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

Here's the Vince Gilligan quote on that episode:

All through episode eight, Gus Fring is not wanting people to know about his background. He apparently has some backstory that’s deep and dark and allows him to avoid getting killed at the end of episode eight, but we’re wondering this whole time, “Who is this guy? Who was he in Chile? What is he trying to hide?”

(From here.)

yes ive read that

So it's the background thing that stops him from gettin killed... I'm not very good at Spanish, but I think Don Eladio says something like "I know who you are", which could just mean "you're someone I know", but in this case it means "I know about your past".

(xpost)

yes ive read that

You've read that but you still think Gilligan is wrong?

my reading was the same as Tuomas. seemed like a weird story thread that got dropped, I assume it won't be resolved now.

still not sure how that means gus didnt die because they were scared. if there is something in chile associated with gus, who at this point is handing out free meth samples from under the counter of his chicken store, that is so huge that the don of a mexican cartel is scared, why would they kill his boyfriend?

It doesn't necessarily mean they're scared, just that killing Gus would have some repercussions they don't want... Whereas killing Max is okay, because he isn't significant in the same way.

Maybe killing Gus would lead to a vendetta or something? Who knows, like Shakey said, it seems they dropped the whole Gus's mystery past thing, and it seems unlikely it'll get resolved anymore.

of course im not saying the showrunner is wrong tuomas but perhaps your interpretation is a little off? i mean here was this out of nowhere flashback with gus and a partner trying to sell meth to don eladio and how he paid for this guys college degrees and wow i didnt know pollos hermanos existed in mexico first of course youre going to wonder where or what the guy came from.

to me rather than a dropped story its more like a tacked on story with the flashback of season 3 footage and introducing the current relationship between hector and gus that will ultimately lead to the ding boom moment they knew they wanted since season 2

So it's the background thing that stops him from gettin killed... I'm not very good at Spanish, but I think Don Eladio says something like "I know who you are", which could just mean "you're someone I know", but in this case it means "I know about your past".

.........

It doesn't necessarily mean they're scared, just that killing Gus would have some repercussions they don't want... Whereas killing Max is okay, because he isn't significant in the same way.

― Tuomas, Friday, June 14, 2013 5:13 PM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark

This is exactly how it came across to me.

Guys go watch the episode

Okay, I rewatched that scene, and I still think my original reading is correct. First of all, by they way he talks to them, it's clear Don Eladio has met neither Gus or Max before. So he doesn't personally know Gus. Then Gus and Max present their plan together... Don Eladio asks, if Max is the genius meth cook, why does he need Gus for? What does Gus have to offer? Max tries to defend Gus by saying that he needs him in the whole business scheme, but I don't think Don Eladio is convinced.

At this point, Gus is clearly not the genius drug lord he would later become. The only business manouvre Gus has done is that he's offered Don Eladio's men some free samples to get his attention. Now, maybe Don Eladio thinks Gus has balls for doing that, but I can't see why he would think Gus's skills are so important he needs to be kept alive. Then Hector shoots Max, and Don Eladio gives his little speech to Gus:

Listen to me. The only reason you are alive and he is not... Is because I know who you are. But understand... You are not in Chile anymore.

I think the last sentence is the key part here. It's not a random comment, clearly Gus's Chilean past is related to "who he is", and why Don Eladio can't kill him. But Don Eladio makes it clear that even though it might keep Gus alive, his past gives him no extra power in Mexico ("you're not in Chile anymore"), and he shouldn't try to challenge Don Eladio's authority there.

See I didn't read it like that at all. Hector has made comments about dirty South Americans in two flashbacks by this point. I thought 'I know who you are' meant I know who you are because you've been talking to my guys trying to get a meeting with me and 'you're not in chile anymore' as Mexico is some next level drug dealing so don't be bringing this weak-ass Chilean game to my table, chicken man.

Also, there is the earlier flashback with the Salamanca brothers as kids. Hector answers a call presumably from Don Eladio asking his opinion on Gus working with the cartel. We know Gus went from chile to Mexico then to USA in that order and since he is alive and seems to be working with the cartel I think it's safe to say Don Eladio decided ultimately to work with Gus as boss for North America because Mexicans only imbibe fancy cocaine and North Americans like all the white trash biker/hillbilly drugs ie the crystal meth Gus is peddling. There is a line in that flashback where hector says 'I don't care who he knows' but it's followed by a bunch of chicken man/grande fry cook/dirty dirty South Americans comments so I'm taking that as he has made some connections in the US the cartel could use to expand.

Anyways, good to see 1980s Hector is as completely on point as 2000s Hector always is.

that wouldn't explain why he allowed Gus to live instead of Max though - it's gotta be because of Gus' connections/family/past in Chile?

Yeah, the shock in that scene comes from the fact that Don Eladio has every reason to kill Gus, but only Max ends up getting shot... And I don't think talking to Don Eladio's men and giving them free meth samples is something that would impress him so much he would decide to let Gus live.

Why does he have every reason to kill Gus?

Gus is the "useless" one of the two, and messages need to be sent about territory

Why have the meeting at all if they planned to kill Max and they think Gus is useless?

Are there intended recipients of these messages about territory?

my guess is that they would ordinarily have just killed them both like they would any other dealers on their turf. since Gus went on to work with the cartel, they surely did use him in a Gus/Heisenberg situation for many years

Okay. So he was never actually "useless" to the cartel the way perhaps a chemist whose speciality is formulating a drug the cartel had no interest in making or distributing at the time?

Why have the meeting at all if they planned to kill Max and they think Gus is useless?

To send Gus the message that even though they can't kill him, he shouldn't try to do anything on their territory. What better way to deliver this message than to kill a loved one in front of his own eyes?

Okay. So he was never actually "useless" to the cartel the way perhaps a chemist whose speciality is formulating a drug the cartel had no interest in making or distributing at the time?

At that point they couldn't have known how useful Gus would be, and how much they would stand to gain from the meth business. It remains unclear whether Gus moved to the US and set up his meth distribution all on his own, then made a deal with cartel, or whether he was working for the cartel the whole time. In either case, he would prove his case only later on. At the time when Gus and Max met Don Eladio, Don Eladio clearly didn't see much potential in their business idea, so normally he would've killed both of them, but in this case he had to keep Gus alive because of his past/connections.

Why have the meeting at all if they planned to kill Max and they think Gus is useless?

To send Gus the message that even though they can't kill him, he shouldn't try to do anything on their territory. What better way to deliver this message than to kill a loved one in front of his own eyes?

― Tuomas, Monday, June 17, 2013 3:29 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah this is a good point. I still think the idea of Gus coming from some chilean cartel is reaching but I can see how Gilligan has left that wide open as a possibility. It just doesnt come across to me as being that complicated. I might be taking it all too literally because what isnt complicated about this show? not much.

Did you guys read the Entertainment Weekly article about the coming 8 shows?

Id link to it but work has EW on lockdown

The only reason the "I know who you are" line is interesting is because there might yet be some ridiculous blowback for Walt but they needed to do that earlier in the season really.

Eight episodes is about enough time to really do justice to Walt vs Hank and Walt vs Jesse without throwing any new characters in at this point.

id be so thrilled if no meth making occurred and it was all "Walt vs Hank and Walt vs Jesse"

but a quote i remember from that EW piece about the last 8:

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE SENSITIVE
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Gilligan: "You find meth labs in the darnedest of places"

THEY'RE GOING TO START COOKING IN HELL!

Series ends with Walt cooking up underneath the White House.

Yeah, if they were gonna do that, they should've done it immediately after Gus's demise. OTOH, it did seem kinda significant that Walt was bragging to the Phoenix drug dealers how he got rid of Gus, so I guess there's still a chance that whole thing might come back to haunt him?

If it wasn't for that scene, everything would've been neat and tidy after Mike's death, since the only people still alive (Jesse and Skyler) who know Walt killed Gus have no reason to tell anybody about it.

(xpost to Matt)

Meth lab in Hank's ass ftw.

He was SHITTING METH.

i assume if walt really is in witness protection that it's the cartel he's being protected from? since his only contact with the czech meth empire is lydia he presumably wouldn't have much to say about them. so there could still be blowback just not necessarily only for killing gus

i've been rewatching some of season 3, and in the episode where hank kills the twins, there's a flashback where hector is watching over the twins as children, and he gets a call and says, "we're supposed to trust him with our product? i don't care who he knows. big man? big generalissimo? big fry cook more like." so i think it's pretty clear gus did have connections in the argentinian military which made him unkillable at the time of his original partner's murder, even if this plot thread was subsequently dropped (and i guess why wouldn't it be, with the major cartel figures dead?)

just, you know, putting that out there

chilean military, i mean

saw that flashback. didnt get the same vibe at all.

okay more importantly - has anyone seen the Jesse teaser for Season 2 part 2? HOLY CRAP

hank is gonna be so pissed off when he finally finds wayne wonder

marie is so awkward in every single scene

sunny, I don't even watch the "next week on Breaking Bad" promos.

i don't even watch the previously on

i never minded previously on the sopranos because wait a minute, who's that guy again

jk i always do, even though they frequently really tip the episode

I can't even look at the picture above the episode's name on my Wire DVDs. There was one of those in the first season that gave away what happened, if you thought about it for more than two seconds.

well if you cant watch it, let me tell you what happens. see...

okay someone who doesn't mind non-spoilish spoilers please watch this thing. its at amc.com

i watched it just now actually on youtube, also has a bit of hank, right?

I always think of 'previously on' and 'next on' bits as part of the whole experience that the writers/producers have created so it seems kind of weird not to watch them.

amc show the hank one as a separate teaser. ill have to check out this youtube

i can never watch these on amc cos of region controls, but they usually appear on youtube.

I'm just going to link it, but here's the image on The Wire DVD that gave away the ending to one of the episodes.