Breaking Bad - Season 4
- Thread starter Agent Richard07
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I don't blame her. Ted was a complete and utter idiot for misusing the money he got, with further plans to make even more bad decisions.
The moment Gus's gift to the Don was revealed, I knew what he was up to. Then when Gus actually drank some of it down, I thought maybe he had something up his sleeve until he vomitted at least most of what he drank down the toilet and I realized I was right about what I thought before. Gus is a genius, something I wish Walt was more of these days.
But I loved the scenes between Walt and Walt Jr. which were emotional and insightful. I like that finally we got to know more about Walt's childhood which explains Walt's fear of weakness and his pride. I think at some point Walt Jr. is going to ask Walt, "Dad, who's Jesse?"
Speaking of Jesse, we really see him growing up a bit this episode with him standing up to the head of the Cartel lab, his ability to make Walt's product without Walt's help, and coming to Mike and Gus's aide at the end of the episode. But, though it may seem he's on their team, I think it's just a matter of time before the other shoe drops and Jesse questions his loyalty to them and teams up with Walt.
Skylar is just making things worst for herself in this situation with Ted. Ted using money she gave him through Saul for stuff other than resolving his IRS problem didn't really surprise me. What surprised me was Skylar telling him that she was the one behind his sudden cash flow. Bad BAD idea, Skylar. I'm worried that Ted may take more money from Skylar or that Ted may become a liability that either Walt or Skylar may have to eliminate personally.
But I loved the scenes between Walt and Walt Jr. which were emotional and insightful. I like that finally we got to know more about Walt's childhood which explains Walt's fear of weakness and his pride. I think at some point Walt Jr. is going to ask Walt, "Dad, who's Jesse?"
Speaking of Jesse, we really see him growing up a bit this episode with him standing up to the head of the Cartel lab, his ability to make Walt's product without Walt's help, and coming to Mike and Gus's aide at the end of the episode. But, though it may seem he's on their team, I think it's just a matter of time before the other shoe drops and Jesse questions his loyalty to them and teams up with Walt.
Skylar is just making things worst for herself in this situation with Ted. Ted using money she gave him through Saul for stuff other than resolving his IRS problem didn't really surprise me. What surprised me was Skylar telling him that she was the one behind his sudden cash flow. Bad BAD idea, Skylar. I'm worried that Ted may take more money from Skylar or that Ted may become a liability that either Walt or Skylar may have to eliminate personally.
I agree with you. I am looking forward to Sklyer confronting Ted further.
Excellent analysis of this episode.
Thanks. I add a little bit more at the end about Skylar.
Looks like Ted is going to become a liability.
By the way, were the lab guys killed by Gus's poison too? I'm just wondering if there's still someone who could still replicate Walt's formula.
By the way, were the lab guys killed by Gus's poison too? I'm just wondering if there's still someone who could still replicate Walt's formula.
I've spent the last couple weeks getting fully caught up on this show. I originally saw a few eps from season 2 a couple years back and then never checked it out further, but now I've seen everything (except last night's ep) and holy shit, this show is awesome! Even when the show is spinning its wheels, it's compelling viewing. It has some pacing issues from time to time but watching the arcs of all these characters is fascinating. Walt has become astonishingly villainous while Jesse has gone from a listless and amoral junkie to pretty much the only person on the show with a working conscience. Even Skyler doesn't seem overly concerned with the rightness of anything her husband does--she only cares about what can come back to haunt her and the rest of her family, but she's happy to take the money.
Ted's a douchebag who hides it behind his "aw, shucks" demeanor. I love Saul and how over-the-top his slick lawyer persona is.
I wish we'd get to see some actual character from him, though, some insight into who he really is, and not the mask he wears in his day job. I suspect he's just a shrewd coward, though.
It would be pretty ironic if Hank manages to nail Walter through sheer dogged determination rather than superior intelligence and cunning. That would be the ultimate insult to Walt's pride, and is probably what motivated Walt's drunken babbling about how Gale wasn't Heisenberg. I think he likes taunting Hank with that, convinced Hank could never find out who he really is. Although he has since then looked scared shitless a few times, now that Hank is on Gus' trail.
Speaking of Gus: he's my favorite character on this show. I figured out he was "the guy" when he came to talk to Walt in his first appearance, but beyond that he hasn't been an easy character to piece together. Always so cool and collected, with a story prepared for every eventuality. Contrasting how casually and brutally he murdered Victor with what happened to his partner in Mexico implies his rise to power was bloody and merciless. The cartels kill for nothing, so how else do you beat them besides adopting their methods? I would like to know a bit more about his background, though. They've hinted that he was some kind of big bad in Chile and I'm certainly intrigued there. Knowing this show, we won't get that little flashback until Walt's standing over his bloody corpse.
I wish there were more shows like this on television. The writing, acting, and production are all top-notch. It may be an expensive show but every dollar of it shows up on screen.
Ted's a douchebag who hides it behind his "aw, shucks" demeanor. I love Saul and how over-the-top his slick lawyer persona is.
I wish we'd get to see some actual character from him, though, some insight into who he really is, and not the mask he wears in his day job. I suspect he's just a shrewd coward, though.It would be pretty ironic if Hank manages to nail Walter through sheer dogged determination rather than superior intelligence and cunning. That would be the ultimate insult to Walt's pride, and is probably what motivated Walt's drunken babbling about how Gale wasn't Heisenberg. I think he likes taunting Hank with that, convinced Hank could never find out who he really is. Although he has since then looked scared shitless a few times, now that Hank is on Gus' trail.
Speaking of Gus: he's my favorite character on this show. I figured out he was "the guy" when he came to talk to Walt in his first appearance, but beyond that he hasn't been an easy character to piece together. Always so cool and collected, with a story prepared for every eventuality. Contrasting how casually and brutally he murdered Victor with what happened to his partner in Mexico implies his rise to power was bloody and merciless. The cartels kill for nothing, so how else do you beat them besides adopting their methods? I would like to know a bit more about his background, though. They've hinted that he was some kind of big bad in Chile and I'm certainly intrigued there. Knowing this show, we won't get that little flashback until Walt's standing over his bloody corpse.
I wish there were more shows like this on television. The writing, acting, and production are all top-notch. It may be an expensive show but every dollar of it shows up on screen.
^ I envy you for being able to watch the whole thing all at once. This is the kind of show for that.
I didn't know he was the guy and didn't even recognize him as Giancarlo Esposito at first.
Back in Hermanos, I was thinking of Gus as a Kaiser Soze type character, but considering he damn near kamikaze'd his way into taking out the Cartel boss and possibly his lieutenants it pretty much cements that. I wonder what kind of pill he took prior to the toast. I thought it was something to counter-act the poison, evidently it didn't seem to work. Next to Jesse, he truly is one of my favorite characters on the show as well.
I wondered if Ted made up the whole IRS audit thing to scam Skyler out of money without actually blackmailing her (and exposing himself to danger since he would have to known Walt's in with a dangerous drug cartel). He could have faked the letter and the visit from the "IRS guy." But I guess Ted is just a dunce.
Jesse is going to think Gus wiped out the cartel (and drank poison) just to rescue him, since he doesn't know about Gus' previous motive for revenge.
I hadn't thought of the latter, but that would be extremely clever on Gus' part--buying Jesse's loyalty that way. All to isolate and eventually eliminate Walter, because Gus knows that Walt is the only real threat to him. Jesse will never be of that caliber--he's just not conniving and ambitious enough, but he'd be a great right-hand man like Mike.
Checkmate
Commodore
Jesse isn't that stupid. He knows Gus had the gift with him from the very beginning. It's what Mike said to him just before it happened that'll win him over more than the actual poisoning, which he'll easily figured out was planned from the start.
That said, the important part of the whole ordeal was that he was forced to kill someone again, and the look in his eyes as he did so in particular.
That said, the important part of the whole ordeal was that he was forced to kill someone again, and the look in his eyes as he did so in particular.
Fring knew that Eladio would serve drinks to all his lieutenants, and that they would pretty much all die at the same time, pretty much too quickly to shoot him. With that kind of brilliance, he's too smart for Walt. Obviously AMC is planning to make Breaking Bad cheaper by killing off Bryan Cranston and putting the cheaper Gian Carlo Esposito in the lead.
I think this has been said before, but I think Fring is a look at Walt's future if he continues on this path. I suspect that Fring's background is similar to Walt's. He's probably a chemist or at least an intellectual, like Walt, who went in to this business out of necessity and over time became more ruthless.
I'm guessing this was intentional, but when Jesse picks up the gun and starts shooting, it's looks and sounds similar to the scene where Jesse is playing the shooting game during his drug fugue. Either as foreshadowing or to indicate why he might be slightly more prepared than usual to shoot like that given he's never been previously shown to be that competent with a gun.
I'm guessing the pill Fring took was to slow the poison down, maybe charcoal pills to absorb whatever was in there, but he looked like he got an extra large shot compared to everyone else. It was key for him to drink it without hesitation. I wonder why he didn't put in some kind of poison that he could have preemptively taken an antidote for?
I enjoyed all the cartel stuff, particularly Jesse's showdown with the cartel chemist and Gus' revenge. But the one weakness this show has is how these types of plans seem to hinge on things working out exactly like they do, making the planners look extra awesome. What if the gang leader decided not to share? Then all his capo's would be alive. What if the leader had gone sober? What if he thought the stuff was too precious to drink right then and there and kept it for himself? What would their exit strategy have been if things didn't work out exactly the way it did end up working out.
Skylar revealing the payoff to Ted was dumb. In fact even paying Ted off was dumb, but telling him is REALLY dumb. A guy like Ted doesn't go and spend his windfall to pay his fine as his family business get's shuttered. If he were responsible like that they business wouldn't have had the problems it did. Now Ted has HUGE leverage against skylar, and I'm guessing he's going to use it once the money issues start coming up again. I hope Skylar actually ends up ordering a hit on Ted.
I'm guessing this was intentional, but when Jesse picks up the gun and starts shooting, it's looks and sounds similar to the scene where Jesse is playing the shooting game during his drug fugue. Either as foreshadowing or to indicate why he might be slightly more prepared than usual to shoot like that given he's never been previously shown to be that competent with a gun.
I'm guessing the pill Fring took was to slow the poison down, maybe charcoal pills to absorb whatever was in there, but he looked like he got an extra large shot compared to everyone else. It was key for him to drink it without hesitation. I wonder why he didn't put in some kind of poison that he could have preemptively taken an antidote for?
I enjoyed all the cartel stuff, particularly Jesse's showdown with the cartel chemist and Gus' revenge. But the one weakness this show has is how these types of plans seem to hinge on things working out exactly like they do, making the planners look extra awesome. What if the gang leader decided not to share? Then all his capo's would be alive. What if the leader had gone sober? What if he thought the stuff was too precious to drink right then and there and kept it for himself? What would their exit strategy have been if things didn't work out exactly the way it did end up working out.
Skylar revealing the payoff to Ted was dumb. In fact even paying Ted off was dumb, but telling him is REALLY dumb. A guy like Ted doesn't go and spend his windfall to pay his fine as his family business get's shuttered. If he were responsible like that they business wouldn't have had the problems it did. Now Ted has HUGE leverage against skylar, and I'm guessing he's going to use it once the money issues start coming up again. I hope Skylar actually ends up ordering a hit on Ted.
Skyler ordering Ted to be killed would be awesome. I'm sure Walt would get no small measure of satisfaction from that, too.
I'm sure Walt would get no small measure of satisfaction from that, too.
I used to think that, but this season has shown that Gus and Walt are worlds apart when it comes to this stuff. Gus is a mastermind that plans everything out in advance and keeps a close eye on all his people to make sure they don't get out of line. Walt is overly emotional, he constantly lets pride and sentimentality get in the way of his better judgement, his plans are often reckless, and he usually has no idea what his associates are up to. Walt likes to think of himself as a master strategist like Gus but he's almost always on the back foot and his plans come from a place of desperation. If Gus is taken out then it will probably be because he screwed up somehow, not because Walt outsmarted him.
Another great episode this week. Here's hoping that Walt and Ted get to have that "talk" soon.
I used to think that, but this season has shown that Gus and Walt are worlds apart when it comes to this stuff. Gus is a mastermind that plans everything out in advance and keeps a close eye on all his people to make sure they don't get out of line. Walt is overly emotional, he constantly lets pride and sentimentality get in the way of his better judgement, his plans are often reckless, and he usually has no idea what his associates are up to. Walt likes to think of himself as a master strategist like Gus but he's almost always on the back foot and his plans come from a place of desperation. If Gus is taken out then it will probably be because he screwed up somehow, not because Walt outsmarted him.
Another great episode this week. Here's hoping that Walt and Ted get to have that "talk" soon.
Quite true. Walt's a smart guy but he's ruled way too much by his emotions. Gus, on the other hand, remains cool and collected no matter what. He also plays the long game while Walt can't seem to see far beyond his next batch. Gus might be the kind of guy Walt wants to be, but he's nowhere near that level yet. I don't think he'll change his reckless ways, either, unless and until he suffers a personal loss because of it--the same way Gus did. So far, Walt's been damn lucky that none of his friends or family have been killed due to his carelessness. Then again, even though he's indirectly responsible for Hank getting shot, he's never seemed the least bit remorseful about it. I don't know if that's because he sees Hank as an adversary (which he is) or because he just plain doesn't like Hank (which is possible.)
Checkmate
Commodore
Well, except for all those times he has.
Hasn't seemed that way to me. He wouldn't even step up to pay Hank's bills until Skyler guilted him into it and concocted the gambling story. You'd think if he actually felt guilty about it he'd have been looking for a way to help Hank with all that drug money he's earned.
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