Can’t wait for the first of the final 8 episodes tonight.
My prediction: Hank will put Walt under observation, thus triggering the “observer effect,” first noted by (the original) Heisenberg.
Do we know that Walt’s copy of Leaves of Grass was from Gale? I thought Walt’s copy was from Gretchen Black, making Hank’s “epiphany” ironic: Hank may be on to Walt, but the truth of his hunch is based on an accidental synchronicity not genuine correspondence.
Setting: A scenic New Mexico roadway at sunset. A Challenger at high speed, pursued by a police car with sirens and flashers. Cut to interior of Challenger, we see WALTER WHITE, mildly amused, who pulls over and waits. A POLICE OFFICER approaches.
POLICE: Do you have any idea how fast you were going, sir?
WW: No. [Beat, as WW dons his black hat.] But I know exactly where I am.
brutal. had not thought of that.
I find this discussion on the Forbes website, which concludes that the Gretchen “Black” thing is nonsense, is convincing.
TL/DR Major points: Nowhere in the series is it mentioned that Gretchen’s name is Black. Her married name is Schwartz (German for black) and her maiden name isn’t mentioned.
Nowhere in the series is Gretchen shown to be the least bit concerned or a fan of Whitman, whereas it’s quite clearly established for Gale.
The handwriting of the dedication and the handwriting of Gale’s notebooks are very similar.
Also, this a quote from Vince Gilligan “Walt Whitman’s poetry was something that Gale Boetticher loved. It touched his heart and he wanted to share it with his new friend and mentor Walter White. And unfortunately the sharing of it and Walt keeping this book in hindsight proved to be a bit unwise.”
The third one stuck out right away for me. Gale used a neat block printing throughout his notebooks, which was shown as they flipped through them and found the original W.W., just like the dedication on that volume is printed.
So excited!
This is a very good analysis. One of the things that’s established in the pilot, then gradually inverted over the course of five seasons, is sympathy for Walt and contempt for Hank; it’s easy to miss that Hank has an authentic hero’s journey parallel to Walt’s corruption.
Great writeup.It’s hard to imagine how this season will go, with Hank being onto Walt… that’s a mind-boggling scenario.
I’m sure we’ll get a couple of superbly-crafted scenes with the two of them before Hank’s suspicion is unveiled, which of course will have us all on the edge of our seats.
Can’t wait!
Also, Ima cross-post this from the BB tattoo thread, cause it was the last post in the thread and I doubt many folks saw it:
[quote=“Kimmo, post:10, topic:6518, full:true”]I was pretty taken with the concept of the Jolly Roger Walt, but I felt like the execution left a bit to be desired…
Here’s my remix. Took a few pains to get more of a likeness…
[/quote]
…Actually, this is probably more like it:
dope!
If anyone feels inclined to remix it further, please go for it (which should go without saying since I lifted it from some guy’s leg).
If I had a clue how to do vector stuff, I would’ve gone nuts… I was picturing it changed to just under half his face in shade, with the shade composed of menacing-looking tribal-style stuff, but as you can see I have a hard time creating a clean line.
It’s a cool concept; a professional-quality execution would be pretty damn badarse.
Great article. So looking forward to the last season. Fantastically written, all around.
I’m coming to the discussion late, but will try to resist dropping any spoilers from last night’s episode as a courtesy to those who are still catching up. I will say, though, that the two most recent episodes reminded me of what I love so much about this show. The final moments of “Gliding Over All” completely floored me. The final moments of “Blood Money” were just as shocking, but in a completely different way.
Here’s what I’ll say, hopefully without giving away any spoilers. I am consistently impressed at Breaking Bad’s ability to provide satisfying resolution to tense plot points in the short term, while maintaining that same tension over the longer term. A lot of shows will create a tense plot point and then spend the whole god damned season milking it and milking it until finally, at season’s end, it resolves (and of course different points are set up in the mean time). Breaking Bad is not afraid to go, “See this rabbit? I put it in a hat. Now it’s dead.” And you’re like, “Wait. What?” But the rabbit just got here! But it never feels capricious. It’s tight and satisfying.
EDIT TO ADD: And I speculate that the reason BrBa can get away with this is that they have such a fount of good writing that they don’t have to be stingy with the plot. Whereas other shows come up with one good idea and they had damn well better milk it for at least half a season, because that’s how long it’s going to take them to write the next good idea.
Except for the Fly episode. What the fuck was that?
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