Breaking Bad

yup. i'm rewatching the series, too, with my parents. i'm not sure how they feel about it yet, but they've heard me go on about it so much. we're almost to the end of the first season. there are lots of little things i noticed way more this time around. like the episode right after Skyler finds out Walt has cancer, she has a sort of "intervention" with Hank and Marie, where they all take turns saying what they want to say to Walt (via the "talking pillow", lol), and Hank makes a lot of gambling metaphors. he says something like, "i'll admit it, you've been dealt a sh*tty hand... but lots of times, a sh*t hand can be a full house. you just have to be willing to take the gamble."

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Ok, before I read through all the posts just want to say **** IMDB message boards and masquerading theories which are actually spoilers. I thought the Tio bit was a far-fetched reading it but it worked well and was built up so nicely it made sense but was still unexpected. I rewatched the previous episode beforehand and when I saw him spin the gun and it pointed at the plant and the camera specifically focussed on it I KNEW Walt did the poisoning. So that wasn't such a surprise. Glad I was right about not thinking Gus did it but still shocked Walt would do it. Gus' last moment, touch out of tone but a brilliant send off opposed to just a bang. Literally face OFF.

Thought Jesse and Walt's last scene had a lot of underlying tension preluding next Season. Mike has definitely and purposefully been kept out the picture for the season's showdown to come back and play a role, imo. I think Gus' work clearing out the Cartel etc has also intentionally left open a void Walt's meant to fill. The blowing of the laundry factory will definitely have the DEA backing Hank.

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Ash, I am still noticing a ton of things that continue to dovetail with Walt as he is now. Episode 7 of season 1 -- Walt's at a school meeting where they're discussing the theft of various beakers, etc. During the meeting, he's got his hand on Skyler's thigh under the table, and she's really into it. Then it cuts to them fooling around in his now-iconic Aztek.

Just afterwards, she says, "WHY is it so damn good?"

He looks away and says, "Because it's illegal."

And they cut to the opening credits.

Gosh, I love this show.

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I'm nearly done with season 1 on my rewatch. One thing struck me that we haven't discussed as a future possibility for next season: Walt's cancer could return. He could end up right where he started....

Don't know why that never occurred to me, except that it's been in remission long enough that it hasn't been part of any episodes for a long time. Still, that would be a plausible plot twist for next season (or the last season, if they're not one and the same).

actually... he was coughing a lot in the last few episodes. well. not a lot, but at weird moments. anyone else notice it? i wish i could remember the specifics, but i can't at the moment. i'll have to rewatch them.

The cancer was the catalyst for the bad things Walt has done over the course of the show. I think it would take a lot of the edge off of his character if he had the threat of the cancer haning over his head again. He's a far more compelling character when he's being bad without that looming over him. I don't expect it to return unless it's in the very last episode.

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It would be rather fitting, wouldn't it, for the show to go out with him finding out his cancer has returned -- perhaps with a vengeance this time. We'd get a sense that, even if Walt had gotten to a point where he felt no one could touch him and he was invincible, the cancer would come back as a reminder that he IS mortal after all, no matter what his inflated ego thinks.

To have the cancer-catalyst be his undoing would be a nice touch for the storyline. They could even leave it hanging at the end -- stage 4 or something and make it sound dire, but never tell us if he beats it this time. (But make it clear that he probably won't.)

Apologies for the incoherent post. I'm battling a fever since yesterday's flu shot.

The cancer is the ultimate judgment, the thing he can't outwit or kill when it becomes inconvenient for him. It is God's final word on his actions in a show that has made it clear it has a strong sense of cosmic justice, so yes, I'd find that very fitting. Especially given that he's become a cancer to those around him.

Did anything ever come of the end of episode Fly?

That depends on how you interpreted it.

To me, this episode was strangely comedic. Jesse and Walt play off of each other, and their conversation is reminiscent of a well-written stage play. I've heard some people compare "Fly" to The Sopranos' "Pine Barrens", as they are both 'bottle episodes.' Meaning, it was filmed on a low budget, it was set in one place, with a limited number of characters.

It was very psychological, but I don't think it advanced the plot/story.

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I assume Pyro meant Walt's supposed confession. If so, then no, but when it first aired it merely seemed like Jesse didn't take what he said literally and therefore Walt didn't quite give anything away.

No, I meant the final shot where Walt imagined seeing the fly when he was home. After Jesse's story about his relative who's cancer got to his brain and he kept seeing something that wasn't there (or something) and this was then what happened to Walt in the final shot; seemed to suggest Walt's cancer was returning yet don't recall any follow up....?

Sorry, should have made it clearer in my post.

Mmkay, I see now...

Yeah, Walt sees another fly on the smoke detector as he's lying in bed that night. I took this as a literary allusion to Kafka's "Metamorphosis," somehow that fly represented Walt's own contamination. He was concerned about the batch that he and Jesse prepped, stating that it was "all contaminated." They finished the batch and went home, but it's clear that the contamination will follow Walt wherever he goes.

While I'm rewatching the series, I've noticed something else. I know about attorney-client privilege, but does anyone else think that Skyler's divorce lawyer could be a sort of loose end? She took a hard stance against Walt and urged Skyler to leave and get outta there ASAP for her own good (legally and morally).

In the end not only does Skyler not do that, she ends up complicit in the crimes with Walt.

I know her attorney can't just tip off the cops, but is there any loose end here at all? Or is/was that wrapped up enough for it to simply fade away? I ask because we ended this current season with big news stories that are drug-related, and I wonder what her attorney is thinking when she's watching the news....

There are times when they can spill the beans, but it's usually when they have knowledge of a crime about to be perpetrated, so I'm thinking it's a dead end, not a loose end.

Yeah, dead end. She needs specific knowledge, and she's certainly not gonna get that. They've obviously used this sort of restriction twice to great effect (the other being Walt, with the psychiatrist in early season 2) to allow the characters to spill the beans without consequences for once.

Can't remember if I've posted on this thread yet, but just watched the last ep of season 4 and I'm just blown away ! Me and my son have followed it since the beginning when it was screened in the UK on one of the cable channels ages ago. I've always loved the clear light of the photography and the framing of some of the shots is awesome, but even this beauty has got better and better till this last series, well I dunno how anyone can top that amazing look! I love everything about it and keep telling people to watch it!

Ha ha ha! For some reason, Walter White is staking out my house!

I am somewhere around the beginning of season 3. Pretty great stuff so far, but I found the whole storyline with Jane to be pretty contrive. Also, some of Walt's conduct does not really follow what has come before, but I guess that's what the show is about?

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I think season 2 is the weakest (though, to me, that just means it's awesome rather than super-ridicu-awesome), so I can relate on the whole Jane thing. It's important for Jesse's character, though, in lots of ways you're probably already seeing start to pay off.

Re: Walt's conduct. Feel free to elaborate; we're all spoiler-y up in here.

Yeah, I liked the season overall. I thought about this at lunch and i am trying to figure out the best way to put it. I guess I feel like the writers sort of went over a cliff with Walt and made him sort of irredeemable. I mean, killing the guy in the basement in season one or the whole Tuco situation...I can sort of reconcile that and equivocate here and there to redeem the characters. These guys that got killed were career criminal/sociopaths. Jane was an artist with a monkey on her back and Walt just sort of sat there and watched her die. I can't really reconcile that, I guess is what I am saying.

I understand the implications with Jesse and I have a feeling we are going to start seeing some sort of juxtaposition between Walt and Jesse as time goes on, as that makes sense from a writing standpoint, although I don't think Jesse will become an underachieving teacher, I think we will see their stations in life become similar to what the other person was maintaining when the show started. I am just not sure I will care what happens to Walt at that point, kind of like I don't care about what happened to Tuco. When I say care, I mean, they got what they deserved and I sort of shrugged and moved on.