"She has a gun to her head, kid. Everyone sounds like Meryl Streep with a gun to their head." - guess who
Throughout the episode ("Dead Freight") I kept wondering what the opening sequence was all about. Was the bottled tarantula yet another significant metaphor or something? Well maybe, but it doesn't matter. The final moment of the episode which brought it back full circle was totally devastating. Hard to say just now but I'm assuming that this won't be the last we see of the new character, Todd. Despite the fact that Jesse screamed "No!," Jesse was the one who told Todd that "nobody except for us can know about this robbery ever," and Todd complied. Damn! Brutal ending. To my surprise, I kinda liked Lydia for the first time. She's so incredibly devious and cunning, if as Mike said, a loose cannon. A wild card in the mix where each player's hand needs to be sure and steady. Did Walt blow it by getting caught by Hank handling the photograph? Wasn't the device he attached to the computer a bit obvious? One maintenance check by an IT guy and the mic is found. You'd think Heisenberg would be a little more cautious. Loved all the photography around the train. They must have had to do some pretty clever camera mounts to get a lot of those shots.
The whole heist sequence was some of the best rendered suspense television I have ever seen - Every shot, every music cue, every cut-away was fantastic. Midway through, the sensation of rooting for the criminals was palpable - you really wanted our "heroes" to succeed - and then, short sharp shocked, just as your heart rate is going down with them, the feeling of their high fives being your own, the episode delivered the best moral punchline vicarious entertainment has ever offered. Devastating.
When you think it through, Skyler's insistence that the kids stay with Hank and Marie is pretty stupid. Any assassin (or their boss) who might target the kids would be likely to know that they're staying elsewhere ... namely a DEA Agent's house. The smarter solution, if Skyler really wants to break up the family for its own protection, would be to insist that Walt move out on his own again. Her agreement to be Walt's "captive" seems so imbalanced, but then, I cut her a lot of slack for what the stress had done to her.
Yeah, last nights episode was one of the reason why I watch Breaking Bad. Pure intensity and superb writing. Damn. Plus, I LOVE Heat and heist films. This was like the best of both worlds. Great episode.
i don't understand why Walt didn't tell the guys to disconnect right away. Why did he risk the entire operation just to get another lousy 100 gallons? It's not like they had to have 1,000 gallon exactly. Just seems way too risky just to hit some arbitary goal. 900 gallons not good enough? hopefully that kid is still alive as it provide way more drama in future episodes. ie: how to keep him from talking, etc. Jesse is now the criminal mastermind, yo. yeah, pretty obvious on the network dongle plus the bug in the frame. Once Hank finds that shit, he will know exactly who is behind it. anyways, shit is supposed to hit the fan on the next ep.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think at that point he was pumping water back into the tank. He wanted to stick to the original non-detection plan so as to avoid transportation authorities and DHS becoming hip to the heist. Yet another example of Walt's arrogance and excess of confidence, which I swear is going to trip him up at some point. What I disliked most about that scene was how he really put Jesse at mortal risk, but what I loved about it is something the series excels at ... pure nail-biting tension. Same thought here. While Mike and Walt play their dominance games with one another, Jesse keeps them afloat with out-of-the-box strategies.
Unless they chopped his hand off and kept him alive...next week's preview makes it pretty clear the kid ain't among the living...
I hate to say this, but I am pretty sure that kid is dead, I don't see Vince writing an episode based solely on the kid. However I do agree that it would be a cool plot point if he is alive. I just want the next episode, this most recent one was just too killer. Anybody have predictions?
i doubt the kid is alive, in the scenes from the upcoming episode it showed a clip making me think this way.
One thing that I noticed about Dead Freight is the subtle parallel that's being made. We have an older Mr. White (chemist) and Mike (killer) paired with a younger Jesse (chemist) and Todd (killer).
I still believe Skylar is going to die eventually. So next week is supposed to be big climax right? With only 3 episodes left till they break for what appears a year, I'm thinking a major character death is in order. I'm not saying Skylar just yet but someone has to go...
Two episodes left... As far as death goes Spoiler I was totally afraid that Walt was about to take Mike out. That would have SUCKED.
I was hoping Walter was going to take Mike out. Every step of that end scene (Mike tying up Walt) when Walter was close to Mike I kept saying to myself: "Pull the gun out and shoot him in the chest!" I'm kind of sick of Mike's hard ass "it's my way or the highway" speeches. Last season I didn't like the pacing at first, but when the psychological warfare played out to it's conclusion between Walter & Gus I was really thought it was a great season overall. This season I keep trying to remember to stick it out and not jump the gun, but characters like Skylar really need to be written off. Every scene she gets slows the story down to a crawl. Yeah I get it she loathes Walt, wants to protect the kids, but Walt is so far gone from family man do we really need the reminder? The dynamic btw Walt, Mike, and Jessie is just so much more interesting. Evading Hank, the dealings etc. That's the meat of the story. Skylar is a footnote now.
I agree that the family drama is less enthralling than much of the rest of this insane stew, but Skylar and the kids are the footnote that ties us to the premise of the story - however far off Walter has swum into the void. His hubris is such that I don't think he even considers it a possibility that his wife or Jr. might be part of the collateral damage of his Empire building. The snuffing of either of their lives could be the straw that knocks him back into a sense of his humanity, the sort of thing that would send hm to war (or a far away diner on his 52nd birthday ), and it's far too early into the rise of his amoral reign to show him that sort of mirror. Sorry Chris, I think the fam is going to have to dangle a little while longer! Without Mike we'd loose much of the tension and most of the comedy at this stage. With so much time dedicated to Skyler's dead eyes and Jessie's consistent whining I like that we have a character that's confidently (and hilariously) sick of Walter's shit; "You know, I have never seen anybody work so hard not to get five million dollars." Pure gold.
Walter White: "Everybody wins." I don't think so. I think everybody is trapped by their circumstances like a tarantula in a bottle and that the consequences are going to be inevitably disastrous. This ("Buyout") was the episode in which I finally felt like Walt went from "interesting and somewhat sympathetic antihero" to "thoroughly loathsome monster." I know Skyler annoys some viewers but I still think she's necessary to emphasize just how selfish and insensitive Walt has become. Anyway it'll be interesting to see what the plan is at this point. Obviously the original buyout didn't work so Walt's new strategy had better be foolproof, or will it be more like The Emperor's New Clothes? Lots of good Jesse moments in this episode. I was again reminded that despite the fact that he doesn't have kids of his own, he has a more powerful paternal instinct than Walt seems to have. He really doesn't like kids being messed with. It felt like something broke even further when, after Walt basically told Jesse to get over the guilt about the murdered boy, Walt went about whistling while he worked. I think that's when Jesse knew he wanted out. I also liked Jesse's throwaway (but not) line, "yo, like, whatever happened to truth in advertising?" Really, yo. toothaction, another comic moment was when Saul referred to Mike as a senior citizen, then said "sorry." The look on Mike's face was subtle but hilarious.
One thing I noted, that actually made me laugh was when Walt, Skylar, and Jesse were at the dinner table. Jesse was acting just like Walt used to. I think Skylar is just an awful human being, yet I do see her importance to the plot. I have no idea what Walts master plan is, but I can't wait to see it. I still do want Skylar to die, and I don't want this show to end. How many more episodes we got till the finale? :/
What's starting to get under my skin about the show is the direction of progression they've chose to show Walt taking. I get that they need to make him more kingpin and he is alienating people around him BUT if Walter is such a smart guy why not have him come up with some alternative to working with Mike? Yeah people will tell me the obvious answer- he needed Mike's distribution connections. I just think old thinking Walt would have found a work around or tricked Mike. He killed the king (Gus Fring) but he still seems subservient. For all Walt's supposed rise from humble cancer stricken school teacher to a meth empire, he still seems stuck taking crap from everyone. Guess it would be a boring show if he was Lone Wolf McQuade. That's how I feel about Skylar too. I would have just moved out again and see her as little as possible. Why put up with the headache? I want the show to move on from the bad relationships and it seems mired in showing every aching digression. Also the ineptitude of the DEA and police is starting to get a little unbelievable. At least for me...
I was sort of surprised by the FU note that Mike left for Steve Gomez. At first I thought it would have been more prudent to pretend that he didn't know he was under observation. Then again, he usually knows what he's doing, so by going to Saul and working the "stalker" charge, maybe he bought himself some surveillance insurance and time away from DEA eyes. It just seemed to me that being so forward might tip off Steve and Hank that they are being spied on, too. I dunno ... gotta trust the writers with this show.
Exactly. I am really tired of all the random family drama as well, but I know the writers are gonna do us all a solid. An episode that just blows our minds. This episode wasn't really the one. However if I know Breaking Bad, then I know that the show is going to do something so over the top, and so mind blowing that I will probably just cry and kill myself. That being said, WTF is going on with that restraining order bidness? It almost seems like Mike is getting out of things too easy. Walt's transformation is nearly complete, and it makes me kind of sad. I remember feeling bad for Walt. I remember the days when I used to say "Walter White? He is one helluva guy, just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.". Now I just feel kind of sour.
