Music has always been a strong point IMO. I often find myself Shazaming during an ep. A friend reminded me last week of this sequence. I love the dissonance created with the music here.
I don’t understand the part where Hank wanted to look at the washing facility.
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Didn’t they move that?
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If not, why not move it, or at least do something about the risk of Hank looking at it.
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If this is because Walt has said that he will make sure Hank discovers nothing, why believe him? And why does Walt think he can control this?
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No. They cleaned up the chicken plant.
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They didn’t know he knew about the laundry, but I agree, they were being a bit careless by not anticipating it. They even had Walt go back to the laundry (hidden in the laundry basket) AFTER they knew Hank knew about the place. But of course, Hank was either still in the hospital/injured.
But moving a lab of that scale won’t be a simple matter, nor will be finding another suitable location that Hank won’t be able to track down. Not only will they need to change the lab’s location, they will have to find a whole new way to setup the distribution system, since using the chicken place (or any place associated with all the other Madrigal-owned businesses) for distribution is not going to work.
—OR—
You kill/otherwise take Hank out of the picture.
3. Really, as long as he doesn’t see Walt or Jesse there, there won’t be much for him to see from outside. It’s not like he can snoop around inside without a search warrant. I guess he could try to follow one of the many vehicles coming and going, but the chances of following the right one is probably slim. He might also try to run license plates, but again, I doubt he’ll have much luck with that. Still too much of a risk to depend on that for the long-term, without somehow taking care of the Hank issue. Even then, he did already share his initial theory about Madrigal with the other DEA guys, so taking care of Hank gets rid of a persistent pest, but not necessarily all the risks, unless all three(3) of those other agents are on Gus’s payroll.
“Did it have to be dirty laundry?”
“No.”
mmm
I was wih you until the end there… Leo’s one of the best actors of his generation, and even a better actor than De Niro in my opinion.
Meth production question… is taking a mallet to a sheet pan the standard method of portion control?
I think it’s sold like potato chips… by weight, not volume.
Great episode. One comment I’ll make is that my wife and I are tired of the silent-treatment goons in the show. First it was Hector now it’s the black dude. There have been too many scenes where these guys just stare at walt like idiots when he’s asking them questions. I know what effect they are going for but it’s gotten excessive to the point of being played out. Every one of those scenes feels like a speedbump to a good episode.
I think they’re done to show how little power Walt has, and to show how much that bothers him.
[QUOTE=What the … !!!]
Meth production question… is taking a mallet to a sheet pan the standard method of portion control?
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Bob Ducca]
I think it’s sold like potato chips…
[/QUOTE]
Betcha can’t have just one!
I know on some levels I’m very annoyed with Walt, because he has behaved in extremely stupid ways (mostly out of pride.) However I’ve come around to not being “anti-Walt” like many are. I do not think Walt is a good person, I think he’s a horrible human being that has repeatedly done gravely immoral things and has done a lot of stupid things out of pride.
However let’s really review what has happened:
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The only character in all this we can even consider to be good is Jesse. I think Jesse is good at heart but has made terrible mistakes in life, and is emotionally fragile.
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The only reason Walt ever had any problems with Gus is because when Gus hired Walt, Gus refused to hire Jesse. Jesse kept making problems, so Gus and Mike said “well, it’s time to kill Jesse.” At that point Walt, to no benefit of his own interceded and made Gus take Jesse back by firing Gale.
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At this point, if Jesse had just shut up, gone to work each day and done his job, there would be no conflict. Instead, he went to war with Gus’s street dealers and Gus fired Jesse–only sparing his life because of Walter White. At this point Gale is back in.
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Again, if Walt had just gone back to work and done his job, he would have been fine. Unfortunately Jesse decides that the truce isn’t enough and he’s going to get into a gun battle with the dealers, because Walt wants to save Jesse’s life, he kills the dealers by running them over. At this point the only reason Walt has had any problems in Gus’s outfit is because of Jesse and Jesse’s refusal to just be quiet and do the job. While immoral, the “smart thing” for Walt actually would have been to let those street dealers gun Jesse down, but no one seemed to be pro-that but a lot of people seem to be pro-Walt getting what is coming to him. The only reason Walt is in the shape he is in is because he has repeatedly saved Jesse from his own actions.
From there, everything has really been on a course I’m not convinced Walt could have altered. Walt has shown Gus that he is absolutely loyal to Jesse, that he is willing to die to keep Jesse alive and that he will not work without Jesse. Gus then decides to take a different approach, to turn Jesse against Walt. Walt helps him in this by being the huge asshole that he is, but at the end of the day I think a lot of people are overly supportive of Jesse and overly critical of Walt. Once Walt killed those dealers and then had Jesse kill Gale, I think there was genuinely no chance Gus would keep Walt long term.
It’s easy to criticize Walt this season, but from the very first episode he’s been trying to deal with this situation where Gus definitely wants him dead long term and the only reason for that is because of Jesse. If Walt had let Jesse and Jane run off together Walt would be making $15m/year right now and would have never had any issues with Gus whatsoever. Or if Walt had just let Jesse get what was basically coming to him (by forcefully harassing Walt and demanding to be let back into the cooking business), Walt would be fine. While I do think Jesse is a ton more sympathetic than Walt, it is worth noting he was extremely, extremely stupid last season and himself created all these problems.
I also think that Gus would kill Jesse long term, too. It may seem like they formed a genuine bond in Mexico, but I think people are underestimating Gus’ reptilian nature. This guy has ice running through his veins, people are assets to him and nothing more.
Mike has done tons of things for Gus, way more than Jesse has, but you saw that to Gus Mike’s condition was essentially irrelevant. Jesse is an asset, a necessary asset right now. However, I do not believe Gus’ fundamental nature or opinions has changed since the first time he told Walt that you can “never trust an addict.” I think that over time Gus would be working to groom a more stable candidate to replace Jesse. Jesse has fallen back into serious drug use multiple times in this series, so it actually isn’t illogical of Gus to be concerned about that, and it isn’t illogical a tall for Gus to want a more stable long term cook/chemist.
So let’s certainly not pretend Gus is this decent guy who is all about treating his employees fairly, he is a drug lord, an awesome badass drug lord but long term Gus would kill Jesse no questions.
As for what will actually happen in the show, I don’t think Walt will turn witness, I cannot see a compelling last season with 16 episodes if Walt turns witness this early. I don’t know what Walt will do, but I do know that at one point Walt was portrayed as being totally incompetent in the world of criminal activity–and he still is, but his one strength over all the guys he’s dealt with has been that he’s the smartest guy in the room and can do things as a chemist that no one, not even hardened figures like Mike, would be able to predict.
I sort of wonder if Walt does something ala Season 1 where he saves the day by some crazy use of chemistry. It might seem a little gimmicky, but in some ways it makes the most sense. When it comes to strategy or tactics or gunplay or anything else involved in all this, Walt is at a severe disadvantage versus Mike, the new Victor (what was his name?), or Gus. It’s actually more ludicrous for him to make some play that neutralizes them using traditional means than it is for him to do something involving his knowledge of chemistry.
Anyone think that we might not see Mike again until sometime next season?
I think Mike might die, or be otherwise treated poorly by Gus, and that will be the inciting incident that turns Jesse on Gus (since Jesse has started looking up to Mike as a mentor - you saw how he looked at him in the hospital and how adamant he was about getting him medical care).
Completely out of left field tangent here - but what can be made of Walt’s father-like devotion to Jesse in comparison to his relationship with Walt Jr? I can’t quite put my finger on what I’m getting at, but I almost wonder if Jr’s disability makes Walt view him as “less than” and maybe his ego, which fuels just about every decision he makes, feels somewhat bruised by having a “broken” son.
Him mistakenly calling Walt Jr “Jesse” a couple episodes back was pretty telling, I thought.
Like I said, I’m not really sure what I’m getting at exactly here but I’d love some discussion on this topic of Walt’s real son vs his surrogate son, and how that all fits together in the overall portrait of Walter White.
Anything to this at all, or am I grasping at straws that aren’t there?
We’ve been calling him New Victor.
But truth be told, his name is Tyrus.
From the previews:
It looks like Walt is building some kind of device. Perhaps explosive?
No, I think you’re on to something, or at least, I’ve been seeing a psychological connection as well. It seems like Walt is trying to have the relationship with Jesse that he wants to have with his son, but he has to baby his son because A) Skylar is in control at home and B) Jr. is disabled and C) Walt can’t have Jr. cookin’ meth. But yeah, I’ve been thinking that Walt thinks of Jesse like his own son, which is the only thing that explains to me why Walt has really bent over backwards to save Jesse’s bacon. If you were just coworkers, or even just rival meth cooks, you’d want the competition taken out. Walt would have kept his head down and let Jesse just take himself out.
Now. I can’t remember if Jesse ever had anything on Walt which backed him into helping Jesse. For example, “I’ll tell your wife you’re a meth cook if you don’t save/help me.”
When Jane was alive, the two of them attempted to blackmail Walt into coughing up Jesse’s share of a drug payment. That was mostly Jane’s idea though, with Jesse tagging along.
Aside from that, I don’t believe Walt or Jesse have ever threatened each other with blackmail.
Why does everyone think Gus treated Mike bad?
Gus was poisoned.
Mike was shot in the gut.
Poison needs to be treated first.
Gut shot hurts but you can live a hell of a lot longer than being poisoned.
I mean hell, he had blood waiting, several gurneys, a team of trained doctors. I think Gus treats Mike great and Mike realizes it. I mean, remember him beating the crap outta Walt for even mentioning that he help kill Gus?
I actually think Mike’s coming back from the doctor with some bad health news that would not have been caught without being shot. Remember his coughs? If Beneke’s first trip on the carpet taught us anything it’s this: everything in BB is for a reason. So, let’s spend time speculating on the other little things. Like, how will Hank’s rock obsession play out? WHY SO MUCH PURPLE IN MARIE’S HOUSE?! Who called Hank to warn him of the attack? Etc.