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

"Their M.O. is, they're good."

Speculating about a hypothesis: Walt sees Todd's coldblooded willingness to do whatever's "necessary" as an asset worth retaining. Mike wants to put a bullet in Todd, but Walt talks him down on the basis of Todd misinterpreting Walt's edict to keep the heist among themselves and insists that (after turning the kid into a barrel of human slurry) they continue business as usual. This will be the beginning of the end of Jesse's involvement, though, because it's already well-established that he has no tolerance for unnecessary killing (particularly of kids). He barely wanted to come back in the first place, and Walt's hard-won emotional manipulation will start to slip as Jesse begins to realize that he values the life he was just starting to build for himself with Andrea and Brock much more than this world he's gotten sucked back into. Walt will see this as a threat and that might be where Todd comes into play. Also, he's still using Lydia to find an angle on Mike. Maybe he can use Todd to take care of Mike's nine guys?

no way they have predicted that the train would stop on the bridge

seemed like they were pretty clear about this part, they knew how far it was from the crossing to the bridge and knew how far back the methylamine car would be

I was def expecting a screwup/usual looneytunes shenanigans, ie that the train would stop too early or too late and the hoses wouldn't reach or w/e

the buildup of
it's gonna fuck up it's gonna Fuck Up It's Gonna Fuck Up IT'S GONNA FUCK UP IT'SGONNAFUCKUPIT'SFUCKINGUPIT'SFUCKINGUPIT'SFUCKINGUP WOO it didn't fuck up YAY oh hang on, hi kid
worked for me

"seemed like they were pretty clear about this part, they knew how far it was from the crossing to the bridge and knew how far back the methylamine car would be"

They didn't find out where the car was until after that though.

xpost forks otm

"seemed like they were pretty clear about this part, they knew how far it was from the crossing to the bridge and knew how far back the methylamine car would be"

They didn't find out where the car was until after that though.

― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, August 14, 2012 12:24 PM

Yeah, that was a plot hole.

Also, that train was unrealistically short. One engine and what, 30 cars? Trains are more likely to be 2-3 engines and at least 100 cars. Economize that fuel shit, yo.

series will end with todd as kingpen after everyone else kills eachother.

Not necessarily. Depending on the length of the trip, 1 engine/30 cars is realistic. xp

Whether the length of the train was realistic there was no way to be able to reasonably predict that they would be able to stop that particular car in that particular place.

You guys sure know how to suck all of the fun out of a train robbery.

presumably if they checked the car layout and it wasn't in a get-to-able place, they'd not do it or wait till it was?

i mean i admit it's a THING but not necc a killer thing

It felt like a weird unexplained hole.

you feel like a weird unexplained hole

You guys sure know how to suck all of the fun out of a train robbery.

lol this is the caper that turns this thread into Every Internet Discussion Of Every Movie or Show Ever. the train is a predator ship you guys it's so obvious

I mean I don't know what it is about a train robbery (like Jesse James!) but when I realized that's what they were doing I got really excited and that didn't stop until the end.

but sure, spending half an episode watching them look up standard industrial tanker car fittings and try to source the proper flanges and hoses would have been pretty exciting too I guess.

it's sighLOLilx; burn it away, forget it

i mean if we're gonna nitpick it's also prob highly serendipitous that theres a bridge portion of track thru the desert, seemingly randomly, not only that it's the perfect distance from the crossing, and that this is all w/in the 'dead zone'

Haha look I ENJOYED the heck out of the train robbery, but at the same time it was "this is all working unrealistically conveniently well given how inconveniently difficult it would be to actually pull this off in real life ya know". I still love the show, but like Brock-poisoning thing it works better if you can completely suspend disbelief which I am sadly unable to entirely do.

I'm usually able to suspend a lot of disbelief with most movies and TV shows, but Breaking Bad has set itself apart with its attention to detail and the joy it takes in bringing the audience along for the ride as these schmoes navigate the logistics of becoming criminals. As such, I tend to be a little harder on the show than I otherwise might be when I feel like it's taken a leap without at least giving the audience a glimpse at the blueprint of the leap. A lot of the tension of the show exists in the gap between Walt's sense of himself as a criminal mastermind and the reality wherein he's composed of equal dollops of brilliance, luck, and extreme myopia. That tension (ideally) expresses itself in every grand scheme he undertakes, so it would be a lot more fulfilling to have a better sense of the logistics that informed the train heist, and I don't think a little grumbling about the way they glanced over the details in this instance is at all comparable to most other anal nerd-outs.

And, as mentioned upthread, I still feel that Brock's poisoning is totally grumbleworthy.

Yeah it's a shame they didn't put the same level of realism into this episode that they did with stuff like having a Chilean fast food restaurateur / meth kingpin get half his face blown off by a wheelchair bomb triggered by the desk bell that a convalescing cartel boss uses to communicate to his nurses.

^ yeah pretty unrealistic for him to be Chilean

I am happy suspending belief in detail, especially as it just pushed up the arrogance of these guys in their ability to get away with anything, maybe even child murder. Arrogance will be the downfall.

Using the advanced research skills I learned from the Skyler White School of Crime, I got pretty close to finding the proper tanker fittings in about 30 seconds http://www.midlandmfg.com/products/general-purpose-car/bottom-outlet-valves

xp lol, I threw that in there because I seem to remember some people complaining about his lack of a chilean accent.

Given the show's proven attention to detail, I would not be shocked if there is some regulation that requires hazardous liquids to be last in a train, or trains carting such being only x trains long. I think it was Slate that determined this train track/line actually exists, via google earth or whatever.

Given the show's proven attention to detail, I would not be shocked if there is some regulation that requires hazardous liquids to be last in a train, or trains carting such being only x trains long. I think it was Slate that determined this train track/line actually exists, via google earth or whatever.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 19:37 (38 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this post and this talk of attention to detail in general is bringing out a whiney-esque hatred. why do you people/why does the internet care? like it could be seen as good the people involved pay attention to these things but digging to find the exact part of trainline is way too far down the aspie rabbit hole, time wasted that could be spent doing absolutely anything else would be more productive

Also, not watching the show each week frees up an hour to do other stuff, too.

I could care less whether some fictional construct relates perfectly to something in the real world, but it seems a little odd to be both a fan of Breaking Bad and dismissive towards attention to detail.

Personally, I find the attention to detail rewarding, because it shows effort. The same goes for set design in films, or someone nailing a regional accent, or whatever. It's not vital but, go figure, it makes a difference. Unless you want some sort of Brechtian/Von Trier Breaking Bad POS.

but digging to find the exact part of trainline is way too far down the aspie rabbit hole

YMMV, and way to go with the aspie slur

Approximate time it likely takes to google trainline I estimate to be < the time a hoy hoy has spent on this thread in the past few minutes alone.

Imagine how much more fun this thread would be if it was just all chill bros going 'That ep was tite!' x infinity.

ie pretty sure THAT WOULD NOT BE THE INTERNET

one can dream, vegemitegrrl, one can.. dream

this ep was p tite imo

I would be into a show that was just Jesse and Walt getting into new trouble each week and then getting out of it with elaborate but farfetched Mission Impossible / Macgyver style capers.

tite tite TITE!

Given the show's proven attention to detail, I would not be shocked if there is some regulation that requires hazardous liquids to be last in a train, or trains carting such being only x trains long. I think it was Slate that determined this train track/line actually exists, via google earth or whatever.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, August 14, 2012 1:37 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I wasn't going to bring it up, but I already looked up rail lines in McKinney County, NM, and except for some old mining tracks that lead up into nowhere, the main line seems to stick pretty close to I-40 – pretty much away from any dead zone.

I thought I found the filming location south of Santa Fe, but who knows.

Maybe this was a secret dead zone!

Ghost Railroads of the Western Interior

An I think non-aspie plot hole that's bugging me is, shouldn't Mike be under tons of police surveillance? Like, didn't Hank & Gomie actually say they'd be doing this? Even if not, wouldn't he assume he was?

Loved this ep so much. I get Old Lunch's (I think) point above about the pleasure in how this show walks us through dorks becoming criminals, but it's been 4+ seasons, I felt this was earned. Besides, the pulpy thrill of the whole sequence set up the final horror so perfectly.

Here's why I'm ultimately able to ignore niggling questions like "How did they know that that particular train car would stop exactly where they needed it to?": One of the running themes of the show is Walt's attempt at wrangling control over this world he's in and then being forced to problem solve on the fly and mop up (sometimes literally) in the wake those messy attempts at wresting control. That tension could have been achieved in this instance by having the methylamine car wind up somewhere inconvenient, which would then have forced Walt to Mr. Wizard a solution to the problem. But one of the other running themes (particular to this season) is Walt's increasing arrogance and feeling of invulnerability, and I think they felt it was more important to use the nearly-disastrous heist to showcase that theme instead. From a narrative standpoint, the conflict of the murdered kid is a more appropriately-scaled consequence for the post-Gus incarnation of Walt to deal with (he's taking much bigger and more fearless gambles, so the losses are going to be much more potentially devastating).

I'm looking at Mike's surveillance through a Wire lens: they probably want to do a lot more to keep tabs on him than they have the time/money/manpower/probable cause to do.

They couldn't keep tabs he left at night and was in a dead zone don't you get it? IRONCLAD!

I don't even care about the plausibility of it. It's not that Mike running around to potential cook sites & threating Lydia's life every episode is "unrealistic" but it seems like it'd be dramatically interesting to have him feel constrained--leaving Walt with more space for his ego to swell & take charge.

I thought it was even less realistic (but also really funny and intentional) that Walt knew for sure that Hank would shut the blinds and leave the office when Hank started crying.