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

no way was this the weakest ep. the first ep is by far the weakest of this season, really badly set out and edited, the rest have all been quite good for me.

That scene was totally in character for Walt. Probably the pivotal moment in his life was losing out on a shitload of money for chemistry work that he considered to be his own. Fair to say he's been a tad bitter ever since.

yeah exactly...i agree with that take 100 per cent, can't understand how people can't see it was the exact opposite of him asserting his status as a criminal mastermind, it was him being a bitter and pedantic jerk, like he always is.

a little man, not a big man.

an amateur

a charlatan

with the hat and everything, I thought it was intentionally clear that in some ways, walt is totally playing dressup.

yeah he's sometimes a bad ass but also still an awkward nerdy guy.

I didn't have a problem with Walt's actions last night, but I thought Hank's whole, "now wait a dog gone minute - this meth cook only ate free-range organic everything! What's he doing eating at a fast food joint?" as the thing that blew the case wide open, was kind of silly. I'll try to reserve judgment 'til we see how it plays out, but when the credits popped up after that, I was kind of like, "um..."

― rockapads, Monday, August 15, 2011 5:41 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

eh i felt like that was more like hank fully engaging in the case for the first time, like gale as heisenberg never really made sense to him but he just didnt want to deal w/his misgivings

and he wanted it to be heisenberg so badly, so he could have some closure.

when was the pollos bag dropped or whatever? did it even show it?

i think it makes a lot of sense that a perceptive dude like hank would notice the fried chicken thing -- he's a professional DEA agent, this is what he does. totally otm about him wanting closure and to just not-think about it. but because he's hank, he can't help it.

i feel like the series is going to close with a shot of hank, who has brought down a huge criminal organization along with his family, sitting in his sick bed staring at the tv wondering what to do now.

it's such a tv detective discovery tho, what is this, monk

Thought the fake stick-up was the lamest element.

what is this, monk

― iatee, Monday, August 15, 2011 7:19 PM (44 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

whatre u, ebert

no ebert reviews movies

Shoulda bagged Hank's lines re: Pollo and just showed the napkin.

I think in general it is not that the various plot-points are so implausible or inconsistent with the characters/narrative, but that they are uncharacteristically hamfisted/telegraphed, etc.

Except for the wine. THE WINE IS NOT WINE.

yeah they are overdoing it on the camera tricks this season

SB’d you for this

he was drunk, bored and messing with Hank.

Not messing with Hank, he didn’t consciously want to put Hank down, he was rankling so hard about not being allowed to even take the credit Walt Jr and Marie wanted to give him for his FAKE money-raking achievements, let alone his real one, that when Hank started in on the waste of Gale’s talents, Walt’s super-deep bitterness about his old partner/girlfriend/business burst through. It’s his self-loathing leading to self-destructiveness, not actually wanting to fuck with Hank per se.

I thought Hank's whole, "now wait a dog gone minute - this meth cook only ate free-range organic everything! What's he doing eating at a fast food joint?" as the thing that blew the case wide open, was kind of silly.

The deductiveness was totally on point, it was just the presentation of it -both to the viewer, as dun-dun-DUNN, and in-show, to Marie as if she gives a shit – that made it silly. cr?mster otm about him really paying attention for the first time, showing the super-capable Hank that we’re used to.

when was the pollos bag dropped or whatever? did it even show it?

iirc there was a phone number written on it? Presumably from an early meeting Gale had. V v sloppy on Gus part if so, both to meet him at work and to let him write a contact number ON A CLUE.

Also out of character for Gale not to copy it into a neat handwritten phone directory or sthng once he was home.

Wine looked like a cheap rose when Hank was finishing the bottle, the problem was him switching to a red. (Someone said this yesterday too.)

I was ginning up a long post about how Walt's slurry dinner table statements were 100% in character but Number None and sic said it better and shorter.

Also - Beneke mug reminding Walt that Skyler effed Ted and Jesse picking Mike as his new favorite surrogate dad = Walt jealous and drinking too much and particularly sensitive to people taking what's his, including credit for his genius meth making.

The Gus manipulation was a little harder to buy just because there was so much potential for it to not work out, but I like that none of us guessed what the plan was.

tbf, there was no way in hell anyone would guess that plan

Because none of you are as smart as Gus. Deal with it!

I guessed that Gus was forcing Jesse & Mike to bond / Jesse to have a new, more professional role model, and when I saw the dude coming down the alley that it was a test / set-up

That Jesse and Mike stuff was some "Midnight Run" shit. BTW, anyone else catch Mike coughing some more, esp. in tandem with him telling Jesse not to smoke? Hmmm...

Gus/Mike plan makes/made no sense, especially if Jesse is once again a regular meth user. Surprised Total Pro Mike would have gone along, given how easily he could have been accidentally killed/injured by unpredictable Jesse.

Walt/Skyler reunion lame. Detective Hank on the case like that paralyzed Denzel Washington solve crimes from the bed movie. Anyway, not the strongest ep (direction aside!), its suspense slightly weakened with the announcement of all those new eps. Hank ain't cracking this case any time soon. Clearly they're saving all the cartel drama for the end.

Surprised Total Pro Mike would have gone along,

"I just do what I'm told."

Jesse doesn't want to be a user, he's just blocking out his unhappiness. If Gus/Mike can give him a sense of self-worth, he'll be able and relieved to stop.

I understand the psychology. I just find the execution lame. They could have just bought Jesse an adorable puppy and told him "this is now your responsibility!"

Haa

BTW, anyone else catch Mike coughing some more, esp. in tandem with him telling Jesse not to smoke? Hmmm...

Yep, noted this. As for Gus's plan for Jesse, the two henchmen carrying it out could easily have been killed as well, which just seems totally sloppy and unnecessary.

Loved this episode - so much happened it was crazy

- Sky and Walt back together (for the moment)
- Hank nipping at Gus Frings' heels
- Jesse possibly turning against Walt
- Money laundering is GO

But like, dudes, Walt has now shown up at Los Pollos acting CRAZY and threatening and telling the people there his name. And they have had a loooong good look at him.

Yeah, i don't know how Gus is tolerating it really

Even if Gus tolerates it, what happens when Hank starts poking around? "Anybody suspicious been here lately?"

Well the Pollos staff are pretty good at keeping their mouths shut

Did they show the chicken restaurant napkin in Gale's apartment before? I can't remember if the numbers on it were explained yet or not.

Those conspicuous crazy Mexican Terminator twins hung out in Pollos all day. Plenty of people saw them there, and they were involved in the gunning down of a DEA agent mere days later.

Yes but they were very very quiet. And possibly merely hungry.

I got the impression that the manager lady maybe knew a little about the business ops. At least enough to protect Gus from angry ppl coming for him in Pollos.

He should promote her to the new Victor.

It's a twist!

Oooh, and then we meet her kids.

FFS what is so difficult about filling glasses with SOMETHING THAT LOOKS LIKE WINE

― Hadrian VIII, den 15 augusti 2011 05:31 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol yes this always bothers me, wine never looks like wine on tv.

you must not watch cheesy lifetime movies - tons of glasses of wine being sipped (and double clutched, but not as much as coffee cups). note to producers: it is possible!

pollos manager chick is probably one of my favorite people. so by the book. you know gus LOVES her.
i was wondering if everyone who works at that location has been seriously vetted by gus before being allowed to work there.

So why was Gus's car there anyway?

surprised at the complaints upthread, that dinner scene was typical of walt. he's always been full of hubris and up his own ass about his meth cooking. it's not that he wants to be a criminal mastermind, it's that he's such a possessive geek about chemistry and is disgusted by the idea anyone else could be better

Thank god someone said this before I could start eyerolling and FFSing. Walt doesn't want to be respected as a criminal mastermind, he wants to be respected as a chemist. Presumably driven at least in part by whatever killed his pre-teaching career. It must have needled to hear a good-but-not-great chemist like Gail being talked up as a genius while Hank was simultaneously talking about meth cooking being this enormous waste of potential for someone who could have done some good in the world. Walt's fatal flaw is his ego - that scene was completely in character.

otm

lol, i started watching BB early on, dropped out during season two, caught up this year. i thought that ep was awesome* and completely consistent. a lot of what happens is 'implausible' (like the ploy with jesse, like hank getting warned about the two cartel guys), and a lot of it -- all of it? -- is black comedy, like the dinner party scene.

purpose of explaining my history: i step back in the thread after this sweet ep and errbody's saying it's jumped the shark :/

It's something about the micro nature of the way TV drama is discussed on the internet, when we don't have any idea where it's going or how a scene or episode fits into the wider plot or the overall pacing of the series or whatever. Once I've finished a series of something this cohesive (as opposed to, say, Lost) I never go back and break it down episode-by-episode. Actual dud scenes, fair enough, but Breaking Bad has very few of those.

I took the Jesse/Gus/Mike stuff as Gus testing Jesse's loyalty. They need him there to keep Walt onboard but they have no idea whether they can trust him - he's just killed several of their key guys, he seems to be going completely off-the-rails and doesn't care about whether he lives or dies. After the stick-up Jesse could easily have seen his opportunity, fucked off with the car and money and got the hell out. But he didn't, he returned the car to Mike.

Alternatively, Gus is lulling him into a false sense of security, or trying to drive a wedge between him and Walt. Either way Jesse and Mike in the car was hilarious, I will never tire of seeing bored Jesse dicking around like a restless four-year-old.

Also it prolonged the tension of having no idea whether or not Gus or Mike were going to have Jesse killed.

I took the Jesse/Gus/Mike stuff as Gus testing Jesse's loyalty.

This is how I saw it too. And for those worried about the different ways it could have gone wrong, I figured Gus hired some local muscle, said "put a scare into these guys - bring a gun but don't load it". If shitheel Jesse actually managed to kill one of them, well, that would just be a bonus.

Agree that the dinner table scene was totally plausible. I was surprised Walt didn't say anything to Hank when he first read the lab notes, I actually think the writers were careful to ensure that Walt was given several motivations for acting recklessly (the Beneke mug, Jesse hanging out with Mike, Hank's relationship with Walt Jr, Hank bigging up Gale's work AND the drinking) before he said what he did.

Walt's ego and his impression that everyone else is way dumber than him and therefore he can do/say what he likes without consequence has been pretty well established, I think that besides everything else he thinks Hank is beneath him intellectually and doesn't see that Hank is pretty fucking shrewd beneath his bullshitting/jock-ish exterior.