Breaking Bad Season 5 Thread

Dumb question: Will Jesse and Saul know or assume Walt killed Mike?

 

It's not been a strong season.

 

They need to do something to get it so it's Walt and Jesse again. I have no interest in watching Landry doing anything other than a minor, minor part.

I don't know that I disliked it, but I still go back to the fact that they should have ended it after Season 4. Next week is the season finale isn't it? They're breaking it up eight and eight, I think...

 

Yes

 

Jesse and Saul will figure it out -- they were both sitting there when Walter made the arrangements to meet Mike -- if they have to. Would not surprise me at all if Walter tells them, given the way his ego is running amok. He wants everybody to know he's the badass.

I'm staying with my Jesse's going to flip mantra. A.) He's easily manipulated. The DEA dudes are master manipulators. B.) Walter denied him his $5 million, giving him motivation to blow the whistle. Everybody else is getting hush money, but not Jesse. Here's another thought: Skyler steps out again, this time manipulating Jesse with sex.

 

Yep, the writers are clearly out of ideas. This entire season has been aimless and meandering. What exactly has happened so far? Walt's personal relationships have deteriorated and he's beyond redemption. We get it. And?

Better call the deux ex machina. Why the hell would Mike deal with that lawyer guy we never saw before instead of Saul? Ten seconds later the gig is up because of that guy.

Also convenient that the worst thing the show ever did was done by Todd, a character introduced about 10 seconds before he did it.

 

We saw that lawyer guy before. Mike was his "paralegal" when he went into the jail to talk to the laundry manager a few episodes back.

 

You are right. I stand corrected on that. I should have known better.

I still think they've stretched a whole lot of nothing into seven episodes so far.

 

The only way I can really make Walt's behavior work for me is if he knows the cancer is back and has since this season started (maybe back into the latter part of season 4). He knows he's dying and may believe he's going to hell for all he's done, so he wants to go out in a blaze of glory.

Agree with the theory that this ep - Mike's death especially - was all about setting up Jesse to flip to the DEA.

I'm reserving judgement on the season as a whole until it's done (...in another year). So far it's not as strong as Season 4 but the third season seemed to do a lot of meandering too, and it finished strong.

For all that a lot of last night's ep was problematic for me and I didn't quite buy that Mike would put himself in a situation where he had to rely on Walt like that, that last shot of the water as Mike died was one of the more beautiful moments I've seen on TV.

 

Things that stuck in my craw:

Walt's "Say my name." It's fucking hokey. Maybe Heisenberg needs to be hokey. But it still is.

Mike. He got a nice last scene. But he is Mister Detail. He didn't have a plan to pay off the lawyer if he got pinched? He allows Walt to get his hands on his ditty bag? He lets fucking Walt draw down on him? Sorry, but no. Not plausible. Mike's speech to Walt was pure exposition, if plausible since Mike was describing himself while cataloguing Walt's faults.

Jesse. He's gonna walk without his money? And what the hell IS going on with Jesse outside Walt's orbit? The strongest episodes and arcs of this show were when we had insight into both of them.

Skylar's a non-entity. And Walt back in Hank's office -- for a shot-for-shot remake?

All told, just a lot of seams showing, all over the place. Not meant as a rip job. Just not up to the standard the show has set, and very dangerous at this point. Because for the first time, it feels like this show is not living up to the hype.

 

This I had no trouble buying. The kid's death was the last straw for Jesse, he doesn't want to be responsible for anymore collatoral damage, and he's just done.

I don't think he has a plan, but Jesse is a character who often does things on emotion and impulse, so it doesn't bother me that he lacks one. I do wish we'd gotten a proper scene of a conversation about retirement between him and Mike before they sprung it on Walt.

One thing I did like about this ep was the confrontation between Walt and Jesse. Walt pushed every button he knew would hurt Jesse - from his shaky sobriety to freakin' Gale - and Jesse was just over it.

 

Sepinwall brought up the point that they really forced Mike off the show ... wrote scenes in way that make so sense in terms of the character we've come to know over the last three seasons. I tend to agree. I know Hank's line, "Even pros make mistakes," provided a bit of foreshadowing, but that was really, really sloppy for Mike, who never let a detail go uncovered in previous seasons.

It's like the writers a) couldn't figure out what to do with him or b) thought he could just walk away but believed he deserved a blaze of glory sort of moment.

I love this show to death, but I'm glad it's beginning to wrap up, because there's no way they could continue to come up with plausible storylines for more than nine episodes. I think Jesse will be out of the picture far before the end, and that the final showdown will be between Walt, Hank and the DEA.