Breaking Bad

[©brad]

Just listened to the podcast. How come no one mentioned the writers reached out to PSH to play Gale?!

[ono]

They did.   (Look back on last page.)

[Pubrick]

Jeremy mentioned it, and so did jerome, kind of.

As good as this show is, PSH would've been too good for this show.

[©brad]

Eesh how did I miss that. Anyway I agree with you both. Him as Gale would have taken me out of the show. It was fun to here PT being mentioned on the podcast. I also like that Vince is a Friday Night Lights fan. Why do we like it so much when people we like like stuff we like.

Only 5 more episodes this season!

[Pubrick]

we like it when people we like like stuff we like

Marquee.

[MacGuffin]

Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by the American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Though the first edition was published in 1855, Whitman spent his entire life writing Leaves of Grass,[1] revising it in several editions until his death. Among the poems in the collection are "Song of Myself", "I Sing the Body Electric", "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking", and in later editions, Whitman's elegy to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd".

This book is notable for its delight in and praise of the senses during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. Where much previous poetry, especially English, relied on symbolism, allegory, and meditation on the religious and spiritual, Leaves of Grass (particularly the first edition) exalted the body and the material world. Influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalist movement, itself an offshoot of Romanticism, Whitman's poetry praises nature and the individual human's role in it. However, much like Emerson, Whitman does not diminish the role of the mind or the spirit; rather, he elevates the human form and the human mind, deeming both worthy of poetic praise.

Particularly in "Song of Myself", Whitman emphasized an all-powerful "I" who serves as narrator. The "I" tries to relieve both social and private problems by using powerful affirmative cultural images. The emphasis on American culture helped reach Whitman's intention of creating a distinctly American epic poem comparable to the works of Homer. Originally written at a time of significant urbanization in America, Leaves of Grass responds to the impact urbanization has on the masses.

[Reel]

sooooo Breaking Bad is like Leaves of Grass, you're saying?

[MacGuffin]

sooooo Breaking Bad is like Leaves of Grass, you're saying?

It's the book Walter unpacks and places on his night stand.

[Reel]

I'd be fuckin' lost without this place.

Okay, everyone. You can proceed to dissect Mac's reference which I only vaguely understand. I'll keep my mouth shut 

[Jeremy Blackman]

Walt and Gale bonded over a Walt Whitman poem in the lab. Also, didn't Gale dedicate his lab notebook "to W.W." which Hank asked Walt about? The gimmick was that it could have been Walter White or Walt Whitman, and of course Walt, finding the Walt Whitman poem in the notebook, made that connection for Hank. This is from memory, but that's basically what it's about. That's why Walt smiled when he unpacked that book.

[Brando]

Walt smiles and remembers fondly when he sees Leaves of Grass while any person with a strand of guilt would have been saddened. Gale was a nice guy caught in the middle and Walt doesn't feel any guilt over his death. He puts the book right on his nightstand instead of putting it away like the others.  He's fine being reminded of it every night before bed while Skyler is tormented by the other guy who was caught in the middle Beneke.

If I remember correctly, Walt first wore the hat in the last scene of the first season at his meeting with Tuco. Unless he wore it to visit Jesse in the hospital after Tuco beat him. At that point, he was trying to pretend to be something he wasn't and failing. He picked the meeting spot of the junkyard believing it to be a good spot for a drug deal but then both Jesse and Tuco mentioned it wasn't.  He wore the hat to come across as a bad ass which he wasn't. It was sort of a mask or costume he would put on. He wore the hat every time he meet with people he wanted to deceive so they didn't see him as high school chemistry teacher. It was a way for him to pretend to be something he wasn't and he no longer has to pretend. If the hat comes back(you have to imagine the writers know how iconic the hat is and will) it will probably be in a new capacity.  Thinking of Walt in that junkyard wearing that hat just makes me laugh now.

[Jeremy Blackman]

The dynamic between Skyler and Walt has never been this fascinating. It's just so strange and volatile. The scene in the bedroom was absolute magic, with Walt relentlessly outwitting her and stalking her like a lion. Description can't do it justice.

I'm so relieved that Skyler has broken out of her mold, because this is definitely working.

The GPS subplot is interesting.

Evidence that it wasn't Lydia
She genuinely had trouble turning off the cameras, and she would have needed to do that to plant it, right?

Evidence that it was Lydia
Everything Mike said. Plus, who else would have done it? It seems unlikely that they'd reveal it was the DEA, given Mike's comment about it being sloppy (and it did look sloppy). Also, isn't that one of those GPS devices that you have to retrieve to get the data? (If it was legitimately planted, how would they go about retrieving it?)

Seems like a toss-up. Evidence seems to point away from Lydia and the DEA, so I'm hoping it's a third party. Maybe it was Todd.

I'm so looking forward to next week, which has been hyped as one of the very best episodes of the first eight. I will be speculating all week about the plot. Unless Vince spoils it in the podcast. (Which is very possible at this point. He needs to shut his spoilery mouth.) I'm sure it involves straightening out the methylamine situation.

[Brando]

EDIT:Please ignore me saying that the writers would bring the hat back in a new capacity. Only remember I said they would bring it back.


That scene between Walt and Skyler was great. It reminded me of the Scene between James Gandolfini and Edie Falco in their breakup except in this one it was one sided. Walt stalking her around the bedroom putting down her plans was great/terrifying. He was really expecting a surprise party! That ending with Skyler smoking in the house with her actions saying "I want you to die of cancer so bad I'm smoking" and Walt responds with the story of Jesse wanting to kill him was chilling.

[Pubrick]

I'm so looking forward to next week, which has been hyped as one of the very best episodes of the first eight. I will be speculating all week about the plot. Unless Vince spoils it in the podcast. (Which is very possible at this point. He needs to shut his spoilery mouth.) I'm sure it involves straightening out the methylamine situation.

If he does spoil it don't talk about it here. This is why I avoid the podcast. The show is the show and everything else can go to hell.

I don't understand how someone like yourself who appreciates the value of seeing things with unspoiled eyes can expose himself to so much extraneous bullshit when it comes to this show.

I don't know a single thing about upcoming episodes let alone which ones are going to be "the best" of this short season. I hate hearing that crap. When you speculate you're not even playing the same game as the rest of us.. you will probably know how the show will end from some hint they give on the podcast, not from working through the show.

[modage]

I don't know a single thing about upcoming episodes let alone which ones are going to be "the best" of this short season. I hate hearing that crap. When you speculate you're not even playing the same game as the rest of us.. you will probably know how the show will end from some hint they give on the podcast, not from working through the show.

This is totally true. That said...

Spoilers
some information in this episode confirmed my earlier theory about the location of the flash-forward.

Read here.