I was trying to think of a way he could invest the money in Gray Matter, but he really can’t without laundering it. There’s no way to make that happen now. I think Breen11 may be onto something here: the interview reminded him that the Blue Sky meth is his Gray Matter and he’ll want to take it (and the money) back. What the heck he would do with it if he had it, I don’t know.
This brings up something I think a lot of people have forgotten. Everyone talks about Walt’s loyalty to family, but remember that he lost his teaching job because he made a pass at Carmen.
Why launder it? Open a new checking account with his new identity. Dump 100K (how about a million?) in it and donate it to the new charity (or Grey Matter itself). Then once they’ve spent they’ve made a big deal in the media about the big donation and they’ve spent all the money he can out himself (close to when he’s dying) and that should make them pretty well fucked since they’ll have to return all the money. It also be a big scandal for them (building rehab centers with drug money…Heisenberg’s drug money…the person they were started the rehab centers because of)
That Todd-Lydia scene gave me flashbacks of my most uncomfortable dates in high school.
Walt in the opening reminded me of Hitler in his bunker. The war is lost, but he’s still ordering imaginary armies around.
Jesse is cursed, it seems. Everything he does always makes things worse.
The police and the DEA were sure doing a lousy job guarding Skyler, if the Nazis could just walk in like that. Why was she even still at the house?
Oh, and OK, Todd is a complete psycho. Christ on a pogo stick. I’m officially scared shitless of him now.
Staying in the meth business, keeping Jesse around and killing an innocent woman is already making their lives harder. As Jack said, they won the lottery. They could be on some beach sipping margaritas by now. Todd (who is effectively calling the shots in the Nazi gang now, although Og only knows why they’re listening to him) is making the same mistakes as Walt. He’s in the empire business. He could have gotten out with his millions, but he wants to be king, and he’s making poor decisions and taking unnecessary risks. Who’s to say he won’t keep doing that? I think hubris will be his downfall, and a lot quicker than it was for Walt.
The blue meth still being around is the clincher that makes Walt go back, I think. He’ll certainly want to know WTF is going on, if nothing else.
No one else has mentioned this, but kudos to Walt Jr.
For one moment I feared that he might go along with Walt’s plan for shipping the money and Walt would end up also getting Jr. in trouble with the law.
I know that it would be unlikely and out of character for Jr. to cooperate, but you never know what writer’s may do and it would have fit with the idea of Walt’s plans for his family crashing down around him.
I’ll also add that trying to embroil his son in his activities makes Walt even more of a bastard.
After Skyler told him she was cheating on him, yes.
They weren’t guarding her. They were doing surveillance. They don’t really care what happens to her if she doesn’t help them get Walt.
He’s in the trying to get laid business. But it’s still not a smart decision.
Flynn. 
But yes, for the second episode in a row he was the one who stood up and did the right thing.
Kudos to Vince Gilligan for somehow making Lydia even more loathsome than Todd. I was half expecting him to tell Jesse “It puts the Ben & Jerry’s on its skin or else it gets the hose again.”
I thought there was some ambiguity as to whether that was deliberate on Walt’s part. He’s certainly never been shown as interested in anyone else but Skyler (whether she was into it or not).
That seems to be the circle of life.
Don Eladio could have walked away but he wanted an empire. When he got too greedy Gus killed him (yes, there was some history there, but still).
Gus could have walked away, but he was in the empire business and Walt killed him so he could have it all.
Walt got into the empire business and now look at him.
Now it’s Todd. Eventually Todd will get too big for his own good and someone else will bump him out or kill him after they steal the recipe like Gus tried to do to Walt near the beginning when they hired on Gale.
Skyler goes to her lawyer now that Todd has tipped her off to Lydia’s importance. How did Lydia pay for her carwash? Skyler is an accountant she’ll have a record if it was a credit card. Or maybe security footage of her rental car. The DA told her to rack her brain to remember something they could use.
I’m guessing that Jack is secretly Todd’s father and can’t bring himself to kill him. But Todd is clearly manipulating Jack into doing everything he suggests, and not really trying all that hard. And Jack isn’t stupid. Do we know if Jack is a sibling of Todd’s mother or father?
Jesse is still reckless, if he really wanted to be killed, he should have charged them when caught. He is uncontrollably impulsive.
Walt is as good as in cuffs, apparently being only a few steps ahead of the police. Maybe he can go back and get his barrel since they don’t know where he came from, but not likely. He had no plan.
The Gray Matter people insulted Walt’s pride. Whether he revenges himself with damaging their reputation or violence remains to be seen, but they have been a thorn in Walt’s side for a long, long time.
That Charlie Rose would discuss the trademark color of meth is not really believable. But that tips him off to Jesse still being alive and Walt being double crossed.
Good on Flynn for tellling Walt to drop dead already.
Are we really supposed to believe that Todd is doing all this just for the chance the get into Lydia’s pants? That’s some weak sauce motivation, psycho or not. If he’s in it for the empire, I might at least believe it to an extent. The kid is ambitious.
She has a job with Madrigal.
We don’t. It’s hard to care.
That’s what all the evidence says- from the tea mug to the way he talked to her at their meeting to Uncle Jack’s razzing.
If he is able to take back whats his, I see him fleeing to Mexico & keeps cooking. Having his Gray Matter.
I dont blame Walt for trying to make a pass @ her. I would of. But Walt made a pass @ her cause he was pissed @ Skyler for banging Ted.
Yeah. Maybe I’m just in denial.
Todd and the Nazis are displaying some awful decision-making all-round. Jack had the right idea. They have their millions, time to get out of Dodge. And Todd just sort of… changed their minds? How did he even do that, some Jedi mind trick?
At least some of the goons should be thinking “screw this, I’m getting my share and splitting”.
And (again, psycho or not) the blue meth and everyone associated with it is on the radar of every cop and DEA agent in the Southwest right now, if not in the country. Is this the right time to risk being connected to the product? At least Lydia should know better. Those Czechs must be twisting her thumbs awfully hard. Heck, whoever those Czechs are, even they should know it’s time to lay low, if it’s on the news that the product has been found in Europe.
That’s the second time the show has used a perfectly-timed TV bit as a plot point. I didn’t like it. Agree with others who’ve said that reading about Grey Matter in the paper would have been less contrived – but more difficult to film, so there’s that, I guess. As an impetus to get Walt off his ass and back to ABQ, okay then. Count me in as doubting he’ll go after Gretchen and her husband.
Also didn’t like that Todd and crew were able to get in and out of the White house without being seen. Hard to believe there’s only one police car watching the place.
I think I’ll appreciate this episode more after seeing the finale. It did do a good job reminding us of how dirty the drug business is. We haven’t seen much of that since Patty the Daytime Hooker dropped an ATM machine on her boyfriend.
It’s funny how Todd is the only one who lets her do the “we’ll talk like this” nonsense, instead of coming over to her table. Mike and Walt could see that she’s a complete flake, but Todd is too immature to get it.
At one point I thought he was cozying up to get to her buyer… but yeah, since then, they’ve made it like he really has a thing for her. Especially with the lipstick.
Pretty sure the question was: How did Lydia pay for her carwash, in cash or with a credit card? If a credit card, Skyler could probably find out who she is.
I’m almost positive she paid in cash, though.
I was guessing after the previous episode (with Walt’s “death” scene after Hank is shot, and the reflection of multiple Walt’s where one has a bullet hole in the forehead) that part of Walt had died, and I though it was the Heisenberg persona. Guess I should have known that when I think something will happen, the exact opposite is what actually happens.
Heisenberg, the monster from the Id, still seems to be around in force, and I think it’s the milquetoast chemistry teacher who kicked the bucket once and for all.
God I love this show.
Walt straightens out his Heisenberg hat, shoves wads of bills into his pockets, and heads out. I immediately think “Dude, seriously? You’re going to walk 8 miles into town in snow, and I can see a bit of wind, with no real head covering and no gloves or mitts”? Walt goes back into the cabin.
A couple of weeks or a month later, Walt goes out to the gate just to wait for the resupply truck. He is wearing gloves, has his hood pulled up, and is wearing a toque underneath that.
I don’t know about the chemistry, but they sure as hell got the living in cold places learning curve right.