# Breaking Bad 5.05 "Dead Freight" 8/12/12 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 12, 2012, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256 "2012-08-12T08:54:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/241 "2012-08-15T01:34:50Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > But surely Mike’s about to learn everything anyway? Like, in the next few minutes? It’s hard to imagine how it could be kept from him. My guess is that the first scene of next week’s show will have Mike shuffling up, finding out what just went down, and going ballistic. He already knows that he’s working with Larry, Moe, and Curly. I don’t think he’s going to kill Todd, but he’ll probably kick Todd’s ass into the middle of next week. He may have to peel Jesse off him so he can have a piece for himself. It’s going to be a little more intense than the bitch-slappin’ he gave Walt in the bar. Then he’s going to roll his eyes and scream at all three of them until he’s blue in the face. Then he’s going to fix it like he always does. But this is unquestionably going to create a serious rift among the four of them, with Mike and Jesse polarizing against Walt and Todd. ---
**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:** [August 15, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/242 "2012-08-15T01:47:50Z")
I’m wondering if Jesse may kill Todd. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/243 "2012-08-15T02:08:54Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > In this day and age, I’m sure you have to file a report if a train makes any unscheduled stop. Add to that a missing child who was last seen in the area, and somebody will undoubtedly sit up and take notice. If they know what’s good for them, they’ll get the kid, the bike, the tarantula, and the methylamine the hell out of the vicinity ASAP. Yep. We don’t know that the engineers saw the kid, but they might have. Or the guy in the pickup could have seen him. ---
**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:** [August 15, 2012, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/244 "2012-08-15T02:29:25Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Yep. We don’t know that the engineers saw the kid, but they might have. Or the guy in the pickup could have seen him. Very good point. Any or all of them might have seen the kid, and a missing kid will get lots of publicity, at least locally, with his picture all over the media. I wonder what kind of tracks a dirt bike leaves in the desert. If any of them saw him and bike tracks are found going up to the train tracks but not leaving… ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/245 "2012-08-15T02:40:16Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Mike doesn’t even know about the shooting at this point, right? It was just Walt, Jesse and Todd as Mike was somewhere else on a walkie talkie, right? Kid gets shot, horror ensues, credits roll…am I mis-remembering something here? > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Well sure Mike is about to know. But at the moment it happens and the credits roll, he doesn’t. Mike wasn’t that far away. It was a frickin’ gunshot. Gunshots are loud. I’m quite sure he heard it (even if he didn’t know who got shot). ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/246 "2012-08-15T02:51:11Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Where? Yeah, where? To me that’s a piece that’s sort of a dangling story line. Maybe, if it comes to a fight for custody of little Holly, and it might go there as the story progresses, there’s no doubt Walt will use Marie’s illness against her petition for the child. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/247 "2012-08-15T15:43:36Z")
> [@Andiethewestie](#): > > Yeah, where? To me that’s a piece that’s sort of a dangling story line. Maybe, if it comes to a fight for custody of little Holly, and it might go there as the story progresses, there’s no doubt Walt will use Marie’s illness against her petition for the child. Does Walt know about Marie’s kleptomania? In any case, a scenario that leaves Holly with Hank and Marie won’t involve lawyers. Skyler will be out of the picture and Walt will have bigger issues to deal with. ---
**Author:** ![Tarwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/248 "2012-08-15T16:07:17Z")
So, my predictions for the final three episodes of this half of the season. I’m putting them in a spoiler box, but I don’t possess any concrete information about the upcoming episodes. I’m just going from next week’s preview. [SPOILER]Jesse is out of the business. That’s it for him. He realizes that there’s never going to be a point when they can operate without bloodshed. Mike threatens to leave, and is serious about intending to quit. Okay, so I’m not entirely sure about what happens here. He cleans up some loose ends regarding Gus’ former workforce, gives them their final cut, and then he’s done. Skyler continues her attempts to get the children out of the house. She’ll be pivotal to Hank discovering that Walt is Heisenberg, but I don’t know how, exactly. She’ll leverage baby Holly against Walt, somehow, since Flynn is basically a lost cause for her at this point. Walt refuses to leave the business even though Mike and Jesse are cutting their ties. Todd becomes the new Mike at Walt’s request. Walt becomes increasingly reckless, and since he’s now the sole remaining operator in the business, he takes on more and more risk. He does something that arouses Hank’s suspicions. Hank discovers that Walt is Heisenberg at the end of the seventh episode, and at the beginning of the final episode. This discovery is the catalyst for Walt going on the run, which brings us back to the first scene of the first episode of this season. Something terrible happens with the ricin. Maybe it causes a small electrical fire? [/SPOILER] Anybody else care to hazard a guess? ---
**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:** [August 15, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/249 "2012-08-15T16:13:30Z")
> [@Andiethewestie](#): > > Yeah, where? To me that’s a piece that’s sort of a dangling story line. Maybe, if it comes to a fight for custody of little Holly, and it might go there as the story progresses, there’s no doubt Walt will use Marie’s illness against her petition for the child. Exactly. It seems like something that’s intended to be relevant at some point. Or maybe it’s just another story line about morality and family. Maybe it’s a little morality play about right and wrong and how questions of guilt and innocence can enter a gray area at times; sort of a counterpoint to Walt’s story. Maybe it’s just about showing that Hank will use his influence to intervene in the legal process when it comes to a family member; a tendency that might become relevant at some point. ---
**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:** [August 15, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/250 "2012-08-15T16:15:06Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Does Walt know about Marie’s kleptomania? > … If I recall correctly, Skyler told Walt about the incident at the jewelers. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/251 "2012-08-15T16:22:36Z")
I’m a little skeptical that Marie steals from her family. That’s the easiest way to get caught, particularly since Skyler already busted her. I don’t know if her kleptomania is intended to play into the larger plot of Walt’s crimes, although it’s an interesting idea. Why is it in the show at all other than complicating everybody’s life? Maybe it’s a hint that Hank the lawman can’t even keep his own wife from petty (and not so petty) theft. Maybe it shows that Skyler was already surrounded by criminal activity in her family. We did see last season that Marie’s stealing seems to get worse when she is under stress and that she progressed to kleptomania and to compulsive lying when she felt trapped and unhappy with her life with Hank when his physical therapy wasn’t going well. She was stealing and lying so she could live out a fantasy life. Maybe it’s going to get worse if she hears damaging secrets from Skyler - although I have trouble believing Skyler would ever tell Marie the truth. She’s mentally unstable and a blabbermouth married to a DEA agent. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/252 "2012-08-15T16:32:41Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > So, my predictions for the final three episodes of this half of the season. I’m putting them in a spoiler box, but I don’t possess any concrete information about the upcoming episodes. I’m just going from next week’s preview. > > [spoiler]Jesse is out of the business. That’s it for him. He realizes that there’s never going to be a point when they can operate without bloodshed. > > Mike threatens to leave, and is serious about intending to quit. Okay, so I’m not entirely sure about what happens here. He cleans up some loose ends regarding Gus’ former workforce, gives them their final cut, and then he’s done. > > Skyler continues her attempts to get the children out of the house. She’ll be pivotal to Hank discovering that Walt is Heisenberg, but I don’t know how, exactly. She’ll leverage baby Holly against Walt, somehow, since Flynn is basically a lost cause for her at this point. > > Walt refuses to leave the business even though Mike and Jesse are cutting their ties. Todd becomes the new Mike at Walt’s request. Walt becomes increasingly reckless, and since he’s now the sole remaining operator in the business, he takes on more and more risk. He does something that arouses Hank’s suspicions. > > Hank discovers that Walt is Heisenberg at the end of the seventh episode, and at the beginning of the final episode. This discovery is the catalyst for Walt going on the run, which brings us back to the first scene of the first episode of this season. > > Something terrible happens with the ricin. Maybe it causes a small electrical fire? > [/spoiler] > > Anybody else care to hazard a guess? (Based on next week previews, which I usually try to avoid): It sounds like Mike _is_ actually leaving, since he says that he had been followed by three different DEA tails. We also saw that Hank was going to focus their investigation and surveillance on him. He kinda _has to_ go, at this point - he can’t count on always evading their scrutiny indefinitely. As for what Hank knows by the mid-season finale, I doubt he will know for sure that Walt is Heisenberg, but he will at least have some strong, but imprecise suspicions. And I really doubt that Walt is going on the run so soon - how would they fill the last eight episodes? It seems pretty clear that the Denny’s scene only comes after some time has passed since he went on the lam. My guess is the Denny’s scene takes place in the penultimate episode of the series. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/253 "2012-08-15T16:33:43Z")
Wait, I figured it out. Hank is gonna go scavenging for minerals in the desert, and by an amazing stroke of luck, he uncovers the hidden tanks of methylmine. But Walt employs Marie’s super-thieving skills to lift it before the DEA can process the crime scene! Amazing how that all came together. ---
**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:** [August 15, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/254 "2012-08-15T16:36:35Z")
Wow. You must be looking over the writer’s shoulders. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/255 "2012-08-15T16:38:13Z")
And then Michael Caine says “You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off,” and they haul ass to Lollapalooza. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/256 "2012-08-15T16:47:34Z")
Is it possible that what we saw of Walt at the beginning of the first episode this season with the hair, 52, machine gun, etc happens not at the end of episode 8 but at or towards the end of the next run of episodes? It doesn’t seem like there’s enough time left between now and our half-season finale for things to completely unravel to that point. Yet. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/257 "2012-08-15T16:49:29Z")
I think that’s very likely. There are only three episodes left in this next half-season and I doubt they’re going to jump forward a whole year over that time when the entire rest of the series has taken place over the course of about a year. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/258 "2012-08-15T19:25:57Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > No, I meant Walt. First, Todd stands in for Jesse, then, when he starts to pick up on the whole process, he’s capable of doing it on his own, or with help from the other exterminator crew. > > The only reasons Walt hasn’t been easily replaceable in the past was either because of Gus being a perfectionist, or Jesse’s sense of loyalty. Todd (possibly along with Mike) wouldn’t have those kind of hangups. 95% purity would probably be good enough for them, and if Walt and Jesse prove to be erratic liabilities that can’t stomach the occasional killing of innocents, the operation could be more reliably run by someone like Todd, who apparently has no problem doing what the job demands. And now that they have the cover business, all the lab equipment, and enough methylamine to last a long time, the only thing Todd and crew need to take over the whole operation is to learn the process. > > Todd is a natural born meth-cook, Walt and Jesse are just pikers. And not only that, Todd and crew don’t have all the family drama and a nosy BIL in the DEA hanging over them like a cloud. If they also break with/kill Mike and Lydia, (since they now have a nice stockpile of methylamine) they can cut out all the dead-weight of the people they have to pay to stay quiet about Gus’ operation. Without all that baggage, Todd and crew could run a very successful meth business undetected for long enough to get very, very rich. Walt is not gonna let anyone but Jesse cook with him…Fool me once (with Gale), shame on me, Fool me twice (with Victor), shame on you…Fool me a third time (with Todd)? Ain’t gonna happen. > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I don’t think there’s any way Todd “takes over” as the surrogate son for Jesse. If anything, Jesse has become Walt’s conscience at this point…since Walt’s has mostly abandoned him. Plus they have a longstanding relationship. > > All I know is that the next episode is going to be really interesting. We don’t even know if the kid Todd shot is dead. Him being alive, gutshot or something, would REALLY catapult the moral conundrum into the stratosphere. > > My biggest question now is: what in the fuck are they going to do? > > Mike doesn’t even know about the shooting at this point, right? It was just Walt, Jesse and Todd as Mike was somewhere else on a walkie talkie, right? Kid gets shot, horror ensues, credits roll…am I mis-remembering something here? The [preview for the next episode](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izXVSSyyW1Q) shows: [spoiler]The kid is dead and buried (but for some reason Todd is digging him up) somewhere in a cellar or enclosed place, Mike slamming Todd against some wire mesh gate, Jesse being morally shaken AGAIN, Mike being tailed by the DEA and announcing that he’s done (until Walt finds a way to drag him back in), Marie and Skyler getting pink and purplely all over, and Walt getting reckless some more, Gustavo style. But there is one scene where Mike and Jesse are out in the desert meeting up with 2 other people…and one of them “looks” like Hank…😕[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/259 "2012-08-15T19:44:19Z")
What about when we first met Mike, when he had the bloody nose? Isn’t that likely to come back up, as in, he has a fatal illness, or something? What was the purpose of that? ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256/260 "2012-08-15T20:08:57Z")
You mean the final episode of the second season, where he comes to ‘clean up’ Jane? I just replayed it—I’m not seeing any bloody nose. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-05-dead-freight-8-12-12/631256.md?page=14)