Breaking Bad

I also don't think the cartel is much of a threat to Walt at this point. Everyone who knew about Walt's involvement, or even cared, is dead. Hank killed Tuco and his cousins while Gus killed the rest of the cartel. Even if the word had spread beyond that, someone who was indirectly involved in the death of a low level cartel member years ago wouldn't be much of a priority.

The cartel didn't really give a shit about Walt in the first place and only came for him because Tuco's cousins were hardcore crazy fucks.

The cartel(s) don't operate like American-Italian mafia, they're less connected to each other by business arrangements, they're not really organized between themselves and they basically fight each other for turf on a daily basis. If someone fucked some cartel's stuff, the other cartels don't have a code where they're forced to go on a vengeance crusade. Gus' cartel being kind of extinct, I don't really see the other ones losing their shit over Walt / Heisenberg.

I seriously hope the cartel isn't out. Gus was distributing hundreds of millions of dollars of meth into six or more states, all across the southwest. We know already he didn't control the end distribution points, because Heisenberg meets with one of his contacts, the guy from SGU aka "say my name / you're Goddamn right" guy in Arizona who buys Walts product and previously bought from Gus. The cartel invested a ton of money into making a new meth plant in Mexico, while the top guys are dead its not like new guys won't roll in and get it running again. If they already supply weed, heroin, cocaine, etc into southwest America it stands to reason they will just add superMeth to the distribution mix, they were clearly already aware meth was a good business and muscling into Gus' business; with Heisenberg taking chunks of that he becomes the guy to replace and it won't be too difficult to find that out.

Heisenberg still isn't a good "criminal", he wants to be like Keyser Soze and dominate through sheer will and reputation but he has a family he cares about and he simply isn't on the same level of sociopath as Tuco, Gus, Don Eladio, etc. It would be somewhat symmetrical for a low level mexican gangbanger to be the one that takes him out eventually, his whole business started with him killing Krazy-8 and it should end with someone like that stepping on him in a sort of "the drug war has an infinite supply of short lived gangsters hustling every day".

Or maybe it's just APD keeping tabs on Jesse "we'll keep an eye on you" or whatever. Maybe the plot will involve Hank being furious about Walt being his nemesis, and while trying to cover things up because family, he'll be getting fucked up by some APD ongoing investigation on Jesse. Maybe Hank will try to hold them while Walt is figuring something. Who knows, Gilligan was an intern on Xfiles and got his wings while writing Lone Gunmen / Harsh Realm's Chris Carter shows. He loves foreshadowing so Walt could die in a gruesome Gus way after all (foreshadowing about Gus ticking his fingers during cartel meeting and walt tickling his fingers during "say my name" meeting, with the same camera angle).

EDIT : or maybe Gilligan will lose his shit and make a David Chase'sThe Sopranos-he's-dead-or-not-but-yes-therefore-not-and-maybe-yes-who-knowsending, trying to save his loredom.

Iannis_sl said:

It's been a while now and I don't remember exactly. I -think- that while gus is on the phone with cartel man the cartel guy says something like, "You're insane. You know we'll be back and we'll take our vengeance" and Gus replies with something like, "Yes, but not for a year or two and by then I'll be ready."

I think those lines were in the script. At any rate, Gus had a long term plan to deal with the reassertion of the cartel into territory and trade he had decided to claim for himself.

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That was the cartel guy he had hit by the DEA or police, whoever it was. After that he proceeded to murder every single member of the cartel leadership at once.

chaos_sl said:

That was the cartel guy he had hit by the DEA or police, whoever it was. After that he proceeded to murder every single member of the cartel leadership at once.

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Yeah, and that was obviously (a high risk) part of the long range plan. To destabilize them, exact personal revenge, and secure himself enough time for his other plans to bear fruit.

But it's not like the cartel runs away from free meth money because you hurt their feelings or the DEA tells them they're not allowed to cross the Rio Grande, either. I have the impression (without remembering exactly where I got it) that Gus had a long range defensive plan. He was that sort of crime lord. For all Walts ability to manipulate and plan, he just doesn't think on that scale. Mike straight up told him as much... and then he bumbled his way into assassinating mike.

Tuco_sl said:

Another card is that Gus is supposed to be important in his home-country(Peru??)

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Chile. At some point there was the theory floating around that he was related to Pinochet or something...

Refresh my memory, at the start of the latest season when Walt was in the diner, with the assault rifle in his trunk, how much time was supposed to have passed since the end of the season?

If Gus thought it would take a year or two for the cartel to get back at him, I wonder how close we are to his perceived timeline coming true if we have a time jump somewhere in the season.

Iannis_sl said:

Yeah, and that was obviously (a high risk) part of the long range plan. To destabilize them, exact personal revenge, and secure himself enough time for his other plans to bear fruit.

But it's not like the cartel runs away from free meth money because you hurt their feelings or the DEA tells them they're not allowed to cross the Rio Grande, either. I have the impression (without remembering exactly where I got it) that Gus had a long range defensive plan. He was that sort of crime lord. For all Walts ability to manipulate and plan, he just doesn't think on that scale. Mike straight up told him as much... and then he bumbled his way into assassinating mike.

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The impression that I got was that Gus made his masterstroke move against the cartel in that moment and he decimated them, they aren't coming back. Other cartels will fill the gap but that won't necessarily include the meth trade. Gus brought the meth trade to Don Eladio, before that none of the cartels were running it.

Walt seems to be in with the Aryans now so he has muscle, if it came to confrontation I think he could fare alright. I just don't think it's an issue.

Grimmlokk_sl said:

Refresh my memory, at the start of the latest season when Walt was in the diner, with the assault rifle in his trunk, how much time was supposed to have passed since the end of the season?

If Gus thought it would take a year or two for the cartel to get back at him, I wonder how close we are to his perceived timeline coming true if we have a time jump somewhere in the season.

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this episode was Walt's 52nd birthday. Walt's 51st birthday was in the first half of this season when Skylar was doing her "I'm sending the kids to Hank and Marie's and going to act like a crazy person" thing.

So Walt's loading up to take on the cartel Rambo style! GRAAR!

Isn't Walt's identity still fairly unknown in the drug world? I'd imagine he would have several enemies knocking on his door if people knew who Heisenberg really was.

Cranston rules

supertouch_sl said:

Isn't Walt's identity still fairly unknown in the drug world? I'd imagine he would have several enemies knocking on his door if people knew who Heisenberg really was.

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When he made the deal in the last season with the whole "say my name" speech, they made it seem like people had heard the babe Heisenberg, but didn't know if he even really existed.

The Mexican cartel's already been done twice, you'd think they would move on to something different. As far as I know they haven't even explored the whole German angle all that much. You had the guy kill himself with the AED when the police were trying to question him, there's got to be more to that

Pfft. Zee Germans? Thats a good laugh.

Sorry, can't embedd.Linkhere, top video.

Halfway through the dance, Colbert dances into a BB interview, haha.

Colbert must really be a cool dude behind the scenes to be able to pull 4 celebrities out of your ass at the last minute who are all vastly more popular than who they're filling in for