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

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

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

― lag∞n, Wednesday, September 25, 2013 11:23 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha didnt notice this post, thats awesome

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

think you are ignoring the fact he just came off the phone with his son basically disowning him. it's not like the tv interview was the only significant part of that scene. he was in a bit of a whirlwind, you can imagine. plus with the cops on their way to get him, it's hardly radical that me might suddenly think "fuck it, i don't want to actually go to jail."

Comes across same Native American from Ozymandias, sightseeing covered bridges in New England.

- "Is that your truck?"
- "It's a rental."

haha

xposts
ha - yeah, they might want to just jump over the actual getaway from the bar, feels pretty ridiculous. It's like Omar's "Spider-man shit" in The Wire. Worse actually. Maybe better not to explain much.

leaving a bar in ten minute or a half an hour however long it took to figure out where he is contact the local police who could be pretty far away and then for them to get there is not exactly spiderman shit, first you get up, then you walk out the door

let's just admit there's been an awful lot of suspension-of-disbelief stuff this last season

but versimilitude was never what this show was really about, internally consistent was enough

and while we're on it, gee how about those Feds/DEA/Cops doing a real bangup job keeping an eye on the homes of Skyrim and Marie, Nazis runnin circles around those pinheads

Yeah, like what made Walt think Holly could fight fires.

there's always been some suspension of disbelief stuff, it's drama, not the wire.

no this show is incredibly realistic

the people look v real - you would never know they were actors.

xposts
seemed pretty fantastic he'd be able to escape the bar in his weakened state but yeah - doesn't bother me at all, in the show's logic Walt in Heisenberg mode could definitely pull it off

also just relistened to that BB podcast thing - it's actually the episode writer/director Peter Gould who says Jesse smiles because he likes Todd, but Gilligan agrees... VG says something like "you'd expect Todd to be mad at Jesse for ratting him out - but he's like, 'Oh, that Jesse! That train robbery, good times.'"

think you are ignoring the fact he just came off the phone with his son basically disowning him. it's not like the tv interview was the only significant part of that scene. he was in a bit of a whirlwind, you can imagine. plus with the cops on their way to get him, it's hardly radical that me might suddenly think "fuck it, i don't want to actually go to jail."

― Evil Juice Box Man (LocalGarda), Wednesday, September 25, 2013 11:33 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that very conversation with his son ("we dont want your money, there's no place for you here," basically) is what prompted him to give up and turn himself in! you can't also say it's what motivates him to... go back and kill nazis or hunt down his old business partners or wtv

yeah there are a bunch of turnabouts in that last 5 minutes

phone call could be a factor though - he's got nothing to lose now he knows he's dead to Walt Jr.

i wouldn't say either was a particularly considered decision.

he's not going to kill nazis that very second either, for all we know it's just a decision that he doesn't actually want to go to jail, that it was rash and dumb to turn himself in.

xpost turnabouts are not unheard of for human beings. esp considering it takes place in about 10 mins. he calls the cops then runs.

Also he wanted Jesse dead and he knows Jesse's still alive and there might still be some blowback to his family if he's actually teamed up with a load of psycho Nazi fucks.

The reveal that the blue meth is still circulating is as important to him as the Schwarz stuff, maybe more so.

he has no way of knowing if Jesse's still alive or not

blue meth

dunno what's gonna happen in the final ep

from a story POV you can't have that phone call cause him to give himself up and choose not to give himself up, thats ridiculous

blue meth

this is circumstantial - Todd could have learned from Jesse and then killed him already. or Todd could have just gotten better at it.

The reveal that the blue meth is still circulating is as important to him as the Schwarz stuff, maybe more so.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, September 25, 2013 10:57 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

posted this at least 2x itt, still think it's the case

it's ~his product~, no way is he gonna let the nazis/lydia keep pushin' it

xp lol

yeah, the show's established pretty well that only he and jesse can produce the blue stuff, and after both lydia and the nazis told walt their quality was terrible he has to know they've meth-slaved jesse, or he's trained them. either way, he's gonna be superpissed about that. remember walt freaking the fuck out when jesse first started cooking without him? and not only did the nazis steal his money, they took his award-winning formula.

this is circumstantial - Todd could have learned from Jesse and then killed him already. or Todd could have just gotten better at it.

He's not going to take the risk of assuming either of those things though. And yeah, the personal vanity thing. If I were Walt I wouldn't want to even think about the possibility of Jesse being at large anywhere near my family.

he has to know they've meth-slaved jesse, or he's trained them.

and in doing this the nazis have crossed him, not holding up their end of the bargain for killing him

from a story POV you can't have that phone call cause him to give himself up and choose not to give himself up, thats ridiculous

that would be a strange thing if someone had said it, yeah.

he changed his mind when the police were actually on the way. must be the first guy ever to make a snap decision to run from the law.

it's a little loose for this show but it's not insane, he made two snap decisions in the real-time of about 10 mins, "i'm done, i'm giving myself up" and "fuck it, no, actually i'm not."

the speed with which they are made makes it completely normal.

for this show, it's pretty soft

http://www.tmz.com/2013/09/24/breaking-bad-mr-magorium-emporium-walter-white-movie/

Zach Helm, the writer/director of "Magorium" tells TMZ ... "Having myself endured the ignominy of watching the Technicolor train-wreck that is 'Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium' multiple times every day for over a year, I can attest to it being the perfect Kafka-esque Hell for a character of such moral ambiguity as Walter White."

They also already established earlier in the episode that if Walt had his way the Nazis would be dead by now, and as Dan points out he knows they've crossed him now.

It's not a rational decision but Walt has made tons of irrational decisions, it's not out of character at all.

I never thought the phonecall was about giving himself up at all; I always thought it was a distraction technique, leaving it hanging so they can trace it to NH whilst he goes outside, calmly steals a car, and drives away to where they'd least expect him - back in ALBQ.

well they crossed him when they took his money. which happened before he ran away.

xp

Walt gave up in dispair in the first episode (records confession after crashing the motorhome, tries to shoot himself, resolves to suicide by cop until he realizes the sirens are fire trucks) so I can buy him manically changing his mind on letting the cops catch him in NH.

Fool me once, shame on you xpost

no the phonecall was all about him giving up

I never thought the phonecall was about giving himself up at all; I always thought it was a distraction technique, leaving it hanging so they can trace it to NH whilst he goes outside, calmly steals a car, and drives away to where they'd least expect him - back in ALBQ.

― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, September 25, 2013 12:31 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's not how it plays out at all—he calls them and then sits down for a drink! then he sees charlie rose and the music gets all ominous and THEN he bails.

I'll have to watch it again, but I definitely had that impression.