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Well, that’s it — no more new Breaking Bad for almost another year. We knew this day would come, and yet it is still so painful. What will we do on Sunday nights now? Talk to our families? Watch stupid football or whatever? READ A BOOK? What a nightmare. Fittingly, the final episode in the first half of Breaking Bad‘s last season offered many little nods to where we once were. Like how Jesse didn’t look as cute, and how Walt seemed like a human for a moment. Let’s dive into them and the rest of what went on, huh? FOR THE LAST TIME! (UNTIL NEXT SUMMER!) (WHEN IT WILL BE THE LAST TIME FOR REAL!) (UNLESS THERE IS A MOVIE!)
The episode opens with Walt staring at a fly. Like that bottle episode from the third season, “Fly”! Ahh, you remember! It looks gross, as flies do.
Disgusting. We soon notice that Walt is in his office, waiting for Todd to come back from dealing with Mike’s car. When he returns he explains that its been dealt with and asks Walt if they should “deal with the other thing now.” We know what they mean, of course, and it’s tense and slightly sad — as it should be — with Walt saying that he didn’t want to talk about this and Todd, forever the teacher’s pet, not pressing any further. (Though, of course, Walt did pair this with saying that “it had to be done,” which is just soooo “Walt.”) Their dissolving is interrupted when Jesse opens the garage door.
AHHHHHH! “Oh, uh, um, we were just,” stammers Walt. “Yeah, haha, what he said, it’s not like we were — I mean, we were just, you know, getting ready to make a, uh, haha. It’s nothing, don’t even — WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” said Todd. Then each of them fainted, falling into each others arms, face-on-face. JK. They closed the trunk containing the body and Jesse asked if Mike got away safe and Walt said “he’s gone” in a way that so clearly meant “he’s dead” I’m not sure why Walt even said it and why Jesse didn’t respond, “So, wait. Do you mean he’s dead?” BUT ANYWAY. Now that Mike’s gone, Jesse wonders what they’ll do about his guys in prison — if they’re not getting paid off, there’s no reason for them not to talk. “I’m the only vote left and I’ll handle it,” says Walt. At which point Jesse should have said, “Sounds great,” and then sold his house and moved far away and deleted his Facebook. But that’s not what he did!
In the next scene we have to watch Walt’s stupid dumb head take a shower, just so we can see he has the Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass book that Gale gave him in his bathroom.
As they say, “If a Walt Whitman is shown in one of the first scenes, in one of the last scenes a Walt Whitman is going to go off.” Afterwards, we see — as Jesse suspected — one of Mike’s guys and a laywer trying to negotiate tattling terms with Hank. “My client wants a wing of the prison named after him, ALL of the sparkly Pokemon cards, Freaks and Geeks to be brought back for another two seasons with the original cast, a Click remote, the ability to record his dreams, and to be free forever and to never be able to be sent to prison again no matter how many crimes he commits.”
“Oooooook?” Hank says “nah-uh” because he has a million other guys he can talk to and he does NOT want to give up his rare Pokemon cards. This was a mistake, though! We will see later that this was a mistake!
Next we see Walt walking into a cafe, looking like the biggest fucking dummy in the whole world.
“I was a Blues Brother for Halloween last year.” – Heisenberg. He’s meeting Lydia to get the names of Mike’s guys, which she doesn’t want to give to him because she’s (rightfully!) afraid once he has them he’ll kill her. For each of them to get what they want (the names, more $$$, life) Lydia proposes helping Walt expand his business into the Czech Republic — a proposal which he accepts, probably because she also throws in that she and Fring were working on it before he was killed. (“Plus, honestly, most of it will be done in a montage anyway.”) After they shake on the deal and she gives him the names of Mike’s guys, she puts on her big dumb sunglasses and leaves, and Walt picks up his stupid hat and shows that UHHHH WHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT????
He was going to kill her right then! With the ricin! Since he didn’t, though, he puts the ricin back in its little outlet cubby and tells Todd that he wants to meet his uncle, and then sets up an elaborate prison murder montage plot with that uncle and a few other white power friends. This is another scene containing a nod to the past, with Walt musing about a painting on the wall that he’s seen before, specifically — as Alan Sepinwall noticed — hanging in his hospital room in season one. WHAT? DOES? IT? MEAN?
Then we see the horrifying, stabby murder montage set to an uptempo pop hit, Frank Sinatra’s “Pick Yourself Up.” Oh also Walt looks at his watch:
WHAT? DOES? THAT? MEAN? EVER? After its done we all uncover our eyes and Walt goes to Hank and Marie’s to play with baby, while the news of the murders plays in the background. Marie asks him to turn off the news because Hank is coming home, which he does, which is nice, and when Hank comes home they both drink some tense whiskey while Hank talks about how he would rather be marking trees to be chopped down. “Tagging trees is a lot better than chasing monsters,” Hank says. “I used to love to go camping,” says Walt. “What the fuck does that shady bullshit have to do with anything?” says Kelly. Then Walt dips his head way too far down to put a glass on a table, and when he lifts it back up we enter into another montage!
This one is set to Tommy Jame’s “Crystal Blue Persuasion.” (What a wonderful job to be the music supervisor on Breaking Bad.) The montage shows the boys and Lydia embarking on their Czech Republic venture and making lots and lots of money, and then trying on all sorts of different styles of clothing. From there we go back to Marie’s, where Skyler is watching Walt Jr. (Flynn) play with baby. “You’re really good with her,” says Skyler, maybe sealing her fate as someone who will die soon. NEVER SAY THINGS LIKE THAT, CHARACTERS ON THIS SHOW! Marie breaks it to Skyler that she and Hank think that it’s time for the kids to go home, as Skyler seems to be doing much better now that she’s in therapy. She explains that they’re beginning to worry that they’re enabling her. Eeep! Knowing that she’ll have to have the kids around Walt again, she goes home to find him by the pool and asks him to go for a drive with her. He complies and she takes him to the storage unit where she’s been keeping his meth $$$.
She explains that she has no idea how much is there, and that she’s tried different ways to figure it out but hasn’t been able to, to which Walt replies, “How much is this?” UHHHHHHHH, HELLO? DID YOU NOT LISTEN TO ONE SINGLE WORD SHE’S SAID SO FAR YOU DUMMY? She doesn’t know! She tells him that she wants her kids and her life back, and that this is more money than they’d be able to spend in 10 lifetimes and that she can’t even launder it anymore. “Please tell me. How much is enough. How big does this pile have to be.” And then, and I’m rushing here a little bit to get to the thing of it, but then we see Walt getting an MRI, and then we see him in the hospital bathroom where we check back in with the dented paper towel dispenser that he punched back when he first learned that his cancer was in remission.
So. Does he have cancer again? Or is this just to say that he is once again upset that he doesn’t have cancer, because he doesn’t have a clean way for his family to get out? ???? ?????????????????? HELLO?????
From the hospital he goes to Jesse’s house, in what is one of the most tense scenes this season because I thought he was going to kill Jesse even though that wouldn’t really make any sense but IT WAS VERY TENSE ANYWAY! AAhhhhhhh! Jesse seemed to think so too, as he left to get his gun when he saw Walt was at the door. Also he had drug paraphernalia around and didn’t look as cute or stylish as he used to:
Take off that shirt and put on a better one, Jesse. Get it together. Instead of murdering him, though, it seems that Walt only wanted to talk about the good old RV days — another nod to Breaking Bad‘s past. It would have been fairly sweet if I didn’t think Walt was going to murder Jesse the entire awful time. After they finish their chat, Walt leaves, telling Jesse that he left something for him outside. Jesse walks out to see some duffle bags and I think, “Oh jesus. IS IT MIKE’S CHOPPED UP BODY?” Hahaha. Again, there is no way it would have ever been Mike’s chopped up body, but the music and Jesse’s face were both really tense! Instead of that, it was money.
Oooooo. Money money money money! Money! NOW PLEASE MOVE, JESSE!
After dropping off Jesse’s money, Walt comes home and tells Skyler that he’s out. “Hey. I’m out. I’m out.” I did not believe this when it was said. For one, I’m not sure why Skyler’s question about how much more money he wanted would be effective since just the other week Jesse asked him the exact same thing and he answer was that he didn’t care about the money and, instead, wanted to build an empire. I suppose it could be the money issue, combined with the unable to launder it issue, combined with Skyler’s genuine pleading for her family but…All of those things have existed before? They’ve existed the whole season. Why now? Is it because the cancer is back and he wants to spend his final moments in peace, with his family? Is it because the cancer isn’t back and he’s realized that he does want his family out, to hell with the empire? If so: WHY NOW? Anyway, I did not think that he was being sincere at first. UNTIL.
Until the pool party.
Talking, talking, talking, la la la. Lemon in hair, shiny hair, baby sunscreen, beer, la la. Then Hank has to go #2 and we all know what happens and this is what happens:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! So, at this point, I suppose I do believe that Walt was being sincere in saying that he was out, because now he’ll have to be back in all the shit anyway and why waste our time with him saying he’s “out” and not meaning it if he’s just going to be forced to be back in in two seconds. Right? Do you agree? Or what do you think?
I have to say that I think it’s a bit of a stretch that Walt would have kept this absolutely explosive piece of evidence in the bathroom of his home, where Hank — who, as we saw in the flashback, has already spoken with Walt about Gale and Heisenberg and the “WW” — regularly visits. I know people will probably argue with me about this. And I do realize that there was foreshadowing first when Walt moved the book from his apartment back home, and also when Hank said (of Mike) that even criminal masterminds make mistakes and that they’ll catch this one when he makes a mistake (or whatever) (you know what I mean), and I am willing to concede that perhaps Walt didn’t want to get rid of this memento because he hangs on to guilt (or fun memories?) about killing Gale. And also his hubris has led him down bad paths in the past. BUT STILL! In his bathroom, out in the open? Why didn’t he get rid of it as soon as he realized it would be a piece of evidence tying him to Heisenberg, a million years ago? I don’t fully buy it — not without nitpicky question.
Something else that bothered me about this episode is how quickly Heisenberg made his turnaround, if we’re to believe that Walt did finally decide that he wanted to get out. We spent the entire season up until this point being convinced of his extreme sociopathic, empire-driven, unreachable personality spiral, only for it to be turned over in minutes (and after months of Heisenberg time taking place only in montage, after the entire series spanned only one year — another race to a result). The idea that Walt will come back to reality only to be found out and dragged under again is a way to drive the plot that I’d definitely enjoy without complaint, but to rush through it minutes before the series finale of the first half seemed a bit careless, and confusing. If we’re to believe that he’s made his turnaround because his cancer has come back…why are we to believe that? It seems like crazy Heisenberg, learning of his imminent death, would only want to push his empire as far as he could before it happened. Or it at least seems like, if that isn’t the way he reacted, because he is still human after all, there should have been a bit more time in this half of the series spent on that mental journey, since it isn’t very intuitive. Or are we supposed to believe that he realized he only became a monster because of…inertia?
With all of that said, though, I thought this was a good way to end this half of the season. I thought the minutes of idle chatting leading to the silent and crazy final scene was very well done. Hank knowing about it going into the final half of the season is perfect. And I’m sure we will be taken through more of Walt’s mental processes next year, when we learn about the cancer stuff, and when we learn about whatever other stuff. BUT. Whatever. I’VE SAID MY STUFF! Now you say your stuff. What did you think? How much will you miss it? How mad are you that I said anything was wrong with it, even though you know for a fact that I love this show very much and am pointing out things that could be problems because if I just said “it was good” the recap wouldn’t be long enough, and also humans make this show so there could definitely be some things with it that aren’t so perfect? Hmmmm?
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR, G’BYE!
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You know how when you hit the snooze button in the morning and a few minutes before your alarm goes off again you forget that you hit snooze or that you even have to get up and then all of sudden BOOM and you have to go to work and it feels like an eternity before you can go back to bed? “Created by Vince Gilligan” is the snooze alarm of my life.
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No one saying “Czech please!” during the cafe scene felt like a wasted opportunity.
GUYS. I know you want to talk about Breaking Bad, but does anyone want to talk about this?
Because it was very good, but probably not as terrifying as BB.
I’m raking my brain as to how the new companion is going to work out if she’s already dead-ish?
I know! clone? earlier time-line? twin sister?
I hope it isn’t an earlier time-line thing, because Moffat did that with River. I’m sure it will be interesting. My biggest problem with the new companion is that she might start to annoy me after a few episodes. She’s a little too twee right now, it might kill me a little.
Looks like it’s going to be a great season – I can’t wait to see how the Ponds depart.
Maybe the creature inside the Dalek escaped onto the telepad and followed the Doctor into the Tardis! The Doctor could spend the rest of the season with a hideous, one-eyed mutant tentacled thing following him around the Universe?
Oh, but that has nothing to do with companions, of course.
I get that, but man is she easy on the eyes.
zombie daleks! eggs-terminate! chin boy! what’s not to love? …I mean, other than the increasing fear of how Moffat will end the Pond’s reign as companions…
i want them to have a happy ending, but that never seems to happen.
Happy tears! Why can’t I cry happy tears?
Loving it!
And I usually hate the Daleks, but this was a fun episode. I liked when the Doctor chastised the Daleks and they all pointed their toilet plungers away in shame. And now the Daleks have no memory of the Doctor!
I don’t know how much of that Oswin chirpy speedy-talk I can really handle…
Rory was really hot in this episode, but I’m glad his cool-guy hairstyle didn’t change the fact that he is a total dork. I think the new companion will be great, how often is The Doctor impressed by someone’s intelligence? It will be nice to have a companion who is more interested in outwitting the Doctor than smooshing her face on his face.
Also, I like that this show acknowledges the fact that gay people exist.
“It was cheesy, but well done, but SO CHEESY, but well done.” – Me on every single episode of Doctor Who including this one.
That book bit bothered me too but I guess they made a point of Walt keeping certain mementos to remind himself of whatever. Also, the fly was supposed to symbolize this, I think? Todd kept the spider which is evidence of the kid’s murder. Walt could not cook cook with the fly messing up his stuff. The book was his fly.
The book is like a trophy. Like Jesse’s watch, it was an offering of respect from an underling. I’m not surprised Walt hung on to it. I don’t know why it’s in the bathroom, but I’d bet Skylar put it in there. Or, Walt just forgot that he brought it in there one day when he needed it.
I was kinda thinking it was more like Jar Spider than anything else. Walt is just as much a psychopath as Todd, after all.
It was motivated by pride, no doubt about it. A monument to his impenetrable ability to outsmart and outlive whoever might stand in his way.
bitches love to put books on toilets.
I thought you could make an argument for it, because a) Walt loves trophies to his greatness and b) Walt is just the sort of dummy who will kill a competitor under the guise of saving his life but will just leave random clues around because he thinks he’s smarter than he is. It’s kind of fitting that it’s carelessness with that book that gets him because in the scene where he talked to Hank about Gale he started to feel jealous that Gale would get the credit for being Heisenberg and he told Hank he thought there was a smarter guy out there even thought it would have been easier to let Hank think they got Heisenberg.
Walt is seriously a dummy.
To be fair, it was in the bathroom and I could definitely see Walt forgetting there was an inscription in it, or that Hank would ever care to read it.
I find it hard to believe Walt ever even cracked that book open and saw the inscription.
At the same time, the chance that Walt or Skyler could flip through the book in their bathroom is decent, but that book just seemed to float around their bedroom in various spots before winding up below those magazines, forgotten.
I think if Walt knew of that transcription, he would’ve trashed the book after flipping through Gale’s notebook in S04. Either that, or Walt seriously forgot it Gale wrote in it.
*I think if Walt knew of that INscription (not transcription)
I think more than the book being “a trophy,” it is supposed to be a (or THE) loose end he missed while focusing on the bigger picture (that obvious string hanging off his Heisenberg hat fringe a couple weeks ago). The overall 8 episode arc’s focus (and Walt’s) was on getting rid of every Gus Fring connection one at a time, from the laptop to Mike to the witnesses in prison.
What trips him up, though, is overlooking someone who had been dead for a while. Just because you can kill someone (a skill he is got better and better at this year) doesn’t mean you can erase any threat they pose. The fly he spent an episode hunting down is resurrected in the opening shot. And, ultimately, Gale Boetticher (and his love of Whitman) reaches beyond the grave to undue a full season’s work of perfectly executed train robberies, prison murders, and dissolved bodies.
Pretty glorious, right?
He probably should have gotten rid of the watch, too. Maybe his subconscious is preventing him from throwing his trophies away.
Trophies are things you won. In the instances of Gale’s book and Jesse’s watch, they are technically both gifts, but one could make the argument that they are also trophies, with Walt having won the gift-givers over.
But unlike Jesse, the book serves mostly as a reminder of Gale’s defeat, and less of a reminder of Gale’s respect for Walt at the time.
Walt probably does consider the book a reminder of his triumph, albeit a trivial one in the grand scheme of things. It’s certainly an artifact of nostalgia for Walt.
(Sidenote: Just like when people start handling Walter with Jekyll/Hyde gloves, I also start to prickle at too much ‘trophy’ talk, because Walt is not Dexter. He doesn’t thirst for the kill, then get a precious memento so he’ll always remember how it felt when he did it, etc).
Also Hank is the only person who would have made anything of that inscription, and I also believe, as you point out, that Walt would have forgotten all about what that book was and contained other than it being a monument to his ridiculous ego. I found it to be superbly written and set up, and just an amazing way to end the half-season (or whatever we call it).
“Trophies are things you won”
Walt won Gale and Jesse’s respect. That means a lot to him. We know he has a big ego, so I think he does get a thrill out of being seen as superior and that’s one of the reasons he likes wearing that watch. So, I think the book is a trophy in a sense. Maybe it was only his subconscious that prevented him from throwing it away, but I bet he feels pride when he reads that inscription.
I’m pooping.
Dad?
“more sand”
too soon
i know, i thought so too. sorry.
it’s ok, you blookhead.
What about me????????!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
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This is what the end of Breaking Bad does to us.
This is why we can’t have nice things!
Someone comes along with an auto-cannibalistic-ice-cream-head-eating-guy and ruins GIFS for all of us.
I would say the same thing for whoever was the first person to say “ENHANCE!” regarding an image of a spider.
Screw you, pioneer. You ruined jpegs forever. For me.
UGH I was so angry after this episode. I just can’t believe that after several seasons building up to a confrontation between Walt and Hank (I mean, think how intense Walt v. Tuco and Walt v. Gus were, and now remember that Hank was the final boss the whole time!) THIS is how Hank gets on Walt’s trail? Talk about unearned! I mean I always thought it would be Walt’s hubris that tipped Hank off (remember that masterful dinner party scene when Walt tells Hank Heisenberg is still out there?) and I guess you can make the argument that hubris made him keep the book in plain sight, but that would just be a classic fanwank, I think.
Also, putting a brief meaningful shot of the book early in the same episode does not count as responsible foreshadowing.
Actually, Walt is the final boss.
And the book showed up when Walt was moving his things back into the house earlier this season.
But did we ever even see him get that book from Gale? I mean I understand the “one little mistake” theme, but leaving something that incriminating in a place that accessible to his DEA brother-in-law seems a lot stupider and more convenient for the writers than, say, Gus taking Jesse along on his cruel visit to Hector Salamanca.
Whether we saw Walt be gifted the book from Gale is another matter entirely. Your argument was it wasn’t proper foreshadowing to show a book at the beginning of the same episode where it has a reveal at the end. I posited back that the book has been around for at least 8 episodes, thereby extending the length of the book’s foreshadowing.
I too am curious of when Gale gifted that book to Walt, as I cannot recall the scene. The only Walt/Gale scene I remember is when they both are reciting Walt Whitman poems early on in season 3.
Was that the en suite bedroom Hank used?
I mean, I’d also argue that showing the book twice, when the book was never fully entered as an exhibit for the viewing audience, does not count as responsible foreshadowing. As far as we knew until the last minute of this episode, Leaves of Grass was just sitting around as a reminder to us and Walt of the things he’s done to become king.
I guess it’s a matter of opinion (what a shocker).
The fact that someone would not count Walt moving his things back in, looking at the Whitman book, shrugging and smiling to himself about everything that was Gale, as being ‘fully entered as an exhibit’ is, well, I don’t know what I’d call that.
The book showed up in Walt’s bedroom almost every scene he was in there, moving his nightstand around, going to sleep and placing his watch on the nightstand, etc etc.
Treat the book like COMMUNITY. Go back and watch for it in the background. I’d bet you’d see it more times than you thought.
It actually showed up – in close-up! – in S03E06, Sunset. Walt is reading it when Hank calls him about finding the RV.
Like so.
THANK YOU, deepomega! I’ve been wanting to know its first appearance very badly.
Although now it seems less likely that Walt was not aware of the inscription, so maybe he just forgot Gale had inscribed it. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Walt can be forgetful (like remembering who he knows that know the names of the 9 guys).
I believe we did see the inscription earlier in the series. I thought when Gale gifted the book to Walt, we saw the inscription. I say this because when I saw Hank about to get the book, I thought “oh sh*t. I think that has Gale’s name in it.”
And of course Walt is the final boss in the grand scheme of things, but for Walt, Hank is definitely the final boss.
Walt is not the final boss– Heisenberg is the final boss:
Total agreement, Steph. This man cracked Madigral but he needed it literally spelled out to him that his suddenly rich chemist brother-in-law could possibly be a drug manufacturer? Please.
There was a good interview on NPR with Dean Norris (Hank). They asked him how he explained Hank not suspecting Walt all this time, and he said:
“I think we as people, certainly law enforcement, they size people up rather quickly, and I think they then hold on to that opinion. And he has known Walter White for a long time, and he’s only known him to be this kind of ineffectual, milquetoast kind of guy, and that’s who he sees him as.”
( http://www.uproxx.com/tv/2012/08/dean-norris-from-breaking-bad-on-nprs-fresh-air/ )
Which, at least within the TV show context, works for me. Hank has used his first impressions/suspicions to make other breakthrough in the Fring case, even when other people thought he was being paranoid. That it is his achilles heel in regards to his once dorky brother-in-law makes some sense.
I love Terry Gross loving Breaking Bad.
Well, the book isn’t the end. Hank isn’t coming out of the bathroom holding the book in triumph shouting, “I got you, Heisenberg! Signed, sealed, delivered.” The next half of this season should be Hank earning the victory now that he knows who his target is. Or, maybe he covers it up. It could mean his career if anyone finds out his brother-in-law was the meth kingpin this whole time.
“The twist at the end is that Hank was the meth kingpin the whole time!” – M. Night Shyamalan’s Breaking Bad
Oh, yea. I mean I’m sure that the payoff for this moment will be absolutely immense, but this moment was very important and I didn’t think it was well earned.
Well, how would it have been earned? It kind of feels more realistic to me that it would come down some stupid, random thing that no one saw coming. And, it probably still will be hubris that brings down Heisenberg. I’m pretty sure now that he’s out, Walt feels like he won and is safe.
It’s not my job to figure that out. It’s the writers’ job, and obviously it was hard enough that this was what they came up with. And look – I know that people get really angry when the BB writers are accused of laziness, and I haven’t thought anything was really lazy until this last thing! And maybe it wasn’t laziness, maybe the writers wanted to play up this “one small thing” angle.
But this book isn’t one small thing! I feel like a lot of the discussion about the book assumes that the book as an object is trivial. It is anything but trivial. It is so highly incriminating that its presence in Walt’s bathroom really does deserve an explanation. I mean the flashback scene (also, ugh, the flashback) was obviously the one big moment Hank would remember once he became suspicious of Walt, even if he weren’t reminded of it so directly.
Fairness, and whether something was earned by a character is not what this show is about. This show is a dark comedy. On Breaking Bad, people do not get what they deserve constantly.
Gale’s inscription and Hank’s revelation LITERALLY catching him with his pants down was not only in line with his character, not only in line with the show’s sense of humor, but it was also in line with the show’s dynamic of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. There are certain things the characters have no way of planning for, therefore how can they ‘earn’ them?
Hank had no foresight in that bathroom. Zero. He just wanted to read something while taking care of his business.
@imsteph
Regarding the book being highly incriminating, I don’t think Walt knew that it was. Walt did not take Gale seriously. Gale gifted that book to Walt. We don’t even know if Walt ever read it or its inscription.
Because having a Walt Whitman book isn’t incriminating, even if you and your DEA brother-in-law had a conversation about a meth cook who loved Whitman’s work. Hell, if Hank ever noticed the book and asked Walt about it, Walt could’ve said he’s had it for a while, OR he could even say that after they talked about that meth cook he felt compelled to pick himself up a copy and see what it was all about, OR any other excuse somewhere between those two. Owning a book of Whitman poetry is not incriminating, period.
But, I personally did not like its presence in Walt’s house– just being a book– immediately (because who knows if it would’ve tipped Hank off in some manner). Little did any of us know it was a bomb just waiting to go off.
@Kajus
The only way this works for me is if we find out somehow that Walt didn’t know about the inscription, that in the numerous times he picked up and moved this gift from a man he had killed, he never bothered to check. This seems really unlikely, but I’d take it over the current narrative.
The inscription is very incriminating because Hank has personally seen Gale’s handwriting and probably has a full notebook of it still in evidence.
imsteph, I am aware of how incriminating the book is with Gale’s inscription. I am SUPER-aware that Hank has flipped through Gale’s notebook. In this very episode they flashed back to Hank and Walt discussing Gale’s notebook. I have all the pieces you have.
So yeah, considering how HIGHLY INCRIMINATING that book is, the only rationale I came up with is that Walt never saw the inscription.
Before we, the audience, knew about the inscription– finding out at the same time Hank did– I personally did not like that book in Walt’s house just because the mere suggestion of Gale-via-Whitman made me nervous, but the presence of the book as just a book is not incriminating, as I described above in my previous comment.
In court, though, that book is meaningless. It really can’t be used to convict Walt and that’s probably what Walt was thinking about when he was tying up loose ends. An inscription in a book using only initials probably didn’t cross Walt’s mind. There’s an example of his hubris being his downfall. The problem is it being somewhere where the only person on Earth who would know the significance of that inscription would find it. I’m still blaming Skylar.
Also, as far as Hank is concerned, after all he’s been through this past year and a half, he has earned some divine help with his Heisenberg investigation.
I think Walt got out because he did it. He defeated all his enemies and became the king of an empire. I mean, his business went international, there was nowhere left to go. I would imagine he was a pretty burned out by the time Skylar showed him the pile of money. The montage was a bit of a quick way to sum all that up, but we need to get to the end now, so I forgive them for doing it that way.
That was meant to be a separate post, not a reply. The internet can be so confusing sometimes with all its buttons and text boxes.
This is the point to me exactly. I feel like that was the point of the second montage to show him grow increasingly weary and disinterested in this empire he had egotistically dreamt up now that he has indeed accomplished more than he had ever dreamt of. Also i think the fact that he accomplishes something on a scale and in a market that Fring never got to touch means he can finally snap out of it. He is the king and it feels meaningless.
Exactly. That three month montage flew by because everything went off without a hitch. Walt made his meth, made his money, went home, and started all over again for three straight months. No local cartel interference (because Gus eliminated one and Walt partnered with the other), no DEA, no nothing but pure production of 99.1% purity methamphetamine.
We hit the 50 episode mark a little while back, and we’ve experienced about a year everyone’s life. So that’s basically like each episode is about a week’s worth of life. So 3 months is about 12 episodes (aka, a whole regular season), and the montage was three months of Walt’s empire working like a well-oiled machine. No Salamanca Twins, no Tuco. No nothing. The TEDIUM of a machine that works.
I felt it was a great montage, and Walt looked exhausted by the end of it. Message received. The Crystal Blue Persuasion sequence did its job masterfully.
You guys are all awesome. I want you to know as I keep coming back to read these wonderful insights that I’m thinking that. And that I’m watching you. And that I’m possibly INSIDE YOUR HOME WATCHING YOU, but no I’m not. (or am I? (no. (maybe))). All of you. I know I only replied to my BFFFF KajusX & Alyx4evr, but mostly I mean all of you.
Also, the humidity in the bathroom would have completely ruined a book that old! Walt had to know this.
To me, the clumsy thing was putting the inscription in the book. I figure if Hank doesn’t get that, the next thing to try would be to have some note pages fall out that start:
“I am Walter ‘Heisenberg’ White and this is my confession….”
On the other hand, I think the only way that’s fair to Hank that he didn’t figure out that Walt was up to no good up to now is that he had a psychological block where his Brother-In-Law was concerned that prevented his cop instincts from working.
Also, I feel there’s a possibility that Walt and his family end up turning states evidence and in the witness protection program out of this, rather than some grand Walt vs. Hank battle, based on the Flash-forward. (The only thing that makes me think any possible different explanation is the fact that Walt was introduced to Saul’s “even better than witness protection” guy previously.)
I agree. I can totally see Walt owning/keeping a copy of Leaves of Grass around as a reminder of the incredible irreversible things that he’s done, and I can even see that copy in the bathroom getting Hank thinking about Walt’s weird behavior. The importance of the book may have been clearly foreshadowed; the full force of the I’M HEISENBERG inscription was not.
Wait, now you’re saying the importance of the book HAS been clearly foreshadowed?
Also, the importance of the inscription was not ‘clearly foreshadowed,’ therefore… what? It’s bad storytelling? What is the definition of good storytelling? Giving the audience all of the information first?
Please advise.
I said “may have been,” because the book did show up a few times. Even if it was, though, the way it was used was not clearly foreshadowed. I mean, look. Until we saw the inscription, Leaves of Grass was just a book with strong associations with a murder for Walt and for the audience. There was no indication before that last scene that it was a book with strong associations with a murder for Walt, the audience, and Walt’s Heisenberg-obsessed DEA brother-in-law.
And come on. Good storytelling lies somewhere between giving the audience all the information and none of the information. But snark away if you must.
Not trying to be snarky (I’m not a big fan of attituding and name-calling), just can’t understand how slipping in a few surprises into the narrative is classified as bad storytelling when those surprises are plausible things that could happen.
We knew the book’s thematic connotations.
We knew Walt acquired it at some point and smiled at the memory as he unpacked it.
We knew it could remind Hank of Gale if he saw it.
We knew it wound up in the bathroom, where books go to die.
The fact that Gale inscribed the book and Walt didn’t see it is completely plausible, if you accept that Walt hadn’t meticulously read the book cover to cover, or even looked in it. We didn’t even know Gale gave him that book until we saw his handwriting inside it. That’s completely plausible.
Gale’s Inscription is turning into Gus’s Half-Face. This is interesting.
So what’s with the downvoting? Are we here to do something other than share our reactions to this great and therefore very occasionally disappointing show?
It’s “I disagree” downvoting, not “you suck” downvoting. I still don’t judge the book and inscription as “lazy.” I’ve written my share of t.v. and movie scripts and been admittedly lazy myself, so I know it when I see it. Or, at least, think I see it.
I don’t think it really matters if Walt ever saw the inscription or not. I think it’s still highly plausible that he knew it was there and just forgot – or never stopped to think that it was in any way going to wind up in anyone who would make something of it’s hands. Hank is really the only person who would.
Was anyone else yelling at Lil Walt to be careful with Holly near the end of the episode? That was the most tense BBQ scene ever filmed…well, since last Breaking Bad BBQ when Walt first confronted Hank over trying to parent his kids.
I really thought something was going to happen to Holly there. The way they filmed that scene was really worrisome.
I kept thinking that the episode was going to end with Skylar being like “I don’t feel too good” and then it cuts to the socket and the ricin’s gone!
AND Marie wasn’t wearing any purple, which just felt ominous.
wasnt she wearing yellow, which is opposite to purple on the color wheel?!?
any color wheel enthusiasts wanna fact check me on this one?
Red and Green.
Blue and Orange.
Yellow and Purple.
yessssssssssssssss! i knew my BFA wasn’t all for naught.
Maybe that means she’s pregnant? All that talk of fertility medicine as hair product better not be in vain.
Question: Isn’t the lawyer still alive?
Which lawyer? The lawyer responsible for the hazard pay drop offs was clearly shivved at the payphones (which was the lawyer Walt and Lydia discussed). The lawyer representing the Laundry Supervisor guy in Hank’s scene is just a lawyer, and is not a criminal, nor is he jailed.
Oh, I thought the lawyer they were talking about was the lawyer trying to negotiate with Hank, and perhaps he knew too much. But that makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up.
They previewed the Lydia scene on AMC and when they said “the lawyer” I completely blanked on the money guy being a lawyer for some reason and I was sooooo upset about the death of Saul. For like ten minutes. And then I was like, Oh, duh.
Oh, I thought the lawyer they were talking about was the lawyer trying to negotiate with Hank, and perhaps he knew too much. Thanks for clearing that up.
Thanks for clearing that up.
The “I used to love to go camping” line signifies how tired Walt is on this life, “camping” referencing both the Crystal Ship and the tents being using to cook in bug-bombed houses.
Favorite moment from the episode:
Jesse asking how much was enough, and Skyler showing him the money pile, wasn’t “just the other week”; the montage was a couple months, I think. Maybe Walt saw that being king was just another job and not all it was cracked up to be!
Also, here’s an important Youtube which sheds some more light on the final scene; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=J9jlAsXMMAs
Yeah, Walt produced meth for Declan and the Czechs non-stop for three months (which was also how long he agreed to work for Gus initially). After three months of being at the top, he had made more money than Skyler could count nor launder.
I think the main issue was that the show didn’t communicate clearly enough how much time had passed, they showed a dozen or so houses being tented in that montage shot, but since the entire rest of the series was only about a year, they could have used a title card that said “Six months later” or something, I figured it was only a couple weeks upon initial viewing.
While I was watching I clearly got that 3 months had passed, but now I can’t remember how it was communicated in the episode.
Marie told Skyler that it’d been more than 3 months since they took the kids, I think.
AH! There it is.
Still, that seems like a pretty blink-and-you’ll-miss-it way to pass that much time, since the entire series has been so compressed thus far. All the crazy shit of the first 4.5 seasons happened in 12 months, then suddenly we skip over 3 with one line?
If only Walt would have bought a smartphone for Hank with some of that FAT FAT CASH, none of this would have happened.
That’s a good point. Does Hank have a camera phone? If there is nothing else connecting Walt to Heisenberg he needs to take that page without Walt noticing it. Does he need the actual book for evidence? Whatever happened to Walt teaching, does Hank accept that he’s just a gambler now? I think I missed something.
Best suggestion I’ve heard for next season: The premiere should just be an hour of Hank beating the shit out of Walt with Holly and Emo McGee looking on.
For me, this entire journey has been just that. A journey. From the first episode it’s established that Walt is a grossly overqualified high school chemistry teacher, disrespected at the car wash, and an inadequate provider. In all aspects that he cares about, he is impotent (other than the sex thing, although there is that time he comes home and she’s like “walt? Is that you?” implying his boners were less than ideal before). This whole thing has just been him trying to prove that he is someone important and powerful. That’s why he tells Hank last season that there’s no way that Gale is Heisenberg. Because he doesn’t want anyone else taking credit for his work. That’s also why he keeps the book, as a reminder of “Yeah. I won. Silly Gale.”
Now that he has won, he’s found that it’s just another job. Yes, he’s the one with all the power and money and everyone respects him and “says his name” as it were, but that’s really all he wanted. Just to say that he could and did. It was the getting to that point that was important, not maintaining it when it was there. He’s proven to himself that he can do it, and he’s got more than enough money to do whatever he wants. So what’s left to accomplish? I think that’s why he quits.
Actually they clear that boner issue up in the webisode titled “I Deal Boners (My Name is Walt)
He also had no one to really share his victory with. His wife, his children, and his protege had all distanced themselves from him. I think that Walt also felt some genuine remorse over killing Mike.
Walt: guysflavortown.tumblr.com
Hank: littlefacemitt.tumblr.com
Saul: mr-gif.com/
Mike :cavecitysink.tumblr
Jesse: animalsthatdopeoplethings.tumblr.com
Marie: garfieldminusgarfield.net
Skyler: stfumarrieds.tumblr.com
Flynn: CorgiAddict.tumblr
Gus: thefluffingtonpost.com
Huell: lonelycheetos.tumblr.com
Hugo: sadstuffonthestreet.com
Badger: theclearlydope.tumblr.com
Skinny Pete: onionlike.tumblr.com
I enjoyed the mid-season finale quite a bit. There were a lot of twists and turns I didn’t expect. Namely, I never would have guessed that Walt’s hunger for an empire would be satiated, and he would actually make the decision to return to normal life before something got him caught.
I didn’t expect Walt to even get that temporary respite, due to the show’s insane momentum (that inertia Walt and Jesse discussed). I kind of figured that the whole thing would blow up in Walt’s face mid-criminal empire, and he’d wind up in that first scene of this season, 52 and on the run.
I’m reading Cryptonomicon right now and I just read a scene where a group of characters is sent out on an expedition to find a giant pile of gold in the middle of a jungle. It’s so big and conspicuous that it’s actually impossible to remove, and the entire point of the expedition is to send the message “that money is not worth having if you can’t spend it.” One of those weird coincidences of cultural consumption, I guess.
1) No way Walt’s out yet. Total lie. Maybe he’s not cooking anymore, but he’s still the ringleader.
2) I wouldn’t be surprised if part of Walt’s unconscious left the book out as a taunt, like “No way will anyone ever know the real signficance of this book. I’m so good i can leave it in my bathroom and no one’s the wiser.”
Maybe, but the big dummy couldn’t hide it from Skyler when she had no reason to suspect him. Don’t see how he could do it when she’d undoubtedly be watching him like a hawk. I think he’s out!
He just has a different role now, less hands-on. He’s the new Fring, and he’s got people under him to do all the dirty work. Empire-style.
I agree. He’s trained Todd to do the work, and probably found someone else to help Todd, so he can be “out” and have very little connection except collecting the money at the end – which he will no longer ask Skyler to launder. This is, to me, the most likely scenario from a man who only recently was bent on building a meth empire, not getting out after three months of hard work.
As for Hank – I can see a few scenarios spinning out of this:
1. Hank spends the next 8 eps building an airtight case against Walt/Heisenberg. This may be tough because Walt has covered a lot of his tracks. Walt goes on the run to avoid Hank.
2. Hank literally cannot deal with this information and goes slightly crazy. He doesn’t build a case but eventually takes on Walt outside of his capacity as a DEA agent, mano-a-mano.
3. Hank, already tired of “chasing monsters,” blackmails Walt for money.
The worst case scenario for Walt – who many have subconsciously wanted to be caught – is to never be recognized by anyone for his work as the great Heisenberg. I really believe he wants to provide for his family, but also for him to die and be seen as a great meth kingpin one day. If this somehow doesn’t happen, if no one ever knows *and* he loses the money, that might be worse than death for Walt.
Vince Gilligan on the significance of things in the last ep: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/vince-gilligan-on-breaking-bad-and-the-plumbing-of-it-all/?hp
- He seems to believe Walt means it when he says he is “out”
- The MRI clearly meant something
- He doesn’t know how Hank is going to react yet
- Walt and Jesse will be on more equal footing next season in some capacity
The MRI flipped 180 degrees in frame, and then Walt flipped 180 degrees and got out of the business. That’s something one can glean from the MRI scene.
Good catch, KajusX.
“So, what was up with that storage locker scene? What’s her point?” —Mitt Romney
“Walt, you DID build that!”
(Thunderous applause)
“Wait, I have to spray my cash for SILVERFISH?” – Romney
Seriously, that part killed me. Who knew?
KELLY I THOUGHT IT WAS MIKE”S BODY TOO! Then they showed the bags…THEN I THOUGHT HIS BODY WAS IN THE BAGS
I thought maybe it was Todd’s body for a second, like he killed Todd as a present to Jesse.
Aw, like a cat would.
Exactly!
The way they shot those bags was definitely supposed to evoke body bags. I mean how many duffle bags full of money have we seen at this point? And how many were shot so just their top halves peeked up over the bottom of the screen? Pretty mean cinematography!
Also Jesse clearly sees it as blood money (hence the “body bags”), since it’s money from “selling” the methlamine from the robbery where Dirtbike Kid got murdered.
Nicely done, Dan Electrode.
I am not so crazy about the sociopath I have been conditioned to hate just giving up and being a family man again, but then again he might be lying or it might not stick once he;s back in his routine of having to, God forbid, take imput from Skylar. But I don’t think Hank knowing is like an automatic doom. Hank’s career is probably over, his family will be ruined, and if he does decided to build a case and not just deal with it on his own then a book with initials in it is hardly evidence of anything. So next season, I guess, will either be Hank wrestling with the decision of whether and how to keep it quiet or Hank trying to secretly gather evidence off the books while pretending it’s all cool. That could be pretty interesting.
I don’t, however, think Walt is coming back with automatic weapons for the DEA. It makes more sense that he’s not really out or Declan wants him back in because I guess now Todd would be cooking and Todd sucks or Todd’s Aryan friends are pissy about something. Hank is a more likely candidate for a ricining.
And finally, I so thought that money was gonna have a bomb in it for half a second.
I think he’s getting that gun to protect that someone, and that someone is Jesse. Declan/Lydia/Todd and his uncle would have no problem taking Jesse out, and they all know he’s Walt’s partner. Think Walt comes out of hiding because he knows Jesse’s in danger.
Ooh true Lydia could set someone after Jesse. I don’t know, he could be protecting Jesse but he manipulates him so much that we all thought he was going to kill Jesse, so maybe Lydia gets a Hank visit asking about Walt and she sets some people after him and that’s the thing?
I think the gun isn’t so much protection but a showdown, like he’s done running he’s gonna settle it. This is suburban Scarface after all
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I never thought he was gonna kill Jesse in that scene
Walt needs a heavy machine gun/RPG to protect Jesse? He’s got a boatload of money and could hire an army at this point. Something else is happening/going on where Walt is in danger, too.
Thing is, though, he’s coming back from New Hampshire where it seems he’s on the run, with a new identity and all, to New Mexico. Don’t think he’d be coming back if HE was in danger, but if someone he cared about was; and that’d leave only his family and Jesse, I think.
Is he coming from New Hampshire? It’s possible he simply got a new driver’s license from some underworld contact and has been living in hiding somewhere in New Mexico.
No, I don’t see him killing Jesse just out of the blue. Walter might do horrible horrible manipulative things to Jesse but he does have some kind of affection towards him.
I think he’s gonna be PROTECTING Jesse, not killing him!
He loves what he gets from Jesse looking up to him, but he became so manipulative and awful towards him when he started thinking on his own and wanted out. He killed Mike for telling him about himself last week, when he didn’t at all need to, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility for the viewer to think he was there to talk Jesse back into the biz one more time and might lose his temper if he didn’t agree. Jesse certainly thought so.
To your point about the automatic weapons, I kept asking myself “If Declan or the Czech Republic version of Declan (Czechlan!?! Sorry…) came back and demanded that he keeps cooking, who the hell is Walt to prevent him or his family from being killed??” He has no muscle anymore, just Todd.
So yeah, I’m with you and think the weapon is meant for a Declan type or maybe even sociopath Todd.
I bet Todd is involved somehow. Freaking Todd.
Don’t you mean Ricky Hitler? Friggin’ Ricky Hitler…
Of course Ricky Hitler is in league with THE ARYAN BROTHERHOOD.
Yea but, see above: Walt has a lot of money right now. Unless we assume he loses access to it all between now and season’s end (possible) he could potentially hire muscle, right?
Right, or pay someone to make him disappear and then just to be “extra safe” purchase a ridiculously powerful weapon that should NOT be in the trunk of a person’s car in a diner parking lot.
…so much for being out.
Kelly, I believe Chekhov’s actual quote was, “If you’re going to put a book of Walt Whitman poems that was given to you by a guy with whom you used to cook meth and who you later had murdered by the toilet in the beginning of the season, it better be discovered by your DEA agent brother-in-law when he goes to take a shit in the half-season finale.”
“You know, for someone who complained about the timing of the recap, you sure didn’t comment very quickly, truckasaurus!” -you guys
so I got here late enough that most of the cool stuff has already been said…I think that Walt quitting without any recognition is the ultimate punishment for an egotistical jerk like him so he maybe always hoped he’d get caught. I don’t believe that he left the book out on purpose, more that he kept it as a trophy (as yall said up there) and knew that if someone found it they would know (or maybe to remind Skyler?) that he’s the man. Also it was cool how much blue there was in the whole episode – the storage units, the pool light in the scene with walt & skyler, the meth. Also that Marie wasn’t wearing purple at the end. NOT WEARING PURPLE!
Also, I have suspected that Hank had an inkling all along that Walt was Heisenberg, but during the montage I said that there’s no way he would let it go that long, that 3 months was too long to not do anything about it. So then at the end I was sorta blown away that he figured it out because I’ve always thought he was a great cop and it’s a cool idea to think how he’s gonna bust him. I hope the first scene next year is him returning to the party. It probably won’t be, though, because Vince Gillian is a much better TV maker than I am.
Come on, you’re a great TV maker, Truckasaurus. One day you’ll show that jerk who’s greater than him, I bet. And if not, then one day I’ll hunch down behind him and you can jump out of nowhere and shove him good and he’ll fall over and we can point and laugh at the jerk who is a better TV maker than you. Right? That’s right. Serves Vince Gilligan right for being so great at TV making. Didn’t he work on the X-Files too? What an asshole!
Speaking of Marie and purple, can we please discuss that purple shag rug in her house really quick that looked like someone had beaten five sheep flat, dyed them lavender and then turned them into a rug?
can’t believe there is disagreement. not a second of this how has been flawed or boring. i am so on board for this ride aliens could show up in the next episode asking for Walt’s recipe and i would be all “hold onto your butts!”
This episode makes a good argument for the Kindle.
I’m really excited for the next season when Saul finally gets to yell “circumstantial evidence!”.
I’m seeing a lot of criticism online about Walt’s sudden change. To me, it seemed entirely plausible.
Yes, he unflinchingly rejected Jesse’s entirely persuasive argument about why he should get out. And yes, in this episode, he reached his nadir by ordering ten hits.
But people can change, quite suddenly, and there were a couple things that happened that I thought clearly made Walt change his stance.
First, Hank makes the “monster” comment. Of all the things that Walt fancies himself (“the one who knocks,” a man “in the empire business”), I don’t think “monster” was something he considered himself to be. But I think Hank’s comment threw him a bit. What else is someone who does what Walt has done? Is he not a monster.
Second, Skylar took a new approach with Walt (due to Marie telling her that she needed to take the kids back). Rather than spitting in his face, which only made him double down, she said she wanted the family back. Then she physically showed him how much money he’d made. It’s tough to say you need more when you’re staring at that much money. And even though he’d said he didn’t have a family anymore, he’d only said it because Skylar had made it clear she didn’t love him. Once she offered him a peace offering, it changed his outlook: he *could* have his family back. And now, unlike the other times Skylar had pleaded with him, he couldn’t argue that the family wasn’t financially secure.
My $0.02
I am not using this comment as a writing sample. Yeesh. C+.
Don’t sweat the errors, you get an A+ for content. Nobody is black and white on this show. As dark greyish-black as Walt gets, there is still white in gray, and he can still add white back in.
From what I’ve gathered, people who flip out about Walt’s varying degrees of behavior are the ones who want it to be black and white, and they separate Walt into Mr. White & Heisenberg, like he’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He’s not. He’s Walter White. He’s a person.
Also, I would add that he actually did feel some remorse for killing Mike. Although his half-assed apology to Mike was, on a superficial level, just more self-justification, I think the murder was a big enough deal for him that he was forced (in the fullness of time) to question his own motives. Notice the scene with the stupid painting. At first glance, his detachment from the proceedings seems to be him striking his Heisenberg pose yet again, but after thinking about it I think he’s genuinely bored. He knows what has to be done but he’s lost his taste for it. And his comment on the genericness of the painting reflects this lack of engagement. See also his later comment about camping. I mean, the guy had nine people put to death in the space of two minutes. I don’t think he ever really considered himself a monster before, he always managed to reason himself out of his guilt, it was always someone else’s fault, but it has to be hard even for Walt to find a way to justify such a mass slaughter. And I think the show suggests as much pretty overtly. Whether or not you buy his exhaustion and his consequent retirement is another matter, I guess, but I did.
I think he knows he’s so deep down the well that there really is no turning back. His retirement is him retreating to a fantasy land. He knows – just as he’s always known – that it won’t and it can’t be that easy, which is part of what’s driven him to dig himself deeper, to prove himself master of what is really, honestly, an uncontrolled descent. I think that on an unconscious level (and I realize the ridiculousness of trying to divine the contents of a fictional character’s unconscious) he knows that he’s not really out and that he never will be, but for a while, before everything collapses into blood and ruin, he just wants to take a breather by the pool with his family.
This is way longer than I thought it was. It seemed fairly pithy when I was writing it. Curse my limited self-awareness!
Also, you could see Mike’s death weighing on Walt in the opening scene as he focused/zoned out on the fly, much in the same way the fly buzzed about and drove him mad in ‘Fly,’ when clearly his issue was more about the death of Jane Margolis, Donald Margolis’ suicide attempt in S03E04, Wayfarer 515′s mid-air collision, the Salamanca Twins’ attempted assassination on Hank, and everything else his actions had wrought at the time of ‘Fly’ (S03E10). Walt missed the perfect moment to get out of all of it.
WALT: “I’m still in remission… I missed it. There was some perfect moment that passed me right by.”
JESSE: “Perfect moment for what? Are you saying you want to die?”
WALT: “I’m saying I’ve lived too long.”
Also – to clarify – Walt’s apology to Mike qualifies as self-justification because it implies that the murder was based on reason and logic, which it was obviously not, SO obviously that even Walt can’t fail to see it. Eventually.
…So to keep those 10 guys from possibly confessing, they had about 15 guys kill those 10 guys in very obvious ways meaning a lot of them will get caught and also possibly confess?
I thought this was kind of an over-the-top way to go about things, too. Also, I’m pretty sure that keeping all 9 of those guys quiet forever was only going to cost a fraction of $5mil, and we saw how quickly Walt could accumulate that amount of money in the montage… They might have had to kill the lawyer, but everyone else could’ve been contained for not that much money in the scheme of things.
But. Just so you all know I’m not actually Nitpicky McPickersons here, I didn’t really mind the way this went down.
No. Be Nictpicky. F these people. Vince Gilligan has creative control and a bajillion dollars, we can nitpick if we feel like it, dammit!
Vince Gilligan is fine everyone.
Yeah, I don’t mind how it went down either imsteph, I was just thinking about possible outcomes. Not to mention, Walt’s rational mind is (as we know) sometimes clouded by control/pride issues. He didn’t feel like he had a handle on those 10 guys (after all, he didn’t know them, they were loyal to Mike, not him) so taking control of that situation (by having them killed) even if it possibly causes a worse situation down the road wouldn’t be that surprising of a decision for him to make.
The problem, I think, was that without the lawyer as the go-between, the whole infrastructure of the pay-off operation was blown to hell. Walt’s still an amateur at this sort of thing, which is why he had Mike to handle this kind of stuff. Maybe Mike could have found a way to get them the money to keep them quiet, if he hadn’t had to flee, but we’ll never know because Mike is with the angels now. Terrifying them.
I don’t think they’d know Walt from Adam, they’re just doing what they were told by Todd’s uncle. I would assume they were all in for life and that any payment they received probably went directly to their families. The only people who really know _why_ the shiv-ings happened (and for whose benefit) were in the room with Walt during that meeting.
I imagine that prison gangs are just as ruthless to snitches within their organization as they are to snitches they kill for hire. Probably more ruthless right? At least that’s what sleepless nights watching NBC Lockdown episodes has lead me to believe…
Also can we all just be thankful for another excuse to post this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wugY6HNLOCo
Hey, did you guys know that Aaron Paul takes calls from a payphone between takes on the set of Breaking Bad?!?!
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/chemical-brothers-breaking-bad-stars-bryan-cranston-and-aaron-paul-20120830?page=4
“He’s gone.” – A half-truth. Gone where? Dead.
“I’m out.” – A half-truth. Out of what? Cooking.
Oh my Goooooood! You guys, what’s going to happen?!?!?! HAAAAAAANK!!!!!!
Ha! A click remote…!!!! I so want a click remote. I chortled my beer through my sinuses on that line….
After every episode of BB, I patch out in my haste to get to this page of the great things you guys say about it. I kind of almost feel like I haven’t watched the episode until I’ve seen the insightful comments and awful spider closeups and hysterically funny Ernie/Bert gifs. #sincereflatterygum.
I have a really long and convoluted theory about how Walter maybe WANTED to screw up and be found out – having to do with the endless, insane pressure-cooker of being a criminal (NOT THAT I KNOW your first baggie is free after that we’ll talk) and also having to do with his staggering need not just to be a meth kingpin, but to have others acknowledge it. I think it burns him that he can’t go around blaring from the rooftops what a big scary macher he has become, after decades of being a milquetoasty schlub. I don’t think it’s a conscious need to get caught, but still.
The title of the episode – Gliding Over All – is a Whitman poem duh; here it is:
GLIDING o’er all, through all,
Through Nature, Time, and Space,
As a ship on the waters advancing,
The voyage of the soul–not life alone,
Death, many deaths I’ll sing.
There are two things in Breaking Bad that I am fairly certain of in my own mind— a matter of personal opinion:
1) Skyler is not going to kill herself, despite so many people on the internet hating her and wanting her to die, and
2) I have never thought Walt wants to get caught, even subconsciously. Skyler thought he did when Walt was drunk and talking about Gale to Hank at dinner. That was purely a matter of pride for Walt, who said too much because he’s got an inferiority chip on his shoulder. Secondly, he got in the meth business to do it discreetly, make money, leave it for his family and die. Once he realized he had more time (and the world of meth he found himself in was so kill or be killed) that he began to thrive through his survival, and his ego benefited from it. Thirdly, especially after this episode, I think Walt feels fine with his own self-worth. He has a shit-ton of money, and by getting out of the business, he can get the love back from his family he let in the dust (Jesse too). He can pursue a new empire now. It can be anything he wants. Who’s to say he doesn’t come out with some new chemical company thing with his ‘carwash money?’
All that goes away if he ‘wants’ to get caught. It just doesn’t make sense. Even if Walt dies, he would not want Junior and Holly and Marie and Hank and everyone else to know he became a meth kingpin. That is not the way he would like his son to remember him (like in his story he told to junior from season 4 after Walt and Jesse had that knock-down drag-out fight).
That’s why Hank finding out is as big as a plane crash or a bomb or a gunshot. And that’s why I loved how understated and comedic it was the Hank as on the toilet when it all clicked into place.
Agreed on the last point. We were all expecting Hank to find out about Walt in some revelatory, over-the-top way, and it’s done as he’s searching for reading material on the crapper. Classic Breaking Bad.
can we talk more about shiny Pokemon cards? i still have my shiny Charizard which i got on my birthday in a regular booster pack
Despite the terrible terrible terrible person Walt has become over the course of this series, was I the only person that felt a tiny bit bad for Walt when the lightbulb went off in Hank’s head?! The episode before this I wanted Walt to die a million awful deaths, but the thought of him being sooooo close (we’re told) to winning was a bit of a gut punch for me.
And that’s the genius of Bryan Cranston really… toying with our emotions.
I felt bad for everyone. Hank, Walt, Skyler, the Baby, “Flynn” even. Heck, even Jesse, assuming he didn’t take those two dufflebags and all the rest of his money, head over to Saul’s and say, “Saul, I need to disappear, can you help me?” right after that.
With Marie, I’m just happy that she didn’t find it out ahead of Hank, because that would have been worse.
A friend of mine thought that Walt would’ve tried explaining the inscription to Hank as belonging to Gretchen, because her initials and Gale Boetticher’s are the same, and then the story could come full circle a bit with Walt lying about Gretchen again.
I thought that was pretty astute, but then I remembered that Gretchen & Elliott’s last name isn’t Black, it’s Schwartz (yiddish for ‘Black,’ of course). A little hole in the theory there…
I thought the same thing! I just figured he’d say it was from Gretchen and who knows what her maiden name was, right?
Obviously he’s still in a world of shit now because Hank knows who he is and we’ve seen that he’s quasi-obsessed with this case, so even if he can explain away the book as an unlikely coincidence, that’ll only buy him some time while Hank puts together a proper case that would hold up in court (which, the book wouldn’t anyway).
Exactly. Even if Hank took Walt’s book (with or without Walt’s knowledge), and confirmed Gale’s handwriting, that book would STILL be circumstantial in a court of law.
But the damning thing wouldn’t so much be trying to put Walt in jail, but rather it would get Walt any attention at all, as it would ruin his reputation as a stand-up citizen and educator.
We still don’t know Gretchen’s maiden name, so IF Walt thinks of using Gretchen’s name as the inscriber of the Whitman book to Hank IF Hank confronts Walt about it, it MIGHT be because her maiden name starts with a B, giving her the same initials as Gale. But that’s a lot of IFs about a confrontation we don’t even know will ever even happen.
Mentioned many times before in the ‘Does Hank Know’-themed comments, we don’t know what Hank will do with this information. It could ruin his career. But it’s the case of a lifetime. It’ll ruin his family life. It could ruin his marriage. He’s married to the sister of a woman who he can PROBABLY deduce also knows about Walt’s dealings. Etc etc.
So yeah, in the grand scheme of things, we’re WAAAAAY past Gretchen Schwartz.
Two things about time:
1. the first shot of the season showed Walt turning 53, which seems to indicate his cancer hasn’t returned. Yes?
2. i’m sure this has been brought up elsewhere, but i swear the white power dad guy said something like “this will be harder than killing bin laden was.” if so, rare miss, BB. Your show is set in 2008, not 2011.
1. Walt was 52 in the season opener. He took out a bottle of pills in the bathroom after he coughed. Doesn’t mean he has cancer. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t.
2. They retconned the year to 2011 sometime last season (I THINK, not too sure about that). Jesse’s shooter videogame came out last year, Junior’s mustang is a 2012 model, etc.
Walt’s birth year is 1959. It ‘s on his divorce papers (somebody on the internet with a lot of free time found out for me). It doesn’t matter, because this stuff won’t add up. If he turned 50 in 2009, then that means the next year+ of his meth adventures got us part-way through 2010, and is roughly where season 4 ended. So by the end of this half season, and the 3 months of uninterrupted meth production Walt got to do put us closer to 2011. Then a year in the future he’s turned 52, which means it’s 2011 proper.
One big thing about time is that unless the specific time setting is important (like, say, Mad Men interweaving historical ’60s events into the narrative to which the characters react), then it’s not really relevant, especially for Breaking Bad, other than to say it takes place in contemporary times.
No one has a smart phone on the show. Everyone has flip phones. What are we supposed to do with this information? Let it tear down our suspension of disbelief?
Well, everyone has flip phones because they’re “burners,” which are preferred by drug dealers and other criminal types specifically because you can just throw them away. They’re obviously only going to give you the cheapest possible model as a prepaid phone, since you’re just planning to throw it away when the minutes are up.
Hey! I’ve seen the Wire too, and other shows depicting drug dealers and criminals using their burners! But being a criminal doesn’t excuse the absence of smart phones, nor other BrBa characters using THEIR flip phones (Hank, Marie, Skyler). But hey, Kuby has his bluetooth!
My point is Breaking Bad is terrible at the details, and the writers are lazy for not following a specific timeline. Dumb, lazy writers… look at a calender every once in a while!
Obviously, I am 100% not serious about anything in this comment with the exception of knowing what a burner is and having seen the Wire and other television shows.
True, Hank, Skyler and Marie could have smartphones, seeing as they’re all pretty well-to-do and don’t have any reason to use burners like Walt & co.
However, I’ve read in interviews where Vince Gilligan talks about how they purposely try to stay away from details that pin the show to any specific date, so I can see the rationale using generic feature phones as opposed to “Hey look, Marie has a Samsung Galaxy S III!” because that would pretty specifically pin a particular episode to a real-world date (plus, it’s not that unrealistic, a lot of people, especially people over thirty like the cast of this show, abhor smartphones and want phones that just make phone calls and nothing else).
Of course of course. We’ve established that we both are aware of criminal’s penchant top use flip-phone burners for criminal activity, and as well as that may be, many characters on this show who are not criminals use flip phones, and there are no smart phones nor should there really be anyway because who cares?
You seem to be in support of my point that this show’s time period is nebulous and people shouldn’t get hung up on 2008 vs 2011, and that it’s just supposed to be ‘contemporary times,’ so now we’re just circling each other.
Super late to this, but here are just some of my theories:
- I definitely think Walt has cancer again. I don’t think he would have so easily come to the decision to quit his meth empire unless he was dying and wanted to spend his last few months with his family. I really do believe he was honest with Skylar about getting out, because Hank finding the Walt Whitman book wouldn’t have had anywhere near as much weight if Walt hadn’t come to that decision.
- I’ve thought a lot about how I think this series is going to end, and I think the most logical (and painful) way it would come full circle would be if he lost his family. He got into the meth business in the beginning so he could continue to provide for his family, so it would make sense to me if his descent into evil ultimately caused the deaths of those who he started this whole thing for in the first place. Sidenote: I know the “I’m doing this for my family” justification wore off pretty quickly because of his desire for power/recogntion/etc., but I really do believe his motives were 99.1% pure (LIKE HIS METH!!! GET IT!?) at the beginning. I don’t know if his whole family’s going to die, but if I had to choose one member who would, it would be Holly. Maybe she somehow gets her hands on the ricin? I think there’s been a decent amount of foreshadowing that she could be killed, from the guys who came to kill Walt a few seasons ago seeing her sonogram on the fridge to Walt telling Walt Jr (or whatever his new name is) to be careful with her at the pool in this past episode.
Just my two cents! Feel free to disagree!