# 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:** 5
**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 3, 2012, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/81 "2012-09-03T04:54:59Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > What was surprising, however, was that Gale had written a message incriminating Walt inside the front flap. There was no reason for Gale to believe that that message would be incriminating in any way. Just a few lines and some initials. He never thought that anyone would get possession of his lab notes or if they did that they’d have any reason to compare them to a book in the possession of Walt unless they already had other evidence against him. He didn’t think that Walt would have it in his bathroom and that someone in law enforcement - someone who had also somehow seen the lab notes - would be in that bathroom and randomly pick it up, see the note, and make the connection. I’m not sure he even knew that Walt’s brother-in-law was a DEA agent. ---
**Author:** ![Tarwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/82 "2012-09-03T05:00:02Z")
Yeah, I didn’t mean that he had intentionally incriminated Walt. He had no way of knowing that a simple inscription would, in the fairly distant future, reveal Walt as Heisenberg. But it’s incriminating, nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/83 "2012-09-03T05:00:40Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > There was no reason for Gale to believe that that message would be incriminating in any way. Just a few lines and some initials. He never thought that anyone would get possession of his lab notes or if they did that they’d have any reason to compare them to a book in the possession of Walt unless they already had other evidence against him. > > He didn’t think that Walt would have it in his bathroom and that someone in law enforcement - someone who had also somehow seen the lab notes - would be in that bathroom and randomly pick it up, see the note, and make the connection. > > I’m not sure he even knew that Walt’s brother-in-law was a DEA agent. Which leads us back to my first post in this thread: it’s the little things that get ya. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/84 "2012-09-03T05:06:08Z")
I was wondering if anyone here (or elsewhere on the internet) has guesses on how much money that was in the storage locker. I was surprised by the size. I knew that Walt had set it up so that business was lucrative, but there was still the bottleneck of there’s only so much product him and Todd could produce at a time, especially in the mobile lab. I’m not nitpicking, I’m just curious about how the financials stack out. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/85 "2012-09-03T05:07:33Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > I was wondering if anyone here (or elsewhere on the internet) has guesses on how much money that was in the storage locker. I was surprised by the size. I knew that Walt had set it up so that business was lucrative, but there was still the bottleneck of there’s only so much product him and Todd could produce at a time, especially in the mobile lab. I’m not nitpicking, I’m just curious about how the financials stack out. Well, me for one. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I was wondering at how much money was in that storage unit. If you do a web search, you can find illustrations of $100 million stacked on a pallet about four or five feet high. So the messier pile in the storage unit could have been fifty million or so (given that they weren’t all $100 bills). ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/86 "2012-09-03T05:16:04Z")
Wonder if Walt will wind up using the ricin on Hank that he didn’t use on Lydia I think Hank will question Jesse next season but he will only rat out Walt if he finds out how Walt was involved re Jane & Brock. What hard evidence does Bank have against Walt? Damn this is gonna be a long wait til those final 8 episodes ---
**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 3, 2012, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/87 "2012-09-03T05:18:15Z")
I’m trying to remember if Skyler gave the total weight of that stack or if she just gave the weight of one bill. If she gave the total weight you could come up with absolute minimums and maximums assuming the bills were all ones or all twenties. You might even be able to make some educated guesses based on a typical sale amount and what different combinations of bills were likely to used in making a purchase and therefore what the distribution of denominations might be in that pile. ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/88 "2012-09-03T05:20:36Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > I don’t like this. When did Gale give Walt the book? Offscreen? In the two days they worked together? I went back and watched all the Gale scenes on NetFlix, and no scene with the book. > > If this is really it (an off-screen gift of a book that has never been seen before or since) then that is really weak and way less than I expect from Gilligan. > > I would take it all back, of course, if someone could point to an earlier scene with the book. Earlier this season Walt pulls out the copy of Leaves of Grass and sort of looks at it and grunts. Gale had quoted a passage to him last season. I don’t think we ever got any actually gifting of the book from Gale to Walt, but for me that doesn’t matter, because we already had a sort of backstory that would be plausible that Gale would give it to him. The more interesting fact is Hank thought Gale WAS Heisenburg initially, until the blue meth started showing up again after his death. So the “grunt” of acknowledgement from Walt when he looked at that book made me think that nobody can replace the “real” Heisenburg. As for him leaving it carelessly in the toilet, that’s the narsicissim of Walt. The fact that he likes to read from the book of the person he killed was his twisted logic of control. He may have read from it after he got word that the Fring 9 were now all disposed of before he got in the shower. Now Hank puts it all together. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/89 "2012-09-03T05:21:46Z")
I don’t know what to think about the whole kill Mike’s crew thing. I haven’t killed anyone (yet), but it seems to be that it would be hard enough to kill one person in a given time frame. To orchestrate multiple murders in a given time frame in controlled environments would be all but impossible. And besides, you’d be trading guys who knew about your meth cooking with guys who know about you ordering multiple murders. ---
**Author:** ![Peanut\_Gallery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@Peanut\_Gallery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanut_Gallery)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/90 "2012-09-03T05:23:15Z")
Brilliant, brilliant show. One little thing bugged me though. When they were planning the deca-hit on the prisoners, one of the thugs says “Man, killing bin Laden wasn’t this complicated!” Isn’t the whole series supposed to have happened in about a year or two? Have they given any other info in the past which dates it like that? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/91 "2012-09-03T05:23:54Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Well, me for one. Sorry, didn’t mean to ignore your post. I just thought maybe with all the fans who obsess over the show, there might be some website somewhere that calculates how much money Walt’s made so far, or something like that. And I figure by sometime tomorrow there will be people posting on the internet screenshots and making precise calculations that the block of money was AxBxC in size and therefore would be around X amount of money. It’s just like with Lost how people would go over every detail and make charts and timelines and everything that aren’t necessary for enjoyment of the show, but are interesting to see. ---
**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 3, 2012, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/92 "2012-09-03T05:29:00Z")
> [@Peanut\_Gallery](#): > > Brilliant, brilliant show. > > One little thing bugged me though. When they were planning the deca-hit on the prisoners, one of the thugs says “Man, killing bin Laden wasn’t this complicated!” > > Isn’t the whole series supposed to have happened in about a year or two? Have they given any other info in the past which dates it like that? That’s a good point. The show started 5 years ago, but the time frame is about a year. I wonder if there was any mention of current politics in earlier seasons. I don’t recall. Still, it’s just a nitpick in an otherwise excellent show. ---
**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 3, 2012, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/93 "2012-09-03T05:33:26Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I don’t know what to think about the whole kill Mike’s crew thing. I haven’t killed anyone (yet), but it seems to be that it would be hard enough to kill one person in a given time frame. To orchestrate multiple murders in a given time frame in controlled environments would be all but impossible. And besides, you’d be trading guys who knew about your meth cooking with guys who know about you ordering multiple murders. Yes, but the guys who know about the murders don’t have any particular reason to turn states evidence as they aren’t currently under suspicion for those murders. Sure, they could be a risk at some future date, but the guys they killed were an _immediate_ risk. ---
**Author:** ![Tarwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/94 "2012-09-03T05:33:26Z")
> [@Peanut\_Gallery](#): > > Brilliant, brilliant show. > > One little thing bugged me though. When they were planning the deca-hit on the prisoners, one of the thugs says “Man, killing bin Laden wasn’t this complicated!” > > Isn’t the whole series supposed to have happened in about a year or two? Have they given any other info in the past which dates it like that? This gave me pause, too. The only thing I can recall off-hand was during the second season, when Walt was talking with Jane’s father. They were sitting in a bar, having a couple drinks, and watching a news report about traces of water that had been found on Mars. Walt was quick to point out that the water could be used to provide the necessary hydrogen for re-fueling spacecraft. No idea if somebody could use that information to pinpoint when that episode supposedly took place. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/95 "2012-09-03T05:34:38Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I don’t know what to think about the whole kill Mike’s crew thing. I haven’t killed anyone (yet), but it seems to be that it would be hard enough to kill one person in a given time frame. To orchestrate multiple murders in a given time frame in controlled environments would be all but impossible. And besides, you’d be trading guys who knew about your meth cooking with guys who know about you ordering multiple murders. Hitters like that are typically lifers or die-hard gang members or both. They don’t know anything more than their assignment and time. ---
**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 3, 2012, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/96 "2012-09-03T05:46:09Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > This gave me pause, too. > > The only thing I can recall off-hand was during the second season, when Walt was talking with Jane’s father. They were sitting in a bar, having a couple drinks, and watching a news report about traces of water that had been found on Mars. Walt was quick to point out that the water could be used to provide the necessary hydrogen for re-fueling spacecraft. > > No idea if somebody could use that information to pinpoint when that episode supposedly took place. There have apparently been geological hints of water since the Mariner days back in the last century. According to Wikipedia, actual direct spectroscopic evidence of water was announced in July 2003. > **[Evidence of water on Mars from Mars Odyssey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence_of_water_on_Mars_from_Mars_Odyssey)** > > The Mars orbiter 2001 Mars Odyssey found much evidence for water on Mars in the form of pictures, and with a spectrometer it proved that much of the ground is loaded with ice. > In July 2003, at a conference in California, it was announced that the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) on board the Mars Odyssey had discovered huge amounts of water over vast areas of Mars. Mars has enough ice just beneath the surface to fill Lake Michigan twice. In both hemispheres, from 55 degrees latitude to the poles,... So I don’t think it’ll be possible to make the timelines match up unless there was some other later discovery of even greater amounts of water, or perhaps of liquid water, that the media may have reported as “found water on Mars”. Edited to add: That episode, again according to Wikipedia, was broadcast in May 2009. > **[Breaking Bad season 2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad_%28season_2%29)** > > The second season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad premiered on March 8, 2009, and concluded on May 31, 2009. It consisted of 13 episodes, each running approximately 47 minutes in length. AMC broadcast the second season on Sundays at 10:00 pm in the United States. The complete second season was released on Region 1 DVD and Region A Blu-ray on March 16, 2010. > The titles of the first, fourth, tenth, and thirteenth episodes form a sentence that reveals an event that takes pla... ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/97 "2012-09-03T05:53:08Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > The lawyer was killed. He was the guy that was on the phone in the prison, then some other prisoners came up from behind and hung up the phone and stabbed him a bunch of times. I thought the guy on the phone was wearing prison garb. I’m sure they got him, but I was looking for a murder outside the prison, of a guy in a business suit. I think Hank referring to Walt as a “monster” (unwittingly) affected Walt, and seeing Hank so beaten down by the murders, and realizing that what he’d done had cost Skyler her family. He seemed like the old Walt, and I expect Gilligan to give Walt and Skyler a few good months before the shit hits the fan. I think Gilligan wants us to care about Walt again, before it’s all over. Walt has to work out an end game that doesn’t ruin Hank’s career and the two families. So he has to realize that Hank suspects him, without Hank catching on that Walt knows. Because I don’t see Hank allowing Walt to play any games, even if the games would save Hank’s career. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/98 "2012-09-03T06:02:07Z")
What a difference between how Mike & Walt treated the 9 ---
**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 3, 2012, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/99 "2012-09-03T06:05:47Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I thought the guy on the phone was wearing prison garb. I’m sure they got him, but I was looking for a murder outside the prison, of a guy in a business suit. I think the lawyer was in prison. Remember Gomez with his team catching the lawyer going into the safe deposit boxes? He was delivering criminal proceeds so I’m pretty sure he was arrested. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506/100 "2012-09-03T06:18:40Z")
Pretty clever those Breaking Bad writers. The title of the episode “Gliding Over All” was a phrase from Walt Whitman’s _Leaves of Grass_, a copy of which starts Walter White down the road to his final fate. This was a very enjoyable episode because of the suspense on what will go wrong for Walt that will be resolved in the final eight episodes. Until the very last minute of the show, everything worked exactly in Walt’s favor. He disposed of the mess with Mike. He got into a big deal with Lydia. He got rid of the 10 potential rats in prison. He squared things with Jesse. Looks like he got his family back. He got more money than he can spend. Then _BAM_ Hank finds out he’s Heisenberg. Wow. I think the last 8 episodes will be a cat and mouse game between Walt and Hank that should very interesting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-8-gliding-over-all/633506.md?page=6)