Gyroscopic Investing

Intense. So, did walt say all that crap on the phone to get Sky off the hook?

Spoiler Alert:

Yes, that's what the smart people of the internet say.  I didn't realize that at the time, but his tone with her on the phone definitely felt wrong.  I don't think he was prescient enough to take Holly to ensure that police phone call to get Skyler off the hook.  I think he was acting purely on emotion after that crazy knife fight.

Omg, I'm just rewatching the episode again.  In the teaser, Sklyer is next to the phone and knife in the kitchen talking to Walt.  This was when he first started cooking.  Fast forward to today, and she chooses the knife to go after him!  Their family has been irrevocably destroyed.  I choked up when Walt shouted, "But we're a family!"

rhymenocerous wrote: I don't think he was prescient enough to take Holly to ensure that police phone call to get Skyler off the hook.

Nor do I.

It's all very disturbing, but we knew this was coming.

I don't know how you sort this all out in two episodes and get Walt with a full head of hair to the coffee shop with the .50 caliber in his trunk.

I don't think that his cancer ever returned.  I think that he has been dying, but not of that.

MediumTex wrote: It's all very disturbing, but we knew this was coming.

I don't know how you sort this all out in two episodes and get Walt with a full head of hair to the coffee shop with the .50 caliber in his trunk.

I don't think that his cancer ever returned.  I think that he has been dying, but not of that.

Wig? :-) After all, he's supposed to change his appearance when he gets his new identity.
He was still taking meds in the bathroom when he bought the huge firearm.

But, I guess we still have to see who levels the residence at 308, and what happens to Lydia.
I look forward to the Aryans meeting their Maker. That's the only real payoff after these tragic deaths and revelations.

What an episode!

I definitely agree that Walt's treatment of Skyler was designed to get her off the hook and, more importantly, leave his children with at least one parent they could still love and respect.  He had to cast her as the victim and himself as the monster to make that work.

She comes as close to saying goodbye as she can when she says "I'm sorry".  I found it poignant how badly he wanted to respond but had to play the rest of the call as pure Heisenberg.

Just an amazing scene all the way around.

And yeah, I don't think that the kidnapping was premeditated.  I think you can tell this because he whispers to Holly about getting her a "brand new car seat".  It seems to me that when Holly started asking for "Mama" was when he realized that he had to leave his family completely in Skyler's hands.  That meant doing whatever it took to keep the blame off of her and on him.

MediumTex wrote: I don't know how you sort this all out in two episodes and get Walt with a full head of hair to the coffee shop with the .50 caliber in his trunk.

I don't think that his cancer ever returned.  I think that he has been dying, but not of that.

It'll be fun to see how we get there.  Especially because at this point I have complete faith in this shows writers to do it right.

What do you think that Walt's been dying of?

Lone Wolf wrote: What do you think that Walt's been dying of?

Bad.

I think that it is dawning on him that his form of Bad disease has the peculiar quality of killing all those around you before finally killing you.

MediumTex wrote: Bad.

I think that it is dawning on him that his form of Bad disease has the peculiar quality of killing all those around you before finally killing you.

Yeah, it sure seems that way.  This disease makes a person do things like not take Declan's $5 million.

I guess Walt's rapid ascension/expansion to the detriment of everything around him is kind of like cancer itself.  Maybe it's dawned on him that he doesn't have cancer so much as he is cancer.

Word is the final 2 episodes will be 75 minutes each instead of 60.

iwealth wrote: Word is the final 2 episodes will be 75 minutes each instead of 60.

Gotta squeeze in those lucrative ads for five-hour energy drinks. 

Lone Wolf wrote: What an episode!

The amazon.com description of this episode says simply, "Everyone copes with radically changed circumstances."

Great line from Hank:  You're the smartest guy I know, and yet you're too stupid to see that he made up his mind 10 minutes ago.

Yes, Hank kept his dignity right up to the end. Walter lost his a long, long time ago. I can't see how this saga can end in any other way except with his comeuppance.

AdamA wrote:

Lone Wolf wrote: What an episode!

The amazon.com description of this episode says simply, "Everyone copes with radically changed circumstances."

Great line from Hank:  You're the smartest guy I know, and yet you're too stupid to see that he made up his mind 10 minutes ago.

It's even made sadder by the fact that that's one of the first things we hear Hank say about Walt, so it kind of comes full circle.  In the first episode he said something like, "Walt, you have a brain the size of Wisconsin, but we won't hold that against you."

rhymenocerous wrote:

AdamA wrote:

Lone Wolf wrote: What an episode!

The amazon.com description of this episode says simply, "Everyone copes with radically changed circumstances."

Great line from Hank:  You're the smartest guy I know, and yet you're too stupid to see that he made up his mind 10 minutes ago.

It's even made sadder by the fact that that's one of the first things we hear Hank say about Walt, so it kind of comes full circle.  In the first episode he said something like, "Walt, you have a brain the size of Wisconsin, but we won't hold that against you."

I don't think that Hank every really took Walt seriously, even after he found out who he was.

That was a mistake.

Saul Goodman is the only one in the whole series who really seems to be immune to Walt's "forcefield of Bad."  Maybe lawyers are not affected by that sort of thing.  Saul did, however, have a close call a few seasons back when Walt an Jesse made him dig his own grave and kneel in it as they prepared to murder him.  After they got over that hump, though, the relationship has been pretty solid with Walt, but I think that it sort of fizzled with Jesse with the "Old Yeller situation" comment.

The writers are doing an amazing job, and this show has really transformed from a darkly funny MacGyver to a classic Greek tragedy.
Ever since Walt broke bad, people have been dropping like flies. But the audience didn't mind at first because most of the victims were bad, too, and not all that likeable. Like Tuco. Then Gale and Mike got hit, and that hurt, but Walt was like a stone.

Hank's death seems to be the first one that really got to Walt, because "he's family", even though Walt referred to Jesse as family in the same breath as Jesse's death sentence. More pain ahead.

So did anyone else feel that the next to last episode fell a little flat?

It paced pretty slowly I'll give you that. But I think that's a set up for an explosive finale.

Kind of like witness protection I assume you go off to become a much more mundane person as a cover.

Reub wrote: So did anyone else feel that the next to last episode fell a little flat?

It's hard to end something like this.

Whatever they do is probably going to in some ways feel like a bit of a letdown, just because there is nothing to follow it with.

In past seasons, as one set of bad guys got killed, we would meet a new set, but since the show is ending we aren't being introduced to any. 

It was kind of cool seeing the guy from Jackie Brown in a similar role last night as a shady guy who wants to do good, but who can't escape his shadiness ("Would you believe me if I said I would?" when Walt asked him to get the money to Walt's family).

Loved the episode. The final scene was particularly perfect. Great set up for Walt's return to Albuquerque and a very fast paced explosive finale.

I guess we've seen the last of Saul (in this show anyway).

I agree that this episode seemed mostly like exposition, setting up the finale.  I love how they brought back Eliot and Gretchen at the end.  Walt has a deeply damaged sense of self-worth, the roots of which seem to originate with what happened between the three of them.  He had the prospect for greatness in his youth, but it always seemed to remain just out of reach his whole life.  I like that that's what spurred him back to action, although I still have no idea how things will play out. 

If I had to guess, I think he is going to borrow a page from Gus' playbook and poison all the neo-Nazis with the ricin, possibly himself as well.  That would be an eerie finale since you know he is going to die from the poison, just not right away, so he can still talk to his family and say goodbye.  The writer's keep saying that all loose ends will be tied up, that they think the fans will be pleased, and that they think the ending does justice to all that has come before.  We'll have to wait and see!

rhymenocerous wrote: I agree that this episode seemed mostly like exposition, setting up the finale.  I love how they brought back Eliot and Gretchen at the end.  Walt has a deeply damaged sense of self-worth, the roots of which seem to originate with what happened between the three of them.  He had the prospect for greatness in his youth, but it always seemed to remain just out of reach his whole life.  I like that that's what spurred him back to action, although I still have no idea how things will play out. 

If I had to guess, I think he is going to borrow a page from Gus' playbook and poison all the neo-Nazis with the ricin, possibly himself as well.  That would be an eerie finale since you know he is going to die from the poison, just not right away, so he can still talk to his family and say goodbye.  The writer's keep saying that all loose ends will be tied up, that they think the fans will be pleased, and that they think the ending does justice to all that has come before.  We'll have to wait and see!

Three things seemed to come out of that interview with Gretchen and Elliot:
1) They minimized his contribution to Gray Matter
2) It's discovered that the blue meth is still circulating in the southwest and Europe
3) Gretchen claims that Walter White the man is dead and replaced by Heisenberg

Not sure how this will play out but it's a great setup for Walt to redeem himself by completely wiping out the blue meth trade.

Reub wrote: So did anyone else feel that the next to last episode fell a little flat?

Not at all!

I loved the addition of Robert Forster as the "vacuum repair" guy ("wanna cut the cards?").

Walt hanging his Heisenberg hat on the deer antlers and wasting away in the cabin was great too.  It makes the Charlie Rose scene at the end perfect.  Walt is proud of himself.  He prefers being the kingpin of a giant meth empire to  some rube who sold his stake in a multibillion dollar company prematurely, struggles to make ends meet, and dies prematurely of lung cancer. 

I love that it took that interview to pull Walt out of his funk.

Todd was even creepier than usual.  The scene where he murders Jesse's old girlfriend was tough to watch.

I think a great final episode would be if Walt takes that giant machine gun, has it out with Todd's uncle and his goons and then goes and turns himself in.  I think it will be cool if Jesse is somehow forced to help Walt out one more time.  At this point, he probably hates Todd and his uncle more than he does Walt.

I am thinking that Jesse walks away from this alive, but then again he knows how to make the blue meth, so maybe not.

Maybe Jesse is the one who kills Walt, "Of Mice and Men"-style.

I want to believe that Walt's family will get some money one way or another.  It would be very sad if they didn't.

Walt's conversation with Walt Jr. on the phone was painful to watch and listen to.

I wish that we had more episodes to get to know Todd, who has turned into a truly creepy psychopath.  In earlier seasons and episodes, it seemed like Todd might just be innocently going along with his uncle's criminal activities, but it now looks to me like Todd may be the most dangerous and psychotic person on the whole show.  He has this polite way about him that is very unsettling when he says "I want you to know that it's nothing personal" before shooting Jesse's girlfriend in the back of the head and leaving her son inside, no doubt to be the one who will find her later.

And Lydia.  She really needs to be dead at the end of this thing as well.  She's a lot like Walt, except she doesn't have a terminal illness, and risking a longer life expectancy seems to make her a lot edgier and nervous.  She also just isn't very likeable, unlike Walt, who you sort of want to do good (even though you know he won't/can't).

MediumTex wrote: I wish that we had more episodes to get to know Todd, who has turned into a truly creepy psychopath.  In earlier seasons and episodes, it seemed like Todd might just be innocently going along with his uncle's criminal activities, but it now looks to me like Todd may be the most dangerous and psychotic person on the whole show.  He has this polite way about him that is very unsettling when he says "I want you to know that it's nothing personal" before shooting Jesse's girlfriend in the back of the head and leaving her son inside, no doubt to be the one who will find her later.

I might give away how much of a crazy BB fan I am here, but one thing I love about the show is that they give you so much background info and extras.  On the blu-rays, every episode has a full length commentary.  In addition to that, every episode has an hour long podcast here (that's released the day after the episode airs): http://www.amctv.com/shows/breaking-bad ... on-5.  Vince Gilligan, the creator, was talking about that quality in Todd in the last episode and called him "Opie Hitler."  He said that a bad actor would twirl his mustache and try to look scary, but the actor who plays Todd smiles instead, which is so much more creepy and unsettling.