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

ya but he won so

― the jazz zinger (s1ocki), Tuesday, October 11, 2011 11:57 AM

YOU won so

oh word i forgot that wmc

Even Walt thinking of this as "I won" is kind of showing the scope of his intentions. This is probably the largest situation he's "resolved," but there are still so many loose ends that could come back to bite him.

I keep thinking how well-executed Gus's clearing out of the cartel was.

except for the part where he let the one surviving member blow his ass up

true that

But nature abhors a vacuum etc etc, and there are two huge vacuums to set up S5 -- one Cartel-sized, one Gus-sized. They can go anywhere with this, and it be internally consistent. First meeting back in the writers room might be a bunch of folks giggling and saying "hold me Vince, I'm scared."

in unison? weird image

yeah, scary freedom!

http://images.nymag.com/images/2/daily/2011/10/10_gustavodemise.gif

For the second season in a row they've got Saul to thank for still being alive. Whatever they're paying him isn't enough.

Now I'm going to do something really dumb and start watching seasons 2 and 3 for the first time. But it's also going to be something not-dumb because it's good tv.

wait... what??

part 2 of the avclub thing is up btw

AVC: Are there things from earlier seasons that you’re still waiting or hoping to pay off?

VG: Yeah, definitely. The most coy way I can answer that is that there are several things that I think are still outstanding. I guess one of them that goes without saying is the dramatic engine that started this whole series, which is Walt’s cancer diagnosis. That’s certainly something we have not forgotten about, and that is something we will touch base on in one form or another as we draw to a conclusion in our last 16 episodes. But there are other things as well. Definitely we spend a lot of time looking to the past, and looking to previous episodes in an effort to tell a satisfying story by not leaving many, or any, hopefully, loose ends hanging out.

methinks wmc was sufficiently pilloried for his sins upthread

xp

Yeah, I DL'ed and watched S1 and was very bummed out because of serious addiction probs in my family, so I dropped the show. But when S4 started I watched the first episode and was drawn back in just from the sheer quality of writing and acting. So I have a gap to fill in -- I have a vague sense of what happened, but haven't actually seen the episodes yet.

I guess one of them that goes without saying is the dramatic engine that started this whole series, which is Walt’s cancer diagnosis. That’s certainly something we have not forgotten about, and that is something we will touch base on in one form or another as we draw to a conclusion in our last 16 episodes.

speaking of that, when jesse leaves walt in the parking lot at the end walt seems to have a moment of... something. he puts his hand to head like he's sick or something. could be wave of stress hitting him but i suspect its cancer-related.

stuff like this makes me want to go back and watch the whole series over again

My own personal opinion is that a lot of this dates back to “Box Cutter.” There’s a moment at the end of that episode where Gus cuts Victor’s throat and lets Victor drop dead onto the floor. Walt looks like he’s about to vomit, and he looks completely terrified, as most of us would. Then Gus happens to glance at Jesse, and there’s this long shot of Jesse. We hold on Jesse quite a long time as he slowly leans forward. There’s this moment of, if not connection between the two, there’s this moment of, for my money, Gus seeing a strength, a resilience, and an anger in Jesse, a substance in Jesse that he didn’t see before.

And marrying that realization with the realization that Jesse had the wherewithal to go kill Gale, suddenly Gus Fring realizes that this guy who he’s never given a second thought to may have more substance than he previously would have guessed. So I think primarily, yes, what Gus is doing by having Mike take Jesse out on money pickups is he’s starting to drive a wedge between Jesse and Walt, but I think maybe he does see some worth, some utility in Jesse. And he had probably first noted that in the first episode of this season.

i read that as walt basically having a bowel-emptying moment of "oh christ, what have i become / thank god i didn't kill the kid / has this all actually worked out / oh shit, wtf do i do now"

xpost

"/ oh fuck cancer is back"

well alright

Wasn't totally sold on Jesse's moral vacillation at the end of the ep re: killing Gus, btw. Gail I understand. But Gus? Whether or not he poisoned Brock, he was definitely, er, not good for Jesse, who apparently forgot that just the day before he was tased, kidnapped and handcuffed to the lab to work as a slave.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, October 11, 2011 11:50 AM (52 minutes ago)

I bought it - to be fair, jesse ended up tased + handcuffed because walt's manipulations put him at odds with gus. and although the choice of gus vs walt as mentor isn't very appealing, gus was at least a leader who let jesse demonstrate and enjoy some self-worth, whereas walt's a petty self-involved little toad whose actions are almost always to jesse's psychological detriment.

Yeah, but to say Gus put Jesse at equal risk would be an understatement. I mean, the Mexico gambit that could have left them all dead was a Walt-esque gamble.

well alright

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, October 11, 2011 12:48 PM

i mean it doesn't have to literally be that so much as a foreshadowing of that (it looked very similar to walt's earlier sickness blackouts). and the bb writers luv foreshadowing.

Nothing says "we value you as an employee" like getting tased and shoved into a van

physical danger hasn't been a factor in jesse's recent decisions though - he's a guy who acted like he had a death wish for most of the season. psychologically, it's not hard to see why jesse would start second-guessing his decision to side with walt against gus, especially when it turned out gus had nothing to do with brock's poisoning.

xp

Well, taking Gus out was pretty much all Walt. What did Jesse have to do with it? He was handcuffed to the meth factory.

That is, it was acted like killing Gus was the issue, not that he made a mistake of allegiance.

Well, taking Gus out was pretty much all Walt. What did Jesse have to do with it? He was handcuffed to the meth factory.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, October 11, 2011 2:33 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

he gave walt the crucial tip-off about hector.

jesse had plenty to do with walt's machinations - he lured gus to the hospital so walt could attach a bomb to his car, he told walt about tio, etc

I kind of read it as, wait we killed gus for no reason, was that the right thing to do - if he was absolutely certain of gus' unworthiness to live there'd be nothing for him to second guess - and I think mike's "are you sure you're being loyal to the right guy" is still rolling around somewhere in the back of his head and will be coming to the forefront next season

xp

Yeah, but the actually killing of Gus was hardly a deep collaboration. I mean, Jesse was all for it, but if he was worried about retribution from ... someone ... then he's pretty far down on the "people to kill" list. But why, say, Mike the Pro would want him or even Walt dead is unclear at this point. Unless they do something dumb and sick Chilean war criminals off to New Mexico or something. My guess is that both Ted business and the DEA will be tightening the noose next season. I mean, they will find Gus's car at the hospital. Why was he at the hospital? They will have video of him meeting with Jesse, who Hank will know very well. Or that old last next door to the tio will describe Walt. Not to mention Jesse's mention of ricin no doubt may draw even more Feds.

he gave walt the crucial tip-off about hector.

― the jazz zinger (s1ocki), Tuesday, October 11, 2011 2:35 PM

p sure saul did that, jesse went str8 from hospital to meth lab before he could even think of something to give walt

Jesse's intel; Saul delivered it.

^^^

i love the compulsive need to speculate about next season in this thread - u will probably be wrong guys

probably. i am still going to dream of a Walt/Hank showdown, nonetheless.

ND U CANT STOP ME!

jesse isn't worried about retribution - more like he's concerned that he collaborated in the killing of a boss who was grooming him for bigger things, based on a hunch from walt that turned out to be all wrong - factor in the psychological journey jesse has been on the entire season and it's easy to see why he's not like oh we blew up gus nbd

Hopefully next season will explore the ins and outs of the carwash game.

iirc jesse told walt about hector (in the context of "where can I find gus so I can kill him"), saul connected the dots, gave walt the motivation to force gus to visit the nursing home

Maybe it will jump forward 18 years and holly will be a major player in the drug game Everyone else will be aged via cgi.

we didn't actually see gus die, he just fell over with a headache

will be back next season with ted in tow

old trigger finger ted

if i know gus, pretty sure he'll "pull a robocop" and return, even more unstoppable than before. think about it - ultimate combination

robogus?
i like it.

gus gets a face transplant from ted, carries on business as usual/charitable works

gets a new eye from Walts pool filter.

we saw gus die. we did NOT see tyrus die. ~think abt it~

they did say "three dead" on the news though (doubt they were talking about old hi hello neighbor woman)

rmde socket

Hector survived. he's that bad-ass.