quote:Blue Sky makes a split-second cameo appearance in the AMC series The Walking Dead, in the episode titled "Bloodletting". It can briefly be seen in Merle Dixon's drug stash which contains crystal meth among other drugs.
Totally caught that when I was watching, didn't you? Posts: 3771 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
You know I've never done any recreational drugs or drink. But I might get drunk for the eventual season/series finale. #BBADDICT
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
| IP: Logged |
You see that is why it is so tragic, it is an accident or something. Walt Jr. does not do it on purpose and it is not his Dad's product.
I don't know enough about how you take meth, but is there a way for someone to sneak it to a person? Like dumping a pill in someones drink? I am assuming you can die from an overdose of the stuff? How much would be needed?
Is Walt Jr. on meds for his condition? Could there be some interaction between the meth and his meds?
If Walt Jr. dies from a meth overdose, even if it is not Walt Sr. meth, I can see Skyler going off the deep end and maybe even Walt Sr. accepting it.
posted
There's a theory that the Ratatouille plug is forshadowing that Mike has a mole in the DEA. Somewhat plausible. Mike calling her when he did also makes you curious, but he could of just had someone watching that building.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
| IP: Logged |
You see that is why it is so tragic, it is an accident or something. Walt Jr. does not do it on purpose and it is not his Dad's product.
I don't know enough about how you take meth, but is there a way for someone to sneak it to a person? Like dumping a pill in someones drink? I am assuming you can die from an overdose of the stuff? How much would be needed?
Is Walt Jr. on meds for his condition? Could there be some interaction between the meth and his meds?
If Walt Jr. dies from a meth overdose, even if it is not Walt Sr. meth, I can see Skyler going off the deep end and maybe even Walt Sr. accepting it.
msquared
It just doesn't make sense. Walt Jr. has never shown even the smallest problem in that area. His parents never even caught him smoking, and after Walt more or less dared him into getting drunk I think he'd be gunshy.
To suggest that he'll die of a meth overdose would come ridiculously out of left field. I wouldn't buy it.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by umberhulk: There's a theory that the Ratatouille plug is forshadowing that Mike has a mole in the DEA. Somewhat plausible. Mike calling her when he did also makes you curious, but he could of just had someone watching that building.
The phone call was suspicious. But if he knew ahead of time, wouldn't he have given her more than 30 seconds of notice?
Hard to say, but I like the theory.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, I don't imagine it's a coincidence that Hank is being offered a job that will pull him off the investigation. There are definitely rotten elements high in the DEA.
Posts: 1087 | Registered: Jul 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
The phone call 30 sec before was -so- Matrix...and stupid, what is the point of warning someone if all you give them is time to take a deep breath?
I did find it hilarious that the German on speaking phone was still talking when she got back.
Posts: 6683 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Jake: Well, I don't imagine it's a coincidence that Hank is being offered a job that will pull him off the investigation. There are definitely rotten elements high in the DEA.
Well, I'm not so sure that's a means to take him off the case (when he can just as easily assign someone or several someone's to take his place and report to him).
I think it's a storytelling element to put Hank in his boss' position, whereby when Walt is finally discovered, or the threat of Walt coming out is revealed, it'll mean Hank's career is over.
I also find it impossible to believe that Hank will let it go. If he held on as long as he did under the circumstances he did, there's no way he'll let go now that he actually has his hands on some power.
Who could possibly have a high level DEA official in their pocket at this point? The cartels involved with this are all dead and gone, and the DEA sapped all of Mike's financial resources, else he wouldn't be with Walt, unless the first thing he did was run out with his first payment to buy off the DEA guy again. I dunno.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
It'll be interesting what does happen to Hank, if Walt gets caught. It would be weird. Hank's career is saved and completely-turned around, and then destroyed because of solving the same case.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
So... I have not actually been following this show. But read this article about the show's implications about race, and curious what people who *had* watched it thought:
posted
I wouldn't bite the apple and agree with him, but he makes an intelligent-curious case.
But if I were playing the devil's advocate with him, almost every character that he talks about is somehow connected to the drug cartel--or a person he or she has hired, and it would make sense for them favor people from their countrie(s). Secondly, Breaking Bad is like watching a slow motion car crash. Nothing in is "supposed to happen", and the show's best quality is that it's a show about concequences and the lives Walt effects, and many of them are connected to the cartel because it's a show about making drugs in New Mexico.
If Gomez dies I think that guy is going to throw a tv at the wall.
posted
That article is a little silly. Would he be arguing the same points if Walt was hispanic and everyone else was white? Would he instead be saying something like "Oh, psh, they're basically saying that hispanics are naturally evil and prone to be criminals!"
What was it that Morgan Freeman said when he was asked how to stop racism?
I believe it was: "Stop talking about it."
Listen to Morgan. He knows.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think he's tapping into something interesting, but he's going about it all wrong.
It's easy to come up with his conclusion if you set out to prove a point, rather than analyzing a show to see what makes the most sense. I would only agree if I thought the showrunners specifically sought out to create a structure that supports his racist theory. I don't agree. Therefore everything he says is loosely circumstantial.
And the thing about it is, what if the situation had been reversed and Gus was white and Walter was Hispanic? Should the whole cast be Hispanic? Mixed up in the drug culture world, I'm pretty sure there's no escaping something that someone could pin on the show for being racist.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I would agree with that. I suppose the show is in danger of effecting people's perceptions of race, but unless that was the goal, you can't blame the artist for his audience not having the ability to critically think.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Also, he talks about Skyler and I agree with him. She always annoyed me in the early seasons because she felt like a plot device, and not a character. And her dialogue. But in recent seasons I don't begrudge her.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
"This show is racist" comments are not about the *intent* of the author. That's not the point at all. It's not about intent, and it's not about that show in isolation.
Normally I'd be up for arguing about how people are affected by media no matter how critically they think and artists have a responsibility to understand that. But in this case that's really a side point.
What's interesting about this review was that it wasn't so much saying "this show is racist." It was more "this show, intentionally or not, deals with a lot of issues with race, and can be viewed through this lens. Walter gets away with things because of his privilege, the show can seen essentially him trying to hold onto that privilege.
The consensus in the comments that follow seems to be that the show *probably* knows what its doing, and is in fact making pretty important points, but that viewers often miss them because they're latched onto Walt as a protagonist they're still trying to identify with.
I like this particular comment:
quote:The problem for me is less the writers and more the viewers, though I agree with many of these points. We were supposed to lose sympathy for Walter White a long, long time ago, yet viewers (at least from what I’ve seen on comment boards) continue to defend and justify Walt at every turn, scapegoating Skyler and making excuses for all of Walt’s bad behavior.
Whenever I discuss BB with acquaintances it always comes back to ‘when did you know Walt was irredeemable?’ and it’s interesting how the answers vary. For me it was Hugo. The scene in which Walt use the ladies at the laundry echoes that point in the first season when Hugo, the Latino custodian, is fired after Walt steals lab equipment from the school.
That event effectively illustrates how Walt’s race and class privilege shields him from suspicion and how he is able to pass off the consequences of his own actions onto people of color. Weeds is the story of a wacky white lady adventuring into the world of POC and having a zany laugh; BB is the story of how a white middle class person uses and abuses his privilege, sacrificing the lives of POC and poorer people at every turn.
Edit: Also, the majority of people I post with hate the shit out of Walt now. We can root for him to survive long enough to realize what a shitbag he's become, or part of us root for him because it's fun to root for a criminal protagonist as he tries to destroy a laptop with a magnet. But right now he's unmistakably a wanker.
(And there's actually a brief arch in Season 4 where I, and most viewers, were actually rooting for the bigggest antagonist in the show). But then we all went back to hating him.
posted
SPOILERS for stuff seasons 1-4 (but I don't think that's necessary for this thread, really)
I stopped empathizing with Walt as a man of even a personal claim of decency that was itself another piece of denial, back when he murdered Jesse's girlfriend Jane. He didn't choke her out or anything, but he did watch her die for his own (and Jesse's, or so he likely told himself) benefit when all it would've taken was a move of his arm. That's cold blooded premeditated murder in my book. There may be other events I'm forgetting, but to me he crossed a thick straight black line in white paint right there.
Of course the truth is, his personal honor had taken a LOT of dings ever since he decided to sell an incredibly poisonous destructive narcotic tied up in extreme violence and death rather than swallow his pride and take money from old friends who may or may not have screwed him.
I was willing to empathize with him as a fundamentally good guy until then, someone whose terrible urgent desperation drove them to an awful set of decisions. After that, well, he was the villainous protagonist who loved his family but would do most anything or use most any kind of violence or depravity for either their sake...or his own pride. Still thumped the couch in satisfaction when he killed Gus and Victus, though;)
But the apparent preference and liking for Jesse in this thread is surprising to me, since Jesse has done some despicable things himself. Much of it was when he was mired in addiction which mitigates some responsibility, but much of it was also done stone-cold sober out of either fatalism or greed or I don't know what.
He, too, peddled meth to people with even less of an attempt at justification than Walt. He went to meetings to sell meth to desperate addicts attempting recovery. He can be partially blamed for getting Jane back on drugs, which (along with Walt) eventually killed her. He couldn't keep the peace for even half a day because 'they had to go' (the car riding kid-using dealers), knowing full well that he was near the very top of a pyramid of drugs that utterly destroyed or ended hundreds and thousands of lives of children across the Southwest-he even saw a thorough example before the junkie's head got smashed by an ATM.
It seems to me that the only real, untainted virtue either of them can claim is loyalty to one another. I was really impressed and sadly proud the many times, even when Gus was wrapping Jesse around his finger, that he refused to kill Walt, and Walt refused it too, or even refused to allow it. That's why I suspect the end of the show will involve one of them betraying and or killing the other: it would be the thing that killed the last shred of decency and humanity between the pair of them: that loyalty and mutual, even when totally dysfunctional, protection.
I vote for Walt making it out of this alive and unimprisoned, because I think that would fit with the themes of the show. His formerly mediocre, professionally disappointed life will be an utter ruin behind him, but at numerous points we've seen his ruthlessness twist towards self-preservation, money, or pride, and when he actually takes the time to think he has proven to he a successful, skilled criminal sometimes.
Jesse I think will end either dead, a meth-ruined junkie, or a hardened criminal and killer. I don't think he'll keep his lovely found family-it certainly wouldn't be his pattern. He discarded his first one, his habits and lifestyle helped kill Jane, and how long will his third one last once they start to get a handle on who he really is? That's been Walt's pattern: the more his wife learns about him, the more repelled she has become-but having such history and entanglements, it's been a slow process even though she was quick to note something was wrong.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Don't think Jesse discarding his parents has any bearing on what his fate will be: If you go all the way back to the very first season, his parent were awful people. Would ABSOLUTELY discard them if I were in his shoes: his grudge originates from before he ever got hooked on Meth, or got kicked out of his house. He also genuinely feels entitled to the house because of the service he gave to his grandmother. Don't have to approve of him, but his relationship with his parents is so complicated and repressed, that drawing any conclusions about him and his new family seems overzealous.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
If his recounting of events with his aunt was accurate-and his mother didn't deny it-then their decision to boot him and sell the place themselves wasn't clean cut. But 'awful people'? They seemed very vanilla to me, having gone through many bouts trying to help their son who variously lied to or stole from them, until the point they'd had it. I would've had more respect for them if they'd taken the money for the proceeds and spent it on some sort of rehab for him or something-actually something like what Walter tried, for selfish reasons too, to do: hold his money until he was clean.
I think what I said stands: Jesse has had exactly one, perhaps two, families: his biological one, and Jane. One he apparently alienated until they washed their hands completely of him, and did so repeatedly. The other he knowingly used in front of and then shared drugs with her despite knowing how long she'd been clean...and incidentally, Jesse and Walter own a big piece of those hundreds of aircraft deaths, and between them their actions helped totally destroy Jane's actual family.
Anyway, as for drawing conclusions about Andrea and Brock-for all he railed against Walt for bringing devastation into his own life, he has done exactly the same to Andrea's family. From the nastiness he deliberately involved himself in, Andrea's younger brother was murdered (after having been a killer himself), and her son was nearly fatally poisoned, was terribly injured. All of this comes after, you'll remember, Jesse's utterly selfish intention of selling meth to addicts attempting recovery. Even freakin' Badger and Skinny Pete had the moral fortitude to call that sleazy.
And Jesse has known them, what, a few months? How many family members does Andrea have? The thing is, you cannot safely have a family and do the work either of them do-another of the points of the show, I think.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
There's a scene with his parents and his little brother in Season 1. They just seem like dumb, overbearing, and somewhat oblivious parents, and generally annoying people. There's subtext that they way he was raised led to his life in drugs, when we see that its begun to happen to his younger brother (Jesse gets kicked because they find some weed that they thought belonged to him, but really happened to his brother, who was pretty young to be smoking weed)
And you're right. We have no great to expect it to last, given the circumstance of his profession and for things in this show to go wrong. Or given that there are secrets he will always have to keep from them.
But I don't think that Jesse's parents are a good reason to think that Jesse isn't altruistically capable of sustaining it. His alienation of his parents is something that he thinks they deserve; he doesn't feel that way about Andrea.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think if you asked around, your perspective on Jesse's parents would seem remarkably harsh and overly critical. Do they have the tools to deal with their son's problems? Well, clearly the answer is no. But it's equally clear they've been around and around multiple times with drugs in the house, low level criminality, and the numerous necessary lies that go along with all of that. Even after many of those, when he staggers into their home in the back yard at night, clearly high, they did still let him stay. There was never any subtext shown that the 'way he was raised' led him to meth cooking and dealing, either. I have no idea where you got that from. Jesse did get kicker for his brother's weed...but of course, he was still using and dealing and cooking meth, so he hardly had any moral authority to complain-aside from being a grown adult.
As for things going wrong-Jesse and Walter are still alive, despite how quickly they jumped into the frothing carnivorous end of the drug dealing food chain, and Jesse at least has managed as of early S5 to keep his money. I actually count the pair's ongoing survival as a big win, considering.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I liked Jane. The beautiful tattoo artist with no tattoos. Ironic? Not at all! (Keith Browning )
Walt's downward spiral makes me only wish him away from anyone else, so that he can't hurt another person, ever.
Jessie's struggle to do the "right" thing, is hazily obvious. So, I wish him happiness and some type of future redemption.
These feelings could change with one episode. We could see Walt completely jump the "hell on wheels" track and wake up, becoming emotionally vulnerable and available. We could see Jessie permanently give up and die emotionally as Walt's done. At that point, I'd be cheering for Walt and wishing for Jessie's downfall. I'm so fickle that way. I'm so easily played.
Gilligan is good at his job. Can't wait to see the drama he's prepared for us.
Posts: 3771 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: Regarding Jesse's number of families:
You don't think Walt is a surrogate father?
He still calls him Mr. White for God's sake.
I agree with you here. Walt even calls Jessie his 'nephew' when he's talking about him to Jane's father at the bar. It was one of those moments where you really start to understand Walt's treatment of Jessie. He calls him an idiot sometimes, but also takes pride when Jessie does something right. There was also that scene back in season 2 where they're cooking up a huge batch in the RV out in the middle of nowhere (right after the RV dies and they're making a battery) and Walt starts teaching him how the battery works. You can tell the joy he takes from watching Jessie learn in that scene, so I think there's definitely some fathering/mentoring going on.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
Talking about the paths each of the characters are going down, I have come to view them like this:
Walt is obviously breaking bad. He's going to destroy everything in his life until he is so completely devoid of human decency that he will no longer be recognizable from the man we saw in episode 1.
Jessie is the complete opposite. We saw him start out a degenerate. We knew he was a criminal and we didn't expect anything from him. Over the course of the show, however, while we have seen Walt gradually descend into madness, Jessie has had almost as many moments of clarity and civility towards his fellow man.
A case could be argued that the two of them are ships passing in the night, each heading from one side to the other. In the latest season, Jessie seems to lack the criminal ambition of past seasons, while Walt's greed and lust for power have only grown. They're essentially turning into the other's former self, something that will eventually force them to brake apart, potentially ending with one of their deaths.
I personally think there's a strong possibility that Jessie is going to end up killing Walt, possibly to save Walt's family (wouldn't that be ironic?). In the end, Walt would have become the worst threat to his family's well being, while Jessie would be the one to save them. It would be perfect symmetry.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
| IP: Logged |
quote:You can tell the joy he takes from watching Jessie learn in that scene, so I think there's definitely some fathering/mentoring going on.
In hindsight, it's easier for me to integrate this scene into Walt's character by assuming that it's not a love of watching Jessie learn, but a love of being the authority, of placing himself above another. But then, maybe I need to watch that scene again to be sure. I think it's probably fair to say Walt had his good side in the beginning.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, we see Walt's enthusiasm for personal instruction in those first season flashbacks. I miss those. But yeah, to me there was duality to everything Walt did in the early seasons.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Whew, just started 5-04, and Walt looks to be seriously coming off the rails. That's like three seriously irrational, money-is-no-object flagrant decisions he's made in less than a day (the sale of the Aztek for $50, and then the leasing of the two big ticket cars).
Also, I think Skyler's cringing anxiety stems at least in part due to it being her who lost the $600K. It's not a bad decision on terms with meth cooking, but in terms of saving the remains of her family, that was an enormous and hugely costly mistake.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
But you had to guess that something like that was going to happen after the first 45 seconds or so. It was painfully obvious. What I didn't see coming was who actually pulled the trigger. That was a surprise. They set the previews up to make the killer the victim.
Also, poor Jesse
He's finally having a run of really great, creative, outlandishly successful ideas, and most of them manage to find a way to horribly backfire.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I still wouldn't say 'poor Jesse' (but that's because I decides early on that, given the trade they're in and the knowledge they have of it, none of them are anything better than conflicted evil), but as someone who can't help but root for the protagonists...yeah.
I wonder if Walt would've found a way, right in front of Jesse, not to kill the kid? We already know he's willing to committ cold-blooded murder of children, but I wonder if he would've tried it.
I wonder how they'll go about concealing this corpse. If it's their usual method, man, Jesse thinks he's distraught now.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't think Walt will ever openly do something that Jessie can blame him for. He was willing to poison that one kid and watch Jessie's girlfriend die, but only because Jessie would never find out about it. He wouldn't kill some kid, knowing that Jessie doesn't want it to happen. Walt really likes Jessie and has even gotten to the point where he respects him, so I think he'd try to avoid hurting Jessie opinion of him.
Still, I think eventually Walt will do something that Jessie simply cannot forgive and it will shatter their relationship. When that happens, we'll probably see everything go completely off the rails.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think you might be on to something, Jeff. Jesse is one of only two people, actually, who really have any image in their mind of Walter White as both criminal on the one hand and decent human being on the other. Skyler is I would say the other, and she has recoiled in horror and disgust. Jesse is the only other person who actually has any inkling of both sides of him. It wouldn't be surprising to me if Jesse seeing him as Skyler does would be something that would sting much more than expected for those reasons, but also because of all the conflicted dysfunctional teacher-student/father figure thing they've got going on sometimes.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Also, Walter has lost a lot with Skyler seeing him as a danger to his children, and as a bad father. Having Jessie look up and respect him is even more important as so few people do now.
Posts: 6683 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I looked up "Awkward" in the dictionary and it was a picture of Walt, Skyler and Jessie sitting around a dinner table.
Posts: 6683 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
SPOILER FOR MOST RECENT EPISODE. . . . . . . . If Walt doesn't end up dead by the end of this season, there's no justice left in the world. I KNEW it. I mean, gyah, I knew it. I knew at the beginning of this episode, the beginning of LAST episode, that it was heading for this, but I still hoped somewhere deep down that Mike would be able to drive off into the sunset and could just be RID of Walt.
Does his grand daughter at least get to keep the money? I mean come on, that's what he cared about most, it's probably the only reason he stayed in as long as he did, to provide for her. Did they take that too? Or is it still safely stored away in the lockbox?
I desperately, desperately want Jesse to find out about all the horrible things Walt has done. I just know when he gets back he'll tell Jesse that Mike made it away safely to some tropical island. Jesse will be none the wiser. I want Jesse to go to Hank and spill everything. He'll be so anger, so guilty, he won't even care about asking for immunity, he'll just spill it all to bring Walt down.
Mike was my favorite character. With him gone, all I have left is Jesse, and though his loyalty to Walt is finally starting to break, I just can't help but feel like he's going to be sucked back in, AGAIN. And Walt trusts Todd? Todd?.
You know how I really want this to end now? Walt finishes teaching Todd (aka, Ricky Hitler) how to make blue meth, and Todd, not needing Walt but having totally seduced him with the prospect of a willing protege who will genuflect in deference, will off Walt with the same casualness he offed that kid.
Walt doesn't have cancer, Walt is cancer!
/rant
Edit to add: And how the hell are people still on Walt's side? I read reviews talking about Walt's defenders, and without being slightly sociopathic yourself, I don't see how anyone can actually defend him or at this point claim he has a single redeemable quality.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I agree. Though, the air I get out of that flash forward in episode one, is that Walt seems sobered and diminished, so something may happen that stabilizes him. Can't wait for the next episode.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, but he was also buying a .50 cal machine gun, from the looks of things, and I think I remember him having the Heisenberg hat with him (correct me if I'm wrong).
Plus he left like a $100 tip on a breakfast he never ate. Didn't strike me as a guy who was humbled, just as one who had mo' money mo' problems.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well his cancer was back, so he doesn't really need it to live on. And you could also read it as wanting to do something generous before possible going to his death. Gilligan also hinted at why he's buying the gun.
Jim Beaver was pretty funny in the scene where he's selling the gun to him.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
