# Breaking Bad Questions \[edited title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473 "2014-02-28T02:15:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/21 "2014-02-28T21:07:24Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > I remember the scene well. In your first post, you said Walt wasn’t searched. You may remember it better _now_, but your first post contained factual mistakes. You also didn’t actually answer my first question. How do you “attack your attackers” when locked in the back of a truck? (You don’t have to answer, of course. I’m sorry if it seems we’re picking on you. It’s just that your first post was based at least partially on misremembering certain scenes.) ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/22 "2014-02-28T21:47:00Z")
I’m on team SyKoSkotty, I agree with his blue meth answers. As for Walt driving the stolen car back to the cabin and then cross-country - don’t have an answer for that. Just suspended my disbelief and enjoyed that ride. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/23 "2014-02-28T23:45:50Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > As for Walt driving the stolen car back to the cabin and then cross-country - don’t have an answer for that. Just suspended my disbelief and enjoyed that ride. I enjoyed the show a lot, and the ride was fun enough so that the implausibilities didn’t detract from it much. But that one was a particular “hunh”? Another one is how Uncle Jack pulls off 10 murders simultaneously in different prisons. I don’t doubt he could get people killed, but his allies don’t seem like they’d be the type to manage split-second timing. (Also, afterward everyone treats Walt as if he were the mastermind of the whole thing, while actually he just ordered it up. Uncle Jack was the real mastermind.) ---
**Author:** ![Reverse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@Reverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reverse)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/24 "2014-03-01T01:42:32Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > 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.) Well, that’s exactly what he did. The cops only know that there was someone claiming to be Walter White making a call from that bar, they don’t know which of the potentially numerous little off-the-road huts in the nearby area he lives in. On his way out, he probably elected to take a road that doesn’t go right through that town. With the limited amount of police a small remote town like that has, it’d be easy to slip by unnoticed. ---
**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/25 "2014-03-01T01:53:00Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > I’m on team SyKoSkotty, I agree with his blue meth answers. > > As for Walt driving the stolen car back to the cabin and then cross-country - don’t have an answer for that. Just suspended my disbelief and enjoyed that ride. I agree, but now feel like a moron for not getting the appropriate use of blue 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/26 "2014-03-01T03:31:11Z")
> [@Reverse](#): > > On his way out, he probably elected to take a road that doesn’t go right through that town. He’s been holed up for months and hasn’t left the cabin. He hasn’t been able to explore the roads. He hasn’t had an internet connection, so he hasn’t seen a map. He doesn’t have the least idea of which is the best route out of the area. > [@](#): > > With the limited amount of police a small remote town like that has, it’d be easy to slip by unnoticed. IIRC, at least half a dozen cops came to the bar, and a bunch more are going to be converging from neighboring towns. There are so few people on the roads they can stop everyone. I don’t buy it. This is the sort of thing that could be possible, but would need extraordinary good luck and extremely incompetent cops. Yes, such monumental lucky breaks do occasionally happen in real life, but in Breaking Bad it happens _a lot_ ---
**Author:** ![Reverse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@Reverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reverse)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/27 "2014-03-01T05:59:03Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > He’s been holed up for months and hasn’t left the cabin. He hasn’t been able to explore the roads. He hasn’t had an internet connection, so he hasn’t seen a map. He doesn’t have the least idea of which is the best route out of the area. “This road takes me back to the town I was just in. I’ll turn left and figure out the map situation in the first town that I run into on this road.” > [@](#): > > This is the sort of thing that could be possible, but would need extraordinary good luck and extremely incompetent cops. Yes, such monumental lucky breaks do occasionally happen in real life, but in Breaking Bad it happens _a lot_ Walt’s entire reputation as a big time crime lord is based on him getting incredibly lucky over and over again. It’s a big part of his character. He’s not the one who knocks, he’s the guy who gets saved by a conveniently timed telephone call when the ones who do knock come by. Also, cops are incompetent more often than not. ---
**Author:** ![jrepka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@jrepka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrepka)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/28 "2014-03-01T06:35:18Z")
Some of the stuff seemed realistic, some not so much. Given the quality of the writing and acting I had no problems suspending disbelief most of the time. I always felt that Fring’s distribution system for the product was kind of stupid. I mean, there’s no reason it wouldn’t work as a method for distributing drugs, but the trucks are pretty easy to spot and isolate for anyone with inside knowledge (like the cartel). But most state borders aren’t so strictly policed that (given the amount of meth per vehicle) a non-descript passenger car wouldn’t work as well, with the advantage that the cartel thugs wouldn’t have been able to pick the car out as easily as the Pollos Hermanos trucks. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/29 "2014-03-01T09:11:47Z")
Ok, after my _second_ binge watching, I’m still stumped on this: the exterminator crew take over the lab and kill all the people, of —someone, who bargained for the methylamine, etc.–when that evil corporate chick was down in the underground lab. Had we been introduced to the true scuzzy crew of Uncle Jack yet? (Or was this after the prison murders/not-the-Godfather-baptism scene?) How did Todd et al find out about that operation, and (I guess we’ll never know) how did they get the drop on the leather-coated white guy crew? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/30 "2014-03-01T12:41:10Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > 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. How would they tell fulminate of mercury from meth, exactly ? They’re cholo thugs, not walking spectrometers. That was Walt’s whole plan. They searched him, he had no weapon and a big bag of what really, really looked like primo crystal. So why not let the sheep right in ? > [@](#): > > 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. He works for Tuco, who’s quite obviously a complete maniac. So yeah, can’t be too bright. ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/31 "2014-03-01T14:08:31Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Ok, after my _second_ binge watching, I’m still stumped on this: the exterminator crew take over the lab and kill all the people, of —someone, who bargained for the methylamine, etc.–when that evil corporate chick was down in the underground lab. > > Had we been introduced to the true scuzzy crew of Uncle Jack yet? (Or was this after the prison murders/not-the-Godfather-baptism scene?) How did Todd et al find out about that operation, and (I guess we’ll never know) how did they get the drop on the leather-coated white guy crew? Declan - IIRC, Walt negotiated a deal with Declan for distribution out of state, and this allowed Mike to “retire.” Then Jesse quit, and Todd began making meth with Walt. This is how Todd knew about Declan and his distribution. Once Walt left the business, Todd was the primary cook, with Delcan’s crew handling distribution and Lydia handling the overseas shipments. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/32 "2014-03-01T14:44:18Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > 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. In the real world, [diesel exhaust](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_exhaust) is filled with all kinds of contaminants that would mitigate against normal breathing, and could weaken someone quite quickly. The cartel men, IIRC, put a brick on the truck’s accelerator to ram-air the exhaust in quickly. > [@](#): > > 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. They were driving fast-food delivery trucks; loading them up with bad-ass gunmen with “tactical training” is also going to eventually draw attention. Gus’s “business model” was to “hide in plain sight” from law enforcement. The Cartel was able to easily penetrate that facade since they _already knew_ Gus was in the drug business. Various law enforcement agencies only knew Gus Fring as a local businessman and philanthropist; they had no reason to look at Gus Fring as the drug kingpin of the southwest. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/33 "2014-03-01T16:25:04Z")
If Gus was so smart he wouldn’t be in the same room as street level dealers in his chicken ranch. He wouldn’t show his face to his cooks. He would be well insulated behind layers of lieutenants, like the mob. But that’s not so bad. It’s kinda necessary for him to come out and interact with the main characters unless you want him to stay in a room somewhere giving orders to Mike or whoever. That wouldn’t be as fun. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/34 "2014-03-01T17:10:15Z")
> [@SykoSkotty](#): > > Declan - IIRC, Walt negotiated a deal with Declan for distribution out of state, and this allowed Mike to “retire.” Then Jesse quit, and Todd began making meth with Walt. This is how Todd knew about Declan and his distribution. Once Walt left the business, Todd was the primary cook, with Delcan’s crew handling distribution and Lydia handling the overseas shipments. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/35 "2014-03-01T18:18:00Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > 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.) The speed at which Walt managed to get out of the bar and locate an open vehicle always suggested to me that he bought the car, not stole it. I always assumed it was the car of either the bartender or the barfly who helped him make the call to Walt Jr. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/36 "2014-03-01T19:10:32Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > The speed at which Walt managed to get out of the bar and locate an open vehicle always suggested to me that he bought the car, not stole it. I always assumed it was the car of either the bartender or the barfly who helped him make the call to Walt Jr. Didn’t he try to hotwire it, and then luckily guess where the key was? ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/37 "2014-03-01T20:40:38Z")
I watched the entire series last month. The biggest complaint I have on the show: Walt makes a big deal about Gus bugging his house with microphones. But then later on he goes to Jesse’s house to talk about killing the man. Why didn’t he assume that Gus had bugged Jesse’s place as well? That really bothered me. I mean if Gus was willing to do that to Walt, then of course he would have done it to Jesse. But it’s never brought up at all. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/38 "2014-03-01T21:02:07Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Didn’t he try to hotwire it, and then luckily guess where the key was? I’m not sure about that either. I thought so too when he had the screwdriver in his hand, but he was prying at something near the rear view mirror. What was he stabbing at? ---
**Author:** ![jrepka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@jrepka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrepka)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/39 "2014-03-02T20:03:02Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Didn’t he try to hotwire it, and then luckily guess where the key was? Yes, he absolutely tried to hotwire it. He used the screwdriver to try to pry off the steering column to get at the wires. After his plea to the “powers-that-be” to just get him back home, it occurred to him to check the visor. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473/40 "2014-03-02T21:27:33Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > The speed at which Walt managed to get out of the bar and locate an open vehicle always suggested to me that he bought the car, not stole it. I always assumed it was the car of either the bartender or the barfly who helped him make the call to Walt Jr. He clearly stole it, but even if we hadn’t seen the scene where he was trying to hotwire it and could assume he bought it, it’s still a pretty terrible idea to stay in it, unless he assumes that the bartender (or whoever) is going to have the following thought process: “Hmm, guy I’ve never seen before with a big beard just bought my crappy old car for a big stack of hundreds, and then a dozen cops bust in a few minutes later. Probably a coincidence.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-questions-edited-title/682473.md?page=3)