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

maybe...he did DUN DUN DUN

the twist ending is Jesse is Tuco's son - and Tuco is not dead - Tuco was really Hank -

Can't believe this Albuquerque show has gone so long without playing The Shins. Guess they were saving that one for the finale.

Yeah I mean the characters in this really look like fans of milquetoast indie.

Actually Walter Jr might be.

he's a fan of milquetoast acting

that janitor from season 1

HUGO

SAY HIS NAME

watched the "say my name" scene again recently, it really is as if walt is getting sexual gratification.

worth noting that s1 has quite a few sex scenes acting as a barometer of walt's self esteem, after that it's like his lust gets subsumed by his lust for power

Yeah Walt has really not seemed to care about sex since that time he tried to crack onto the principal. Even Skylar is there primarily as an accomplice.

Sex isn't high among the motivational factors of any of the characters really, except maybe Todd.

on the BB podcast, they made a big deal about only having a limited time to shoot the Charlie Rose scene with the actress who plays Gretchen because she was doing a play on Broadway when they were shooting - definitely made it sound like we wouldn't see Gretchen and Elliott in the final episode.

I don't think todd motivation is sex either

yeah i get the feeling that instead of having sex with lydia he'd be simply content to cut off her skin and wear it as a shawl

Saul is into getting massages. That's about it, as far as people even touching each other on BB last few seasons - outside of brutal beatdowns, of course.

cmon, todd isn't a gross shawl-making sicko, he's cold and ruthless. like gus. i'm sure he has a weakness, and i doubt it's lydia, but i also doubt we'll be given time to find out.

also in the BB podcast - Vince Gilligan says Todd looks proud when they're watching Jesse's confession because Todd likes Jesse, and is thinking, "Hey, Jesse's talking about me!" which is even creepier than how I interpreted it - as him thinking Uncle Jack would see him as a take-charge kinda guy

is he cold, though? he was so tender with skyler. a hand on the arm. very quiet, very gentle.

Todd likes Jesse, and is thinking, "Hey, Jesse's talking about me!"

omg

Thats an amazing interp

Gilligan's interpretation creepiest yet.

Ugh actually making my skin crawl.

Making my skin shawl.

Lol

irl lol

Todd's a weird kind of sociopathic teacher's pet, he's so starstruck by the bigger meth peddlers it's kind of sweet.

Todd's transition from B&E expert to psychopath master criminal is pretty amazing (albeit perhaps slightly implausible).

Those are some B&E moves though. American Ninzi.

is he cold, though? he was so tender with skyler. a hand on the arm. very quiet, very gentle.

good at faking it! gus pretended to be a philanthropic chicken man ffs. he could fake nice with anyone.

this past episode, the actor playing Todd did amazing work with his hands. the rubbing of skyler's shoulder with his thumb was immensely twisted.
I don't think he's faking it. i think he's meant to be mentally disturbed and he sees the world through this psychotic veil where it's okay to kill people but it's important to be nice while you do it. if/when he gets got by jessie, I think he'll go out saying "it wasn't personal" like he just spilled jessie's soda in the lunchroom and doesn't get the anger

yeah i dunno, i felt like that was genuine. even his friendliness with andrea seemed unforced and real.

it's really easy for us to project all of this onto him because we didn't have to sit through the rigamarole at all, he just showed up, was ruthless, invited the nazis and ever since the show has been all about them. they're like the invading biker gang at the end of weird science.

I think Todd hides his psychopathy behind his niceness but I don't think he's genuinely nice.

Todd probably has antisocial personality disorder or something. His politeness seems to have been learned, as if he observed other people doing it and adopted that style to hide in plain view. It's how he could shoot a kid so easily.

which is why I'm having disturbing visions of him bringing Lydia Skyler's head in a box and going "I DID IT FOR YOU, BABY!" with a toothy grin.

his determination to succeed is kinda creepy/menacing. like there's a resolve there, esp say, around the time he killed drew sharp.

omg @ Gilligan's Todd interpretation. That kind of fits with how I reacted to it, but much creepier. Uergh.

Todd will do literally anything at this point to curry favour and praise from his superiors, whoever he interprets them as being.

My housemate really likes Todd!

i guess my issue is that practically every motivator in this show—at least for its last few seasons—has been totally concrete, a threat walt had to deal with or a plan he had to see out—to make the final motivation just about some vague sense of ego about being "the best" is just... not what makes this show great

look socki walt has screwed up everything so ~bad~ that he no longer has any decent motivation

I read the Charlie Rose thing as it's been his sole motivation since Day 1. Was it the cancer that got him into it? No, because he stayed when the cancer went away. Was it the money? No, not even when it filled up a storage garage. Was it his family? Please.

The sole burning reason why Walt's stayed in the game is because of this ego thing between him, the billion-dollar company he helped found and the woman he used to love.

So seeing them on TV, saying he had nothing to do with the success of Gray Matter, talking about him in disparaging terms, coupled with three months of solitude and some Glen Livet, neat ... That's more than enough to get him started on a two-thousand mile roadie.

it's not like purely rational behavior or anything, but after the brief moment of giving up and then seeing the first people who "stole" his money, i tend to think Walt's motivation is basically to go kill the nazis and get most of his money back and somehow get it to his family.

fairly concrete, anyway.

Like I said upthread there was a point midway through when Walt had money and could have walked away and didn't because he couldn't take the idea of an inferior product being out there and associated with him. It's been part of his motivation all along.

Also he knows Jesse is out there, alive and cooking now.

I don't think he's faking it. i think he's meant to be mentally disturbed and he sees the world through this psychotic veil where it's okay to kill people but it's important to be nice while you do it.

I was like three paragraphs into a post saying pretty much this but I got a phone call and deleted it (you're welcome), but yes, pretty much this. I think that makes him scarier - he's not a calculating evil monster. He's a true believer!

True believers, who believe that they horrible things they are doing are the right things to do, are the scariest because there's no swaying them. If he were a truly calculating faker, you could maybe change his mind based on cold logic, but not if he believes that he's 1) right to do what he does and 2) justified because he's polite and "compassionate" while he does it.

My housemate really likes Todd!

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Wednesday, September 25, 2013 10:55 AM (19 minutes ago)

move out, now

in some ways i feel like the show could have satisfyingly ended with walt dying alone in the cabin with his barrel of money

also in the BB podcast - Vince Gilligan says Todd looks proud when they're watching Jesse's confession because Todd likes Jesse, and is thinking, "Hey, Jesse's talking about me!"

― brio, Wednesday, September 25, 2013 10:22 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha i guess we know why he makes the big bucks

agree with slocki about walt's motivation being unclear at the end of the last episode - but maybe it will snap back into a more focused thing once he's back in NM and gets the lay of the land... all they needed to do was give him a vague motivation to go back and I think they fumbled that a little bit, but I have faith they can get it back on track

By the way, looking forward to seeing how Walt is going to escape half a dozen armed cops, on foot, in the snow, with a ten minute max head start.

he just took someones car they left running is my guess