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

ha ha!

so... which one is Zach?!

I am the one who Zachs

no.

I liked it being a breezier, slightly goofy episode after the intensity of S4. Recalled S1 shenanigans.

yeah definitely. reminded me of the one where they stole that big barrel of chemicals.

walt's "I forgive you" moment with Skylar, so fkn creepy.

SUCH a great last line. Because he does forgive her. But OMG, if the Death Plant reveal at the end of the last season wasn't evidence enough that Walt has lost his moral compass, this seals it even further. He doesn't realize anymore when he's done something bad. Talk about an antihero. He's truly psychopathic.

The man don't give a fuck.

He'll get what's coming to him, if Gilligan has any balls. And my that I mean Walt will be forced to watch his wife and son murdered.

Gus always keeps his promises. :)

But even better was the look on Skyler's face: YOU forgive ME?!

^^^

Exactly.

“Keys, scumbag. It’s the universal symbol for keys.”

that "offering Mike full partnership" thing in the trailer is irritating me. Mike's a great character & scenes with him are fantastic but reducing your cut by 17% is not something you do just to get a guy whose dialogue is snappy

they have repeatedly shown what a total badass mike is, he's not some ten a penny thug. i mean they gave him that amazing assault on precinct 13 scene to tell us this. he is a complete pro.

great episode. loved the two fat guys in the scrap yard high fiving each other.

xpost yes to the "keys" bit, and mike is just fucking awesome as ever, my favourite character in the show.

http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/tumblr_m7993v2X8K1qkd4gio2_500.gif

magnets, how they work

Gilligan's a closet juggalo.

show's got a magnet fetish. my favorite bit of slapstick from last season was the magnet on walt's carbomb sticking to the elevator door.

i'm looking forward to more hank. loved walt jr's get-the-audience-back-on-track speech in the beginning and also how he was like WOW uncle hank is gonna be an even BIGGER badass now huh dad?

walt's basically doing a gus impression with this "walk up slowly and intimidate people without laying a finger on them" routine, right?

Oh yes. He has watched and learned.

finale of this show has to be walt vs hank. lookin forward to it. love me some hank.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsuy14Pkqk1qcfyhd.gif

ha ha

jesse's OH YEAH BITCH, MAGNETS exclamation after the job was awesome

saul withering in response to walt's gus imitation = quality television

I don't think they'll kill Skyler or the kids. I don't think they have the stones to do that, although Ted in his head traction was pretty shocking.

still sorta hate how everybody loves Mike, a total sociopath who's every bit as big a scumbag as Walt, because they impute some Noble Code of the Criminal to him. Mike talks cool and is smart. That's awesome. He is pond scum.

yeah but who aside from, Walt Jr isn't some form of pond scum.

by that rationale you can't really 'like' any of the characters.

I love Mike because the guy's a walking story of his own - he wears his whole history on his face but he's the sphinx. He's the guy who keeps his mouth shut who can do the job best and that's why he's still around.

Mike's awesome and I make no apologies for loving the pond scum that he is.

I wouldn't be surprised at any character's death in this show. I don't think they'll make the storytelling mistake of killing everybody, but there won't be a single death in this season where I'll say "I never thought they'd kill that person."

I am willing to bet any amount of money that they won't kill the baby

it's gonna be marie and the baby standing in front of a pile of smoking gristle in the series finale

still sorta hate how everybody loves Mike, a total sociopath who's every bit as big a scumbag as Walt, because they impute some Noble Code of the Criminal to him. Mike talks cool and is smart. That's awesome. He is pond scum.

weren't you saying this about Jesse last season? A lot of people like antiheros you know. It's not like they'd applaud such actions in real life.

yeah true of Jesse too. this is probably more a personal than a formal concern with me - kinda Ted Bundy syndrome, how a dude that cuts a charming figure (or in the case of Mike, a colorful one) gets this sort of "I like him, he's got style!" pass that...like, I get, as a response to fiction but it sticks in my craw somehow. But in discussing the characters, look anywhere - this thread, elsewhere - and hatred of Walter White is just visceral. What an asshole! What a self-serving, narcissistic, cold-blooded son of a bitch! But Mike's almost doubtless killed more people, directly, with his bare hands; Jesse goes to NA meetings to deal meth to people who are trying to climb up from addiction. These characters' actions & motivations aren't in any way nobler or more justifiable than White's; Jesse especially, fuckin' A dude, you don't have cancer or loans to pay or a family to worry about, dude like that has zero excuses for fucking up anybody else's life. So something chews at me about how of all the total fucking scumbags on this show (for whom I have affection, too, don't get me wrong), Walter White gets to wear the bell around his neck. As soon as any of these characters are seeming cool to you as a reader, there's an opportunity to really engage the story at a deeper level: so this or that style point is where you start cutting a dude slack for abominable behavior? Huh. Interesting. But it also drives me nuts, because the point at which people start to say "he's cool" seems basically "his dialogue is snappy," which seems a p. low fuckin' bar to me.

Scrap yard guy was amazing, by the way.

I thought I recognized him from someplace...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4qiPSJo3pQ&t=3m0s

Good response. I think the fact that there's such vocal hatred for Walter over the rest is in a lot of ways a tribute to Cranston's performance. Of course everyone was sympathetic to him at the start but there's such a coldness to the character now. I mean he's downright unnerving, whereas Mike has the avuncular cat burglar thing going on and Jesse is the loveable screwup (and i know that downplays the terrible shit he's done) which is just easier to relate to than whatever Walt has become.

but i'm still getting a kick out of the "I'm the king now" stuff so i don't understand blanket hatred for Walt

Scrapyard Guy was also Friends' neighbor, right?

+ dude playing Kramer on Jerry and George's pilot in Seinfeld

Jesse goes to NA meetings to deal meth to people who are trying to climb up from addiction. These characters' actions & motivations aren't in any way nobler or more justifiable than White's

Walter, now more than ever, is the driving force behind many of the other character's motivations. Especially Jesse! Walter has been poisoning Jesse from day one.

Jesse was a meth dealer before Walter even met him though

Well, "met" is the wrong word since Walt was his teacher, but ...

Jesse was a shitty little punk-ass before Walter met him. Now he's a murderer.

I think I will feel cheated if major characters don't die by the end of this because the escape of death has been such a recurring theme.

hey no threadcop but isnt there usually an understanding with these threads that we don't discuss promos for the following week's episode without huge SPOILER warnings?

another interesting bit in that cold open, waitress asks how far a drive is NH, walt says "30 hours if all you do is stop for gas"

whatever the circumstances, it's another classic walter scheme he's flying by the seat of his pants to execute

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Sunday, July 15, 2012 7:18 PM (Yesterday)

maybe if he just drove 30 hours without sleeping he has started using meth

Walter, now more than ever, is the driving force behind many of the other character's motivations.

If I may, I'll restate and slightly elaborate on this. One of the key events in this episode was Walter pulling Mike into his web. And the angry, "godDAMNIT you're right" look on Mike's face as he realized that he, too, was stuck. Mike may be a hired killer, but the fact that he's good at what he does, and does it with a sense of dignity and loyalty, gives him a lot of crime drama cred as a likable character. Walter is also good at what he does, but he has no loyalty, and he's only good at one thing. Even as a criminal, he lacks integrity. He'll throw anyone under the bus to save himself. Anyone but Jesse, who he has (arguably) hurt the most.

Whether Walter still has a human being inside of him is one of the great things that this last season has to resolve.

otm

another interesting bit in that cold open, waitress asks how far a drive is NH, walt says "30 hours if all you do is stop for gas"

whatever the circumstances, it's another classic walter scheme he's flying by the seat of his pants to execute

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Sunday, July 15, 2012 7:18 PM (Yesterday)

maybe if he just drove 30 hours without sleeping he has started using meth

― ♆ (gr8080), Monday, July 16, 2012 9:38 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this would be an intersting development!

hey no threadcop but isnt there usually an understanding with these threads that we don't discuss promos for the following week's episode without huge SPOILER warnings?

yeah some people don't like it because not everyone sees the promos (like if you watch on torrents or whatever) but I kinda consider any official "next on" that aired on TV as fair game, personally

this one was actually pretty substantive, I'm used to the hilariously vague Mad Men ones that don't tell you shit

yeah its def a non-issue when talking abt mad men, but for real i go out of my way to not watch them w/ any show. reading like 5 posts about a plot point that doesn't surface until next week's episode is a bummer, guys.