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

hector's look of unmitigated hatred was too intense

WHERE'S MIKE

chill on a beach in mexico with a margie

walter is fuuuuuuuuuucked up, in this episode alone he

- took a bomb into a hospital & nursing home
- convinced an old man to kill himself
- used an old lady to sweep his house for hitmen
- killed his boss & two associates
- poisoned a child

In fairness he poisoned the child in the last episode. He's not THAT bad.

I hope the good people of Albuquerqe have some other place to get good fried chicken.

imo he gave Hector the opportunity to do something nasty that his old self would have done, one last time. That and an honorable death.

hector's look of unmitigated hatred was too intense

It always was, though. He doesn't have enough control of his face to properly judge the intensity of face he makes. That's the whole idea.

xp I agree -- Walter did right by Hector, if by no one else. Which is telling, to say the least.

he was so sweet to that old man

The old man had nothing left to live for. Gus gave him his only reason to stay alive, and Walt gave him a fantastic reason to die. Spite goes a long, long way.

Mark Margolis (who played Hector "Tio" Salamanca) does such a variety of character parts. I thought it was great when he was supposed to be a Mexican cartel guy on this show -- I've seen him play Jewish and Italian parts!

It's all about having giant bags under your eyes at all times, I think. Or at least, that's a critical element.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/interview-breaking-bad-creator-vince-gilligan-post-mortems-season-4

I want to get into the mechanics of the plan that Walt hatched. A big deal is made in the previous episode about the chain of custody of the ricin cigarette. What happened to it?

I think Jesse had the right idea. I think it was lifted off him by Huell. When he comes to Walt in the previous episode, and Walt asks how on earth would he could have done it, and Jesse says, "The big man mountain security guard of Saul's just had to see me, and he pats me down. You got him to get it off of me." So having done that, he could've just flushed it in the toilet, because as we find out, the child wasn't poisoned with ricin, he was poisoned with something else.

And Walt was somehow able to get access to Brock, to give him the berries.

Yeah. That part's probably the trickiest part. I can't remember the specifics, but we worked it out in the writer's room. He technically had enough hours to do it. How he found his way over there unseen is probably a little improbable, perhaps, but not impossible, is the way we figured it.

used an old lady to sweep his house for hitmen

This part made me very very nervous.

re: lily plant, i saw it as gus' henchman placed it there, to endanger walt's fam.. eliminating any doubt that (poisoning brock) wasn't gus' move. So walt orchestrated the poisoning to get jesse on his side?

i saw it as gus' henchman placed it there, to endanger walt's fam

Nobody past the age of toddler would eat stuff off a houseplant. It stretches credulity a little bit to think that Brock might. (S5, episode 1: "Brock, why'd you eat the berries off that plant?" "I didn't!" "Hmmm...")

So walt orchestrated the poisoning to get jesse on his side?

yes

Krysten Ritter, who played Jesse's dead girlfriend Jane, played a character named Lilly on another tv show. COINCIDENCE?

yes

Hank's DEA pals better give him some kind of medal or promotion or at least buy him a beer or something

well at least he can stop staring at those laundry pics now

Yeah, that's kind of funny. Hank still doing his diligent detective work on power usage etc. and then the place just blows up

I was kinda dreading opening this thread for fear of it being full of soulcrushing haters

do you have to say this every week, because people criticise the show based on its own high standards? or is it like a "shut up if you do not endorse every episode of breaking bad 100 per cent" thing? or presumably every episode ever made is the same standard and that's why we're on a messageboard talking about it? so nobody can say anything negative whatsoever?

really enjoyed this ep anyway, thought it was a little anti climactic but they decided to go all out a few episodes ago so no harm if they want to ramp things down a bit. i guess you sort of expect gus dying to be the last moment. the episode and series wound down v slowly then and i sort of expected another big reveal, not that the plant wasn't major, just it was tonally quite relaxed by then.

the zombie thing was kind of stupid but sort of funny too i suppose.

i think this show is still great but it's definitely stopped bothering to be as tight as it was. something about it is a bit rough around the edges at the moment.

this whole walt poisoning the kid etc...it just wasn't as beautifully sketched as other plotlines in the show.

still a great show but it reached perfection in s4 for me, v hard to keep up that standard, tho some amazing eps this season too.

dunno why people getting butthurt about complaints either, all long running shows, even ones where every season is v good, have different seasons that appeal for diff reasons.

I also loved Walt getting a proper dressing down from Saul's secretary.

― Matt DC, Monday, October 10, 2011 2:58 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

my favorite moment of the whole season

I paused it at that moment and said to the household that I'd be perfectly happy for the entire rest of the episode to be that woman telling Walt off, and everything else just cliffhangering until next year.

im like damn

And Walt was somehow able to get access to Brock, to give him the berries.

Yeah. That part's probably the trickiest part. I can't remember the specifics, but we worked it out in the writer's room. He technically had enough hours to do it. How he found his way over there unseen is probably a little improbable, perhaps, but not impossible, is the way we figured it.

!!!

One twist too many IMO

And at a certain point, it was going to be Walter or Gus. Back in the early days of plotting out Season 4, we did indeed realize that this was the season where it would all have to come to a head and there would have to be some resolution one way or the other. And we even briefly discussed, "What if it is Walt that gets killed"?

YES YES YES YES NOOOOO

I don't know why but the moment when Gus screamed and the bomb blew up, I just laughed.

ommmfffffggggg

That was BONZO. I totally hated Zombie Gus but then contradictorily I loved the entire episode. Wowie zowie.

The moment I realized he hadn't rung his bell since walt had been there and what that meant I got SO excited

dunno why people getting butthurt about complaints either, all long running shows, even ones where every season is v good, have different seasons that appeal for diff reasons.

― When a German communicates, you listen (LocalGarda), Monday, October 10, 2011 5:48 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

its because peoples criticisms seem genrally be of the 'complaining to complain' variety, which naturally leads to a 'not getting the show' pov

btw bomb plot only worked cause tyrus didnt search well enough via relying too heavily on his bug sweeping device, the bomb was not v well concealed - and the only reason tyrus was there to make that mistake is because the guy who shouldve been doing the sweep mike fucked up by not fully strangling a guy and got himself shot

xp Or also people who write off the entire show as having jumped the shark because they don't like one thing that happened. I mean, even Happy Days started sucking long before Fonzie jumped the actual shark. It's not like it was a great show and this one bad thing happened and then it's all down the crapper.

But I understand the urge, having been burned by shows that I loved, to try and get some emotional distance from a show before you realize it's season four of Lost and you've been suckered punched by the slow creep of badness. Kind of a break up with it before it dumps you thing.

ya - i wasn't crazy about zombie gus either. all in all a great ep tho. (not complaining!)

my favorite detail was how Hectors bell had a duller sound just before the bomb went off. i noticed it right away but didn't realize what it meant until after. also a very good explosion!

I was watching for him NOT ringing that bell as soon as Gus came in.

A car wash empire is totally going to be Walts Los Pollos Hermanos. Good cover for having vats of chemicals trucked in too.

Walt's

why did the writers write Mike off for the last few episodes?

so that walt could kill gus

Didn't the doc say Mike would have to be in the Mexican docs for a few weeks? Or am I filling in gaps?

yeah iirc correctly he said two weeks

and then gus said 'ill send for him' lol

wonder if walt will recruit mike for his drug gang

yeah it seems pretty obvious that Mike had to be out the way for this to happen (and only temporarily because he's too good a character to not come back next season)

can't wait for Mike to roll his eyes when he gets back

i like how they made it mikes fault that he got himself shot, it illustrated the cracks in gus' armor nicely

Oh, and please remind me about one thing. Mike started as Saul's man to take care of Jane's dead. Then how come he works for Gus later on the show and never had contact with Saul anymore?

Why did Gus paused with a bewildered looks on his face when he's about to inject the poison? It's not like Tio was doing anything. And then why did Tio cry before unleashing his vicious stare?

Here's what I would've done: Gus does pause and looks bewildered. The camera then cut to Tio's face with a devilish smile.

*Jane's death

Why did Gus paused with a bewildered looks on his face when he's about to inject the poison?

Because Tio finally looked Gus in the eyes after refusing to do so several times previously.