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

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.

what does gus gain from that?

imho short term he just wanted jesse to stabilize partying like that doing tons drugs not giving a shit abt anything puts gus' org at risk, long term i could see trying to turn him against walt

you sound like you've run this kind of operation before

*shrugs suggestively*

Who is on Jesse's shirt. I've seen those hair shirts for baseball players but dont think it's one of those.

Also Jesse reminds me of Lars Urich.

Happy about the relative lack of Skyler screen time in this episode.

Also opening scene with Jesse and Rage was just about perfect.

Rage is not even out yet - October release date. Looks great though

THIS SHOW

what is it that the cartel guys want? walt dead? over tuco? hank dead? started to wonder if maybe gus has a few dea agents on the payroll?

What they don;t want I would imagine is to be completely shut out of Gus's territory.

Tonight's opening was maybe the best ever I think

wait Rage hasn't been released? Isn't the timeline of the show like 2 years ago?

I think the shirt was Steve Aoki's head without a face?

wait Rage hasn't been released? Isn't the timeline of the show like 2 years ago?

― Gukbe, Monday, August 29, 2011 3:43 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

not sure if they've ever specified what exact year it's set in

for all we know it's set in the future!

afaik it's always been something along the lines of "the present day" (ie walt jr driving a 2011 dodge challenger earlier)

Dan's right, it's a Steve Aoki shirt. http://dimmak.bigcartel.com/product/steve-aoki-beard

i think walt jr should take gus up on the offer 2 work at pollos hermanos and bring this whole operation down from the inside

or wind up running it!

and i was assuming the cartel guys still want Walt dead.

Which cartel guys? i kinda thought that the particular division or subset of the cartel that knew Walt more intimately then just the name Heisenberg were all dead.

i don't think so. someone had to have sent the twins last season.

Yeah that other boss that Gus had a meeting with, they worked for him. That guy got raided by the feds while on the phone with Gus before going Rambo and I assumed getting himself killed (they never showed that much though). This was all part of Gus’s power move to wipe out the cartels. The cartel guys you see now are another faction coming in to take up the void.

Yeah that other boss that Gus had a meeting with, they worked for him

from last season though, not to be confused with the most resent meeting

Also opening scene with Jesse and Rage was just about perfect.

I was pretty much at the point of "ok ok I get it" w/r/t/ Jesse's downward spiral so I was glad to see him fixing shit up and whitewashing the walls later in the ep

I like how the scene w/ hank presenting the case against gus to the dea tied up all the unspoken things that've been rattling around in his head the last few eps

also the scene with walt and the car was classic

liked Hank mulling over what Walt Jr was telling him. i have a feeling that's going to be rattling around his brain for a while too!

and i was assuming the cartel guys still want Walt dead.

― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, August 29, 2011 1:49 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

My first thought is that they want to poach Walt from Gus.

aaron paul TOTALLY killing it this season imo

He really is. Did you notice the veins standing out on his neck in the NA meeting scene? The actor was completely gone, it was Jesse sitting there.

Agree Aaron Paul taking it up a notch

saw him in a scene in Whatever It Takes this weekend

My first thought is that they want to poach Walt from Gus.

yes, this - meaning Walt doesn't know how characteristically self-destructive it is to be nagging someone else to commit murder for him, on the one guy who has a huge investment in protecting and keeping him and his family safe.

http://i.imgur.com/ybQXN.png

Walt and Jesse have a poor record of successfully killing people with ricin, don't they?

Umm yep
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ln5f8iXUOy1qhtqtjo1_400.gif

Saw a preview for that movie Mr White is in during the show. Looks trashy, no? Hellboy from Sons of anarchy is also in it.

Number none nicely done

It's Nicolas Winding Refn, so it could be really great. It won best director at Cannes. xpost

Drive looks awesome