Breaking bad season 4 anticipation thread [spoilers]

Cafe Society
1

Breaking Bad starts up again on July 17, two weeks from tomorrow.

I don’t think I’ve ever anticipated a show as much as I am now. It’s been a full 15 months since we left off with the amazing end to season 3.

I put spoilers in the title in case anyone wants to talk about the series or speculate. If any people new to the show are in here - do not read past this point. Go immediately start watching the tv show. Netflix, buy the DVDs, whatever. Don’t risk reading any spoilers.

AMC has a season 4 teaser/trailer that only contains scenes prior to season 4, so no spoilers for season for but still kind of awesome. There’s another trailer that is mostly things we’ve seen but has a few bits from new footage.

I assume the predominant plot of season 4 will end up being a battle of strategy between Walt and Gus, which could be epic. I don’t know which direction they’ll go in. They really raised the stakes at the end of season 3 and haven’t left themselves too many options - but the show has just amazingly gotten better and better, so I’m confident they’ll find some way to make this great.

2

You can watch this video clip, which is found at the AMCTV website, where the cast talks about the direction of the upcoming season, and see quite a bit of new footage.

There’s also this Rolling Stone preview of the first episode of Breaking Bad, that I sort of read inadvertantly, and which has a vague, but significant spoiler for the first episode. This is it. Again, it’s vague, but it’s pretty major, so read at your risk: One of the major characters dies.

And according to Variety, at a viewing of the first episode attended by the major cast and their guests, one of them, Cranston’s teenage daughter, I guess (not really a spoiler itself, but it mentions the first spoiler):

Fainted at a particularly gory scene, which involved, as in the first spoiler, one of the main characters dying.

Here’s my speculation as to the specifics of the spoiler:

I think Mike dies. There are two clips from the upcoming season in the trailer Senorbeef linked, and both are taken from the same scene, one a couple minutes later. In the first, Jesse and Walt are sitting in chairs, and Walt is addressing Gus. Victor is standing next to Gus. Mike is standing behind Walt and Jesse. In the second scene, Jesse is seen in close-up, looking shocked, with blood on neck and the shoulder of his shirt. I think Mike is the major character to die, and he’s killed because he botched the whole thing with Walt at the end of the last season.

In any case, I’m looking forward to the new season. I’m also pleasantly dreading it, because I’ve heard it’s much darker than the previous seasons, and that Gilligan and the writers were actively trying to find ways to insert humor to leaven the whole thing. Sounds great, anyway.

3

One thing I’ve found incredible is that Gus & Co. haven’t been taken out by the Mexican cartel. Unlike the capos, staying south of the border in fortified homes, and probably always on the move, Gus operates using his real name, out of locations listed on some government database and stays in a suburban home with seemingly no protection. He doesn’t seem to be part of an extended network. Should be easy to take out, no?

4

Up until this season, Gus has had a ‘healthy’ working relationship with the Mexican cartel.

At the beginning of one of the episodes, I don’t remember which, there was a flashback that dealt with Uncle Tio and the Cousins. Uncle Tio was talking to somebody on the phone about a potential business agreement with a South American to whom Tio was referring to insultingly as “The Chicken Man.” I think we’re meant to understand that “The Chicken Man” was Gus, an up-and-comer in the drug business, and that the Mexican cartel wanted to form an alliance with him.

It’s not until S3 that Gus’ relationship with the Mexican cartel began to deteriorate. In what episode do we find out that Gus has used the clash between The Cousins and Hank to negotiate a deadly fire-fight between one of the cartel’s leaders and the Mexican government? It’s late in the season, and soon after, Mike has to recover one of their chemical facilities from cartel members, whom Gus believes to be soldiers probing for weaknesses in his operation.

5

That’s the unbelievable part. Surely, the cartel had done some form of due diligence on Gus; that’s how they would have known the existence and location of the facility they held hostage. In the same vein, they should know that Gus is basically a 3 man operation viz. Gus, his solo lieutenant Victor and his solo dirty-work-guy Mike. The rest all of his employees are just that, employees (like the ones at the captured facility) or street dealers with no particular fealty. So, the whole scenario of using the facility as bait seemed ridiculous. This isn’t some organized syndicate with half a dozen regional capos and couple dozen muscle. The cartel would just have send someone to show up early one day before the chicken joint opened; wait for Gus to show up (alone), and while he’s in the parking lot on the way to the restaurant, do a shoot-and-run. Why wouldn’t it be that simple?* It was that simple for the cousins to get that close to Walt, except for the convenient happenstance involving Mike’s timing and location

*well, BB would need a new villain, but other than that…

6

Any speculation as to whether this is the last season? I don’t know how much longer this story arc can be continued, since things seem to be heading for a showdown.

7

Much as I enjoy Breaking Bad, I’ve always thought that Gus never really felt realistic. He’s so insanely cautious and values his secret identity so much, yet when setting up a first meet with Walter he has it occur in a place that he publicly owns?

8

That meet made sense. Since Gus has to be present there in an official capacity, he isn’t there to “meet” Walt. He gets a chance to check Walt out incognito. Had the meeting been setup in a neutral place, he would have to scope Walt out from afar. In the restaurant, he controls whether he reveals himself or not. Had Walt been an undercover narc, Gus’s presence at the restaurant wouldn’t have meant anything.

9

It’s my favorite opening of any episode, but the beginning of “Kafkaesque,” where it’s revealed that Gus distributes meth through his El Pollos Hermanos processing centers, is just totally absurd for the exact reason that you mention.

10

I think I’ve seen it mentioned in interviews that they’re aiming for 5 seasons, but nothing set in stone yet.

11

I’ve always assumed the show is building to a climactic showdown between Walt and Hank, but then I don’t think I’ve accurately predicted the course of any (good) television show yet, so who knows.

Gilligan (heh heh) has been dodgy about whether Jesse kills Gale at the end of last season. Originally he said he did (or at least that he shot him point blank range), but since then he’s been more flirtatious on the “did he or didn’t he?” issue, so that’s the really big one for the season premiere.

Major characters who, I would think at least, would be safe from being killed (plotwise, not in a real world scenario):

Walt
Jesse
Gus (at least for now)
Skyler
Hank

Major characters who could conceivably be killed:
Marie
Walt Jr.
Saul
Mike

Of those I’ll admit that I hope it’s Mike.

12

If Gale isn’t dead I will be supremely pissed and my respect for the show will diminish hugely. This show doesn’t play stupid cutesy games like that. It shows the real consequences of your decisions. Story-wise Gale’s death just makes sense - it shows how far they’ve fallen, it shows what the stakes are, it shows how dire the situation is. Why would they cheat that, because it’d please some sort of “Walt isn’t THAT bad, is he” crowd? I don’t know who’s watching the show for that reason.

It would be a cheat. It would be a stupid, stupid cheat that puts the show on the level of other TV shows that have stupid cheat cliffhangers and resolutions. This show is above that, and if it isn’t, I will be extremely pissed. Gilligan is a dick for even hinting that there might be something there.

13

One thing I don’t get is the love for Jesse. Several fans call him the moral center of the show and a likeable goof, etc… I can’t freaking stand him: most of the problems they’ve had have been because of his outrageous stupidity and fuckwittedness. I’d have had less problem with Walt letting Gus end him as a liability issue than with the killing of Gale (who is truly innocent, save for of making drugs).

14

Walt will continue his descent to Hell in Season 4. By the end of the season he’ll be the kingpin of the meth operation (Gus will be gone) with his wife fully a part of the business. Hank will get ever more suspicious and closer to the truth, but won’t put it together this season. This series has to end very badly for Walt, but it’s still a great ride to the end whenever that is. Those are my speculations about the series.

15

Between this and hoping Mike dies, I just don’t know what to say!

16

Amen.

If they kill a major character, it almost has to be Mike. I will miss Mike a lot. He is the competent at his job than any other person on the show.

17

I love the scenes of Mike with his granddaughter. After a day of doing the bidding of a scummy lawyer and a diabolical meth lord and maybe a kill or disposing of a dead body or two he likes to relax with his family. In addition to making him more complex it also makes him somehow more believable.

18

If you define Walt’s job as making meth, then I would have to argue that he is at least as competent as Mike at his job. It’s the other details of this ugly business that Walt is fumbling through. Though he is becoming more and more competent at the nastiness as well.

I am very excited about the restart of the series though. Seems like forever!

19

I think Walt will drop a dime on Gus (or take personal action) to save his own life and those of his family. His wife now knows about the meth cooking, and Gus has to believe that Walt has told her about him. She’s a liability in his eyes. I don’t think there is any way that Walt can replace Gus as the head of a Mexican-run operation.

20

Maybe there is, though. I mean, the Cartel has to hate Gus - they aren’t thrilled with Walt, but Gus has hurt them much more badly. If they thought they could control Walt, perhaps they’d try something like “take care of Gus, and you can run his territory for us.”