i’m glad yet again they spelled out Walter’s dipshittery so that dudes like pedoviejo can understand.
[details=Spoiler] What’s the deal with Todd’s prison connections, and what’s the big event/twist thats going to happen in the next couple episodes?
Also, can the show writers give Skyler cancer already so we can see Walt’s trollface?[/details]
Buyout
[details=Spoiler]Aaron Paul is such a good god damn actor. It will be a great injustice if his door isn’t being beaten down with movie and TV offers once Breaking Bad has concluded.
Early scene: both Jesse and Todd are pushing Walt’s buttons left and right (Todd’s “it’s him or us” vs. Jesse’s “we’re losing control of the operation”), but ironically it’s the n00b who does a better job of it.
I loved the cut between Mike listening to Hank’s recorded conversations (the Miracle Whip vs. mayonnaise bit was hysterical) and the shot of Marie sitting down, which briefly makes it look like she’s talking to Mike. Considering the talent behind this show, I can only assume this was a deliberate subversion of the way continuity editing works.
I felt genuinely bad for Skyler for the first time in a while when she “confessed” to Marie about the Ted affair. Actually, Marie was in rare form too, being genuinely funny in her own sort-of-confession about what she thought about Ted. Now that I think about it, this is the best Ted-related scene ever, at least partially because Ted himself isn’t in it.
In a moment of freaky image symmetry, Walt looked almost like he was pointing a gun when he turned the TV off. Shades not only of Todd and the boy, but of Jesse and Gale. Before anybody even opens their mouths, Aaron Paul communicates it wordlessly but clearly: not only is he upset about a child being killed, but it galls him that he’s an accessory. Even after all the moral boundaries he’s crossed, keeping quiet about what he’s seen–what he’s been a part of–is eating at his soul. I half-expected him to reach some kind of weird acceptance as he did with Jane, which would be in keeping with Breaking Bad’s M.O. of eroding at people’s morality one step at a time, but I’m strangely glad for Jesse’s sake that he’s taking it so hard.
That’s what she said.
Walt’s attempts at making it okay for Jesse are almost a parody of the way he rationalizes everything he does as being good for business. It’s nothing that Jesse would ever buy, and everything he says is baldly an unthinking admission of how his own mind works. In the absence of family, the big rationale for the whole meth empire thing, Walt has staked his entire sense of self-worth on the despicable business of manufacturing hard drugs.
Admitting to Jesse that he checks Gray Matter’s net worth every week is the closest Walt has ever come to being honest about his quest to anybody, including to himself.
The dinner scene was glorious for so many reasons. Let’s just leave it at that. (Shall we deliver Aaron Paul’s shower of award trophies now or later? Because he’s fucking earning them.) Though I kept wishing that Jesse would just blurt out that Walt came to him about starting the whole meth business rather than the other way around.
While I’m proclaiming my undying bro-love for Aaron Paul, I might as well do the same for Jonathan Banks, who has always been interesting as the evil James Bond that is Mike, but has never been better.
Among the prominent male performers, Bryan Cranston has the somewhat thankless task of playing the thoroughly corrupted, past-the-point-of-no-return Walt, who isn’t (and probably can never be) as interesting as the Walt-in-transition that we were treated to in the first couple seasons. I don’t mean to take anything away from him by praising his co-stars, but it seems like the stuff he can really chew on with this show is behind him. I hope I’m proven wrong. He was certainly a lot more dynamic in this episode than in the last few. Somehow, the shot of him and Mike sitting down simultaneously in the “office” (Walt coming to rest in an uncomfortable hunch and Mike in an easy slouch) seemed to hint at better things to come.
Mike should have known better than to leave a resourceful guy like Walt alone with… well, anything within reaching distance. Then again, Mike isn’t privy to the full extent of Walt’s resourcefulness. Being a relatively recent addition to the show, Mike wasn’t there for so many of Walt’s most MacGyver-esque moments. What Walt did to escape was slightly insane, but really, does it even register as a blip on the insanity radar when you consider what he is now compared to what he was a year ago?
Saul is still wearing his ribbon from the airline disaster. Good ol’ dependable Saul.
Good ol’ insidious Walt.[/details]
EDIT:
I find this legitimately upsetting.
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You need to write for TWIP.
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Yeah it sucks but at least we know we’ll have proper closure next year.
ahahaha I didn’t notice the airline disaster ribbon. What a great detail.
Spoiler
I was half expecting some kind of deal to be made with Walt becoming a cook for the Pheonix methylamine buyers, but I suppose thats too clean a way for the 3 baldies to part ways, and Walt is probably beyond the desire to do anything lower than run his own ‘business.’
The sound Spider-Man’s web shooters make?
One that does ridiculously long recaps of tv shows.
im hoping todd kept the spider as an insurance against his crew, should they feel to dispose of him.
great episode as always, preview for the new one looks great as well, the rise of Walter Montana
I don’t understand the focus on the spider. How can that jar be in any way suspicious? I’m going to assume they all saw him pick it up and if Mike wasn’t worried then I don’t think he’ll be worried about it now. I think his joy at looking at the spider is more a sign of his limited mental capabilities. He comes off as a simple-minded guy trying to impress those he looks up to and did not have a bit of remorse over the murder of the boy. In short, he just thought the spider was cool. That’s it.
I agree and disagree. With Jesse, at least when it comes to things like these, he’s completely honest. Think about it, this is the FIRST time he’s ever told his tale to ANYONE, after 17 years.
We got to see the side of Walt that reveals his innermost regrets, and instead of living beyond them, he decides to relive vicariously through his shadowy projection, known to us as Heisenberg. So yes he’s feeding his ego, but because of past regrets.
I’m not going to lie, Walt going all McGyver/ Jack Bauer was fucking badass. This is a man with nothing to lose, except his family, his life, his freedom, his money, his…
It’s still interesting how this story didn’t really start because of the cancer, but really started because of a girl.
Spoiler
Jesse knows that Walt didn’t lose any sleep over what happened. Jesse is starting to see Walt’s true colors, and is going to distance himself from him, first professorially, then personally . And because Walt always needs someone to manipulate, he’s gonna use and abuse Todd. Probably to get Mike’s old crew killed off in prison for way less money that is would cost to keep them alive.
I don’t think I’ve ever simultaneously respected and been appalled by a fictional character as much as Walter White. Not only is he willing to do anything and everything in his power to get what he wants but the writers continually come up with exciting and surprising avenues in which to let him flex his vile, blackened soul. Even as each episode hits us harder on the head as to how we should feel about Walt than the last, it never comes off as emotionally manipulative as Walt is. Speilberg I hope you’re taking notes.
Buyout is one of the best episodes.
I’m going to be the obligatory contrarian and just say that I think the transition from bumbling nice guy chemistry teacher to blackhearted devil incarnate in 1 year is a little too much to still be believable, and the plausibility of the show was one of it’s crowning jewels.
Thing 1: Walt has always been Heisenberg. Some transition was necessary for his thin veneer to wear off, but it wasn’t the total human personality makeover that it appears to be at first. I think his decision to start cooking again in season 3 should lay to rest the idea that he was ever a totally innocent nice guy who only started cooking meth because he had to.
Thing 2: Breaking Bad is plausible, in the same way that North By Northwest and Batman Begins are plausible. Movie plausibility has to hold together just well enough for it to work while you’re watching it. It has to create the illusion that things could pan out that way. It might start to show its seams once the show is over, but it’s fine as long as it doesn’t happen while the show is still playing. Everybody knows that some of the events are highly improbable, even ridiculous. The movie’s job isn’t to convince you otherwise; just to keep you from thinking about it in the middle of things.
In the words of Alfred Hitchcock, it’s the kind of thing that only hits you after you’ve gone home and start pulling cold chicken out of the icebox.
I do think the train/methylamine heist was pushing it. It was a little too self-consciously artificial, as if the show briefly stepped into the wrong genre.
Really liked hearing about Grey Matter.
Don’t care about getting into characters feelings and trying to figure out all that stuff. I just want to enjoy Jesse and Walt winning emmy’s together for the last time.
Well let me just contradict what I just typed and say if you were Walt and your entire life has fallen apart (after all you were doing was to support the people you loved and your wife just shat all over you while you did so. Then got all distant and retarded after you gave her exactly what she wanted, because a tax fraud is a klutz) and you have a chance to become the new Gus wouldn’t you be like “Fuck it” and give it the old college try? Especially when he’s shown to be a person bubbling over with angry pride?
So yeah, Jesse destroyed that episode with the scene at the table. Sadly Goody, I read in Rolling Stone that Paul isn’t really interested in being in starring in high profile movies. He seems super chill.
No, if we are to talk about willing suspension of disbelief and events standing up to the cold eye of scrutiny and retrospect, Breaking Bad is very believable in the same way The Wire was. Maybe the Mcguyver escapades and giant magnets and such are a bit more questionable, but by and large one of the appeals is it feels like it could happen like that and the effects of events that we see play out go along with what might logically be expected- including the way life throws random
Curveballs and coincidences.
As far as Walt->Satan transition goes, I just don’t see. Not over one year. It kind of makes sense over the five seasons, but when you consider the time frame- less than a year ago he was teaching kids and had a son of around 16, and now he doesn’t care about killing a 14 year old??
Those “random” curveballs have a curious habit of rewarding or punishing people in ways they deserve, or at least forcing them down the path of getting what they deserve.
I guess if I really sat and pondered about it, 1 year would seem like a short time span, but if I accept that Walt was always Heisenberg, and remember that in that year, Walt stared death in the face, survived, and became the most prominent speed producer in his region, its believable enough that his enormous success and power would lend to a feeling of invincibility, making it easier to shed his old inhibitions.
It’s hard not to watch the Krazy 8 episode and think hes a completely different dude than he is now though.
The transition for Walt wasn’t an easy one, but he just became comfortable with killing people. Some in the armed services will tell you the first time you fire your weapon and take a life it’ll sit with you, but when it’s you or them you’ll be much more willing to fire. Every time Walt had to kill someone it was to preserve himself. He didn’t kill the kid, but it lifted the pressure of dealing with a witness so he could continue dealing meth. Just keep in mind Walt never killed someone for the fuck of it. He’s always done it when he’s had no other choice.
After we finally got the worth of Grey Matter, so much of his greed makes sense. If I missed out on a billion-dollar company, I’d try to get paid no matter what too.