Breaking Bad

[eddie dean]

I'm going to go ahead and predict the death of a major character in this next episode, dunno which one though. This is based entirely on idle speculation and the intricate patterns of my belly button fluff.

The flash forward scenes of Walt looking very disshelved and unkempt and alone on his 52 b-day, suggests to me that he will "Taken care" of anyone in his path. But the Ricen he retrieved is for someone close to him. Heck maybe Walt will take it himself as his 'get out of jail' plan, or to beat a painful cancer death.

[ziznak]

The flash forward scenes of Walt looking very disshelved and unkempt and alone on his 52 b-day, suggests to me that he will "Taken care" of anyone in his path. But the Ricen he retrieved is for someone close to him. Heck maybe Walt will take it himself as his 'get out of jail' plan, or to beat a painful cancer death.

I was afraid I would have forgotten so much since the season's end but watching last weeks opener its like it all came back.  I've been waiting for Hank's "W.W." connection too long.  I love the flash forwards but they're always tricky ya know?  Some major shit had to have gone down for Walt to come diggin up that ricen.  It seemed fairly easy for him to make it in the first place so I would assume he's at that point homeless and with very little resources.  Can't wait to see tonights episode.

[Foodlion]

We need to start running bets on what happens next.

[Foodlion]

Skylar is my least favorite character in the show.

God I just want to reach through the screen and slap her everytime shes on.

[eddie dean]

HA HA HA
the money bed was hilarious!

[Eddie Coyle]

        Killing Mike...but not Lydia. Feels like that may be Walt's downfall.

       

[Eddie Coyle]

        Declan sounded like Martin Sheen.

[Usagi]

HA HA HA
the money bed was hilarious!

I'm glad they are injecting some much-needed humor into this otherwise depressing ass season.

Skyler's a bitch, but good for her for walking out on Hank.

[eddie dean]

I'm glad they are injecting some much-needed humor into this otherwise depressing ass season.

Skyler's a bitch, but good for her for walking out on Hank.

I assumed she would cave in under the pressure from Hank.  The victim card was right there for her to use but, she really is a co-conspirator. Now we know she has loyally for Walt and now Walt knows it too!
Does anyone think Jessie will flip on Walt? It seems like his motivations might be to right the wrongs. He sure seems lost and looking for something to save him.

[ziznak]

Whens Walt get that badass m60... thats what I wanna see

[eddie dean]

Whens Walt get that badass m60... thats what I wanna see

Maybe the M60 is for Lydia's new crew. She might decide to go after Walt

[Nucky Nolan]

I assumed she would cave in under the pressure from Hank.  The victim card was right there for her to use but, she really is a co-conspirator. Now we know she has loyally for Walt and now Walt knows it too!
Does anyone think Jessie will flip on Walt? It seems like his motivations might be to right the wrongs. He sure seems lost and looking for something to save him.

Jessie likely has the purest motives. He's on an arc of redemption while Walt's on an arc of perdition. Hank might want recognition and reward for a big bust, but that's tempered by his closeness to the case. Will he ask Jessie to flip? He might, but that seems too obvious for a show like this. What if he asks Jessie to participate in a conspiracy of silence with him and the Whites. We really don't know what's going on in Hank's mind after his talk with his wife. We'll see if there's a huge change in direction at approximately 9:05 EST. 

[eddie dean]

Great episode tonight.
You hit pretty close to the mark Nucky.

Walt was so close to a clean get away, so to speak. He almost got the Jessie variable out of his way without having to kill him.

Jessie sure found the motivation he has been lacking! Revenge!

I was surprised by the content of  Walt's taped "confession". IDK why.
He has demonstrated, time and again, there are few limits to what he will do to save his own skin.

[Nucky Nolan]

Great episode tonight.
You hit pretty close to the mark Nucky.

Walt was so close to a clean get away, so to speak. He almost got the Jessie variable out of his way without having to kill him.

Jessie sure found the motivation he has been lacking! Revenge!

I was surprised by the content of  Walt's taped "confession". IDK why.
He has demonstrated, time and again, there are few limits to what he will do to save his own skin.

The taped confession was a huge insurance policy. Hank was between a rock and a hard place *before* he saw it. He likely went to a hard place after he watched it. It pushed him closer to a conspiracy of silence.

Jessie became a threat tonight. He and Walt parted ways after they parted ways. The latter crossed Jessie's red line. The die was cast with a cigarette.

[MV/Liberace!]

after what i saw tonight, and based on the 52nd birthday flash forwards (featuring walter, very much alive) which take place in, uhh, wasn't it maine?  i think jesse surely must die in the next episode.  knowing what he now knows and his certain determination to kill walt, if the flash forwards reveal he didn't kill walt, then walter must have killed him.

[Nucky Nolan]

after what i saw tonight, and based on the 52nd birthday flash forwards (featuring walter, very much alive) which take place in, uhh, wasn't it maine?  i think jesse surely must die in the next episode.  knowing what he now knows and his certain determination to kill walt, if the flash forwards reveal he didn't kill walt, then walter must have killed him.

Your take makes sense. I hope that you're wrong, though. Jessie is one of the few compassionate and redeemable people in the series, a "good bad guy". It's almost impossible to root for Walt, and Hank's motives aren't as pure as the driven snow (YMMV).

Speaking of Walt's future birthday, he sold guns to someone at the diner's parking lot. We wondered if he became a gun runner since there were so many weapons in his trunk. We thought that he developed a new criminal enterprise as a gun-smuggler. Also, his house didn't look like one that had been badly burned when he retrieved the hidden ricin. 

[MV/Liberace!]

I thought he was receiving guns in the flash forward, not getting rid of them.

[Nucky Nolan]

I thought he was receiving guns in the flash forward, not getting rid of them.

That could be; I can't remember. You still wonder why.

[Sardondi]

I thought he was receiving guns in the flash forward, not getting rid of them.

Yes, he bought an M-60 from Sheriff Shelby Parlow/Drew Thompson. Wait, that's Jim Beaver's Justified character. Man, these actors shouldn't cross over shows like that.

I haven't seen this episode yet. I'm always ambivalent, because if I happen to be anxious about something or feeling down when I watch it, then BB is guaranteed to make me feel worse. My take is that Walt is like the Hyman Roth character in The Godfather II: he's always talking about dying, but then acts like he's going to live forever. To me that's Walt - he says he's terminal, but kills anyone who might threaten him. But as much as I might hate Walt, I simply loathe Skyler. 

[eddie dean]

That could be; I can't remember. You still wonder why.

Walter was indeed buying the gun along with the Cadillac and a user manual for the m60. His 52 birthday was spent at a Denny's.  He had a fake name/address & fake New Hampshire ID.  IDK what  town he was in. He told the Denny's waitress he was in town for business and NH was 30 hour drive. Maybe he is still in Albuquerque?

Did  Walt used Saul's "Hoover filter replacement" guy to dissapper. From who? Cops, Jessie,Lydia?

Also, on his 52nd, he was quite thin, had a full beard and different glasses. Disheveled,alone and desperate, was my impression.

The next flash forward at his abandoned & "Heisenberg" graffitied house, he was driving that SAME Cadillac.
So many possibilities! I admire the writers who create these dense, twisting plotlines.

[Sardondi]

...The next flash forward at his abandoned & "Heisenberg" graffitied house, he was driving that SAME Cadillac.
So many possibilities! I admire the writers who create these dense, twisting plotlines.

I do as well. Thye had this plot all worked as much as a year ago. when we saw the 52 B'day was sometime last tear, correct? We didn't know what it meant or how it fit. But we're beginning to get faint stirrings of recollection. It was brilliant plotting. I just feel so sorry for the guy. He had at least three chances to get out clean. Well, not "clean", at least less filthy than he became after every abandoned chance to quit. Skyler ruined the first chance to quit by giving away over $600,000 to her sex pal, and leaving Walt almost destitute. After killing Fring they all should have hit the wind. Then he could have sold his interest in the 1000 gallons of methylamine and had $5 million, and chose not to out of ego.

He's destroyed not just his own family, but Hank and Marie too, plus causing an assassination attempt on Hank that almost got him killed and left him crippling for life and in pain. He probably shortened his lifespan. And then how many people has Walt killed? Forget as a consequence of his actions, like the plane collision. I've seen figures which say Walt has personally killed or been the direct cause of death of some 7 persons, and ordered or caused the deaths of 16 more, for a total of 23 deaths. And all the while manipulating and using Jesse. What a monster.

[eddie dean]

I do as well. Thye had this plot all worked as much as a year ago. when we saw the 52 B'day was sometime last tear, correct?

Then he could have sold his interest in the 1000 gallons of methylamine and had $5 million, and chose not to out of ego.

And all the while manipulating and using Jesse. What a monster.

Ego is precisely Walt's problem. He had many, many chances to get out. I call it insanity. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. He thought his brain power alone could change each outcome.  He could rationalize anything. By season five we learned he was not just a drug dealer, he was building a drug empire.

Since season 5 was split into 2 parts of 8 episodes each, V.Gilligan. most likely had the broad strokes outlined for all 16 episodes of pt. 1 & 2. I would hate to think that he would write himself into a corner without knowing the basics. IDK I'm not a story writer, so I'm not certain how Gilligan works these things out.

I do still root for Walt, in the same way I rooted for Tony Soprano, or J. Nicholson's character in the Departed, or DeNiro in Goodfellas, their death means the end of the story. They all made terrible choices, but I'm not ready for the end yet. If this were real life, I. would have a different opinion.

EDIT: I'm glad Jessie finally understands how much Walt has been playing his emotions. Probably means Jessies' death is soon to follow.

[jazmunda]

Call me crazy but I have a sneaking suspicion that Walt doesn't even have cancer this time around and is just using it to manipulate.

[MV/Liberace!]

Call me crazy but I have a sneaking suspicion that Walt doesn't even have cancer this time around and is just using it to manipulate.

but haven't there been scenes with him receiving treatment?

[jazmunda]

but haven't there been scenes with him receiving treatment?

Would you put it past Walt to get some chemo just to keep up the illusion?

[eddie dean]

Call me crazy but I have a sneaking suspicion that Walt doesn't even have cancer this time around and is just using it to manipulate.

Okay, you crazy Aussie!
JK
That would blow my mind.
But he is, or was, hiding his RX from Skyler, and he was popping pills in the Dennys bathroom after he got the m60. He was alone so, unless he has started a oxy habit, his cancer came back.
Edit: hiding the cancers return from everyone until it suited his needs for manipulation.

[jazmunda]

Okay, you crazy Aussie!
JK
That would blow my mind.
But he is, or was, hiding his RX from Skyler, and he was popping pills in the Dennys bathroom after he got the m60. He was alone so, unless he has started a oxy habit, his cancer came back.
Edit: hiding the cancers return from everyone until it suited his needs for manipulation.

I forgot about the pills.

I only formulated that theory after he got back from his treatment in the latest episode when he was retrieving the gun from the soda machine. He seemed fine with no ill affects from the treatment.

[Nucky Nolan]

Walter was indeed buying the gun along with the Cadillac and a user manual for the m60. His 52 birthday was spent at a Denny's.  He had a fake name/address & fake New Hampshire ID.  IDK what  town he was in. He told the Denny's waitress he was in town for business and NH was 30 hour drive. Maybe he is still in Albuquerque?

Did  Walt used Saul's "Hoover filter replacement" guy to dissapper. From who? Cops, Jessie,Lydia?

Also, on his 52nd, he was quite thin, had a full beard and different glasses. Disheveled,alone and desperate, was my impression.

The next flash forward at his abandoned & "Heisenberg" graffitied house, he was driving that SAME Cadillac.
So many possibilities! I admire the writers who create these dense, twisting plotlines.

You guys set me straight. My cousin didn't watch the show with me, so it wasn't a two-fan brain fart. The confusion and misunderstanding were on me, alone. I also was confused by that whole toxic flower bit. How did the boy get the deadly lily of the valley in his system? Was it through a cigarette that Sal delivered to him? I had to watch the scene with Sal's handler three or four times too. Thank the Lord for DVDs!

[Nucky Nolan]

Would you put it past Walt to get some chemo just to keep up the illusion?

He would do something like that, but he collapsed in the bathroom after he buried his money in the desert. That could have been from plain exhaustion, but it seemed more probable that it was related to his bad health.

[MV/Liberace!]

Would you put it past Walt to get some chemo just to keep up the illusion?

i guess, but chemo is some pretty poisonous shit.