Anyone into 'BREAKING BAD'? (part 5)

Continued from here:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/anyone-into-breaking-bad-part-4.329238/

 

That's what she said.

 

On second watch, I did not notice Walt in the foreground of the establishing shot in the cafe. Great scene.

 

I didn't either after a second watch tonight. He's on the very end closest to the camera, but blends in with his dark green. It was a great scene. Walt knew her habits better than she was aware, and said something like "You're habit oriented".

 

>>Vidiot said:

It's interesting to reflect that Walt got the Gray Matter people to leave the money to Walt Jr. in an unbreakable trust fund -- not the wife. Walt knew there was a chance that Skyler might go to prison for a certain amount of time, and if the money went to his son instead, she'd be protected. <<

Maybe I'm dense, but doesn't the combination of the phone call with the police listening in AND the GPS coordinates pretty well insulate Skyler from prosecution?

 

It's not really that mysterious -- for me, Walt getting off "hard" (that's what she said) would mean that he DOESN'T accomplish everything he sets out to before he willingly submits to death. Maybe Skyler refuses to speak to him; maybe Gretchen and Elliot tell him to go to hell; maybe Jesse accidentally gets killed in the compound, or maybe Jack kills him before he can trigger his awesome trunk cannon. As I said in my post, one of the things missing from the finale was unintended consequences -- it's almost a Breaking Bad tradition that no matter what Walt concocts to get himself out of a jam, he almost invariably creates a NEW jam for himself, or someone else suffers because of his solution. In the finale, though, it all goes pretty much perfectly for Walt, in terms of what he returned to New Mexico to accomplish. Yes, he still dies knowing his family hates him, and Hank is dead, and Jesse is broken, and his empire and most of his money is gone -- but he doesn't look TOO broken up about that stuff when he lays there dying, does he?

I don't want to belabor it, though. I'm not calling "foul" and I'm not saying the ending was a cheat -- I'm just saying that none of Walt's plans have EVER gone totally smoothly since he became a criminal, and this one went a little too smoothly.

 

Well he does got shot by the trunk cannon, because he has to slam Jesse to the floor and keep him down, since Jesse has no idea what's about to happen.

 

He was due.

 

I thought the beauty of the finale was that Walt had finally become self-aware enough that he knew that everything he did wasn't for his family, it was for him. His contention for 2 years (5 seasons) was always that everything he did, he did for his family. Finally understanding that he was being selfish all along led to better consequences for Walt.

 

http://www.tmz.com/2013/09/29/breaking-bad-house-never-sell-walter-white/

 

I saw that. But apparently Century 21 DID put that posting on craigslist - pretty funny. I also read there was a phone number for the vacuum cleaner store in the previous episode, and if you called the number, you got a recording with Robert Forster's voice listing store hours or something. I'm just waiting for someone to figure out what Walt's license plate in the final ep stood for. Surely the fact that it was a 7- digit number (phone number) can't be a coincidence...

 

True, but he went to the compound INTENDING to die, so even though he was accidentally shot by the trunk cannon, it still dovetailed nicely with his overall plan.

Conveniently.

This I agree with, and for me Walt's conversation with Skyler redeemed the ending -- it didn't necessarily redeem WALT, but it redeemed the show's ending.

 

Great final.

 

Two random observations:
1) I know it's a film and TV staple, but has anyone in real life ever put their car keys on top of the sun visor?

2) Did anyone else see the final overhead shot as a nod to Taxi Driver?

 

Who else immediately looked for the pizza and found it less funny not being there?

 

I think the shot of Jesse driving away from the compound cackling like a hyena might be my favorite scene in the whole series.

Sure, his future is pretty iffy, but it sure as hell beats cooking crystal for a psychopath and a gang of murdering lunatics.

 

I was thinking Lost. Not a nod, but it reminded me of the final scene in that series. I only saw Taxi Driver once and don't remember the final scene.

 

I did.

 

It was nice to finally see Jesse happy after such a long period of misery.

 

The moment the show ended, I rewound the DVR and went back and watched the entire coffee shop scene to see if there was a single clue that Walt had gotten there first. Nothing's there... unless you think about the fact that Walt said he knew she'd be there at 10AM Tuesday morning, at the same table, because she always stuck rigidly to her schedule. So you figure, he went there Monday, took some bags of sweetener back to his car (or wherever he was staying), tweaked the bags, came back at 9AM, sat at the same table, swapped out a doctored bag on the table, then watched the shop until Lydia and Todd showed up and made his entrance. During that time, he'd be smart enough to keep a sharp eye on the table... but there was certainly a risk that somebody else might take the packet first and die.

 

Are the 16 episodes being released as separate seasons on DVD/Blu-Ray? I see the fifth season listed on Amazon without the word "complete" as is usually the case and the final season listed separately. Will the final season contain the first 8 episodes?

 

Yes. Lost -- the end and the beginning with Jack lying in the jungle.

Also, I was reminded of the season-ending episode when Walt was lying in the crawl space like this and the camera pulled up up up as well.

 

Yes. Good catch. I didn't make that connection.

 

They could still go after her for the previous charges.

As far as the money goes, I'm sure they'd monitor her. It's drug money. She's have to give it up. She deposits it, the bank has to report it and she would have no explanation beyond Walt as to where it came from. The fact that it came from his Grey Matter co-founders was brilliant because 1) it appears they're taking care of Walt's son out of guilt 2) they can't attach the funds becaus there is no way to prove it's drug money (and Walt gave them the incentive to NOT reveal where it came from...the fact that they also cooperated with him puts them in line for Federal prosecution as well as damaging the reputation of their company further).

Walt was already at the coffee shot before Todd arrived as I recall sitting at the counter. I think the implication was that he was there before Lydia. She might have noticed him arriving after her.