I meant it was strange to have a first day of class speech but then open the books to chapter 6, Ionic bonds. It could have also been the first day of the second semester and the first day of chemistry, not all HS classes are one year. But the divorce docs have shown a September birthday for Walt, so the second semester idea is wrong. But Walt being Walt, maybe he was just giving a little chemistry pep talk, the kids all seemed to have assigned seats and knew the class routine. Corvette boy was out of his spot.
I’m now convinced Walt was celebrating Mr. Lambert’s birthday at Denny’s, not his. This could make the show timeline well over the two years it appears to be if you use Walt’s 50th and 52nd birthdays. More like 2 1/2 years. That makes more sense, the Crystal Blue Persuasion montage would have taken a pretty long time to build up a pile of money that big. Then Walt had to exit the business, yada, yada, yada…
Again, there’s the issue of Holly. She was 18 months old when Walt took her in Ozymandias, and must have been born around three months after Walter’s 50th birthday (going by how pregnant Skyler was and how much story unfolds). So, if you want to add time, it really has to be after Ozymandias.
If Jane’s 27th b-day would have been April 2009, then Walt’s drink with Donald Margolis was in March 2009. This was soon after Walt sold the batch of meth to Gus on the day Holly was born. So figure she was born late Feb/early March 2009, about 5 months after the show started. That works with the comments about Skyler in the pilot being as flat as a washboard and the cancer doc wondering if the baby would ever show up.
Assuming Ozymandias took place in late Nov. 2010 based on the mountain snow in New Hampshire, Holly would have been about 18 months old so maybe the Amber Alert age works. Mr. Lambert probably spent Turkey Day, Xmas and New Years in the cabin. I’ll bet he had some wild celebrations. Figure the end of Granite State around late Feb 2011, not sure how long he took to get back to ABQ. Oh yes, I’m a geek but only for this show, the only TV I watch.
OK, that’s not bad. But then I want to know why we never see Walt celebrate his *real *52nd birthday. OK, maybe things were so bad for him at that point that he just forgot about it, but that doesn’t sound like Walt.
I really thought it was the *first *day of class. Why would you ask “what is chemistry?” after doing five chapters? It sounds a little strange to not say “open your books to Chapter One” in that case; but I remember several times having teachers who did not start us at the beginning of the textbook for whatever reason.
He coul d have been switching gears in class- perhaps the early chapters dealt with atomic structure, periodic table, basic types of reactions etc and now he’s reflecting that information and synthesizing it for the class. He’s now taking the material into a deeper understanding, that chemistry is the study of change.
Now, I think it’s more likely it’s early in the year or first day, but I could imagine a scenario where it being later works too.
ETA: Just for kicks (and because I’m avoiding work I need to do) I looked up a chem text for high school.
Part I Matter and Materials (ch 1-8)
Part II Chemical Change (ch 9-21)
Probably because we had already seen the Dennys 52 bacon bit in the flash forward. The cookout where Hank took his epic dump could have been Walt’s 52nd birthday celebration but I kind of doubt it.