he was unwilling to go back to an inferior product. But the methlamine originally was a workaround due to their psuedo limitations - the show never suggested it was a superior product, but rather equal (or good enough).
Also, I’m not sure Walt at the end was deliberately creepy, like he was with last week’s “I forgive you” - he may be thinking that Skyler is mostly bothered by the knowledge of what happened to Ted and think he’s actually being a good guy here.
she wasn’t even looking at his face when he decided to let her live, that was when he realized she might have the solution to the problem. (the problem of a bunch of people being broke with some really important info on criminal goings on and how to make them all some money again.
I think the only difference between the two final “products” was the color. The impression I got was that they are equal in purity and potency. I think Walt really was concerned about the difficulty of obtaining pseudoephedrine, and not just the difficulty, but the trail it leaves.
I can tell you about that. My doctor recently recommended it to me as part of a treatment for some congestion issues. You have to get it from the pharmacist after signing forms and showing ID. They entered my driver’s license info into their computer. I felt like I was promising them my first born just to get 10 pills.
It would take an army of “smurfs” to get enough to make anywhere near the wholesale amounts they were making.
Right—in both final scenes (last night’s, and the “I forgive you” dialog) Walt is clearly communicating that he’s no longer her whipped little emasculated bitch. He’s telling her that he’s wearing the pants in the family now, while at the same acting as if it’s always been that way.
Madrigal has already been identified as the source of a lot of stuff for Gus’s operation and the head of Madrigal has offered his cooperation in rooting out whatever bad seed is going to be left. Obviously, they’re hoping that Schuler was a bad seed and a wild card, but, realistically, Schuler is going to have had some help in executing his plans, just as Gus did. It takes al ot to set up an operation like there was at the laundry.
So, the entirety of Madrigal, especially the restaurant division, and any American operations are under scrutiny as it is. Now you’re going to contemplate that if this woman is either Gus’s wife or ex-wife, or just his babymama, the cops and Madrigal aren’t going to have zeroed in on her already, especially since she’s obviously in a position to help Gus obtain needed supplies? No way that she’s going to be free to operate like she is if she has such a significant personal relationship with Gus.
I’ve been going back and forth over whether Mike origninally intended to kill her or let her live when he showed up. I’ll be watching the episode again to try to figure it out.
I’m almost certain he planned to kill her. He told her she would never be found and then he actually went through the “I’m going to shoot you/no I can’t shoot you” business. His facial expressions (her eyes were closed, I think) made it seem like a genuine moment. Do you think that was all a charade to persuade her to go back into business?
Also, it seems to me that she must not be one of the names tied to offshore bank accounts. Otherwise, there’s no way she would have been free to start picking off 11 other people without drawing scrutiny.