Breaking Bad

[Jeremy Blackman]

Also, Giancarlo Esposito's acting in that final scene is some of his best ever. Watch how much he says with only his eyes. Pretty amazing.

He's also quite chilling in that chapel scene with Jesse.

I really like how BB can take its time even in the most intense episodes. This episode had its share of delicious slow scenes:

- Walt by the pool, thinking and spinning the gun
- Jesse in his car on the roadside, silently brooding about his future
- The brief Skylar smoking / Jesse on his couch sequence (great music there)

[O.]

Promo of the season finale. Semi-spoilers, but for those who can't help themselves, help yourselves.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I will resist. I am strong.

[©brad]

My only complaint about the episode is the "go ahead and shoot me" bit between Jesse and Walt (that part of the scene in particular). Too cliche for this show. And there must have been a better way to resolve that moment. OMG is he going to shoot the central character? Of course he's not, because he's the central character, and I've seen this scene 73 times before. It was bad. I could be nitpicking, but that broke the moment for me. Cranston's acting in that scene, however, was amazing. It just should have ended differently.

Totally agree. The imprint of the gun into Walt's flesh was a nice touch tough. I enjoyed the episode, but it wasn't as good as last week's.

So what do we think. Did Walt poison Brock to get Jesse on his side to kill Gus or vice-versa? Honestly I'm not really liking this Brock poison plot point but I'm going to reserve final judgement until next week. It just seems so convoluted for either Gus or Walt to have done it. Does Walt really have the will and means to knock off an innocent kid? Especially after his own have just been threatened.

[Jeremy Blackman]

There's no way Walt did it. I believe he was telling the truth in that standoff scene.

I also think his theory about Gus's chess game was correct (as the final scene sort of corroborates). As petulant and insensitive as he's been, Walt has always been right about Gus's plans.

Keep in mind that Gus/Tyrus didn't need to poison Brock with that ricin cigarette. They only had to lift it from Jesse and poison Brock with something. Let's reserve judgement on this subplot until it's done playing out, but yes, for now I believe it was definitely Gus.

It's also sort of perfect because Mike is out of the mix, and he probably wouldn't have consented to that. He has grandkids and like Jesse seems to be a somewhat decent person. (Does this set the stage for Mike helping Walt and Jesse defeat Gus? Probably not, but that would be fun.)

[Jeremy Blackman]

I keep reloading the page waiting for the podcast to be uploaded. I feel pathetic.

[©brad]

I keep reloading the page waiting for the podcast to be uploaded. I feel pathetic.

I've been doing the same thing if it makes you feel any better.

I agree Walt couldn't have poisoned the kid after thinking about it. Either this was Gus' "appropriate response" or maybe the kid just stole one of Jesse's cigarettes when Jesse wasn't looking and it's all a bizarre tragedy of errors. Oh who am I kidding I have no idea what's going on.

[Stefen]

Kinda disappointed in that episode (and this whole season in general).

Having Andrea and Brock be such a big part of the end of this season is kind of a bummer. The really offer nothing other than to try and paint Jesse as being human and a sympathetic character, and him still siding with Walt already does that. I really hate this whole poisoning subplot. It's mad silly.

Hopefully the finale is really, really good. I'm looking forward to it. 

[Jeremy Blackman]

I don't mind the poisoning subplot at all. It's hardly a new thing in BB. Poisoning has been a strong thread in the show since Tuco, and technically since Walt gassed the two guys in the pilot. It's been on all the character's minds this season. And it has the obvious figurative meaning for what's been happening to Walt as a human being all along. Poison and BB go hand-in-hand.

[Stefen]

I don't mind the poisoning subplot at all. It's hardly a new thing in BB. Poisoning has been a strong thread in the show since Tuco, and technically since Walt gassed the two guys in the pilot. It's been on all the character's minds this season. And it had the obvious figurative meaning for what's been happening to Walt as a human being all along. Poison and BB go hand-in-hand.

I don't have a problem with poisoning either. I just have a problem with that little kid getting poisoned. That's silly.

[Jeremy Blackman]

It's a bit of an extreme measure, but in this four-part finale of extreme measures, it's meant to be. It's pretty much designed to get at Jesse. I see it as a function of Gus's cold-bloodedness and the extremeness of the circumstances, so it totally works for me.

[tpfkabi]

- The brief Skylar smoking

Did anyone think she was going to get killed by a sniper?
That is definitely a hole in the protection.

How would Gus even be aware of the cigarette? I'm thinking there has to be some twist to the origin of this unless I am forgetting some scene.

While watching, I was trying to think if there is any way that some how it could turn out that Hank was actually in with Gus. They like big surprises, so that would be a big one.

[Tictacbk]

Couldn't the kid have just tried to smoke a cigarette?  Kids do that.

[O.]

Couldn't the kid have just tried to smoke a cigarette?  Kids do that.

That's what I thought when it first happened before the commercial break was over.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Couldn't the kid have just tried to smoke a cigarette?  Kids do that.

That's what I thought when it first happened before the commercial break was over.

That's possible, but it would mean Walt is totally wrong about Gus's chess game. (And I think he's right.) Also, the ricin doesn't take effect that quickly. And Jesse knows when he last had the ricin cigarette. It's more likely that Tyrus lifted Jesse's ricin cigarette and Gus had the kid poisoned with different ricin or something else entirely. (We may not find out.)

Anyway, wow, fascinating podcast.

The writer of this episode (though not complaining) had no idea where the "just shoot me, do it, etc." part came from. Vince Gilligan also wasn't sure. Aaron Paul revealed that Bryan Cranston came up with that (as well as the mizzle imprint thing). As much as I love Cranston, they should have kept the original version. Bad Cranston!

Also, that whole scene was apparently very very thinly planned by the writers as a group, so it was left to one writer (Tom Schnauz) to write that scene. Probably explains why it wasn't quite up to BB standards in terms of the excessive cliche.

Vince Gilligan's thoughts on shooting that scene, which took a whole day:

That was the hardest day of directing I've ever had. The whole day long... this is just not working... something was telling me I'm failing here, I am not giving these guys what they need, this is not working right, this is not as it should be. And looking back on it, I'm not sure what I was freaking out about.

He says he basically had a "panic attack" (his words) because he was so unsure of what to do with the scene, and he basically handed it off to the actors, had them try it a few different ways, etc. Most of the scene was great, but Vince's instincts were correct that it wasn't quite right.