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

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but the authorities, as far as we know, still don't know about the meth. They were called because Walt attacked Skyler and took the baby. In his phone "confession," does he ever specifically say what he did, other than take the blame for it? Only police who knew were Hank and Goner, I mean Gomez.

I would assume Marie has told the cops everything and provided them with the Jesse tape...? After Hank's death, what reason would she have to hold back that information?

And in his phone call, Walt is clearly talking about something more than just kidnapping the baby and being an abusive husband in general. Doesn't he even mention that he took care of Hank, or something like that?

he mentions his "work" a lot.

He's always been really careful about never being specific. Lots of "take care of it" or "the same thing that happened to him will happen to you." And obv. Marie may have given them the tape after this ep., but she only finds out Hank is dead (by implication) at the end of the ep. I mean, I'm sure lots of stuff happened after the "end" of the last ep. We just have to wait and see.

Did they ever give an explanation as to why Hank told no one anything? Was it just pride?

Walt never even says Hank is dead, he says "you will never see him again" or something like that. It's like a moral tick of his, he can't ever make explicit the horrible things he's done.

Did they ever give an explanation as to why Hank told no one anything? Was it just pride?

fear over the tape. fear over exposing his medical bill shit etc without enough evidence to actually get walt.

like he basically needed to set walt up otherwise there was no case.

He's always been really careful about never being specific. Lots of "take care of it" or "the same thing that happened to him will happen to you." And obv. Marie may have given them the tape after this ep., but she only finds out Hank is dead (by implication) at the end of the ep.

When the cops are in the house tracing Walt's call, I assume some time has passed between that scene and Walt's escape. We see that Marie already knows about Hank's death, so Skyler has told him about it before that scene. I can't really see any reason why, after finding out that Hank's dead, Marie wouldn't have told the cops everything she knows about Walt and Jesse, since Hank's career was the only reason they kept the whole thing secret in the first place.

Anyway, it's telling he calls Marie in the desert first and not, you know, other cops. It was pride that put that off, since they had proof to put Walt away already.

not really pride, he knew it meant a lot to her too. this is a guy who fucked with his life severely.

he should have definitely sought help, i agree, it was all set up as a sort of arrogance but also just a tragedy really, in the classic sense. i felt sure he'd die because he had so plenty chances to stop but broke procedures and became too deeply embroiled.

so many chances*

I think he would've called the other cops immediately after they found the money. Without it, they didn't actually have any proof. (Unless they taped Jesse's call to Walt, but they make no mention of taping it, so I assume they didn't.) Maybe Hank was afraid Walt would still manage to outwit them somehow, so he wanted to wait until he actually saw the barrels of money with his own eyes before informing the other cops about it.

(xxpost)

also just a tragedy really, in the classic sense.

Show in a nutshell.

"oh jack you are the living end..."

"marie, i'll level with you. this is the best quiche i've ever eaten."

― Evil Juice Box Man (LocalGarda), Wednesday, September 18, 2013 6:49 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao

ran across this in the comments on one of the innumerable reviews of this episode and it seems kinda good actually:

My guess is Jesse makes his escape using the phosphine gas trick from Season 1 while cooking. We were already teased last week with Jack refusing to wear a mask in the cook room.
― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, September 17, 2013 8:10 PM (Yesterday)

damn man I was just about to advance the same theory! guess I'll have to be content with basking in the prognosticating light of

hank was totally ineffectual in getting jesse to talk but he did move jesse further down the path of seeing walt for what he is

tho obv not telling anyone at the DEA what's going on is going to be his downfall

― this gtr climbed mt. washington (Edward III), Monday, August 26, 2013 1:39 PM (3 weeks ago)

Show's been in a sentimental mood, what with the return to the site of the first cook, flashback to first cook, etc. So:

Jesse, shackled to the meth lab, mixes up the fatal chem gas dose.

Kills all the Nazis.

Walt arrives in time to see that his erstwhile charge has actually learned something - science! - and gives him a slow clap.

Jesse: "I did good, Mr. White?"

Walt: "You did good, Jesse. You did good."

And then Walt shoots him like Old Yeller.

Jesse dies with a smile on his face.

Walt, distraught, holds the gun to his head with one hand, gets ready to swallow the ricin with the other, coughs a few times because his cancer has progressed to far. Then there's a sound off-screen that distracts him. He lowers his arms, and turns, mouth agape.

Fade to black.

"Wheel in the Sky" by Journey plays.

Everyone boos.

^in a sentimental mood for Lord Custos

"Wheel in the Sky" by Journey plays.

irl lol

Fittingly then, this “Breaking Bad” installment began with a flashback of a slightly younger Walt on a cell phone, calling Skyler to tell a lie that seemed hilariously innocent in retrospect: that he was working late at the car wash when, actually, he was de-pantsed, in the desert and cooking meth with Jesse Pinkman.

As Skyler spoke to her husband and boxed up a piece of artwork that featured the image of a sad clown, a block of kitchen knives was clearly visible in the foreground. She told Walt they should name their soon-to-be-born daughter — a child they clearly both planned to love, fully and together — Holly, and Walt informally agreed. It was a scene that initially seemed like a wry nod to the man Walt used to be when it actually was an expertly crafted piece of foreshadowing. The insane Walt vs. Skyler knife fight, Walt’s breathtaking decision to abduct Holly, the police-tapped phone call between Skyler and Walt in which Walt himself became a sad clown of sorts, clearly putting up a front and masking his own regret: it was all right there, in the very first scene of the night, if only we knew to look for it. Kind of makes you feel like Hank neglecting the obvious Heisenberg clues, doesn’t it?

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/16/breaking_bad_recap_just_wow/

How is it a "clue" when something in the first five minutes of a show "foreshadows" something that happens a few minutes later? Oh my god, there are knives in the scene! And they talk about Holly! They will totally have a knife fight and Walt will take Holly. OMG! I figured it out!!!

yeah, some of the internet raving about the clockwork hitchcokian brilliance every time an object is focused on at one point in an episode and then is used at another point is ott

Holy shit, in the earlier scene Walt is shackled but Jesse is free! But Walt gives him up, and now Jesse is shackled and Walt is free! I should have seen the ironic twist!!!

a clue no, foreshadowing yes

Oh my god, the Nazis had swastikas on them! But to some Native Americans, particularly the Navajo, who lived in the southwest, the swastika symbolized healing powers! And later Walt meets a Native American, who helps him out!!! I should have seen it!!!!

if you look real close in the penultimate scene w/ Walt, Holly is holding a pred ship

if I had to make a prediction re: ricin it would be that it isn't even used at all, an actual ricin death occurring in this show would be like finding out what's inside the briefcase in pulp fiction

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macguffin

youre a macguffin

it's true

a clue no, foreshadowing yes

― a hard dom is good to find (Edward III), Wednesday, September 18, 2013 2:29 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think DeRo pissed in Josh's wheaties this morning

I know it's foreshadowing, but ... it just seems like something less than that, more a little reference. It feels like a stretch to have something seen early in an episode of TV show up in a later scene. Esp. since the knives in the kitchen are just there, and have been just there in 50 episodes or whatever that don't end with anyone getting stabbed.

walt at diner with lydia, about to ricin her onion rings while she ducks down to wipe todd's blood off her manolos, after a thoughtful pause walt decides against it, they share the onion rings *WHEEL IN THE SKY KEEPS ON TURNIN*

I'm still struck by this critical narrative that people, at least until now, have seen Walt as another in a line of TV anti-heroes. I guess I find it hard to believe people have been rooting for him. I thought the compulsion of the show was the drama in watching it all go wrong despite his best laid plans. That is, as tragedy. There are really people out there who watched the show just to see Walt get away with it? I mean, I'm sure there are. But that's pretty sick.

you didn't want walt to get gus before gus got him ect?

you're pretty sick

xxpost the last time I 'rooted' for Walt, really, was when Gus was around, but that's only because Gus was a much viler being than he was (and possible collateral damage with his family). I can see how some of the internet morons might have had an easier time earlier on, when his body count was more out of self-defense, but hell - after he let Jane die, I can't see how anybody could possibly think "awww he's an alright bloke, just a widdle misguided is all". Poisoning Brock was his Terrible Person Victory Lap ffs.

and obviously it makes sense for people to want him to live since he's the most compelling character (durrrr), but I think Josh was more talking about people who are like "OH MAN WALT WAS FORCED INTO THIS, HE DID IT FOR HIS FAMILY, AND THEY'RE SOOOOO UNGRATEFUL".

i'm thankful i'm not hanging out in internet circles where people are actually saying this

Lots of "Chekhov's Guns" in this show... Always has been...

"One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." Chekhov, letter to Aleksandr Semenovich Lazarev

pretty sure team walt membership overlaps w/ the ppl who idolize pacino's scarface

the gangster is always a symbol of capitalist avarice gone wild, walt has the benefit of being a hen-pecked castoff of the middle aged middle class emerging in the middle of a massive + prolonged economic downturn so audience identification among the secretly badass males of america is going to be off the charts, girlfriends ODing and kids getting poisoned is just how the sausage gets made, more bullshit flotsam to wreck yr soul on the way to becoming a kingpin, don't these fucken idiots understand I gotta provide for my family

nice tie-in to the act of killing in there somewhere

Walt would be the type to have a Travis Bickle poster in his dorm room.

no

i root for walt because

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IJCFc_qkHw

everyone roots for walt on some level because he's the protagonist or all you all experiencing narrative in some amazing and impressively moralistic new way

of course we root for Walt on a narrative level, but that's kind of a far cry from the "he gotta support his family, fuck the haters" thing isn't it?

well obviously there are a lot of morons out there

a friend revealed he's not rooting for anybody except walt jr at dinner last night.

I kind of enjoy seeing him shat on at a narrative level