Shall we anticipate the FIFTH SEASON of the AMC series "Breaking Bad"? I think I may.

rian johnson was the director!

Well, there we go. Director be directing.

tyrus' salt & pepper hair is tripping me up. i thought he was young...

i don't think we did this yet: http://flavourmachine.com/breaking/

Horrible and uncomfortable and amazing episode. Brief thoughts:

- Skylar's obviously thinking largely rationally about the situation but has completely discredited herself with Hank and Marie now, they really won't believe anything she says if she goes to the DEA.

- I've never really held with the drug mole in the DEA theory but Hank being promoted above the Fring investigation just as he was on the right track seemed... suspicious in its timing.

- Jesse is totally the one with all the power now and he doesn't realise it. Also Walt and Jesse's relationship is as good as it'll ever be and it's only going to be downhill from here.

Like if Mike saw that Lydia was enough of a liability to kill then he'll do the same thing to Walt (who is a similar liability) without thinking twice about it and it's only Jesse standing in the way.

Agreed

And I was pondering this too: Hank being promoted above the Fring investigation just as he was on the right track seemed... suspicious in its timing.

Not to mention the whole steez of new AZ DEA chief which if you saw him on the X-Files you'd be like OK, this guy is definitely in cahoots with Alpha Centauri

if the dea is in on it who is pulling the strings

and then why would the station chief be fired

there might be a mole in the DEA's office (though you'd like think Mike would be a little faster giving crazy exec lady the warning if that were the case) but to me it seems more likely political pressure is going to force Hank to close the case, as it's already such an embarassing situation for Fring to be so close to them, Hank's new boss already hinted they want this case to go away

Yeah I haven't really thought this through. It might just be a convenient promotion for plot reasons.

It's heartbreaking to see how much Skylar wants a cat, despite knowing that her mother's allergies make this a near-impossibility. Lydia, bless her, can't help rubbing salt in the wound by inviting her around to the family mansion to dine on "red things" with her father, who just happens to resemble… a cat.

The cat-father begins to carve the tomatoes and seems incongruously surprised when Marie, told to gobble hers down, pipes up: "This tomato is absolutely delicious!"

"They are so red, and yet Marie says they are delicious," intones the cat-father in a Vincent-Price-sounding voice. It's hard to parse the syntax, and yet precisely this illogicality (why on earth shouldn't red tomatoes be delicious?) seems to trigger a buried memory in Skylar.

Of course! Episode 8, Series 3! Flashback: she's walking on an embankment with an orange dream cat. The dream cat - identical to the cat-father - is hovering a few inches above the ground, like a helium balloon.

"Do you like cats?" asks the dream cat.

"Yes!" says Skylar, her cheeks colouring slightly.

The cat's response is gnomic: "Did you say that despite knowing that I am a cat?"

Why on earth shouldn't she have said that in the full possession of the knowledge that he is a cat?

But before she has time to respond, he's floating away.

"I must go! You see, I am not really a cat, but Lydia's father. Thank you for looking after my daughter so well!" And then, just before he floats out of sight: "You can never have a real cat the way you are now." Skylar demands clarification, but the dream cat has gone.

The enigmatic syntax at the mansion supper table seems to trigger Skylar's memory of the unanswered question. "Oh," she says, "regarding the conversation we were having before, where can I go to find a real cat?"

"A real cat?" The cat-father seems instantly livid; his outline seethes through an entire spectrum of colours. "Are you saying then that I am a fake cat?"

Skylar bows several times. "I'm so sorry, please forgive me, the question was inexcusable!"

"No, it is not that I am angry. I am not a fake, no, but do you mean to suggest that there are cats that are real AND ONES THAT ARE NOT?"

The logic seems to threaten his very existence. As he screams, the cat-father starts to pulsate with violent cosmic radiation. The whole building begins to shake. Even the penguin maid, temporarily frozen, comes back to life and runs about in a panic, sloshing water from a metal bucket everywhere.

Luckily, gay couple Walt and Jesse choose this moment to arrive, honking the horn as they scrunch their white Mercedes E550 Coupe up the driveway.

Hasn't everyone been assuming Hank's partner has been on the take since like day one?

Gomie?!

It's crossed my mind too.

what r the clues

He did a piss-poor job of casing out the laundry. Pooh-pooh'ed Hank anytime he brought up Fring. Grew a goatée.

Last u&k.

no one believed hank abt fring tho, it was p far fetched

In this ep, Hank goes how bout that Lydia? And Gomie is all, no way. Still, I don't buy it. Gomie always doubts. Walt is just a supercop.

Anyone else notice an option conspicuously absent from Skylar's litany of plans? I'll give you a hint: it starts with "k" and ends with "ill Walt." I wouldn't put it past the show, since they've finally actually decided to bless her with an arc, plus an anything-goes craziness.

can you give me another hint

she doesn't have the magic

i love Walt's theory that now he's actually in charge of a meth operation, he's less of a target for violence than when he was just an employee.... not sure how that works, even in his own head

xpost god that line about "i don't have your magic" was a killer

not sure that walt really believes hes safe now, but he def doesnt think skylar has any right to question him

the remorseless enmity of the walt/sky argument was breathtaking, all the wild imaginings of how they would fuck each other over, how they would hurt themselves in order to hurt the other more, DARK FUCKING SHIT.. it sounded like something from a noir movie

Basically hoping that your husband gets cancer and dies as soon as possible and chain-smoking to make it happen is about as dark as it gets.

when Skylar said she was waiting, I was expecting her to say 'for you to get shot' so when she said 'for your cancer to come back' I was like whooaaaa

Hasn't everyone been assuming Hank's partner has been on the take since like day one?
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, August 7, 2012

- I've never really held with the drug mole in the DEA theory but Hank being promoted above the Fring investigation just as he was on the right track seemed... suspicious in its timing.

also that Mike knew at all about the DEA visit, timing aside - she's several states away*, and he doesn't appear to have another connection at the building

*yeah? lol US geography

the guy in the warehouse couldve just called mike, he only knew as they were arriving at her office

also if he had a connection at the dea he could verified the validity of the gps device

Warehouse Guy seemed just as surprised to see DEA agents as Lydia.

...thats what he wants u to think

btw lydia is an awesome character

xp great casting just for that dude's facial reactions

Lydia's okay, but I hope BlueMeth 3.0 doesn't fall thanks to some crazy harebrained female who can't wear her shoes right.

fkn chicks ruin everything

lydia isnt the weak link, as always its walt

where does Lydia work again, what state? weird echo of Jesse saying "14 hours drive, if i don't stop" and Walt saying the same thing in the opening of ep 1

oooh, good catch.

this show is doing something interesting narratively in that the usual dramatic tension/resolution is for the "bad thing" that upsets equilibrium and stokes the conflict must somehow be expunged, excluded by the community of the drama in order for a resolution to be brought about

and all along, even though walt's an anti-hero, the way i've been thinking at least is - how is walt gonna get out of this? how can he expunge the bad thing, i.e. the cousins, the threats to his security, gus, etc? and in this ep it becomes clear that the protagonist himself is the bad thing that must be expunged

Walt was coming from New Hampshire right? Def more than a 14-hour drive. Lydia maybe in Houston or LA?

xp

xpost yeah tracer otm

Walt's working on a whole ton of false assumptions about the people close to him - he's fucked over so many people in so many obvious ways, and he's created so many false narratives about what they mean to him or how much they need him and when the reality hits him it's going to be awesome

Lydia is in Houston, working for the U.S. branch of Madrigal, Intl.

weirdly it's this episode that had me seeing walt as truly evil in a bigger way than before. obviously the things he has done to date have been reprehensible, but this new confidence and righteousness and calculation is something different. he is so fiendishly manipulative and creepy now.

amazing show... it really is a brilliantly tight weave of character and situation. no show i've ever watched has such perfect pace to each episode.

the remorseless enmity of the walt/sky argument was breathtaking, all the wild imaginings of how they would fuck each other over, how they would hurt themselves in order to hurt the other more

I think the most brutal aspect of this exchange is that, despite the fact that (to the best of my recollection) neither party had previously voiced their enmity towards the other, neither Walt nor Skylar seemed particularly taken aback by depth of the other's resentment. The resentment had emanated so clearly from their respective disposition toward and treatment of one another that they never even had to verbalize it, and even if they wouldn't allow themselves to cosciously acknowledge it before, neither of them is particularly surprised to learn that the other has come to despise them. Which just mirrors the dissolution of so many relationships, writ super effing large.

That throwaway "well, we've got to make up that $600-thousand somehow" line was a nice passive-aggressive shot across the bow.

good observations everyone

"they're watching ra-ta-touille... it's very sweet."

WE HAVE TO COOK.