The writers are on the record that it will never be revealed, like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. The hint seems to be he was a high ranking military official in Chile for Pinochet.
But part of the "I know who you are" tied to the theme that he was hiding in plain sight, and also knew he wasn't going to walk in the next day with a machine gun and try to kill everyone. And then cut to the beginning of this season with the "I don't even know who you are" line. Also, meta-level, about time something on this show is a little bit of a mystery.
Maybe I am over-thinking, but nothing about Walt's reaction to Gretchen and her husband's story on TV made me think Walt is going back to Albuquerque for revenge against them. I saw it as a parallel situation for present-day Walt, in that the neo-Nazis, like Gretchen and her husband, took away something he built. The Schwartzes took the product of Walt's labor and ingenuity, made a fortune from it, and denied his role in the process. Walt watches that, gets really, really pissed off, and decides he isn't about to let it happen again. Hence a long drive across the country with an M60 and a whole hell of a lot of anti-Neo-Nazi rage. Of course, I've just about never successfully predicted where this show is going. +1 on Robert Forster being an awesome semi-cameo choice for the man who makes people disappear, and on the implication for Gus's past being something to do with the Pinochet regime. This week better go by fast.
I have yet to hear a plausible scenario on what the Ricin is for. In the cannon of the show it has acted as a way to kill a person without being caught. Both at the time of poisoning and in later toxicology reports. Walt has no reason I can think of to need to either subtly kill someone or not get caught. Anyone who he could give ricin too, he could presumably, just as easily put one in the base of the skull. Or if they are heavily guarded, go Rambo with the M60. If it is for himself, whats the point? Why delay death over a matter of days and painfully when one to the temple will do?
The best scenarios are: 1) Jesse to give it to Todd 2) Walt to give it to Lydia 3) Walt to poison a batch of Blue Sky to fuck up the market.
I think it could conceivably be used on the Grey Matter folk, with Walt telling them after they take it so they know they were outsmarted. Most likely is spiking the meth, I think.
I don't feel like there is any way he doesn't do something to the gray matter people. Of all the things that truly bothered Walt, the gray matter thing was above all the Heisenberg business. And it showed in that last scene. He's won the meth game and it's done. All he has left to do is tie off loose ends and go out with some sort of bang. And if Skylar somehow buys the farm, that will only make him more reckless and insane. He we'll have nothing left to fight for.
I think people are misinterpreting that scene. Its not that hes going to get vengeance on them, its that he realizes that he had something he built taken away from him and now its happened again. The Aryans took his money, his business, his partner, (and even a family member) away from him with one fell swoop and hes not going to let that happen again, even if it ultimately kills him.
I too think the Charlie Rose clip spurred him on to not lose his meth empire the way he lost his Sciencey empire (what does Gray Matter actually do, anyways?), but I want him to take down both the Nazis and the Schwartzezez. There's gotta be some kind of Jesse-Walt combo to come, doesn't there? Not that they'll work together directly, but good god, Jesse has to get some level of revenge on freakin' someone, even if it's killing himself while blowing up Todd in the lab. Combine that with Walt showing up giant gun blazing, and maybe Jesse kills him after? Anyone think there's a chance Walt wants to save Jesse, as a last attempt to somewhat redeem himself on one count (ruining Jesse's life, basically)? I don't, but who knows. Oh, and it's a bit nitpicky, but isn't it kind of weak, for Breaking Bad standards, that uncle Jack changed his mind on killing Jesse based on him presuming Todd hearts Lydia? I realize he's more of a don't-give-a-fuck criminal than others in the show, but they really did just win the lottery. I know they don't care, in terms of conscience, about threatening the wife of a former associate who's on the run, or shooting a completely innocent and clueless single mother on her doorstep, but they could have been seen. A minor note, I know, and it's the closest thing to a flaw I can come up with (especially compared to pretty much all TV ever), but it doesn't seem very pragmatic.
Also, remember when he had that conversation with Jesse in his house about building an empire and having talked about Grey Matter. The fact they took his work and made it into something bigger without him, while he ended up becoming a chemistry high school teacher that not even his wife cared about. I mean, he started off getting a handjob from his wife while she read a book.
I see it somewhat differently. The Aryans took his money but they could not take what he achieved. He also gave up his empire on his own terms. Walt is known nationally and possibly internationally as the high school teacher who got cancer and created a meth empire. He became a legend. Gretchen and Elliot have already taken his money and empire off him but they had never taken away what he helped create. They have now attempted to erase that, erase Walt's part in history. For me that is the difference between both. Yes both took his money, but with meth Walt gave up his empire on his own terms and still had the legend of Heisenberg. With Gray Matter, he lost the money, he lost the empire and now he is losing any part in history.
Well that's not different, I just didn't flush that out. I agree with you. I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL SUNDAY! Which is a shitty feeling, because after this 1.25 hours of glory, work is the next day. Bill Simmons asked on his podcast "If they offered the final episode On-Demand for $59.95 on Friday, they're still going to show it on Sunday...but this option is here. Would you do it?" Would you?
It would be hilarious if they just dropped the finale somewhere in the middle of the marathon they're running in the middle of the day. I wouldn't like it, but it would be awesome if Vince Gilligan ended the show as some bullshit trope. Jesse's dreaming in Chemistry class, a story Flynn makes up, etc. it would be such an epic "fuck you."
I'd love if the finale was just an hour of badger and skinny Pete at an amusement park riding roller coasters and shit.
I had the same line of thought but Walt waking up from his first chemo session after dozing off, with all the key non-family characters patients or staff. It would be so horrible it would be awesome.
At this point I'll watch Jesse from Breaking Bad paint walls and bake bread. I'll watch the fuck out of this.
So this may have been answered previously, but I am scared of spoilers, so I haven't been going too far ahead in the thread but: Has Walt's cancer really come back? We have no one else's word to go on but his, and he isn't beyond lying to the forth wall. It makes it all the better when he disappears. "Well, he only had 6 months to live, so by now he is dead"
We see him in chemo, both in ABQ, and by himself in a cabin in New Hampshire. So if he's lying, he's fucking committed.