Tounge-in-cheek. And "Homage" was too strong of a word. But I worked with George when we were lawyers rep'ing entertainment types (and no train companies) and i would be very surprised if he acquired the info about "dark territory" from anywhere else than the Under Seige sequel.
So Todd drives an El Camino. Now that he's got a distinctive car, I doubt he's going to go away. Also, I feel like a breaker would have tripped way before he melted through that plastic band.
I had a feeling that the Grey Matter thing was always driving Walt, though I don't remember there ever being a third person in the company. I'm not really sold on this new dealer that wants Walt off the market. Walt will have to broker a deal where he is the exclusive cook because I don't see either one of them becoming number 2. Im still in between on Skylar. She's being written as the typical harpy wife standing in the protagonist way of achieving his goals. Anna Gunn has done pretty well with what they've given her but her role has devolved almost into a one dimensional character.
The other guy's wife was a partner in the company and apparently Walt's girlfriend in the grad school flashback from season one.
Todd isn't going anywhere, but I'm not surprised at how this played out. Walt gets beat by the stronger physical guys, and then he uses science, balls, and determination to burn himself out of the situation. The Grey Matter thing has been pretty dormant these last two seasons. They laid the groundwork and stayed very quiet about it for the longest time. The presentation of it was pretty good. It was upsetting how he waved off so many details because I feel like a full blown sob story about him leaving because his girl left him for his other partner would have gotten to Jesse more. The dealer character seems like an interesting guy. I like how all the higher ups are smart, seemingly fair guys. They will kill when they need to but I can't stand watching guys like Tuco, (anxious, violent, easily angered) run shit. But I can buy what this guy was selling. You have a product, and its nowhere near as good as another product. If the blue stuff is selling for $5 dollars, and everyone know its the best, it keeps your shit down. You also don't want your buyers going out of your territories to buy someone else's shit. And everyone seems down on Skylar, I'm not in love with her even though Anna Gunn is doin' work, but I keep asking myself what they could do to make her better and I have no answers in my head.
It's starting to seem like Walt isn't so much changing from good to bad throughout the series, but that he's just gradually uncovering what's been inside of him for a very long time (like since the Grey Matter thing). As someone said earlier, I was a little surprised to find out that only a year had passed in the show. It seemed like way too much had happened; for Walt to go from nice, innocent high school teacher to someone who is so comfortable with cooking meth and killing people when necessary, seemed a little rushed. But now it sounds like ever since Grey Matter blew up and made billions, he's just had a bunch of anger, resentment, and greed festering inside of him for decades. Maybe that's linked (symbolically or literally) to his cancer: those feelings were so strong and so deep that they were killing him, and when he started to let it all out he began to get better. Walt says "This business is all I have left now. It's all I have." He says it as if he, the victim, has lost everything else, but this refusal of the $5 million just makes it even more obvious that he's chosen his meth business (empire?) over everything else. This is all he has, and it's all he is. He's just been shedding layer after layer of his former self (job, moral code, family), whittling his character down from the person he was pretending to be, to the person he actually is.
Stuffing her in a barrel of acid cause she is too close to breaking down and telling Walt's secret to her sister would be great for me.
Nice job by JoeCanada. Well said. I'll admit I never made the connection between the cancer and the repressed anger. It seems so obvious now though. I'm actually hoping we haven't heard the last of Gray Matter. Personally I'm still curious what started this whole thing. Gretchen said way back that Walt just took off when they were on vacation with her and her family. I wonder if they'll give us a flashback or an explanation at some point to close this off or not. It'd be nice to see but they obviously don't need to with Walt's motivations already covered. From http://breakingbad.wikia.com/wiki/Gray_Matter_Technologies I'm also curious what happens if Gretchen and Elliot make another appearance now that Walt is a full on sociopath. The writing team must have a printout of http://www.mcafee.cc/Bin/sb.html hanging on the wall. Spoiled for size. Check out 8-11 specifically. Poor Jesse. Spoiler 1. Contemptuous of those who seek to understand them 2. Does not perceive that anything is wrong with them 3. Authoritarian 4. Secretive 5. Paranoid 6. Only rarely in difficulty with the law, but seeks out situations where their tyrannical behavior will be tolerated, condoned, or admired 7. Conventional appearance 8. Goal of enslavement of their victim(s) 9. Exercises despotic control over every aspect of the victim's life 10. Has an emotional need to justify their crimes and therefore needs their victim's affirmation (respect, gratitude and love) 11. Ultimate goal is the creation of a willing victim 12. Incapable of real human attachment to another 13. Unable to feel remorse or guilt 14. Extreme narcissism and grandiose 15. May state readily that their goal is to rule the world That dinner with Walt, Jesse and Skylar was probably my favorite scene of the series. The awkwardness of it being used simultaneously to torture Jesse and Skylar while manipulating Jesse with a guilt trip with Jesse regressing to his old self. We haven't seen that side of Jesse much since he killed Gale. Also, I now have two frozen scabby lasagnas in my freezer that will never be eaten.
God damn that's a good gif. I, myself, couldn't stop laughing with nervous energy while that scene was happening.
So I originally thought that, during the cooking scene when Jesse is broken up about the kid, he was just creeped out by Walt's nonchalant whistling, like I was. Apparently, he was whistling Queen's "Lily of the Valley", so now I'm wondering if Jesse recognized the tune. Also, pretty sure the dead kid's fingerprints are all over that tarantula jar. Could be an issue. Thoughts? God I love this show.
That of course is some great shit. I'd put it at 75% chance that Jesse recognizes that tune. That's when he decided he was going to sell out of the trade. Also, I think the tarantula jar shows more of Todd not being as sealed tight as much as he should be. I doubt they'll go with "finger prints on the jar" as a tie in to something later, but more along the lines of what that spider represents. Something dangerous in a container that can of course come out and fuck shit up. Like Todd himself.
Yeah totally. The fingerprints thing was just something a co-worker mentioned she read on a different message board, as I was typing out my last post. Doesn't seem like something this show would do. I think your interpetation's spot on. Really agree with what someone else said, about how we're discovering who the two main characters really are. Jesse: a well-raised boy who got caught up in drugs and the fantasy of being gangster, who still has the sense to get the fuck out when he can. Walt: a maniacal, avaricious lunatic who up until a year ago has hid under the guise of being a buttoned-down, boring family man. Brilliance.
I'm thinking that if Jesse had recognized the song and put two and two together, he would have had a meltdown. I would not be surprised if they show him hearing the song in the near future and figuring it out. Jesse is the only real ally Walt has left, and I expect a falling out between them before that M60 gets busted out.
Of all the weapons Gilligan could have chose for him, the M60 is probably the least practical. It's a crew operated, belt fed weapon that is prone to malfunction. After he spent his first belt of 100 rounds, he'd never be able to reload before he gets capped. He'd be much better off going with a simple, magazine fed weapon like a run of the mill AK.
Everyone keeps expecting that M60 to mean Walt's death. I wouldn't be surprised if it has nothing to do with his downfall and actually helps him in some way to be a bigger badder bad guy.
Why is everyone assuming Walt is going to have some downfall? I know for character arch purposes it makes sense, but what if just ends with him on top at a ruthless drug lord?
I mean sure it's a possibility. Maybe Gilligan will pull a Sopranos and leave it up to the viewers to decide.