Breaking Bard

[krynd]

I missed this past episode. Fancast, Hulu, and the AMC site don't have the full episode. Any ideas on where to go (besides Bittorrent) to find the episode?

[smw543]

I missed this past episode. Fancast, Hulu, and the AMC site don't have the full episode. Any ideas on where to go (besides Bittorrent) to find the episode?

AMC replays new episodes several times. (Schedule)

Anyways, no spoiler can contain this fact: Hank is an EPIC BADASS!

[davidmarlee]

I think this has to be one of my favorite shows of all time. Even if you don't like it it's hard to watch it and not think Bryan Cranston is incredible as Walter White; he really deserved those awards.

[Sockmonkey]

Anyways, no spoiler can contain this fact: Hank is an EPIC BADASS!

Seconded.

Spoiler:

When he was scrabbling for that bullet I was thinking "hey isn't the bullet that came off that guy one of those bulletproof vest penetrating ones?" I remember the seller going on about his wares but can't remember if they were the high damage kind or the special penetrating kind. Anyhow, at the time I was all thinking that it was the penetrating kind which made the scene reminiscent of those fantasy stories where the hero needs to snag the magic weapon to slay the big bad. Then Hank goes and shoots him in the head rendering the whole thing moot hah! It makes sense in retrospect though. Hank probably caught on that the guy had a vest when he didn't go down. Also having him get hold of the magic bullet just in time would have been too contrived. So yeah, it turned out satisfactorilly.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

I really think Jesse is in the running for Best Actor this season, too... no 'Supporting' for him.

[Sockmonkey]

Spoiler:

Ok, fast food guy is offcially scary now. Ruthless + good sense FTW. From the previews I thought legless mexican dude was gonna crawl into Hank's room and finish the job. Now all Walt has to fear is the DEA.

Makes me wonder how it all will end. I don't see Walt going to prison but I kind of hope they don't kill him either.

[krynd]

Spoiler:

Ok, fast food guy is offcially scary now. Ruthless + good sense FTW. From the previews I thought legless mexican dude was gonna crawl into Hank's room and finish the job. Now all Walt has to fear is the DEA.

Makes me wonder how it all will end. I don't see Walt going to prison but I kind of hope they don't kill him either.

Part of me wants him to quit cooking, make amends for his crimes, and have a generic "happily ever after" sort of ending; and the other part wants him and Jesse to ascend to the top of the local drug empire. Prison or death would be too lame of an ending, IMO.

[Sockmonkey]

At least the show is inventive enough that whatever the ending is we can't see it coming a mile away.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

Spoiler:

They move to Mexico so Gus can marry Jesse, and rule forever over their empire.

...

What?

[Sockmonkey]

Spoiler:

Aw man, whenever I think Jesse is starting to grow as a person he turns right back into a little bastard. He's his own worst enemy too. Not because he wants to run with his own ideas, but because his ideas always suck. Skyler has really rolled with the puches here and did a damn fine job of twisting Walter's balls. What's fast food guy's name? I forget.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

Gus.

Oh my Gord, seeing Brandon and Skinny Pete in Group Therapy was so. Damn. Awesome. Hee.

[krynd]

Spoiler:

Aw man, whenever I think Jesse is starting to grow as a person he turns right back into a little bastard. He's his own worst enemy too. Not because he wants to run with his own ideas, but because his ideas always suck.

Spoiler:

Ditto. What is he thinking? Has he been testing his own product? As if the Cartel wouldn't find out about it eventually...

Also, how dumb is he to ignore Sal's advice? It's a pretty damn good plan, and he's too caught up on "being an outlaw" and the fact that he'd pay 17% to Sal (which he could make up in volume, or just write off as "insurance"). If he'd look at the forest, instead of the trees, his life would be a lot easier...

[Mighty Jalapeno]

Spoiler:

Remember, he did bad in high school and lost his girlfriend to drugs. That automatically means he's f***ing retarded and completely self-destructive.

[sir2you]

I just started watching season 1. It has its own sense of humor... I like it. =)

[Sockmonkey]

Spoiler:

By the half hour mark I was thinking that Walt was cuckoo for coco puffs and that either the stress had finally broken him or that the tumor was back.
It showcased his need to be in controll and his need to come to terms with the crazy shit he's done rather nicely.
It also shows how Walt never expected to have to live with the cosequences of his actions and is totally unprepared to deal with them psychologically.

Big list of things I was certain were going to happen but didn't:
Jesse and Walt getting into a serious fistfight.
Jesse falling off the ladder because he swung too hard or because Walt passed out and pulled it over leaving Jesse laying on the floor dying while Walt is unconcious and wakes up to find him dead in kind of a paralell to Jane's death driving home how everyone around him keeps getting hurt.
Walt blabbing to Jesse about letting Jane die because he gets talky when he's drugged.

It takes some really good writing to be able to mind-screw you with you like that to the point where you can be genuninely surprised by what happens even if it's a cliche'

Nice touches:
Walt realistically taking a little while to pass out rather than the standard hollywood two steps and BAM.
Lampshading the unlikelyhood of Walt's conversation with Jane's dad.

Good stuff man, good stuff.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

Starts humming "I Fall To Pieces"...

[cephalopod9]

That was intense.

Spoiler:

It definitely says something that the show can do more with Standing on a ladder. than your average television program seems able to manage with people pointing guns at each other.

Does anyone else want to geek about the symbolism? It is good stuff.

Spoiler:

More of a recurring theme, but Walt tearing apart the lap after the fly was reminisce of his tearing apart his house to get the mold underneath it. Both are pretty straight forward metaphors in their own right too.
One of the more poignant moments early on was Walt failing to win his family over with breakfast, following which Jesse shows up needing food. Along with later attempts at the literal and figurative putting food on the table, makes it brilliantly appropriate that he ends up working for a fast food entrepreneur.

And do I even need to mention the use color? It's pretty amazing the amount of detail they work in.

Also, with the preview for next week they said "Only 3 episodes of Breaking Bad left" and not "this season". Is the whole series going to end do you think?

[krynd]

Also, with the preview for next week they said "Only 3 episodes of Breaking Bad left" and not "this season". Is the whole series going to end do you think?

I noticed that too. While I'm not happy about one of my favorite shows ending any time soon, I think it's better that they have an end in sight, as opposed to unrealistically drawing the show out in order to keep making money.

Spoiler:

It's highly unrealistic to expect him to continue what he's doing indefinitely. IRL, I'm pretty sure there aren't many "old-timers" amongst drug makers/dealers, as most either get arrested or die after a while. To say he somehow has this insane amount of luck eluding the police, rivals, and their various assassins for any considerable length of time would probably turn off the majority of viewers; even if they wrote in explanations that'd be satisfactory. Eventually you'd just get tired of the repetition...

tl;dr: All good things come to an end.

[Sockmonkey]

Spoiler:

OK, Jesse manages to stop short of being a dick this time. It does seem a little coincidental that he runs into the one person connected to the death of his friend though. Walt running into Jane's dad in that bar was already pushing it. I can see the point though, showing both of them the end consequences of their actions. It's clear now that Jesse just isn't cut out for the big time. The organization and complexity is totally counter to his rebel atitude.
Skyler taking to this dark side business like it's second nature. It's like she never gave a crap about legality or morality in the first place aside from how it affects her.
It's fantastic how Gus can be scarier by being polite than most people are with guns.

[krynd]

Spoiler:

It's fantastic how Gus can be scarier by being polite than most people are with guns.

QFT. That whole scene was freaky, and I'm actually glad it didn't turn out to be some sort of cliché set-up on Gus' part. That would've been too easy...

[cephalopod9]

Spoiler:

OK, Jesse manages to stop short of being a dick this time. It does seem a little coincidental that he runs into the one person connected to the death of his friend though. Walt running into Jane's dad in that bar was already pushing it. I can see the point though, showing both of them the end consequences of their actions. It's clear now that Jesse just isn't cut out for the big time. The organization and complexity is totally counter to his rebel atitude.
Skyler taking to this dark side business like it's second nature. It's like she never gave a crap about legality or morality in the first place aside from how it affects her.
It's fantastic how Gus can be scarier by being polite than most people are with guns.

Spoiler:

I don't see the coincidences being that out there. That people in the same area are connected to the same issues doesn't seem like that big a stretch. Walt and Jane's dad could have just (I'd need to double check the order of events) left Jane's apartment, or been headed that direction and stopped at the nearest place to drink needing to vent their emotions. Only all that improbable if you look at people and locations as random.
Similarly, Jesse's attraction to... new girl are the main improbability as far as I can tell. That Combo was shot by someone involved with meth, and whose family members are dealing with the effects of meth, again, in the area isn't a ridiculous suspension of disbelief.
Skyler's a smart lady who isn't going to see her family go to jail. I don't see her enjoying any of it, but she isn't going to stand to the side and be told what to do, and she has the know how to do some things right.

[smw543]

Additionally,

Spoiler:

I think the situation with Hank has given Skyler a bit of perspective. Now she knows how Walt felt as far as needing a lot of money to help the people he cared about.

Her shift from appalled by all this to becoming an active participant has been occurring gradually almost since she found out, and it was Hank's medical bills that made her go from lies of omission ("I can't tell you why we're getting divorced; it's personal") to outright lies ("Walt won this money by counting cards").

[smw543]

...

(A tiny part of me expected him to say, "Come with me if you want to live.")

[Sockmonkey]

Spoiler:

Gus shows another reason he's formidable. Not because he demonstrates that he's powerful, but because he shows that he's smart enough to make peace when it's the most practical option instead of letting his ego rule him.
Hank has the best wife on the planet.
I totally though Jesse was going to be executed or get himself killed.
I Did Not See That Ending Coming.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

No One Did.

Spoiler:

This is the return of the Walter that killed Krazy-8 with a bike lock. This is the return of the Walter who shaved his head, threatened a drug lord with a bag of high explosives, and then screamed until he drooled in his car. This is the return of the Walter that's been lurking just behind the bashful, regretful sigh since Episode One. The mancrush returns.

[Winter Man]

Spoiler:

That was definitely one of my favourite episodes of anything ever. I think that Hal Walt really shows a brilliant side to the human mind, how someone can, well, break bad.

Awesome, awesome show.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

Spoiler:

Has Walt actually killed more people than anyone else on the show? I did a quick count and I think, yes. Yes he did.

[Sockmonkey]

Well, he's shown killing more often than anyone else since he's the main character but of course the various bad guys have killed far more.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

Well, I obviously meant on-screen, yes.

[cephalopod9]

No One Did.

About 3 seconds before it happened, I was expecting that sort of thing, but that went... even further.

Spoiler:

This is the return of the Walter that killed Krazy-8 with a bike lock. This is the return of the Walter who shaved his head, threatened a drug lord with a bag of high explosives, and then screamed until he drooled in his car. This is the return of the Walter that's been lurking just behind the bashful, regretful sigh since Episode One. The mancrush returns.

You mean

Spoiler:

Black-hat Walter? (next week's preview has him with is hat on)

Gus's office is such a great set. oh man, and they do such a good job of using the same sets in new ways.

[Sockmonkey]

Spoiler:

Shooting those guys is obvious only in retrospect when you remember the "no half measures" speech. Perfect fit.

[krynd]

Decent season ender, although IMO no cliffhanger (explained in spoilered section) means I won't be counting down until the next season.

Spoiler:

I loved the scene where Mike freed the Asian businessman and his secretary, especially the contrast between his home life (buying balloons for his granddaughter) and work life (using some of those balloons to initiate a one-man assault on a business). Also, Mike is just a serious bad-ass and this scene proves it. I also liked how he repeatedly stated how this is just a job to him. Him and Gus are a great combination, namely how logical they both are, in contrast with Tuco.

As for the ending: I have no doubt that Walter will live (he pointed out at the end that with Gale dead, Gus will need Walter to continue production), so that part was anticlimactic. The scene where Jesse shoots Gale, I think, will be counter-intuitive. If you watch the last few seconds, he moves the gun to the left (Jesse's right), which makes me think that he'll shoot behind Gale (possibly at Victor), warn Gale to stop cooking, then run off somewhere.

[Mighty Jalapeno]

That said, I absolutely LOVED

Spoiler:

Walter's blubbering sobbing breakdown... immediately followed by the Heisenberg Glare of "The fuck you gonna do NOW, bitch?" when he rattled off Gale's address. That was Gus-worthy glaring right there.

[Slight-of-mind]

Season 4 is going to be the greatest

Spoiler:

6353 wantabo apartment 6 ... yeah

[Mighty Jalapeno]

Juan Tabo... I have Closed Captioning. Hehe. Still, you are right... scariest delivery of an apartment address ever.

[Sockmonkey]

Spoiler:

Yeah, Gus and company don't seem to be used to dealing with someone nearly as logical and ruthless as they are. Jesse moving the gun like that was a bit too obvious for a cliffhanger.

[Ukamoc]

Spoiler:

Yeah, Gus and company don't seem to be used to dealing with someone nearly as logical and ruthless as they are. Jesse moving the gun like that was a bit too obvious for a cliffhanger.

Spoiler:

Ah, but did Jesse really move? To me it looked like the camera did a slow move around him so that he was looking dead into it, with the gun still pointing at Gale.

[smw543]

Spoiler:

Yeah, Gus and company don't seem to be used to dealing with someone nearly as logical and ruthless as they are. Jesse moving the gun like that was a bit too obvious for a cliffhanger.

Spoiler:

Ah, but did Jesse really move? To me it looked like the camera did a slow move around him so that he was looking dead into it, with the gun still pointing at Gale.

Spoiler:

As I recall, Vince Gilligan said in an interview that he meant for it to be clear that Jesse killed him, but after he heard that people thought it was ambiguous, he might reconsider. I think I read it about a week after the finale.

[dubsola]

I'm watching this again, because I fell off the wagon last time. Up to the second episode of Season 2, so no spoilers please!

I have a question. Jesse and Walter are at Tuco's Dad's place, and Hank shows up. How did Hank know where to go? He was looking for Jesse, but as far as I can tell had no knowledge of Tuco's Dad's place.

[ProZac]

Spoiler:

Yeah, Gus and company don't seem to be used to dealing with someone nearly as logical and ruthless as they are. Jesse moving the gun like that was a bit too obvious for a cliffhanger.

Spoiler:

Ah, but did Jesse really move? To me it looked like the camera did a slow move around him so that he was looking dead into it, with the gun still pointing at Gale.

Spoiler:

As I recall, Vince Gilligan said in an interview that he meant for it to be clear that Jesse killed him, but after he heard that people thought it was ambiguous, he might reconsider. I think I read it about a week after the finale.

I just watched through them all for the first time recently. I saw it as

Spoiler:

the camera rotating to the gun, not Jesse moving the gun. Also, they didn't actually show a dead Gale. Anytime you don't show a dead person, people are going to be skeptical. Kinda strange Vince Gilligan didn't expect that.