I love this motherfucking show. Love it love it love it. I don't watch the "next week on," but shit is going down. I can't wait. Agreed on the PI scene. That guy is my favorite among the minor characters, despite how much I enjoy Bob Odenkirk.
Aside from the obvious one, (which I'm not even going to risk spoiler for some one else and break the trend) the bar scene was a great one. Spoiler Walter White: "I am not a murderer". I'm left asking myself why Walt did it. We know he doesn't give two shits about Combo. I think Walt knew that if he let Jesse do it, Gus would kill him. But if he did it, Gus wouldn't touch his ass. I still hate Jesse though. Yes he wasn't the "yo bitch yo homey yo bitch bitch step off bitch yo" douche he usually is. But once again he's gone and jeopardized the operation. One thing good about this show is that with a lot of television shows the best episode always seems to be the show before the season finale. They pump everyone up to watch the finale and it just ties up the loose ends of the previous show. Then we see a cliffhanger during the last minutes. Even some of the best shows on TV do it (Sopranos definitely). Not this one. I wouldn't call it the best of the season. Top 5 maybe, but not the best. Tonight's show set up the story for the final episode, not the other way around. edit: Those guys are Gus's "trusted employees", really? He must see something everyone else doesn't on first impressions. They looks like they get high on the supply. I thought that Gus would have like six proxies between him and some street level dealers. I mean, what? Do they just walk into Gus's trailer where all the meth is hidden and sign out whatever they take? Remember how hard it was for Walt just to get a meeting with Gus? Gus ran away when he saw Jesse. But those two didn't look like they were PhDs either.
I'm giving the show the benefit of the doubt and thinking that was their first time meeting Gus. He had to call them in to settle shit, but there is no way they were intimate with Gus before hand. And if they were that's horrible writing. And while I'm nitpicking, fuck Jesse for walking up like he was fucking Wyatt Earp. I can understand killing those guys, but I can't understand doing it in such a haphazard way. I'm not sure what Gus is going to do, but he has to do something. I wouldn't be all that surprised if the execution didn't come from withing Gus's organization, but was just someone else hitting Tomas because they thought he was still dealing. And if so Walt is kinda screwed because it looks like the peace that was made didn't matter. One of the greatest things about this show for me is the way that it is New Mexico specific. The Blake's Lotaburger and mentioning of the Springer Boys Home/Detention center are great little shout outs to Albuquerque and New Mexico in general. I'm sure no one else gives a shit, but it's dead on.
I don't see how it would in any way benefit gus to or the business to kill the kid. I'm guessing, and that's all you can do with this show, it was the street dealers. Either to keep an 11 year old from snitching or to set jesse up as a scapegoat. Then again, jesse wasn't answering his phone. But I'm hesitant to suggest that. The audience would completely despise jesse. As it is he pushes the envelope. Or maybe the kid was a coincidence. Too bad the people could provide the best clue to his murder won't be talking any time soon.
WOW. That is one of the best episodes of television I've ever seen. Walt went pure, unadulterated cutthroat. The whole thing was just perfect. I'm watching the encore episode just to soak it in.
It would be completely against the character they've developed in Gus to kill an 11 year old kid. Gus doesn't give a shit about a street level gopher but he does give a shit about the negative attention the murder of an 11 year old kid generates. Even if he is an evil monster that kills children he wouldn't have popped the kid in a playground. The kid would have just disappeared. The conversation between Mike and Walt was awesome. I thought for sure it was about Mike taking care of business but it was really about Walt stepping up and taking a full measure of action. Trying to trick Jesse back into jail or rehab when what he really needed to do was stomp a couple of pushers that killed a kid. I'm really looking for the showdown between Heisenberg and Gus. If Walt can tap into that guy who carried a bag full of explosive crystals into a drug kingpen's office then I think he becomes a formidable opponent for Gus. This past episode definitely deserves a rewatch.
THIS. I would even argue that putting Jessie in a room with Gus was a half measure. So far, we have heard Gus give the advice "never make the same mistake twice", and Mike make the same claim about the domestic abuse case he worked as a cop. When Walt heard about the death of the boy, and then saw how he is dragging his wife into the biz, I think he snapped. He realizes he is watching the death of his morality. Everything he did before was to protect his family and to keep them pure at the expense of his own soul, and now he is pulling them in the snake pit with him. Will Walt indulge his temptation to be bad ass Heisenberg, or will he continue to be a pushover/employee of Gus? Which Walt will we get, the pleading, rationalizing,wimp from the restaurant, or Heisenberg? I think this season has made it clear that trying to be both is impossible.
I really don't see Walt going to battle with Gus. He knew Jesse was as good as dead when Mike left, thus going to gus himself, but he has to know that battling with Gus is lose lose. As bad ass as he wants his Heisenberg persona to be it won't stop Gus' ability to have Walt dead to rights as far as his family is concerned (plus he was minutes away from being ax murdered, he's far from a super criminal). Knocking off two street level dealers that probably had an 11 year old kid killed wouldn't be too hard to broker a deal with Gus about. I too was a little stunned that Gus seemed to have a closer relationship with the actual street dealers than I had imagined a careful guy like him would have. I still think Jesse is too much of a liability for Gus not to have him clipped somehow. I think my favorite part was how cool Mike was when he popped up next to Jesse's car.
I just started watching this show, watched all three seasons in three days....it's that fucking good. That was definitely a top 3 episode for me, up there with the Hank vs cousins and the original Walt with explosive crystals. I cannot wait to see the repercussions of Walt's decision. That was probably the best "Oh Shit" moment of the entire series, Walt was so cold blooded! Side note, I thought Hank's story was good as well, they decided not to have him be the drug addicted cop, but instead the "woe is me" guy who has to deal with recovering traumatic injuries. His wife finally stepped up, didn't take his shit anymore and I liked that.
It's going to be interesting to see if Walt tells Gus about him whacking those two, or if he tries to hide it. I can see it going down as Walt confronting Gus with a "WTF" impassioned slow-burn/high-intensity discussion, something that is known between Gus and Walt but never addressed or spoken of, or Walt just denying it all. It'll be interesting to see which direction they decide to go. But it will be business as usual between Gus and Walt... because it IS all about business. I even get the impression that the "no children" concession from Gus was not because of his morals, but because he saw it as a low-impact gesture to keep business going somewhat smoothly. Regardless, I don't think Jesse is going to be the little shithead towards Walt that he's been up until now. He realizes that this sure as hell isn't his old high school pushover chemistry teacher any more. Walt just became the Alpha Dog in that relationship. And it'll be interesting to see if Jesse keeps using now, or if that was just a one-off thing to build up his courage. Fuck I love this show.
Wow I didn't even think about that. He's been clean the entire season up until that point in the car. I doubt he goes into a downward spiral, but you never know with this show. This Sunday's episode will be the first one I've ever seen live. Can't wait.
The titles of the last two episodes of the season are "Half Measure" and "Full Measure" and it's hard to tell which is which. At the end of Mike's speech it's pretty obvious that he's saying that everything that Walt has done to keep Jesse out of trouble has been a half measure (pay for rehab, give him a job at the superlab, try to get him thrown in prison) when he really should be looking for ways to get him out of the business for good. Then there's the idea that Walt has been taking his entire life of crime in half measures* and now he needs to go all in. What were the last two minutes of the episode, then? Was it another half measure Walt took in order to keep Jesse from getting himself killed? If running the two thugs over and capping the survivor in cold blood was another half measure in Walt's life of crime what's the full measure going to be? *How strangling Krazy 8 with a fucking bike lock is still a half measure is beyond me.
Ummmmmmmmm, any word on whether there's going to be a fourth season? An announcement for season two was made in May a year before. Season three was announced in April of last year. I've looked and see no information that this show has been renewed for a fourth season. Obviously, it's popular. Vince Gilligan said in an article that he sees the show going to 4 or maybe 5. But why hasn't AMC, who has a vested interest in making this information available, done so? The precedent of past years tells us that we should be waiting for the cliffhanger that carries us into next year by now.
I'd bet that there are some SERIOUS negotiations going on right now about who's going to get what, and all that would probably have to be settled before they want to make an official announcement.
This is promising but the only blog I trust 100% is The Live Feed which hasn't said anything about the show being renewed yet.
I thought the point made with the death of the kid is that this is a business you can't get out of alive. Walt may have to run now too. I see his family being laid waste , as Walt realizes the horrible mistake he's made becoming involved with Gus. It looks to me like Walt has realized there IS no line between the clean and dirty sides of the business, and in the end innocents i.e children, pay the price. Kids getting caught up has been a recurring theme in this series, from the beginning with the crack couples kid in the house with Jesse. I think Walt may have to realize that he's protected his family, at the expense of someone elses families? Cliff hanger!
I can't believe this show used to be about a guy trying to find a way to pay for his chemo treatment. I want to go back and watch season one again. This drives a major consideration for me right now that I don't feel the writers are addressing... What is Walt's motivation? Only money now? Pursuit of power? Obviously his full measure actions at the end of the last episode can take this whole thing in a new direction, but I can't figure out why the characters are doing what they're doing. They are all irrational. Maybe that's the point?
Walt was steadfast on getting out, but the offer from Gus was simply too much for him to pass up. He could spend 3 months time and be set entirely for life (even then he refused, and I'm trying to remember what the tipping factor was but I'm drawing a blank for some reason). Then, once Walt realized how cutthroat Gus could be - and realizing that he was of no interest if he is not part of the process - he started to rethink the possibilities of a "contract extension" to stay safe (and I'm sure he's not exactly hating the millions upon millions of dollars he'd be pulling in). Imo it has been a logical - albeit crazy - progression.
The writers have too been addressing that; They still are. Walt was still concerned about providing for his family at the very beginning of the season. But he decided to stop cooking meth because it's torn his family apart. Then Gus gave him that "A man does what a real man does to provide for his family. A man doesn't do it because it's easy he does it because he has to". Or whatever it was. Basically Gus told him YOU'RE NOT A REAL MAN IF YOU DON'T COOK METH!! NOW GET TO IT PUSSY! and that's when Walt started working in the Super Lab. Id it's not the money Walt's motivation right now is to protect his family. Remember how Walt extended the contract that night in the hospital after Hank got shot? He did it so that Gus would protect his family and him. Walt knows that Gus knows that if he loses his family Walt is fucking done. He won't have anything to live for or any reason to cook. Of course, Gus also knows that he needs to keep Walt alive to keep him cooking. That's why he extended to contract. Walt got scared after Hank got shot and Gus played on that fear. Basically as long as Walt still cooks he'll protect him and his family from the Mexican cartel taking them out.