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

He was the first one to shoot down Hank's theory, then the other guy on the end. I'm starting to think that Hank really doesn't know yet that Walt is involved. Also, can we talk about Pinkman's cellphone. Loyalty appears to be officially shifted, and I wonder what Jesse plans to do with the lucky cigarette.

Totally confused though because AMC ep guide says that the chem student's name was Max Arciniega, which is the actual name of the actor who played Krazy-8. Ep guide says character "Max Arciniega" is actually named James Martinez.

The scholarship that Gus started 15 years ago was called the "Maximinio Arciniega fund", named after "a good friend", so I'm guessing that was him.

aha
but it's still the irl name of the actor who played krazy 8!
http://abreakingbadblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/breaking-bad-s01-e03.jpg

apparently he is also known as Chicago hip hop act MaxSoul

Born Max Arciniega in the great city of Chicago, MaxSoul is easily compared to Chicago’s most creative hip-hop acts-such as Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Common-thanks to his thought-provoking lyrics, concept-driven songs, and eye-catching stage shows. A spoken-word artist, MaxSoul opened for Russell Simmons’ Def Poets at the Metro in Chicago after earning first place in a local poetry slam. He carries the depth of language into all of his songs, creating a fresh, new, and accessible hip-hop sound.

A veteran of the stage, MaxSoul is also an accomplished actor, best known for his recurring role on AMC’s Emmy-nominated Breaking Bad. He has also been featured on some of the biggest prime-time shows on network television

Also, can we talk about Pinkman's cellphone.

yes i didnt know what 2 make of this at all. jesses taken the initiative 2 meet w/ gus prior 2 walt suggesting it? to poison him?

I read it as Jesse holding back from telling Walt that he's way closer to Gus than he wants Walt to know about. And now Walt knows that Jesse's not telling him stuff. Jesse acquiesced to the poisoning pretty easily iirc, and every time Walt brings it up, Jesse's like "dude whatever I have to take a piss" and I now read this dismissive behavior as a way of Jesse communicating "pls stfu, you have no idea where I stand in the larger picture" and Walt is only *just* realizing that Jesse isn't totally in his corner.

???

That is to say that Gus has sufficiently plumped Jesse's ego (see his clean tweaker-free house, overall confidence, employment of Saul as Ed McMahon) to the point where Jesse feels like he can fuck with Walt a little, and that maybe he is carving out a comfy lifer spot for himself in the Pollos Hermanos empire alongside Mike? I dunno.

Yeah that's what I thought. He lied about not having seen Gus since the diner when actually he spent most of last episode with him when he had the "negotiation" meeting with the Mexicans. The text told Walt that Jessie is seeing Gus on a regular basis and just fobbing Walt off when he says he hasn't had the opportunity to poison him yet.

xpost

I'm not sure there's a plan there as such, he probably just quite likes working for Gus and doesn't enjoy being Walt's personal hitman everytime somebody gets in the way.

ya - i figured Walt was just annoying him.

Maybe. I guess I am expecting more from Jesse than just "you're annoying me" -- I really want him to be communicating that there is an undercurrent of "don't bully me/you're no better than I am/I don't need you/you're a strategic imbecile" in his interactions with Walt.

think jesse's annoyed and doesn't know what he's doing doesn't want to admit he's seen gus since the diner since he has not yet killed gus

Vince Gilligan said in the BB Insider podcast that the character Max was indeed named after the actor who played Crazy 8. He just liked the dude and wanted to pay tribute to him.

Pedantry alert, but what kind of phone just has the text of a message right there when you open it, without you having to press some buttons and then the message showing up as already read? Great episode though.

I want to reiterate my questions over the timeline because of Walt saying it had only been a year because he was diagnosed but the cars/video games have moved on. Stupid and pedantic and wholly unimportant, I know, but just...ya know.

I thought that was important! It's the only way I knew that one year had passed.

Thought this was the best directed episode of the season too. Stuff like the shot of Gus in the elevator was amazing, and there weren't any of the gimmicky shots that have been all over the other episodes

Pedantry alert, but what kind of phone just has the text of a message right there when you open it, without you having to press some buttons and then the message showing up as already read? Great episode though.

every single mobile phone I have ever owned

Pedantry alert, but what kind of phone just has the text of a message right there when you open it, without you having to press some buttons and then the message showing up as already read?

iPhones show the text messages without any further finger-swipes - the message just pops right up! however, Jesse does not have an iPhone

But every single phone i have ever owned will have a message received icon which you press to read the message.

I thought that was important! It's the only way I knew that one year had passed.

― i drive a wood paneled station dragon (La Lechera), Monday, September 5, 2011 7:37 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i was like ONE YEAR

hellofa year

honestly jessie would TOTALLY have a better phone
he'd have like all kinds of APPS BITCH

I kind of figured G. Esposito learned Spanish as an adult or at least was not a native speaker/early adopter because I can understand him fairly well and I can understand slow, careful, over-enunciating American speakers of Spanish better that native speakers.

Though tbf Gus Fring is a slow, careful, over-enunciator of English, too.

Hahaha APPS BITCH.

lol

Oh the backstory between Gus and his chemist provided a little insight into why he was so willing to put up with Walt/Jesse as a team when it seems nonsensical to do so.

do u think gus wants to make luv to jesse

Seen a few people saying that kind of thing, but nah

so the guy who walt set up to have offed by the feds/his own men in the raid was the boss by the pool in the flashback

feel like i was not paying close enough attention this ep

so the guy who walt set up to have offed

¿qué?

sry the guy gus set up to have offed

the mexican drug boss, he was on the phone w/him gloating as the feds came to his door iirc

it clarified for me what has always been a mystery namely why gus gives such a fuck about quality control and hence lends such power to walt, invests an incredible amount of money to make basically a gmp meth lab, etc when the market from what i can tell hardly demands anywhere near this level of quality. if his thought is that meth has the potential to hit upscale demos that it currently can't touch then i can understand the thinking from a business standpoint. but if he's just selling a much purer (ie much more difficult and more expensive to produce) meth to a market that shows little sign of discernment or inclination to pay much more for the good stuff than that seems absurd to me. premium tequilas vs when burger king tried to create table service at their restaurants.

guy who was offed by federales was at the table, was not scarface dude.

ah so ty

idk that people will pay more but the good shit will be more popular for sure like 'you got that blue stuff' - so its more i guess its abt volume rather than margin - but yeah gus' interest in quality seems to go deeper than all that - hes just fastidious

guy who was offed by federales was at the table, was not scarface dude.

― balls, Monday, September 5, 2011 9:46 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

wait yeah uncle hector is in scarface right - i was talking abt the boss who was at the table - he is the guy who gus set up w/the federales present day right

dis guy

http://i.imgur.com/Voq3Z.png

a market that shows little sign of discernment or inclination to pay much more for the good stuff than that seems absurd to me.

I'm not sure how much they charge compared to the lower-end dealers, but from what they've shown the blue meth has reached an almost mythical level of quality amongst the addicts and they'd be willing to go out of their way to get it. If that puts the smaller producers out of business than he can have the whole market to himself. I really took away from the scene the importance of being able to produce something yourself as opposed to shipping a drug like cocaine in from South America, where your'e only the middle man and making a much smaller profit.

Tio Hector was the chainsaw guy in Scarface.
The guy who admonished Hector not to pee in the pool is the guy Gus set up to be shot by the Federales.
This was the first appearance of Don Eladio aka Steven Bauer aka Manny from Scarface.

main boss in track suit is in scarface - http://www.wiki-cine.com/photos/1849/22359.jpg, other guy at table w/ the two ppl on breaking bad that appeared in scarface is the boss gus set us up the bomb w/ the federales last year.

isn't it sad that one of the few cast members of scarface you would dread hearing is gonna appear on breaking bad is al pacino?

I can't speak for all meth-heads obv, but definitely most of the dudes I knew who were serious about it would have gone out of their way and probably paid a lot more to get high quality glass over shitty crank so I'm not sure where this "all people on speed don't care about quality" thing comes from. Plus shitty crank can be really shitty so the assurance of consistent quality product is a pretty big thing. No obviously consistent quality product is a long way from THE PERFECT METH, but obvious Gus seems to have gotten a little obsessive about it at this point.

lol ok so there were two scarface cast member in that scene, thanking u all for the clarification

Does Stephen Bauer only get cast as the drug dealer to remind you he was in Scarface? First, Traffic, now this...

Reason Jesse is being so ambivalent toward Walt is that this is the first time in the show he recognizes that he's in a position of power. Or that his and Walt's fates are not necessarily linked. That is, Gus hasn't killed Jesse because he knows Jesse is not a threat. Gus hasn't killed Walt because he needs Walt. If Jesse sided with Walt in this feud, then Gus has every reason to kill Jesse. So if Jesse (as prodded by Mike) sides closer to Gus, then not only does Jesse live, but he has a certain assurance that Walt does not.

Well arranged flashbacks in this ep. Very well done.

Question - forgetting for the moment that the money is a big red herring in this story: what would Walt and Skyler possibly do with bags full of hundreds of thousands of dollars? You can't spend it casually - bills are too big. You can't put it in the bank. You can't even give it to charity! So it just ... sits there? At this rate they can use those blocks of cash to build an addition to their house. Like, literally.

as always, walt and skylar are terrible at being criminals

(By assurance I meant that Jesse doesn't have to look over his shoulder, whereas Walt knows that the second Gus figures out a way to get rid of him, he's toast).

Seriously, though, what would a good criminal do with bags of hundreds of thousands of dollars?