No, but then the show loves to put cameras in weird places for no other reason than to put cameras in weird places. Didn’t really need the cuff-cam on the lawyer putting money in the safe deposit boxes.
I’m not saying they can’t do that. I just don’t think they will. At some point Hank figures it out, takes some time to try to put the evidence together, and makes his move. I don’t think there will be just one piece of evidence that gives away Walt’s identity in an instant, but we’ll see.
No, I’m sure they got it. They would have looked for her name in the bank records, they may have had it on video, and Wachsberger would’ve told them everything regardless. And I think a big part of the Mike storyline is that he wanted to put away money for his family and it came to nothing. He set aside $2 million form his time with Fring and the DEA took it, then he got back into the business, made another $5 million, and then lost that. Then he had to abandon his granddaughter at the park to go on the run and then Walt killed him.
My husband and I had an argument today about the last scene. He thought it was telegraphed from the time Walt said he would go and pick up the bag for Mike, and he therefore thought it was cheap way out for the writers to get rid of him. His rationale: Walt hated Mike, why would he have done a favor for Mike? I said because the others are known to the police, and he said “so what” there had to be people close to the 9 who would be too happy to help out their meal ticket. ALso, Mike is an old criminal, so wondered why the heck he had a sloppy lawyer who had numerous safety deposit boxes in oneplace? It all seemed too perfect for a kill.
But his biggest indictement of Walt was the absolute pathetic kill.Walt, who was smart about his first kill, recognized the kill or be killed situation, Walt who carefully poisoned,Walt who was the genius who rigged a bomb on Hector…he could not wrap his head around Walt doing an emotional kill of Mike.
I countered that Walt had certain trigger points, like when the car wash owner thought he was lazy, or when Mike told him he should have known his place, that’s when Walt loses it, and that’s when he saw red. He regretted the shoot because he lost his reason, the thing that makes him so dangerous, but because he pretty much hated Mike and the way he muscled into the business he has no remorse.
I saw that, thought “uh-oh” for a sec, but it would be odd for a station director (or whatever Hank’s title is) to have such surveillance in his office, wot? Besides, who’s reviewing this footage? Barring specific reason (i.e. the bug had been discovered), I expect such footage to go unseen into some archive to be eventually erased when the hard drive is full.
Their families wouldn’t know who Mike is, and I’m not sure a stranger could be trusted to pull this off without robbing Mike or accidentally tipping someone off.
::sad face:: “I was undergoing chemo when that photo was taken. I have terminal cancer, and that stuff takes a toll on you.” See? Easy!
He wasn’t doing a favour, Walt intended to get the 9 names one way or the other and delivering the bag was his only way of doing that. What I find more unbelievable is that Walt “forgot” that Lydia knew the the 9 names.
I don’t see it at all. I saw a not-too-bright newbie trying to suck up to his boss. Here’s what I saw during the cook sequence: Todd says he didn’t take chemistry in high school and has no reaction to Walt’s “Anton Lavoisier” comment because he doesn’t know who that is; they cook and you can hardly see their faces through the hazmat suits; Todd asks how he did and Walt tries to conceal his disappointment. I didn’t see anything that looked remotely cynical or calculating.
On re-watch. The pictures of Mike that Hank reviews during the video conference are:
Mike getting into his car on the side of the street.
Mike on the bench at the park reading the newspaper, presumably watching his grand daughter.
Mike at a restaurant ordering from a waitress. It is a nicer place than where he met Lydia. He is at a table, not a booth. It doesn’t look like that place even has booths. Through a window behind Mike there is a black sign with white lettering that you can partially see. It says “Ali” and the rest is cut off. Above the sign there is something else in the window that I can’t make out.
Yes. For me, Hank has to be the one to figure it all out. Otherwise, what was the point of having him be a DEA agent? And, it would just feel right to me.
I have a feeling that Walt will use the ricin to kill or at least attempt to kill Skyler.
Of course Hank will work it out, the question is when. I think it would make a more interesting last 8 episodes to have Hank find out next episode and then show the conflict play out, potentially with Hank offering Walt yet another way out and Walt refusing it. Lets see what happens next week.
I’m almost scared to see what happens next week. It’s going to be something that will leave us hanging very tensely for 10 months. Eek.
I don’t think that would be in character for Hank even though the truth about Walt is going to make things very uncomfortable for him.
As good as this season has been, this is the one that sets the end game in motion… it primarily revolves around the scene with Walt trying to manipulate Jesse, where it looks like Jesse doesn’t bite.
On the points already being discussed:
Mike, in the cold open, had a begrudging smile when Walt was doing good, and the 'grimace' was definitely when he'd gone to far.
The Heisenberg bragging at the start leads to my wild-ass hypothesis with Jesse.
Jesse doesn’t bite on the manipulation, but he still wants to ‘show’ Walt. Walt has talked him up with the Phoenix crew as one of the best cooks on the planet, so he goes there. They only know him as ‘Heisenberg’, but Jesse lets something slip that leads them to Skyler (that explains all the scenes lately with both of them in it), and Skyler is either kidnapped or killed. That explains the heavy artillery that isn’t leaving town, and the ‘53’ in bacon - just like she used to do - in the cold open to the season.
Whether this is redemption or rampage remains to be seen…
I liked that read of the cold open better, but I think since Declan looking to the right at Mike cuts to Mike’s glance and expression, it probably is (begrudging) confirmation.
True story.
I was cooking a frozen pizza for dinner while watching the show tonight. A split second after Walt got the guy to say Heisenberg the pizza oven dinged as if to mark a correct answer.
Each incremental improvement is harder to come by i.e. going from 95 to 99% pure is easier than going from 99 to 99.1%, so Walt wasn’t necessarily being needlessly precise. Of course, Declan & co. might have not appreciated that significance.
I wasn’t assuming otherwise. But they can still review the activity logs for both phones, and would be likely to do so given that Walt’s call would show up on Mike’s phone immediately after the lawyer’s, and the DEA may even try for a tap on both those phones - first on Mike’s, given that he’s ‘missing’ after an arrest warrant (presumably) has been put out oh him. And when that phone stays dead for some time, Hank may want to tap Walt’s burner. Just the sort of follow-up work he did with the money-drop lawyer, when the main target, Mike, didn’t lead to anything.
One thing that’s really been bugging me - how was the DEA able to “bust” the lawyer, and subsequently confiscate the money? What would the charges be? All he was doing was putting cash into safety deposit boxes - there’s nothing illegal about that. Sure it’s suspicious, but they have no way of proving that the money is dirty. It seems the only link they have is that Mike formerly worked for Gus… ergo any money he has or earns in the future is obviously drug money and subject to confiscation? WTF?
Breaking Bad may be accurate on criminal interaction and psychology and the drug trade but they seem to make up whatever they need for the story to work when it comes to Legalities.
Like last week, a restraining order against the DEA?
It was probably a civil action as far as the money is concerned. The lawyer arrest part seems iffy.