Breaking Bad S05E01 "Live Free or Die" OAD 7.15.12

[netringer]

How about Jim Beaver? Getting enough work? He gets to be in Deadwood, John From Cincinnati, Justified, SuperNatural, and Breaking Bad. Too bad he can't get cast in good shows.

[mrdazzo7]

I keep forgetting--does Jessie know that Walt was there when Jane died? I think it came out during the "Bug" episode when it was just the two of them in the lab for the whole hour, but I can't remember if it did come out, or if I was mad that it didn't come out...

I'm curious now because that was a hugely critical moment in Jessie's life since he blamed himself, and if it hasn't been revealed yet then it will likely make his inevitable confrontation with Walt that much more intense. I'm usually good with this stuff but I seriously can't remember at all.

[mike_k]

Originally Posted by mrdazzo7

I keep forgetting--does Jessie know that Walt was there when Jane died? I think it came out during the "Bug" episode when it was just the two of them in the lab for the whole hour, but I can't remember if it did come out, or if I was mad that it didn't come out...

I'm curious now because that was a hugely critical moment in Jessie's life since he blamed himself, and if it hasn't been revealed yet then it will likely make his inevitable confrontation with Walt that much more intense. I'm usually good with this stuff but I seriously can't remember at all.

Jesse doesn't know. Walt didn't tell him.

[Robin]

I think Walt let slip he came over that night, but not that he watched her die.

[mike_k]

Originally Posted by Robin

I think Walt let slip he came over that night, but not that he watched her die.

Yeah, Jesse knew he came over earlier - that was the night Walt dropped off Jesse's cash, but I don't think Walt ever went so far to say that he came back later - or at least wasn't clear about it.

[netringer]

Originally Posted by mike_k

Yeah, Jesse knew he came over earlier - that was the night Walt dropped off Jesse's cash, but I don't think Walt ever went so far to say that he came back later - or at least wasn't clear about it.

Didn't Walt break in the back door...Oh, wait...that was when he needed the stash to deliver to Gus.

[DevdogAZ]

Originally Posted by BitbyBlit

Same here. I thought the most unrealistic thing in the magnet storyline wasn't the magnet, but how people acted. If you are living in a world where people can drive up next to a building with an electromagnetic field that can destroy data, you don't put a hard drive for one of the biggest drug-related cases in a room at the edge of a building.

I would think copying the data and/or storing hard drives in more secure locations would be something that would be standard procedure, particularly for a high-profile case like this one. Although, to be fair, we don't know that they didn't do something like that yet.

But if they didn't, then it seems like the characters were written to act artificially dumber than normal simply to enable the data to be destroyed.

Are you suggesting that it's completely unbelieveable that the evidence room at a police department has an exterior wall? I would hope it's not super common, but I doubt it's unheard of.

And I suspect that the rooms are designed and the police are prepared for people to attempt to break in and steal evidence, but I'll bet it's not that common (before last Sunday) for someone to break into a gated police lot with a giant electromagnet just to try and erase a hard drive that might be inside the evidence room.

If you're suggesting that the laptop should have been with the FBI or DEA, I'll agree with that. But if it was standard procedure for the evidence to go to the local PD first, and that's how their evidence room is laid out, I have no problem with them sticking the laptop in that room until someone had the time to analyze it.

Originally Posted by mike_k

Jesse doesn't know. Walt didn't tell him.

That's what made "Fly" so great. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife, and Walt was right on the verge of telling Jesse, and you thought he might, and you're screaming at the TV for him to shut up, and then something intervenes at the last second.

[mike_k]

Originally Posted by DevdogAZ

That's what made "Fly" so great. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife, and Walt was right on the verge of telling Jesse, and you thought he might, and you're screaming at the TV for him to shut up, and then something intervenes at the last second.

Exactly this. Walt's talking to Jesse, trying to figure out when the "perfect moment" (to die) was. He decides that the night Jane dies was that moment, the he shouldn't have come over that night (he meant the second time, but Jesse didn't know that).

[Bierboy]

Originally Posted by mooseAndSquirrel

While I haven't ignored anybody, in defense of those that have, the sidetrack discussion was extremely tedious. The same geek points were made dozens of times....

Thank you.

[BitbyBlit]

Originally Posted by DevdogAZ

Are you suggesting that it's completely unbelieveable that the evidence room at a police department has an exterior wall? I would hope it's not super common, but I doubt it's unheard of.

And I suspect that the rooms are designed and the police are prepared for people to attempt to break in and steal evidence, but I'll bet it's not that common (before last Sunday) for someone to break into a gated police lot with a giant electromagnet just to try and erase a hard drive that might be inside the evidence room.

If you're suggesting that the laptop should have been with the FBI or DEA, I'll agree with that. But if it was standard procedure for the evidence to go to the local PD first, and that's how their evidence room is laid out, I have no problem with them sticking the laptop in that room until someone had the time to analyze it.

Basically what I'm saying is that the evidence should have been much harder to destroy than it was. They cheapened the destruction of the evidence by having it put in a place where it was not well protected. I'm sure Jessie was not the first person to think of using a giant magnet to destroy hard drive evidence, so if what Walt and Jessie did was possible, I would think that it would be something that would have been considered when deciding how to store electronic evidence.

The problem is the writers mixed our world's standards with their world's physics. They gave us a situation that seemed challenging by the possibilities available to us in our world, but then cheapened the response by inventing new rules that rendered the challenge meaningless. If it was that easy to destroy electronic evidence in our world, I highly doubt we would be storing evidence in the same way.

[KungFuCow]

Originally Posted by BitbyBlit

Basically what I'm saying is that the evidence should have been much harder to destroy than it was. They cheapened the destruction of the evidence by having it put in a place where it was not well protected. I'm sure Jessie was not the first person to think of using a giant magnet to destroy hard drive evidence, so if what Walt and Jessie did was possible, I would think that it would be something that would have been considered when deciding how to store electronic evidence.

The problem is the writers mixed our world's standards with their world's physics. They gave us a situation that seemed challenging by the possibilities available to us in our world, but then cheapened the response by inventing new rules that rendered the challenge meaningless. If it was that easy to destroy electronic evidence in our world, I highly doubt we would be storing evidence in the same way.

Its probably not realistic to cook meth in an RV either but that didnt stop the writers.. or construct a super meth lab under a laundromat without people knowing about it..

Its TV.. for real, give it a rest. If you cant handle the liberties the writers take with this show, watch something else.

[Hank]

Originally Posted by KungFuCow

Its probably not realistic to cook meth in an RV either but that didnt stop the writers.. or construct a super meth lab under a laundromat without people knowing about it..

Both of those are very real scenarios -- read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamp...d_distribution

[DevdogAZ]

Originally Posted by BitbyBlit

Basically what I'm saying is that the evidence should have been much harder to destroy than it was. They cheapened the destruction of the evidence by having it put in a place where it was not well protected. I'm sure Jessie was not the first person to think of using a giant magnet to destroy hard drive evidence, so if what Walt and Jessie did was possible, I would think that it would be something that would have been considered when deciding how to store electronic evidence.

The problem is the writers mixed our world's standards with their world's physics. They gave us a situation that seemed challenging by the possibilities available to us in our world, but then cheapened the response by inventing new rules that rendered the challenge meaningless. If it was that easy to destroy electronic evidence in our world, I highly doubt we would be storing evidence in the same way.

So if a police station was built more than 20 years ago (probably most of them), and the evidence room wasn't built to protect against drug kingpins with giant electromagnets, you're saying it's unrealistic that electronic evidence would be stored there?

Sure, it seemed relatively easy in this show, but that's because the magnet trick was written to work when in actuality it wouldn't work at all. But the fact that the electronic evidence was stored in an existing evidence room? I don't think that's unrealistic at all. The reason it wouldn't work in the real world is because you couldn't make a magnet powerful enough to both be portable and strong enough to do what happened in this episode.

While we're at it, how much power do those tow-behind construction generators put out. Wouldn't it have been more plausible for Walt to use one of those than to rig up a whole bunch of car batteries?

[danterner]

I'm just glad the S4 finale thread didn't devolve into a discussion of whether it is actually possible for someone with injuries like those Gus sustained to walk away and do a tie-adjust before falling down. Some entertaining moments should just be accepted at face value (so to speak).

[KungFuCow]

Originally Posted by Hank

Both of those are very real scenarios -- read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamp...d_distribution

Making meth in your backseat using the shake method is a whole lot different than a complete rolling scientific lab. And if someone dug a hole big enough underground for a "superlab" like those guys had, Google Earth or one of the other information gathering agencies would surely have caught a picture of it, the equipment being moved in or SOMETHING.

You can nit pick stuff to death. Its a TV show Get over it and move on.

[BitbyBlit]

Originally Posted by KungFuCow

Its probably not realistic to cook meth in an RV either but that didnt stop the writers.. or construct a super meth lab under a laundromat without people knowing about it..

Its TV.. for real, give it a rest. If you cant handle the liberties the writers take with this show, watch something else.

Again, I wasn't bothered by the realism of the magnet being able to destroy the data.

What bothered me was that they painted a picture of the laptop being in a location that was incredibly difficult to get to, but then got around that difficulty by introducing a vulnerability as if nobody in the history of the world had ever thought to destroy hard drive evidence with a magnet.

It would be as if they had written the story so that once a day somebody would take the evidence from the super secure room, and drive around with it in the open bed of a pickup truck for 10 minutes. And that was the vulnerability that Walt and Jessie exploited to destroy the evidence.

The solution to destroying the evidence was not based on the ingenuity of Walt and Jessie so much as the poor techniques used to handle the evidence.

These writers have historically been good about not making people act artificially dumber simply to allow for a certain situation to happen. I've been extremely impressed with how realistic they've made Walt and Jessie commit dark actions, while still being able to reasonably justify them to themselves. It's too bad they couldn't have been the ones to write Anakin Skywalker's descent to the Dark Side.

So this particular storyline seemed out of character for them. That's why it stood out to me. It didn't make me not like the show, or even not like the episode. I just wish they would have gone a different route.

But this is the only time in the history of the entire series that I wished they would have done something different.

Originally Posted by DevdogAZ

So if a police station was built more than 20 years ago (probably most of them), and the evidence room wasn't built to protect against drug kingpins with giant electromagnets, you're saying it's unrealistic that electronic evidence would be stored there?

Yes, particularly for high profile cases. If the police station didn't have a good place to protect their electronic evidence, then the evidence should have been stored somewhere else.

[mooseAndSquirrel]

Can't wait for the next episode! That way, this thread can die.

[Hank]

Originally Posted by KungFuCow

Making meth in your backseat using the shake method is a whole lot different than a complete rolling scientific lab. And if someone dug a hole big enough underground for a "superlab" like those guys had, Google Earth or one of the other information gathering agencies would surely have caught a picture of it, the equipment being moved in or SOMETHING.

You can nit pick stuff to death. Its a TV show Get over it and move on.

Making meth in RVs is a pretty well known method. As far as the super lab, ever hear of a basement? And even if they did build it previously, what's the problem with a private company building a structure on their own property? Oh, I forgot -- that happens EVERY DAY. So what if google earth had photos? You think the DEA/FBI is going to scrutinize every single big hole in the ground? Are you serious?

[BitbyBlit]

Originally Posted by mooseAndSquirrel

Can't wait for the next episode! That way, this thread can die.

We'll probably find out in the next episode that Walt's "I know it worked" plan didn't actually work, and it was only his egomania that made him think it would. So all my concerns will be moot.

[Hank]

Originally Posted by BitbyBlit

But this is the only time in the history of the entire series that I wished they would have done something different.

This. +1

The writers set their own bar very high, and for the first time, they dropped below the bar, and it was painfully obvious. I'm a big fan of the show as anyone, but when the writers let us down like that, it's unexpected. Let's just hope it doesn't happen again.

[steverm2]

Originally Posted by mooseAndSquirrel

Can't wait for the next episode! That way, this thread can die.

Betcha it shows up there too.

[jmcdon00]

Great discussion. I too was very skeptical about the magnet actually being possible, and like others I have to say it's not possible.
I don't have any problem with the security of the evidence room, or that the computer would be there. It is simply that I don't believe the magnetic force would have been enough to do what it did in the show.
As someone else stated it would be a great mythbusters episode.