nah, par for the course for certain parts of albuquerque
Breaking Bad Final Half Season
- Thread starter Chuck Finley
- Start date
nah, par for the course for certain parts of albuquerque
^^^ Sadly, I hear this a lot about Albuque. Slightly OT, I visited there 23 years ago and it was a really nice town. Not many people, not much traffic (and really nice old classic cars and antiques, preserved in the desert dryness), great food and everyone seemed to be pretty friendly. Then, I guess some big Motorola plant went in, followed by a pretty respectable population boom and, with it, a larger frequency of crime, plus its location along a major north/south Mexican mule corridor really turned it to shit. A shame, I really liked that place. Hopefully Santa Fe fared better than Alba did.
Getting back on topic, I always amused by Skylar's admission to Walt that she was "waiting for the cancer to come back". She has also been seen chain-smoking up a storm in damn near every episode now and I got the impression that she was trying to "hurry" him back down that path through her second-hand smoke. Being an ex-smoker myself, it was one of the first things I noticed.
Getting back on topic, I always amused by Skylar's admission to Walt that she was "waiting for the cancer to come back". She has also been seen chain-smoking up a storm in damn near every episode now and I got the impression that she was trying to "hurry" him back down that path through her second-hand smoke. Being an ex-smoker myself, it was one of the first things I noticed.
I think Walt's reasons for going into the business at the beginning were sympathetic, he didn't want to leave his family with a huge amount of debt.
Yeah, all that went away the the moment he went into business with Fring.
I don't think poisoning Brock is the worst thing he did. He did not do it 'in cold blood', that was a tactical self defense maneuver and one of the few times his tactical self defense maneuver was designed not to be deadly. The murders are far less forgivable than what he did to Brock, and his refusal to let Skylar distance his family from him when he had every intent to put them in the path of violent thugs.
It's obvious Lydia's going to try to force them in some manner back in the game, but I think she's go after Walt and his family long before she went after Jesse. She's way too scared of Walt. Kill Walt and kidnap Jesse, maybe.
Just sayin', Lydia's a coward, and she's a coward who has seen what happens to people when they fuck with Jesse without dealing with Walt first.
Yeah, all that went away the the moment he went into business with Fring.
I don't think poisoning Brock is the worst thing he did. He did not do it 'in cold blood', that was a tactical self defense maneuver and one of the few times his tactical self defense maneuver was designed not to be deadly. The murders are far less forgivable than what he did to Brock, and his refusal to let Skylar distance his family from him when he had every intent to put them in the path of violent thugs.
It's obvious Lydia's going to try to force them in some manner back in the game, but I think she's go after Walt and his family long before she went after Jesse. She's way too scared of Walt. Kill Walt and kidnap Jesse, maybe.
Just sayin', Lydia's a coward, and she's a coward who has seen what happens to people when they fuck with Jesse without dealing with Walt first.
I did wonder if Skyler and the kids were a part of this rescue, but you're right, it could just be Jesse.
That was just the rationale. Walt was sick of his ordinary life and needed some excitement.
It went away a lot earlier than that, pretty much in the first couple of episodes of the show. After all, there were people willing to pay for Walt's treatment. He wouldn't have had to turn to Meth cooking at all but he had already made up his mind. It was just an excuse to finally get the reward and recognition he felt he was owed but never received.
However, I'm also one of those who remained sympathetic to him for very long - way too long, in fact. I did root for him basically until the thing with Brock. To me, the moral ambiguity and the fact that we're made to root for or sympathise with the bad guy is one of the best aspects of the show. I like these ethical rollercoaster rides.
I still sympathized with him when he turned down the money from his former colleagues. I mean, in his position I would have taken the money, but I would have absolutely hated taking it and accepting charity from the people who took my idea and made billions off of it. Also at the end of season one he was still trying to exclude violence from the equation and still believed that was possible.
I think when Fring was in the equation it was possible to root for Walt for the same reason you can root for Tony Soprano against Mikey Palmici, Richie Aprile, Ralph Ciferetto and Phil Leotardo. Sure, Walt was objectively equally evil as Fring, but Fring was such a bigger jerk about it.
I also have to disagree about Brock. If he had killed Brock it would be one thing, but if he had not poisoned him, Fring would have killed him, Hank, and his family. That was the only way to get Jesse back on his side.
Now, when that 12 year old on the dirt bike was killed, different story.
somehow, I have even less compassion for Walter now that I know he sold his share of Gray for $5000 cause he wasn't getting along with his partners. When I thought it was stolen from him in some sort of love triangle it seemed like he had a right to feel ripped off.
Walter isn't an anti-hero. He's a villain with a few redeeming features. Anti-hero implies some kind of heroic status. Walter has little.
Maybe. But i feel otherwise. I think he's still clinging to the notion that he's doing everything to protect his family that he beloves. Sadly this love blinds him to his downfall, the danger he puts everyone around him in and the hard truth of his (de)evolution.
It won't be love that blinds him from his downfall - it's that out of control ego of his.
Walt left love behind halfway through the first season. Everything he does now is about satisfying his ego. He is definitely the villain of the show. The entire premise that Vince Gilligan came up with was what if we took the hero and turned him into the villain? How would people react? How long will it take for viewers to turn against him? Despite letting a young woman die, poisoning a child, ordering the death of a relatively innocent man, lying to his family, covering up the murder of a child, killing a man out of anger, and finally ordering the brutal murders of ten other men, some viewers are still rooting for Walt! Some still see him as the hero of the show! This would make for a fascinating sociology paper.
Walter isn't doing this out of love for his family, he wants to possess his family and be the master of the house. You know, like a centuries old fashioned man. Like all men really still want to be and we would if it weren't for our annoying superegos getting in the way. The way he treated Skylar starting season 3 was to enslave her to his whims.
Chuck Finley
Commander
In a weird way, I do too. He doesn't want to kill or have killed anyone "innocent", or anyone at all really. 98% of the people who have died as a result of Walt; most of them have been pieces of shit anyway. Walt still klings-on to the idea of family. He's not willing to hurt anyone for no reason, Gus, on the other hand, was a gangster from start to finish. I'm still rooting for Walt, I hope he makes it.
Chuck Finley
Commander
OK, that episode wasn't as exciting as last week, but interesting all the same. It always amazes me how they still manage to interject humor in this show. The conversation with Saul was the highlight of this episode. I always wanted to go to Belize; until now.
I haven't seen the episode yet but I know someone who works on a cruise ship, he took pictures of Belize beaches in the winter and it looked amazing. His reply was "Stay near the ship, or in groups". he's also gay and he probably would be stoned for that.
Yeah, to a character in an Almodovar film.
People in the real world who think love is possession wind up with thousand year prison sentences.
Yeah, I guess if Todd hadn't been there that kid wouldn't have died. And he went out of his way not to murder the train crew, and Lydia, and Gale was strictly self defense. So you can argue that puts him a notch above Fring. But that doesn't change the fact that he put himself in a position where he knew there was a chance he'd need to commit murder. He's responsible, and he's unrefutably an evil man who ought to be brought to justice.
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