Breaking Bad Open Thread: “Hazard Pay”
July 29th, 2012 by david brothers | Tags: aaron paul, anna gunn, breaking bad, bryan cranston, vince gilliganSunday Sunday Sunday! We’re going to have a weekly chat about Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad. I buy mine off Amazon, so I’m usually a day behind, but every Sunday around showtime I’ll post an open thread. I’ll probably start linking the Breaking Bad podcasts and trailers and whatnot
If you haven’t seen Breaking Bad, you should. You can find Breaking Bad:
-On AMC, Sundays at 10 eastern
–Seasons 1-4 on Netflix
–on DVD
–on Amazon Instant Video
Rules:
-Don’t be a dick
-No spoiler warnings, so don’t come in unless you’ve seen the latest episode
-Feel free to hyperlink and youtube it up
-Liveblogging is cool, just be specific so we know why you’re going “WHOA DUDE WHOA WHOA BRO”
This week is “Hazard Pay,” directed by Adam Bernstein and written by Peter Gould, who also wrote the screenplay Gavin’s favorite movie, Double Dragon.
Sneak peek:
Similar Posts:
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- Breaking Bad Open Thread: “Say My Name”
- Breaking Bad Open Thread: “Dead Freight”
- Breaking Bad Open Thread: “Gliding Over All”
- Breaking Bad Open Thread: “Fifty-One”
Excellent cooking montage in tonight’s episode!
That Scarface part was just a bit too uh, heavy-handed for my liking. Other than that, really liked the episode.
Gavin’s favorite movie, Double Dragon.
How DARE you?
Second time I can recall someone in this show bringing up Icarus. Walt’s speech at the end was obviously about his unhappiness with Mike’s business practices. Walt feels Mike is taking too many liberties, and in his little diatribe to Jesse, he’s tying Mike’s methods to Victor’s (AS IF that’s why Gus killed Victor. Victor’s death probably had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he showed his face around Gale’s apartment to all of Gale’s neighbors). No, once again Walt is flexing his muscle under the assumption that Jesse is all ears, but Walt can never see that whenever he ignores Jesse’s feelings, Jesse becomes unreceptive to Walt’s manipulative sermons. UGH, Walt.
Btw, the other time Icarus is mentioned was last season when Hank and Walt Jr. go to Los Pollos Hermanos to get Gus’s fingerprints (by asking for a refill when Gus stops by to ay hello). Walt Jr. is lamenting the loss of his sweet ride, and Hank posits that Walt Jr. guilted Walt a bit when they were at the used car lot to go get Walt Jr. the brand new Charger instead, and Hank calls Walt Jr. Icarus. Jr. could’ve settled for a modest ride and be driving it today, but instead Jr. flew to close to the sun when he wanted more, and he got burned (as did the car, quite literally).
So if Icarus is the connecting thread, Walt is warning that Mike is going to get burned with the liberties he is taking with their profits, when in reality Mike is taking care of business, and Walt is the one who is never happy with what he’s getting.
I love it at the beginning of season 4 when Walt has bought a piece and then gets punched in the bar by Mike, and then in a later scene he is griping to Saul about all of it, asking “WHY AM I THE ONLY PROFESSIONAL HERE?!” *SIGH* You’re not, Walt. You’re surrounded by professionals, you’re petulant and your hubris clouds your judgment. But hey, at least no one feels sorry for you anymore.
CORRECTION: Walt Jr.’s CHALLENGER.
I love how Jesse is proving the level-headed, mature one.
SKINNY PETE
Somehow I’m not surprised he is a piano virtuoso.
-I’m so glad this episode started with jokes. I’ve had a bummer of a… year, let’s say, and I can’t take another “Crawl Space.” But them exploring new areas was exactly what I needed.
-“He handles the business. And I handle him.” Walt is a fool. He is a relative rookie who has repeatedly shown he has no idea how the business works, and he’s setting himself up as the judge of all? No way. He’s going to try to cross Mike and get knocked out again. He’s not a crime boss. He’s a halfway crook.
-When Walt said “I’ve got two of my own” and went on to hang with Brock, I actually became genuinely grossed out. Just him being in Brock’s presence is disgusting.
-The song when they’re suiting up in the fumigated house is The Peddler’s “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever,” or if it not the original, some cover or another. My favorite version of that song is when Last Emperor sampled it, with Trugoy of De La and Masta Ace on an assist. Great music choice, both thematically and in general. It’s a good song.
-The cooking sequence was the best shot drug production montage since American Gangster
-The relationship conversation between Jesse and Walt was cold blooded, with Walt going from Uncle Ben to Norman Osborn instantly. Do you think he wanted Jesse to break up with Andrea? Probably so, yeah?
-It’s just been a year since this all started? Wow. That is like, Ultimate Spider-Man levels of compression. Also, we have a countdown now until Walt’s birthday.
-Marie is aggravating. It’s unfair to her or whatever, but she is an awful little nosy busybody. Part of it is that she’s going to force herself into being a loose end, and part of it is that she’s just that type of person I generally don’t like.
-Anna Gunn stepped her game up this season like Aaron Paul did last season. She’s so good.
-I can’t believe they used the end of Scarface, but I sorta can, too. But it was very much a “Really?” moment until I hit “everyone dies in this movie.” There’s also something there about how Scarface looms over the pop culture idea of how dope dealing works, Tony Montana as a hero (he has a CODE, you see), and what Walt sees himself as. Gus Fring was no Scarface.
-My favorite thing in this episode were the gunshots that fade into the sound of counting money. Drugs: literalized.
-Mike saying “Just because you shot Jesse James don’t make you Jesse James” in the scene right after the Scarface bit was amazing. That’s my other favorite thing. Mike has Walt’s number, and Walt thinks he’s going to get to become a kingpin. He doesn’t. He gets to cross Mike and then go on the run for his foolishness.
-Walt cuts off Jesse when he tries to spill his heart about Andrea in favor of talk about business. Jesse’s ready to be a lifer, but it certainly looks like Walt’s rubbing him the wrong way. There’s suspicion or regret in there.
-Great episode, as usual. I kind of want Walt to die? Just a little.
@Gavok: I don’t just dare. I double dare.
@S. Earl: That scene was great, because why wouldn’t he be? Everyone’s good at something, no matter how goony they are.
@Karl Savage: You nailed it. I think we’re on the same wavelength.
Vince Gilligan has already stated that Walt is going to be this season’s villain, and overall, he’s the villain of the series. Three episodes in, I’m trying to figure out where Walt is going to go to get to the irredeemably bad place (if he isn’t fully there already). As much as I love love love Mike, I think that Mike’s going to be goner for sure, even if Walt isn’t wiser than Mike. I’m trying to figure out if he’s going to somehow hurt Skyler or pull a Nucky Thompson [warning: Season 2 Boardwalk Empire spoiler…………………………] and kill Jesse. I have a feeling it’s gonna be the latter.
I already tweeted this already, but I can’t resist: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7z1jowI8H1qhg13lo1_500.gif
@EC: I’m going to start listening to the podcasts and stuff this week, I think. I’m trying to figure out Walt’s point of no return, too. He’s alone and haggard in the first episode, so he has no family to rely on. The birthday thing definitely has this negative space-y air of his family not being there to throw him a party now.
I love that gif. That was such a great moment for Jesse. such a regular dude thing to do.
Is the hardware he was purchasing at the beginning of ep1 the same that Tony sports in the climactic scene in Scarface? Whether it is or it isn’t, there’s definitely some romanticizing going with Walt. Not saying the gun purchase is a conscious ode on Walt’s part, but it’s there I think.
I was thinking during the cook montage, that they’ve done SO many of them at this point in the show’s run that it must be a challenge for them to make something so awful look so good/engaging. During this one there was even some Mclaren-style chemical reactions timed out to the beat.
Walt takes a satisfied bite out of an apple = me wanting him dead = great great TV
Oh man, Jesse snagging that tortilla was so great. It’s a piping hot tortilla, he bats it around in his hands, and then what does he do with a tortilla to hot to handle? He sticks it in his mouth. Lol Magnificent.
OH! And not to be spoilery (I don’t consider this a spoiler), but I just finished listening to today’s Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast, and he said to tune in next week for an appearance by a certain somebody. Sounds like Kuby’s back on the scene!
A falling out with Mike seems the obvious impetus for shotgun Walt, but last night I got the feeling that Walt may actually manage to kill Mike before that happens, against all odds. Not sure if I mis-saw, but he stashed the ricin from the cigarette and replaced it with salt, yes?
Point being, Walt NEEDS Mike – to keep his guys quiet, to handle the business – if he successfully “cuts his throat” then he’s just dropping himself into yet another hole. Leaving him exposed to the Germans?
They’re also priming the Brock revelation very early, which makes me think it may come out in time for the mid-season break. It could be Jesse that’s gunning for Walt?
I love how Walt’s transition from unlikely hero to monster is mirrored by the supporting cast’s transition from annoying obstacles (“let the man Cook!”) to the subject of our sympathies and fears.
Previously, whenever Walt would do some bumbling middle-aged man business, it made me sigh with relief – “he’s not all the way gone”. This episode though, when he’s dragging his cases around with a “hum-tum-te-ta”, it just rang 100% false. Not to get all nerd-ideas-of-Batman, but that guy is the mask, now.
@James W
Only Heisenberg remains. :aaa:
Walt definitely stored the ricin in that outlet in his house. There are so many things swirling around right now.
Walt has his Walt Whitman book sitting on his end table. If Hank sees it, what happens?
He’s hidden poison in his house. If Skyler finds it, will she use it?
Walt poisoned Brock with lily of the valley. Did Brock meet Walt when that happened? If Brock recalls that he did and Jesse puts it all together, how will Jesse react?
Will Walt Jr. ever have a balanced breakfast?
I get to thinking about a couple season one moments. One is the moment where Walt went after the guys who were making fun of Walt Jr at the clothing store. The other is the intervention where Walt was talking about how he felt he had no control over the choices in his life.
As far as the Walt Jr scene goes, I wonder if there’s some part of Walt Sr that feels he was cheated out of a healthy son. That’s something a parent isn’t supposed to feel, but then again Walt does lots of things the PTA wouldn’t approve of. I wonder if Walt’s going to get angry at his son at some point, and criticize him for being defective. Seems like the sort of moment where even Walt would say, “Whoa, what the hell am I doing?”
As for Walt feeling like his life is out of control, funny how every time he tries to take more control of one thing, it just causes something else to spin out of control. I wonder if that’s where Walt will make his final, fatal misstep.
@Karl Savage: Ha! Breakfast.
It seemed significant when Jesse said “she’s going to tell Brock”, and… this is way too dumb and specific, but I imagined Brock asking “is it because of the bad man?” Knowing the show though, Walt could have easily NOT met Brock as you say, and we should have been worrying about something else the whole time.
I think I take back pretty much everything I said about Skyler from the last episode. I don’t really even have thoughts about this one, except that Walt seems to be such a collassal idiot when it comes to dealing with Jesse. He only has the concerned friend front on whenever he wants to manipulate Jesse and just does not seem to realize how much he sabotages himself with the other interactions they have.
Mike is still the only one from the old operation that knows Walt and Jesse, right?
@david brothers: Also, I don’t know that Marie is written to be anything other than a gigantic annoyance. The only sympathy I remember feeling for her was when Hank was taking out his frustrations on her during his mineral collecting, but that’s just because that’s a shitty position for anyone to be in.
@Morgan Jeske: The gun in the trunk is, I believe, an M60. It’s a preposterous amount of overkill, which makes the scene even more menacing. Someone would have to be melting down pretty hard to need a machine gun and 800 rounds of ammunition.
I read the Scarface scene as not being about metaphors, at least not primarily. It’s about Skyler walking into something that wouldn’t have been upsetting a year ago, but is now. Watch her reaction to it. She looks like she’s having her hand forced into a cage with a tarantula.
Say what you want about Marie— yes, she’s nosy— but she gets things done and she cares about her family. Who wants to set up an oncology dream team for Walt? Marie. Who understands and supports Walt’s decision to not pursue cancer treatment? Marie. Who promotes Walt Jr.’s website to the news to help pay for Walt’s cancer treatments? Who tells their insurance agency to fuck off when it becomes clear they are only towing the bottom line? Who gets Hank to come home from the hospital by administering a handjob? Who lugged around box after box of mineral samples? Who went all the way back to the grocery store because Hank wanted CHEETOS, not Fritos? Would Hank be walking right now if not for Marie? Probably not. Who wants to throw Walt a birthday party? Marie. Who calls Walt five times and then waits for him after her sister has a nervous breakdown, in hopes that he can shed any light on the situation? Who is consistently concerned for the well being of her loved ones to a fault? MARIE!
I happen to love Marie. I love her insane love of the color purple. I love how overbearing she is. I love that she drives a blue VW Beetle because it’s the closest she can get to purple from VW’s paint selection. I love that she’s OCD, and she steals when she gets stressed. She is endearing, her comments are funny and her coping mechanisms are tragic and completely relatable. Her husband’s DEA and meanwhile she will steal and frivolously lie to strangers if she gets too stressed out.
Yes she is nosy. Yes, I did not appreciate her differentiating between two car wash workers by saying “This more ethnic-looking one is doing a great job but this other one is just going back and forth” etc, but hey. Nobody’s perfect. Those are flaws. Nobody on this show is 100% likable. On top of that, every scene has us rooting for someone usually in direct conflict with who we were rooting for in a previous scene. Marie is a great character. Betsy Brandt plays her beautifully. Marie can go toe-to-toe with any other character on the show. I hope she makes it out ok, but at this point I’m not confident a single character does. Walt’s fall-out is going to be huge.
@Karl Savage: Man, I really did forget a lot about her; when some aspects of her are so grating, it is easy for them to overshadow the rest.
David, thanks for the tip on the Peddlers. For a moment I thought it might be an Isaac Hayes cover, because it wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Hot Buttered Soul.
The Scarface bit might have been a too-on-the-nose bit of foreshadowing, especially the “everyone dies at the end” line–or it might just be a little bit of misdirection. I mean, we’re all expecting a climactic bloodbath, right? But given Gilligan’s dark sense of humor I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up undermining our expectations.
I’ve been rewatching season 4 now that it’s available on Netflix Instant, and I just finished episode 8, “Hermanos,” where Don Eladio has Hector kill Gus’s Los Pollos Hermanos partner. I had totally forgotten how previously when Gus is being questioned by Hank, his Chilean records are missing. Then when Gus is pinned on the ground next to his dead partner with Don Eladio standing over him, Don Eladio says:
“Listen to me. The only reason you are alive and he is not, is because I know who you are. But understand. You are not in Chile anymore.”
For a drug kingpin not to kill someone because of their status, that’s got to be a huge status. And while Walt and Jesse and Mike are doing their thing now, I suspect Chile may come rushing back into the picture. That could be a major motivation for why Walt is on the run a year into the future.
@Karl Savage: Karl, I gotta say, you’re amazing. First you pointed out exactly why Marie is so great, making me feel bad for disliking her so much and now the Chile thing. I don’t know why, but I just assumed that since Gus was gone, Chile was off the table. But no, that’s not how this series works at all, is it?
@david brothers: It would be interesting if Chile came into the picture, as it means we’d finally learn more about Gus (I’m personally curious if he was a part of Pinochet’s government or family, which would be a pretty solid reason to keep him alive ~20-30 years ago), but with the DEA/Hank, Madrigal, Mike, Skyler and Jesse all warranting more screen time, Walt and the writers have both got enough on their hands.
Add into that that Walt’s supposed to be our villain and I don’t know how they’d even handle bringing Chile into the picture. Maybe having them seek revenge on Walt, which results in him finding a way into witness protection and ending out in West Virginia (assuming those plates on the car in the flash-forward weren’t just for show)? I can’t think of a way to bring in Chile without it seeming rushed, but then again, I don’t think the creators would do it unless they could do it right, because they seem to be pretty damn good about that.
One thing i’ve noticed with Jesse is How anytime he needs to help Walt, he ends up in a worse position personally. THe biggest contrast is when Gus took Jesse under his wing. Under Gus, Jesse actually got his life back on track: Kicking his addiction (well, minus cigarettes), reconnecting with Andrea. Walt has, a bit ironically, become a cancer that is choking the good (if not the life) out of everyone he’s connected with. The big question is who will be able to break free of him before it’s too late.
Oh, and as an unrelated follow-up… AMC, I don’t think ANYONE is so desperate for a new BB clip to sit through Small Town Security. At least, I HOPE no one is.
@David Fairbanks: @david brothers: Yeah, the fact that Don Eladio killing Gus’s former partner 20 years in the past means there might be a whole lot of stuff about Gus and Chile that was already settled prior to Walt’s story, and we may never see it happen.
I just liked that connection with Gus. He was of high status. He was untouchable. Even the sniper shot at Gus’s feet (which Mike told Jesse that they won’t kill Gus because of his distribution assets, but really, they probably can’t kill Gus for a number of reasons).
So for Walt-via-Hector to take out Gus, they’ll either let the blame lay on Hector, or they’ll track down who gave Hector the bomb, that is of course if there is a CHILEAN THEY anymore.
Also, SIDENOTE: Just because a showrunner says, “Walt’s the villain,” doesn’t mean that it’s all the characters vs. Walt. It means Walt breaks badder than he’s ever broke. It doesn’t mean Walt won’t come up against more opposition from diverse parties, such as his family, the DEA, Madrigal, or CHILE.
AND, on the other hand, Hank and the DEA might just be able to uncover Gus’s Chilean records, and by doing so tying that plot thread up.
Seeing as episodes 2 and 3 have directly dealt with Gus’s associates and the fallout from his death, it stands to reason there will be more. The DEA is putting the squeeze on Mike’s guys, the Madrigal lady is trying to off people herself, etc. There is a lot of stuff going on outside of Walt trying to be a drug kingpin. All Walt has figured out is a new meth lab set up. For whatever reason, he feels he has dodged a Los Pollos Hermanos-related bullet, when in reality, that’s extremely short-sighted.
So yeah, Chile might not come into the picture. But there is always a bigger fish, and I don’t think that bigger fish is going to exclusively be the DEA and Walt going toe-to-toe. At the same time, Gus’s whole meth regime has a been a true delight and highlight of the show, so I’m not exactly sure how they would top him, and I don’t think they will.
I think this final season is all about the fallout from Walt’s flight path. Fall out from all of Walt’s decisions and the decisions of his associates. Ted, Brock, Madrigal, Mike’s guys, etc. Associates of Gus, Chile or otherwise, could easily step into that picture. Doesn’t mean it will, but my eyes are now peeled.
And Mr. Brothers, thanks for the compliment!
We’re on a similar wavelength. I was thinking that the primary conflict would be Walt vs Mike (or someone drug-affiliated), with Jesse, the DEA, and someone bigger than all of them lurking in the shadows as further dangers. I think you’re onto something about the DEA sniffing out Gus’s background and methods. I wouldn’t presume to be like “well here’s how it’s gonna go,” but I could easily see the DEA stirring up something major and causing the house of cards to wobble, and then Walt’s incredible hubris screwing up the Mike relationship, and then all of us viewers end up completely emotionally scarred and broken by the fallout. But that’s too simple, and Breaking Bad has consistently surprised me on just about every level. The only thing I really expect is for Walt to be a dick, Jesse to be the most amazing actor on the show, and for it all to fall apart sooner rather than later.
I finished rewatching season 4 this week, and I just finished rewatching the first three episodes of season 5. Now that I’ve doubled up on the entire series available, I just wanted to clear the air a bit before tomorrow’s episode with some new observations, some corrections, etc.
Firstly, I wanted to say that I don’t view Breaking Bad as a LOST-type show where everything in it is a clue to what is coming up and we need to put every piece of content in the show under a microscope and weigh in on our findings.
1) That’s no fun and trying to predict future outcomes builds unnecessary expectation, and
2) Breaking Bad isn’t a crazy sci-fi/fantasy/mystery show throwing crazy mind-puzzles at our faces.
It’s a complex exercise in character study wrapped in a crime drama, where the line between an ’empathetic character’ and a ‘sympathetic one’ (to borrow phrases from a film-studies friend of mine) becomes extremely blurred (empathy being when we feel emotions we see the characters feeling; sympathy being when we see a character is feeling an emotion and our response is one of a different emotion). Do we root for Walt or are we disgusted by him? Do we like Skyler, Marie, Hank, Mike, Gus, Tuco, etc, or don’t we? What I love about the show is that the answer is all of the above. We don’t necessarily always empathize with the characters, but we always understand their actions, and then how we sympathize with them is dependent on the individual watching the show.
I have a friend whose last straw with Walt was when Walt insisted Gale call him by his first name, and not “Mr. White,” as Jesse does. She felt that this was Walt’s subtle way to always be in a position of authority over Jesse, lording over him, and this scene with Gale emphasized that conscious decision of Walt’s. I personally felt that was a bit of a reach, since Walt never told Jesse his preference was to be called ‘Mr. White’ or ‘Walt.’ From day 1 Jesse called him ‘Mr. White.’ He was his teacher! I have always found this an endearing quality of Jesse’s, since their teacher/pupil relationship dates back to high school. I think Jesse would feel weird calling him ‘Walt.’ I’m not saying the end result isn’t the same— Walt definitely has his hooks in Jesse, this season especially— but I don’t think Jesse calling Walt ‘Mr. White’ was a power play or a manipulation on Walt’s part. Walt is used to young people calling him Mr White. He’s a teacher. Case closed.
I actually find being sympathetic to a character a lot more important than empathizing with them. When Walt chooses not to save Jane from choking on her vomit in her sleep, I would like to say I would save her from choking because that is horrible and I would just save her, I feel. I did not feel the same way Walt did in that situation. SAVE HER YOU CAN’T LET SOMEONE CHOKE!But I absolutely understand why Walt let her go. I despised him IN DISBELIEF while he stood there, but I understood. What was so messed up though, was that he still wound up covering his mouth and holding back tears at what he was witnessing AND doing, which is what I was doing, so in the end I wound up empathizing with him anyway, the bastard. I actually enjoy it the most when disapprove of but completely understand characters’ despicable actions, and this show has plenty! To quote my own tweet (like a douchebag) from back during season 4:
“No one’s black & white on the show. #BreakingBad’s cast is a massive, tonal kaleidoscope of grays balancing on a house of cards on fire.”
Anyway, ENOUGH WITH THE FANCY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS!
Back on track— First, I wanted to clear up a misconception. I previously pondered what would happen if Brock ever figured out/identified Walt as the guy who poisoned him. Re-watching the episodes, I realized Brock was poisoned through a third party, which was Saul and his crew. Saul mentions this when he gives Walt back the lucky cigarette Huell lifted off of Jesse. That, and Brock saw Walt previously, and briefly, when Walt came to Jesse’s house after Jesse got back from Mexico, and then Tyrus zapped Walt and took him out to the desert where Gus threatened to kill everybody and fired Walt. So Brock isn’t a concern on that level. He’s seen Walt before. Walt is just some adult guy to Brock.
Now an observation about stuff on television in the show. Everybody noticed Hector watching The Bridge on the River Kwai before he blew up Gus. Or Mike watching The Caine Mutiny in Madrigal when the threat of betrayal is just seeping in on all sides. And of course Walt watching Scarface, where he even points out to Walt Jr. “Everybody dies in this film.” I really liked it in Hazard Pay when Saul refers to himself, Walt and Jesse as “the Three Musketeers” while making the argument that they don’t need Mike (because Saul is scared). Nevermind that there were four Musketeers if you count D’Artagnan’s involvement. Then later, when Walt and Jesse are drinking beer after cooking a batch, what’s on tv? The Three Stooges. lol A far cry from the graceful, heroic Musketeers. Except on Breaking Bad everyone wants to be Curly (BALD JOKE! ZING! I’ll show myself out). In reality, I just love how it really speaks to the bumbly-ness of Breaking Bad’s characters in their more-or-less real world situations. AND, if you recall the premise of every Three Stooges episode, it featured them working some new job which only served as a new setting for their many-a-slapstick joke as they horribly destroyed beyond repair everything they were getting paid to do/be responsible for. Pretty funny, given the context. New setting, same old fuck-ups. Sounds like Breaking Bad to me.
A moment that I really liked the second go-round that didn’t register the first time was when Walt is steamed about the cost for ‘mules,’ and he asks, just DRIPPING with condescension and disrespect, “What did Gus pay HIS mules?” To which Mike replied so matter-of-factly, “Gustavo Fring didn’t use mules. He didn’t need them.” Mike saying Gus’s full name in respect for the dead to Gus’s killer who has no respect goes hand-in-hand with Mike’s Jesse James comment. A LOT of layers going on, and I love it. Walt is incorrigible.
OH! And I know someone mentioned sounds heard in the background of scenes only to come back later in bigger ways. The scene where Gus is in the elevator after meeting with Hank and the DEA and the elevator’s repeated DING! sounds like Hector’s bell is a perfect example of why sound, like every other aspect of this show, is incorporated with great nuance and meticulous detail. Well, I loved it when Walt spoke of Victor and Icarus to Jesse before walking away, and as Jesse looks on you can hear the sound of sirens from the police station not too far away. Chances are, if you were there you would hear sirens regularly. Since this is a tv show and thy get to pick what sounds are included, it was a great subtle touch. In my mind, those were alarm bells going off in Jesse’s head. “Walt is trouble.”
I’m not trying to pick apart all the little things in an effort to predict what will happen in the show. I just like talking about all the COOL STUFF that is jam-packed into the show to give it its unique atmosphere. There may be clues in the show. There may be foreshadowing. There for sure are instances of foreshadowing, like in all stories. But the best part is just watching the show and reacting to the stuff that happens, and who it is happening to, then going back and picking up the pieces in an effort to make peace with how we all got here. So good.
Anyway. This is long enough, right? Sorry guys! Looking forward to tonight’s episode!
@Karl Savage: You have a point in that it isn’t Lost, but those little clues you’re talking about — that’s half of the fun, isn’t it? They give us so many tiny clues that they invite speculation. Part of the appeal is watching them go down, but like Jeopardy, the other part is trying to see if you can think one step ahead of the contestants. can we call their plays better than they can? It’s such a good show in that sense.
Also, this show can be brutally funny, in the sense of being impossibly mean and still being laugh out loud great, at times, and that’s wonderful.
New thread going up soon. My power was out until about ten minutes ago.
@david brothers: No worries. I don’t get my episode until iTunes allows it. Usually around 12:30am PT.
Regarding my post, whenever I try to skew towards a moderate middle ground, I always overshoot it. I am all for excitedly speculating and wondering what developments in the show mean for the future of the characters. My approach is always one of careful consideration. I don’t think too far into the future of any given weekly television show. You can only go so far before you’re wildly speculating and expending energy better reserved for other tasks.
Writers, film & tv crit majors, etc, probably have better records than regular folk of picking up on narrative cues and predicting the third acts of a stories. I’m pretty practical in my approach, and my expectations are measured. Sometimes I can’t help it. I like what I see, I think about what it means, and then I put pins in the things I think might come back, but I very rarely try and lay out what I think the plan is for the narrative with any sort of certainty or reverence. Shows like The Shield and The Wire left me baffled after every episode. Game of Thrones is another good example where I would watch an episode and go, “Wow! Well, I can’t wait to see what happens next! Everybody seems fucked, but there are ways for them to get out of that bucket of syrup, o that I’m sure. MAYBE Tyrion could dot dot dot. We’ll find out soon enough!”
Anyway, new episode is downloading! I’ll see you on the episode 4 thread soon enough!
I believe, one M60. This is a absurd exceeding the proper limits in righting a wrong, this makes the scene bear down menacingly further. Someone knows