Son of a bitch.
That’s not even reasonable.
Well hell. By that time Gus and Mike and Walt might have died of old age. (I bet it is a contintuity nightmare when you have that long of a hiatus due to weight gain/weight loss/new wrinkles/etc. among the cast.)
Not so much for us old folks, but Walt Jr. hasn’t looked 16 since, well, since the first episode.
A whole year? Fuck.
Until I read his interview with Sepinwall I had assumed that Gilligan had everything generally plotted out to the end – but methinks he may have written himself into a corner…
But that’s the way he likes it. It’s worked out pretty well for him so far. 
There is really no need to have the whole series arc planned out unless you foreshadow it. Anything foreshadowed must be paid off or you’re guilty of cheating, ala Lost. For example, in the first few seasons, the “preamble” to the episodes would be flashforwards to the season finale, like with the plane wreckage floating in the pool. (Those preambles this season were flashbacks to minor characters’ backstories.)
What Lost did was effectively show the wreckage floating in the pool and then never went back to explain it. BB has always tied up everything they foreshadowed, so it’s all good. It’s perfectly reasonable in a show like this for the writers to go in whatever direction circumstance dictates, so continuity shouldn’t be a major deal. They could even do like the Sopranos and broadcast in “real time.” Of course it might be tough to have next season start out skipped ahead by over a full year, but maybe not impossible.
If the show is going to continue, then Walt has to take out Gus and Mike. Either that or go into WITSEC, but Walt’s already made it emphatically clear that that’s not an option. I’m guessing that he’s going to use his scientific savvy to creatively dispatch the two of them and become the southwest’s new kingpin.
The first season was shortened, I believe, by the writer’s strike. I imagine that when he created the show he had some idea what would happen in the first 7 episodes.
The second season arc was planned out, generally (he’s said he didn’t really know how Jane would die, for instance).
It just surprised me when he said that he didn’t really know what he would do with the cousins when he introduced them, and that he didn’t really have an arc in mind. I guess because when you say you envision four seasons, I’m led to believe you know why you said four seasons and not five or six.
I was being facetious when I suggested he’d written himself into a corner. For one thing, I’m sure he knows whether or not Gail is dead. It’s pretty clear to me that Gus and Mike had no idea they were dealing with the cold, calculating Heisenberg and not doormat Walt. Gus is not being as calm and careful as he was when we met him (and his accent was more pronounced than at any previous time). The look on Mike’s face when he realized what Walt had just put over on him was worth the price of admission.
I think we will see Skyler as “Danny” next season, because she has to be destroyed by the Game as Jessie has been. Will Walt/Heisenberg be running the whole operation by the end? He’s smarter than Gus (though not as careful). What happens to the kids? I can’t help but think that Walt’s going to have to watch his family (the one he started out trying to help) destroyed by the end – maybe because he chooses to save Jessie instead…