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

the whole marie therapy scene was a small masterpiece imo & maybe one of my favorites of the whole series. it captured the therapeutic dynamic perfectly imo, especially at that threshold of when do you give away incriminating information? Plus, it's obviously taking place in dave's home & they held on at least two long shots in which were depicted SO MANY THINGS TO STEAL

" A lot of the ugly, evil stuff Walt has done was because Jesse fucked up to begin with."

One of the questions this season has been posing is how everything would have panned out if Walt had met a complete sociopath like Todd at the start instead of Jesse.

Loved the sitting on a poisoned needle line by the way.

kinda feeling like hank will be dead before he ever goes official with all this. big gang of nazis storming the house imo.

I though the Marie therapy thing was a nice mirroring of Walt poisoning Brock. Like how do physically weak people who cant go round all guns blazing react to something threatening their family? They research poisons on the internet!

*thought

discreet is OTM

Sufjan Grafton killin it itt

I don't think Jesse has any intention of killing either Skylar or Walter Jr but it's enough for Walt to *think* that he might.

Anticipating a scene next week where Jesse tells everything to Skylar and she's all "yeah I knew". Walter Jr finding out is probably the nuclear moment though, suddenly there's nothing left for Skylar to protect other than herself.

Like I am not feeling good for Junior after than swimming pool scene.

skylar finding out about him killing the child is potentially quite a big deal though.

xpost otm about junior.

whatever jesse does its prob gonna blow the fuck up in everyones faces

he was so close, hank had a good plan

Junior's long shuffle off screen seemed portentous, agreed.

Matt not sure what you mean about "nothing left for Skylar to protect"? Even if Junior's innocence is shattered I expect Sky will do all she can to keep them out of harm's way.

fwiw just as an aside irl cops are commonly v callous re the safety of their informants, there was a good piece in the new yorker a while ago abt how so many people get murdered injured and otherwise abused in the service of locking their associates up

Yeah, Jesse's in danger of replacing Walt's father-figureness with Hank, and Hank's got no emotional attachment to him at all, so won't give a shit if he dies. Walt, as manipulative as he is, cares about Jesse, and despite Skylar's exhortations to off him, I'm pretty sure he'll try and find a way out if murdering him.

skylar finding out about him killing the child is potentially quite a big deal though.

i predict huell will call her with this info on the hello kitty phone he stole off jesse right after walt fakes chemo

If the last scene of this episode is in fact a head-fake, and Walt's not talking about Jesse, who's he talking about?

If and when Walter Jr finds out then he'll go straight to Hank and Marie and both parents will have lost him for good, with Skyler blaming Walt. If she's found out the full extent of Walt's crimes by then she'll either buckle under the guilt or turn on Walt to save herself.

In light of what we already know, Walt would be certifiably insane to let Todd anywhere near his children.

walt calling todd is a way for him to re-enter into contact with the aryan nation. his first intention is to put a sort of tentative, time-sensitive hit on jesse, but in the meantime jesse "confesses" his pseudo-kingpin status to the media while the dea puts him in protective custody and plays up his impending trial. walt steps up to cook for lydia's czech connection to prove his superiority but has to do so under the thumb of the prison nazis who now control his means of production. meanwhile skyler, abandoned in albuqerque's finest hotel suite, either absconds with whatever money they have on hand or goes over the the dea, leaving walt with no family to live for and his own psychotic former employees as overlords, sending him on the lam to nh & the abandonment of his cancer treatment

my guess for jesse's confession is actually the story from walt's blackmail video, but with jesse has the kingpin with connections & walt (still) the manipulated brainiac teacher

I don't really buy this "Jesse will confess to the media he was Heisenberg all along" theory... It would essentially provide Walt with a "Get Out Jail Free" card, so no way is Hank gonna let Jesse do it. Also, Walt may be proud and egotistic, but I don't think even he would be stupid enough to let his pride ruin a chance of letting Jesse take all the blame, thus letting him and his family walk away scot-free.

Debunking that theory is giving it way more credence than it merits.

And yeah, I know there was a precedent when Walt suggested to Hank Gale might not have been Heisenberg... But back then he was only saying Heisenberg could've been someone else, in this case he would actually have to confess he is Heisenberg in order to prove Jesse wrong. So his choices would essentially be, A) let Jesse take them blame for Heisenberg, live a peaceful life, eventually die of cancer, and let his family keep the money, or B) step up and say he's Heisenberg, thus ruining everything for him and the family. Even if he was prideful/stupid enough to do B (which I don't think he is), would Hank and Jesse really take the risk that Walt might be simply choose A? That would pretty much ruin their chances of making Walt pay for what he's done.

(xpost)

was struck by how alone everyone is

the only person sticking up for jesse is... er, walt

everybody hates walt, including jesse

skylar has no one

so in that context i was so grateful to see gomie in the schraeder residence. the fact that hank could turn to him was like this gulp of water in the desert of interpersonal relationships that this show has become

badger and skinny pete still have babylon 5 to bond over

having the same ending as 'Sideshow Bob Roberts' does seem implausible, yes. No truth handler you.

Walt thinking that Badger is called Beaver will prove crucial for the REMEMBER MY NAME thing.

I thought that was weird bc I'm pretty sure Walt knows full well who Badger and Skinny Pete are. They used to work for them!

Once again, Walt made my skin crawl when he's denying meeting Saul to Skyler and then masterfully trying to manipulate her wrt Jesse. When people talk about him being sympathetic that's the stuff I want to point to the most as evidence what a nasty piece of work he is.

I mean sure he killed ppl but this is TV and sympathetic characters kill ppl for "good reason" all the time.

Hi Obama!

I think the "Jesse outs himself as Heisenberg" idea might have legs, actually.

I think Jesse's plan is to find a cure for cancer, thus ensuring Walt a longer prison term

i really don't xpost

1) Hank and Gomie have an old-school cop partner bond. Hank knows and can trust Gomie well enough that should that Walt tape come out, Gomie would call bullshit. Thin blue line, etc.

2) The stuff with Dave the therapist could be important, maybe, because the therapist I think is required to contact the authorities if he thinks his patient is putting other people in danger or has committed a heinous crime.

3) I don't really think Jesse will confess to everything, but really:

Also, Walt may be proud and egotistic, but I don't think even he would be stupid enough to let his pride ruin a chance of letting Jesse take all the blame,

4) At this point, what is stopping Saul from killing Walt?

5) We still don't know why the house in the flash forward was shut down and trashed (but not burned).

6) Interesting Walt takeaway - when people use murder euphemisms, Walt refuses to rise to the bait and make explicit what the others are implying.

7) So Skyler is just resigned to her fate at this point? Still don't see why she didn't take the lawyer-up option. What the fuck does she see in Walt?

loved seeing the Deadwood dvds on Hank's bookshelf.

http://i.imgur.com/bbRZfB4.png

If the last scene of this episode is in fact a head-fake, and Walt's not talking about Jesse, who's he talking about?

Didn't he just say something like "I've got one more job for you"? That doesn't need to be a hit on anything, and could well be something more directly meth-related.

if it's not the hit it'd be weird of them to make you think it was, pointlessly weird given they're about to reveal whatever it is in the next episode anyway. if it's just something else it won't be like "oh wow" it'll just be "oh".

There are lots of oh wows it could be. He could hire them to put a hit on him then foil it. He can hire them to fake his death. They can hire him to kill Hank, or kidnap Marie, or fake kidnap his family. This show is rife with potential WTF.

There have been a few misleading cliffhangers lately. This episode was the first one where I thought you could see the strings over the characters a bit, just the writers moving everyone into place for one final kick-off.

Pretty much the only thing guaranteed to make this situation worse would be throwing Todd into the middle of it though.

oh lol pplains

the Badger and Skinny Pete spying only recording a conversation about Babylon 5 was beautiful

if it's not the hit it'd be weird of them to make you think it was, pointlessly weird given they're about to reveal whatever it is in the next episode anyway.

um... you've watched television before, right?!

it doesn't need to be some curveball that isn't the hit for it to be dramatic tv

xpost The implication is that Todd has been active doing ... stuff all along, right? I mean, what is his relationship with Lydia? He obviously wasn't cooking. Does Lydia employ him or did someone have Todd help Lydia? The fact that Walt has his cell number handy says a lot, though whether it says anything important is another matter.

I listened to that BB podcast with Gilligan and the writers, and they talked pretty matter-of-factly about the last scene as being Walt deciding Jesse has to be killed. Don't think it's a fake-out.

I wonder if the contents of Jesse's confession pay off somehow in the next episode or two. Having them completely unseen by the audience seems like a set-up for a big reveal - but then Jesse was so fucked up and freaked out at the time, it seems implausible he could have consciously planted the seeds of much when it was taped.

yeah Jesse's confession is unseen which immediately puts Walt's 'confession' wrong-footing to mind, but it did seem like they had a lot of the details. Obv it would have been a looong story, making myself lol at the idea of Jesse going 'well, let me paint the picture....' and the screen dissolving into S1 Ep1, the Whites at breakfast.

also when Walt called Todd I just kept thinking 'Rod... Todd... this is God'

"I got a job for you. Bring forth all the meth from your kitchen and leave it on the Schraders' porch. "

was todd's uncle the guy who set them up with the pesticide front? but also a neo-nazi?

xp Todd was the cook for Declan, although they kicked him off the team after a couple batches that they didn't think were worth keeping him around for. Declan's people replaced him with their own cook, who was significantly worse, causing Lydia to step in and take down his gang and reinstall Todd, with Todd's uncle's connections as the criminal network.

So Todd is presumably the cook again, Declan is out of the picture, and Todd's uncle is the criminal connection to keep things running. Presumably Walt has some idea of this due to Todd's voicemail, but he might not have connected it all.