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Breaking Bad - Season 5, Part 1 - Sundays on AMC

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It's one thing to not enjoy an episode as much as others for some reason, but to act surprised that others loved this one is weird. It was super tense, filled to the brim with the characters we like to see most interacting with eachother in mike/walt/jesse. and it had the epic gut punch after a heart racing final 10 minutes.

Honestly the only weak point in the whole episode was skyler's moping again. But I guess that will be happening just about every episode leading into the finale, obviously to make her imminent death more impactful :P
 
I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of 2 elaborate criminal heist episodes in the span of 5 episodes. Especially with how smoothly and quickly everything came together for both of them. Still a fun episode though
 
Aaaaand a lot of people really like this episode. I don't even...

I thought the heist itself was too much and was a waste of time due to the writers writing themselves into a corner by cutting off the methylamine source but that ending sorta made up for it. That has some real consequence for the rest of the series.
 
Until that last minute nothing really happened. Even said to my friend it was a episode where nothing big was happening thought it was gonna set up the rest of the episodes with the train heist going right. Then all of the sudden the kid gets shot.
 
You know, now that I've thought about it more, Skyler's already said too much to Marie. She said the kids are in danger around her and Walt, and said there's things Marie doesn't know. Marie is gonna go back and tell Hank that, and that's all he needs.

Hank already has a hunch that Heisenberg is still in town. He'll now start connecting the dots between when the blue meth hit the streets and when his disgruntled, genius, chemist brother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and suddenly gained a gambling problem that has him able to pay both their health fees, buy a business that's great for laundering money and a bunch of lavish gifts. It can't be too long now. He goes with his gut, and everything that's happened in Walt and Skyler's lives since the diagnosis of cancer jives with someone getting involved in a dangerous game that pays money.

The break-in at Walt's chem lab is timed right with the first appearance of high-quality meth, and that was already assumed to be linked to Heisenberg. It's going down, folks. Skyler's already said too much. PEACE.
 
You know, now that I've thought about it more, Skyler's already said too much to Marie. She said the kids are in danger around her and Walt, and said there's things Marie doesn't know. Marie is gonna go back and tell Hank that, and that's all he needs.

Hank already has a hunch that Heisenberg is still in town. He'll know start connecting the dots between when the blue meth hit the streets and when his disgruntled, genius, chemist brother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and suddenly gained a gambling problem that has him able to pay both their health fees, buy a business that's great for laundering money and a bunch of lavish gifts. It can't be too long now. He goes with his gut, and everything that's happened in Walt and Skyler's lives since the diagnosis of cancer jives with someone getting involved in a dangerous game that pays money.

The break-in at Walt's chem lab is timed right with the first appearance of high-quality meth, and that was already assumed to be linked to Heisenberg. It's going down, folks. Skyler's already said too much. PEACE.

Skyler said a lot but Walt said just as much. Walt being odd every trip he took with Hank. The car accident he was in, and the dinner table scene. If Walt never opened his big mouth none of this would have happened. All the little things add up.
 
Nice heist episode.

Started re-watching BrBa since last Sunday, and I'm already almost done with season 3. Season 5 is a lot clearer now, but it seems like most of the characters are dramatically different all of a sudden. Mike is the same, but damn if Walt and Jesse are way less charismatic.
 
It's one thing to not enjoy an episode as much as others for some reason, but to act surprised that others loved this one is weird. It was super tense, filled to the brim with the characters we like to see most interacting with eachother in mike/walt/jesse. and it had the epic gut punch after a heart racing final 10 minutes.

Honestly the only weak point in the whole episode was skyler's moping again. But I guess that will be happening just about every episode leading into the finale, obviously to make her imminent death more impactful :P

I thought the heist itself was too much and was a waste of time due to the writers writing themselves into a corner by cutting off the methylamine source but that ending sorta made up for it. That has some real consequence for the rest of the series.

The episode was still fun to watch, but it was unrealistic to the point of being pure fantasy. The road that the guy stops his truck on being the exact right distance from the bridge so that the methylamine car is in a perfect position for them to jack. Walt apparently thinking to himself, "Hmm..how can I get a bug into Hank's office? I know, I'll just start crying about Skylar and for some reason Hank'll leave the room for several minutes and shut the blinds. And the back of Hank's computer will be facing me and within easy reach so I don't have to go behind his desk to put the bug on, and I'll just leave my fingerprints on the bug. And it doesn't matter that the bug is huge and easily visible on the back of the computer. Also, there was no reason to shoot the kid. The kid had no idea what was going on when he found them. And now they have a dead body to deal with.
 
The episode was still fun to watch, but it was unrealistic to the point of being pure fantasy. The road that the guy stops his truck on being the exact right distance from the bridge so that the methylamine car is in a perfect position for them to jack. Walt apparently thinking to himself, "Hmm..how can I get a bug into Hank's office? I know, I'll just start crying about Skylar and for some reason Hank'll leave the room for several minutes and shut the blinds. And the back of Hank's computer will be facing me and within easy reach so I don't have to go behind his desk to put the bug on, and I'll just leave my fingerprints on the bug. And it doesn't matter that the bug is huge and easily visible on the back of the computer. Also, there was no reason to shoot the kid. The kid had no idea what was going on when he found them. And now they have a dead body to deal with.
I'm pretty sure they were measuring distance and all that when it came to train positioning and all that. Also if Hank didn't get up to get him coffee on his own, then Walt probably would have just asked for it, nothing crazy there. And then you're nitpicking a desk where the tower hangs like that...like lots of desks.....and so on.

I feel like those are nitpicks. And no reason to shoot the kid? That's the whole point. Todd isn't a mastermind here. He was told instructions. He followed them. He has been shown to be ambitious if not ahead of himself in the past. This just took it to a new level, fallout to follow next episode most likely.
 
The episode was still fun to watch, but it was unrealistic to the point of being pure fantasy. The road that the guy stops his truck on being the exact right distance from the bridge so that the methylamine car is in a perfect position for them to jack. Walt apparently thinking to himself, "Hmm..how can I get a bug into Hank's office? I know, I'll just start crying about Skylar and for some reason Hank'll leave the room for several minutes and shut the blinds. And the back of Hank's computer will be facing me and within easy reach so I don't have to go behind his desk to put the bug on, and I'll just leave my fingerprints on the bug. And it doesn't matter that the bug is huge and easily visible on the back of the computer. Also, there was no reason to shoot the kid. The kid had no idea what was going on when he found them. And now they have a dead body to deal with.

Well I think it's a little silly to knock the show for being unrealistic in any particular part; in the grand scheme of things this show is extremely unrealistic from its basic premise onward. Walt would be dead or in jail by the 3rd episode in real life.
 
The episode was still fun to watch, but it was unrealistic to the point of being pure fantasy. The road that the guy stops his truck on being the exact right distance from the bridge so that the methylamine car is in a perfect position for them to jack. Walt apparently thinking to himself, "Hmm..how can I get a bug into Hank's office? I know, I'll just start crying about Skylar and for some reason Hank'll leave the room for several minutes and shut the blinds. And the back of Hank's computer will be facing me and within easy reach so I don't have to go behind his desk to put the bug on, and I'll just leave my fingerprints on the bug. And it doesn't matter that the bug is huge and easily visible on the back of the computer. Also, there was no reason to shoot the kid. The kid had no idea what was going on when he found them. And now they have a dead body to deal with.
This I disagree with. No one knows how long the kid was watching them - he could have witnessed the whole thing. The kid might tell his parents what he saw, his parents might call the police and report what their child witnessed, complete with descriptions of Jesse, Walt, and Todd, along with date, time, and location. If the police show the kid a number of photos of suspects in the dealing and manufacturing of meth and one of these is a photo of Jesse, the kid will identify him and everyone is fucked. Is this scenario likely to happen? Maybe. Maybe not. But it's not worth the risk. It's either killing the kid, or somehow figuring out a plan to keep the kid's mouth shut - not a easy thing to do - or if shit with the police goes down, skip town with little money in their pockets, which is not a option they want to consider, either.
 
really great episode.
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i love the internet
lol amazing.
 
I'm pretty sure they were measuring distance and all that when it came to train positioning and all that. Also if Hank didn't get up to get him coffee on his own, then Walt probably would have just asked for it, nothing crazy there. And then you're nitpicking a desk where the tower hangs like that...like lots of desks.....and so on.

I feel like those are nitpicks. And no reason to shoot the kid? That's the whole point. Todd isn't a mastermind here. He was told instructions. He followed them. He has been shown to be ambitious if not ahead of himself in the past. This just took it to a new level, fallout to follow next episode most likely.

I agree, especially for the whole Hank thing. Walt sure would have had another excuse to lure him outside, if it didn't work. What's the problem?
And I don't quite remember the details of the train thing, but they did indeed measure the tracks and I imagine there was more than one wagon that had what they needed.

I don't see where the demand for super realism comes from anyway. The show never was this. What was it, the very first or second episode, in which Walter blew up a car by putting some sponge on the engine? Come on...
 
Yea pretty sloppy overall. Unless the plan was just to put it up for a day or two to find out about Lydia, then get back in there and remove it. That sounds more likely.

Yeah I can just imagine Walt going back in, crying, and Hank going through the same motions to give Walt the privacy he needs.

If Hank never finds the bug or the USB thing, then that is some sloppy writing IMO. And I fucking love this show, so it's not like I'm ever looking for a reason to bitch, bitch.
 
The episode was still fun to watch, but it was unrealistic to the point of being pure fantasy. The road that the guy stops his truck on being the exact right distance from the bridge so that the methylamine car is in a perfect position for them to jack.

Walt apparently thinking to himself, "Hmm..how can I get a bug into Hank's office? I know, I'll just start crying about Skylar and for some reason Hank'll leave the room for several minutes and shut the blinds.

And the back of Hank's computer will be facing me and within easy reach so I don't have to go behind his desk to put the bug on, and I'll just leave my fingerprints on the bug. And it doesn't matter that the bug is huge and easily visible on the back of the computer.

Also, there was no reason to shoot the kid. The kid had no idea what was going on when he found them. And now they have a dead body to deal with.

Wasn't that the entire point of the scene when they are measuring the distance from the road to the bridge though? They were ensuring that the train would have enough time to stop upon seeing the truck stuck on the road and that they were close enough to gain easy access to the stopped carriage that contained the methlamine.

Likewise, Walter has shown himself to be extremely good at manipulating people. Although the point made about closing the blinds is valid (although I feel it made sense, Hank has always put up a "tough guy" persona to show to others [as can be seen by his stress after killing Tuco when it starts breaking down] and likewise he didn't want his whole office to see his brother in law breaking down down in his new office), Walter almost certainly would have continued talking until he made Hank feel uncomfortable enough to leave. This occured when Skyler broke down in season 2 and Hank could only reply by "...want me to take a look at that water heater?", Hank has never felt comfortable expressing his feelings or when another person does. And similarly, Hank was (factually) only gone from the room for a single minute, that's not particularly, or unreasonably, long. If anything, for making coffee it's quite short.

Similarly, Walter was at the other side of the desk (the back of it). The computer would be facing where the "main" seat is to allow easy access to things like the front USB ports and DVD Drive so I don't see the problem with the back of it facing Walter, personally I don't have my computer facing so that the wires are towards me so I'm not sure I understand this complaint. And finally, it's a bit suspect to say there is no reprecussions for it and that everything is fine. In fact, it's the opposite if anything. That will almost certainly come into play again at some point. Just because Hank didn't check the wires of the computer immediately doesn't mean it won't necessarily happen at all (although I agree that if it doesn't get brought up, that would be bad but I don't see that happening).

Walter, and Jesse, made it very clear that it was a "major rap", "nobody can ever know" and if he "is sure" that he understood this. We have no idea how much the child saw, neither do they. From a strictly logical point of view of getting away with it, killing the child was the correct course of action if they dispose of the body as they had no guarantee that he won't tell anybody (note I'm not advocating this in anyway, morally it was an absolutely evil, despicable thing to do but from a self-preservation point of view it was safer for them to kill him). As Mike said, there are two heists, ones where the people get away and the one with witnesses. They could never be sure that the child would never tell anybody about what they were doing. Even if he did tell somebody else a lie that Walter had told him there is no guarantee that whoever he tells wouldn't think further into it and the pumps were easily visible too so they could have been mentioned. They have the body to deal with, but they are more in control of that then a child who saw an unknown amount of a robbery from a train. As I've said, it was despicable, but I think it made sense given what Walter and Jesse very clearly told Todd.

Also, I'm not trying to come across in an argumentative manner so I hope I don't appear like that. I'm just trying to provide possible explanations for the complaints you had with the episode which hopefully can lead to you enjoying it more.
 
The episode was still fun to watch, but it was unrealistic to the point of being pure fantasy. The road that the guy stops his truck on being the exact right distance from the bridge so that the methylamine car is in a perfect position for them to jack. Walt apparently thinking to himself, "Hmm..how can I get a bug into Hank's office? I know, I'll just start crying about Skylar and for some reason Hank'll leave the room for several minutes and shut the blinds. And the back of Hank's computer will be facing me and within easy reach so I don't have to go behind his desk to put the bug on, and I'll just leave my fingerprints on the bug. And it doesn't matter that the bug is huge and easily visible on the back of the computer. Also, there was no reason to shoot the kid. The kid had no idea what was going on when he found them. And now they have a dead body to deal with.

As far as the convenience with the trestle, the way I look at it is that the only way it really benefited them was that it gave them a place to hide from the sight of the train conductors. The rest of their operation was perfectly doable with or without it. So it was lucky, but not crucial. Just convenient.

And I find it helps if you basically just think of Breaking Bad as a comic book. That's really what it is. A really, really good comic book, possibly written by Jason Aaron.
 
I'm pretty sure they were measuring distance and all that when it came to train positioning and all that.

Right, but what, exactly were they measuring? They weren't going to know what car they had to hit until Lydia told them, and they were measuring the distance before then.
 
Right, but what, exactly were they measuring? They weren't going to know what car they had to hit until Lydia told them, and they were measuring the distance before then.

I thought Lydia told them where the car was, and then they measured the distance from where the car would stop the train to where the car would be with the chemical

of course, it was something akin to silly season in the luck they got that the little bridge would be there
 
Right, but what, exactly were they measuring? They weren't going to know what car they had to hit until Lydia told them, and they were measuring the distance before then.

They knew that that was the route the train would take. They were measuring the distance from the bridge to the road so that they'd know if the train could stop in time, and also presumably take the length of the train into account to see if the bridge was close to where it would stop (as in, if the bridge was 2km away from the road and the train only 500m long then it's not really much use but if as we saw the bridge was 814m long and the train was around 830m then they know that the bridge is a good place to wait).

I thought Lydia told them where the car was, and then they measured the distance from where the car would stop the train to where the car would be with the chemical
They measured the distance before Lydia could identify which car contained the methlamine. It had all been planned before they knew precisely which car they would have to siphon the methlamine from.
 
I think their karma in getting the right spot for the train just offside from the bridge was offset by having to blast a little kid to get away with it.

This is just me though, when it comes down to a matter of luck in my tangible realities, I go by justifiable karmic balance.
 
I picked up on the train whistle in the opening, and once Mike started talking about offing the engineers, I had a feeling that kid was done for. Wasn't expecting Todd to be carrying, though.

I wonder if Walt is going back to Hank's office to retrieve the spy stuff. Isn't it far too risky to have it in there?
 
I picked up on the train whistle in the opening, and once Mike started talking about offing the engineers, I had a feeling that kid was done for. Wasn't expecting Todd to be carrying, though.

I wonder if Walt is going back to Hank's office to retrieve the spy stuff. Isn't it far too risky to have it in there?
Maybe the thing he plugged into the back of the computer, but the bug in the portrait is golden. No one will suspect there's a bug in Hank's office unless things get incredibly lucky for Walt and the universe has to balance things out.
 
I picked up on the train whistle in the opening, and once Mike started talking about offing the engineers, I had a feeling that kid was done for. Wasn't expecting Todd to be carrying, though.

I wonder if Walt is going back to Hank's office to retrieve the spy stuff. Isn't it far too risky to have it in there?
I think it is too risky leaving it there. Walt's finger prints are on it.
 
I picked up on the train whistle in the opening, and once Mike started talking about offing the engineers, I had a feeling that kid was done for. Wasn't expecting Todd to be carrying, though.

I wonder if Walt is going back to Hank's office to retrieve the spy stuff. Isn't it far too risky to have it in there?

I guess that he already did unplug it / get it back. If not they are really stupid and if this ends up being the cause of their fall (or fingerprints for that matter) then it will be the first time I would be really disappointed in the writing. It just seems so... stupid and obvious. :(
 
I think maybe it's normal for tanker cars to be at the end of a train if possible, but I could be wrong about that. I just feel like that's usually the arrangement I've seen when waiting for a train to pass.
 
I guess that he already did unplug it / get it back. If not they are really stupid and if this ends up being the cause of their fall (or fingerprints for that matter) then it will be the first time I would be really disappointed in the writing. It just seems so... stupid and obvious. :(
The show has never glossed over difficult details like that, though. They've gotta show him retrieving it, or the story has to come to some other climax before either of the bugs is discovered.
 
I think maybe it's normal for tanker cars to be at the end of a train if possible, but I could be wrong about that. I just feel like that's usually the arrangement I've seen when waiting for a train to pass.

Its all random it seems. Taking the train from the burbs to chicago, i've seen tons of freights but they do seem to clump like cars together.
 
I guess that he already did unplug it / get it back. If not they are really stupid and if this ends up being the cause of their fall (or fingerprints for that matter) then it will be the first time I would be really disappointed in the writing. It just seems so... stupid and obvious. :(

This show will go in effort to show it. Same way with the ricin and even bringing up the second cell phone again.
 
I guess that he already did unplug it / get it back. If not they are really stupid and if this ends up being the cause of their fall (or fingerprints for that matter) then it will be the first time I would be really disappointed in the writing. It just seems so... stupid and obvious. :(
The difficult thing is, in order to retrieve it, Walt has to come up with another excuse to visit Hank and get those blinds closed, and have Hank leave the room with the door closed for enough time to get the stuff. To execute this wouldn't be difficult itself. Walt could come in again, cry, ect, maybe ask Hank to get coffee if he has too. But, really, the problem here is Hank is going to see this behavior as abnormal and scektchy, more so than usual, even for Walt. Anything out of the ordinary is going to get Hank suspicious of something - anything. But more than that, it'll get Hank thinking. And Walt doesn't want Hank thinking about him, and why he is acting odd. You couple this with the fact the Marie is going to be telling Hank that some serious heavy shit is going down with Walt and Skylar, it wouldn't be long until the dots start to connect.

Regardless, you have to imagine that Walt had already made a plan to get it back before he even planted it, and if it wasn't a solid plan Mike wouldn't have approved it. So it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
 
Would Hank EVER even notice the device on his computer though? Or... anybody outside of the DEA's IT department? I mean, realistically.
 
I think last episode was better. The heist was the highlight of course, but the remainder didn't impress like last week.
 
I think last episode was better. The heist was the highlight of course, but the remainder didn't impress like last week.

Last week was really great. I agree with you, everything about skyler was amazing. Hopefully she is nominated for next year. Totally hit it out of the park.

Speaking of which, which epi is Gunn nominated in for season 4?
 
I wonder if Vince chooses all one syllable, simple names for most of the male characters because he likes it, or because of some deeper meaning.

Walt, Hank, Mike, Gus, Todd, Flynn, Saul, Ted, Gale, Brock

The big exception is Jesse, of course, with minor characters like Badger, Combo, Victor, and debatably Skinny Pete.
 
I wonder if Vince chooses all one syllable, simple names for most of the male characters because he likes it, or because of some deeper meaning.

Walt, Hank, Mike, Gus, Todd, Flynn, Saul, Ted, Gale, Brock

The big exception is Jesse, of course, with minor characters like Badger, Combo, Victor, and debatably Skinny Pete.

Todd's name is probably symbolism as a lot of people have pointed out, since Todd means death.
 
Would Hank EVER even notice the device on his computer though? Or... anybody outside of the DEA's IT department? I mean, realistically.

Yeah I highly doubt it. It could be ages until it's discovered and by then Hank won't even be considering that Walt might have done it.
 
I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of 2 elaborate criminal heist episodes in the span of 5 episodes. Especially with how smoothly and quickly everything came together for both of them. Still a fun episode though

Agree. I pretty much said the same thing some pages back. Episode had a LOT of logistical problems, and people can say the show has unrealistic moments (I agree) but it's becoming a slippery slope and starting to affect my overall opinion.

Hmm, I guess I'm in the minority here.

I liked the technical direction and pacing of this episode, and overall think it was tense fun to watch (and the ending effectively resonates), but the amount of logistics to pull of their heist and to do it as well as they did seems like quite the leap. The amount of equipment needed in the seemingly short amount of time they had, knowing what types of lugnuts, locks, and connections on the tanker all seem like good luck. Plus all the broad-daylight shit they were doing seemed risky and haphazard. Just dragging a backhoe out to the middle of nowhere and digging some ditches by the train tracks... yeah....

Also, where'd Walt/Mike/Jesse get that ethernet bug tracker thing for Hank's computer? Still tapping that SkyMall catalog I suppose? And where are they interrogating Lydia? That location was out of nowhere!

Finally, I personally feel like two crime caper episodes in one season is unnecessary, although I'm happy to tuck that opinion away until all the episodes are completed and we can reflect on the series as a whole.
 
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