Breaking Bad

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Royal

Royal

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Iannis_sl said:
See now, Seasons 2-4 would have been so very fucking much better if they had made Skylar the reluctant woman behind the man. Rather than this "oh yeah, it's the last few episodes, I guess we can finally make skylar stop being so horrible and uninteresting". They couldn't have done it in season 1, but they could have started it in season 2 along with Jesse, and by S3 at the latest Skylar's character would have been worth watching. And it would have made Walt better too. He wouldn't have had to have been so deus-ex-machina flawless "I planned that all along!" all the time if he had a wife to bounce (even veiled) strategy off with.

I don't think it's so much that they've decided to make Sklyer

It would have cost the "I am the one who knocks" speech, but one decent scene for far too many to count fast-forward scenes would have been a very acceptable tradeoff.

They missed it. They could have made her a smart frontier justice version of Carmella.
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I don't think it's that they've decided here at the end to make Sklyer more interesting, they've just been trying to reclaim her as a sympathetic character for the sake of the story. I've zero doubt that Gilligan was well aware of how unpopular she has been with his audience.

It's the same sort of thing that was done with Catelyn Stark in GoT. The writers started adding in all sorts of things to her personal story several episodes before the Red Wedding so that her death wouldn't detract from the shock and horror they wanted that event to have.
 
Ambiturner

Ambiturner

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Maester Chuk_sl said:
I think thats the obvious ploy. This show has great writers and we are getting faked out to believe that the DEA landed on walts house. It could easily be walts house was attacked by those white power guys
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That's my feeling, too. They're too good of writers for the flash forwards to be something obvious like that. There's a much bigger payoff for the audience to think one thing and have it be something completely different. Like with the disfigured stuffed rabbit in the pool. Nobody (except me) guessed the rabbit fell from a plane that crashed into another because the air traffic controller was distracted by the death of his daughter that Walt indirectly contributed to.

A DEA raid and the kids graffitying the house would be so unsatisfying. Maybe the Nazis, but that seems pretty obvious as well. I could see Saul's game death and start a new life, possibly cancer related. Maybe even frame someone else to be Heisenberg, like Hank or Todd.
 
Chukzombi

Chukzombi

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building up a character just to have them die soon afterward is very common. Walking Dead is so guilty of this they probably have done this once every few episodes. wow Merle is saying some good stuff. ten minutes later, dead. the mustache convict seems like a great guy with the buzzcut chick. boom dead headshot. carl's mom hasnt whined for a while. oops she died.
 
Royal

Royal

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They may not necessarily be building Sklyer up to die. The ending might involve her riding off into some semblance of a sunset and they want the audience to find a measure of satisfaction in that rather than walking away thinking "After all the shit she put Walt through the cunt got it all in the end anyway".
 
Cantatus

Cantatus

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Royal_sl said:
I don't think it's that they've decided here at the end to make Sklyer more interesting, they've just been trying to reclaim her as a sympathetic character for the sake of the story. I've zero doubt that Gilligan was well aware of how unpopular she has been with his audience.
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I think Skyler's progression to this point makes sense. She's always been one of those "keep up appearances" type of people that values the normality of a suburban life. Walt obviously threw a wrench into that equation, and reacting confrontationally when he was lying and angrily when she found out the truth, were both natural reactions to the situation. However, she has now been able to take control of the situation in a way that allows her to separate what Walt did with once again living a "normal life". She is able to rationalize that Walt made a mistake, and perhaps realizes it's one he did for the family, while believing she fixed him and brought him back from the direction he was going.

Her refusing to turn him in to Hank is a further extension of this. Perhaps the reality is that she realizes she's now complicit in Walt's crimes and would go down with him, but I think there is also a part of her that wishes to protect the bubble she has been able to construct due to Walt's misdeeds. In fiction, we've often seen the mob wife who chooses to remain ignorant of what her husband does while benefiting from his actions. Skyler is too strong and controlling of a woman to live like that. Instead, she wants to be in the know so she can control the situation and construct her own delusion of an idyllic life rather than having it constructed for her. And now that she's reached that point, she's going to attempt to protect it, because she knows the alternative is something she'll have no control over.
 
Royal

Royal

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That's the potential motivation of the character, rather than the motivation of the writer to imbue the character with said motivations.
 
Ambiturner

Ambiturner

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Maester Chuk_sl said:
building up a character just to have them die soon afterward is very common. Walking Dead is so guilty of this they probably have done this once every few episodes. wow Merle is saying some good stuff. ten minutes later, dead. the mustache convict seems like a great guy with the buzzcut chick. boom dead headshot. carl's mom hasnt whined for a while. oops she died.
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The difference is Breaking Bad writers aren't shitty
 
Lithose

Lithose

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Prediction: Walt is going to kill Skylar for cashing in the lottery ticket, lol.

Seriously though. I think Skylar's reaction was good this episode, given her character but I would have told Hank to fuck off. You'd figure the thought of Walt as family would have tempered him a little, made him question whether what he thought about Hiesenberg wasreallytrue or not, made him think WW was just thechemistand most of the "legend" (IE the guy who killed the prisoners) was whoever the distributor was--essentially let Hank give Walt the benefit of the doubt. But it doesn't, Hank goes right to "ANIMAL!", and "piece of shit!" Granted, given Hank's zealotry in terms of drug enforcement and kind of single mindedness in terms of investigation, that reaction made sense, and was rational, in the show--but if I had been in Skylar's shoes I would have asked him "Didn't 20+ years of friendship/family buy Walt evensomedoubt before your conviction?"

Don't know, just me, but again, I think that's the Italian in my upbringing Family>>Cops, I'd have told him only come back if you have a warrant if you're going to be a cop and forget completely about being a brother to Walt. Andnotsaying Hank should give Walt a pass, lol (Hell Hank should be very mad because Walt did betray him). Rather, I'd want a "brother" who is also a cop to aproach in a more even manner, so rather than "what an animal!" it would be "Jesus, Walt, this is bad, but we need to stop it....you have to let me "Help" you, I can make the DA go easy on you if you help me get the rest of your crew and explain Gustavo." (So more like how he handled Skylar.)
 
Araysar

Loser Araysar

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is this show worth watching? ive been avoiding it for years
 
Azrayne

Azrayne

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Lithose_sl said:
Prediction: Walt is going to kill Skylar for cashing in the lottery ticket, lol.

Seriously though. I think Skylar's reaction was good this episode, given her character but I would have told Hank to fuck off. You'd figure the thought of Walt as family would have tempered him a little, made him question whether what he thought about Hiesenberg wasreallytrue or not, made him think WW was just thechemistand most of the "legend" (IE the guy who killed the prisoners) was whoever the distributor was--essentially let Hank give Walt the benefit of the doubt. But it doesn't, Hank goes right to "ANIMAL!", and "piece of shit!" Granted, given Hank's zealotry in terms of drug enforcement and kind of single mindedness in terms of investigation, that reaction made sense, and was rational, in the show--but if I had been in Skylar's shoes I would have asked him "Didn't 20+ years of friendship/family buy Walt evensomedoubt before your conviction?"

Don't know, just me, but again, I think that's the Italian in my upbringing Family>>Cops, I'd have told him only come back if you have a warrant if you're going to be a cop and forget completely about being a brother to Walt. Andnotsaying Hank should give Walt a pass, lol (Hell Hank should be very mad because Walt did betray him). Rather, I'd want a "brother" who is also a cop to aproach in a more even manner, so rather than "what an animal!" it would be "Jesus, Walt, this is bad, but we need to stop it....you have to let me "Help" you, I can make the DA go easy on you if you help me get the rest of your crew and explain Gustavo." (So more like how he handled Skylar.)
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I think you'd be right if it was just the meth cooking, but all the other shit that Walt has done, even the stuff Hank is just guessing about, is pretty fucking unforgivable. I mean we could get into a debate about whether killing enemies/competitors in the drug trade is the same as I guess 'traditional' murder, but there are still a whole bunch of people dead because Walt wanted them dead. Skylar might be a total bitch machine, but unless I'm forgetting something she hasn't actually killed anyone.

Seems to be pretty obvious which direction things are going in from here, but will be interesting to see it unfold.

Only other major thing that occurred to me during the episode is that the van Walt rode out to bury the money was supplied by Saul or his goons, could easily have been some kind of GPS tracking device on there. I think the likelyhood of the money still being there if Walt's family ever get a chance to go dig it up is pretty low.
 
iannis

iannis

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2/3 of it is.

When you see a woman on screen without a man you can just fast forward. Unless she looks like a goth chick, that's the exception.
 
Lanx

Lanx

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it's not just hank that would be the laughing stock, the whole DEA crew would be no? walt has known the DEA crew for I guess a few years, he's been around the office for so long, he's just walt, heck everyone was cool with him being on a ride along in eps 1. No one would stop to think, hey walt? you're not just a chemistry teacher right? you used to be a founding member of that company that is worth billions, you must be supersmart!, just not good with money. heck walt can be seen as "the woz" of apple, the real brains of apple that left (only the woz left with money).

i mean heisenberg by now is a scary legend, saul is probably terrified of working with him and if there weren't rumors of a new saul tv show i'd say he was expendable too. Heck bill burr and the big fat black guy with the fcked up head thought twice about stealing the millions of money by saying "he killed 10 guys in 2 minutes", while they were sleeping on it.

and if you think about it, walt still has morals, saul said to send hank to belize, just like mike, and the way walt reacted, that thought NEVER came to his mind, "he's family". it seemed he never even thought of the idea until saul brought it up.

My brother in law? i've known him since he was 14. hell he wore my clothes in highschool, he's almost 30 now... if i was heisenberg... killing would at least have been brought up, hell he's not even a brother in law, he's the sister in law's husband, what is that legally? step brother in law?
 
spinnaker

spinnaker

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lanx_sl said:
it's not just hank that would be the laughing stock, the whole DEA crew would be no? walt has known the DEA crew for I guess a few years, he's been around the office for so long, he's just walt, heck everyone was cool with him being on a ride along in eps 1.
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Nah, Gus was at least as friendly with that DEA office as Walt was, and as far as we know there hasn't been any fallout from that. Hank has a much more personal relationship with Walt than the rest of the office.
 
A

Adam12

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The boss of the DEA in ABQ got shitcanned because of Gus, allowing Hank to become the boss. That's plenty of fallout.
 
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