I’m comparing it to other TV shows. And I agree, I don’t mind the Gray Matter stuff, aside from maybe the the likelyhood of Walt catching it on TV, but that doesn’t even bother me that much. I’m reminded how Walt caught the news of the explotion at the nursing home that killed three people. It was on a music station in his car.
It’s precisely because he wanted to know more, and Vince seemed to imply that they were granting his wish, that I think you’re wrong to predict GM won’t figure into the finale. We will find out in a few days, of course.
Yeah, this. I consider it the greatest TV show of all time, and probably three of its best episodes came during this “half” season (“Ozymandias”, of course; plus the first two that aired in August). But they have still made major missteps which seem all the more glaring given how good the show is.
I will never be able to swallow the Brock poisoning plotline, or their doubling down on it at the end of “Confessions” (an episode that up to that point had continued on the stellar heights of the two that preceded it).
I don’t think it makes sense to suddenly revisit Gray Matter, for reasons that have already been well laid out by many others in this thread.
And I also think it’s pretty sad continuity-wise that they have established Walt’s birthday as being in early September, but they have also said that “Granite State” represents Walt having stayed at the cabin for “three or four months” leading up to his going to the bar just days before his birthday. Um, there was tons of snow in every scene of him in NH, meaning it would have had to be snowy all summer. Yeah, don’t think so, not even in the NH mountains.
When did they actually establish that Walt’s birthday is in September?
The missing posters that Skyler puts up when Walt disappears during his “fugue state” seem to place his disappearance in April (at least according to the AMC site, as I’ll admit that I haven’t found a good screenshot of the poster from the actual episode). This happens about two months after his birthday (here is a timeline from Walt’s 50th to his 51st birthday that seems to make sense, more or less). If so, his birthday is in February, which fits with the snow.
Well, let’s not jump to conclusions until the show is over. It could be that Walt is celebrating his alias’s birthday after all or that he hides out in New England all spring and summer. I admit, it’s looking a bit unlikely, but there’s no way Vince Gilligan just happened to forget what time of year Walt’s b-day is. (And yes, I think it’s been well established that Walt’s birthday is in September.)
I’m seeing this around the web including Wikipedia and the BB Wiki, but I can’t recall it ever being actually stated on the show (although I could be wrong). Does anyone know where the September date comes from?
I don’t know about the birthday, but we saw his birthday party in the first episode. We also saw him teaching a class. So was there something to indicate that it was early in the school year?
After listening to the podcast, it’s pretty clear that while the writers knew approximately where they wanted to end up after the final 8 episodes, they had only a vague idea how to get there. The cancer teen made a suggestion and they thought it was a good one. That’s very different from something where they had originally intended to do X and then they changed to Y just to appease some guy. As far as we know, they would have come up with GM anyhow.
And speaking just for myself, I thought that GM showing up there was fantastic. Walt was totally defeated, he’d failed, he was at rock bottom, he had given himself up. Something had to happen to pull him out of that funk so he could drive back and get the machine gun, and his pride about GM fit perfectly. GM hasn’t shown up super-often over the course of the show but it’s shown up enough to be clear that it’s very very important to Walt.
To sort-of answer my own question, that class is when Walter made the speech about chemistry being the study of change. Again, I can’t remember the scene exactly, but it sounds like the kind of thing one might say on the first day of school. And the birthday party is shortly after that.
Yes, it DID sound like the first day of school…
I lived in Albuquerque, and it gets pretty cold there. It was early enough in the school year that it wasn’t too chilly yet. No snow, no coats. It may be in the Southwest, but it’s at 5000-7000 feet elevation.
But he was in New Hampshire, trudged through the snow wearing a parka to go to the bar, made the phone calls to Flynn and the DEA, had the drink and then a few days later was in Albuquerque for his birthday. It didn’t look like New Hampshire in September.
I think you misinterpreted what they said. The teen may have been the inspiration for the decision, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only reason.
Personally, now that I’m invested in it, I’m happy if they’re going to actually show us what happened between Gretchen and Walt. I’m betting it’ll be more substantial than what some people here think.
So maybe he did change his ID birth date too after all.
If there really was some sort of treachery involved by Gretchen and/or Elliot that ‘pushed’ Walt out of GM…why would G and E invite him to his birthday party, and why would Walt and Sky attend? I’d have to go back and watch the episodes, but do we know if there had been any contact between the two couples over the years? Or was Walt invited to the party specifically because Sky contacted G & E to ask for help in paying his medical bills.
I can’t imagine why Walt would go to the party if there really had been some sort of under-handed move to push him out; surely the scene at the restaurant was just Walt venting at the unfairness of it all.
No, I think there was some mis-understanding between Walt and Gretchen, and Walt, ego/pride bruised, just bailed. I’m leaning more towards GM not really playing much of a part in the final at all.
I’ve been wondering if maybe Walt doesn’t even use the big-ass gun to shoot anybody, but instead uses it as part of a set-up to sic the cops on the Nazis. Seems a bit too obvious to have Walt start shooting a gun we saw him buy og knows how many episodes.
I for one wish the show had shown more chemistry stuff. I loved the little MacGyver / Yeah, Bitch! Science! moments, and think the show would have been even better (if that’s possible) with Walt showing us more of his ‘brilliant chemist’ side.
And for heaven’s sake, please please please just let Jesse die already. What a poor, tortured soul. Living with the guilt of Tomas, Jane, Gale, Andrea etc…It’d be too much for him; if Jane dying next to him while they slept was enough to send him into an emotional tail spin, Andrea being shot in front of him will send him into a worse-than-death downward spiral of soul-destroying destruction. I can not imagine *any *scenario that has Jesse ‘living happily ever after’. Not with Andrea dead.
Maybe Jesse decides to kill himself, somehow taking out Todd (and/or the Nazis) along with him?
In my opinion, we don’t know for certain 1) whether it really is Walt’s or just his alias’s b-day and 2) that only a few days have elapsed from the ending of “Granite State” and the Denny’s breakfast. Based on the fairly substantial coat Walt is wearing at Denny’s, I’m going to wager that it’s not really his 52nd birthday but rather his alias’s 52nd birthday. That’s just a wild guess, though.
Why does everyone think it was only a few days?
I’m fine with thinking he took a few weeks or months figuring out where everyone was, lining up the deal to get the gun, setting up a trust fund for Holly (fuck Flynn), getting an unmarked car, and rolling back home.
I read an interview with Peter Gould (writer/director of the episode) and he kind of suggested he didn’t keep track of the birthday. He said he pictured Walt being there for a couple of months, which I think is how you have to take it. They made it clear a fair mount of time had passed.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense for Walt to do the 52 thing if it’s not really his birthday; that has no meaning to anyone else. But I guess I could accept it if I had to.
He’s in a big hurry because the police are at his heels, and at the Albuquerque Denny’s he said he’d driven 30 hours nonstop from New Hampshire. There was no reason for him to make that up, and it appeared to be true. He looked like crap and his clothes were rumpled and sweaty.
Except that when he was in the bar in New Hampshire, he only had the $100,000 he was going to send to Flynn. He would have needed some of that to buy a car to get to New Mexico and more to buy the gun. Perhaps he lived on what was left but for months?
Maybe he did it in an ironic, wistful way. Reflecting that this is who he has become. His new name, his new birthday, but still trying to make it feel normal.
Nitpick: he never says he just drove 30 hours. The waitress asks how far it is and he says 30 hours if you only stop for gas. I agree, he’s suggesting that’s what he just did, but he didn’t actually say it.
I have to say, in a show as tightly plotted as this, I’ll be disappointed if they just forgot when Walt’s b-day was.