Even if Skyler had not given the money to Ted Beneke, and they used $500,000 to pay for the “vacuum cleaner dust filter” they wouldn’t have much beyond that to live on. Neither of them could really get a job immediately, so they would need money for living expenses.
I can neither confirm nor deny I appeared in last night’s episode. 
I’ve been tempted to state this in the past two threads, but I think entirely too much is being made of that speech as it relates to Walt’s super-duper chemistry skills. Granted I’m a biologist, not a chemist, but what Walt was talking about in that scene was just a condescending stream of science that really had nothing to do with the cook process and was used for the sole purpose of making Victor feel defensive/stupid and to make Gus/Mike think that he was still essential to the process. Walt’s genius was in creating the recipe. IMHO the only relevance it had to future episodes was to show what an arrogant, insecure prick Walt is, as was again pointed out in his drunken bashing of Gale’s intelligence.
Really? I often come away from episodes with a different reaction than I see in these threads, but usually not this radically different. Last night’s episode only confirmed to me what an insecure, pathetic, worthless loser Walt is. Gus was giving Walt an out and sparing his life. The only thing he had to do was agree to stay away from Jesse, but, once again thinking himself to be the smartest guy in the room, he tried to shoot back at Gus with leverage he does not in fact have. Sure, he can act tough and scare his wife, but he simply refuses to admit he is not a gangster and when it blows up in his face he has a melt down of epic proportions.
Again, I could be the only one who thinks this, but I don’t think Gus was originally threatening Hank’s life. Killing a DEA agent, retired or active, is a sure fire way to rain hellfire on your operation. I think Gus was referencing his connection to the DEA and having a sit down with the bosses where he asks if he’s still a suspect because he’s noticed Hank following him and a tracking device on his car.
Although if that were the case, and if Gus really wanted to just get Walter out of his life and business forever, it would certainly behoove Gus to just tell Walter that unambiguously. It certainly does seem that killing Hank would be a bad move for Gus once Hank’s suspicions about Gus, by name, are known to the DEA, as they are.
Gus’s arc could be complete now. He got his revenge.
He has thrown down the gauntlet and threatened innocents. I can’t see any other way to keep the cast together without killing him off.
Gilligan won’t show us Jesse slipping him the ricin. Since it takes more than a day to kill, Gus will suddenly keel over when the drama is at a fever pitch.
After that who the fuck knows? One of the things that makes BB the best.
Great to see Bill Burr acting all assertive after having listened to his podcast riffs and rants for many an hour.
Cranston may be a great actor but Walt is a terrible actor when he’s discussing things with Hank. Terrible! You’d think that with Hank’s training he’d pick up on that.
You are not the only one; I’m right there with you.
I actually wrote a post for this thread and then bailed on it because I thought I was missing something. On Jesse’s conditions (which tells you a lot about what Gus thinks of Jesse that he was willing to make this concession), Gus offered Walt a great deal: Shut up, walk away, and leave Jesse alone indefinitely. Gus certainly has sufficient connections with the DEA to handle Hank. And it’s really a great deal, because if Walt isn’t working for Gus anymore, then Hank can just go right ahead and bust him and there won’t really be any implications on Walt & Family anymore. He’s out. Family is safe. Unless he goes blabbing.
Remember when Walt was asked to put the tracker thingy on the car and he whined about it to Gus and Gus told him, “Go ahead and do it.” In other words, you have to play this game with Hank because he’s your BIL, so by all means, play it. Gus has every base covered times three (made obviously clear with the hired doc knowing Jesse’s medical history); he can handle the DEA thing. Hell, I thought the cartel was a much bigger threat than the DEA and Gus pretty much took care of business.
What Walt should be doing is feeding Gus information about what Hank knows. That would make him more valuable to Gus. He should stop cooking and he should keep going on ride alongs with Hank. And he should be meeting with Gus regularly to keep him informed. Instead, he chooses to do everything that is the opposite of playing it smart and then whines and cries and melts down that “Gus plans to kill me.” That is not what Gus said. I can see how Walt might not trust Gus to be honest with him, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen Gus lie to Walt. Manipulate and control, sure, but flat out lie? I don’t think it’s necessary. He holds plenty of power just by keeping a lot of shit to himself.
I think he’s starting to pick up on it and will figure it all out at some point soon, probably right before he ends up dead. He’s sharp and Walt has been suspicious enough lately to warrant some extra attention. .
And I like the idea up-thread of Gus just keeling over from the ricin at some point… Jesse playing a long con against him to gain his trust to make the hit happen.
I’m thinking you may be right on this. Walt is in a corner without means of escape:
- Gus will see the protection gathering around Hank and know that Walt is responsible for warning him. He has to follow up on his promise.
- Walt doesn’t have the money to get out via identity change.
- Walt also doesn’t have enough money for his family to live on, so can’t go to the cops without exposing his role in the drug manufacture business and the car wash/money laundry.
D. Once Hank and family are dead, Gus will have to kill Walt to keep him from turning state’s evidence.
Jesse, being a slacker at heart, will probably forget something critical in the lab, causing the destruction of some staggeringly expensive piece of equipment, or poisoning a lot of people with a bad product. Gus will have no choice but to bring Walt back, which gives him the chance to accrue enough money before it all comes crashing down again.
Best part of the episode: no Walter, Jr. 
I have a bad feeling that next season will have a lot of episodes like this…
Agree with your first point about the importance of Walt’s chemistry knowledge being overrated at this point in the series. After all, Jesse was able to produce pretty high grade meth for the cartel by just following a set process. Also agree with you about Walt having an easy out from Gus if he had agreed to stay away from Jesse. But I think what clearly set Walt off was the fact that Gus had threatened to take care of the Hank problem (and I’m pretty sure he was talking about finishing off Hank, so I disagree with you there). The fact that Walt had to warn the DEA about that is why his family is now in jeopardy. If he had let Hank “go”, Walt could’ve walked away. Regardless, he’d still in a pretty bad state with little money left and Gus still hanging over him.
Once again, karmic justice rears its ugly head in the series. Skyler’s plan to take care of her Ted problem ended up killing Ted (pretty sure he’s done for) and depleting the family of the getaway money. Love it.
At this point in the series, I’ve stopped trying to guess what’s going to happen next. I will just sit back and enjoy the ride as the story unfolds.
That’s kind of what I was confused about. Why couldn’t Walt take Hank to the laundry. He knows by now that all they’re going to do is sit a few blocks away and stare at it for a couple of hours. It’s not like they’re going to see anything. To the best of Walt’s knowledge nothing bad is even going on there at the moment. Of course, as it turns out, they probably would have seen Jesse coming and going and that certainly would have pinged Hank’s radar. I think the car accident was just Walt’s way of once again trying to prove that he’s bigger then life, and that he controls what happens, when it happens, if it happens..which really isn’t the case.
I’m thinking Walt is plenty smart enough to know when there’s a mole…I also think he’s a good enough DEA agent not to rule out family as a possibility.
Wasn’t he in the scene where Walt went to see Hank after the car “accident”? IIRC, Skyler, Marie, and Walt Jr. were all there.
Yeah the scene involved food so Walt Jr. had to be there. It’s in the actor’s contract.
That he has to be in all scenes involving food or that all scenes with him must involve food? Also, they seem to be getting away from breakfast food…though it was still yogurt.
I found it very odd they had a Pyxis system. That’s generally used in hospitals to help control inventory and make sure the right supplies/medication is charged to the right patient…why would they need that in a make-shift ER in a warehouse who’s sole purpose is to save Gus’s, Mike’s, and Jesse’s lives? 
I loved this episode…it had a fantastic mix of uneasy tension scenes, action scense (no shoot-outs, but I’d qualify the medical sequence as “action-y,”) and even some humor…some people might not have cared for it, but I loved Saul’s “A-Team.”
“Are you happy?”
“Reasonably.”
Of course…is Ted dead? Saul got interrupted right before he said either way, it could be he’s just severely injured. Oddly enough, dead is easier to deal with…Hell, they could just leave him right where he is, since it was a legit accident. Coroner comes over, maybe foul play suspected at first, but in the end will conclude he was running/walking fast, and slipped on the rug and headfirst into the counter, snapping his neck.
But if he’s alive and just seriously injured? Hoo-boy…he obviously knows Skylar was the one who sent the goons, and he might had let it slide if he didn’t get hurt, because he was going to give back the money anyway, he just wasn’t paying the IRS out of spite. But if he’s hurt, yet able to make a recovery, he will be PISSED.
And regarding Walt’s money:
Some of it might have gone to his own cancer treatment, but I was under the impression most of that was paid for with the initial dealings with Jesse and then Tuco in season 1. Maybe some leftover bills chipped away at the large take from Gus. But other things that reduced it:
Keeping Badger out of jail.
Hank’s medical bills.
Buying the carwash, along with taxes, fees, getting it all sorted out, etc…probably about a million after all is said and done.
Walt destroying the Charger. The car was probably close to $50,000 retail, plus whatever he had to pay to Saul and his guys to clean up the mess and the associated tickets and whatnot. Might be close to $100,000 overall.
Skylar giving Ted ~$620,000
Plus Walt is renting that swank bachelor paid, and he had to pay extra to get the “showroom” one. So maybe $2000 a month for that, and several thousand (maybe $10,000-$15,000) upfront as a bribe and to pay for the furnishings.
Plus Saul takes a cut, and it’s possible he’s gotten a little extra for things like the fake EPA guy and so forth.
Sorry for the double-post, Too late to edit my previous one:
Jesse made an adequate batch. IIRC, it was something like 96.2% pure, close to Gale’s, whereas Walt was going close to if not slightly over 99%. Obviously, the kind of people buying meth aren’t the kind that will really care about 3%, but it shows that Walt still is the best at it.
Plus, at one point, I think when Victor was showing he knew how to cook it, Walt was going off on how he wouldn’t know how to correct for humidity and temperature, etc…so that’s something Walt has going for him. Jesse kind of understands the chemistry. Not nearly at the level of Walt, or even an undergraduate chemistry student, but more than he did when he was Captain Cook, which basically makes him above almost all (all?) meth cookers. But he still wouldn’t know what to do if something went wrong. Maybe their supplier for XYZ chemical goes out of business, and they have to get another brand that has a slightly different formula, or is at a different concentration. What will Jesse do, then?
This is spot on. The entire season has been about Walt’s humiliation and the way he has brought this on himself, thanks to a personal arrogance fueled by impotent rage. In fact, this season has caused me to re-evaluate scenes from earlier seasons where Walt’s knowledge of chemistry was very useful–dissolving bodies with acid, the fulminated mercury, making the car battery. Walt once seemed like a dangerous sorcerer who’s talents were to be feared. Now he’s a bad magician who’s run out of tricks. Though there was a brief flash of that magic–the throwaway discourse on manganese at Hank’s–it’s no shock to me that his only chemistry trick this season–the ricin–is recycled.
You’re leaving out the By-the-way-I’m-going-to-kill-your-brother-in-law part of the deal. Not so great.
Yeah, but so what, really? As you said, meth buyers aren’t going to notice a 3% difference. You don’t have to make the best meth possible to make a fortune, just the best available. With Walt forcibly retired, Jesse’s meth would be the best available, and it would have the distinctive blue coloring that the buyers are looking for.
It’s still possible, even probable, that Jesse wouldn’t notice ingredients that are off, or lab equipment that isn’t performing as it should, despite everything appearing fine to the untrained eye. Walt is the one with chemistry degrees, as well as decades of experience. Jesse doesn’t have that.
I can easily imagine a future episode where Jesse — after months of successful cooking — starts producing weak or even toxic product, but he doesn’t understand what’s going wrong with the process. He’d quickly become expendable then.
Makes me wonder if the Mexican chemist we met last week will show up again one day.