I’m predicting a more disappointing ending. One thing BB does is change who the bad guy is. From Tuco, to Gus, to Don Eladio. Each time we were intended to retarget our hatred on someone new. My guess is Jack is the new bad guy for the final episodes. I see it shaking out like this:
Someone dies at the beginning of next episode, probably Gomey. For the rest of the episode, Jesse and Hank are hostages but at the end of the episode another one of them dies, probably Hank. I see this being the point at which Walt pulls his disappearing act. With no cook, the brotherhood forces Jesse to cook for them. Then we skip about a year into the future and catch up with the flash forwards we’ve seen.
Walt has a big gun to kill the brotherhood and save Jesse, who is basically indentured if not outright hostage. Jack is the final boss of BB despite only being introduced near the end of the series and having no prior connections to the drug trade Walt’s been a part of. The climactic scene has Walt kill Jack in a shootout, and save Jesse.
To me, this would be quite unsatisfying in a “Lost” kind of way. But there’s still the hope for the denouement to resolve the longer, more interesting plot lines.
It could be a joke about Nazis = Stormtroopers = Star Wars style gunfight where no one gets hit.
However, I think it’s just a narrative tool - they only showed the first few seconds of the gunfight. I suspect that if the resolution of it next week was stitched onto this week’s beginning, no one would be complaining that “it’s unreal that it took 15 seconds to kill Gomez and wound Hank… it should have taken only 7 seconds.”
I don’t think the stormtroopers had time to communicate to each other “hey just pretend to try to shoot these guys” in that moment before the action started. And yeah, it’s pretty unrealistic that two pistols, two rifles, and a fully automatic shotgun (holy crap!) from 20 yards away are going to result in a long gunfight.
On a side note, I’ve been using this icon for years and years - the markings looked like a face on the back of a spider from a casual snapshot I took.
It wasn’t until this week I noticed that it doesn’t just look like a face… it looks like Heisenberg.
Wow, I wouldn’t have expected things to come to a head quite so fast. I agree with the point that having a whole mercenary crew miss two exposed targets at almost point-blank range, then finally take them down after a cliffhanger cutoff would seem very weird, and would be an unprecedented misstep for the show’s writers. Forcing them into cover and making them use up their few bullets, then just seizing them alive in order to hold them hostage is a better solution to their meth problem. The only question is how six guys all agreed to do this without talking it through, but they might’ve planned for the possibility of encountering the police on their way to the site. After all, Walt’s sudden change of heart certainly made them guess just what the hell had happened there and what they were heading for.
So, Gomez probably dead, Hank maybe (that phone call sure raised a flag), Jesse and Walt captured and forced into cooking Heisenberg-quality meth? How does Walt get from there to being all alone in New Hampshire, with his house vandalized and his neighbor thinking him dead? Maybe the Nazis set something up that made it appear all four had perished in the shootout. With Walt’s fake confession somewhere out there, Marie has no way of revealing his business without tarnishing Hank’s name at the same time. She could’ve left the graffiti in the living room as an act of frustration, though. And Walt could’ve either escaped somehow, or the Nazis let him go - they know Jesse can cook Heisenberg-quality meth, and their knowledge about Andrea and Brock gives them leverage over him. Seems a bit sentimental, but for all they know, he’s dying anyway and would’t rock the boat as long as his family is provided for. In any case, the next three episodes will surely keep up the pace.
I could not watch this episode without all the years of westerns/action flicks jumping in my mind, most notably this extra crystal…Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We don’t need no badges!
I don’t have to show you any stinking badges! classic
Ive done some research on this before. Often very hard to hit someone and takes many rounds. Still thought the gun battle was a bit off since they seemed to be aiming well before it started. Can’t wait to find out what happens.
Didn’t you guys see Gomey get hit? Sadly, Hank’s desire to keep this off the books means Gomey will likely not make it, and he’s one of the few characters left who was still entirely likeable.
Did you stop to think it might have been purposefully chosen for its design?
Normally they just say ‘coca-cola’ on the side. This one is in situ in a place that makes sense (waiting area of a carwash) and has been depicted before (Walt’s hiding place for the pistol) and is right next to a guy who by most people’s measure would be considered ice cold.
I don’t get all the negativity about this episode. It all makes sense to me. Gun fights are notoriously inaccurate. Doesn’t anyone remember the OK Corral? Experienced gunfighters facing off in an open corral at 10 feet away, many, many shots fired and only a few minor injuries and two dead at the end, and this was without big metal trucks for cover.
The perspective wasn’t shown that well but Gomey and Hank were at least partially blocked by the SUV, and they were roughly fifty feet away. Even well aimed shots can miss at that distance, and machine guns are notoriously inaccurate, especially on full auto. The gunfight was entirely plausible as far as I can see.
And Walt giving up also made sense. Once he realized that Jesse had “ratted” him and he had just confessed to all that over the phone, and they had the money now, he knew he was done. Even if he killed all three of them the DEA would still likely get ahold of the confessions on the recording (and then he’d be on the hook for three murders, two DEA agents as well). And Walt confessing to Jesse was believable too because he really had no idea Jesse was working with Hank – it simply had not occurred to him, so why not throw everything he had ever done “for Jesse” up to stop him from burning all the money?
This episode was so tense I felt kind of sick at the end. I’m guessing the next episode starts with the Aryans cleaning up the scene, Jesse got away during the gunfight (nobody was watching that black car and he was almost out the door before the first shot was even fired). Walt is now Aryan property, Hank and Gomez are dead, and Jesse is out.
And those who criticize the Aryan’s behavior as unbelievable have no idea how frickin’ smart and organized these guys are. They could tell from Walt’s tone that something bad was going down, and they simply can’t afford to let him die or be arrested, so they obviously were going to show up armed and ready. They sized up the scene and did what they had to. They would have no trouble killing two DEA agents – they don’t give a shit – to them life in prison or out is still life within their brotherhood. The Aryan Brotherhood has (in real life) already killed federal prosecutors… a couple dead DEA agents in exchange for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars… That’s a lot of what makes them so scary. And the only reason they asked for ID was they wanted one of them to be distracted taking it out, which would give them a little bigger of an edge.
BB rocks all the way to the end. My only fear is I will have a heart attack watching one of the last three episodes.
Todd isn’t deceitful? Yeah, shooting a young boy without even thinking about it or having the slightest bit of remorse makes him a swell guy in my book. He takes orders for a hit like someone is ordering pizza from him. With Lydia he’s awkwardly creepy. Don’t get me wrong, I like the character but your assessment couldn’t be further off.
You’re confusing ‘immoral’ with ‘deceitful’. L_Mariachi is right. He has not deceived anyone we’ve met. He killed the kid on direct orders from his boss. He’s creepy around Lydia in that he is an awkward, pubescent teenager, which is still not deceitful.
I agree with the summary, but I have to acknowledge MacLaren’s references to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The lady directs a mean Western.
Also, this whole situation could be resolved if Jesse discovers that the keys are still in the ignition of Gomez’ sedan. Once he fires up the car, he could either drive around back and start shooting (if he finds another weapon in the vehicle, which wouldn’t be unlikely for Gomez), or drive straight into the Klan. He’s not handcuffed, and he’s not directly in the line of fire. If there are plot coupons in the car, he could really turn this around.
I said this before: Todd’s character is genius, as he looks and acts like a boy scout or kid with his 4-H calf. But he is as cold blooded as any one else on the show. While he is polite and mild mannered, he has no problem being a bad guy.
Whose orders? He waved at the kid and shot him. Everyone else was still figuring out what to do, but for Todd it was plain as day what needed to be done.
