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

You mean ICE. The advantage of using undocumented workers is that you have ultimate leverage over them. They have to do what you say no matter what. I can see that appealing to Gus. I don't think ICE gives a shit as long as everything's quiet. And I imagine Gus usually keeps things very, very quiet.

Yeah, employers with otherwise legit business models exploit their employees' undocumented status to circumvent every measly employment law on the books.

I could see Gus taking a Bluebeard approach with the laundry employees - I'll pay you well but never go into this locked room or I'll send you back to Honduras. Also I could see him not getting ICE involved at all but just taking them south via a private carrier.

The more I think about it, the more I don't think he would have the women killed.

Gus knew it was Walt's fault, not theirs. New Victor said so.

Tyrus. Was Sunday's ep the first time anyone referred to him by name?

think so.

loved the look he gave Walt when Walt tugged at his sleeve

I like that they've spent the first part of this season reinforcing what a completely unpleasant petty egotistical human being Walter White really is.

plus her last line was the best of the eps

― hello I love you but I've chosen darkness my old friend (Edward III), Monday, August 22, 2011 11:18 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm the guy who KNOCKS was a great line too

― dmr, Monday, August 22, 2011 11:19 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i took both of these to be them playing at being gangster, movies are the only reference point they have for this stuff, also theyre both totally retarded

Walt's penis cam ... in Skyler's vagina?

That's when we take this thread to the TMI board. Or maybe just stop watching it. That really truly would be TMI.

yeah how do walt's deductive powers allow him to figure out jesse 'saving' mike was a set-up but do not allow him to think ahead to the consequences of bringing the cleaning ladies into the super secret meth lab?? hmmm

"i'm guy the who knocks" was great especially since it seems like the guy who actually knocked (jesse) is being brought into the running of the criminal organisation and the guy 'taking credit' for it (walt) is actually just an annoyance they cannot currently get around

do we think gus actually sees something in jesse?

yeah how do walt's deductive powers allow him to figure out jesse 'saving' mike was a set-up but do not allow him to think ahead to the consequences of bringing the cleaning ladies into the super secret meth lab?? hmmm

Nothing to do with deductive powers, Walt just cares way more about sticking it to Gus than the fate of the cleaning ladies.

xp Sure, why not?

do we think gus actually sees something in jesse?

I don't think Gus actually sees anything in anybody other than usefulness - I don't think he respects anybody in the world at all except insofar as they're useful to him.

i saw something in you, a way to f w/walt

I think if Gus tells anybody he sees something in them, it's for the benefit of how that person will respond on hearing that from Gus.

I think so, too, though I wish it were otherwise. Actually, no I don't. I wish a college recruiter legitimately saw something in Jesse, not a murderous drug kingpin.

Spinoff: Welcome Back, Pinkman in which Jesse gets his doctorate in history and comes back to teach a classroom of misfit meth cooks at the school where he met Walter White.

I want him to work as an addictions counselor.

All these are boring. I want him to do something exciting! Like kill another chemist! Or outwit another meth-head!

But not exactly like those two things cuz he's already done them.

It's no coincidence that Jere Burns looks like Old Pinkman (look at eyes and noses)

Before http://postdash.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/aaron_paul-375x500.jpg
After http://www.thebloom.com/images/celeb-past/jere_burns.jpg

luvd the digging ploy

Tweakers be diggin bitch

Just chatting with someone about the show who reckons that Jesse and Gus never actually met before the boxcutter scene. Is this right?

nope: sitdown w/ thugs & Jesse/Walt at the end of last season

yeah, the scene where jesse showed he wasn't scared of gus - out in that dusty mobile office in the middle of desert.

Spinoff: Welcome Back, Pinkman in which Jesse gets his doctorate in history and comes back to teach a classroom of misfit meth cooks at the school where he met Walter White

lmao

Not really an enormous amount to talk about in that episode but I enjoyed it all the way through. Some of the writing felt a bit clumsier than usual but I loved the Mike and Jesse stuff.

Also Walter Jr's car was totally a Jessemobile, right down to the music. Hope that was deliberate on the producers' part.

Baby Holly's collection of hats is exceptionally cute.

the first time i have actually hated walt, wanted him to be punished severely, seen him as the enemy - no, it wasn't when he repeatedly put everyone around him in danger, no it wasn't when he could have saved jane but didn't - but was when, in the midst of trying to convince these blameless ladies at gus' dry cleaning operation to put themselves at risk he actually opens up his fucking billfold and starts bribing them. i actually cursed at the TV. that was my breaking point with him. i'm sure there will be big and small ways where i'll root for him, it's the nature of the show, but after that little scene with those women, any punishment or pain he personally receives will feel justified to me

i don't know what it says about me that it's THAT rather than say ordering gale's hit, or any number of other things.. i suppose everything else could be explained somehow, justified as necessary or expedient. the scene with the cleaning ladies was just gratuitous fuckery. (as was the car, come to that)

I've pretty much hated walt the whole series. He's never been a sympathetic character for me.

Walt's getting arrogant and he's getting careless. He's never been that Machiavellian, he's always been idiotically impulsive with the odd moment of clarity, but I can see himself shooting himself in the foot before the series is out.

Really intrigued by where the Jesse storyline is going. Obviously Gus can't get away with killing him, but there's not much he can do about Jesse suddenly getting shot down by Mexican drug barons. By that logic putting Jesse further in the line of fire would make a lot of sense to Gus.

would there be a difference to Walt? murder Jesse - get Jesse accidentally killed... either way Jesse would be dead and Walt will be über pissed.

that said, i think if they straight up just killed Jesse Walt would not really be in a position to do much of anything about it, aside from throwing a tantrum.

yes. after the car for walt jr (which i wouldn't be surprised if gus knows about already) and the superlab shenanigans i can imagine gus thinking that not even pure blue meth is worth the unpredictability walt has come to represent. mike and gus have a sit-down with him, walt's defiant, and then from out of the shadows steps jesse, sneering at him. now what you gon do?

Belated thoughts:

Jesse and Mike need their own web series. Just them sitting in a car. Waiting for things. They can call it "Idle Chatter."

Lots of stuff about being the boss in this ep, and power dynamics. Though I still think the domestic power dynamics are the lamest. Like, Skyler is only now getting cold feet? Hasn't she ever seen a show or movie about drug dealers? This never ends well. First reaction: let's buy a $800,000 car wash to launder money! Second reaction: oh, wait, my husband is a criminal drug cooker.

Won't these two jacked Pollos Hermanos trucks look a tad suspicious, maybe to Hank? I think so.

Why do all these criminal mastermind sorts get into these massively illegal but massively profitable businesses if they can't spend their money? I know it's a recurring convention, in fiction at least, but what kind of life is that?

My wife kept demanding out loud that they take the fucking baby out of the car seat. "You're not in the car, take the baby out of the car seat!" Kid's going to have issues.

Why do all these criminal mastermind sorts get into these massively illegal but massively profitable businesses if they can't spend their money?

yeah I've been thinking about this a lot w/r/t gus, I mean it's pretty badass to be this normal suburban dude who's actually a bazillionaire drug lord, but otoh you need some motive other than looking cool

Human beings in doing illogical things shocker.

If you're into that kind of thing it's probably really really fun.

what's been getting me for a while is, why is gus getting all confrontational with walt in the first place? i mean, so walt killed a couple of low level street dealers loosely related with gus. big frikkin deal, i didn't really get why gus was so bent out of shape about that. or, ok, he gets bent out of shape, tries to kill walt, walt, stepping into a giant washing machine with a gun to his head, manages to off gale. sure gus is pissed, but walt just outmanouvered him, how can he hold it against him?

so, now walt is super paranoid, but gus needs him. and gus knows walt, impulsive and naive as he can sometimes be, can also upon occasion outsmart him. so why does he go out of his way to fuck with him? i can sort of see the whole box cutter thing as a way to dominate him, but look what happened the last time walter felt threatened. given how important walt is to the entire operation, why does gus go out of his way to fuck with walt? why not just back of, make peace, not fuck with jesse, let walt feel in control again, but say have him watched 24/7 (maybe along with skyler?) what gus should want more than anything right atm is smooth sailing amongst his staff, so he can focus on beating the mexican cartels.

basically: gus is such a cautious guy. what's in it for him to fuck with walt, who has a history of doing crazy destructive shit when threatened?

why not just back off, make peace, not fuck with jesse, let walt feel in control again,

because Walt is so furiously insecure about his status that he will always find something to get upset about and then actively fuck up anyway

Gus has some sort of long game in place with the cartels. Or at least that's what the show has been hinting at lately. We don't know yet how Walt will play into that. Or if. Or if the writers have idea where they're going with this, btw.

Gus is in a unique situation and figuring it out as he goes along. He's never hired a cook that he's had to depend on like this. Walt has made Gus top of the heap, but it's also given Walt enormous leverage. Unacceptable leverage.

basically: gus is such a cautious guy. what's in it for him to fuck with walt, who has a history of doing crazy destructive shit when threatened?

walt also has an insane ego and major entitlement issues if gus just lets him kill gale and is like 'its cool' then he still has to worry abt walt making another power grab or worse thinking he can make w/e move he wants and still reason his way out of it. you cld argue that constantly fucking w/ walt actually helps make walt predictable as jesse said this way the all know where they stand

i kinda think in gus's mind his and walt's relationship is too intimate or at least too interdependent to survive the kinda distrust it has now and his best bet is to keep walt isolated and off-balance until he can find a way to get rid of him and he knows that walt wants to kill him as well theyre past the point of rapprochement imo

I'm sort of of this they got backed into a corner mentality. They keep dropping hints and things less overt that Gus is not happy with Walt, that Gus blames Walt, that Gus doesn't trust Walt, etc., but they're all coming after they gave Walt such an upper hand in his little power struggle. I think the reason we haven't seen or heard much from Gus this season is that the writers are using his absence as a means of devising a way to knock Walt out of his untouchable position. Which really won't be that hard to do, honestly. Thus far his game of hardball has been pretty easy. Again, all he has to do is threaten Walt's family. Pretty wife, special needs kid, little baby? What heartless drug kingpin would not use that to his advantage? No doubt they're saving such an obvious, inevitable plot turn til the end.

nah that'd be pretty rote, i think. more likely the battle/negosh with the cartel will... radically change the status quo, one way or another.

It would totally be rote, which would explain, from a narrative standpoint, why they haven't gone that route and why they've been spinning their wheels for a while. Same with the Skyler-abducts-the-baby subplot, which is primed to snap whenever they want it to. Lots of sharp focus back on Walt and Jesse, with lots of players mysteriously out of circulation but surely ready to pop into place when the plot dictates it. So many ways this can go, and the fact that they haven't gone those myriad obvious ways - yet - is encouraging.

Still think the Mike and Jesse thing was cooked up by Gus to get Jesse to turn on Walt. Can't think of any other reason they'd string him along in that way.

Turn on Walt ... how? They don't need Jesse. They only need Jesse to keep Walt in line. But clearly Walt is doing OK without Jesse. Don't know how it's in Gus's advantage to piss off Walt by alienating Jesse, because all that achieves is ... pissing off Walt.

Gus's plan might be to put Jesse into a position where can be believably killed without Walt thinking Gus did it

that was my thought.