I think that was from last week, but I liked it, too.
He’s dead. I’m not sure if he fell over at the end of the scene, but he knew he was finished. In any event Walter was not going to leave that scene before Mike died even though he was horrified by that impulsive and pointless murder. I did love Mike’s last line and last request: “Shut the fuck up and let me die in peace.”
I’m watching some of the goodies at the AMC site now, and man, Walt was loving every moment of that speech he’d prepared. “The New York Yankees?” “Classic Coke?” That’s Heisenberg as a king, a captain of industry. That was the sound of a man spinning his own legend. Too bad for Walt he can’t live in the fictions he creates.
I agree it would be out of character for Walt to leave without making sure Mike was dead. I’m not sure Walt’s all that horrified except at his own mistake. The whistling while he worked showed he’s become a total sociopath.
By “his own mistake,” do you mean anything other than shooting Mike because Mike made him angry? Look at the expression on his face after Mike drove away and crashed the car. Or for that matter, consider his apologetic jabbering during that last scene and the fact that he appeared to grant Mike’s last request. I’m not predicting a permanent change in Walt’s behavior or anything, but he did appear to be genuinely upset that he shot Mike just because Mike had (accurately) criticized a bunch of his mistakes.
Well that’s what I was thinking, maybe. The point I’m discerning is that Walt isn’t upset about killing someone, he was upset that he did it without thinking it through first.
One other thing about Mike’s bug-out bag: Walt now has it, the money in it, and the fake IDs that are in there. They’re both bald at this point, so Walt could perhaps pass as Mike. It could figure in later on, if/when Walt is trying to get out of Dodge.
I agree with that, but I’d expand it. There’s no question Walt is no longer upset by the act of killing itself. But here, he not only killed someone he knew without more than a couple of seconds’ thought, he did it when the person was not a threat in any way and hadn’t done anything other than make him angry.
We didn’t actually see Walt take the bag. He certainly could, but Mike was significantly older than Walt and it might make for a dodgy fraud. I don’t think Walt could pass for 65ish.
I dunno—I get the impression that it’s not an act. Todd strikes me as being a person of mediocre intelligence who has acquiesced to the fact that he will have to take a subservient role in life. After all, most of us do. Very few individuals are fortunate enough to get to be the string pullers in society, even those of us who are more intelligent and better educated than Todd is. And for the most part, we largely accept this as a simple fact of life and don’t let it bother us.
The photo I noticed was one of Mike in the park. So if Hank needed a reminder of where Mike might be when he’s not at home, the photo may have reminded him.
What about the photos on the easel in Hank’s office? I couldn’t make those out at all. Walt was looking at them.
The ricin is behind a wall outlet. The only person who knows it’s there is Walt. Nobody else is going to get to it (especially not a toddler). The ricin will probably be back in play, but not by accident.
Even if by some stretch of the imagination, Skyler or Walt Jr. have cause to remove that cover, they’ll think it’s cocaine or meth – they won’t think it’s poison. I can’t see Skyler or Junior playing handyman anyway. They haven’t so far.
After casually killing the kid (following a friendly wave!) his first acknowledgment of the “awkwardness” of the act is a shit-eating grin aimed at Jesse (the clearly most bothered one of all) with a “shit happens, huh?!” comment. He only begins claiming to be “sorry” after he is called to task for what he did–and his protestations are hardly convincing.
Watch his face during the cook with Walt. The show is carefully leaving his expressions open between the kind of character you describe and a cynical, calculating sociopath who has a knack (as sociopaths do) for telling people exactly what they want to hear before killing them.
They don’t have to come back for Jesse to care enough that hurting any kid is a bad thing.
Curious toddlers are much more capable of finding stuff that they are not looking for. A plastic outlet cover will deter most toddlers…but did you see Holly munching down bigtime on Skyler’s bracelet a couple of episodes ago?
I loved this so much. The Yankees comparison was simple egotistm on Walt’s part, nevermind how non-Yankees fans may feel about the team (plus: George Steinbrenner). The Coca-Cola quote was just breathtaking. Really, substitute the actual product back in there and Walt said “Do you really want to live in a world without the best possible crystal meth?” Not “Don’t you want to sell the best crystal meth?” “Do you really want to live” without it.
Walt is the only person in the Breaking Bad world - maybe the only fictional character ever - who would even think this. We’ve seen Gale and Jesse take pride in their work because it was their work, but in the real world and even in fiction, drug kingpins usually view a higher quality product as means to an end in terms of money or power. Who else would see 99-percent pure crystal meth* as a pinnacle of human achievement because it’s about as pure as it can be? Walt views purer crystal meth as an end in itself because it’s the expression of his chemistry genius. It’s like George Mallory saying he wanted to climb Everest “Because it’s there.” He even rounded to the tenths place. He didn’t say 99 percent, he said 99.1 percent!
And having just watched this scene again, look at his response when Declan says “So what?” First he shrugs as if he’s a little incredulous anyone would need to ask, and then makes the Yankees and Coca-Cola comparisons. I’d assumed his speech to Declan was planned, and parts of it kind of had to be, but maybe this part wasn’t. This part feels like Walt’s honest opinion and not just a sales pitch.
*Incidentally every time Walt and Jesse talk about 99-percent purity I wait for someone to make Dr. Bronner comparison. It’s never happened, has it? I guess there aren’t a lot of people in the drug trafficking world who would make that joke.
That’s what they do. Find a nursing mother that still wears earrings or necklaces. Besides, that’s quite a bit different then unscrewing a cover plate on an outlet. The ricin isn’t accessible without a screwdriver or some other tool. Skyler, OTOH…
