The Other Worlds Shrine

Your place for discussion about RPGs, gaming, music, movies, anime, computers, sports, and any other stuff we care to talk about... 

  • Breaking Bad home stretch

  • Your favorite band sucks, and you have terrible taste in movies.
Your favorite band sucks, and you have terrible taste in movies.
 #161330  by Shrinweck
 Mon Aug 12, 2013 3:10 pm
Hnnnnnnng.
Spoiler: show
The end with Hank was clearly the big draw here. The stuff with Jesse wasn't all that interesting, just more of him slowly unraveling. It's building to something but it just isn't that interesting yet. Odenkirk rules as usual. Still want to see Hank dealing with the fact that he's healthy again being completely funded by drug money. He's clearly unhinged enough as it is.
Also, the interesting theory I've read that seems to have evidence to back it up is that Walt probably
Spoiler: show
murders Skyler at some point. He apparently takes on the mannerisms of the people he kills. He cuts off the crusts of his sandwiches like Crazy 8, puts down a towel when he throws up like Gus, and orders his drinks 'on the rocks' like Mike. The Skyler part of the theory comes from him arranging bacon on his plate in season five's future scenes. It's going to be amazing to see what happens to make shit go absolutely insane. So Walt definitely has cancer again and he's clearly off chemotherapy in the future episodes. Does he go back into remission or just stop getting treated? I haven't seen him coughing so it suggests he's healthier, since in season four he's seen coughing here and there while it gets worse again, it would suggest he's back in remission. *shrug*
 #161334  by Lox
 Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:46 am
Yeah, that last scene was awesome. I watched it again yesterday and it still gave me chills especially...
Spoiler: show
the part where he tells Hank to tread lightly. *shudder*

I agree. The cancer is definitely back and he's gone through something by the time we see him in the future. It looked like his neck skin was all saggy and old and it's not like that in real life or in the "current" time scenes.

That's a good point about Hank's recovery coming from drug money and that theory is very interesting.
Also, you have to love the random Badger Star Trek idea in the middle. I'm still laughing about that part.
 #161337  by Shrinweck
 Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:14 pm
Apparently the Star Trek discussion was actually a deeper conversation that asks the question about
Spoiler: show
whether or not Walter White has died because he has lost himself to Heisenberg over and over again.
Edit: This partially illustrates the idea pretty well even though it's more to show the development of the character as whole http://imgur.com/a/yC2GZ
Last edited by Shrinweck on Wed Aug 14, 2013 1:53 am, edited 2 times in total.
 #161343  by Lox
 Wed Aug 14, 2013 8:26 am
I know what I'll be doing the rest of the morning!
 #161352  by Shrinweck
 Wed Aug 14, 2013 3:06 pm
Oh, what the shit, Vince Gilligan reveals that they talked to Oncologists and you don't necessarily lose any of your hair during a second round of chemotherapy. So I guess future Walt certainly being off chemotherapy is no longer a thing.
 #161354  by Zeus
 Wed Aug 14, 2013 3:55 pm
Shrinweck wrote:Oh, what the shit, Vince Gilligan reveals that they talked to Oncologists and you don't necessarily lose any of your hair during a second round of chemotherapy. So I guess future Walt certainly being off chemotherapy is no longer a thing.
No. That's about as likely as Walt getting away with it
 #161355  by Shrinweck
 Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:50 pm
When I say he's off or still on chemotherapy I'm mostly making a reference to him (the character) still having an urgent need to survive. So if he's off chemotherapy but the cancer is still eating away at him, it goes towards the end having a 'he has nothing left to lose' vibe, as opposed to an ending where he still thinks he has options of where he can go from here.

Personally I don't see this ending any other way than him dying but how that happens is still open. I'm WAGing that he dies so that Jesse can live, which is potentially supported by
Spoiler: show
Vince Gilligan telling Cranston that his motivation in the first episode's future scenes to buy the machine gun is to eventually save someone
 #161402  by Shrinweck
 Mon Aug 19, 2013 7:22 pm
That episode was the closest thing that we'll get to filler this season, I guess.
Spoiler: show
We all knew people were going to find out and we had an idea of how they'd react (you know... badly.). Watching Jesse is just painful, for multiple reasons. Really looking forward to when shit actually starts hitting the fan.

The "I'll send YOU to Belize" line is probably my favorite line in the entire series. I see people yelling that at Bob Odenkirk for the rest of his life.
 #161412  by Flip
 Tue Aug 20, 2013 3:30 pm
Jesse needs to stop being such a mopey beotch. My god, if only Walt had some strong people working with him. Luckily, it seems Skylar is suddenly on board all of a sudden.
 #161437  by Lox
 Wed Aug 21, 2013 9:14 pm
Jesse is the only reason why I haven't started cheering for Walt to bite it already. haha

That's why I love this show. I actually understood why Walt was cooking for his family. He had all of these justifications that made sense. Then he slowly devolved into pretty much a monster while Jesse went from being drug addict loser to pretty cool guy, though a very broken person.
 #161439  by Zeus
 Wed Aug 21, 2013 9:37 pm
Flip wrote:Jesse needs to stop being such a mopey beotch. My god, if only Walt had some strong people working with him. Luckily, it seems Skylar is suddenly on board all of a sudden.
She's been on board for years.

I'm still waiting for....well.....something. Everything that's happened so far we've been able to predict for years.
 #161447  by Julius Seeker
 Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:29 am
I love the series. Walt is Lucifer, a fallen angel who tempts innocent and demons alike to greater evil... And yet still remains someone you want to empathize with. I don't know if this is because I know him as Hal and Whatley in the back of my mind, or fully due to the merits of the great writing.
 #161451  by Shrinweck
 Thu Aug 22, 2013 1:51 pm
I like how they portray him as Heisenberg, who is completely unsympathetic, now and the real Walter White only seems to come out when he's inebriated or tired. It shows there's someone worth believing in in there somewhere and that it's getting repressed. I'm pretty sure that he'll find a way to redeem himself by the end.
 #161455  by Zeus
 Thu Aug 22, 2013 11:18 pm
Shrinweck wrote:I like how they portray him as Heisenberg, who is completely unsympathetic, now and the real Walter White only seems to come out when he's inebriated or tired. It shows there's someone worth believing in in there somewhere and that it's getting repressed. I'm pretty sure that he'll find a way to redeem himself by the end.
So far they're portraying it as exactly the opposite for WW. But we'll see what "surprise" they have in store. I hope they surprise me but that hasn't been the case since Season 2 when the show peaked. Been going downhill since
 #161459  by Shrinweck
 Fri Aug 23, 2013 1:23 am
The show has never been very much about surprising the viewer. The joy is watching how they get there. We all knew
Spoiler: show
Gus was going to get dealt with, but no one really expected a disabled senior suicide bombing him to death. Etc, etc
You get stuff like the Soprano's ending when writers try to be surprising. I'm not saying that should have ended differently as much as I just don't want it to happen again.
 #161462  by Lox
 Fri Aug 23, 2013 5:44 pm
Shrinweck wrote:The show has never been very much about surprising the viewer. The joy is watching how they get there. We all knew
Spoiler: show
Gus was going to get dealt with, but no one really expected a disabled senior suicide bombing him to death. Etc, etc
You get stuff like the Soprano's ending when writers try to be surprising. I'm not saying that should have ended differently as much as I just don't want it to happen again.
Yeah, exactly. Every show doesn't need surprises and twists to make it enjoyable especially when most of them use the twists as a crutch.
 #161494  by Shrinweck
 Mon Aug 26, 2013 3:11 am
Spoiler: show
God damn it I have been waiting for those two motherfuckers to hug for the past three fucking seasons. Fucking jerks. *tears up* Walt's definitely not a father figure for Jesse, he's more like a shitty older brother, but he's been so much stick and no carrot with that kid.

Edit: Just finished the episode so I guess the support was too little too late when it's overshadowed, eh?
 #161500  by Flip
 Mon Aug 26, 2013 10:45 am
Shrinweck wrote:
Spoiler: show
God damn it I have been waiting for those two motherfuckers to hug for the past three fucking seasons. Fucking jerks. *tears up* Walt's definitely not a father figure for Jesse, he's more like a shitty older brother, but he's been so much stick and no carrot with that kid.

Edit: Just finished the episode so I guess the support was too little too late when it's overshadowed, eh?
Spoiler: show
Haha, yeah, you jumped the gun there. Jesse continues to mess everything up, I never thought he would become the unhinged one to ruin the whole operation. I sort of missed the whole realization moment, though. Did he notice his missing pot and then figured out how easy it was for Saul and the other guy to lift stuff off of him? Then made the connections to the ricin cig? Thats a pretty big leap, though, the ricin situation was very well smoothed over and Walt's lie to Jesse was bulletproof. I'm not sure why Jesse even still had suspicions about that.
 #161501  by Lox
 Mon Aug 26, 2013 11:16 am
I was a little confused about the scene with Jesse and the the cigarettes as well.
 #161502  by Shrinweck
 Mon Aug 26, 2013 12:03 pm
Jesse already made the connection about Saul's henchman (basically this was the only conclusion to come to at the time because he had a short tussle in his office but otherwise had what he considered a normal day) getting the cigarette when it happened, but Walt convinced him Gus did it and that's when he convinced Jesse to help him. Saul just confirmed it by doing the exact same trick again.
 #161509  by Lox
 Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:28 pm
Yeah, you're right. I discussed it with co-worker and we thought the same thing. I want to watch that whole last 1/2 again tonight.
 #161517  by Julius Seeker
 Tue Aug 27, 2013 5:21 am
I think it's alright not to put things in spoilers in this thread. If you haven't seen up to the latest episode, and you don't want things spoiled, it would take a severe lapse in judgement to enter this thread =P


That said, I think Jesse dies very soon. By the way, the DVD to Hank was one of those awesome scenes, you could spot it ahead of time, but it was still awesome to see Walt actually go through with it.
 #161520  by Flip
 Tue Aug 27, 2013 11:47 am
I'm curious where they are going with the whole arian crew and Todd. I wouldnt be too surprised if Todd ends up killing Walt, hes proven to be a good cook, cold as ice, and sort of in control of his uncle and the whites. If its one thing we've learned from this show its that regime changes happen often.
 #161521  by Julius Seeker
 Tue Aug 27, 2013 11:59 am
Very good point, I hadn't even considered Todd. The writers are not just bringing this character in for filler.
 #161523  by Zeus
 Tue Aug 27, 2013 2:05 pm
Shrinweck wrote:Jesse already made the connection about Saul's henchman (basically this was the only conclusion to come to at the time because he had a short tussle in his office but otherwise had what he considered a normal day) getting the cigarette when it happened, but Walt convinced him Gus did it and that's when he convinced Jesse to help him. Saul just confirmed it by doing the exact same trick again.
Spoiler: show
OK, someone refresh me on the whole ricin cigarette thing and how it got pulled from Jesse in the past. I haven't seen that in about 2 years, I don't remember exactly what happened and how it was connected to the end of this episode. I'm still not 100% clear on what Jesse noticed and why

And Flip, you didn't expect Jesse to flake out? He's been on the edge for the last season or so and has flaked out in the past, just usually to drugs. He and Walt going at it with Walt trying to play Jesse is so expected I was hoping it wasn't going to happen and I was going to be surprised. So far, the second half of Season 5 is mostly what I was expecting. I hope I get surprised soon, been since about Season 3 since there's been an interesting plot twist
 #161524  by Shrinweck
 Tue Aug 27, 2013 2:52 pm
Okay Walt and Jesse made ricin to kill Gus but Jesse was torn between his allegiance to Gus and Walt so never gave it to him. Walt, in danger of Gus turning Jesse against him (after Jesse beat the living shit out of him), poisons Jesse's girlfriends son Brock with the lily of the valley plant that apparently has similar symptoms to ricin poisoning. Jesse finds that the ricin, that they hid in a capsule in a cigarette, is missing and heads to Walt with a gun ready to kill him, assuming one of Saul's guys pickpocketed him and gave it to Walt to poison Brock. Walt convinces Jesse that Gus took the cigarette by mentioning that Gus has almost certainly killed a child in the past, the one that killed Jesse's friend Combo during a turf war.

As a final tidbit, Walt creates a fake ricin capsule, puts it into a cigarette, and then fools Jesse into thinking that he destroyed it. For the sake of DRAMA, Walt hid the ricin capsule in the wall socket for future use. The strongest theory I've seen so far is he uses it on himself so he can die on his own terms, but I think that's bullshit. Whatever use the ricin has probably hasn't been revealed yet.

Todd is an interesting character. He's definitely capable and I would have called him intelligent but boasting of crimes to scumbag henchman is a great way to get picked up by cops. As ridiculous as it is, that bloody paper towel not flushing down the toilet seemed significant to me. Maybe Todd's friends are being watched for unrelated reasons by the authorities? He's definitely Lydia's version of Mike Ehrmantraut. Him killing Walt seems like a waste though. He's probably the main antagonist for the final episodes, though.
 #161525  by Zeus
 Tue Aug 27, 2013 5:55 pm
OK, we won't worry about spoilers anymore.

Right, I remember that now. So the fact that one of Saul's guys pickpocketed Jesse to remove the dope set Jesse off by making him remember that incident because the same guy (note: the guy makes me look anorexic and has sausage links for fingers, he ain't pickpocketing no one) did it again to him with the dope? That's a pretty poor connection made by the writers (well, we know they ain't that great to begin with, but still). You're talking about something that happened about 3-4 years ago and over 2 full seasons ago. Very few people woulda made that connection so now they're left to explain it again because it's been so long. Just the way the last part of the ep played out wasn't very well done.

Don't read too much into Todd. Him bragging to his uncle (remember, the "crew" he knows is his uncle) and the kleenex not getting flushed down is just a way to lead into a possibility of what MIGHT happen. They just brought them back to make a changing of the guard with the girl running the meth business. The real question is: how does that world come back to haunt Walt? Now that we know why the house was all destroyed in the first ep of the second part of season 5, the real question is why so much time had passed (and why the neighbour was afraid of him) and where he got that beard from. Only 2 ways to answer that I can think of: Walt is on the run (from who is another question) or some big story happened with him that made some stuff public (I don't know what yet). The fact that he wasn't afraid of being seen by his neighbour seems to eliminate the former. There has to be a reason for him to be on his own without being on the run and that we don't know yet.

And lest we forget: there was that episode a few years back where he was on his own with a beard and it was his 51st birthday and he made the number and candles with the bacon. It MAY have been the beginning of the first ep of season 3, I can't remember. Again, not so afraid of getting caught, there's something else to it. And I fucking hope it is because, honestly, everything that's happened so far these last few eps has been pretty predictable.
 #161526  by Anarky
 Tue Aug 27, 2013 6:17 pm
Shrinweck wrote: He's definitely Lydia's version of Mike Ehrmantraut. Him killing Walt seems like a waste though. He's probably the main antagonist for the final episodes, though.
You really think Meth Damon is the final antagonist? Oo
 #161527  by Shrinweck
 Tue Aug 27, 2013 7:02 pm
I don't mean in terms of being the next Gus I just mean he's going to be physically fucking things up and the one for Walt to fear. Lydia is hardly dangerous. She can't even look at corpses. The supremacists are going to be the ones making his life hell.
 #161567  by Julius Seeker
 Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:55 pm
Maybe "Meth Damon" (Anarky made me chuckle =p) will kill someone close to Walt, such as Jesse or Hank.
 #161570  by Shrinweck
 Thu Aug 29, 2013 10:59 pm
Walt Junior is my guess. Something is going to have to push him from going from being in hiding (or to it) and having to go back to Albuquerque.

Okay I just spelled that town correctly without looking it up. I haven't lost my touch with spelling as much as I thought.
 #161625  by Shrinweck
 Mon Sep 02, 2013 6:00 pm
Plausible theory: Walt Junior straight up murders
Spoiler: show
the complimentary breakfast
Edit: Walt is the kind of person who uses his neighbors trash cans. Sympathy lost. FUCK HIM.
 #161627  by Julius Seeker
 Mon Sep 02, 2013 9:18 pm
I didn't find the last episode as interestiing as the one a week ago. It focused too much on Jesse's insanity, which had already been established. The episode kind of ended without really advancing the story like the others.

Jesse being cryptic with the "where you really live" quote is what I'm interested in deciphering, but it's too vague.
 #161628  by Shrinweck
 Mon Sep 02, 2013 9:57 pm
Yeah it's difficult to figure out what he means. If he wants to hurt Walt the most it probably means taking away any control of the situation he has left but it's difficult to figure out how Jesse could do that. Of interest is the idea that Walt has given up on Jesse and is possibly putting Todd's connections on Jesse to kill him. Skylar sinking low enough to tell Walt to order a hit on the kid is a low point for her. Marie is clearly sinking to new lows psychologically. I can imagine something big coming from her side of things. If Skylar can 180 and start doing evil shit, I wouldn't put it past Marie. I think this episode hints/foreshadows a lot of shit but as it stands I agree that it didn't leave me as satisfied as the others.
 #161642  by Zeus
 Tue Sep 03, 2013 4:37 pm
Honestly, this last ep didn't need to exist other than maybe 2 minutes which coulda easily been done in the next ep. It was amazingly predictible and a waste of time. Let's see if they do ANYTHING next ep
 #161675  by Flip
 Thu Sep 05, 2013 11:31 am
Guh, i reluctantly agree with Zeus on this episode (not in general). It seemed long and didnt advance things too much. I keep wondering how int he world they are going to wrap this up in the little remaining episodes! I hope it isnt rushed at the end.
 #161679  by Zeus
 Thu Sep 05, 2013 8:08 pm
Flip wrote:Guh, i reluctantly agree with Zeus on this episode (not in general). It seemed long and didnt advance things too much. I keep wondering how int he world they are going to wrap this up in the little remaining episodes! I hope it isnt rushed at the end.
This is AMC. They've got one idea in mind and they're gonna stretch the piss out of it by over-dramatizing shit because heaven forbid they add layers of complexity and maybe multiple plot lines at once (OH, NO! THE HUMANITY!). They just don't roll that way. Never have
 #161681  by Shrinweck
 Thu Sep 05, 2013 9:44 pm
This has nothing to do with AMC, it's a team of writers headed by Vince Gilligan. AMC isn't going to run one of their three only watched television programs into the ground by dictating how the show should be ran. Heaven forbid any television programs created in the United States has any sort of subtlety. I'm sorry this doesn't have the writing complexity of Dexter.
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 #161692  by Zeus
 Fri Sep 06, 2013 1:39 pm
If it's not about AMC then why has the same disease infiltrated Walking Dead (no one can say Season 2 wasn't stretched to hell and there was a lot of wasted time filled by over-dramatization in Season 3) and destroyed Rubicon? You seem to think that TV execs don't have say over the shows that they air. It's quite the opposite. It's not by accident that Jerry Bruckheimer's films all have the same basic production values, look, and feel to them regardless of who directs them. It works the same with TV execs who exert control and it's clear at AMC that they do

You keep forgetting, my favourite show on TV right now is Boardwalk Empire. No one will ever accuse that show of moving at a break-neck pace or filling space with big explosions or effects or lots of grandstanding scenes. That show's about as subtle as it gets.....and is a US created show.....like Dexter, Six Feet Under, Sopranos, 24, Battlestar Galactica, and every other show I've ever liked.

It's not about complexity. Heck, Dexter ain't that complex. It's about not wasting freakin' time by creating an over-dramatic plot point then wasting excessive time forcing the characters to deal with it. Why was the most recent ep of Breaking Bad sub-par? Because NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENED. The whole ep coulda been condensed to, literally, 7 to 10 minutes with the exact same effect. What the hell was the point of even filming the other 30 minutes? The good shows don't do that, each scene is there for a reason that's directly related to either a plot point or important character development. AMC shows seem to ignore this the majority of the time in favour of over-dramatize scenes (like about 90% of the scenes involving Skylar in the show's history), that's what my beef is with them
 #161725  by Shrinweck
 Mon Sep 09, 2013 2:09 am
Latest episode: holy shit. Last fifteen or so were everything I wanted and more.
 #161740  by Flip
 Mon Sep 09, 2013 12:32 pm
One of the best things Jesse said abuot Walt to Hank in the previous episode, "He's smarter than you, he's LUCKIER than you!."

Luck does seem to be an important trait as Walt's ass is saved again! But this time at the death of his brother in law, which i totally expect is how this shootout will end, hence Walt being on the run in the flash forwards. Theres no way to cover up killing a fed, and especially one that is your brother. Although, no one would have known it was Walt is Hank didnt call his wife.
 #161755  by Shrinweck
 Mon Sep 09, 2013 10:34 pm
I was thinking the same thing when I finished the episode but upon further thought I'm not sure. He did basically have THE perfect good bye phone call with Marie that made me think he was done. Someone suggested a trade, Walt for their lives but nothing would stop the gang from killing Hank and Gomez afterwards. Does Walt hold enough sway to stop them? Perhaps. If actual family is that important to him I don't think he has the willpower to keep going if Hank dies in that scenario. Of interest is what happens to the money. He needs to get it out of there but clearly his crew isn't trustworthy. I guess they actually got the call off to the tribal police? If so, the money is probably going to the hands of the authorities since there's no time to dig it up.

I'm kind of sick of Jesse acting all justified when the shit he did was just as bad as Walt.

I liked someone else's joke that if Hank and Gomez were ten year olds on mopeds then they would have be instantly head shotted. But seriously, everyone is using wildly inaccurate weapons. One of these people couldn't have brought a semi-automatic rifle? Someone more observant than I pointed out the scene is less ridiculous if you realize that the fight probably only ends up being ~5 seconds so far, since every single shot is from the persepective of a different person and it's just a loop of the same several seconds. This idea is more believable because it wouldn't take Walt the better part of a minute to finish taking cover in the truck.
 #161758  by Julius Seeker
 Tue Sep 10, 2013 6:55 am
An ending that would satisfy me would be some sort of reconciliation between Walt and Jesse.

If Walt somehow manages to stop them from killing Hank and Gomez (pretty sure Gomez was hit), then that would be interesting. Ultimately Hank and Jesse are not people Walt really wants killed, he wants to redeem himself with them.

I am wondering if the first scene of the next episode will be after the shootout rather than a continuation of the shootout?
 #161807  by Shrinweck
 Mon Sep 16, 2013 1:08 am
That was intensely gut wrenching. I'm not sure television has made me feel anything quite so much since I became an adult. So I guess he's coming back to rescue Jesse from slavery. Amazing acting all around but Cranston knocks it out of the god damned park.

His call to Skylar acting like a madman to clear her made him quite sympathetic again and if his reasons to return are for Jesse then I would imagine his time alone will be hell on earth. For a man who said family was everything, he gets off free with the money and just festers in his own disgrace for a year or whatever the time lapse was.

While I still think it's a weak theory the suicide by ricen idea is still possible. If his cancer is actually gone after the time lapse this would support an idea I've been thinking of that his cancer comes and goes based on if he wants to die or not (if he doesn't want to die, the cancer comes back) and I guess ricen would allow him to go on his own terms after doing what he needs to do.

I would imagine wherever he hides he eventually comes upon meth that Jesse cooked and knows that he's the only other person on earth who could make it that pure and that'll push the show to its conclusion. Loved the titling of this episode (Ozymandias) and the general idea throughout the episode of him losing everything and his empire crumbling to nothing.


As a side note for those who haven't heard - Saul Goodman having a spin off is almost certainly happening now last I heard.
 #161819  by Flip
 Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:15 pm
Yeah this was a great episode. I'm still not happy with their only being 2 episodes left (with what seems like so much to wrap up, still), but this last episode really moved things along. I think your predictions are right. Walt will go for Jesse and end up dead in the process, slightly redeeming himself in the eyes of his family and us as the viewers.
 #161827  by Julius Seeker
 Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:50 pm
Just watched it, it seemed like the episode was inspired by Scorsese; all they needed was music playing from radios in the background and narration. It was had so much more emotion behind it than anything else in the series. I'm just going to quit my predictions, and sit back and enjoy the rest of it.
 #161835  by Zeus
 Tue Sep 17, 2013 7:30 pm
Jesus Christ, you guys liked that ep? No need to provide an opinion, we clearly won't get anywhere