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

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.

that's the thing that really gets me about this show - Walt and Marie make the same banal small talk as members of my normal, boring family.

whenever I saw an RV I thought of breaking bad...now whenever I see a tented house I'm going to think of Breaking Bad

goddamn this show

next time i see a tented house im gonna go in there and COOK

Which just mirrors the dissolution of so many relationships, writ super effing large.

yeah..... ditto the familiar vibe of walt the next morning pretending that er, nothing has happened! nothing to see here!

I liked the shot where Walt, Hank, and Marie are chatting and Skyler is staring into the pool, back to the camera. It felt very theatrical in its blocking, in a good way.

ya that was a v illustrative composition

also how long she was just standing there and youre going fuck whats she gonna do shes not really going into the pool is she, it was tense

blue as pacifying and lucrative and serenely narcotic and suicidal has been an ongoing choice for this show, best usage this ep.
blue is good

i was tense

I have never seen a tented house. Even when Dale on King of the Hill did this, I always thought it was one of those things you see in movies that doesn't happen in real life.

I remember an episode of Macmillan and Wife where they were trapped in a tented house being fumigated.

pp what happened to u inside the tented house

I see them occasionally. The house across the street just had their done last week. We get a lot of termites round here though

it happens. in cities, much rarer because you'd have to evacuate an entire building. one family houses, it's a more cost effective and toxic answer. my guess is that it may even be illegal in more metropolitan areas.

question that came to mind for me - when walt is giving his big emotional speech by the pool, how sincere is he? how much do we still have a walt who can construct a story where he's just the selfless family man, and how much has he gone beyond that such that his entire family life is a fabrication that's a distant second to his life as a meth kingpin?

i think he's totally sincere! he really thinks he can have a normal ol' life with his family, give or take a musclecar or two

I think he's sincere in his reminiscences when he's talking by the pool. But I don't think it was ever about him being a self-less family man really (except in some tiny delusional way at the beginning). It was always much more about Walt than it was about anyone else.

being a family man is central to his self image and rationale for criminality, it is all of course total bullshit, but walt believes it

he also loves the theater of telling a constructed monologue; he loves pretending to be the earnest, kind Walt that he once was.

that's what he gets off on; that he can hide the truth so well. and that's what I think sickens Skylar so much in that scene.

she loved that man who had cancer; and wanting the cancer to come back isn't just wanting him to die - it's like she's hoping it'll bring back the old Walt? maybe?

babbling now sorry

yeah it's not that she wants him to die specifically, it's that she wants him to become incapacitated so he's no longer a professional criminal.

i think she wants him to die

he is after all a horrible monster whos repeatedly humiliated her and put her childrens life at risk

yeah I guess he's shown he can get things done while dying of cancer, so maybe that is what she wants

oh she definitely wants him to die. and/or be humbled.

of course what's so great about this is that Walt WAS concerned about her safety and that of the kids and was going to spend 500k+ to get them all out of 'Querque, but she spent it on Ted.

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

These otm

walt def cares, hes just incredibly ignorant deluded and ill intentioned

who's running the car wash?

xpost lagoon otm

he really doesn't see that his role as a caring husband/provider is directly contradicted by his life as a meth cook, maybe because he has them so compartmentalized in his mind

manchester new hampshire to Houston: 32 hrs

manchester to Albuquerque: 37 hrs

Walt estimated travel time: "about 30 hrs"

he also loves the theater of telling a constructed monologue; he loves pretending to be the earnest, kind Walt that he once was.

yeah this is so otm

he definitely loves the theater - i do wonder if he was ever earnest, though. even in the pilot episode, he's seething with discontent and bitterness

have you ever met an actor?

I'm glad the show is giving Walt free rein to indulge his narcissistic injury and become the powerful gangster he's always wanted to be perceived as, if only to finally shoot a nail gun into the head of his marriage. (Surprised it's taken Sky this long to get to this point.) The most horrific thing about this ep for me isn't the conversation between them, it's the way he was studiously ignoring every sign of her distress, he's completely fine with her being distraught as long as she didn't complain or affect his plans.

And I'm sure being given Steve McQueen's watch isn't helping his relentless grandiosity ... but we know from the opening flash-forward of the season there is going to be hell to pay

xxp HEYO!

who's running the car wash?

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, August 7, 2012 6:47 PM (Yesterday)

holly obv

I thought Marie was working in the car wash as well?

Walt's convinced that Skylar will come round to him and he's basing this largely on his relationship with Jesse and conveniently forgetting that his improved relationship with Jesse is 100% built on lies, deception and emotional manipulation.