Breaking Bad

[Tictacbk]

it's kinda like listening to a commentary before you've finished a movie, but I like to know the work that goes into it. I appreciate the show more as a piece of filmmaking when I'm aware of certain details in the process.

That's a good point.  I will probably really appreciate the podcast when I go back and listen to particular episodes, once the series is over.  I didn't mean to start up the podcast debate again. 

[©brad]

What is Hank's best worst option now? If he goes to DEA he'll be ridiculed, fired, and maybe accused of aiding and abetting Walt. If he does nothing, well forget that, Hank's not the type of person to do nothing. I think a win would be to try and keep Skylar and the kids alive at the very least, even if it means a forced retirement. Although I think Skylar singed her death warrant when she confronted Lydia at the carwash.

Ugh this show! Hurry up Sunday.

[Brando]

What is Hank's best worst option now? If he goes to DEA he'll be ridiculed, fired, and maybe accused of aiding and abetting Walt. If he does nothing, well forget that, Hank's not the type of person to do nothing. I think a win would be to try and keep Skylar and the kids alive at the very least, even if it means a forced retirement. Although I think Skylar singed her death warrant when she confronted Lydia at the carwash.

Ugh this show! Hurry up Sunday.

I don't think Hank is anywhere near going to the DEA with what he knows about Walt. He doesn't have nearly enough to arrest Walt. He might have enough to take to Gomez and they start to investigate secretly. I would guess maybe Hank goes to Skylar telling her what he now knows to be true. He will then be confronted that Skylar knows as well.

How is Walt going to deal with his eye? He'll have a bruise or black eye from Hank's punch. Will he be truthful with Skylar or lie to her about how he got it?

[modage]

First things first, he's got to tell Marie.

That will probably set off a chain event where Marie goes to warn Skylar and learns that Skylar is complicit.

Then I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENS. 

[Tictacbk]

If I was Hank I'd definitely go to Home Depot, get some yellow spray paint, and spray "HEISENBERG" across Walt's livingroom wall. 


I'd love it if Walt started going to Chemo just as a precaution incase this scenario ever came up, not because his cancer is back. 

[Jeremy Blackman]

Hank will probably do this in his spare time. I think he knows better than to create more workplace drama. (And if he doesn't know better, that's going to be tiresome.) Hank has to get Gomez involved. He has a personal stake in this case too. Although, I guess it would be interesting to watch him try to hide this from Gomez.

Plus of course there's Jesse. There's not much else for Jesse to do right now. His beginning-of-season crisis might have been (mostly) resolved in one episode. There needs to be a Walt/Jesse connection in the evidence first. I wonder what that will be. It wasn't the security tape. Maybe Saul is the connection. Hank's most recent success was the result of following a lawyer, so that would be fresh in his mind.

As for the black eye... Now that they have a mutual respect thing going on, he can't refuse to tell Skylar, and she will want to know.

Brando, maybe you're right, maybe Hank gets to Skylar even before she sees Walt's black eye... but that doesn't ring true somehow.

I think Hank would be more cautious. He would indeed tread more lightly. I bet he's considering all kinds of horrible possibilities, including Skylar's involvement, voluntary or otherwise. I wonder if he realizes their "family problems" were related to the meth operation. Remember Skylar telling Marie that the kids were not safe with her and Walt? I wonder if Marie told Hank about that. (Hank never heard that message directly, from what I remember.)

More importantly, what will Hank do to protect himself? Or, realizing who he's up against, does he realize there's nothing he could do if Walt really wanted to eliminate him?

E: Didn't see modage's post. I guess that's possible, but I think he'll keep the secret from Marie for now, because Marie would freak out and certainly tip off Skylar (or force Hank to do so), which Hank must realize is a dumb move. A more likely scenario is Hank keeping the secret, Marie gets concerned by his behavior, causing some tension in their marriage, etc.

[©brad]

I just want to reiterate what a brave and badass move it was to have the Hank/Walt confrontation in this first episode. They could have cat and mouse'd that shit for 2 or 3 more episodes at least.

Some other stupid predictions:

- Lydia will threaten to harm Walt's family to get him back to work. She put a hit out on Mike, she has no qualms of killing people who stand in her way.

- Walt will cook again, at least for a little while. Hank will bust him and bring down Lydia's whole operation.

- Jesse and Hank will team up. I have no idea how. Some revelation is going to light a fire under Jesse and make him go after Walt.

Oh god my head is spinning. Predicting what will happen on this show is impossible.

[Brando]

I agree with JB. The last people you want to be involved in this would be the two drama queens and that would be Marie and Walt Jr.

Walt confronted Hank in hopes to convince him to call off his secret investigation. It turned into something similar to Walt's "I am the one who knocks speech." It could backfire against Walt. Hank realizing he has no idea who Walt is anymore could cause Hank to no longer treat it like he's investigating his brother in law. He starts to treat it like he's investigating the evil Heisenberg. And we all don't think Hank will go to the DEA so in standard BB fashion this Sunday's teaser will be Hank bringing it to the DEA.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Yeah, I'm sure we will be proven wrong on at least half these speculations. With the BB writers there always seems to be a third option that none of us were creative enough to imagine.

What we can probably predict is that characters will usually stay true to themselves, so that can give us a lot to go on.

I'm not sure Lydia will threaten Walt's family. She seems too cowardly to threaten... wouldn't she just take action? I don't know, how can she possibly get what she wants out of Walt? She still doesn't have much leverage against him, unless she does threaten his loved ones, in which case he will just murder her. I don't even know what her smart move is.

[Brando]

I got the impression that Lydia was some sort of go between Walt and who ever is pressuring Lydia from the other side. If I remember correctly, Walt was surprised to see Lydia but didn't seem surprised she knows who he really is. Lydia might be the only one who knows Heisenberg is Walter White. If she's being put in a box, she might give him up in order to save herself. Saul still has a way to contact Walt. It seems Lydia could contact him on the phone as well. Last season, she was so terrified meeting anyone in public that having her show up at the carwash was to set up she knows he's Walter White and setting something up.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Last season, she was so terrified meeting anyone in public that having her show up at the carwash was to set up she knows he's Walter White and setting something up.

Great point. That should have been a red flag. Giant sunglasses aside, it's a big deal for her to do that. She could just be that desperate, and she does seem genuinely scared of Skyler, but it's more likely that you're right and something is being set up there.

[ono]

Forget if this has been linked yet so here ya go: http://www.amctv.com/talking-bad/videos/episode-509-online-bonus-video-talking-bad

Such a long wait between weeks, so hearing others talk about it (here, the podcast, that little tidbit above) all does fine to quench the thirst.

I rarely speculate for reasons previously cited.  The writers have months to drum up the most creative yet sensical paths for their characters.  Though I am intrigued when others bring out things that make good points yet the writers never see them and are therefore dropped.  For instance: I doubt too much more can be made of Lydia's appearance at the car wash other than that she's desperate.  There's nothing deeper to it than that.  Skyler was guarding her territory much in the way Walt did when he saw the meth head shopping for supplies at the hardware store a few seasons ago and told him and his buddy to stay out of his territory too (after giving him advice no less -- still a WTF moment if ever there was one).

As for the ricin, no way will Walt be using it on himself.  He knows what happens and will not go out with that.  He has a gun.  If he offs himself, he'll use that.  But I really think he has too much pride to ever bring about his own demise directly.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Forget if this has been linked yet so here ya go: http://www.amctv.com/talking-bad/videos/episode-509-online-bonus-video-talking-bad

I was surprised Vince actually explained how Walt probably poisoned Brock.

[mogwai]

Breaking bad as a romantic comedy

[Fernando]

Plus of course there's Jesse. There's not much else for Jesse to do right now. His beginning-of-season crisis might have been (mostly) resolved in one episode. There needs to be a Walt/Jesse connection in the evidence first. I wonder what that will be. It wasn't the security tape. Maybe Saul is the connection. Hank's most recent success was the result of following a lawyer, so that would be fresh in his mind.

I think the connection could be Jesse's car being where Tuco died, there's no physical evidence of Walt being there but if Hank puts two and two together he will remember Walter missing for a few days, and of course the reason he went there was to find Walt only he found and killed Tuco instead, then there's the connection of the call made to Hank about Marie's "accident", which Hank already told Walt about it.

I think Hank has enough to approach Jesse "if" he decides to take that road.