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Breaking Bad Final Season Continues August 11th


Elsalvajeloco

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I think the moment I remember most was Hank and Marie watching the 'confession' DVD Walt and Skylar made. Its basically Walt telling Hank that he is a total moron for not seeing all this sooner and for thinking that he can just arrest Walt now and call himself a hero.

The wife and I sat stunned, just like Hank and Marie, and when it finished we both turned and just looked at each other thinking "Holy shit....."

Amazing show with amazing moments right through.

If I had to do a top 5 of the top of my head -

1 - Walt's 'confession'

2 - Walt watches Jane die.

3 - 'I am the danger'

4 - Granite State ending

5 - Lydia begs Mike to let her live and Mike's line - "They're not going to find you."

Having a young daughter made 5 stand out a lot. Not just the fear of dying and not being there for them but the sense of abandonment that would come over them from never finding out what happened to you.

Why did you leave without explaining things and saying goodbye? Hard shit to think about as a parent.

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5 - Lydia begs Mike to let her live and Mike's line - "They're not going to find you."

Having a young daughter made 5 stand out a lot. Not just the fear of dying and not being there for them but the sense of abandonment that would come over them from never finding out what happened to you.

Why did you leave without explaining things and saying goodbye? Hard shit to think about as a parent.

 

Along that line, Mike having to leave his granddaughter in the park was pretty heartbreaking.

 

But Andrea's kid has got to be the worst situation.  What is left for that kid to even process?

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That's why this show is so good. Two more heartbreaking situations to empathise with.

Mikes Granddaughter - Did they ever establish that she had parents? I'd think she just goes on with her life and mum and dad explain that he moved away or something.

On Andrea's kid - It all depends on Jessie. If Jessie can pull his shit together they can make it. He's shown he can do the responsible parent thing.

Otherwise I think the kid goes into foster care and thats just a roll of the dice. Would they move him out of the state? I could see him falling into the gang life pretty quickly if he's kept locally.

All this chaos because Gretchen and Elliot started fucking...

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Walt didn't have to sell his half of the business. Don't blame his poor investment acumen on the hormones of others.

Best moments of the series are "You're Heisenberg," followed by "Best to tread lightly" to Hank, the end of granite state, the videotape confession, and finally Gus' death, complete with tie adjustment.

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Like, the "moral" of Walter White is that there are other ways to make your way through life.  There are models to emulate on this show...not Walter, not Jesse, not Hank, not Skyler.

 

Pretty much Saul, and maybe Mike.  I learned shit about how to be, like, solid from those dudes.

 

I know Hank is highly disliked around here, but I'm trying to figure out how he's less of a 'solid dude' than two guys who have voluntarily gotten involved in criminal undertakings.  Calling a shyster lawyer a solid guy is beyond me.  Mike is at least a straight shooter, but he's still a killer for hire who screwed up his life to the point that he can't even see his family.  Hank doesn't have the competence of a Walt, Gus, or Mike, and personality-wise I'm not saying I'd like to hang out with a blowhard cop.  But Hank's a family man who dedicated his life to getting the bad guys.  Seems pretty solid.

 

If you stayed out at a bar too late and got too drunk to drive home, who on this show would get out of bed and come get your ass?  Hank.

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I was thinking more along the lines of who has a more realistic attitude about how the world works and how to survive in it.  Hank, like Walt to some extent, is a bundle of unrealized ambitions and obsessive drives coupled with an uncompromising view of good and bad.  He's hiding plenty of desire and anger and stuff too.

My thinking about Saul and Mike both is that they recognize the way the world is and have a more distant more realistic perspective that isn't based on ideals but on experience that they've actually learned from. I mean, it's not like I'm looking for a model of how to position myself in a criminal empire, but just for how to roll with things without getting consumed by them.  I'm thinking, like, who's general attitude is  more conducive to a regular guy like me

 

1) not exploding into a ball or frustration and impotent rage

2) not being a huge dick to people all the time

 

Being like Hank would probably mean doing at least one of those things at least some of the time.  I liked Hank a lot and I was a little disappointed they tried to darken him up at the end in how he treated Jessie who by that point he should have probably seen as a good-hearted dupe rather than a piece of shit.  That felt a little forced.

 

But I'm not looking for a career mentor.  But there are lots of situations where it would be better to react like Saul than like Hank or Walt or Jessie.  Like, your boss balls you out for no reason and tries to belittle you or something.  If you're Walt you immediately start plotting his death.  if you're Hank you punch him in the fucking face because that's what he deserves.  If you're Saul, you roll with it in that moment and start building your escape plan without making a big scene...just in case there's no easy way out...

 

in other words, you react based on the reality of the world rather on some sense of good guys/bad guys.  Long term that's probably a better way to operate.

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I think Hank was a great showing of the type of 'macho' culture that runs through law enforcement types we normally see on TV but with the twist

He talks a big game, gives everyone shit and acts like he's king dick only to turn around and shit his pants when things get serious. This makes him much more relatable.

Too many cops/army/firefighters non TV get away with being cool as fuck under pressure. Hank was genuinely scared for his life after getting the promotion he had been gunning for. He thought it would be the same job just more paperwork and better pay and as soon as he realised what it was he was looking for a way back to his comfort zone again.

I think he treats Jessie like shit because he can. Jessie becomes the target for him to prove.his masculinity again. He failed at everything he had worked towards and Jessie was the right person at the wrong time for Hank to vent on.

Now I want to watch the whole thing again and just focus on individual arcs and progression. So many layers to go through.

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Gretchen and Elliott discrediting Walt and referring to Walt as this sweet man, stripping him of his significance, is simply lighting the match. 

 

Walt is Heisenberg, goddammit. He is the one who knocks. He is the fucking danger. And now there's hell to pay. A motivated Heisenberg with nothing to lose is the most dangerous man in the world.

 

I am so fucking pumped up for the finale.

 

 

 

How the fuck am I and Gonzalez the only people who liked this post?  It's great and it's one of the things that might make me appreciate the "Walt" side of "Granite State" more. That interview managed to hit every single nerve the guy had all at once.  Gray Matter, calling him a sweet little man, someone else making money on his work, someone claiming that Heisenberg isn't really a big deal, someone throwing money around just to show off.

 

I love how many major plot turns hinge on some tiny coincidence.  How many times Walt was essentially done until some tiny thing sparked him back on again.  I also love how Walt's driving issue, unlike Gus Fring's, was never one that could be solved...ever...by any one action.

 

That flashback to Hank inviting him on the ride-along triggered this feeling like Walter White was essentially a reminder that any of us, if given the motivation, means,  opportunity to break out of the life we are leading and follow our deepest impulses, would probably end up doing a whole lot of damage.   That if you allow yourself to pull back far enough, the modern world we all tow the line in can seem incredibly stifling.  There's just a little CLOCKWORK ORANGE in it...like, we're stuck with this choice between giving up our true animal strength and submitting to the bland shallow oppressive suburban plastic world that the show began with (which in season one we see a lot of in Marie and Hank and Walt's miserable Walmart life) or following that freedom and experiencing the true pain of the bloodthirsty world of the real jungle.

 

I, for one, would like to think that at any given moment I would choose the Mike path and look around Walmart, have another shot of Icee or Slurpee and think, "Fuck it, this ain't that bad.  Millions of people over thousands of generations survived miserable conditions and endless war starvation and death so that I can drink this slurpee and browse the discount DVDs at Big Lots without getting torn apart by bandits or mountain lions.  I'm cool with that."

 

I can say at least this.  Whenever I'm now confronted with some affront to my pride at work or find myself stuck browsing TJ Maxx with my wife and getting that "what kind of world is this" feeling, my first impulse now is to think "What would Saul do."  And the answer is always "Saul would chill the fuck out and just be happy no one is chasing him at the moment."

 

Like, the "moral" of Walter White is that there are other ways to make your way through life.  There are models to emulate on this show...not Walter, not Jesse, not Hank, not Skyler.

 

Pretty much Saul, and maybe Mike.  I learned shit about how to be, like, solid from those dudes.

 

I specifically sought out Craig's old post to like it after reading this because it completely encompasses how I felt about the episode. Since the day after that episode aired, my wallpaper on my work computer has been that pissed off snarl that Walt gets on his face when Elliott says "The name - that's where his contribution begins and ends."

 

I missed a lot of these posts when the episodes were airing because I was straight up conspiracy theorist, tinfoil hat wearer about avoiding spoilers, potential spoilers, anything. When I read that someone had stolen a script from Bryan Cranston's car, I basically stayed away from anything Breaking Bad related online. I normally don't care one way or the other, but I wanted to finish this show completely blind.

 

And I love your post piranesi. You put it into words better than I ever could. It's a little frightening what it might say about me, but I understood Walt's motivations the entire show, and that's why I rooted for him right up until the very end. When Gretchen and Elliott said that bullshit on TV, I was like OHHHHHHHH YA DONE FUCKED UP!!!!! And like I mentioned before, Walt gets that look on his face and then the music kicks in not longer after and I was about to fucking explode.

 

I don't know what Walt would have had to do to make me turn on him. I didn't care if he burned down all of Albuquerque if he had to do so to get his revenge. From the moment he gets in his car after blowing up Tuco's lair and starts screaming and beating the steering wheel, I was like "I get this guy." (I'm not a psycho - promise - although if you follow the stories in the GTA thread, you may disagree.)

 

On a final note, I can't remember any other show that has gotten such physical reactions out of me. When 

 

Hank got shot mid-sentence

 

My face was literally exactly like Walt's. No hyperbole - my jaw stayed dropped until the commercial break.

 

Dammit, now my obsession is completely reignited. Looks like I'll be marathoning this yet again.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just binge-watched the entire series over the last month on Netflix. Incredible stuff.  I have so many thoughts on the series as a whole, but a few nuggets that are fresh in my mind after just watching the last few episodes:

 

- I would have liked more closure with Jesse. Him driving off and busting through the fence wasn't enough for me. Does he raise Brock? Does he go back to slanging with Badger and Skinny Pete? Does he go dig up the rest of the money and go into hiding with the help of Saul's guy? Does he just waste away in a drug den somewhere until he finally OD's? I could see any of these scenarios happening. I hate "we want to leave it open to the viewers imagination" endings. I didn't invest hours/days/months of my fucking life in this so I could be the one to decide how the show ends. That's not my job and I think it's lazy writing. Shit, just give me a final scene of Jesse Pinkman, now living as Herbert Livingston in South Dakota, leaving his job at Best Buy to go pick up Brock from school or something.

 

- Along those lines, Andrea's death was really heartbreaking. I had to pause the show for a few minutes because my wife began sobbing and had to leave the room. When Todd knocked on her door I figured she was about to get murked.

 

- The different opinions we as viewers have on these characters at the end of the series is just unbelievable. Reading through this thread I've seen a lot of people who wish Marie and/or Skyler had died. My wife fucking hated Marie at the end for being so adamant that Hank capture Walt. Although I loved Walt's character, I really sympathized with the family and totally understood why they wanted absolutely nothing to do with him at the end. Walt said it best - he did everything for himself. Providing for his family was just an excuse. They never wanted the money, all they wanted was their dad/husband.

 

- To'hajiilee was one of the most intense hours of television I've ever seen. Especially the last 15-20 minutes. I was literally on the edge of my seat and couldn't take my eyes off the screen the entire time. Riveting stuff. It's right up there with LOST's "Through the Looking Glass" as my favorite hour of television ever.

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Skyler really is absolutely horrible. I completely forgot about it when I watched the series the first time, but on second viewing, wow, she's the epitome of every terrible wife ever. In the pilot episode, she's on her laptop in bed, she's tracking her eBay auctions, it's Walter's birthday and all she can muster for him is the saddest handy ever where she cares more about the fucking junk she's slinging on eBay more than her husband. Then at the end of that pilot, she remarks, "Walter, is that you?!" In the context of a show like Everybody Loves Raymond, that would get your typical canned laughter. Here, it's gross and sad. It was clear that up until the events of the show, she was a goddamn life vampire, sucking away Walter's soul. She proceeds to do that even more, topping it off with "I fucked Ted." She was unhappy with her marriage and life and was too much of a gutless coward to break things off sooner, so instead she breaks down Walter, who clearly wants to have a happy marriage and a happy life. His career is sad and hopeless, but all he wants is the admiration and respect of his wife, who can't even bother to take her eyes off of eBay one moment to give it to him. 

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She was unhappy with her marriage and life and was too much of a gutless coward to break things off sooner, so instead she breaks down Walter, who clearly wants to have a happy marriage and a happy life.

 

I don't know if that last part is true.  In fact I think this part could be changed to:

 

 

He was unhappy with his marriage and life and was too much of a gutless coward to break things off sooner, so instead he blew up the fucking world around him.

 

 

Walter and Skyler were kind of similar in being miserable with their lives.  Walter had the (blessing of?) sudden motivation to do something drastic and until she agreed to launder his money Skyler didn't.  She kept making the same lame half-hearted attempts that Walter himself would have kept making if he hadn't gotten sick.

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Walter fucked up his life before he met Skylar. I think he had a way worse affect on her than she ever had on him. Because of him she went from being a frustrated but otherwise normal housewife to casually ordering Jesse's death like it was no big deal as if she were a mafia boss or something.

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