# Breaking Bad 5.8 "Gliding Over All" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 3, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506 "2012-09-03T01:55:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/201 "2012-09-04T10:16:29Z")
When I watched it, I thought the book reveal was extremely weak, but if it was implied way back when that Gale gave Walt the book, even if it wasn’t shown, that pretty much removes my criticism. Gale is certainly the sort who wouldn’t gift a book without inscribing it. Though I’d think that when Walt saw the notebook, the first thing he’d have done is burn that page, if not whole book, and I don’t quite buy that he simply didn’t notice the inscription. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/202 "2012-09-04T10:20:15Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > About the Gretchen thing. Do we know that her maiden name is Black? No and as far as I can tell it’s all just down to a few people on Reddit speculating wildly. They’ve never established any connection between Gretchen and Walt Whitman as far as I can remember. We have a known Walt Whitman fan whose initials are GB well established in the show. It makes no sense for it to be anything other than a present from Gale. What is interesting is that on re-watching it looks like possibly the page where the dedication was written was stuck together, Hank pauses and then has to flick his fingers again to separate that page, so perhaps Walt never noticed the dedication and thats why he felt it was safe to keep the book. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/203 "2012-09-04T10:22:10Z")
I also noticed that the pages seemed to possibly be stuck together. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/204 "2012-09-04T10:25:14Z")
> [@jrepka](#): > > In the screen grab, I count 16 stacks on one edge and 12 on the other, so 192 individual stacks. It appears to be about 2 feet high. > > On the page with the reference photo, they state that a 1’ stack contains roughly 3000 individual bills, so the pallet has 6000 x 192 or 1.152 million individual bills. If Gilligan’s prop master says that the total is about 80 million, then the average of the denominations is about $70, meaning that there are _way_ more fifties and hundreds than ones, fives, or tens… Not sure what reference photo this is talking about, but 3000 bills in a single inch seems really, really high. Is each individual wrapped stack of bills supposed to be one of the 1’ stacks you’re referring to? If so, I would think that the wrapped stacks of bills are following the standard convention of 100 bills per stack. Makes it easy to count how much you have. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/205 "2012-09-04T10:28:07Z")
I rewatched , and it’s possible that’s what they were going for, but I don’t think so. At least, it didn’t _look_ like it to me, but the foley guy did add a sound effect that _could_ have been the pages peeling apart, but could also have been an unusually loud page flicking. ---
**Author:** ![Luk3112](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a9adbd/32.png) [@Luk3112](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luk3112)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/206 "2012-09-04T10:39:42Z")
> [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](#): > > Didn’t like the ending at all. Hank doesn’t suspect Walt at all the first time he hear of “W.W.”, but seeing it in the book makes it all clear somehow? Not as clever as I’ve come to expect from this show. I thought this at first too. But don’t you think Walt’s over interest with Hank’s lab notes maybe raised his suspicions? Not at first, but after seeing W.W, knowing Walt is a chemistry graduate and is having clouded mysterious problems between the family relationship. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Luk3112](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a9adbd/32.png) [@Luk3112](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luk3112)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/207 "2012-09-04T10:53:26Z")
Am I the only person that think’s this season has gotten a bit too far fetched. The complete smoothness in which everything runs, perhaps this is a reflection upon Walt’s more developed success as a kind of drug lord, but the ease in which they got the 8 prisoner’s stabbed to death, the speed that everything’s happening, the ease of them just taking over all the houses acting as pest control. Maybe Im relating too much to Prison Break, that was much more slow paced and realistic, the scene in particular im referring too is where they’re digging for something in somebodies garage, anyone know what Im talking about? Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/208 "2012-09-04T12:15:41Z")
Still reading through this thread, but thought others could benefit from this infographic with regard to how much money was in the storage unit. > **[Architizer Journal: The Official Architizer Blog](https://architizer.com/blog/)** > > Inspiration and Tools for Architects It looks to be more than a pallet’s worth of bills, spread out over a larger footprint. Compare what you saw in the episode to the pic of a perfectly stacked $100 million, factor in the fact it was of varying denominations, and my guess is $40 million. ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/209 "2012-09-04T13:12:15Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > I thought of that, but Walt could make up some plausible explanation, like he befriended Gale because he was surrounded by criminals and Gale was the only normal person he could reach out to. Gale reciprocated the friendship because he felt sorry for Walt, or thought he had a cute ass or something. Hank thought Gale was Heisenburg, but when Hank gave him Gale’s note book to review that he didn’t think Gale was Heisenburg, that there had to be someone more of a mastermind. Then when Hank asked who was WW Walt said “you got me” but shrugged it off as it has to be Walt Whitman, and aluded to a poetry passage in the notebook. So he pointed to his own guilt. Hiding in plain sight just didn’t work this time. ---
**Author:** ![zoog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7ea924/32.png) [@zoog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoog)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/210 "2012-09-04T13:37:16Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I don’t know. It’s printing rather than handwriting so it’d be much easier for them to appear the same. But I don’t think they do look all that similar. The writing in the notebook is much straighter and more precise, something you’d expect from Gale. The writing in the notebook was on ruled paper, so it’s easier to write straighter on that than on the unlined title page of a book. It looks pretty much like the same hand on both pages to me. Cool as it would be if they pulled that stunt with the book having been a gift from Gretchen, I think we’re reaching on that one. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/211 "2012-09-04T13:43:13Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > Quick question, though—I’ve never been clear on this despite a couple of rewatchings and fairly close attention to our discussions. Is it clearly established that Walt is in ABQ in the opening scene of this season? It hasn’t been established per se, but it was the same Denny’s that we saw in the season 4 premiere. It’s possible that they just used the same restaurant and intended it to stand in as another location, but that’s probably a stretch. It’s the same shooting location (not particularly hidden) and Walt meets a weapons dealer who appears (also based on season 4) to be based out of ABQ. So I’m assuming that he was in ABQ in that scene. ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/212 "2012-09-04T14:22:08Z")
> [@unwashed\_brain](#): > > Still reading through this thread, but thought others could benefit from this infographic with regard to how much money was in the storage unit. > > [Architizer Journal: The Official Architizer Blog](http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/26262/were-screwed/) > > It looks to be more than a pallet’s worth of bills, spread out over a larger footprint. Compare what you saw in the episode to the pic of a perfectly stacked $100 million, factor in the fact it was of varying denominations, and my guess is $40 million. I see a pic from this has already been posted and discussed earlier. Oh well, the rest of the infographic is enlightening as well 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/213 "2012-09-04T14:48:41Z")
> [@Luk3112](#): > > Am I the only person that think’s this season has gotten a bit too far fetched. The complete smoothness in which everything runs, perhaps this is a reflection upon Walt’s more developed success as a kind of drug lord, but the ease in which they got the 8 prisoner’s stabbed to death, the speed that everything’s happening, the ease of them just taking over all the houses acting as pest control. > > Maybe Im relating too much to Prison Break, that was much more slow paced and realistic, the scene in particular im referring too is where they’re digging for something in somebodies garage, anyone know what Im talking about? > > Thoughts? Just because they pulled back and let 3 months pass in a montage, doesn’t make the show less realistic, in my opinion. I think we’ve gotten so used to this close focus, one year passing in 4.5 seasons, that we’re a bit spoiled (in a good way). And I’m just going to let that comparison to Prison Break lie there. I enjoyed the first season of Prison Break, but it was anything but realistic, deliberately paced or thoughtful. It was good-enough brainless popcorn fare. While I think Gilligan could make the minutia of Walt’s life interesting over 20 seasons, the fact is that he’s wrapping up this universe and large jumps in narrative time are necessary. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/214 "2012-09-04T15:00:35Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > From what I can remember of Season 3 Hank knew Heisenberg as the master chemist cook, not as the criminal boss. It would be reasonable for Hank to think that Walt is Heisenberg, but that there is some other criminal boss on top of him ordering the killings. That could be. But he doesn’t have to go all the way to Walt being the actual cook as much as the man who developed the recipe. Any way this goes, Hank will now be looking closely at Walt. As mentioned in last week’s thread, Hank may figure out that the call to warn Mike came from the vicinity of his office. That and other clues will have him putting Walt under the microscope. Walt may even dream up some fantastical stories to explain his role, but I don’t see Hank being dissuaded that easily. The scary part is that Walt could get out of this by knocking off Skyler and Hank. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/215 "2012-09-04T15:11:32Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Theres a bit mental leap from thinking your geek brother in law is a meth cook to thinking he’s a serial murdering crime lord. Not anymore. The facts don’t support the idea that Heisenberg is just a cook, and if Hank looks for evidence of that, he won’t find any. The most obvious fact is that since the blue meth appeared a year ago, all the competition has been eliminated. Hank did just describe the guy as a monster because he had 10 people murdered and then he realized Walt is that person. Hank knows now that Walt’s story about the gambling money was a lie and if he hasn’t already, Hank will figure out soon that Walt played along with his investigation into the Fring to keep tabs on his activities. He’ll probably grasp the meaning of the second cell phone and I imagine he’ll feel that it takes a skilled criminal to sustain all of this deceit for a year (not knowing how close Walt often came to blowing it). Hank realizes that Walt and Gale were working for Fring, Fring is dead (as is Gale), and Fring’s operation was just liquidated. All that’s left is Heisenberg. And if he puts two seconds of thought into the name Heisenberg he’ll realize it’s kind of an obvious alias for a chemistry teacher and typical for Walt. If Hank understands Walt is involved this major meth operation, I see no reason to think he’ll hesitate to believe that Walt would kill, too. And taking the scene at face value, Hank has been chasing Heisenberg all series and the line they reused was “You got me.” It just doesn’t work the same way if Hank lacks a full grasp of what Walt has done and who he’s become because that would mean he doesn’t really _have_ him. The big leap was understanding that Walt wasn’t a meek chemistry teacher, he was a duplicitious guy capable of turning to drug manufacturing, criminal enterprise, and murder. Hank finally made the leap in the last moment of that episode. ---
**Author:** ![jrepka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@jrepka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrepka)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/216 "2012-09-04T15:18:14Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > About the Gretchen thing. Do we know that her maiden name is Black? I can’t find that anywhere on the web other than people speculating about this episode. > > Also, I can see eccentric Gale using the British spelling of “honour” but why would Gretchen use it? I did a quick Google search last night for “gretchen black breaking bad” and the only results that referred to the maiden name thing were on forum postings. I think this rumor started a few weeks ago when one of the co-hosts on the Afterbuzz podcast called her Gretchen Black b/c he was confused by the whole Schwartz + White = Gray explanation for the name of the corporation. I’ll admit I was confused by the sudden appearance of the copy of Leaves of Grass, and I was glad to read that others could pinpoint its original appearance in S3:E6 right after Gale recited “The Learned Astronomer” for Walt. If anyone can come up with evidence (it would have to be from S1 or S2) that Gretchen’s maiden name is black, _or even if her maiden name starts with “B”_ I’ll be both surprised and grateful. ---
**Author:** ![Richard020](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@Richard020](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard020)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/217 "2012-09-04T15:21:25Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > Rather careless of Walt to hold onto that book. Or at least not rip out the page with Gale’s note on it. > > I guess Walt broke off his business relationships with Lydia, Todd, and the Phoenix crew without much ado? Yes, he sent them an email, “Nice working with you. Bye.” ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/218 "2012-09-04T15:52:23Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Not sure what reference photo this is talking about, but 3000 bills in a single inch seems really, really high. > > Is each individual wrapped stack of bills supposed to be one of the 1’ stacks you’re referring to? If so, I would think that the wrapped stacks of bills are following the standard convention of 100 bills per stack. Makes it easy to count how much you have. Pssst. 1’ = 1 foot, not 1 inch. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/219 "2012-09-04T15:55:02Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > Pssst. 1’ = 1 foot, not 1 inch. Spinal Tap moment there. While it’s entertaining to think of Hank finally grasping the truth about Walt based on a misunderstanding, there’s nothing in the Breaking Bad Wiki or on Wikipedia about Gretchen’s maiden name being Black and I’m sure that information would be in there if it came up in an episode. It would also make several Gale and Leaves of Grass scenes confusing and totally misleading. Maybe you can imagine what this concept would’ve looked like in the writers room: GILLIGAN: “Ok, so we’ve established that Gale was a Walt Whitman nut and had an unspoken student’s crush on Walt. We had a scene where he gave Walt a book of Whitman’s poetry and Walt read it, and a scene where Hank and Walt went over his notes and found a doodle of Whitman and a quote from Leaves of Grass dedicated to W.W. So now, in the 2012 finale, we’re going to have Hank go into Walt’s bathroom and discover a copy of Leaves of Grass that looks just like the one Gale gave to Walt. It’ll have an inscription that says ‘To my other W.W.’ and a quote from the same verse that appeared in Gale’s notes.’ It’s from G.B. Hank flashes back to the time he reviewed those notes with Walt and Walt said ‘You got me.’ End of season.” WRITERS: “Wow, killer stuff!” GILLIGAN: “And then in our 2013 season, it turns out that years ago, Gretchen actually gave Walt an identical copy of Leaves of Grass and inscribed it with the same verse and she initialed it G.B., because even though it’s never come up before, her maiden name was Black. We’ll figure out who her other W.W. was later.” WRITERS: “…Vince, have you been smoking the prop meth again?” ---
**Author:** ![Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/220 "2012-09-04T16:06:51Z")
Black was my mistake. Schwartz = black in German, Schwartz = black for the purpose of naming Gray Matter. Cut me some slack, Gretchen and Elliot have been out of the show for a few seasons now.:smack: I also remembered the scene with Gale reciting the poem as Walt either finishing the recitation or pinning Walt Whitman’s name at the end in a “I’m a fan, too” way. I don’t suppose the scene itself would lie though. Or would it… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506.md?page=12)