Saying Walter White is “touchy about his pride” might be the understatement of the year!
Well, his plan was to escape in the middle of the night so no one would notice until morning… so if it had worked he would have had plenty of time to do whatever he was going to do next (which might well have been to turn himself into the cops immediately, tell them about the nazis, and tell them to for the love of god protect Andrea and Brock).
Maybe I’m just getting used to it, but I’ve found this last season to be much more palatable than season two. A while back, I had purchased the show, and we were catching up by watching three or four episodes a week. After season two, we stopped for almost a year before we had enough energy to jump back into the fray this summer.
Yeah, I think one reason is that my reaction was colored by what I’d seen before, the first time around. The second, it was colored by what happened after.
I think I liked Walt more back then. His intense anger, abusive language etc. seemed out of character for him. He was someone who’d borne many humiliations, and mostly in silence. He was a very tightly wound, controlled person.
In other words, I was looking for an explanation. What could make him feel such a violent hatred for this woman? That she’d betrayed him, intimately, in the past seemed like one explanation. Another seemed like it could be that he was deliberately driving her away.
I really think that he somehow felt emasculated at the party with Gretchen’s family. Like they were rich and hoity toity and he was just a working class schlub. Either they patronized him or he overheard something. That caused him to throw a massive hissy fit and leave Gretchen and quit the company.
At the start of the series, Walt and Skyler were friendly enough with the Schwartz’s they they were invited to a party and Walt came up with a meaningful funny gift. He had somewhat put it behind him until he, once again, felt belittled. This time by the offer of help.
On another note, it seems really silly that people would lose faith in a company just because one of the founders, who left the place nearly twenty years prior, ended up being a criminal. Would Apple shares tank if Wozniak ended up running a drug ring?
We don’t know what the real impact on Gray Matter was, but yeah, I wondered if that was kind of stretch. The Sorkin column does point out that Walt has been in recent contact with the Schwartzes - there was Elliott’s party and his subsequent meetings with Gretchen, plus the offer to pay for his cancer treatment - which might people look at askance at the Schwartzes. It could hurt the company if people lost faith in Elliott or he had to step down. But I am not sure Elliott’s story would hold up. Gray Matter is supposed to be a publicly traded company, which means a basic story about the company’s founding would be public and on file with the SEC. That would make it plain that Walt co-founded the company and it would probably show he contributed more than the name.
The AB failed to uphold their end of the kill Jesse bargain, Walt would know this because he taught Todd everything he knows about the business and Todd was anything but a star student. Walt knows Todd did not suddenly become a great cook.
The AB stole the majority of his money, the end result of all the death and drama in his life for the past what? 2 years?
My guess is that he is indeed going after them (like thats a huge stretch) He may use Gray Matter to funnel money to his family though. (more like attempt to use them for that purpose, I really dont think his family will see a penny of that money ever)
As to how he dies, it would be amusing if he had a coughing fit while standing off with the AB and falls hitting his head without a shot fired, Jesse never gets out, The AB finally WAKE THE FUCK UP and turn some cameras onto Jesse while he cooks, they tell him that if he helps them make a video that they can use to train cooks to his skill level they will kill him and let Brock live. Cut to Jesse balling his eyes out in both relief and horror…fade to black.
Penultimate Facebook recap is up. 
Which reminds me that during the episode I wondered if Skyler even remembered Lydia’s visit to the carwash until Todd brought it up.
How’s this for a twist: Walt’s falling out with E & G resulted from their deliberate attempts to bury data that Walt had produced which demonstrated that the novel drug they were working on caused lung cancer in animals. He threatens to expose them if they do not launder his money for him and provide Skyler with the best legal defense team imaginable.
Kinda late to go back to that now. It might’ve been a much smarter plan than cooking crystal meth!
forgot to clarify, Walt demanded a quick and painless death for Jesse.
That was before he found out Jesse was working with Hank. After he found out, he taunted Jesse with the disclose that he’d let Jane die.
My predictions:
Ted ends up with the money and Lydia.
Jesse ends up working for Flynn at the car wash.
Walter frames Elliot and Gretchen for the murder of the AB.
Stress causes Skyler to have a stroke, and she lives out her days listening to Marie’s mindless chatter.
An interview with Dave Porter, who composed the music for the show. I think this is an interesting comment - OK, partly because I said something sorta similar earlier in the thread:
I’ve been thinking sort of the same thing. Thesis: Walt. Antithesis: Heisenberg. Synthesis: Lambert.
In other words, Breaking Bad is an illustration of Hegelian dialectic. 
Walt should have the decency to give the gps coordinates to Marie so she give hank a proper burial. Maybe the sea could trace the bullets in hank & go
Ie to the Nazis
Interestingly, according to the Breaking Bad Insider Podcast (no future episode knowledge here, but spoilering just in case you don’t want any production-related information):The redux of Gray Matter was a suggestion by the teenager to whom episode 5.09 was posthumously dedicated. Vince was describing parts of the season to him and he said he wanted to know more about Walt’s experience with Gray Matter. The writers thought it was a good idea, so they incorporated it into the season arc.