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Monday, August 20, 2012

TV The Breaking Bad Chitty-Chat Club!

Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 11:10 AM

Good morning, Breaking Bad Chitty-Chatters, and... OH NO! It's Ricky Hitler (AKA Todd, AKA that guy from Friday Night Lights)! WHO INVITED HIM?? (Psst! Regular Chitty-Chat Club members! Let's meet after the jump to discuss last night's episode of Breaking Bad, okay? And don't invite... you know who. SPOILERS AHEAD!)

MAN! This is gonna be like the best Halloween carnival, like, EVER!

Courtesy AMC
"MAN! This is gonna be like the best Halloween carnival, like, EVER!"

Okay, so here's what I'm thinking...

1) Cold open! A silent recounting of what happens when dickhead Friday Night Lights Ricky Hitler guns down a potential kid witness. You strip the bike, dump the body in a plastic container, and acid everything down. Am I forgetting anything? OH! You punch stupid dickhead Friday Night Lights Ricky Hitler in the chops! (Yay, Jessie!)

2) I love the name "Ricky Hitler," if you haven't guessed by now.

3) The guys unwisely decide to keep Ricky Hitler around instead of just killing him—doesn't that go against Mike's credo of leaving witnesses?—a decision that all will live to regret, I bet. And what's this about keeping the kid's tarantula? Is Ricky Hitler collecting the kid's fingerprints for leverage later? Gonna use it to bite Walt in the ass? Or maybe Ricky Hitler is just a weirdo psychologically damaged creep? YOU BE THE JUDGE!

4) Hank and the DEA are trailing Mike which inspires him to get out of the meth biz and bring Jessie along for the ride. (Note to Walt: Next time you bemoan the death of a kid, don't be caught whistling a jaunty tune less than 10 seconds later. SHEESH, YOU PEOPLE.)

5) Mike and Jessie try to sell their cut of the meth juice to a mid-level drug kingpin who says "no dice"—unless Walt stops making his "blue." However, Walt says "fat chance" to that idea because... CUE SECRET ORIGIN STORY!

6) Walt tells Jessie that he stupidly let himself be bought out of a company now worth "billions." So he's no longer in the money or meth business... he's in the EMPIRE business! ("That's 588-2300... EMMMM-PIIIIIIRE!" People from Chicago will get that joke.)

7) Skyler? You are a terrible dinner host. (And she's this close to spilling the beans, I'm tellin' ya!)

8) Mike? Don't sit up all night with Walt to stop him from stealing the meth juice and suddenly remember you need to duck out for a meeting. And zip-tying him to a radiator? I could've gotten out of that trap, and I'm an IDIOT. Junior varsity, Mike! JUNIOR VARSITY.

9) So naturally Mike returns to find his precious meth juice (and Walt) gone—but don't blow his head off just yet! Because Walt... has a PLAN. (Perhaps going into the carpet business? "That's 588-2300... EMMMM-PIIIIIIRE!")

10) This was kind of a jumpy-aroundy episode for me, and I'd prefer it if everyone involved made smarter choices... but I hung on every word, as if they were dripping from the sweet red lips of Kate Upton. Only two episodes left in part one of the two-part final season! What are your thoughts? Especially about Walt's eventual downfall and that dickhead Ricky Hitler's role in it all! SPEAK.

Courtesy AMC
"That's 588-2300... EMMMM-PIIIIIIRE!"

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Comments (10) RSS

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People from everywhere will get that joke and now that's stuck in my head goddammit.

Posted by care bear on August 20, 2012 at 11:24 AM

With Mike and Jesse wanting out I'm guessing Walt's master plan for them to cash out and for him to keep cooking blue will be to become the cook for the other guys.

What's confusing is how $5 million suddenly became enough for Mike to "make whole" the 9 guys in prison. Didn't they each need $2 million?

Posted by cliche on August 20, 2012 at 11:25 AM

I gather Walt & Skyler will never live with their children again.

Posted by sall on August 20, 2012 at 11:38 AM

@2 I think Mike's plan was to make like Lefty and split for Ohio

Posted by Merchant Seaman on August 20, 2012 at 11:53 AM

Yo Steven - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7wNaxfBj…

Posted by PaulBarwick on August 20, 2012 at 12:10 PM

From purely a cold, tactical standpoint, smoking Tarantula-Boy was the altogether and only right call to make. Old enough to ride a dirt bike and young enough to collect tarantulas = a really dangerous combination. He'd seen their faces. He was astride a motor vehicle whose engine was running.

On the other hand, It wasn't Ricky Hitler's (love the name too!) call to make. He fucked up badly by rolling into that Op armed in the first place. Bad for discipline, bad for the team. If anyone's armed on a heist, everyone involved in that heist can be charged with armed robbery. If anyone dies as a result of that one armed person, everyone involved can and will be charged with Full-Scale Capital Murder One.

At the same time, a guy who'll kill for you is an asset you don't want to waste. You just have to manage him appropriately.

Skyler's cracking up. She's either going to blow full-open and spill to her brother-in-law or she's going to wind up as guise when somebody in The Empire interrupts the process of her so doing.

Posted by The Max on August 20, 2012 at 12:53 PM

I suppose the moral is that you cannot play with shit and not get any on you. When Breaking Bad was introduced four season ago, Walt was a man who was down-trodden and hit in the face with adversity nearly every day. In order to survive financially (and physically), he turns to doing something highly illegal. We forgive him because his actions are selfless. He wants to provide for his family's security and not leave them with truckloads of medical bills after he's gone. He like him. He's had some bad breaks, but he's noble. He even works at one of the most noblest of professions - teaching generally, high school chemistry specifically. He wants to make it interesting. He's almost a hero.

That's changed. Walt now operates on a vendetta-level. Now confronted with something he would have agonized over in the past has become merely the cost of doing business. We can't forgive him anymore.

Jesse, who was once sinking in youthful anger with no direction and plenty of abandonment issues, has become the moral center of Breaking Bad.

Mike likes Jesse (dare I say a lot?) because he sees himself in Jesse: Maybe not the brightest light on the tree, but a good, loyal guy who does what he must no matter how distasteful. Look how Mike adores his grandaughter (but you'd never want to cross him in any way!).

My question this week: All those sad, sad details and efforts getting rid of the bike. Why was the unfortunate kid buried so shallowly? Remember the hand?

This is how good Breaking Bad is: I started grieving for the parents of the little boy (now missing, perhaps never a trace to be found). A missing child is almost worse than one whose fate is known. Think about a mother asking, "Where is my baby?"

Sad to see the end coming soon, but you know it's going to have to be great, right?

More...

Posted by Bauhaus I on August 20, 2012 at 3:02 PM

Never mind about my question. Re-watched the episode. Got my answer. Must have been looking away last night when the backed the truck in. Duh.

Posted by Bauhaus I on August 20, 2012 at 3:26 PM

I think Jesse will die in the end. To create the most pain possible for Walt.

Posted by M. Wells on August 20, 2012 at 10:35 PM

Walt told Jesse that we had to get out of his partnership in the company and sell, but he told him he wouldn't say why. He was so adamant about not divulging that one fact (without any pressure form Jesse to do so), that it makes me think the reason why he cashed out will be important later. Also, he referred to all the money the company made after he was bought out as 'his son's birthright.' Was that the reason he left? His son? Was it Skylar?

I like what's happening to Walt's character. I don't root for him like I did earlier in the show, but I find it hard to root against him, too.

Posted by PoorYorick on August 21, 2012 at 11:14 PM