Great episode. My observations:
I was surprised with how quickly BB made the Hank/Walt confrontation explicit. I think most shows would have spent at least 2-3 episodes playing "when will Walt figure out Hank knows/when will Hank find out Walter knows the gig is up?" Vince Gilligan does not dawdle. Awesome.
I was intrigued by how thoroughly Jesse was not buying Walt's bull. But wow, Walt sure was unconvincing. "I need you to believe me"? Talk about mailing it in.
Obviously, I loved the Hank/Walt confrontation, particularly the "tread lightly" threat by Walt. I think both guys are underestimating the other.
Before this episode, my hunches about season 5b were the following:
1) Just about everyone important to Walt at the beginning of BB-- certainly Skyler, probably Walt Jr., Hank, and Marie-- will be ruined. (I'm on the fence about how things will fall out with Jesse.) Basically, that's been the arc of the whole show, and unlike previous seasons, they don't have to preserve any characters for next year.
2) Hank will go after Walt with everything he's got. For all his faults, Hank's a straight-up cop and he's going to go after his man, no matter the cost.
3) Walt will survive the fallout of all his activities, AND escape the law-- although the cancer may get him after the final showdowns. If I had to bet on any of my predictions, this would be the one I bet on- except, of course, the next one.
4) My gut will keep perversely rooting for Walt. What the hell is wrong with me? I wish I knew how to quit you, Walter White.
Who knows ????
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Way too many variables for me to take a stab at what episode will be the last for any characters. Here's my guesses on how they fair, storywise.
My predictions:
1) Walt: Lives. (At minimum, escapes Hank and the law, maybe taken down by cancer well after the final showdown.)
2) Hank: Dead. this is the flipside of my Walt prediction. If Hank survives, that means Walt is dead. JMHO.
3) Skyler: Arrested or state's evidence and in hiding. I don't think Walt kills her.
4) Jesse: no idea. I'm of two minds. Jesse is the conscience of the show, in many ways. Often, we see the real horror of Walter White through him. Either Vince Gilligan has Walt kill Jesse to underscore the depth of Walt's decline, or Jesse gets some sort of redemption to give the audience something to be happy about. If Walt dies, it will be at Jesse's hands.
5) Lydia: my guess is dead. Only Saul Goodman gets to be that slippery and survive.
6) Saul: Lives. A) he can't have his spin-off if he's dead/ruined. B) He's going to live for sure--or his name isn't Saul Goodman.
7) Badger: definitely dead. That's the only thing that can happen to someone who pitches a Star Trek idea that bad. (Note: link is to an animated version of Badgers episode.)
8) Marie: probably lives. the worst thing I can see is her getting ruined along with Hank when everyone finds out who Heisenberg is, but my guess is she survives.
Or... OR.... Walt is killed/dies of cancer, Skyler, Flynn and the baby get a lot of money, although relocated and with new identities. Lots of collateral damage (Hank, Jesse, Lydia, Todd) in episodes 2-8.
Basically everything (other than the new identities thing) goes to Walt's original plan. Amiright?
I think that a Saul spin-off would be great if it acted as a back story leading up to his involvement with Walter White. We see how a smart guy with normal hair turns into a crook with a terrible combover-mullet. Maybe it ends with him being kidnapped by Jesse and Walt.
Regarding the second episode, it looks like Hank is now after Skylar, although overall I didn't love the episode.
My favorite theory that I've seen is that Walt leaves everything behind and gets a new identity with the help of Saul.
He settles down and starts anew...
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Both Skylar and Hank are now focused on self preservation. Each has come to the realization that they are involved way too deeply to proceed on a typical law enforcement path whereby Skylar turns states evidence in return for leniency. Even though Skylar showed empathy for Walt after his trip to the desert, I believe she'll turn on him to save herself if the right opportunity arises. And now that Hank has chosen not to tell his colleagues about his evidence and suspicions, he has made a choice that almost certainly will end badly.
Looks like Todd is headed back into the lab, but when the product remains substandard he and Lydia kidnap Skylar to force Walt to cook again. Many things go wrong. Walt retrieves the ricin and buys the the big gun and goes Charles Bronson in full revenge.
Last edited by 77devil; 08-19-2013 at 11:28 AM.
I thought the episode was putting the pieces in place for later episodes. Exposition, in other words. I thought it was okay, and probably necessary for the story.
(NOTE: This is a explicitly a spoiler thread, but in case you missed that, SPOILERS BELOW.)
First of all, any hope of mediation on Hank's part has gone by the wayside. It's going to be all out war. I thought there was a chance that Hank might, uhm, tread lightly for fear of alienating his wife (Marie) by hurting her sister (Skyler) in his pursuit of Walt.
There's no going back from the things Skyler tacitly admitted to Marie. Marie explicitly signed off on Hank going all in on pursuing Walt, so the game is afoot. Personally, I don't think Hank is going specifically after Skyler, he wants Heisenberg and wants Skyler to come around.
Skyler looks to be getting set up for being ruined (i.e. prosecuted/jailed). She's clearly all in with Heisenberg at this point. I really, really felt for Skyler in this episode, she's totally ensnared by Walt's schemes and the difficult decisions and compromises those schemes forced her to make. I don't think there's any way this ends well for her. Her best case is turning state's evidence and losing her extended family-- and possibly her kids.
Speaking of which, we haven't even SEEN Flynn / Walt Jr. except in flashbacks. Whazzup with that? Is he hanging out with meth buddies?
Just when it looks like Walt and Skyler have circled the wagons and stalemated Hank, Jesse shows up in an interrogation room, tied to millions in drug money. Things are going downhill fast-- I expect to see Heisenberg any minute now.
So far, I'm pretty satisfied with what I've seen. I won't say I'm ENJOYING it all the time, because man is it ugly to see. But I'm pretty satisfied.
But I sure would like to mainline the last six episodes over a Saturday.
I'm not entirely convinced Hank has chosen not to tell his colleagues. I want to know what happens at the meeting he set up when he canceled the budget meeting. I think there's a chance he tells SOMEONE.
But maybe not. And I tell you, beyond his familial relationship, there's a LOT of stuff in Hank's past that makes it look possible he was involved with Heisenberg. (The brothers, taking down Fring.)
I like your Bronson theory. Makes as much sense as anything else I've heard. That M60 has to have SOMEBODY'S name on it-- in all likelihood, a LOT of names, all at once.
The actors continue to step up their games in these 1-on-1 confrontations. Hank vs Walt. Skyler vs Hank. Marie vs Skyler. Good stuff. Can't wait for Jesse vs Hank. Marie the klepto trying to steal Holly this time.
So, the next episode is titled "Confessions." I'm expecting two confessions, neither of which will be Jesse to Hank.
The episode preview highly suggests that one confession will be Saul confessing to Jesse about Brock but that may be a preview swerve.
Will Hank let his boss and the DEA know about Walt (after striking out interrogating Jesse)?
Whither Walter Jr? Marie tried to save Holly. Will the Schraders let Walter Jr in on what's happening?
Whichever Schrader does that is very likely signing his or her own death warrant. Walter White has always been very protective of the idea that Walter Jr. is "MY son" and if Hank and/or Marie take that step and destroy his treasured relationship with his son, Walter Sr. will come knocking.
All I got from that scene was that Skyler never nodded or said anything that would show she agreed with Marie's accusations. She cried and said "I'm sorry". She never said anything that admitted her knowledge or place in Walter's schemes.
Now, sister-to-sister it probably said a lot, and their relationship will never be the same (plus that whole baby-stealing thing). But Skyler is right, Hank/Marie have nothing that would hold up to police or cross-examination.
I've heard that idea floated before, but maybe I'm dense or something, but I haven't seen the first hint at any time that such a thing would be going on. It would be unlike Gilligan, I think, for such a major turn in the plot to come out of nowhere.
Oh, I don't know about that. I think if one were to really think about this and put together all the pieces available to Hank -- pieces that he somehow failed to put together up to this point -- one could put together a very strong case that Walter White is Heisenberg. Much of it would be circumstantial, but circumstantial evidence can be very, very powerful -- sometimes even more powerful than direct evidence, depending on the circumstances.
One thing that has always kind of bugged me about the "Hank can't figure it out" problem is that very early on, it seemed that Hank already suspected Walt of being involved. After the mask (I think it was) was traced back to Walt's high school and the other lab equipment turned out to be missing as well, I seem to remember at one point Hank turning to Walt and saying to him "you're not hiding anything, are you now buddy?" The kernel of suspicion was there in Hank's mind very, very early in this show, and that's why it has bugged me because if he had that kernel, then with each piece of the puzzle that presented itself, Hank would have been considering if it furthered that initial suspicion of Walt or contradicted it, and as each one furthered the suspicion, each next one would have become easier to make sense of and incorporate into his working theory.