Breaking Bad - Season 4

[TheGodBen]

I think Jesse is just bidding his time with Gus, getting rid of Walt's plan to kill Gus and trying to come up with a better plan to get the job done by pretending to be one of the guys and keeping his eyes open.

I don't know, I really do believe that Jesse can't find it within himself to kill again. I can't see him breaking down in NA one week because he can't bring himself to forgive himself for what happened to Gale, and secretly planning another murder the next.

Another great episode, I especially loved Walt squirming in the car with Hank while Mike sinisterly smiles in the next car.

 

[Galileo7]

Another great episode, I especially loved Walt squirming in the car with Hank while Mike sinisterly smiles in the next car.

Agree, excellent episode and that whole scene was intense. I just hope AMC knows what a brilliant series they have here.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The only thing they didn't cover was the industrial appliance with the suspicious paper trail and connections to his business. Also, what can we learn from that glimpse we saw of his past?

Yeah, I did wonder why they didn't consider that worth following up on, even if they assume Gus is clueless. Perhaps the Big Bosses bought Gus' little business because they knew he was such a DEA fan, and he would help divert suspicion. Even if Gus is innocent, Hank is clearly onto something.

The flashback to Gus' past seemed unnecessary - do they really need to establish more motivation for him, other than being a mysterious guy who likes to make lots of money? But I guess having evolved into a very important character, Gus needs a more personal motivation in the story.

 

[CaptainCanada]

This has been an issue ever since they gave "Tio" his current backstory, but if he's, like, one of the top men in the Mexican-American cartel (even if retired), why the fuck is he living in a New Mexico retirement home with no guards or obvious contacts with the rest of the organization? You would think he'd have the cash for a nice retirement villa, and they'd probably want somebody like that to be more secure (Gus could easily have had him whacked by now if he wanted to).

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Maybe Tio's boss found out he pissed in his pool?

 

[stj]

The old guy may not be a Mexican, as there have been quite a few Spanish speakers who have never lived in Mexico. In any case, he's in New Mexico so we can see Gus visit him to torment the guy psychologically. The writers will always find a way to make Walt look nicer than the current villain, even if they have to hint that Fring is some sort of Pinochet torturer/spy. Which would be odd, as Chile is one the aggressively white Latin American countries so far as I know.

Gus doesn't have to explain what Gail wrote. The ownership of the restaurant chain being provider of meth-making equipment is indeed a little odd and the story of the disappearing paper trail even odder. But buying the whole company just to mishandle a delivery of one piece of equipment I think was just a writers' error. If they'd been thinking, the company would just have reported the gadget stolen. Which technically it would have been, albeit with the connivance of the company.

 

[CaptainCanada]

The old guy may not be a Mexican, as there have been quite a few Spanish speakers who have never lived in Mexico.

We were told previously that he was in charge of operations in New Mexico for a while (and Tuco replaced him), but he clearly has fairly extensive family ties to Mexico. Regardless, that doesn't explain his current living situation (which is, as you say, dramatically convenient).

Incidentally, Head Cartel Guy was played by Steven Bauer, Al Pacino's right hand man in Scarface.

Regarding Gus' backstory, his reaction to his buddy getting killed didn't really seem like a hardened killer to me, so I don't think he was on Pinochet's death squads or anything like that. Curious to see what it is, though.

I liked seeing Andrea and her kid again, though I suppose every return appearance increases the probability of horrible, Jesse-guilting death.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

I took Gus' flashback as not only his introductory backstory with the Cartel but to show that he too had a partner whom he was pretty close to. There are parallels to Walter and Jesse's partnership. So whether or not its a ruse, that whole "I see something in you" to Jesse was kind of reflecting that because Gus at one point was in the same situation as them.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I thought the backstory's purpose was just to flesh out Gus, and show us that his fight with the cartel is not just about money. That might be enough for real life, but for fictional drama, writers like to give major characters a less generic and more personal motivation. More than anything else, the story was confirmation that the writers consider Gus a major character in his own right.

Also it fills up air time entertainingly.

 

[LitmusDragon]

Great episode last week and very surprising to me somehow. Wasn't really expecting to ever get a Gus episode.

 

[Joe Washington]

Prediction of tonight's episode: Skylar's old boss Ted returns and this time, he needs her help with some serious money problems he is suffering from. When Skylar refuses or doesn't provide enough money to help, Ted blackmails her with her book cooking that she has done for him. This forces Skylar to use a portion of Walt's drug money to free herself from Ted's blackmail but she has to do this carefully so Walt's suspicions won't be aroused. I also think Walt Jr. is gong to learn about Skylar sleeping with Ted.

 

[Joe Washington]

OH. MY. GOD.

That fight between Walt and Jess was more brutal than any fight these two have had in the past. However, it was inevitable concerning the tensions that have been simmering between these two. I understood where Jesse was coming from. I mean, Jesse killed a mostly innocent man to save Walt's life and to find out that the man whose life he saved planted a bug in his car, I would be beyond pissed. But I also understood a bit of where Walt was coming from. He has been rapidly losing control of his own life from the beginning of Season 4 to Gus and Gus has turned his only ally aganist him. For someone with Walt's ego, that's like having someone cut off your balls and feed them to you.

Though most of my prediction involving Ted and Skylar was wrong, I was right about Skylar using some of Walt's money to help with Ted's money problems.

 

[Harvey]

Another great episode, with some nice scenes for both Sky and Walter. Jesse's chances don't look good beyond this season now. If this rift between him and Walt is as bad as it looks, I don't see how he's going to make it out alive. But the writers of this show have a way of surprising me, so we'll see.

 

[Agent Richard07]

"Bug"...

- What Skyler did to throw off the tax guy was too sitcomy and implausible for a show like this, but it was fun to watch. Have to admit though that she did use just the right amount of ditziness. Not too little, not too much. Good acting there.

- She can pay off Ted's bill without any trouble. She and Walt won't even miss $600,000. And that'll mean less money to launder.

- Speaking of laundering money, this show is the first time I'm seeing just how difficult it is to do so. Up until now it's just been an abstract concept that I never thiought much about.

- I've been paying attention to Mike's ear, wondering what they planned to do with it. He had part of his ear shot off a few episodes ago. Did the actor have some sort of accident that they could work into the show? If not, what would they do once the bandage came off? Yeah, I thought about this stuff.

 

[stj]

Ted's company is being set up to provide a corporate cover. Mike has trained Jesse on the Fring's network. Fring himself is introducing Jesse to the Cartel. The pieces are moving into place for Gus to die and Walt takes over the network. It's not clear yet what will happen to Mike.

Walt verbally abusing Jesse until he snapped, then trying his best to beat Jesse to death or strangle him shows how Walt's ability to control his impulses is weakening. He must know that Jesse can't poison Fring unless he is absolutely certain he won't get caught at it. Ricin is too slow. If Jesse's caught, Fring will have plenty of time to take revenge before the fact. Walt's malice is his cancer now, and it isn't in remission.

 

[TheGodBen]

Another great episode. When I saw the blood in the teaser, I thought it was going to be Walt's cancer making a comeback, then I thought Gus was handing him over to the cartel and the episode would end with Walt being kidnapped. The real ending was much better and it really does make you wonder if this is the end of the line for Walt and Jesse.

I didn't really like the bit with Skyler and the audit, I felt that the IRS agent must have come across that trick before.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

- What Skyler did to throw off the tax guy was too sitcomy and implausible for a show like this

I didn't buy it either. I'm sure the criminal division of the IRS has seen all the tricks.

- She can pay off Ted's bill without any trouble. She and Walt won't even miss $600,000. And that'll mean less money to launder.

But then Ted will have something on her, and if he has any brains at all, he'll know whatever she's hiding is a whooole lot worse than his tax evasion.

- Speaking of laundering money, this show is the first time I'm seeing just how difficult it is to do so. Up until now it's just been an abstract concept that I never thiought much about.

Why are they getting paid in nothing but $50s? Is that how Gus gets paid for drugs? Whoever is taking massive amounts of $50s out of the bank must be attracting just as much attention as putting massive amounts of $50s into the bank would.

 

[Idran]

- She can pay off Ted's bill without any trouble. She and Walt won't even miss $600,000. And that'll mean less money to launder.

But then Ted will have something on her, and if he has any brains at all, he'll know whatever she's hiding is a whooole lot worse than his tax evasion.

Plus, the IRS is probably aware of Ted's assets if they were getting ready to audit his company to that degree. If he suddenly got $600,000 out of nowhere to pay them off, that'd turn things right back onto him and, from there, Skylar again.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Wow! Great episode! Man, this show really knows how to do their endings.

Gus finally got his revenge with the Cartel, but now I wonder how they're going to get across the border. Skyler has now said "too much."

 

[Checkmate]

Yeah, that was a pretty cool episode. I cringed during the toasting scene because they made it painfully obvious what was about to come, but it was still really cool. Gus has balls of steel, both for what he did and how he handled the situation immediately thereafter. And I thought he was already way up there with the way he dealt with the sniper in a previous episode!

It's interesting that his preferred method of murder is so similar to Walt's. I wonder what type of poison it was that he used. And, damn, Jesse's going to have some serious mental issues coming up now. Which is saying quite a bit.