So how was Walt supposed to die? Crushed to death by some laundry equipment? Why not just shoot him and bury him in the desert?
It didn’t seem all that well planned out. Mike made the classic bad-guy blunder of giving the victim some time to think.
And Mike, telling Walt twice to fix his car. Was that to make Walt relax, to believe that he had a future?
Mike was going to kill him in the lab. May have had a “cleaner” way of disposing of the body in mind.
It was so no one (like police) suspected him of running over those dealers. Mike had told him to get his car fixed right after he said to Walt that he’s been awake cleaning up his mess. The last piece of the mess would be damage to Walt’s car.
I’m not sure Mike was planning to kill him when he told him to get his car fixed. The meeting with Mike and Gus appeared to have went well. Of course Gus is a listener, he doesn’t usually take Walt’s advice, but he always hears him out. That’s a common business owner attitude of “You win by letting the other person think they’ve won”. It’s a very non-confrontational, low pressure, not passive aggressive way of getting people to do what you want them to do. Even though you’re running the show let the other guy think he’s calling the shots.
First, I think Mike likes and respects Walt. That’s how Walt got one over on him at the end. Mike genuinely, for once, just did not want to kill his mark. But he had to. Also, why they planned to kill him in the super-lab, was because they knew Walt was too smart to bring him anywhere else without a fight or flight. The lab was the most obvious choice, and I can see Mike thinking Walt juuuust might fall for it. Had he, Mike intended just to shoot him down there, then clean it up, I’m sure.
Second, I’m not sure Gale knew exactly what he was getting himself into either. Certainly, Gus implied a lot, and Gale’s gears were working hard to try and read what Gus was trying to tell him, and trying to figure out what Gus wanted to hear, but I don’t think Gale ever really concluded that Gus meant to off Walt. It probably crossed his mind in circles, vacillating between that possibility and the cancer story. I believe Gale to be innocent in that he was in way over his head, and not really understanding the ugly machine that was turning around him. But, on the other hand, he broke bad as well, and once he did that, he certainly wasn’t guaranteed a long life. If anything, he was naive to think he was in minimal, if hardly any danger at all. Because of that, I think he became the sacrificial pawn.
Agreed that Mike likes and respects Walt - there was a neat bit where Walt was “begging”, and Mike yelled for him to shut up. I think that he genuinely didn’t want Walt to go out without at least some dignity.
Yep. Especially, earlier in the episode, where Walt was laying out the options to Gus. Option A. Mike seemed impressed how Walt had foreseen this imminent avenue of his own death, almost expected that outcome. He knew that Walt knew that moment could very well be his end. There was no begging from Walt, just him matter-of-factly laying out the options as he saw them, come what may.
Anyway, what a fantastic season.
I don’t see where killing Gale buys Walt much power or time. What’s to prevent Gus from just saying, “OK here’s the deal: you are going to show us how to make blue meth, step-by step, or we are going to kill your family-- slowly.” ?
(Obviously the process is not so complicated that only a chemist can master it. Jesse has apparently mastered it.)
NO. I don’t want it to be over.
Walt knows Gus wouldn’t go after his family. Hank is DEA. Jesse would spill everything. Gus wouldn’t survive it.
EDIT: I guess that raises the question: Why would Gus kill Walt before finding and killing Jesse? If Jesse found out that Walt was killed, there’d be nothing to stop him from alerting the DEA to Gus’ illegal activities.
Nothing stopping them from killing Jesse too then. Especially since Hank doesn’t even have use of his legs or is even officially affiliated with the DEA still. He was placed on some kinda leave before he was attacked by the cousins.
If there is a time to strike at Walt’s family, it’s now.
Somebody explain to me the scene with the Chinese people.
Gilligan can say what he wants about the camera moving but I think it’s a bluff; I think Jesse turned the gun away from Gale. If I were him I wouldn’t have killed him anyway- I would have kidnapped him. I think Gale would go willingly enough if the alternative was death.
If I were writing the show Season 4 would be the last and would involve Gus working with Hank- perhaps anonymously at first- to bring down Gus. I also expected Walt to assure Gus that in the event of his disappearance or the disappearance of any member of his family should meet with any peril (“if some unlucky accident should befall him – if he should get shot in the head by a police officer – or if he – should hang himself in his jail cell – or if he’s struck by a bolt of lightning – then I’m going to blame some of the people in this room” and a video will be emailed to every law enforcement agency and media agency conceivable that would give Gus’s name and tell every detail about his operations. (It is possible to set up an email to be mailed at a future date and I think it would be easy enough to set up one with video or at least a weblink to a video.)
Does anybody know what the fast paced song Gale was singing is? As for backstory, all we know is that Gale is a very good chemist in his own right and if he’s telling the truth to Jesse and really does have a lot of money then he’s apparently worked for the dark side before.
Sorry to see this series go away for a while. At least there’s True Blood and the return of Mad Men to take some of the sting off.
Or— Jesse shot over Gale’s head then ran out the door…
[Hannibal Lecter]…all the way to the… F…B…I…[/HL]
I think having Jesse miss there would be a cheat, and this show doesn’t really cheat. Gale is dead. The camera was a Gale-eye view, and it’s a continuity error that they show Jesse pointing right at him, switch to the camera view, and then have Jesse aim a bit. If it’s anything else I’ll feel cheated.
I thought about Jesse kidnapping Gale, but how long can that go on? Jesse doesn’t have a lair to keep him in, how long can that go on? Gale might be convinced to run and never look back, but Jesse doesn’t know Gale enough to know that.
This doesn’t give Walt much in the way of options. They can keep him locked up indefinitely in the lab and force him to train a new assistant. There’s so much bad blood now that he can’t go back to working on amiable terms. Of course from Walt’s perspective, any time leaves more chances than no time. But it’s going to be a difficult situation for him to escape from.
It’s going to be hard waiting almost a year to get more episodes. I spend all week looking forward to this show.
I sort of believe Vince when he says the kill was meant to be unambiguous. Otherwise, he could just keep his trap shut until Season 4. He seems like a straight shooter for the most part.
Anyway, all we really know about Gale is whe he told us when talking with Walt on their first day. He’s a Libertarian (or was), had a profound respect for science, was very good at chemistry, made a mean cup 'o joe, and I don’t really remember the rest. But I kinda liked him. He was delt a raw deal.
Anyway, the sneekpeek for ‘Rubicon’ looked really good. Anyone watch? It won’t really start until August. But I’m intrigued… I love code breaking and shadow government conspiracy shows.
Was Jesse high when Walt called him? He looks like he’s contemplating it when he gets the call, but then again his glass pipe is dark as if he’d been smoking. Although I suppose maybe it’s always dark after the first use and he hadn’t got there yet. His eyes were red when he got to Gale’s but he could’ve been crying.
Gale was the first decent guy we’ve seen Walt or Jesse kill, right? Even indirectly? Well - the kid wasn’t their fault.
Edit: Incidentally, I don’t like the way Walt immediately revealed his plans to Mike. He should’ve found some other way to get him to hold off on killing him for 10 minutes. Because then the plan relies on the coincidence of Gale’s cell phone to be on vibrate here he couldn’t hear it. If Gale has it in his pocket or the ringer on, then he runs out of his house, Jesse finds the place empty, and Mike kills Walt. The show’s writing is stronger than to need to rely on that coincidence.
The Chinese (was it ever explicitly stated that he was Chinese? I honestly don’t remember) guy handles, or is employed to assist with gathering, the raw material for Gus’ meth operation. From what I was able to gather from Mike’s conversation with Gus, the men who had seized the warehouse were members of the Mexican cartel looking for weaknesses in Gus’ operation.
I don’t know why Mike threw a shoe, and why that caused some guy to run screaming from the room the shoe was thrown in, firing randomly in front of him. Did he think it was a grenade or something? Am I missing something completely obvious?
I think he was just on edge waiting for any sign to make his psychotic charge down the hallway. A lot of people react very badly to situations as stressful as that.
Incidentally, where the hell did Gus’ accent in this episode come from? In previous episodes, it seems clear that he’s a native English speaker with only a slightly and ambiguous accent and his spanish is sort of slow and formal as if he learned it as an adult and wasn’t totally fluent. Suddenly he has a moderately strong spanish accent.
Rewatching scene at the laundry, I have a new respect for Heisenberg’s criminal genius. The way he’s a blubbering scared weak guy like they expect, and as soon as he makes the call, his body language changes completely and suddenly he’s badass mastermind Heisenberg. I love that.
When Gus said that Jesse may have thought that Gus ordered the murder of the kid, and Gus asked Walt if he was asking if he’d murder a child, his response was “I would never ask you that”.
Did that mean “I know it’s not my place to ask you that sort of question” or “I wouldn’t ask because you wouldn’t give me the real answer anyway” or because he thought Gus did it but didn’t want to egg him on since he was trying to keep him happy at that point?