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

Walt thinks he checked these things off his to do list, but as has been the case for the entire show, he was being dishonest with himself. There was very little actual redemption in his character even if he did set things into motion that he thought would eventually succeed.

― carl agatha, Tuesday, October 1, 2013 10:30 AM (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree with this but i also suspect that this irony is more true of Vince Gilligan himself than something he knowingly engineered.

Also don't forget Gretchen and Elliott offered to pay for the best cancer treatment money could buy, and give Walt a cushy job - which he refused out of pride. So he could have got what he said he wanted - financial security for his family - without destroying his family, killing Hank, etc. He might even be alive a lot longer... So I don't think the Schwartzes are unsympathetic at all - and all the banal yuppie talk is making fun of them a bit, but also a rueful glimpse of what Walt and Skyler's lives might would have been like. But that path is repugnant to Walt. He wouldn't have gotten what he really wanted - to be Heisenberg, to be alive, to be able to say "I did it for me", to be a sociopath... So it's hard to look at his plan for Gretchen and Elliott to pass on the money as a real win - he'd already refused that security - but he did get what he wanted because he did it on his own terms. But what he wanted was horrible for everyone else - as everything he's done.

otm

I know we don't capital n Need the info, but it would have been useful to learn how an accomplished chemist who had a hand in creating/founding a Nobel Prize winning billion dollar venture wound up teaching high school. Surely the former afforded plenty of pride, or more than the latter. Backstory is only so important, but given that rage and resentment is what's driven Walt all along, it would have been helpful.

dude it was pride that made him leave the company! the details are hazy but it's pretty clear he got up on his high horse and hightailed it out of there.

I think it's interesting the way that the show has occasionally manipulated the viewer into sharing Walt's warped perceptions about his world. Gretchen & Elliott are in no way villainous or antagonistic, and Walt's ire towards them has been shown to be baseless and petty, but people still cheer when Walt gets one over on the feckless yuppies. The existence of a Team Walt comprised of unsophisticated viewers is somewhat understandable.

I also think part of the viewer enmity towards the Schwartzes is generated by the fact that BB is to some degree a cautionary tale of what can happen when frustrated and overly-intelligent people find themselves backed into the 99% corner. Misdirected anger in the midst of a class struggle and all that.

xpost

agreed but I think the episode where they revealed that was almost too long ago for people to remember.

before that there were hints that the company was somehow "stolen" from Walt and I think that's still the impression ppl have of Gretchen and Elliott

that the same conversation and episode though. gretchen reacts with the line "you.. can't REALLY believe that's what happened" or something thereabouts, and knowing Walt she's definitely more believable

I like that it's not 100% clear whether Walt was legitimately wronged or not - but knowing Walt, I got the impression that Gretchen was being honest when she said he just stomped off in a huff.

It's consistent with everything else - he could have made millions with Gus, or by cooking and paying off "Mike's guys", or by taking his 1/3 from selling the methylamine when Mike and Jesse wanted out. He always fucked it up out of pride. Never exactly a team player.

ha "knowing walt"... spent too much time thinking about this show, clearly

he's a great character!

Quitting a billion dollar company you co-founded to take a job as a high school teacher with a part time gig washing cars is a pretty far leap for even a prideful dick like Walt. Maybe he'd been working his way down from the top for years!

He got paid $5,000 for his 1/3 of the company - it was just a little start-up when he quit.

he also didn't become a high school teacher immediately after. he bounced from job to job first.

there are gazillions of overqualified employees these days.

source: a blog

Ha.

i had a hs biology teacher who was on a team that did some pretty groundbreaking research on heart disease in the 70s and 80s and then their funding ran out and he floated from job to job until becoming a biology teacher

breaking news: the economy is terrible

funny people are saying they dislike elliott & gretchen based on that scene - if anything, i was like "oh, nice to see these long-marrieds still banter happily about the fireplace" in between thoughts of "OMG WALT WATCHUGONNADOOOOO"

they've always been mildly dislike-able to be fair, even from the first season; they're uber-rich posh dweebs (though still likely to be good ppl at heart, I think)

it's not as if the scene would have been improved by them walking in silently or bickering. It was a cheesy, over the top convo, but it wasn't much different than the one Dr. Melfi and her date had on the Sopranos prior to being pulled over by John Heard's character.

they did go a little OTT with Elliot's wussiness but I think that was more for comic relief.

xpost
Also they had a disabled kid, so I thought it was implied that he started teaching for a steady income and health care and got stuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12ZTMG7xxmg

Elliot = owner of a Clapton-autographed Strat

http://www.gifti.me/i/4xfUlbaz.gif

haha nice

I dont get it - why woudl the dea not seize money given to walter jr by gretchen shwarz? surely it would be suspicious??

It doesn't really matter because we'll never know if it worked or not.

until saul and hurley spinoff anyway

I dont get it - why woudl the dea not seize money given to walter jr by gretchen shwarz? surely it would be suspicious??

― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Tuesday, October 1, 2013 2:48 PM (11 minutes ago)

Not necessarily, because Gray Matter is swimming in money.

I wonder if it's even worth it for them to try to deposit Walt's tainted meth cash instead of just burning it and writing a cheque?

they can't do that for fear of laser pointers

http://24.media.tumblr.com/4281d927ca069de94c3648a6434ac43b/tumblr_mu08ruO0bV1qb73tpo1_500.gif
http://31.media.tumblr.com/af4ed53c7ee3118ddae0d27ede0dc086/tumblr_mu08ruO0bV1qb73tpo2_500.gif
http://31.media.tumblr.com/a46c97fb808be4e8cb1bf2033dae3c44/tumblr_mu08ruO0bV1qb73tpo3_r1_500.gif

xpost yet another reason it's hilarious people think he's got things wrapped up all nice & tidy any more than he did when they bought a car wash.

Vince Gilligan told a batshit story on the Breaking bad podcast this week about the episode he pitched to the studio early in the pilot days of the show, as a 'this is what could have happened'

A crazy badass drug-dealer has killed Jesse, or tortured him horribly, and so to take revenge Walt has him in his basement, tied to a chair, and tortures him each day; he's rigged up to a gun that can fire and end it all if the bad dude so chooses. But the bad dude won't give in, and Walt's forced to torture him over a series of weeks. Eventually Walt Jr goes down to the basement and finds the tortured dude there and takes pity on him. Bad dude figures out that it's Walt's son, and pulls the trigger killing himself AND WALT JR

of course all the studio ppl thought he was totally fucked up for even writing it and that that there was no way that that would ever happen on the show. lol

hearing about all the directions Gilligan thought about going before he had a writing staff is just crazy. that dude has some seriously dark places behind that 'good old Dad' facade

jesus

I don't think anyone thought the car wash scheme would work, which is perhaps why it was brought up at least a couple of times that the car wash scheme would not work, ie, "we are making too much money to launder."

but... the car wash scheme pretty much did work

it gave them a cover story

Yeah, but they ended up with more money than they could launder, right?

josh, my point wasn't that the car wash was a good idea, but that the "threaten rich people with penlights to look out for my kid" ain't much better

Yeah, but they ended up with more money than they could launder, right?

eh just bury it in the desert, problem solved!

Walt jr will reject the money -he will not want it

the funniest thing to me is the edict that they not use any of their own money. since they ain't paying Walt in cash, they can technically spurn his desires by just writing a check from their account and never doing anything with his money.

I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but I love all of the moments when we see that Walt could be successful at any number of other things (Partner in a company that ultimately makes billions! Flourishing car wash! Pretty quick at devising a winning poker strategy!). Not to mention his wide variety of scientific knowledge and handicrafting skill. Tons of signs that the dude could've been a superman in the straight world if only his brain wasn't all fucked up.

idk why WAlt didn't just offer his assassin services. Given his ingenuity, he could kill people without ever being seen. Who wouldn't want that level of stealth?

Walt's always been naively short-sighted about what he has to do to fix a situation - it's been a major thread throughout the whole season. 'if I can just explain', 'if I can just convince him', 'if I can just remove the immediate problem of [Tuco, Jesse, Gus, whatever]...' It's totally clear that his efforts in the finale are along the same lines, obv some now successful. He always brings out these kind of magic tickets that he thinks will solve everything but just get him to the next problem. I don't think we're meant to view his scheme with the money or the co-ordinates as any different, particularly?

I did feel the lack of Jesse over the past few episodes, but I don't know what they could've done with him that wouldn't have been tacked-on.

btw haven't posted in this thread yet since watching it so can I just remind everyone: Todd's Lydia ringtone LOOOL

"whatever happens to me, know that two of the most successful hitmen west of the mississipp' got 100k each to make sure you don't use a CENT of your money when giving millions to my kid. And even if I'm dead, they're going to do this, because it's the assassin's code."

It's totally clear that his efforts in the finale are along the same lines, obv some now successful. He always brings out these kind of magic tickets that he thinks will solve everything but just get him to the next problem. I don't think we're meant to view his scheme with the money or the co-ordinates as any different, particularly?

otm, this is pretty much how my father solves financial issues these days *facepalm*

xpost "and if Walt Jr refuses the money from you...they'll kill him."