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

The question is whether or not to indict skyler as an accomplice and, with marie as the sole surviving material witness that can immediately implicate her, the assumption is that at least walt doesn't drag her down with him

I guess when walt is rolling the barrel through the desert, he passes his pair of pants that were abandoned (? I don't really remember what happened to them) in the first episode.

At 21:31 if you grabbed the ASAP rip

xpost - doesn't drag her down? what i was trying to get at earlier is, if skyler continues going along with walt's latest story and lies about her degree of involvement, how is that not dragging her down, to have to carry around more of walt's lies and repeat them to everyone, just going along with his latest scheme? how would that not be completely poisonous to the remaining close relationships she has left (walt jr, marie)?

it would, absolutely! I'm agreeing with you! Unfortunately, in keeping with walt's "smartest guy in the room" schtick, the best possible option is for her to hate herself and sell her soul by letting walt dictate the terms of the end of their relationship

she doesn't have to tell a huge lie, just explain that she felt threatened for her life for the entire time / was coerced

and that's what walt set her up to do! but the earlier conversations with marie don't exactly suggest that's the case so she has to get marie on her side... hard thing to do as far as walt knows given that hank's dead. so it's a stretch on his part to try to cut her loose from him sinking
and i definitely don't think this "redeems" walt. i'm suggesting it's a sign of the greatness of the actors' skill that ALL those emotions play through: the attempt at a sort of redemption, the understanding of what's being done, the hate, the confusion, the self-loathing are there to be read.
to be clear, i wouldn't suggest walt knows what he was doing when he took holly but the mama mama mama moment seems to have forced him into analytical heisenberg mode
bonus point for the shot of the firemen playing chess with the king trapped in the corner, struggling for stalemate in the endgame

agggh I feel like a wet rag, goddamn that shit was EXCRUCIATING

also I'd like to float a theory about Walt telling Jesse about Jane. I didn't read it as Walt twisting the knife. I read it as Walt making sure that Jesse would have every reason to tell the Nazi's everything and NOT get himself killed by refusing to talk, knowing that they will have Jesse cook for them since Walt's obv not going to stick around

I know it sounds corny but it feels like a Walt thing to do, w/r/t Jesse. Even with Jesse talking to Hank, even after everything they've been through. I don't honestly believe that Walt would ever completely write Jesse off, even when he's completely pissed at him and betrayed.

Just my cuddlestein theory nbd

well here's my problem with that: when nazi prime asks if they're good to go, walt looks jessie in the eye and nods yes
the only reason he's alive is cause todd is a devious motherfucker.
i was literally shouting NO at that jane moment. fucking brutal.

yeah... jesse really got sent straight to hell in this ep

yeah that's true. theories are made to be disproved :)

that jane moment was hardcore.

taking Holly though, I was almost on my feet shouting

xp and you're 100% otm about that phone conversation and the acting and the emotions, it's amazing how well they can do it, so many times in this show
and i admit, as i was watching i didn't even fully comprehend what was going on, i did notice Walt was choosing his words very strangely but didn't pick up on the subtext there

seemed to wipe a tear watching walt in agony after seeing hank die, then kindof saving jesse but then promising to kill him in due time. then wordlessly taking jesse from the pit and shackling him up in the cook room. can't work out if he was bullshitting walt and wants to somehow let jesse live, or if he's just milking every last bit of use from him before sending out to seed (would suit the kid-killing version of todd ive got in my mind)

I think Todd hates Jesse for disrespecting Mr. White and/or being competition for Walt's attention - so he just wants to abuse Jesse as meth slave and then whack him.

This show is reminding me why I watch almost everything with a full run or season available, even if I only watch one or two at a time. I can't handle the old model of waiting a week.

agreed, there's something of a meth "sibling rivalry" between Jesse and Todd

but goddamn Todd is cold as hell, you just don't know what he's thinking. i guess he genuinely DOES like Walt though enough to save his life from the Nazis

Giving Walt some of the money is the smart thing to do, if you're not going to kill him

~~~~various Th0ughtz~~~~
skyler asks walt to pick up pizza from roof pizza place, i always love a little self reference
does walt ask skyler to take a weekend getaway in "madrigal"?
walt's "favorite" bit of skyler's ebayania is "the hideous crying clown". pagliacci nod!
even on the edge of dying, hank's "are you kidding me" near eye roll at walt's "let's just pretend this never happened"
i was not aware that the nazis were father and son! interesting bonus twist!
the rictus of a face that walt makes once hank is shot is so perfect tragedy mask: teeth pulled back, eyes in slits, totally hollow. great echo of gus by the pool and later echoed by marie when she discovers hank is dead
close up of the handshake on the swastika feels to me like the very last and most damning seal of walt's loss of his last bit of soul... if you watch that moment, he's not so much angry at the nazis as trying to determine if he wants to call out jessie under the car. it's fucking scary.
the two hawks in the sky
dat SONG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjfLcc_gXY0
the insufferable smugness of marie; her need to dominate skyler and force her into action the way she wants, the "i have conditions" mode, juxtaposed against her shellshocked moment of "he was in handcuffs... in handcuffs" is just so sad
anna gunn gets to do so little acting given that her character is stuck in this congested role, vacillating between the patsy, the gun moll and the hysteric. really great to see her strut her stuff in this ep; she was pretty much uniformly awesome throughout.
jessie in the pit: i was really worried we were gonna have to watch him get tortured and i appreciate that the show gives us credit for not wanting to see that. todd's slight, motherly physicality; the matter-of-fact "let's cook" is so awesomely diabolical. he's blossomed into one of the show's great characters.
somebody upthread was singing the praises of Mitte and i gotta say this ep made me feel that walt jr was drastically out of his depth when put beside gunn and cranston in those pivotal scenes. they tried to keep him out of video and on audio as much as possible and that seemed like a good call.
the slow lady-and-the-tiger walk to the knife block or the phone
the dog crossing the street and making that little hop over the divider

i kinda wanna hug everybody on this show. just amazing work.

I don't think Todd hates Jesse or has sibling rivalry. Todd is a psychopath. That stuff wouldn't even register. When Walt originally called in. The hit on Jesse Todd had no reaction at all. He's going to use jesses meth skills because he wants Lydia.

As for the Jane reveal I took it as Walt making it clear Walt and Jesse are done. Even when he was talking to jack about killing Jesse in the previous episode he was still defending him and insisting the job was done painlessly. Walt and Jesse have near killed each other before but now the always end up together again. The Jane reveal killed any idea of that happening again. Remember Saul's comment after Jesse beat him up 'deep down he really loves me'.

Big ups to all that predicted Jesse finding out about Jane and Jesse becoming a nazi slave. Seriously couldn't see either of those things happening tbh.

I will say I see Walt coming back because the nazis want him and start trying to knock off skyler or Walt jr.to flush him out.

Also apparently the only characters I care about are Marie and holly because I seriously teared up when Marie realized hanks is dead and when holly kept saying 'my mama my mama'

another "duh" realization but Walt kept saying "you tell MY SON what I do??" was to clear Jr.

Also apparently the only characters I care about are Marie and holly because I seriously teared up when Marie realized hanks is dead and when holly kept saying 'my mama my mama'

― "Max's Original Starship" Vol. 3 (sunny successor), Monday, September 16, 2013 6:54 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the acting by the baby who plays Holly was really something, not sure I've ever seen anything like it

great episode, but i thought the callback to this classic tv moment was a bit on the nose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4ljtg5vXYQ

another "duh" realization but Walt kept saying "you tell MY SON what I do??" was to clear Jr.

Not sure this was to clear jr so much as make it clear that skylar didn't involve the children

Also apparently the only characters I care about are Marie and holly because I seriously teared up when Marie realized hanks is dead and when holly kept saying 'my mama my mama'

― "Max's Original Starship" Vol. 3 (sunny successor), Monday, September 16, 2013 6:54 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the acting by the baby who plays Holly was really something, not sure I've ever seen anything like it

Felt like that was visual effects. That kid seems a lot younger than 18 months old. Maybe the rear facing seat is throwing me off. If that really was the kid then, yeah, WOW.

so what happens now?

haunting
http://www.abload.de/img/animation1qpyc2.gif

Fuck me, that was like a series of stomach punches. I'm both excited and terrified about what comes next.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BUR3VNrIUAAE5xn.jpg:large

What an episode. That scene at the house that ends with the gif cozen just posted was possibly my favorite scene of the entire show, so fucking tense. First there's that moment when they show the knives and the phone and you don't know which one Skyler is gonna reach for. When she grabs a knife I wondered whether it was for protection or to kill herself. Given the events of the episode, both could make sense. I guess it's THE moment when you see whether she has enough strength to say no to him. Then of course the knifefight itself. Amazed everyone got out of that alive.

Can't even imagine how intense/grueling it must've been for the actors to rehearse the grappling/wrestling in the knife scene.

it was painful waiting for Walt Jr. to fall on the knife, so glad it didn't happen

the acting by the baby who plays Holly was really something, not sure I've ever seen anything like it

― Matt Armstrong, Monday, September 16, 2013 3:03 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

that baby was the dog from The Thing of baby actors... just a real clutch baby performance

Agree that the music in the barrel rolling scene was too wacky for what had happened before. The scene is silly enough as is, would have preferred silence to offset it. That was the only time the episode lost me.

as much as i love the phrase "just a real clutch baby performance" i think it was just part of the weird crazy editing this episode used, like in that fight scene just mentioned

i liked the wackiness, walt has always been absurd, its one of his primary qualitites

yeah tbh the barrel music didn't bother me at all

its a sad song not a wacky song

I didn't mind it. I mean, it's not like it was "Yakety Sax."

my fav thing about this show since i started watching has been how it just like, pays attention to people physically doing things - its especially rewarding when you've got an actor as physically expressive as the cran-man. barrel roll is in that tradition and i dug it

also brought to mind Hanks comment while watching the video of Walt and Jesse stealing the methylamine "Its a barrel, morons. It rolls."

shows the evolution of Heisenberg, yo

what is marie going to do without hank? makes me so sad.

yeah but if the top of the methylamine barrel opens, the job's fucked. Barrel full of money is a lot safer to roll.

I feel like Lydia's visit to the car wash a few episodes back is going to wind up being important--since Skylar saw her and can ID her, which I'm sure Lydia and Todd are not happy about, now that Skylar is surrounding by cops.

lydia is the over-anxious type too

what is marie going to do without hank? makes me so sad.
i was thinking about this too -- marie's face is making me sad when she just sits there.
marie and flynn will have each other's support and comfort at the end, i think. they seem pretty close, and he clearly trusts her more than either of his parents.

marie is def gonna be out front crusading abt what a monster walt is, etc dressed all in purple on charlie rose

lol

what is marie going to do without hank? makes me so sad.

― "Max's Original Starship" Vol. 3 (sunny successor),

Buy every purple sofa cushion at Pier One.

JESUS.