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

bill burr was v good as the inspector guy! would not mind if he came back in some other capacity as a guy saul uses for shady things, etc

the inspector thing was a bit hard to believe too imo. like wouldn't he call up and check, he seemed suspicious enough. before say, selling his business.

what would have been funny is if he decided to lawyer up and fight it, and chose saul

xp - yeah, you know, that didn't occur to me last night, but your observation is otm

word i totally agree, no way turkish car wash guy doesnt have a lawyer & would check things out

Romanian.

ah, right

Why is Saul suddenly so paranoid?

Think it stems from intentionally misleading Mike when it came to Jesse's whereabouts (not sure if Mike and Gus know Saul did that, but still) and all the fallout in general from deaths of Gail and Victor

is a baby abduction too dark for tv?

don't wanna spoiler a totally different show in the Breaking Bad thread but on a comparable show on a different network an entire season revolved around a pretty nasty baby abduction at knifepoint. so yeah they could definitely go there.

the champagne stuff was kinda wacky after they've paid x hundreds of thousands of dollars of hank's medical bills

otm I thought the whole point of having a cover story was that it explained why they had mad gambling $$$$

forgot to say, it was cool they used The Knife in this episode.

it was Fever Ray but yeah good scene. surprised the Youtube for that track is not full of Breaking Bad comments by now. when I looked up the reggae version of Shimmy Shimmy Ya (Prince Fatty) after that episode it was all "Jesse Pinkman sent me here, high five!" I guess Fever Ray doesn't get stoners running to google in the same way.

sadly was trying to work out what year it was in Breaking Bad and whether or not that Fever Ray album was out by then. Pretty sure it wasn't, but I guess it's non-diegetic so it doesn't really matter. /sad

are they putting jesse in a place where he can kill walt, when the jane revelation comes out?

knew I recognised the new guy but just remembered where from: he's the skeezy serial killer from homicide who lived with his sister right?

not homicide, the shield. kleavon

I don't see how the Jane revelation would come about. I mean, I know this TV and everything and it has to come to light eventually from a plot POV, but I don't really see Walt ever telling him that.

http://h4.abload.de/img/yeah_bitchzrn2.gif

walt's not a particularly astute tactician, for all his smarts. can totally see him blurting it out in spite which would be ~dumb~ but not completely out of character

He's so arrogant these days that anything's possible.

AMC is so cheap these days

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

;_;

Hank is so awful. I hate him. Seriously.

This is totally an observation inspired by the Mad Style posts on tomandlorenzo.com but did you notice how everything Marie wore matched her house? Her outfit when she gets busted just coordinates, but she's downright matchy matchy and in a really heavy dark purple (so a little oppressive to my mind) when she's in the kitchen right before the guy comes to drop off the lab notes.

I think Saul was always a small to medium sized shark and is scared and intimidated by his proximity to people who will kill the he'll out of you.

oh man yeah all that purple in the kitchen
it gave me the indirect idea abt why maybe their marriage maybe worked up til now, hank was always working & marie had her own space, etc

Also but Marie's house matching clothes reinforces her feeling trapped there and also explains why she's stealing things from open houses. The stealing is her thing, but getting to pretend she has another life and a path towards changing her shitty domestic circumstances is probably keeping her from bashing Hank's head in with a mineral.

Also - nice work making their bedroom and Hank look smelly. His side of the room is just dire and it's a small detail but it adds to the feeling of oppression in their house.

Even the grocery bags she brought home were purple!!!

From the first few eps, whenever Marie comes on screen my wife has exclaimed "purple!'

We figured Hank and Marie keep the $$$ matter secret, since it is purportedly Walt's ill-earned (and tax free) gambling gains. What they tell others is anyone's guess, though anyone who has ever known people in any remotely similar a situation understands that "how do they pay their medical bills?" is not a question one generally asks of your friends and loved ones.

Once again Jessie is the only functioning junkie in the house. Though once again, I got the impression he really doesn't want to be an addict.

I predict the baby will pay off at the end, with the tragic conclusion, his family in tatters, his baby in child protective services, and his son locked in the same room the producers usually keep him in. Does that kid really draw a paycheck just to amble into the dining area for breakfast every few episodes?

yeah, marie has always been purpled out. so much so that it stuck out to me that she wore other colors at the open houses, which i can't recall ever seeing before. maybe that was her feeling 'free' or something.

you guys

it's jesse

not jessie

please be advised

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

Fever Ray! That horrible party! I loved this episode.
Hank is kind of my favourite character, even though he's become a real asshole, he just plays it all so well.

I was wondering if Walt got so mad about the camera because it's real evidence of what he's doing that they can hold over him? Although strategically it doesn't exactly make things any worse.

Hank isn't really a horrible asshole, he's just being one at the moment. Compared to Walt he's the best man who ever lived.

yeah that's kind of what I meant (and why he's my best character)

i dunno if that's a problem really is it? i mean can't he just plough on regardless. i'd say that notion is largely destroyed by now anyway.

He could just carry on regardless I'm sure but the premise of the show really relies on Walt having some, no matter how flimsy, moral justification for what he's doing, even if it's in his own head. Up to now his family haven't been endangered in any way, there's no evidence that Gus or Mike are interested in them yet, I'd say it's still likely that Walt would consider endangering his children to be a risk not worth taking. But then he's more of a father figure to Jesse than Walter Jr now (have those two ever had a scene together by the way?)

The champagne scene really didn't make sense, at all, as far as I could see. If the car wash money came from "gambling" then any extra $350 for a bottle of champagne isn't that big a deal. I doubt their neighbours are exactly interested, given that not long ago a plane exploded above their house.

Does that kid really draw a paycheck just to amble into the dining area for breakfast every few episodes?

There's more to him than that - he's the only innocent victim in the story at the moment (except maybe Marie). Also they're going to build on his friendship/admiration for Hank I suspect.

Also Saul and Skylar together = A+++++ comedy double act.

Hank is so awful. I hate him. Seriously.

I don't think he is, not at all. I think he's unbalanced, and his wife is unbalanced as all get-out, and his being flat-out mean to her last episode and early in this one was all set-up for his reaction when she called him from jail. At first he's pissed off -- "Oh, you're not doing this to me again" -- but then you see him instantly soften. He knows her very well, knows all her history and her problems, and in spite of what a crazy maniac she is, he loves her. The same way she loves him, in spite of his being an asshole.

previews from next week make it sound like the notebook puts hank on walt's tail.

Misdirection, surely. Much more likely that Hank will ask Walt WTF all of it means.

It'll either buy Walt some time with the police - if Hank thinks that Gail was Heisenberg it'll throw him off for a while - or it'll send Hank closer to Gus's orbit if some connection can be made. Probably the former I'd imagine - if Gail was stupid enough to leave that notebook lying around his house there are probably other clues on his phone or whatever.

I loved the rant about getting squeezed through the chain link fence. "Like some soft meat. And this is INEVITABLE!" That, friends, is pure tweak. :)

The champagne scene really didn't make sense, at all, as far as I could see. If the car wash money came from "gambling" then any extra $350 for a bottle of champagne isn't that big a deal. I doubt their neighbours are exactly interested, given that not long ago a plane exploded above their house.

the gambling story is for hank and marie's consumption only, i think; it doesn't explain anything else (like the car wash). i still don't really get how they're supposed to be buying this car wash. as skyler says, they're both unemployed. who would plausibly give them the small business loan necessary to purchase it? just a few weeks ago they were begging for cash on the internet. where is the money supposed to be coming from? it's one thing to have a front, but the whole point of a front is that it can withstand a bit of cursory scrutiny.

Doesn't explain how or why an unemployed meth-head like Jesse would buy a nail bar either. And the police would presumably actually be looking at him as well, whereas there's no reason at all why they would pay any attention to Walt and Skylar.

I was thinking Saul sets up dummy companies that purchase/own these businesses to keep guilty parties a step or two removed in the paper trail.

well maybe, but skyler's just going straight into direct negotiations with the car wash! and bogdan's like "dude, i know you're acting on behalf of walter"

on The Internet people are saying how this is a huge plot inconsistency - i.e. how can skyler give walt a lecture about expensive champagne when she's ready to drop 800K in her own name on a car wash? but to my mind it just shows how skyler's greed is making her become as wilfully blind as walt is

He knows her very well, knows all her history and her problems, and in spite of what a crazy maniac she is, he loves her. The same way she loves him, in spite of his being an asshole.

Totally. Please also note that Marie and Hank don't have kids. Do we know why/why not? From those bbq scenes in the beginning of the show, I got the impression that Marie and Hank and Walt and Skylar and Walt Jr were a happy little family, all of them. Then Walt left. Then Hank got shot. Her family (as it existed at the bbq) is decimated, and the only person she has left is being really fucking mean to her. She has no idea why any of this is happening. Her lies at the open houses varied from having sick kids, to having great kids, to happily having no kids at all. It's like she has no idea where she stands in the world. She's not as bad off as Jesse, but she's pretty lonely.

The fact that he loves her is what makes him so awful. It's just not cool to use your loved ones as emotional punching bags.

The main mitigator that I see is that not very much time has passed for them. It feels to me like Hank's been shitting all over Marie (womp womp) for many months but he hasn't been home that long in show time.

So get him on some antidepressants and get a counselor in there. And a home health care worker.

Note to self: this is a TV show. These people are not your real life friends.

yeah the first time i saw marie with the bed pan i'm like fuckin a, use some of that "gambling money" for an in-home carer!

I actually never bought Hank (an amiable bully and blowhard) and meek psycho Marie as a couple any more than I've bought asshole Walt (who has really never been depicted in his show as anything less than a bitter asshole) and (aspiring novelist?) Skylar as a couple, so I just figure it's in their character's genetic make-up to marry wrong.

The car wash is to clean all of Walt's presumed cash, which is being laundered through Saul. Who, no doubt, at some point will be caught stealing.

Also inevitable future developments: Gus will claim the car wash as his own; Hank will enlist Walt to figure out Gus's notebook; Walt Jr. (who, sorry, has shit to do with this show, but whom Walt once taught to drive, for an episode) will graduate from high school and start looking at colleges (more costs!),

jenny you are otm about the reverse time compression. i'm actually a little adrift about how much time hank's been out of commission. his squalor does make it seem like months. is it actually only like... three weeks?

xpost Hank will enlist Walt to figure out Gus's noteboo

oh god - that is brilliant

It's just not cool to use your loved ones as emotional punching bags.

Agreed, because there no way to disagree with that flat statement. But we all do it from time to time. It's a function of emotional proximity. And also remember that Hank is feeling totally humiliated, emasculated, and suddenly without purpose in life. He's not telling Marie to stay away from her because he doesn't like her. It's because her efforts to cheer him up only make him feel more powerless, which is something Marie can't understand.

Hank will enlist Walt to figure out Gus's noteboo

oh god - that is brilliant

a) It's Gale's notebook.
b) I said that a few posts ago, and feel that my brilliance has been overlooked. Though I don't think it's brilliant, I think it's kind of what's going to happen, obviously.

Note to self: this is a TV show. These people are not your real life friends.

But fiction is a path into your most real life. That may be a whole other thread.

the premise of the show really relies on Walt having some, no matter how flimsy, moral justification for what he's doing

how so? as far as I can see and based on what Vince G says it's about Walt having a total lack of morals and utterly debasing himself and us continuing to cheerlead for him anyway...I don't see that him having a moral justification is necessary and I think increasingly he just doesn't have one. I mean if they wanted to push that angle why has his cancer barely been mentioned for so long?

think the hank/marie thing was really well sketched when the cop came around and hank was showing genuine concern for her. it's a really grim way of showing he's just feeling so bad he takes it out on her and is too proud to do otherwise. it was interesting how he reverted to old hank the instant the cop came in too...cracking jokes and so on.

xp - I thought that too, and considered posting it, but figured it was inevitable! And Walt arrogantly corrects something Gail wrote in the notebook, giving Hank pause, and then Hank brings down the whole operation from his sick bed. The end.

it was interesting how he reverted to old hank the instant the cop came in too...cracking jokes and so on.
totally HUH HUH HUH his laugh was totally different. he used to do that at work too, and then break down in the elevator.