Shall we anticpate the AMC series "Breaking Bad"? I think I may.

it was Tuco

i thought it was gus too

definitely thought it was mike, they have a certain rapport after all. new guy makes no sense to me.

it makes sense for new guy to be watching gus' house in a protective manner. it's kind of his job, no?

I don't know...it seems off to me in character terms. The assured tone, the stealthy tailing chops — these are Mike's hallmarks, I don't get it.

That said, it would have been really weird if it was Gus...he'd be left with no choice but to have Walt killed in the lab the next morning.

That whole thing is kind of atypically "really?" for me in terms of this show. I mean, I get that Walt is feeling his oats now, but making that pitch to Mike in the bar seemed ill-considered and kind of rash even by his standards. Unless he, too, thought it was Mike who called him, and decided he had no choice but to make a big play in order to preempt Mike ratting him out to Gus?

it couldve been hanks physical therapist

I don't know...it seems off to me in character terms.

We don't know anything about his character yet! Except that he's careful about the weight.

Well, we know he's the new guy, and that he can't know Walt very well yet. But he spoke like they were intimates.

So you guys think Gilligan is lying?

Yes.

Ha, no, I just think it was kinda sloppy, which is obv. unusual....

i don't rly get what all the fuss is about re: new guy. Clearly he knows very well just who Walter is & what is at stake. Given the gravity of the assertion of power dynamics recently, it makes perfect sense that the new guy would be hired to stand watch over Gus's most vulnerable spot & why wouldn't he just call Walter and tell him to go home? Gus can't kill Walter right now, even if he knows Walt might make a move for him.

Agree that the attempted alliance w. Mike was clumsy and ill-advised, tho not necessarily out of character.

clumsy and ill-advised is v much in character

yep

Hm. I guess it just seems like the mutually assured destruction that was meantto preserve the peace in Ep. 1 has been tilted off-balance by Walt's behavior. Is there no point at which Walt is such a risk to the business (not to mention Gus's own welfare) that he would just have to go? Shit, he box-cut whoozit for having been seen at Gale's place, but it's okay that Walt is stalking his sudivision? Not entirely buying it. If I'm Gus I'm putting a bullet in Walt and enslaving Jesse in the lab w/ a mentor/assistant, a big raise and a new house/car/hookers etc.

Gus needs Walt's skills, tho, or he would certainly already be dead. Jesse is no substitute for Walt in terms of cooking, and would himself be totally expendable if Walt weren't such a stick-in-the-mud about keeping him around. Being that he originally dialed up W & J getting whacked, and then having to reverse that decision out of necessity, Gus had to have known that Walter might make a play for him, even if just out of pride. Gus is a VERY shrewd judge of character & has proven repeatedly that he is thinking and playing several steps ahead of others.

1) Badger should get his own show, called "Badger"
2) It's totally plausible that something it wrong with Mike
3) As per the above, somewhere, I hope Hank's crystal obsession does not get literally connected to his pursuit of meth
4) This episode was great
5) I'm pretty sure they went through great pains never to show Jesse doing drugs in this ep, and I'm not sure he ever did. After all, he's the only one functioning throughout the party and after.
6) Don't get how new guy, let alone Mike, can be on Gus's overnight guard duty and oversee Walt's Sartre-hell lab at the same time. That's a lot of watching for one person!
7) It's still totally plausible for Mike, the pragmatist, to switch sides, or at least ultimately help Walt. Eventually.
8) No, it doesn't make sense that Gus would keep Walt around, regardless of the product, unless I missed the ep where it's revealed that Walt's perfect product brings in more money than less than perfect product.

It's been sorta explained - basically the blue meth syndicate has gotten so enormous (remember, it replaced the Gus' Mexican supply entirely!) that even shutting it down for a day would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, let alone the weeks/months it would take to get a real replacement cook. Walt even used this argument in the premiere, as did Jesse

I think it's possible that Gus has other senior dudes kept well out of sight, he's exceptionally careful about showing his hand, which is good in terms of bringing new characters in I suppose.

5) I'm pretty sure they went through great pains never to show Jesse doing drugs in this ep, and I'm not sure he ever did. After all, he's the only one functioning throughout the party and after.

Idk about this. I feel like I totally noticed him railing before the party started

Yeah, they definitely showed him doing a line when the other guys were talking about zombies

yeah and surely that whole totally wacked out of it montage was meant to show he was completely off his tits? plus the clawing at his own neck at the end.

Great thing about this show is that just when you think you've got a handle on it then Jesse will go something ridiculously stupid and turn the whole thing upside-down. I reckon he's going to take out his frustration at not being able to get to Gus by going after Hank. And Hank will take him out by throwing rocks at him from his wheelchair.

MINERALS

I thought they just showed Jesse hovering over the meth, but never showed him ... hoovering it. They made a point of him offering it to Skinny Pete and Badger first, but I thought it was more ambivalent whether or not Jesse partook. I guess I could just watch the scene again.

Then again, maybe they showed him doing drugs as a means of showing how nothing (not even loud hip-hop!) can dull the pressure.

All the music at Jesse's party was really bad

That is totally true. I can't imagine a song I want to hear a second time less than the "money, money, money ..." track. And when I heard the "Angel of Death" riff I was psyched to hear "She Watch Channel Zero," but no, it's some other butt-rap.

i feel like jessie's occasionally had decent music, maybe some 3-6 at one point but yeah, this was a rough one for songs. Flava Flav?

Can't believe he's getting into dubstep what with everything else.

that really is his 1st unforgivable move imo

It's a metaphor for his poor choices in life.

ha

8) No, it doesn't make sense that Gus would keep Walt around, regardless of the product, unless I missed the ep where it's revealed that Walt's perfect product brings in more money than less than perfect product.

that was my thinking but they did have that bit in the first scene of e1 where gale stresses to gus that the 4%? 6%? diff in purity between walt's stuff and his stuff has a huge impact on the value, it was his main argument to gus that he should hire walt

it's gone unspoken for a while, but gus is probably not only concerned about cash flow - if production stops, an opportunity opens up for the mexican cartels to muscle back into his territory, he used the lab + walt to cut them out of the picture and he doesn't mind playing hardball to defend his turf - like that scene last season where mike took out all those guys at the warehouse

the scene in the bar was intense as fuck. the closeup on mike as he's taking in the import of walt's stupidity was just amazing. i've never seen him get that worked up and upset. i almost felt like he was more angry at walt for being so stupid as out of any sense of loyalty to gus.

i can't remember where mike stands in relation to saul these days?

"i almost felt like he was more angry at walt for being so stupid as out of any sense of loyalty to gus."

Absolutely OTM and why you can't help but feel that he might snap and kill a bunch of gus' guys at some point

don't think it's ever been completely limned out but my imaginary backstory is that mike did PI dirty work for both gus and saul, but gus became a big fish and then mike's #1 employer, so even though mike still does work for saul, they both know gus is calling the shots

xp

Didn't Mike basically say that at one point?

ok maybe my backstory isn't so imaginary

Great thing about this show is that just when you think you've got a handle on it then Jesse will go something ridiculously stupid and turn the whole thing upside-down. I reckon he's going to take out his frustration at not being able to get to Gus by going after Hank. And Hank will take him out by throwing rocks at him from his wheelchair.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, July 27, 2011 7:22 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

MINERALS

― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, July 27, 2011 7:34 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lmao

ok just re watched the video game argument scene and jesse def does the meth, they dont show the actual snorting but you see him chopping up a line his head goes down and finally he arises rubbing his nose

the scene in the bar was intense as fuck. the closeup on mike as he's taking in the import of walt's stupidity was just amazing. i've never seen him get that worked up and upset. i almost felt like he was more angry at walt for being so stupid as out of any sense of loyalty to gus.

― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, July 27, 2011 12:59 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Absolutely OTM and why you can't help but feel that he might snap and kill a bunch of gus' guys at some point

― generous doler out of lollies (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:04 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah feel like mike rolling his damn eyes at walt and walt not noticing is p much the basis of their relationship

Huh, yeah, I guess I'd have to watch again. I got the impression Jesse was pained by the temptation but resisting, and that he was fully in cold you idiots can snort this if you want mode. Because why else was he the literal last man standing, awake and busy when every other person at the party was totally fucked up?

Mike beating up Walt was basically a means of conveying to Walt that his arrogance aside, he's in a situation out of his control. But of course, no one puts Walt in a corner - he beat cancer! - so no doubt he will scheme his way to survival. Or knowing this show, at some point Skyler will kill him. Or maybe Walt Jr. will beat him to death with his crutches.

jesse was wide awake after partying for three days because of his conscience

Or maybe it was just too loud to sleep?

Because he did a shitload of meth?

that scene last season where mike took out all those guys at the warehouse

Man I love that scene.

it is so amazing...with the john carpenter and all. just brilliant.

I've never done meth or hung out with anyone doing meth. Why was Jesse the only one calm and functioning after the party? Literally every other person there was passed out on the floor in various states of debauchery/exhaustion, but here comes Jesse, serious and steady. Just weird, is all. Shouldn't he have been blotto, too, if he was partaking?

wasn't the entire last scene him going mental?

He's on the other side, man

I'd assumed he was just fucking terrified of being killed, hence surrounding himself with hundreds of people whenever he wasn't in the lab.

Isn't the whole point that he doesn't care about being killed now? It's more that he's scared of being alone with his thoughts