Breaking Bad

[Starry]

The last episode was quite beautiful.

Have you ever posted in this thread before?

 

[Nicodemus]

Have you ever posted in this thread before?

Yes.

 

[Starry]

Yes.

Okay I can't stop laughing... I'm having some issues here omg. I started the above message and then somehow sent it (?)... but I couldn't get into edit because...at least for me (and it's only this site btw) things will suddenly become incredibly sluggish every once and a while...so I just sat here looking at my message thinking what?

Thanks for answering that haha. I'll search out your typing of the characters on my own.

 

[Lady_X]

^^ that's hilarious.

Also this avatar is so much better...I mean more you... This and wtf face I just love for you.

 

[Starry]

^^ that's hilarious.

Also this avatar is so much better...I mean more you... This and wtf face I just love for you.

I always appreciate your avatar support. And I love you almost as much as I would if you and I were in a committed relationship. I've actually received tons of complements on my new avi which surprised me almost. And I haven't had a chance to tell you how much I've enjoyed your gif.

 

[pinkgraffiti]

The last episode was quite beautiful.

but....nothing happened

 

[Jonny]

It. Doesn't. Get. Better. Than. This.

 

[Jonny]

but....nothing happened

Typical extrovert.

 

[Beorn]

Is Todd the perfect man???

Spoilers from the latest episode.

 

[Ivy]

Nothing happened?! Are we watching the same show? Given, it was a downbeat in the overall pacing--a breath after last week's insanity and some moving around of the chess pieces in advance of the finale--but even considering that, A LOT happened. The final scene was almost as affecting as the phone call scene from last week. (It might have been a better scene but it didn't affect me as strongly. I don't know if I'll ever see a scene I like better than that one; Bryan Cranston's ability to voice act one thing and face act nearly the opposite was pretty incredible.)

Overall: not quite as good as Ozymandias IMO but still very, very, very good. I cannot wait for next week. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

 

[pinkgraffiti]

Nothing happened?! Are we watching the same show? Given, it was a downbeat in the overall pacing--a breath after last week's insanity and some moving around of the chess pieces in advance of the finale--but even considering that, A LOT happened. The final scene was almost as affecting as the phone call scene from last week. (It might have been a better scene but it didn't affect me as strongly. I don't know if I'll ever see a scene I like better than that one; Bryan Cranston's ability to voice act one thing and face act nearly the opposite was pretty incredible.)

Overall: not quite as good as Ozymandias IMO but still very, very, very good. I cannot wait for next week. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

if you think about the history, nothing happened. the only relevant thing was the death of jesse's girlfriend, but that was just the 100th person he loves that dies, and i don't know why they did that, it's beginning to be a reductionist and stereotypical road for jesse. but there was nothing to make the action go forward. if you deleted the whole episode and moved simply towards the last one, nothing would change.

Typical extrovert.

i don't like you

 

[SensEye]

It was a good set up episode after the frenzied pace of the last one.

Beating up on sad sack Jesse is getting a bit over the top, but I think they did it to introduce some Walt-Jesse questions. They obviously had a hate on for each other, but what about now? Can they get past their issues with the common cause of going after Todd and crew? Do they reconcile or still have a final show down?

The call with Flynn was also significant. Walt finally realized even the money didn't count for much. Hence he was going to give up and turn himself in until the smarmy Genotech(?) execs riled him up. I'd like to see Walt deal with them, but I don't think there is time for a storyline there given everything else that needs wrapping up.

 

[Lady_X]

i can't imagine jesse ever forgiving walt after hearing him say he watched jane die. that whole scene pissed me off. i never expected him to go through with killing jesse. why must i always think there's good in people. that shit was cold.

 

[Stigmata]

if you think about the history, nothing happened. the only relevant thing was the death of jesse's girlfriend, but that was just the 100th person he loves that dies, and i don't know why they did that, it's beginning to be a reductionist and stereotypical road for jesse. but there was nothing to make the action go forward. if you deleted the whole episode and moved simply towards the last one, nothing would change.

Wow, I...wow. In a superficial sense, I can see what you mean -- There wasn't much progression in terms of the story. Yet I think that episode was a very necessary character development piece. To me, I think it was the episode where Walt has finally ran out of chess pieces and completely backed into a wall, and once again we can see just how vulnerable he really is. The phone call with his Son is the ironic twist in which it's the first time he realizes that the money means nothing now that he's completely destroyed his life its acquisition.

Also, with Jesse, it's as if Vince Gilligan is pushing the character to his most extreme mental and emotional limitations, and it's just heartbreaking to watch the extent to which he pays for his sins after the beginning seasons were mainly based around everyone warning him to stray off the path at which was alluded way back then -- It's as if we all knew he'd be forced to endure, but it's still hard to watch. I just watch now and just hope they would really just kill him off, because I don't really see any way in which his character could ever have any semblance of normalcy in his life after all of this.

Anyways, another instance in which the story doesn't progress necessarily, but these episodes matter because they add the emotional investment needed to tie the viewer into the story progression scenes that do matter. I find it strange that anyone that is invested in the series would question the value of this.

 

[violet_crown]

Wow, I...wow. In a superficial sense, I can see what you mean -- There wasn't much progression in terms of the story. Yet I think that episode was a very necessary character development piece. To me, I think it was the episode where Walt has finally ran out of chess pieces and completely backed into a wall, and once again we can see just how vulnerable he really is. The phone call with his Son is the ironic twist in which it's the first time he realizes that the money means nothing now that he's completely destroyed his life its acquisition.

Also, with Jesse, it's as if Vince Gilligan is pushing the character to his most extreme mental and emotional limitations, and it's just heartbreaking to watch the extent to which he pays for his sins after the beginning seasons were mainly based around everyone warning him to stray off the path at which was alluded way back then -- It's as if we all knew he'd be forced to endure, but it's still hard to watch. I just watch now and just hope they would really just kill him off, because I don't really see any way in which his character could ever have any semblance of normalcy in his life after all of this.

Anyways, another instance in which the story doesn't progress necessarily, but these episodes matter because they add the emotional investment needed to tie the viewer into the story progression scenes that do matter. I find it strange that anyone that is invested in the series would question the value of this.

Is Skyler complicit? Is Walt driven by greed? Is Walt really a bad person? Was all this inside him all along?

Who cares? Who cares, who cares, who cares? I'm not saying who cares about the show — I'm saying this is becoming the point of the show. What makes Breaking Bad one of the most moral shows in the history of television is that actions have consequences, whether those actions arise from pain or greed or fear or panic. You pay for your actions, not the operation of your heart. The psychoanalytical journey we could all choose to take — and that most of us have taken — with Walt is a bloodless exercise. It is a luxury afforded to people who can see selfishness and wickedness and violence in the abstract, the way you can when it's on television.

What these final episodes are doing is showing no mercy, because evil shows no mercy. That's not "Evil Shows No Mercy" in a tattoo-it-on-your-arm kind of way; that's reality. That's the reality of the fact that the reason to be a moral person is, in part, that brutal acts of violence do not take place inside a cage where the only ones hurt are the ones who deserve it — rats, or finks, or phonies, or fools. When you embrace doing whatever you want in order to get what you want, you cannot isolate the consequences. This is not a show that will ever be revealed to take place inside a snow globe; it's a show where everything spills everywhere.

Walt is as bad as bad gets. He is a sucking, mile-wide whirlpool that sinks aircraft carriers like Gus Fring, and working-stiff boats like Crazy 8, and reckless idiots on speedboats like Jesse Pinkman, and flawed, leaky sailboats like his wife, and Coast Guard patrol boats like Hank, and ultimately his own kids, out for a swim.

'Breaking Bad' Presents 'Ozymandias,' The Great And Terrible

 

[Lady_X]

oooh that's good. i like that a lot.

 

[pinkgraffiti]

Wow, I...wow. In a superficial sense, I can see what you mean -- There wasn't much progression in terms of the story. Yet I think that episode was a very necessary character development piece. To me, I think it was the episode where Walt has finally ran out of chess pieces and completely backed into a wall, and once again we can see just how vulnerable he really is. The phone call with his Son is the ironic twist in which it's the first time he realizes that the money means nothing now that he's completely destroyed his life its acquisition.

Also, with Jesse, it's as if Vince Gilligan is pushing the character to his most extreme mental and emotional limitations, and it's just heartbreaking to watch the extent to which he pays for his sins after the beginning seasons were mainly based around everyone warning him to stray off the path at which was alluded way back then -- It's as if we all knew he'd be forced to endure, but it's still hard to watch. I just watch now and just hope they would really just kill him off, because I don't really see any way in which his character could ever have any semblance of normalcy in his life after all of this.

Anyways, another instance in which the story doesn't progress necessarily, but these episodes matter because they add the emotional investment needed to tie the viewer into the story progression scenes that do matter. I find it strange that anyone that is invested in the series would question the value of this.

ok ok you raise very good points. it's probably that as we are nearing the absolute end of the series, i expected to see more resolution (for instance, jesse finally breaking free, the development of the police investigation on walter, the story behind livia, etc). i just hope that they tie the loose ends in the last episode, but there's not a lot of space (50min max) to achieve that resolution i wish i'd see, so i'm a bit

 

[Riva]

Todd is such a odd character. When he killed that boy I thought it was impulse. Then I saw him with one of that kid's souveniers - which implied that he shows no regret at all - which made me think he is either a sociopath or a psychopath. (Psychopath being the preferable assumption.) And then he suddenly chooses not to kill skyler! Was it out of mercy or a bold calculation on his part? And on the same episode he kills a woman without even flinching. Wtf?! He is a really interesting character. I have a hunch he would have a more significant part in the last episode; because his is a character too explored - and strange - to be untouched/completed with the series end.

And how the hell did I forget; he basically saved - by sparing - walt's life?

Maybe he simply lacks emotional intelligence?

 

[Ivy]

Todd is absolutely amoral IMO. He's completely motivated by self-interest. Guilt/regret are not in his vocabulary. He respects Walt (as his own self-interest is only exceeded by Walt's) and knows Walt's power which is why he spared him and then didn't kill Skyler, I think. That's established in the scene a few episodes ago where he's describing the train heist to his uncle. He does not respect Jesse (who cries when describing things Todd is proud of, like killing the kid- did you see his face when Jesse talked about that in his confession video?) and so had no such reason not to kill what'sherface at the end of last episode.

 

[violet_crown]

Yo, Vince Gilligan, I'm really happy for you, I'ma let you finish, but The Wire is still the greatest television show of all time.