The guy also drove Gus to the hospital where Gus told him just wait here.
Anyone know his name?
Yes he took down the cartel. But when you look at his guys compared to tuco’s guys or jacks guys do you think he would have won? I mean most of his guys look like pros like mike. Then you have that guy Tyrus Kitt and those other guys. But they just don’t look real tough though.
I mean do you think Gus’s guys would win over Tuco’s guys? What about Jack’s guys?
Gus really only had one guy (Mike). Besides that, the story is a bit more complicated. When you take into account all the different deals in play at any given time it was more like a mafia thing*. Having said that, if I had to chose, it’s probably the cartel (Don Eladio’s Guys) I wouldn’t want to mess with. The cousins aren’t someone I’d want to be running from.
Jack’s guys weren’t organized enough to be much of a concern. They were more like the corner street gang. Sure, you don’t want to piss them off, but if you did, as long as you got some space between you and them you’d probably be okay and they’d lose interest soon enough. Mike or the cousins can (and did) track you across the country or over the boarder.
For example, Gus and all of his employees were totally safe from the cartel as long as they just handled the distribution end of things. It wasn’t until Gus started manufacturing that the war started. He broke the terms of a deal set years earlier.
Frankly, all three groups were “television incompetent.” By that I mean that their skills were degraded to a level where they wouldn’t have posed enough of a threat to the protagonist (Walter White) who himself had no tactical training and depended upon luck and questionable strategic skills, to prevent him from achieving his goals.
Let’s review:
[ol]
[li]Tuco’s crew allowed Walt to walk into a meeting with fulminate of mercury - This could have (and given the size of the explosion it created, should have) killed Tuco or severely injured him. Even semi-competent bodyguards thoroughly search someone before allowing them to enter the presence of their principal, especially if the person is uninvited.[/li][li]One of Tuco’s men was killed when he allowed both of his arms to be pinned underneath a vehicle unnecessarily in a salvage yard. This doesn’t speak too highly of his or his boss’ intelligence.[/li][li]Gus’ men were asphyiated by a cartel hitman in the rear of a reefer truck. Since this process takes many minutes, they could have easily escaped and did not.[/li][li]Gus’ men were picked off by a sniper while moving their operation in broad daylight w/ apparently no perimeter security.[/li][li]Walter White killed several of Gus’ men at various times with a vehicle and after taking one hostage. White had no tactical training and in fact was recovering from cancer treatments.[/li][li]Walter evaded Gus’ men who were watching his home and was able to manuever Fring himself into a position where he was able to murder him and a bodyguard. Again, no tactical training.[/li][li]Mike Ehrmentraut, Fring’s de facto underboss and chief enforcer was in fact later killed by White who used a loaded handgun left by Mike in his bugout bag.[/li][li]Gus’ men allowed themselves to killed by White supremacists while in custody. That they were even IN custody after the death of Fring and the collapse of his drug operation instead of fleeing the area speaks poorly of their competence as criminals.[/li][li]Jack’s guys killed two federal agents using hundreds of rounds when the optimal move would have been attempt to flank them, limit the number of rounds expended to prevent drawing attention to the killings and also having to police up extensive amounts of brass casing evidence.[/li][li]Jack and his men decided to remain in the same remote location for a hideout despite murdering two federal agents and receiving nearly $70 million in drug proceeds afterwards. They also allowed meth to be cooked at the same location which served as their hideout[/li][li]Jack’s men failed to search the trunk of Walter White’s car when they allowed him to enter their compound. Even though Walter was known to have used a bomb to eliminate Gus Fring and was chemist who could easily constructed another such device.[/li][/ol]
I’m a BB aficionado, but the criminals in it were extremely careless and rather stupid. That none seemed to be under investigation prior to Walter WHite’s entry into ABQ area drug business seems to be a testament to the incompetence of local and federal law enforcement in the series as well as a necessary conceit of the series’ writers.
I’ll grant you some of those (especially number 9, and mostly 11), but some are incorrect, or needlessly nitpicky.
For example, what’s wrong with number 7? Mike was very skilled and very experienced. But so what? Numerous people have died to lesser-skilled individuals when they briefly let their guard down. Jesse James was shot in the back by someone whose name we only remember because he shot Jesse James.
And number 5 - does receiving cancer treatments mean you can’t drive someone over with your car? There are plenty of elderly people with cancer who run people over. I think it’s an actual sport in Florida. (OK, I can’t prove that they have cancer - but surely some of the elderly who run people over by accident have been undergoing chemotherapy. And if they can do it by accident, surely someone can do it purposefully.)
As for number 1, I’ll have to watch the episode again but I’m 90% sure Tuco’s men did search Walt. Why would they care that he was bringing (what appeared to be) drugs in? They’re drug dealers. People with drugs probably show up routinely. Now, I definitely agree that the explosion, as depicted, was very unrealistic. Both because fulminated mercury doesn’t work like that (thanks, Mythbusters!) but also because any explosion of that force would have severely wounded or killed everyone in the room. But that doesn’t have to do with the competence of the criminals.
And finally …
They were under investigation. The very first episode shows a raid on some of Tuco’s men (including Jesse Pinkman). There was also the raid everyone was watching on television at Walt’s birthday party.
Are you thinking of this guy?
The character is called Chris Mara. He is played by actor Christopher King. He’s the same guy that Lydia hired for the (not exactly successful) hit on Mike.
Tyrus would be my guess.
Tuco and his crew were never presented as intelligent. They were thugs, and Tuco in particular was a crazed, unpredictable thug. It’s not at all out of character or “TV incompetent” for them fail distinguish between the good bad of white crystals and the bad kind. Having one be an idiot who reaches under an unstable car was completely in character with the class of people Walt was dealing with.
But the critical point is that it was these events that led Walt to develop his Heisenberg myth. Sure, he was unaccustomed to violence and woefully naive, but he had intelligence and esoteric skills on his side. His initial success at proving himself to Tuco gave him the confidence to get in deeper. But - and it took a while for this lesson to sink in - his clever chemical solution to the Tuco problem proved impossible whereas Jesse’s simpler plan (hit him in the head with a rock and shoot him) worked (more or less).
On point 3, I’m not sure how they were meant to escape. Outside were 3 men pointing guns at the only exit from the van. A Butch and Sundance effort wouldn’t have got them anywhere.
Probably Tyrus, but it I suppose it could be Victor. Though you’d probably have mentioned Victor getting his throat cut if it was him, so yeah, probably Tyrus.
Pauly01, pls. put all your Breaking Bad questions in a single thread with a clear thread title. I’ve merged the two you started within minutes of each other.
Thanks,
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
See my responses in blue…
Thanks, but I saw the programs in question. I’ll stick w/ my answers. Perhaps you were impressed by the writing or settings; I was not.
I’d be real impressed if you showed me an easy way to escape a locked delivery truck…
Panel trucks have fiberglass bodies and wooden floors. The walls can easily be kicked out as can the floors. There are also vents in the roofs which are primarily there to prevent the buildup of gases in certain cargoes.
If the vehicle trailer is entirely made of metal (very rare as it adds to the weight of the vehicle and this increases the costs of fuel) then there might be an issue. However, if that were the case, the method which trained professionals are taught on how to break out an ambush situation is to assault into it. You attack your attackers and then use the confusion that this causes to either flee or destroy them.
How do you kick out fiberglass walls while the box is being filled with CO?
They weren’t trained professionals. They were a couple of guys that Mike and Gus felt were competent enough to drive a truck of meth across, what should have been, a safe stretch of desert. No one was expecting them to be attacked.
How do you “attack your attackers” when locked in the back of a truck? (Maybe this makes sense to someone with “tactical training”, whatever that is.)
nevadaexile, do you still think number 1 on your list is a fair criticism? It’s been established that Tuco’s goons did search Walt. Your complaint is based on a misremembering of that scene.
I have a question, having recently just finished the series. [I’m not spoilering this because given the number of spoilers already given I’m assuming anyone still reading has seen the show, or doesn’t care about spoilers.]
In the final episode, how did Walt get his remaining millions back to New Mexico? He hikes down from his cabin in New Hampshire to the local bar with a box of cash to send to Walt Jr, leaving most of his money back at the cabin. When Junior rejects it, he calls the DEA to reveal his location, and the local cops show up very soon after. He manages to steal a car even though the cops are combing this tiny town looking for him. Ok, it’s pretty far fetched that he can even get out of town in the first place (especially since he can’t have any idea of the few local roads), but it’s even more so that he would have the time to drive back up to his cabin and pick up the cash without being noticed, and then elude the cops a second time. (And that’s not even considering how he manages to drive 2,000 miles in a stolen car that every cop in the country is looking for.)
In the real world being overcome by CO takes quite a long time; it’s not television knockout gas. And if you have access to a fiberglass-sided truck (that isn’t being used anymore) give one of the walls a solid kick. Your foot will go through the wall and a hole will appear.Do it several times and the panel cracks and splinters.
Apparently, you are unfamiliar with the drug trade. Being robbed is a greater concern for most drug enterprises than being stopped by the police. The show proposed that Gus Fring ran a well-oiled criminal machine, not a pick up outfit of randomly selected idiots. If he had, it wouldn’t have been a surprise that he was in the drug trafficking business. That means he would hardly entrust a load of narcotics to people who would be unable to defend that shipment if they were ambushed.
That’s Bad Business 101.
I didn’t write the series or ask the question which is the purpose of this thread. I simply pointed faults that I perceived in the narrative.
One of the “conceits” of the show’s narrative was that Ehrmentraut personally chose all of the men who worked for Fring. That’s why what appeared to be a highly visible drug ring was somehow able to avoid detection by both the ABQ police AND the DEA. It would be safe to assume that he picked men who could handle themselves in crisis situations, including being locked in the back of a truck.
The rear door of most panel vehicles is either fiberglass or light metal opened by using a torsion spring and rail setup. While it’s great at keeping untrained people OUT of most trucks, it’s pretty poor at keeping anything inside of a truck that is trying to get out.
They searched and found what looked to be meth. Why didn’t they just keep it and hand it to Tuco? Or keep it for themselves? After all, it wasn’t as if Walt had a 3 o’clock with Tuco or that he would complain if he were robbed by thugs when they frisked him.
I remember the scene well. I just thought that it was a completely silly scene that someone wouldn’t confiscated the meth prior to his meeting with Tuco. AND that the resultant explosion wouldn’t killed everyone in the room.
Again, I didn’t write the show and I didn’t ask the question at the beginning of this thread. I was unaware that I would have expend more energy explaining my answer than other people seem to be putting into answering the question heading this thread.
For the record, it was a refrigeration truck, carrying containers of fry batter. The walls of the truck were all steel, to maintain the freezing temps. Ain’t nobody, tactically trained or otherwise, gonna kick a hole through that. Also, the walls of the truck were lined with shelves, each containing dozens of buckets of batter. They couldn’t get to the walls to kick holes in them even if they wanted to.
That’s exactly what they did. The thought it was meth, they took it after they searched Walt, and they gave it to Tuco for inspection. Here’s the scene, and you can clearly see that Tuco has the meth on his desk before Walt even finishes entering the room: