On August 25th I tweeted the following: “Has ‘Crystal Blue Persuasion’ by Tommy James & the Shondells ever been used on Breaking Bad? (I don’t recall.) If not, it’s overdue.” Of course, I imagined that it’d be the perfect song to use for a meth-cooking montage, and after last night it’s obvious that a) I was right and b) Vince Gilligan must follow me on Twitter.
ANYWAY, I hope everyone is having a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and because I knew some of you wouldn’t be able to wait until tomorrow to talk about last night’s season finale, I decided to interrupt my long weekend to write up my weekly Breaking Bad discussion post — the last one until next summer 
— today. 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.
- You just find help like Todd anymore these days, amirite? Walt comes back to the shop with Mike’s body in a trunk and dude doesn’t ask any questions — just gets right to it helping Walt destroy Mike’s remains in a barrel of acid. And then later he arranges to have his uncle use his “prison connections” to take out nine people in 3 different prisons for Walt. Give that kid a raise!
- Speaking of Todd’s uncle’s prison connections, I found the fast and furious nature of the murders kind of hilarious, specifically the way almost all of the victims were repeatedly stabbed in a manner that was almost comically manic. Was this an homage to a past gangster movie, perhaps Joe Pesci’s character in Goodfellas? I seem to recall him stabbing the shit out of someone like this.
- If there’s one thing we all learned last night is that you should always spray your mountain of cash for silverfish. Thanks, Skyler!
- So Walt’s cancer is back, right? As Alan Sepinwall pointed out last night, the painting Walt was hypnotized by at the meeting with Todd’s uncle was the same one that hung in his hospital room back in season one. There was also the re-appearance of the dented paper towel dispenser Walt punched repeatedly after a discussion with his doctor about his cancer. And, of course, there was a quick shot of Walt being slid into an MRI machine. Could this be part of the reason why he’s suddenly willing to walk away from the meth empire he seemed so hell-bent on not walking away from in the previous few episodes?
- The ricin is back, baby! Walt was totally going to try to slip some poison in Lydia’s coffee, wasn’t he? And then when he didn’t — presumably because she wisely made herself valuable to him — I thought for a second that maybe the ricin would be used to poison all of Mike’s guys in prison. I suppose it will now wait for someone else in the next and final season. MAYBE HANK? Ooooohhhh…more on that shortly.
- Good on Walt for getting Jesse his money, but I got the sense that Jesse was expecting to find Mike’s body inside the bag when he unzipped it and not a pile of cash. After all, it did appear to be a bodybag that Walt put the money in.
- There seemed to be more blue that normal in this episode. Obviously, there was a lot of blue in the meth-cooking montage. But there were multiple swimming pool shots as well, and the storage facility where Skyler keeps the mountain of cash was also very blue. Just saying.
- I still can’t get over that AMC allowed Small Town Security to follow Breaking Bad all season. That’s like a steakhouse offering you a dessert of rotten fruit after you’ve eaten filet mignon.
- So about the final scene/sequence: was I the only one sitting on the edge of my sofa, heart racing the entire time. I kept waiting for some angry relative of one of the murdered prison inmates to come busting through the fence with a machine gun blazing. It just seemed perfectly set up for tragedy.
- With that said, the moment we’ve all been waiting for — one that I was beginning to think would never happen — finally happened: Hank connected the dots, or at least appeared to, linking Walt to Heisenberg in his mind. I was really beginning to think that it would all end with Walt right under Hank’s nose the entire time. And naturally the revelation comes when Hank is taking a dump — in Walt’s house, no less. Of course, Walt could very easily figure out some way to talk himself out of it, but it now appears as though the final eight episodes will be all about the cat and mouse game between Walt and Hank. Next summer can’t get here soon enough.
- Seriously, how f*cking stupid and careless of Walt to leave that copy of “Leaves of Grass” laying around. I suspect this is exactly how Walt will feel when he discovers that it’s what tipped Hank off to him…
- So what becomes of Jesse now? For a while I thought that he and Skyler would join forces to bring down Walt, but now that they both seem to have gotten what they want from him, well, what’s the point?
- Oh, and shout out to Hank for being a Knob Creek man. Respect.
- Vince Gilligan gave an interview today to the LA Times in which he discussed the episode’s ending.
Gilligan explains: “The folks at home know it’s the end of the season and know there isn’t going to be another season of ‘Breaking Bad’ for about 10 more months. They are watching this scene by the pool and the family is talking about nothing. They are talking for minutes on end about nothing.”
“Skyler is talking about putting lemon juice in her hair and Walt is talking about brewing beer with Hank,” he continued. “We want the audience on the end of the seats saying, ‘What kind of ending is this? This is the worst kind of ending for a season of “Breaking Bad” we’ve ever seen! There should be things exploding, you can’t end it in such an undramatic way. Everything is hunky dory. That’s not this show. What the hell kind of ending is this?’”
Then, as Gilligan notes, Hank heads to the john and picks up a book for reading. Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”
W.W. is Walt Whitman. W.W. is also Walter White.
“It’d be the most ironic and undramatic way of Hank catching Walter,” added Gilligan. “It’s just happenstance and bad luck on Walt’s part. If only he hadn’t left that book lying around, he would have been OK. We love those kind of moments on this show.”
- Finally, I sense a meme brewing…
Your own thoughts and observations are of course welcome in the comments.
(GIFs via Chet Manley)
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I am convinced that Hank is going to kill himself. I must admit, my track record for predicting things on shows is far from 100% but I do believe I have some proof to back that up. Not only by his character…but also a pretty big foreshadow that I’m not sure many people caught. I’ll get back to that in a second.
Hank has proven to be a pretty tough guy. A guy that doesn’t like to show weakness. Even when he is struggling with something he has a hard time admitting it. We saw that Hank figured out Walt has something to do with all of this in final episode of season 5 part 1, but when he discovers how deep it really goes, and that Walt has been doing all of this right under his nose this whole time he’s going to shit himself (let’s hope he’s on the toilet when he figures that out to). My guess is that Hank is going to be so embarrassed and ashamed by this…AND the fact that his medical bills were paid with drug money, that he will have one of his panic attacks and strait up off himself. Who knows, maybe he will take Walt out before he does it.
Now, here is what I think is a HUGE foreshadow. Vince Gilligan doesn’t do things by accident. In the episode “Say My Name”, the DEA (lead by Hank) issues a search warrant on Mikes house. While the team is looking around for guns, cash and whatever else they can find, Mike sits calmly on his recliner watching an old black and white cop movie. I don’t know the name of the movie, but I believe the dialog that we hear is the big clue. They only show a clip of it for a second, but you get that they are photographing a body before cutting back to a close up of Hanks face. As they slowly zoom in in hanks face, you still hear the sound from the movie when one cop says to another… “Sorry you had to make the trip out here Sargent. When a cop kills himself they want a full report”. That gave me chills when I saw that.
If that isn’t a huge foreshadow I don’t know what is. What do you guys think?
Also, check out my podcast called Level X. We discuss movies/TV, comics, games, new tech and more! [bit.ly]
That meme is brewed!
[hanktakesashit.com]
Here’s my take, see what you think…
Walt doesn’t have cancer. We figure roughly 3 months have passed this season, the cold opening shows him with a head of hair, leading me to believe he’d be quite sick from his cancer after another 9 months. He coughed, but didn’t seem nearly as bad as before.
So I think He’s scheming. He’s been doing nothing but concocting diabolical and detailed plans all season, I can’t expect him to suddenly change now.
He brings the money to Jesse to make him feel better after what happened to Mike. Jesse knows, and Walter’s controlling him as always.
Telling Skyler he’s done gets her back in the house with the kids, where he can do whatever he needs to do.
With Hank finding him out, the machine gun buy makes less sense. Walt has no other real enemies, he’s partners with Lydia and the other Meth guys. All the prisoners are dead. So who does he need protection from? Gotta be DEA.
I’m fuzzy here, but I think Walt’s going to get rid of Skyler. The Ricin can’t kill people easily via oral ingestion, it’s always been related to cigarrettes. Skyler’s smoking like a chimney. It’ll look spontaneous, and he’ll take care of the kids and still do what he wants.
But Hank interrupts that, and he might go out in the blaze of glory while the family stays safely at home.
Hank can’t just run outside with his pants down and arrest Walt. I think that he will sit on his information for a while as he doesn’t have much evidence against Walt at this time. Hank’s therapy treatments were also paid for by Walt’s dirty money. Lets not forget how dumb it would make Hank look to have Heisenberg sneaking around under his nose this long. I don’t really know how this is going to go because so many variables are involved. I guess we will have to wait and see. In the meantime, check out this Breaking Bad shirt: [www.redbubble.com]
or vote for it here: [www.qwertee.com]
Thanks!
Breaking Bad is the only reason I stayed up on Sunday. Now football.
Hey, everyone– Buy your own copy of the very edition of “Leaves of Grass” Walter White reads!!–go to [www.amazon.com]
I believe Hank will have some sort of ethical dilemma. Walt supported his recovery with money earned from Big Blue. Slapping the cuffs on Heisenberg will probably cost him his career.. He and Marie are unknowingly involved in a criminal enterprise. Closing the case that he has obsessed over since season 1 will cost him his job and destroy his family. Hank is intelligent enough to figure out that the reason he was shot links back to Walter as well. The man has dignity, but there is so much as stake he may drink himself to death on Schraderbrau. Or maybe Walt convinces Jesse to kill Hank with the gun we saw in this episode. The way I figure it the event Gilligan referenced that will make us despise Walt involves the death of Hank.
Jesse will not be manipulated by Walt anymore.
I find it hard to believe (and i believe everything) that Walt was never seen during the D.E.A.s heavy surveillance of Mike’s comings and goings.Didn’t they take pics.of Mike in the parking lot of the new warehouse?
Walt is alive approximately 9 months after being discovered by Hank. The finale was supposed to represent around 3 months of the Walt/Todd/Lydia/Czech empire building. This does not look good for Hank. My theory is that given what we know or what is implied, Walt is heading towards a redemptive death sometime shortly after his 52nd birthday.
I’m loosely thinking that with the cancer being implicitly back, being called (unknowingly) a monster by Hank, and the “how much is enough” speech by Skylar, something hit home and he does in fact want out. He chooses to do the right thing (for now) with Jesse and you can see that for a second, it wasn’t about the money but the initial experiences. Unfortunately this is going to put him in the middle of a collision course between Hank and the Todd/Lydia/Czech factions. In the end his hubris in thinking he could just walk away comes back to get him. Maybe Hank gets too close and is taken out leading Walt to lose everything he had tried to regain (notice he’s not wearing a wedding ring in Dennys). He comes back for a final revenge fueled showdown against the people and lifestyle that corrupted him to try and recapture a small bit of honor in the end. That’s why he’s breaking cover from his New Hampshire ID and goes back to NM for “business” involving the purchase of an M60.
I usually hate badges!
I think Hank is going to become Walter’s partner in the meth business. MONEY and LOTS of it! You heard it hear first!
Its funny how I thought Todd was an idiot for keeping the tarantula thinking it would definately come back to haunt him. Turns out it was just a bit of foreshadowing. I remember watching this episode and telling myself Walt is just getting way too cocky, the way he was talking shit to the bikers was just an example. This isn’t a stroke of bad luck for Walt but rather an example of his cockiness finally catching up to him. The character is painted as a calulated control freak who never misses a detail. He obviously put the book there out of sheer cockiness thinking he could hide in plain sight a la Gus. There is a lesson to be learned here and it is to never keep momentos of your crimes. Rule #1 actually.
So does Jesse know about Mike?
I had assumed not but many people think he does. I think he would have flipped out more but you never know.
I theorize that the series will end with Holly shooting Walt a la Maggie Simpson. It’s the only logical ending if you really think about it.
Then Hank will read Holly’s confession in the front fold of Curious George while taking a shit. Like father, like daughter!
There’s a movie called American Me with Edward James Olmos, that has this almost exact prison stabbing. He gets jumped by 3-4 guys on the top level of a prison cell walkup, and they stab him a bunch of times then throw him over the rail. I realize that the “over the rail” part was only one guy, but the multiple stabbings was dead on.
I would say the maniacal prison stabbings were pretty spot-on, actually. Killing people with a sharpened piece of metal is much harder than most people realize. Victims tend to fight for life (meaning it takes multiple stab wounds to kill them), and perpetrators tend to be overcome by “bloodlust” (meaning they act like a shark during a feeding frenzy). The only unrealistic part about that is most of the victims still would’ve been breathing when they hit the floor. Death rarely comes so easy.
Consider, not even shooting people works all the time. In the movies, once you get shot, you’re dead. But in the real world, it’s not nearly so merciful as that.
John Lennon, for example, was shot four times point blank in the chest and didn’t die until five minutes after the fact (and he died of shock and blood loss, rather than of heart damage). Similarly, quite a few German generals who shot themselves at the end of WWII didn’t die. They blew off half their heads, but they “miraculously” survived… for a little while, at least (until they either succumbed to their wounds, tried it again, or were hanged by Hitler for treason).
Point being, it’s hard to kill people, and the prison-shank sequence actually did a fairly good job of demonstrating that. In most movies, someone stabs a guy in the neck or cuts their throat and they instantly drop dead, rather than flopping around like a fish out of water for a while. That might play well on screen, but it’s wishful thinking, to say the least.
A couple of episodes ago a couple things stuck out to me. For one, when the DEA seved the search warrant at Mike’s house, Mike was watching a black and white movie. You could clearly hear the audio in the background, and it said something to the effect of “When a police officer kills himself, you have a thorough investigation” and “he had powder burns on his right temple”. A couple scenes later, when Walt asks Hank for coffee (as he’s trying to remove the bug from Hank’s office) Hank exits his office, makes a gun with his hand, and puts it to his right temple. I think Hank has always respected Walt for beating cancer, having a family and helping him with his rehab. Upon finding out Walt is Heisenberg, Hank will become depressed and feel betrayed. He will eventually kill himself which will send the family into self destruct mode. Skyler will likely leave with the kids, Walt’s cancer will return (if it hasn’t already), and that will lead us to the end. Just a theory.
Yes, there has been one/two cases of foreshadowing re Hank gettin killed! Sounds plausible!
I like your theory Eli, and I don’t remember the movie Mike was watching but if that’s true I bet you are right that it is a foreshadow. Yet I’m sticking with Hank gets murdered, I just don’t see suicide as an option for Hank, very uncharacteristic. I just haven’t figured out how he gets murdered or by who. I want to say Walt, or an accident some how that is directly Walt’s fault.
Maybe Hank dies at the hands of Walt, but it’s made to look like a suicide?
I remember hearing/reading from the “Starr Report” that Bill Clinton gave Monica Lewinski a special copy of “Leaves of Grass.”
The inscription within read: “Dear M.L., Blowing me has been an honour for you. Fondly, W.J.C.”
And THAT, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the whole impeachment process began; betcha didn’t know that.
That book is cursed!
Is that really true?
Sooooooooooo…. my turn for theories.
Theory 1: Hank takes it Walt lightly. Tells him he knows and then possibly Walt tries to poison Hank. OR that Walt wants what is best for everyone – WIN WIN is good, remember? Therefore, Walt rats out the operation, Hank is again a BIG hero, Walt fades to black until the rest of the “distribution” catches up with him and he is forced to run and gun his way out of danger – leading us to the gun in the trunk scene.
Theory 2: Hank pretends to have not seen anything – in fact – everything is hunky dory, right?
He carries it around with him until he’s forced to tell Walt he knows when Walt’s cancer comes up again, and Walt says something like, “we don’t know what we’re going to do” again. Chaos ensues.
Theory 3: Hank casually tells Walt he knows and Walt makes up some excuse about knowing GB on some other level – or – possibly confesses to helping GB with the formula and getting a big payout from it – anything but a full confession. Meanwhile, Hank not knowing Walt’s full potential becomes his target because he knows too much – chaos ensues – gun in trunk, etc.
Neither!
But the only plausible thing to me would be Hank not saying it out loud but his mood/expressions change and Walt notices that something’s happened!
repost:
a couple of moments that always stuck with me from past episodes/seasons:
#1. season 2/episode 13 ‘abq’ 41:46 mark – “then i called your mother…” -skylar. where’s walter white’s mother in all of this, since she found out her only son has cancer? is she ever going to appear? you would think a phone call would at least suffice after sklyar contacts her, let alone visiting her son. maybe her character shows up in the final 8 episodes somehow?
#2. season 4/episode 8 ‘hermanos’ 3:30 mark – walter white’s conversation with the other patient while he’s waiting for his x-rays/scans. the younger patient is nervous & scared about how to approach his bout with cancer, while walter tells him that ‘every life comes with a death sentence’ & ‘who’s in charge? me!’. walter seems more confident in his fight against cancer at that point, but then there’s a hard jump cut in the editing & we then see walter in the lab, looking white as a ghost, like he’s just received some terrible news regarding his scans. later in the episode, 17:43 mark, walter jr asks him about the results of his scans. walter, giving the same facial expression that he was making while in the lab after the cut in the editing, tells him that he’s still in remission. walter appears to be lying in the same style/manner he would always display earlier in the series, before sklyar new he was cooking meth.
i think that walter’s mother will come into play somehow in the second half of the season. and it will be revealed that his cancer never stayed in remission, as foreshadowed by the season 5/episode 1 ‘live free or die’ intro of him coughing and taking meds. walts ‘death sentence’ is fast approaching and he knows it. that’s why he continues to take huge risks, because he aware his time is almost over.
Also. Walt isn’t done – he said that to get close to Hank. He was going to spare his brother in law, but after Hank indirectly called him a monster, he decided to kill him too. He will use his new business assosiates to get as far away from everyone as possible.
For next season I see three possible openings.
1. Hank says nothing to Walt, leaves the party, and goes home. He finally connects all the dots, and returns to arrest Walter, but Walt has already seen the open or misplaced “Leaves of Grass”, and somehow gets away.
2. Hank decides to confront Walter right then and there (an unlikely, but cool scenario) and either gives Walter a 30 minute headstart, or Walter knocks him out or something.
3. Walter has already decided to deal with Hank. He has cleared up every loose end (except Jesse, Todd, Skyler, and Lydia) and knows that Hank needs to go. Walter isn’t dumb enough to leave such a damning clue out for Hank to find. Maybe Walter left the book out on purpose, knowing the poison would kill Hank just as he discovered a clue that ONLY Hank himself could understand. Hank would lie there dying, as he realized how he had been played. Walter could walk in, taunt the dying DEA agent, and then run out, calling for help, playing the good guy. (I hope this happens)
The Loose Ends:
Skyler
Jesse
Lydia
Todd
As far as I am concerned, Todd is dead. Within the first two episodes, Walter will put a bullet in him.
Lydia i’m not sure about. Either Walter will poison her, or the DEA will arrest her, but I dont know which.
Skyler is the only unkillable loose end. Walter loves his children too much to do that to them. Besides, if he kills her, every shred of rationalization will be undone. He will have to accept that he is a monster.
I love the transformation Jesse went through. Loser druggy —> Moral Compass (ish). The love in Walter’s eyes when he talked about the good old days with Jesse makes me think that Walter will only kill Jesse after a final attempt to save himself. (I actually think it will be this whole scenario where the cops are reigning down on Walt and Jesse, all because Jesse flipped, and Walt will try to kill Jesse, but end up being unable to do it; turning himself in, and saving his last shred of humanity.
Just my thoughs! Thanks for reading through that wall of un-proofread text
Thoughts*
I can see the ricin and Hank coming into play. I agree that Walt has too much love for Jesses to kill him, but Todd is fair game.
Isn’t Hank a loose end? Couldn’t the ricin have been used to end him? Perhaps his last dump as a healthy man was spent enjoying WW on at least two levels. The mention of Schraderbrau could be hinting at poison delivery via drinks on the patio.
I just re-watched the episode bullet points with the scene of Hank and Walt going through Gale’s notebook. Walt is so fucked.
This ending… the whole time that they were talking my roommate and I got closer little by little to the screen JUST waiting to see what was gonna happen.
Ima miss this show.
Leaves of Grass, my ass.
I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, but in the happy yet ominous family scene at the end, Squeeze’s “Up the Junction” is just barely audible in the background. It’s um, a depressing song to say the least, and I’m assuming is also some heavy foreshadowing.
Alone here in the kitchen
I feel there’s something missing
I’d beg for some forgiveness
But begging’s not my business
Full lyrics here:
[www.lyricsfreak.com]
Also, the full song if anyone is interested in listening:
[www.youtube.com]
I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere so far, but in the happy yet ominous family scene at the end, Squeeze’s “Up the Junction” is just barely audibly playing in the background. It’s um, a pretty fucking depressing song to say the least, and I’m assuming is foreshadowing, as well.
[www.youtube.com]
[www.lyricsfreak.com] (Lyrics)
Alone here in the kitchen
I feel there’s something missing
I’d beg for some forgiveness
But begging’s not my business
Brillz, as usual, Breaking Bad.
Doh, this got caught in moderation or something and didn’t show up at first. Sorry for the double post.
I think it was weird how they focused on him putting the ricin back in the outlet. We already knew where he hid it, and would have just assumed he put it back if we didn’t see it again after the diner scene. Hmmmm…
Hank and wife die by Walt’s actions, possibly poison, as does Jesse. The nervous bitch dies in the first episode, I pray. The only survivors are Saul and Skyler, who have had antsy pants for each other all along, taking the loot to Vegas for the spinoff. Crazy? Probably, but that’s my bet.I am beautiful woman and I love good man…..inter racial romance is my dream… so I joined —blackwhitеPlanet.С0M—–it’s where to- connect with beautiful and excellent people! The fact that Walt is spending more money than he should. If he google’s Hiesenberg’s uncertainy principal it’s all over. And what happens if he goes straight to Skyler and says, “So…. is Walt cooking meth?
After the episode, I went back and watched the full scene that Hank has the flashback to. That episode was named “bullet points” and the next episode is called “shotgun” which I find interesting knowing he buys a shot gun a year from now.
Another thing about re-watching that scene was that Hank references The French Connection and Walt corrects Hank that Gene Hackman never catches the bad guy.
Lastly, was the shirt that Marie was wearing at dinner the same shirt she wore in the picture on Hank’s desk?
He doesn’t buy a shotgun, it’s an assault rifle.
I think the M60 is probably more accurately described as a machine gun.
Hank doesn’t know anything about Walt, yet, he’s just now a bit suspicious. Knowing how Hank views Walt, I’m sure he’s thinking that if he has any connection to the Blue, he’s just the cook—a Gale level guy—and not the murderous Mr. Empire.
Also I have a feeling that, when confronted, Walt is going to say the book was a gift from Gretchen. Her last name is Schwartz but, as far as I remember, we’ve never learned her maiden name. It wouldn’t shock me if it started with a B, or at least Walt says it did.
The WW’s, the fact that only a trained chemist could make meth like the blue, Walt’s cars and car wash, and the big one…that fact that the meth equipment happened to be stolen from Walt’s school. I think he’s got plenty here to be more than suspicious.
The situation is similar to early in the first season of The Wire. One police knows who the villain is, but Hank doesn’t have a case and can’t prove the crook’s involvement in anything.
@ AverageJoe – Gretchen’s maiden name was Black, Black/White, hence Gray Matter. GB stands for both. Walt will explain away the coincidence, but deep down Hank will still know.
@jkc, Gray Matter is from the combination of “White” and “Schwartz” (“schwarz” is black in German). Having Gretchen’s maiden name be “Black” would be a massive coincidence.
Am I the only one who thinks the fact that Walt has grown his hair back in the infamous Machine Gun scene is significant? Because up till now hes always shaved his head just cuz he liked it, but in that scene (8-9 months from now) Walt has all his hair back. Which to me can only mean either he is completely cancer free again, which I doubt, or the cancer has progressed so far now that chemo won’t even work so hes grown his hair back knowing he will die soon. Which I also think explains why he’s buying machine guns to fight whoever cuz he knows he’s gonna die soon anyways.
Last Episode:
Walt (with a Machine Gun) upon using Saul’s ‘Vacuum Cleaning Repair Man’ to disappear for a bit after nearly being nabbed by Hank returns to New Mexico to avenge the death of his surrogate son Jessie against Declan and/or Todd’s Nazi Party in 2013. Walt wipes out his adversaries in dramatic fashion but just when he thinks he’s in the clear (shades of Michael Mann’s ‘Heat) he’s caught/shot by Hank and falls into a swimming pool like the little pink teddy bear from Season 2.
Roll end credits, everyone gets an Emmy.
Perhaps the book should say “To Mr. White…BITCH! From, Jesse.”
So… Let’s say Walt really wants out. There’s no way his partners in logistics will let him out. They’ll demand the stuff keep going. If Walt won’t do it, there’s always Jessie, whom they could try and force to cook (Mexican Cartel style).
So many possibilities. Flynn crashes his car (driving too fast of course) and has to borrow his dad’s car which explodes. Or they can cause just enough noise for Hank to get the evidence he needs against Walt.
Final scene fixed. [www.youtube.com]
I thought Skyler was going to die during the dinner at the end, the result of Walt off-screen slipping her ricin two days earlier.
Wow. It really looked like Walt was going to leave, but now this will rip him back in. I think he’ll position Todd as the fall guy and Todd will try to fuck his world up.
Ya got me.
At the end Hank looks like the guy in Clockwork Orange when he hears “Alex” singing “Singing in the Rain.
Here’s what I think happens next season and why based on the flash-forward from the first ep and the conclusion of the last ep.
Walt acquires that huge machine gun in the flash-forward – to me it’s obvious that this weapon is not intended to defend himself against the DEA, Walt is not gonna start a war with cops.
Along with Hank I thought of one loose end that Walt hasn’t taken care of – Gus Fring’s supposedly highly connected family in South America.
So, here’s what I think will happen: Hank will investigate Walt and either confront him or Walt will wise up and confront Hank. Walt will convince Hank not to make his investigation official – his reasoning will be that it will destroy Walt’s family: Skylar is complicit – it will destroy Hank’s career: Hank will be a laughing stock (if anyone believes him). Also, Walt will downplay his role and take no responsibility for the murders, claiming it was Mike and painting himself as the victim. Hank is tired of being a cop and will realize that if it was not for Walt’s drug money, he would still be in a wheelchair – he will take this opportunity to retire and the only people that will know that Hank knows are Hank and Walt (+maybe Skylar, maybe she also appeals to him).
Anyways, back to the massive gun in the first eps flash-forward: it is intended for a big bad – the biggest bad likely – an associate or family member or boss of Gus Fring. You see, Walt made a mistake when he told Declan that he killed Fring. In the wake of Walt’s retirement, Declan (or Lydia) spills the beans to a person with interest – and this person sends an army after Walt – after Walt has convinced Hank to lay off him, and after he has spent months thinking he has nothing to worry about.
Lydia looked super hot. That is all.
Agreed.
Walt should have hit that.
Thanks to the Uproxx oddsmakers BB article the other day I definitely thought Flynn was going to trip while pushing Holly around the pool or something, maybe even bring her in with him when he does. She was wearing orange, and thanks to this here site, I am also much more in tune to what colors are present now. Anyway, a nice poetic device in Hank finding the book while on the toilet: he goes from eating to shitting, only to find that in essence Walter has shit (shat?) where he eats.
For some reason I did’t really feel anything untoward was going to happen around the pool, aside from the usual intra-family embarassment, like one of them getting drunk and saying something stupid or someone walking into the pool to drown.
So what does Hank have? A book with WW and GB in it. The fact that Walt is spending more money than he should. If he google’s Hiesenberg’s uncertainy principal it’s all over. And what happens if he goes straight to Skyler and says, “So…. is Walt cooking meth?” She can’t lie worth a damn, as we’ve seen.
I think Skylar would willingly come clean pretty quickly. It’s not like she enjoys her husband being a meth cook.
Absolutely loved the reveal on the toilet. When Hank had the final scene to himself I knew something was going down.
Anyone else think that Walt holding on to the ricin for so long is foreshadowing that he won’t ever get a chance to use it how he intends? I am really starting to think that he will be the one who dies from the ricin.
I think about that Simpsons video every time Walt Whitman comes up during Breaking Bad.
No breakfast in this episode, very disappointing
He’s still being called Flynn in this episode, I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think he eats breakfast with his parents when he’s being called Flynn
When Hank is talking about his summer job in college and he ends it with “tagging trees is a lo better than chasing Monsters” the immediate change in Walt is awesome.
You can tell he is insulted by being referred to as a Monster. Even having just ordered the execution of 9 people, and having personally killed and disposed of Mike.
This was my favourite scene of the episode. So much tension. The montage of the prisoners getting killed off was almost humorous and exciting, but by showing how disturbed Hank was really drove home the maliciousness of this act.
I also was trying to figure out gunshot angles around the pool and who would accidentally get shot by standing behind who.