No, I didn’t get that feeling about it at all. Walt came out of school headed for chemical superstardom. I don’t believe he thought walking away from Gray Matter was going to change is life as drastically as it actually did, or he might not have done it after all. The carwash job? Not described to us fully - but teachers only get work 9 months of the year usually, and kids have to eat all 12 months. Was it a summer gig? I don’t know. Did he take a lot of crap there? Apparently.
Most people, faced with the need to let go of some of their own dreams and aspirations to take care of a family understand Walt’s misery, to some degree or other. That’s no different than the guys who sit in their armchairs in the evenings reliving their ‘glory days’ endlessly. It sucks - but they do what is required. Not necessarily with any particular resentment, but just…for their families.
The difference here is, Walt didn’t just go all Heisenburg out of questioning his own choices in life. Other guys- you’ve seen 'em - will start chasing skirts and blaming their spouses. And that guy usually ends up with just a younger version of the same woman he dumped. t’s so ordinary, it’s a cliche. But Walt was dying - not bent on living large. He decided to give his family a whole lot better than in the past - not less. And other than a short reprieve, he never expected to live through Heisenberg at all. He does admit that he got caught up in it - understandable. He was living out his own inner badass, and who wouldn’t? I don’t know what your inner badass looks like, and you don’t know mine. Maybe, you don’t like yours as much, but mine totally kicks ass! I keep her under wraps because…she’s kind of a Heisenberg, too. If I ever turn her loose, she’s going out on her shield - not carrying it. And even facing death - that’s a choice, not an inevitability. Walt chose differently.
That is, no. No superpowers. He wasn’t prescient, couldn’t predict every last future event in the least. He had some regrets over his ACTIONS. But not his intents, because they were ok.
And yes, he WAS a dedicated teacher. Had he not been, we wouldn’t have gotten that look when he realized that Jesse had finally learned from him. A non-teacher wouldn’t have cared about that at all - maybe, not even have taken notice.
Wow! That’s a LOT of projection and assumption. Add to that some lack of information. It’s also getting further and further off topic. I still like my theory that Felina is Heisenberg. You seem more invested in trying to make me think of Walt in a specific way. None of what you say actually has an impact on my theory, though.
So - since this “discussion” is moot - I’ll just address the informational issues. Then you go ahead and do whatever you need to, and I won’t be replying further.
Teachers have the option, in most districts, to be paid throughout either nine months or twelve months. The salary is the same, but the distribution is different (obviously). Nonetheless, a steady monthly income is available. As for whether the car wash job was a summer job, that’s answered by the juxtaposition of events in the earliest episodes.
As for Walt’s passion for teaching - that’s also answered. Your example, once more, makes my point. His reaction to the fact that Jesse learned something is the exception, rather than the rule. We can observe Walt’s “passion” in his classroom. His passion is chemistry - rather than teaching chemistry. And that reaction to Jesse’s learning? Non-teachers have that reaction all the time. Anyone who has mentored any other person; parents, troop leaders, etc etc etc have the chance to experience that. Dedication to teaching is not required.
Now - to that whole deal about your inner badass that’s actually “a Heisenberg”. You posit that I don’t like my “inner badass”. To which I can only reply two things: You really don’t know me. And … what’s this “inner” b|_|lls#1t ?
EDITED TO ADD : I just now saw that you have a “competing” theory as to who/what Felina is! So THAT’S what this is about! Well, the discussion is still moot as I find your theory as ludicrous as you apparently find mine. I suppose I could go in and try to tear down your theory, but I don’t see the point.
Okay - it’s been - ah - interesting. You have an A1 day!
Actually, even your image search link shows that the vast majority of wooden urns are casket-shaped, which is unsurprising. I still hope that reverie means that Jesse plans to honor Andrea through a skill he really loved. The thread elsewhere here that discusses the woodworking tools Jesse is seen using … a brilliant observation! underscores the point that it’s probably not the box he made in high school, but rather both a callback and a hopeful foreshadowing.
Sure thing. And yes, I fully disagree about Felina.
BTW - I merely questioned your feeling for you own inner badass. Only you know the truth about that.
Have an Au day, yourself.
Todd is so the anti-Gale. Gale was technically brilliant, but a naive pushover living in his own lala-land; Todd is a hack (“Science!”), but amazingly dedicated and will do anything to anybody to get ahead. Gale was a libertarian; Todd is basically a psychopathic apparatchik. Gale was shot by a tearful Jesse; Todd remorselessly enslaves Jesse and is vengefully killed by a wrathful Jesse. Todd hits on Lydia (at least as well as his stunted emotions allow); Gale is happy singing karaoke by himself and writing incriminating book dedications to his only emotional connection. Gale was getting older, Todd is in his youth.
Literally the only connections between the two are their criminal lives and doomed fawning admiration of W.W. Note that they both use that name, and not Heisenberg. Gale=Marlowe, Todd=Harlequin, Walter White=Kurtz.
One theme of the show that I feel like I’m not seeing discussed is how fun being creative is, and how many barriers most of us have in the way of finding success creatively. Walt as a scientist has a creative side. As a teacher, he is as dull as dirt. There is a part of him that thrills to tinker and create, a part of him that he buried for so long because of obligations and duties and missed opportunities, and was he able to unleash his artistic side when he became Heisenberg. With death looming, he found a way to express the life inside of him, to create, to make a name for himself as the creator of the masterpiece drug - the convenient excuse that it was for his family helped him to cut through the obstacle of morality. That what he was creating was a drug seemed irrelevant - people WANTED it, WANTED him, admired him, and unfortunately as time went on the realities of the drug world overtake what is fun about it.
Actually, the image search shows that the vast majority of wooden urns are box shaped… Slighty rectangular boxes…just like cigar boxes, shipping boxes, moving boxes, jewelry boxes, shoe boxes, wine boxes, etc.
There is nothing peculiar to a wooden urn about that shape. The shape of that box is ubiquitous.
Ah - ya got me!! Of course you’re 100% correct. How could I possibly have been so completely ignorant??? Oh wait, that’s right - it was only an opinion, or a hope, or a speculation. It was never a statement of fact. I still respect @jimh 's observation regarding the tools used. You did follow the link, right? Hey - you believe what you want. But I reserve the same right for myself.
Sorry gang - I’m just tired of people telling people that an idea or opinion is wrong. “Facts” can be wrong, but ideas and opinions belong to the brains that made them. There’s no actual right or wrong. We can disagree, but that doesn’t make the other guy wrong.
For instance, if someone wishes you a golden day on a thread about a TV series about a chemist, they might be right. However, if they wished you an “Au” day when they meant an “A1” day, well, that’s incorrect - and blissfully ironic in this case.
I’m going to tuck my theories into my non-urn wooden box and eagerly await the time to run out so my email will find peace again. I managed to avoid becoming embroiled in Xeni’s mishigas until this BB thread. Y’all have fun. You guys all have an A1 day, m’kay?
I agree that those tools are likely not in a high school woodworking class. That doesn’t make it a flash forward necessarily. Jesse’s face has no scars in that scene. The scars Jesse has now will likely never fade. Add the lack of scars to the slightly hazy scene and the music that sounds like it was scored by Angelo Badalamenti for a David Lynch dream sequence and it seems to me Jesse was daydreaming.
You are welcome to disagree. I won’t take offense. People on the internet often disagree.
But I don’t disagree that it’s a daydream. The reference to the Japanese tools just underscores - for me - that it’s not the box from high school wood shop class. I’ve always thought that it’s a daydream. A daydream in which Jesse dreams of making an urn for Andrea,
