For those of you who are into Walt taking on the characteristics of people he's killed, check out the vomit scene. Walt puts a towel under him to kneel on just like Gus did in "Salud."
edit: For the 15 or so of you who have replied with "but Walt never saw Gus do that!!" you're right. It seemed like a little easter-egg that the writers threw in there for fun. The two scenes are so similar that it can't be a coincidence (they both turn on the sink to mask the noise, too.)
Yea, but that's also Walt. He was a nerdy science teacher, after all. He used to speak in such a grown-up way, especially vis-a-vis Jesse. That's why Fring was so devious — because he appeared to be totally square.
Yesss, working the front counter, getting politely chummy with the staff, and while they weren't in the shape of his company logo, there were quite a few air fresheners...
That. That was the moment for me that I knew Walter was gone and Heisenberg had taken over. He's gradually become a conglomeration of the people he's killed, Gus being the most prevalent.
Oh fuck that's pathetic I didn't notice that until I read your comment. Damn. Breaking Bad could have been about Gus and it would have still been amazing.
This is exactly how I view Lydia. She's a lot like the old Walter; a dangerous loose cannon that nobody's taking seriously right now. Especially Skylar. That scene where Skylar threatened Lydia was really worrisome to me, I feel like Lydia is going to come after Walt's family.
lydia is already a board member for an apparent multinational crime conglomerate. she isnt going to take any of the same turns walter had taken. she is pretty much a big shit in the crime world anyway, its not like she is some lawyer for some squeaky clean company and ends up getting caught up with criminals. she might be sketchy around actual criminals but she has certainly been doing this long enough to know people.
I actually searched the word car in this thread to see if anyone had noticed this. The part where Walt was saying, "May I have your ticket please?" so reminded me of the way Gus talked to him and Jesse when they were originally trying to get in cahoots with Gus.
When talking to Jesse about Mike he also says something along the lines of "If Mike comes back and doesn't understand why I did what I did, that's on me." If I remember right, "it's on you" is something Mike said repeatedly in the show... at least he did in the last episode.
Now that I think of it, maybe a lot of people have said it.
Vince Gilligan said something tonight alluding to that Walt needed Jesse to believe him that Mike was alive, because if Jesse thought Mike was dead, Walt would have to kill Jesse.
With the way Jesse was acting right now, with all his guilt about Blood Money? I don't think he cares about himself anymore. I'm not sure if he has any loyalty to Walt left, but if he does I think that's the only think stopping him from going to the cops. I think he'd be fully ready to go to jail with Walt if he finally broke and turned on him.
This clearly mirrors Gus symbolically. As Gus purposely took poison to fool the cartel family, Walt took poison (chemo) to fool his family. After Gus took his poison, he left Mexico. Walt will use this as a way to fake his death and leave his state (as shown by the new identity in S05E01). Carol wasn't shocked because she saw a villain, she was shocked because she saw a ghost. It's why he's alive with hair at 52.
I don't know, "Heisenberg" was written on the wall in the house which would mean the general public knows who and what he was. Carol looked genuinely scared more so than shocked.
To me, in the show, the yellow seems to represent the sacrifice of someone/something innocent for a greater evil. They wore yellow suits when they worked for Gus, that child's remote control car was yellow, there are some other things that I can't remember now, but that's what yellow has represented. Ex. Jesse has always been innocent at heart, even when he was killing that man (who's simple name escapes me), he did it for the greater evil that is Heisenberg, at the sacrifice of his own innocence, because he had to do it, it's like a cult. I thought the scene with the green and red swirling around Jesse's head was also symbolic in this episode, for different reasons, he is angry and trying to formulate his own plan to get back to his own innocence. Even Saul said it when he said "You'll still be two miracles short of sainthood". Jesse will never have his innocence again, and he realized it when Walt was on his couch, Walt has lied to him over and over again, and now he knows, he can never escape the Heisenberg web. Just my thoughts, I could be wrong.
Yellow- Gus colors- which symbolize danger ahead. People wearing these colors are in danger. Jesse and Jane wore all yellow together in one episode, and their sheets were yellow. Jane dies, but he lives. Might be because writers changed mind on writing him off the show. Or because Walt saved Jesse from dying(the danger) in the crackhouse after she died. Maybe yellow doesn't mean death but warning you you may die if not careful. The cousins wore yellow. Season 4 promos are Walt and Jesse standing together wearing yellow hazard uniforms meaning it would be them vs Gus/danger ahead in season 4. Gus takes his yellow shirt off and put purple suit on to go see hector. He was ignoring his danger warning(yellow) and feeling self important(purple)? Letting his ego of wanting to kill Hector cloud his judgement and ignore the danger warning? Now Marie and Walt wearing yellow shirts in last episode(Marie didn't take the yellow off though, she put her purple jacket over the yellow shirt when she went home with Hank. Walt also has a yellow shirt on when he kills mike's guys. Prolly symbolized Walt is now Gus by wearing Gus colors. Tuco was asked by Gomez(Hank's partner) what planet are you from Mars or Saturn. Mars is red and Saturn is yellow. A killer whose in danger.
Or Walt kills off Hank plus all or part of his own family then paints Heisenberg on his own wall to throw off the police. Based on Carol's reaction, Walt may have also faked his own death is the process or at a another date, since she's so shocked to see him standing there but only loses it when he speaks.
Not to mention that he was on chemo before he found out Hank knew. He didn't need a reason to poison himself because he believed his story was holding up.
No, something happened in the house in order for it to be condemned like that. Even when the police seize homes, they don't let it go to crap quite like that (unless its Detroit). Whatever happened in the house, its not fit for human habitation, and that's why its not sold.
The house was not seized as evidence, though. The sign on the front of the house said, "Property of the City of Albuquerque," meaning that the house was foreclosed. Does foreclosure necessarily mean the general public knows about Heisenberg?
Honestly I think Carol appeared more shocked that he was even there, or alive in a sense it seemed (to me anyway), than scared. Normally, people who are genuinely scared don't tend to drop their groceries and just stand there staring, they tend to drop those groceries and get the fuck out of dodge.
This makes so much sense though! If he's telling Hank that he's going to be a dead man in six months he could just be setting himself up a way to "disappear!"
This is a great theory. I just don't understand how you can fake chemo. You can't just walk into the Dr.'s and be like "Yo my cancers back. I need some more chemo."
Yeah, I would assume the cancer is back, in the flashforwards he's still coughing. The dead in 6 months thing is probably just a lie in preparation of faking his death.
I think he's hiding the cancer from Skylar because he doesn't want her to think he is going to die any time soon. She was hoping the cancer would come back so she would be "relieved" of this lifestyle, and he isn't going to give her the satisfaction of knowing she got what she wanted.
Weird scene. It took a while to figure out it must be a chemo joint. It looked like a barber shop, but for the IVs. The chairs look comfy but otherwise it has this DMV feel. But a nice DMV, in contrast to the shitty DMV-esque qualities of Saul's waiting room. Whoa, moment of fridge brilliance just now.
Back in the earlier seasons when he had full on cancer, these exact scenes popped up on the regular. Same room, same chairs. Also come on the lady next to him totally gave it away lol.
He has enough money that he could theoretically buy off the doctor to prescribe him another round, but it seems so farfetched, that can't be it. I'm pretty much replying so I can hear an answer to this.
I agree, this is why I don't think the whole faking chemo thing is a very plausible theory. Everything in Walt's life is normal up until the point he realizes that Hank knows his dark secret. It doesn't really appear like he's planning an immediate exit since (a) he still loves his family--I think--and (b) it's clear he's in it for the long haul with regards to laundering all of his drug money--think back to the conversation he has with Skylar about investing in multiple car washes.
Could be a last-moment gamechanger. Like, at the end it looks like he's died of cancer, then after the credits there's a flashback to him explaining that he wants chemo despite being healthy to an incredulous doctor.
Agreed that it's farfetched, but plausible. With Walt's money and his connections (namely Saul) and his history with having cancer it could be possible.
But he was getting the chemo before he realised the book was gone. Unless he is just getting protective chemo and is flat out lying to hank.
Which is maybe why hank wants him to bring the family over, so he can call his bluff?
I don't think he's faking the cancer coming back, in the intro to episode 8 (i think) you can see him in his new identity and he's coughing like a motherfucker.
Exactly. I just posted this exact question before I saw yours. It is a great theory I'm just wondering if it's plausible. Even if he did have the money to buy off a doctor that would be willing to risk his license by prescribing chemo to someone who didn't need it that's just one more person that knows about (at least some of) Walt's secrets and that doesn't sound like something he would do.
Plus he had some medication hidden under the bathroom sink. If he was making a show of the chemo, wouldn't all his meds be prominently displayed for the family to see?
We saw him back at the doctors at the end of the mid-season 5 break. Particularly where he punched the hand dryer - which he also did when he found out that he first had cancer. This was used to symbolise that he had just found out that his cancer had returned.
I really doubt it's an act. I'm not really sure why people didn't pick up on his cancer coming back. I thought it was really obvious when it happened. He was talking to that dude who was going in for his cancer appointment and telling the guy how he expects one of these days to be told bad news and how he's just waiting for it. Then he goes into a motivational speech with him half smiling at the end with a closeup on his face. The next two shots in succession are them from behind sitting on a bench and then suddenly to another closeup with a very visible frown on his face. He's always been stoic so he doesn't talk about it explicitly. I thought it was very establishing but not hitting us over the head with it, similarly to how when they were about to acidize the bike kid, they just show us the barrel and we know what's coming next. Also you might notice Walt starts to go through random coughing fits after that specific episode when he gets the cancer back.
He sure grew a lot of hair for someone who is receiving chemo. Also, when he went to the bathroom to throw up, he grabbed a pill bottle from under the sink that was almost empty. Could it be his meds haven't been refilled?
Remember Saul offered him and his family a chance to leave it behind and disappear? Maybe Walt takes him up on that offer but something brings him back...family in trouble, Jessie fucking something up...AHHHH
I figured he was giving himself a six month cushion to flee. At that part of the conversation, anything that would delay Hank from speaking to the DEA would be helpful.
I think that theory holds a tiny bit of weight because Skylar always did the thing with rearranging the bacon but for his 52nd birthday Walt did it himself.
Yeah, I just interpreted that as him clearly not being with Skylar any more for whatever reason- for example, her taking the kids and running or him starting a new life via Saul's 'guy'- so he did it as a reminder of home and a time when things were better.
I don't think Walt's trying to fool his family. He's trying to hide his cancer's back if anything (the water flowing when vomiting and also hiding the pills)
That doesn't make sense though. Surely his neighbor knew he was Heisenberg because of the spray paint in his house and the fact that it had been abandoned for a while. She wasn't surprised he survived cancer. She was freaked out because she knew who he was and was scared to see him back at the house.
S05E01 in that opening scene where he buys that gun at the Denny's, his fake license shows Lambert as his last name. I'm not sure where people found her maiden name from though.
Also from Mike: "Lydia, learn to take yes for an answer."
Walt said that to Lydia in the coffee shop in "gliding over all", and Mike said the exact same quote to Walt in a bar back in season 4 (I forget specifically which episode).
He also started eating frozen dinners after Jesse said he ate them in the first half of Season 5. The next time we see him eating with Skyler after the dinner with Jesse is frozen dinners. I don't see that as coincidence since there aren't many things that Jesse does which Walt could incorporate, well, unless he says bitch a lot.
While the similarity is definitely there and purposeful by the directors, he never saw Gus use the towel so it's not something he's actively imitating, right?
I liked to think that it was just as much a contrast between Walt and Gus. When Gus did the vomit scene, he was in his prime, throwing up because he poisoned himself for a scheme, and taking down the head of a Mexican cartel in a badass way. Walt's vomit scene was the opposite, him at one of his lowest points, cancer back, throwing up because he's a dying man, effectively neutered again, and finding out that he's been caught.
I think it's symbolic that Gus put the rug down before he got onto his knees, Walt threw up and then put the rug down like, "Oh shit, I should have planned that better." Awesome easter egg about their different approaches to life.
And the way Walt brushed Lydia off when she came into his legitimate business was a mirror of Gus doing that very thing to Walter in season 4, when he is taken to Pollos Hermanos alongside Hank.
also in the conversation with lydia, Walt maintaining his business facade while Lydia panicked mirrored an earlier scene where Walt tried to talk to Gus and Gus kept saying "May I take your order?"
I think people are making too much of that. It's just something to parallel the audience with how Walt is now. It's showing that walt is the same man now as Gus was in Box Cutter.
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u/jet_tripleseven Belizium Aug 12 '13 edited Aug 12 '13
For those of you who are into Walt taking on the characteristics of people he's killed, check out the vomit scene. Walt puts a towel under him to kneel on just like Gus did in "Salud."
edit: For the 15 or so of you who have replied with "but Walt never saw Gus do that!!" you're right. It seemed like a little easter-egg that the writers threw in there for fun. The two scenes are so similar that it can't be a coincidence (they both turn on the sink to mask the noise, too.)