Breaking Bad - Season 5 (AMC) (2 Viewers)

[joshEH]

BTW, it was the ricin cigarette in the baggie. I'm sure Walt will keep it around for possible future use, and it wouldn't surprise me if Sky gave it a smoke. Ew, what if Junior found it and decided to try smoking? The best use would be to slip it into Ted's pudding.
Speaking of Ted, without hair, he looks like Kevin McDonald. Not that Kevin McDonald doesn't have hair. The show did need another bald man, especially if Walt's gonna grow his out.
The best part about BB is that people no longer see Jonathan Banks and say, "Hey, it's that guy, ol' whatshisname!"

That Ted-scene was brutal. Seeing him like that just reminded me how tragic this is all gonna get. He's no innocent, but fuck:

I think Ted is definitely dead within the next few episodes, if not next week. I don't see this post-Gus Walt leaving any loose ends, especially not with the guy who boned his wife, and who (in his mind, maybe) is responsible for the disappearance of a good chunk of his money being readily able to rat them all out at the first opportunity. I bet he gets Skyler to go along with it, too.
I also have a feeling Mike is going to be curious about the details of Gus's death, and is going to end up helping Jesse piece together what actually went down the night Brock was poisoned.

Best guess about the opening is that Walt is in the witness protection program and coming back to the ABQ for revenge, which will end up with his family back in New Hampshire getting a target on their backs. I'm not sure he's going to die spectacularly in the finale since they are talking about a big screen movie followup. That could be misdirection/wishful thinking, I guess.

Walt not only had the New Hampshire ID, though -- when he got out to the parking lot, he was driving a Volvo with New Hampshire plates. Who goes to that length to back up a fake identity? Nobody rational. The thing to consider here is, when the gun dealer asks him, "This won't be crossing any borders, will it?" Walt answers, "It's not even leaving this town," or something similar. So, whatever this final play is, it's likely not going down in New Hampshire.
In that scene at the Denny's, they're still in Albuquerque -- the waitress asks if he's from there, or "passing through" to California. Walt either drove from New Hampshire with the car, or is convincing enough in his cover to know how long it takes to drive there. The waitress asks him about the drive from New Hampshire, and Walt says it's "a thirty-hour drive."
So in all likeliness, he's in New Mexico again during that sequence. Also, if Walt can obtain an M-60 machine gun, chances are good he can get a car with New Hampshire plates and a New Hampshire driver's license without having actually gone to New Hampshire. Probably part of Saul's escape-plan he almost used last season.
I really can't even speculate with this show. Even with the full head of hair, he's still on medication, and coughing slightly. Is the hair real? Has the cancer come back? Was he really in New Hampshire at some point? He was obviously tired, almost beaten-down, seemingly, but still could talk about the "good science museum," and make some small-talk with the waitress.
My head spins at the possibilities hinted at in that quiet cold-open.

 

[joshEH]

Almost forgot:
There are a lot of "magnet"-jokes floating around the Interwebs right now (well, really a lot of versions of the same joke), but I just love this .GIF, because it captures Jesse's sheer enthusiasm:

This show...

 

[ScottH]

I was wondering how old Walt was when the show started. I thought at some point he hit his 50th birthday, but according to that GIF it appears he was just turning 51? I was basically trying to figure out how far in the future the opening sequence was. Thinking maybe 6-12 months?

 

[TravisR]

I was wondering how old Walt was when the show started.  I thought at some point he hit his 50th birthday, but according to that GIF it appears he was just turning 51?  I was basically trying to figure out how far in the future the opening sequence was.  Thinking maybe 6-12 months?

Walt turns 50 in the pilot and by my count, the entire series has taken place over about 9 or 10 months. So the flashforward is about 14 or 15 months in the future. I think they'll keep things simple and just say it's one year later rather than getting too specific. Maybe episode 7 or 8 will have Walt's 51st birthday as a way to let the audience count down to his next birthday. As others have said, I think the last 8 episodes will pick up after what we see of the future.
As for a movie, Vince Gilligan said

I would never want to dampen Bryan Cranston’s enthusiasm, but I think those rumors are coming from him. All I could tell you is, never say never, but it is definitely not on my mind at the moment. I simply want to end Breaking Bad as completely as possible within these final 16 television episodes. If we’ve got anything left over, if we don’t leave it all on the field, which honestly I intend to…If we’ve got enough story left over for a movie then, then who am I to say no? But I can tell you it’s not on my mind in the least little way at the moment.

http://wegotthiscovered.com/news/vince-gilligan-denies-breaking-bad-movie-rumors-tees-season-5/
I have seen them talk (mostly joking) about doing a Saul Goodman spinoff and I think that could be alot of fun. Though they acknowledged that Saul might not be around by the end either.

 

[ScottH]

/t/319056/breaking-bad-season-5-amc/30#post_3950073
I have seen them talk (mostly joking) about doing a Saul Goodman spinoff and I think that could be alot of fun. Though they acknowledged that Saul might not be around by the end either.

I'll be surprised if Saul makes it out alive. Then again, I'll be surprised if most of these people make it out alive.

My prediction is the guy Walt is going after in the future is Jesse (possibly for killing Walt Jr).

 

[TravisR]

Ah okay I was thinking that GIF with the 51 was from a past episode, and when I saw that he had hair I assumed it was from very early season 1.  I could swear at some point last season Walt indicated he was diagnosed over a year ago.

Last season, Walt said something to the effect of that he's had the cancer diagnosis for the last year and Hank has said that he's been chasing Heisenberg for the better part of a year. I think they have the characters round up because there isn't much reason to get too specific.
I just watched the series again over the last few weeks and if you add up the "It's been a month since..." lines, it comes out to about 9 or 10 months. One thing that can used as a pretty definitive measurement of the show's timeline is in an S3 episode (so it's about 7 or 8 months since the beginning of the series) when Walt, Jr. saying that he can get his learner's permit because his birthday is in two months. Walt Jr's birthday is in episode 10 last year and that episode was less than a week ago in the show's reality.

 

[JonZ]

Everything about the premiere was great. Just great.

And I think Ted is doomed too.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Regarding Josh's post: I didn't develop my idea too clearly, but I was suggesting that the Whites were in the witness protection program in New Hampshire, but that wasn't good enough for Walt's ego and he went back to Albequerque to take care of business. He had to be in New Mexico, because he probably wouldn't have used the Jim Beaver character for his hardware if he was our of state (and the math likely works out with whatever city he mentioned). Now that I think about it even a little, legit witness protection is out. Walt *is* the big fish, so I can't see how he would be offered that. More likely, he does a little business over the coming weeks to replenish his coffers, and he uses Saul's guy to disappear. He begins to think he can put this stuff behind him (shift in attitude evidence by his growing out his hair) when his cancer comes roaring back. He decides against further chemo and decides to come settle up with whomever drove him out in the first place (the events of this season). It's a theory, anyway.
I hope Saul makes it out. If awesomeness were the only factor that determined the outcome, Mike, Saul and Jesse would go off and be awesome with the awesome Hank always one step behind.

 

[Ray Gutnick]

can someone remind me what happened to Ted? i.e. how did he get to this state?

 

[NolanJ]

can someone remind me what happened to Ted? i.e. how did he get to this state?

He was trying to run away from a couple of Saul's goons and slipped and went head first into a table.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Goons? Come on, man. Huell is a misunderstood, gentle soul.

 

[Hugh Jackes]

My prediction: Not witness protection, but on the run, with wife and family dead. Cancer has returned (as Greg S theorized) and Walt, now either seeing his mortality clearly or not giving a sh*t without his family, has come back to ABQ on a suicide mission to get even.

 

[TravisR]

If Walt dies, I think it will be cancer that gets him rather than the police or a criminal associate. That being said, I'm still rooting for Hank to bust him.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I think Walt will turn his genius to good and cure cancer, neglecting his own health in the process. Jesse will become curator at the Georgia O'Keefe museum, and Mike will sell drip candles from a van he lives in near the beach. Skyler will go to prison for embezzlement, and Walt Jr. will own the best IHOP in Alberquerque.

 

[Scott McGillivray]

I just want to go on record again to say we will see Gus again this season...or at least the actor playing Gus.
I am predicting that Gus was a twin and that his twin brother was someone of significant power. This is why he was not killed by Don Eladio in the episode where they killed Gus' partner. The Don told him that "...he knows who he really is..."
Recall that the chicken restaurant is called "Los Pollos Hermanos". The English translation of the name is "The Chicken Brothers."

 

[Greg_S_H]

Sounds a little hokey, but let's see if that plays out.

 

[TravisR]

I saw this a few days ago on Wikipedia and I think it makes sense with Don Eladio's line about knowing who Gus really is.

Gus left Chile in 1986, the same year in which the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front attempted to assassinate Pinochet.[10] Although there are no existing Chilean records of Gus,[11] there are two instances which demonstrate his likely involvement in the Pinochet government: [3][12] Hector Salamanca refers to Gus as "Grand Generalissimo," [13] and Don Eladio tells Gus that he is "not in Chile anymore" but spares his life because he knows who Gus really is.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Fring
I like that as an explanation and I could totally be wrong but I don't think they'll ever clarify it (though as Hank and the DEA dig deeper, they might). I think/hope we'll see Esposito as a flashback one more time.
Speaking of Gus, am I the only one who didn't realize that he was likely gay? Someone mentions that on the S4 commentary and I initially thought that was a stretch but upon reflection, it makes sense. In Gus' origin flashback, Hector makes a joke about them liking what they see when he's peeing into Don Eladio's pool and blows a kiss their way, the very fact that Gus spends 20 years plotting revenge against all involved in Max's death and they look pretty close in that picture in the evidence locker last week.

 

[ScottH]

Originally Posted by TravisR /t/319056/breaking-bad-season-5-amc/30#post_3952465
Speaking of Gus, am I the only one who didn't realize that he was likely gay?

Yeah I assumed Gus was gay ever since that flashback episode last season.

 

[ScottH]

Great Mike-centric episode. Jonathan Banks nailed every scene. This show does the little things so well. From the scene with Hank's (soon to be former) boss talking about the barbecue with Gus to Mike's interrogation. Hank just loves holding back and then laying it on, doesn't he?

 

[TravisR]

That episode didn't have an awesome scene with a giant magnet but I liked it even more than last week's ep. Anyone who watches the show knows how good Jonathan Banks is but having his own episode really gave him a chance to shine. The Hank/Mike interrogation scene was excellent and the scene with Jesse breaking down & Walt fake comforting him was great too.