This went over my head completely as I was watching (which bothers me, because I usually catch stuff like that).
When I told my wife about your brilliant comment, she was like, yeah, that’s what happened. She pointed out his tears as he said those things as evidence in favor of this interpretation. I’m buying it.
That was the most intense episode of BB I’ve seen. Like some others, I just discovered this show recently and binge watched it to catch up.
I"m predicting the flash forward in the first episode of this second half of the season (where Walt goes back to his home to get the ricin) ends in Walt using it to commit suicide.
It’s also one of the plant/decorations you see around Christmas…with poisonous berries. Not terribly poisonous (to humans), but I’m sure more thought was put into the toxicity of the berry then Vince’s girlfriends name or an X-Files reference (of which there are already several of in the series). That’s not something easily overlooked considering the Lily Of The Valley and the Ricin.
This episode could’ve been called The Tale of Two Phonecalls.
The contrast between the calls was heartbreaking. He was forced to say goodbye in the worst possible way, by pretending to be an even bigger monster than he is.
I actually dreaded logging on here, because I assumed a lot of people missed what was going on in that scene but I should have had more faith!
The thing is, death by ricin sounds agonizing and slow. He’d need to take it days before whatever he’s planning. If Walt intend to kill himself to avoid capture, he probably could’ve just made some cyanide or something. I think ricin would be more useful to poison someone unsuspecting.
You know what made me really sad? The way Skyler said “Hi” or whatever it was when she answered the phone. She was glad to hear from Walt. We haven’t heard anything like that tone of voice since, I’m guessing, somewhere early in season one.
Ok dumb question - what was Hank referring to when he said he was Asac Schrader
And I totally agree with needing to see Jesse kill Todd
I’m no genius but, honestly, I can’t believe anyone missed what Walt was doing. Even the guys on ‘Talking Bad’ seemed unsure about it.
Assistant Special Agent in Charge = ASAC
ASAC = Assistant Special Agent in Charge (right?)
Himself. He’s the Assistant Special Agent in Charge. It’s his title.
Ninja’d
Ninja’d
Thanks, Zoid &everybody. Appreciated
Watching the re-run…
Poor Gomie (Gomy?) 
That was an inspired song choice.
I had thought some about Hank’s comment about Jesse. It’s definitely true, for a DEA agent to have a “who cares” attitude about an informant is a moral failing. But it also highlights what I think is at least a multi-year tendency (at least by people on the various internet outlets discussing this show) to forgive and forget when it comes to Jesse. Because Jesse is “nice” or “bothered” by what he’s done or what has happened.
I can agree, Jesse has humanity while Walt mostly doesn’t. But Hank was also 100% right, Jesse is a murderer, period. He has killed people for his own benefit and for no other reason. He’s also a junkie, he’s peddled drugs to people in drug treatment. Jesse is only a good guy by comparison, but I do think people go way too far when they try to say Jesse is a good guy “in general”, because he really isn’t. If you brushed by a Jesse in real life, he’s likely to be the worst criminal you’d have ever been around in your life–a drug manufacturer, multiple murderer who has intentionally preyed on the weak and vulnerable.
Oh, and while we’re listing sad things: Hank being buried in the hole where the money was. There’s some painful irony for Walt.
All true. It’s easy to understand why people feel sympathy for Jesse - and I do, too, because he is clearly tormented about what he’s done and because he was looking for approval from perhaps the worst father figure in fiction - but that doesn’t mean he gets a pass on everything he’s done.
Walt started it all and bears a great deal of responsibility for Hank’s death. But Hank’s pride also put him in the ground. Hank knew his law enforcement career was over, but his pride demanded he at least bring Walt in as his final act. That pride lead him to ignore all norms of procedure, it lead him to get his friend Gomez killed and lead him to put an informant in harm’s way.
I really like Hank, Hank was stand up when he beat the shit out of Jesse. He didn’t fall back on all the ways police have to weasel out of charges like that, he acknowledged he was wrong and stood up like a man. Hank had a lot of integrity. But in the end he let his pride make him do things that set him up to get killed. If he had turned his investigation over to the DEA at really any point at all, it most likely would have been investigated to the point Walt would have been caught. It just wouldn’t have been Walt being caught by Hank.
Walt literally dug Hank’s grave.
(Ok, he dug it, filled it in, and the Nazis dug it again. Technicality.)
I thought last week’s was shoddy and I was getting nervous. I never should have doubted. This was a glittering work of art.
I am glad that they don’t go far very far valorizing Jesse. He may have a conscience, but it is a weak and self-serving one that really only kicks in when he isn’t busy. It’s a nice little inversion of “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”
Brilliant.
Yes, Walt staged that phone call and Skyler figured it out once he called her a bitch. That’s when her tone totally changed when she was talking to him and so Walt knew that he got his message across.
Amazing acting by Cranston and Gunn. I just re-watched that scene and their faces and voices were incredibly perfect.
So, who is Walt after? The Nazis are long gone. It’s just Todd and Jesse cooking but how is Walt going to know that or even where to find them? I guess that we’ll find out next time.
Absolutely. He had some choices to make when he walked out of that bathroom, and he pretty much made all the wrong ones. At the end of the day, he put his pride and his ego first. Same as Walt.