You just knew that Jesse wouldn’t be able to resist snatching one of those tortillas off of the assembly line, right? I mean, how could he resist? How could ANYONE resist?
So let’s get right to it, shall we? Here are a few notes I made during last night’s Breaking Bad about characters, scenes, etc. I found interesting for one reason or another.
- Though I loved last night’s episode on the whole, I can’t remember one that was so devoid of heart-in-your-throat tension. Obviously, Vince Gilligan is putting puzzle pieces in place here, but I don’t think everything has ever gone as smoothly in a single episode as things went last night for Walter and the gang. The One Who Knocks was able to mindf*ck Jesse into breaking up with his girlfriend, he was able to mindf*ck Marie into believing that Skyler’s breakdown was all her own cheating fault — making himself a sympathetic character in Marie’s eyes in the process — and he’s back to making meth again. All perfectly according to plan. I agree with Alan Sepinwall in his assessment that Gilligan used the episode “to get as much out of the way as he could before moving into the part where things inevitably start going wrong.” This HAS to be the case.
- FYI, here’s a Flickr feed likely relevant to the interests of everyone reading this. A sample of its offerings…
- I don’t like episodes devoid of Hank. I demand, at the very least, a scene of him obsessing over minerals, if not inching closer to finding out about Walt’s secret life as a drug kingpin, each week.
- “Just because you shot Jesse James, don’t make you Jesse James.” — Mike
- Wow, Skyler is f*cking terrified of Walt, to the point that she’s losing it. I think it’s finally hit her that he’s capable of killing anyone, including herself, who gets in his way. Thankfully, her breakdown did produce the lovely “SHUT UP, MARIE!” scene, which the actress who plays Marie discussed here.
- Whenever Walter ran across that copy of Leaves of Grass I couldn’t help but remember how it’s the book of poetry Bill Clinton gifts to women whose pants he wants to get into. That will never not be funny to me.
- The brief stare-down between Mike and Huell as Mike entered Saul’s office made me irrationally happy. I also loved the scene where Mike gives the exterminators their marching orders. Even Walt and Jesse seemed impressed.
- “Yes, he handles the business. And I handle him.” -Walter White
- Vamonos Pest Control is the new Los Pollos Hermanos. Internet entrepreneurs are already on it…
- Can I just say that the scheme to use a pest control company to hide a roving meth lab is kinda genius. I’d love to know if the show’s writers dreamed this up on their own or if it was something they borrowed from the headlines, ala Law & Order. At the same time, I see this potentially leading to disaster, as in the lab causing a fire to break out and burn someone’s house down.
- Good to see Badger and Skinny Pete back as meth lab roadies! I’d totally watch a spinoff centered around those two loveable idiots.
- Well that scene with Walt and Brock alone on the sofa wasn’t awkward at all, was it? Was I the only one who kept waiting for Brock to blurt out, “Mommy that’s the man who fed me the poison plant!”
- Walt and Jesse drinking beer while watching The Three Stooges made me happy.
- That exterminator dude who spoke to Walt after Mike gave he and the others clear instructions not to speak to Walt or Jesse is going to die soon, right? (UPDATE: the aforementioned chatty exterminator dude was “Landry” from Friday Night Lights)
- The scene near the end where Skyler walks in on Walt and Walter Jr. watching Scarface is obviously significant for a number of reasons. First off, do you think it’s a coincidence that this scene ran on the eve of AMC’s “Mob Week”? I doubt it. Secondly, I recall Vince Gillian saying the following on a Nerdist podcast a while back: “What I always wanted to do with this show was to take Mr. Chips and turn him into Scarface, and that’s what we’re going to do.” With that said, I think it’s important to note Walt saying, “Everyone dies in this movie.” Sklyer’s face tells me she might have seen similarities between what was happening on the screen to what could happen in her own life.
- Anyone have any idea what kind of message Walt was trying to send to Jesse with the Victor/Icarus/flying too close to the sun speech at the end? Was he alluding to Mike growing too big for his britches? Was that a direct, thinly veliled threat to Jesse? It left me kind of confused.
“Secrets create barriers between people.” — Walter White
-Finally, Dustin tipped me to this over the weekend: Vince Gilligan quietly introduced Madrigal Electromotive two seasons ago.
That might be the current question, but here’s one bit of trivia you likely don’t know: season five is not the first time Madrigal’s been mentioned. Actress Betsy Brandt, who stars on “Breaking Bad” as Walt’s sister-in-law Marie, asked Gilligan during the interview when he first planned to introduce a German element to the crystal meth saga.
“There is a [season three] Easter egg, in all seriousness, if you watch very closely,” Gilligan answered, referring to the episode “Kafkaesque.” “In the teaser, that first opening sequence of the episode, we created a Pollos Hermanos commercial. We created a commercial for Gus’ empire. If you look very closely at the end of the commercial, there’s a tiny bit of legalese that says ‘copyright Madrigal Electromotive GmbH.’ It’s there, going back two seasons.’”
Here’s the screengrab from the scene, which Dustin helpfully tracked down for me…
Mind. Blown.
Your own thoughts and observations are of course welcome in the comments.
(GIFs via Chet Manley)
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Besides the ominous comment while watching Scarface (“Everybody dies in the movie.”), did anyone notice the conversation between the exterminator and the homeowner? I don’t remember exactly, but it was something like “You’re going to kill all of them, right?” and the exterminator was like, “Yes, we’ll kill them all.” or something like that. It was such an unnecessary exchange that I thought the writers were giving us a wink like, “seriously, every one of these people are going to die.”
Actually……. my Hubs has been a pest control tech for 20 yrs and he said that conversation between the tech and homeowner was very typical. Peeps are very desperate to have em all dead!!! (hello living with roaches… or even worse.. bedbugs!) It was an awesome ominous exchnge though!! What was unrealistic (in this part of the country anyway) was the “tenting”.But now I absolutely have to have one of these T-shirts!!;p
MY Hubs has been a pest control tech for 20+years and he said that conversation was very typical. Peeps want the roaches or bedbugs etc gone!!! forever!! IN this area of the country the tenting isnt typical though.. I must have one of those t-shirts now!!!
Oh yeah, I’m sure it is typical! But I still think it was a allusion for the benefit of the viewer–because WE didn’t need that information otherwise, ya know?
He could have cooked meth in there and I wouldn’t have even cared as long as those bugs were gone when I got back. 
PS: Exterminators are heroes. I had bedbugs once and i was never so happy to have a stranger in my home as when that exterminator showed up and got the job done!
The end bit was not a threat to Jesse. It was a threat to Mike, but a poetic one being that everyone is flying too close to the sun. On another note, who else thinks Walt juniors time to shine is coming soon…
I think it was a threat to everyone! I think Walt was making it plain to Jesse–and to us–that he has come to the point that he has no qualms with killing anyone in his way. I think he said it in reaction to butting heads with Mike, but it was a “heads up” to Jesse as well.
Great piece, but the Madrigal thing was no real revelation. Somebody said that Hank “made reference to it earlier.” I would say he laid it all out in detail as a result of his bedridden internet sleuthing. No worries tho. Another example of the DEEP layering that goes on with this show!
Let me make this clear: Letting Walt stay the bad guy and killing him off in the end (or leaving him broken) of the series is the easy way to end this show. That’s been done before, it’s easy and everyone can see it coming. The thing to do is to turn Mr. Chips into Scarface, make him the most loathesome man on the planet, and then redeem him. No one gave two fucks if Vic Mackey spent the rest of his life getting raped in the showers of a prison, and everyone wanted to see Tony Soprano get necklaced. It’d be something to see them turned into something that would elicit sympathy from the viewer.
If he saves Jesse to end the series, and suffers a mortal wound that kills the hero that’s something that not only is different from what everyone expects, that’s also something that’s hard to do. To redeem the irredeemable, that’d be different. Turn Mr. Chips into Scarface and then turn him into General Maximus.
I agree with you, there has to be some sort of redemption for Walt; unfortunately I think it will only come he is completely broken and has lost everything, including his freedom. I don’t really think Vince Gilligan will kill off Walt’s children, that would be too dark, even for Breaking Bad. As someone else mentioned I think Skylar won’t survive, and the kids could wind up with Hank and Marie. As for Jesse, I really hope he makes it out alive when all is done.
Jesse can’t die in this. This show messes with our heads, sure, but there’s always been a sense guilty enjoyment when the really bad stuff happens. Killing the baby or Jesse would just be too far for us viewers, I think we’d lose any enjoyment, and that would be when we couldn’t except the nastiness anymore. I am wondering if Flynn will end up on meth or something, though. He just HAS to have a bigger purpose in the plans of the creators!
Here’s the entire Icarus conversation for you to interpret/analyze:
Walt: I’ve been thinking about Victor.
Jesse: Yeah?
Walt: Yeah. All this time, I was sure Gus did what he did to send me a message. Maybe there’s another reason.
Jess: Like what?
Walt: Victor trying to cook that batch on his own, taking liberties that weren’t his to take? Maybe he flew too close to the sun, got his throat cut?
Thinly veiled threat against Jesse makes sense…especially with the look of utter bewilderment/shock Jess has on his face afterwards as Walt walks away.
hmmmm
Also confused about to whom Walt was directing that last Icarus bit, but I think one meaning is clear: he now understands how Gus’ mind works.
The Victor/Icarus analogy at the end of the show was definitely a veiled threat towards Jesse. Walt is the one that doesn’t know or realize that Vicrtor was seen outside of Gale’s apartment and that is why Gus killed him. Walt believes Victor was killed because of an unsanctioned cook. At this point, Jesse knows how to cook, and his product is almost as pure as Walter. Jesse and Mike could potentially get rid of Walter and still run a lucrative meth business. Walter is fully aware of that, and wants to make sure that if Jesse plans to cross Walter, he won’t hesitate to cut his throat. At the same time, I think Walt made it fairly clear that Mike taking all that money is not going to stand. Mike will eventually die because of it and then that is when everything will go downhill fast.
In regards to the Scarface scene, I chalk that up to foreshadowing. “Everyone dies” comment hints at a possible scenario where Walt’s family gets wiped out. The first five minutes of the first episode leads me to believe Walt is on a mission of retribution given the weapon and amount of ammo he bought. I think Walt will lose everything and everyone he has ever cared for; what he will be left is him dying painfully of cancer in prison.
I think your theory makes sense about him rotting in prison. To think his whole family dies I would be devestated. His children are the only spec of light in this whole show. Everyone else has done some dirt. I could see his wife getting killed and her sister and Hank raising their kids.(the son will soon be graduated) And that will solve Hank and Marie not having children.
I think I would be INTENSLEY disturbed to have to watch a scene where Walt’s entire family was killed, and i’m not even that squeamish! This show loves to disturb us, but I believe a lot of viewers would find that scene too hard to take. I like the retribution point, tho… That does make a lot of sense!
As to the Icarus stuff, Walt was acting like he genuinely didn’t see the parallel himself with Jesse, but he HAS become very good at barefaced lying and manipulation over the past season or so, so it could well be a conscious rather than unintended threat. Either way, the writers obviously want us to be focussing on the parallel.
Maybe I’m crazy but did I see the pink teddy bear in the montage during the cook?
Plus I gotta hand it to Betsy Brandt, the nagging scene at the car wash was tits
Does anyone else think that his cancer will come back and he will die leaving his family with nothing.
All of his work, how they effected their community would all be for nothing
Does anyone remember an episode of Malcolm in the Middle where the family’s home was encased in an exterminator tent and the family had to live on the lawn for a week or something? It’s fuzzy but I know it happened.
Ahh, found it. I remember at the end, Hal and Lois put on gas masks and go into the chemical-filled house to bone.
[www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk]
CRAZY!!!
The reason I remembered this episode was because being forced to camp out on the family lawn meant the parents couldn’t “do it,” and as a result they were at each others throats all week. Hence, the chemical boning. It sticks because now that I’m married, whenever I find myself irrationally pissed at my husband, I stop and usually realize that it’s been more than a few days since we’ve had sex. It’s SO TRUE.
Anyway, that’s about all I remember about it, but when the tent popped into the episode last night, I was like, no way that’s a coincidence.
Was i the only one who was creeped out when Walt Jr. (AKA the Champion of Breakfast) turned to Skyler when they were watching Scarface and said “Yeah Mom, join us’. For me, it had some kind of “room for one more” ominousness(?) that really unsettled me. Skyler looked on the verge of pissing herself.
Theyve done a great job of making actually scared for Skyler and I still maintain that she will be the one to end Walt, likely out of some sense of self preservation driven by extreme paranoia.
Walt is going to kill the Friday Night Lights dude much like Gus killed Victor to send a message to Mike
I don’t know if Walt has it in him… Most of his killings have been rather impersonal or remote, except for the one drug dealer that he shot after running him over. He’s more of a manipulator/mastermind.
Maybe that will be the catalyst for Walt’s final transformation.
Maybe he manipulates Jesse into doing it.
/obligatory Whoa
Walt is slowly started to unravel in my opinion. He has no low. My mom felt he was sincere with his conversation with Jesse, however I wasn’t buying it. He cannot stand to see him happy. He has to be able to control him. And I know if Jesse explained to his girl the situation she would leave him. She lost her brother to the meth game and doesn’t want anything to do with it.
_ Yes Cajun boy I would love to see the flash back to how Walt pulled it off
Also I can’t be the only one hoping that Walt’s last stand takes place at the Laser Tag joint, right?
I don’t think they have shown how Brock was poisoned yet, so it’s possible that Brock does not know who Walt is.
Yeah, I keep waiting for them to open an episode with a flashback scene showing exactly how Walt pulled that off.
Begging for a opening flashback scene.
I love it when they do that, one of my favorite tricks
**Potential Spoiler Below**
Though we didn’t see it happen, didn’t Saul admit (to Walt), to poisoning Brock when he delivered some money from Jesse to Andrea?
I don’t remember that. I think Saul’s only involvement was having Huell lift the ricin cig. Saul wanted to end the arrangement over the plan involving hurting the kid, which led to the “we’re done when I say we’re done” scene.
I just re-watched the “We’re done when I say we’re done” scene from this seasons premier, and I guess it was Saul’s line “You never told me the kid would end up in the hospital” that led me to infer that he did it when he delivered the money. On reflection I think I’ve inferred too much.
Was I hallucinating or is Skinny Pete a classically trained pianist? And was Huell sleeping standing up like a horse?
Some nice off beat stuff after the taut and perfect Madrigal episode.
Yes Skinny Pete was getting down, loved that
What was Mike trying to prove with the whole show of stacking the money in front of Walt and then slowly pulling stack after stack away?
If Mike is half as smart as we think he is, he should know that Walt’s greed for money and power will evoke a pretty harsh rebuke. It’s gotta be a set up, right?
I think Mike was just showing he’s on the level by doing it evenly. “That’s how it’s done”
Yeah, that’s how I took it. He wanted them to literally see where the rest of the money was going.
As that went down, all I could think of was the Cosby Show’s economics lesson. [youtu.be]
Those t-shirts would be cooler if they’d bothered to spell the “vamonos” correctly, or at least the way it’s spelled on the show.
These guys were paying attention. [skreened.com]
Yep.
Though this one is the winner.
Anybody know what song they played during the making meth montage?
The Peddlers’ “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever”
On a clear day(you can see forever) by the peddlers
Hank also made a reference to Madrigal in an episode in season 4. I love the continuity on this show. It’s always the little things that make a good show a great one.
A few things were cemented to me in this episode
1) Mike is going to die, sad but true. Mike has now become Walt in season 1 in someways, broke and in need of providing for his family, but he is much better at the Meth game than Walt is. Walt can’t stand the fact that he is not the smartest guy in the room and it’s unfortunate that something petty like that will deprive us of all of a great character like Mike. But Gilligan really and I mean really wants us to hate Walt at this point and Mike will die just because he is better than Walt in this respect.
2) Walt is a failure and will always be one, all he is concerned with is power at this point and really hates the minutia of being a drug kingpin. All he wants is the money and none of the hassle. He has learned noting from his first stab at being a drug overlord in seasons 2 and 3. It truly is hard out there for a pimp.
3) Marie does not like to hear the truth and at some point will spill her guts to Hank and that will be the final piece in the puzzle for him and will finally lead to a confrontation with Walt (sadly this will not work since he unknowingly took drug money from Walt and will have to sacrifice his livelihood just to land the big fish)
4) Walt thinks Jesse is totally retarded (this is pretty much a given throughout the series but tonight it was really cemented). That threat that he gave about Mike was indirectly aimed at Jesse and I think Jesse heard it loud and clear. Jesse gave up a potentially fruitful relationship and poured his guts out to Walt and Walt couldn’t give a fuck about him.
All of these things are going to sink Walt in the end, and I haven’t even gotten into the Skyler issue yet. Walter White is a marked man, in many ways he is Macbeth. Blah blah blah pretentious comments here. Sorry, for some reason this episode really got me thinking, though that might be the fact I was drunk last night.
+++1 ( totally agree with it )
Landry is going to die and die poorly.
I don’t know about that. I think either he’s going to turn out to be an undercover cop, or he’s going to be groomed by Walt to be Mike’s replacement.
But either way, his name is Lance.
Very excited for he Landry appearance. He’s going to play into this season big time.
Yeah his eagerness kind of put off the undercover cop vibe to me too.
The actor’s name is Jesse. COINCIDENCE?
Something has to happen to him for speaking to Walt after being told not to in no uncertain terms.
The nanny cam could have been a potentially damning object unseen by Walt and Jesse, so it seemed to me like Walt was impressed by him for taking the initiative to disable it and that’s why he got his name. I imagine we’ll be seeing quite a bit more of that character. An undercover cop would be very interesting, but I didn’t get that vibe in the episode.
if he was an undercover cop, I think Mike would have rooted that out when he did background checks
I just saw it as a young kid who was basically told by Mike that the guys behind him were VIP’s and that him going up to Walt and Jesse was kind of like trying to get on the good side of the new Power’s that be.
I can see him in later episodes being a Gale to Jesse’s Walt from season 3. In other words. Walt uses his eagerness to plant the seed that Jesse could be replaced so Jesse has to off Lance to stay in the fold. This would further strengthen the sick and twisted bond they have together.
“if he was an undercover cop, I think Mike would have rooted that out when he did background checks”
i’m pretty sure undercover cops have that shit covered, otherwise undercover cops would be turning up dead everywhere. undercover cops are off the record, all records.
the icarus speech was a threat to jesse to not undermine walt in front of mike, again. he made walt look cheap and amateurish by offering to cover the cost of mikes guys.
Re: Icarus. I’ve seen some people try to ascribe Walt’s use of this analogy as a demonstration of self-awareness – that he realizes he may be in over his head. Which is crap. I think it’s pretty clear Walt is referring to Mike (with maybe a side warning to Jesse). Walt’s already said although Mike controls the business, Walt controls Mike. By taking control of the money, Mike is upsetting Walt’s vision for this enterprise and, more importantly, Walt’s god complex. Walt is the sun, and Mike/Icarus is flying too high.
That’s how I saw it.
Walt is trying to step into Gus’s shoes, and he’s realizing that like Gus, he might just have to kill Mike to prove a point to the rest.
I was sure that was a nod to Scarface but IMDB quotes let me down.
Loggia maybe, the guys that last in this business, are the guys who fly straight. Low-key, quiet. But the guys who want it all, chicas, champagne, flash… they don’t last.? I dunno’.
It was about Mike, but it proves Walt didn’t get the message about Victor, chooses to ignore it, or he thinks Jesse is a total workable mark. Victor was killed because he was seen by witnesses, not because he did an “unauthorized cook” which is what Walt was saying. He was telling Jesse that Mike is getting into their business, and that the meth business is their territory and bad things are going to happen.
I also agree. I took that as a threat against Mike. Especially due to its timing, which was immediately after all the money went bye-bye.
Jesse hasn’t tried to overstep his bounds, so I don’t think it’s about him.
What I want to know is why didn’t they know where the money would go working with Mike? Is that just theatrics or what? They should have known all the details going into the arrangement, that would have avoided the whole conflict. But then again we need conflict.
I took Walter telling Jesse about Victor/Icarus to be Walter warning Jesse to not cook without him/cut him out.
Maybe it’s just that sh*t is always hitting the fan, but I find an episode where things go well and people kinda/sorta get along — especially Walt and Jesse — refreshing. I mean I know/want things to inevitably to hit the fan but the entire plot seems more plausible if the characters get along every so often.
I thought what this episode lacked in tension it made up for in the business start up angle. I loved every bit of them feeling out the new operation.
I’m a geek so I’ve listened to several Season 4 episodes with commentary and the house from the Flickr feed is the real home of an old couple in Albuquerque where they film whenever they require more than a sound stage.
I knew Skylar’s smoking would become more noted! It sets it up so much better for when Hank decides she needs to take a long drag of ricin.
Why would Hank have anything to do with it? HAHA YOU USED THE WRONG NAME!
WOW. I never even thought of that.
I feel like that came across as sarcastic, but I assure you I was serious.
I don’t think the ricin in the cigarette would work if someone smoked it. It’s currently encased in glass, right? Jesse only hid it there so he could put it in Gus’s food.
What if Walt pinched it and crushed the glass inside? Kind of like a Camel Crush. Except now delivering delicious menthol refreshment there’s ricin being breathed in.
Far fetched, and I don’t know how ricin is delivered, but could that keep the cigarette aspect of it in play?
Whoops. Yup, wrong name. Walt would b-slap me for calling him Hank, and he should.
yep, that’s perfect. walt will destroy anyone who threatens him, now. skye is expendable.
Walt already broke the cigarette in half, dumped part in the toilet (tobacco part?) and kept the rest behind the socket cover. Chances of Skyler just randomly smoking it are nil, being planted COULD happen. Walt obviously kept it for a reason.