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

Well, Jesse being fucked up mentally is nothing new for this show. The guy's been a stone cold stress ball for at least a couple of seasons, certainly since Jane died.

HE WAS ON DRUGS

LOADS AND LOADS OF DRUGS

Haha that too.

i meant more to confirm, contra josh, that he surely is meant to be back using drugs. i mean even at end of s3 he was about to smoke a big pipe when walt called up for a murder favour.

I finally watched the first two eps, unfortunately out of order :-/
Hank and Marie are just KILLING ME with the relentlessly cheery/MINERALS behavior; I think Marie might be my new favorite character. I can see them going on Intervention for his pain pill problem in 3..2..1 (There was a guy on that show once who bankrupted his family answering spam emails and entering contests and wandering around a cornfield shouting at the air, the mineral behavior reminded me of that)

About Jesse: they were trying to show us something with the stereo, right? He went ON AND ON about the details, and seemed pretty proud of himself for knowing all that (not being booksmart is kind of his thing, after all). What's that about?

I'm finding Hank and Marie genuinely painful to watch at the moment, like being in the middle of the most awkward domestic ever. Obviously both actors are playing it brilliantly.

The stereo is really loud. It drowns out the stuff in his head.

Is that it? I thought his blablabla about the stats of the stereo was meant to indicate something, but I couldn't really figure out exactly what. He seems SO unbelievably lonely. Lonely and unable to cope.

Also when he was super bored with the zombie convo, I thought that was intended to indicate how his "friends" are not really talking at his level, like they were just some buffoons he was stuck with because no one else will talk to him anymore.

That's what i took from it anyway. I mean, he actually puts his head in the speaker at the end.

Maybe I'm trying to read too far into it. I'm totally not a softie for guys like that, but I am a softie for him. I'll be genuinely sad if (let's face it, when) things conclude poorly. I just want him to be cruising in his muscle car, and occasionally playfully climbing out of cougars' windows like he used to be.

i meant more to confirm, contra josh, that he surely is meant to be back using drugs. i mean even at end of s3 he was about to smoke a big pipe when walt called up for a murder favour.

― LocalGarda, Thursday, July 28, 2011 10:03 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark

he smoked up a pipe right before the RUN scene 3 episodes ago, so he's def not clean anymore

You can also tell because his hair is greasy and he's pale. He's not taking care of himself. At all.

that could just be the PTSD tho... jesse reminds me of a war vet now, he's back in normal life after seeing + doing shit his friends couldn't imagine, this eps def rammed home how alone and adrift he is

keep thinking of his line to walt about gus at the diner: "I can't kill you but I can make you wish you were dead"

or something like that

they should've called the last eps "maybe partying will help"

I don't really see how anyone could watch the last four eps of the show and think "Jesse is not doing drugs".

who does the music? i appreciated how tangerine dreamy/not hammy the music was in the boxcutter scene.

The only time I can recall them explicitly showing him doing drugs was when he was building up the courage to kill Gale. He may very well be on drugs, but I just couldn't help but notice that he was, again, apparently fully functioning at his big blow out. And then there's the hardcore giving that girl the money/warning bit of "you can spend it all on glass, for all I care, but I know you're not going to do that." Clearly between lines like this, the Jane incident and his obvious disdain for Badger and Skinny Pete, Jesse's stance on drugs is complicated at least. Certainly he is not behaving like he his strung out, because this last ep was packed with people who *were* strung out, and Jesse was not acting like them.

They were partying, he was coping. Just a different stage of the same disease, no? I dunno, maybe you're right, but he doesn't look or seem well regardless of his current state of using.

Also I want to go on record as being a fan of whoever costumed Skyler in that hilarious robe. So in character.

OK, yeah, they show him doing it around 10 minutes in, but then a minute later you see him cut a line, get ready to snort it, then check himself and push it away. All that other stuff is accurate, too, but it almost plays like he has a party to keep himself from sniffing all the drugs. Plus, of course, in the middle of the party Jesse leaves and goes to work!!!

Lots of people on meth work though.

Has anyone else read Methland? Grueling book. Not all that artfully written, but packed with information. There's a long section about how meth is a working man's drug.

Sure, but once again, at his party he is the only one apparently fully functioning. All the other guests are literally all passed out on the floor. Clearly he's doing drugs to escape but finding they can't help him. That's different, I think, from the actual acute addicts he surrounds himself with. That is, his drug use does not dictate or drive his behavior. He's aware of the world beyond his immediate environment, which is what's freaking him out so bad. He knows what's waiting for him, and even meth (and subwoofers) can't make him forget.

In fairness, Badger and Skinny Pete are not a great yardstick of functionality.

feel like the party scene's getting overanalyzed here, pretty sure there are plenty of shots of jesse dancing in a tripped out manner, everybody crashes because that's what you do after mething out, jesse getting up and going to work just means he's a high-functioning druggie of which there are plenty in the world

The party is half the episode!!! And Jesse is definitely smoking and having a good time. It's the meth use that's proven a problem for him in the past, which is what makes it a plot point.

love how badger and co are total AV nerds. they had that discussion in an earlier season about plasma TVs and their deeper blacks

I'm finding Hank and Marie genuinely painful to watch at the moment, like being in the middle of the most awkward domestic ever. Obviously both actors are playing it brilliantly.

i find this part to be incredible well-done. very authentic.

idk i think josh is assuming that everyone at the party was only doing meth - realistically, they were probably doing all kinds of shit + drink hard liquor = passing out.

it's entirely possible that he was intoxicated but pre-occupied/not feeling it and thus didn't act like the rest of the meth heads.

First couple of episodes have really shown up how amazingly cast every main character in this show is. Even Marie is just the right level of irritating. I want more scenes with Skylar and Saul.

Marie is much more likable since the hospital handjob.

i feel really bad for marie. she doesn't even irritate me. she is trying so hard to be supportive and positive while having to clean out bed pans and all she's getting for it is grief. which i get, dude is unhappy. but damn, dude. she's literally cleaning up your shit.

I just hope Marie doesn't relapse and fall back into to her old shoplifting ways. I've been really worried for her.

Finally got to see these episodes!

The Gus scene nearly induced a panic attack

Holy shit, me too. I couldn't sit still and watched a lot of it from behind the safety of a pillow. I think it is totally in character for Gus to kill Victor (RIP). As tehresa (I think) said upthread, Gus didn't get to be the king of the meth supply by being a neat and polite man.

I can barely watch Hank and Marie. Every time Marie's eyes well up, mine do, too. tehresa OTM again. Marie really needs to get Skyler and Walt to pay for a home healthcare aid as well as a physical therapist.

I am so glad the meth party scene wasn't a realistic meth party scene. This is a dark fucking show and realistic meth parties are terrible, terrible places and I feel like a realistic houseful of people on meth for three days would be too much to watch. Also in my experience with people who do meth (or drugs in general) there can be situations where even people on three-day binges can tap into a vein of functionality, kind of like the superhuman strength people are capable of in times of danger or the way megalong distance runners can push past their limitations. This means Jesse is in for an awful crash.

I am so glad the meth party scene wasn't a realistic meth party scene.

After tonight's episode I gotta say "heh."

i really liked this episode but marie's open house thing felt like the sorta thing ppl would only do on a tv show

Tho obv heavily stylized, I felt like the open-house sequences were totally in keeping w what one could anticipate from weird bird Marie in an instance of extreme duress. If you've not dealt w such a person irl, the combination of savant-smarts, total unself-consciousness, narcissism & compulsive lying can be a wonder to behold!

Also: thievery of hummels!

Saul's "don't everybody speak at once" --> toilet flush was absolute genius imo

- Hank and Marie and their Cheetos/Fritos, more cold hard domestic reality than I ever bargain for

- Jesse's face at the go-kart track ;_;

- Something interesting needs to happen with Skyler or Walt soon. Remember Walt Jr? Their baby? I just barely remember that they exist.

- MONEY

this was my fave ep so far this season, had more balance than the others and kept all the plots ticking along nicely.

interesting quick flick to the new bodyguard dude watching walt's house. i'm guessing gus won't be over the moon about him buying car wash and stuff.

or was that just to show us walt is basically being watched and followed at all times?

loved the stuff at jesse's, i like this episode cos it just had that feeling of the evil caused by the meth dealing and the money just infecting everyone's lives...kind of a running theme i guess but was particularly strong in this ep.

Two questions:

Why is Walt being such a baby about the cameras? Does he really not expect to be watched?
Why is Saul suddenly so paranoid? It kinda seems to have come from out of nowhere, unless it has just been a while since I saw S3?

assuming cos of him putting gus in touch with walt and walt turning out to kill loads of people and fuck things up?

I guess I thought stuff like that didn't ruffle his feathers, being such a sleazebag and all. I guess it's tough to remember that he built his business by representing the fallout and cleaning the money, but had it never been this violent before? Maybe not.

he does seem kind of lily livered imo...

How is there any expensive stuff still left in Jesse's house?