Gus and the cartel are/were partners right? Were they the initial suppliers of product and Gus was distribution? Is the whole conflict revolved around Walt becoming Gus's exclusive supplier with a superior product?
The smirk and shrug he gives the other two right before the fade to black in particular amused me for some reason.
Yes, I think that is pretty much it. If you think about it, what the Cartel needs to do is not go after Gus but kill Walt. Walt is the problem (from the Cartel's perspective). If Walt is gone, Gus has no choice but to go back to dealing with the the Cartel. Also, the Cartel needs Gus' distribution network too. Then you'll have a situation where Gus is trying to protect Walt and Walt is trying to kill Gus. Irony. I hope the writers really thought about this and put this into the story, 'cuz it makes sense.
I can finally start posting in this thread...just caught up last night. Aaron Paul's monologue in the last episode was probably the best performance I've seen on TV all year.
there is a short flashback scene in an earlier episode from this season where gus goes over to gails and talks to him about taking over b/c walt is about to succumb to cancer. i remember he does sit down on gails couch and he must have put his hands on the table at some point.
maybe the "damn" was b/c they knew that hank figured it out and they couldnt dismiss it as easily as his other evidence. and even w/out the fingerprints, all the stuff he laid out connecting los pollos hermanos to the untraceable $300k ventilation system should have brought on some kind of further investigation. but instead the DEA makes a col. sanders joke. seems like they were too willing to ignore. ive suspected since season 2 that hank will go bad - this might be the angle they play - hank gets pissed at the DEA b/c they arent taking down gus so he tries to do it himself and catches walt in the process. or even more twisted, if hank walks in on gus about to kill walt so hank kills gus.
Actually, Skyler not knowing how much Walt is actually raking in makes perfect sense with how she has been slowly exposed to Heisenberg. Remember, at the beginning of the series, Skyler (and everyone else) sees Walt as a beaten down, former science prodigy who now drives a Pontiac Aztek and makes $40K a year after working 2 jobs. She's not with Walt when he makes that first sale to Gus, when he negotiates his raise. She doesn't see how he can blow $50K on Jr's car because he's feeling trapped, or how Jesse can make it rain on the crackheads at his Aunt's house. She has no idea of how much danger Walt is in, that he's killed before and is contemplating killing again. As far as Skyler is concerned, Walt is the same guy he was at the start of the series, just pushed into a bad situation because of the cancer. She thinks he's small time, like he was when he and Jesse were pushing product through Badger, Skinny Pete and Combo, cooking in the RV and ecstatic to make $70K in a weekend. But Walt isn't that guy anymore. That's something that Gilligan and co. have been pushing from Day 1; take someone who is sympathetic and turn him to be completely unlikeable, from early on when the audience could rationalize away Walt's choices, to the present, where time and time again Walt is choosing his path for less noble reasons. Walt's motivation has seemingly changed from trying to provide for and protect his family to showing he's the smartest, most powerful person in the room at all times. Skyler's not there yet. She almost reminds me of how Walt was in season 1, constantly trying to assert control over a situation by applying what she knows of the real world to the drug trade, and then Walt lets a little Heisenberg slip through and lets her know how little she really has control over the situation. Absolutely love these moments; while Walt and Jesse's interaction has become increasingly one note, Walt and Skyler's interactions have so many things going on at once, bubbling below the surface.
Some great ideas going on here. I'm just surprised that it looks like Hank is going to be pushed as a main player for the end game.
I went back and watched the episode where Hank gets shot. He gets that scrambled phone warning moments before the action goes down. Even though it's scrambled, it sounds an awful lot like the ABQ DEA field office chief. Maybe he is in league with Gus. That would be an interesting twist.
I agree, but that would certainly make things interesting. Particularly if Hank and\or Walt found out and tried to feed Gus false information through the DEA mole.
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Awesome that the brother from Scarface was the drug lord. Great homage there. Interesting how Walt is falling apart when everyone else seems to be at the top of their game. How exactly is Gus' scholarship story going to hold up?
Something that I've been wondering - what ever happened to Krazy 8's body? They never made it clear what Walt did after he chokes Krazy 8 with the bike lock. Was it implied that his body was decomposed in the hydrofluoric acid along with Emilio's? Or did I just completely miss something?
That would explain why Gus's new henchman, Jesse, was wearing that super gay glittery t-shirt during this episode.
That was one of the best Breaking Bad episodes ever, IMO. POssibly one of the best TV show episodes. That last scene was incredible.
yep awesome ep. I knew what was coming but I was still on the edge of my seat for the last 5 minutes of the show.
