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

yeah walt's such an unreliable narrator and they've shown so little evidence beyond his testimony that i'm more than a bit skeptical

i mean, first few seasons had so many talks with doctor, this one zero.

What would be the point of faking the cancer though? Even if he somehow gets Hank to agree to stop chasing Heisenberg and let him die in peace, well, at some point Hank is gonna notice he didn't die after all, so the chase is back on.

Also, wasn't scene the with the IV drip shown before Walt even found out that Hank knows he's Heisenberg? I.e. before he would have had any reason to fake the cancer?

it was! but other than that, everything we know about the situation comes from the mouth of walter white. it's possible he's telling the truth, and the writers decided there was no need for the kind of "walter gets news" doctor scenes we used to see all the time. but all we really KNOW is that he was on IV recently.

that's true, we don't know if the cancer is actually back

however i think he looks like shit in the flash-forwards, aged, gaunt. his shirt even has nasty yellow stains around the neck like he hasn't even bothered washing his clothes in weeks. something pretty terrible has happened.

actually yea he DID throw up in the toilet so i guess he actually is going through treatment

He looks like shit but he doesn't look like he's been on chemo.

They're intentionally muddying the water wrt the cancer thing, but we already know (or at least I think we know) that he's going to last longer than the six months he told Hank. It's going to keep Walter Jr away from Hank and Marie at least in the very short term, he thinks it'll get him more leverage than Hank. I'm sure Saul knows a guy who could fake Walt's death as well, although probably not a cancer death.

He's also just been digging a hole in the desert all night which is hardly going to do his breathing any good even if he's otherwise fine.

For narrative purposes, the cancer being back would probably trap him though, you can't go on the run if you need life-saving treatment at home.

It wouldn't matter if he was too far gone, or had given up.

Like, full head of hair, no chemo tiredness, but dead within the month because he's just given up.

I can't imagine standing at a register for hours during chemo much less spending the night digging a gigantic hole in the desert. But hey, effects may vary.

Yeah, there's some artistic license being played with here, one way or another, but Walt at this point is basically super-human in terms of his mental resolve to do what he deems to be 'necessary'.

Went back and watched the pilot episode last night, and it stands up really well. REALLY well. So much stuff set-up in that first 55 minutes that's being echoed in this latest episode, Walt's relationships with everyone. He was always a fucking dick.

Also I like that they haven't lost sight of Walt's basic inherent dorkiness, as displayed in that scene where he was putting the wrong colour concealer on.

ha, i knew something was wrong with that but I wasn't sure what

Never forget this a man who threw a pizza onto a roof in a fit of pique.

P sure the speech to camera in this ep starts identically to the pilot videocam confession bit.

It does indeed. "My name is Walter Hartwell White, and I live at etc etc etc".

Doesn't Skyler's acquiescence to his plan promote her to outright asshole as well? That she's totally willing to throw her sister under the bus for the sake of her own survival? The show has plenty of time to redeem her, unlike Walt, but it's hard to argue that she is strong when Walt can manipulate her into fucking over her sister so coldly.

I think Skylar's involvement in the "confession" is about the kids like stop trying to lure my son over with phoney computer problems and grabbing my babby on the way out of the house or we'll release this mofo.

What are her options now, though, really? If she goes along with Marie, her family is destroyed - the kids being the last thing she can really hold onto here - Walt will die eventually anyway... and how badly is she really screwing over her sister here? Hank has a ton to lose too, Marie doesn't seem to give a damn about that, oddly.

oh Lyders
http://i.breakingbadcomicmaker.com/5f306.JPG

shit
http://i.breakingbadcomicmaker.com/5f306.JPG

xpost to nhex: i think skylar thinks that with walt out of the biz and of the verge of death this thing will just go away. of course im p. sure she gets that she and marie are on the outs for good.

i bet she feels kind of embarrassed about all that fuss she put up over the stolen baby tiara now.

If the video takes down Hank, it destroys her sister's marriage, and also her relationship with her sister, which already probably can't be mended.

The show elided over her most obvious option: get away from Walt and get a lawyer! There's a lot of convenient secret-keeping going on here. Hank didn't tell his bosses, Skyler doesn't get a lawyer. I mean, it doesn't have to be depicted that Walt talked her out of it - "this is the only way" - but a lawyer could, to take down someone of Walt's stature/criminality, plea her down to not much, I bet, to put him away. But she was bullied/manipulated away from Walt to take a different road, the dick-route.

Like, if all Walt had to do was at out a weepy video to blackmail his bro in law, then the wife/mother of two has ten times that power on the stand, especially because she was actually emotionally battered and manipulated by her asshole husband.

"Act out", not "at out."

I can't imagine standing at a register for hours during chemo much less spending the night digging a gigantic hole in the desert. But hey, effects may vary.

― pplains,

Chemo didn't really affect my mum at all, she didn't even lose any hair.

Neither did she try and dig any vast money pits though.

Far as I know.

But hey, effects may vary.

i bet she feels kind of embarrassed about all that fuss she put up over the stolen baby tiara now.

i also like the running theme of how nobody cares about the crimes Marie was committing as a klepto, just that it was massively embarassing to the family...

it was! but other than that, everything we know about the situation comes from the mouth of walter white. it's possible he's telling the truth, and the writers decided there was no need for the kind of "walter gets news" doctor scenes we used to see all the time. but all we really KNOW is that he was on IV recently.

― da croupier, Wednesday, August 28, 2013 4:25 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

well hes taking pills too

I think the reason they've downplayed the effects of the cancer + chemo this season is probably because the script requires him to do superhuman feats (like digging the hole for the money barrels) despite being sick, and they don't want the viewers to pay too much attention to this contradiction.

Walt's argument for why Skylar should just roll his master plan was presented very clearly last season. She can try to turn Walt in, but that destroys all their lives, their children's lives, Hank's life, etc. Better to just try to "get out", live comfortably and just roll it out until Walt dies. Viewers know that will not work thematically because its a TV show, but for someone living this the argument seems persuasive. One side definite ruin, other side wait and hope of getting away with it. Even with Hank/Marie in the know, Skylar seems to be betting that odds are still better on the latter.

This is a lot of shit to have to go through just to work in fucking car washes for the rest of your life.

Even with Hank/Marie in the know, Skylar seems to be betting that odds are still better on the latter.

This is quite clearly bonkers obv. Oh yeah, my bro-in-law who is head of the ABQ DEA knows that my husband is a meth kingpin but, like, we can probably figure out a way around it. Probably? Just have to find some other people to invite over for dinner. Have an A-1 day.

Can't remember if I said this upthread but there's echoes of this denialism in Walt's advice for Junior: hey, we just carry on!

At this point Saul is the only guy who gets the gravity of the sitch

Pretty sure Jesse gets it, he's just past caring.

Caring whether he gets caught or not, I mean.

Went back and watched the pilot episode last night, and it stands up really well. REALLY well. So much stuff set-up in that first 55 minutes that's being echoed in this latest episode, Walt's relationships with everyone. He was always a fucking dick.

― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, August 28, 2013 9:30 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i attempted to rewatch the first season and what struck me is how dark the whole thing is and i couldnt do it, but the first time through i was so pulled along by the plot that it didnt really bother me

well hes taking pills too

a middle-aged man taking pills is even weaker proof that he's being totally honest about his cancer diagnosis than the IV drip

Speaking of superhuman feats, could he have a little stash of his own meth? Or some of the pills are his own compound?
After Hank tried to get her to co-operate, she was the one who told Walt to hold fast, not the other way around, because they don't really know anything, don't have evidence (she doesn't know about Gale's handwriting in Walt's Leaves of Grass, and even if she did, might point out that Hank hasn't showed it to a graphologist [and maybe wouldn't dare, so far]). So as long as the money's not around, hey.

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/sonic_meth_sonic_youth_meets_breaking_bad_tee-shirt

a middle-aged man taking pills is even weaker proof that he's being totally honest about his cancer diagnosis than the IV drip

I think the bout of nausea was intended to show us that he is in fact undergoing treatment for a recurrence of his cancer.

yeah i find this whole theory a lil left field

this is like when people thought jesse didnt really kill gale because it cut away before he pulled the trigger

it's not even a "theory," it's an observation.