Breaking Bad 5/30 "Abiquiu"

speaker city · 05-31-2010, 03:09 PM

So I guess the big question is what mistake was Gus referring to at dinner? Was he referring to Jesse or Skyler?

Neenahboy · 05-31-2010, 03:23 PM

I'm guessing he means Jesse. Skyler's involvement this episode was necessary (and Gus had to realize its inevitability), but I'd still like to see her bumped off...she annoys the hell out of me.

DevdogAZ · 05-31-2010, 03:35 PM

I'm not sure how Gus would know about Skylar. I think Gus is talking about Walt insisting on working with Jesse.

When Skylar was coming up with a place for Walt to buy, that had a "Danny" who had to comply because otherwise he'd be busted for cooking the books, I thought she was going to suggest Walt invest in Beneke's business.

Glad to see Jesse at least had a few scruples and didn't give meth to the chick with the kid who is trying to clean up her life. And it will be very interesting to see what he does now that he knows who killed his buddy and what crew he's up against.

john4200 · 05-31-2010, 03:36 PM

Maybe he meant letting a fly get in the lab!

But seriously, I agree, Gus was thinking of Jesse. And speaking of Jesse, what do you make of his concern for the child? I think he has one odd set of ethics. He has no problem with selling drugs to members of his rehab group, even a nice lady who pathetically tells him between kisses that she cannot afford to be caught again, until he finds out that she has a child. Then suddenly he is outraged!

speaker city · 05-31-2010, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DevdogAZ

I'm not sure how Gus would know about Skylar. I think Gus is talking about Walt insisting on working with Jesse.

When Skylar was coming up with a place for Walt to buy, that had a "Danny" who had to comply because otherwise he'd be busted for cooking the books, I thought she was going to suggest Walt invest in Beneke's business.

Well it's been a few days since Jesse pocketed the meth from the lab, and Gus hadn't said anything prior. But the day after he and Skyler meet with Saul, the batphone rings and Gus wants to have dinner. Although now I'm thinking maybe Gus heard Jesse and Walt arguing about Jesse stealing in the lab and then decided to invite Walt to dinner. I didn't record this episode so someone else will have to verify the timeline.

I also thought she was gonna suggest "investing" in Beneke Fabrication.

Quote:

Originally Posted by john4200

Maybe he meant letting a fly get in the lab!

But seriously, I agree, Gus was thinking of Jesse. And speaking of Jesse, what do you make of his concern for the child? I think he has one odd set of ethics. He has no problem with selling drugs to members of his rehab group, even a nice lady who pathetically tells him between kisses that she cannot afford to be caught again, until he finds out that she has a child. Then suddenly he is outraged!

Jesse has a soft spot for kids. Remember "Peakaboo"?

billboard_NE · 05-31-2010, 04:32 PM

Looks like Skyler is interested in Walt again. She never filed the divorce papers, and she had little interest in getting together with Ted. Hey if she is involved in cooking the books for Ted, she may as well do it for Walt and profit by it.

Regina · 05-31-2010, 05:01 PM

I loved Saul trying to butter up Skylar-she sooo has no patience for his BS!

jstack · 05-31-2010, 05:32 PM

With only two episodes left, I hope they plan on picking up the pace.

ElJay · 05-31-2010, 06:28 PM

When they started talking about "investments," I wondered when that car wash was going to come back into the picture.

Does Gus have a big enough kitchen?! Do we know if he has a family like Walt?

pdhenry · 05-31-2010, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElJay

Does Gus have a big enough kitchen?! Do we know if he has a family like Walt?

Gus said his kids wouldn't eat the fish stew (paila marina) he was making so he didn't get to make it very often...

john4200 · 05-31-2010, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdhenry

Gus said his kids wouldn't eat the fish stew (paila marina) he was making so he didn't get to make it very often...

Right. And even before he said that, you could see children's toys in the house as they walked in.

DMHinCO · 06-01-2010, 12:13 AM

I thought a strange scene was Walt and Skylar laughing together when their kid asks for a car. Walt has had no sense of humor, and hasn't even laughed or made a joke, in any episode I can remember. He is under tremendous pressure and laughing with his (ex-ish) wife was a bit out of character.

"...just the right amount of dirty." Saul is great.

catcard · 06-01-2010, 10:49 AM

Skylar sure made a big change in her attitude/ethics! Now she's all for Walt cooking meth and making the big bucks. I think she would be a good choice to run the car wash for the money laundering.

I was happy that Jesse decided not to push the drugs on Andrea. I was wondering how low he was going to go. Interesting that his buddies are really getting into the 12 step program and they want to bring Jesse into the fold

Wanna bet Walt Jr. gets the Mustang he wants?

danterner · 06-01-2010, 11:44 AM

I turned to Google to try to figure out the title of this episode (Abiquiu). I had assumed it was a phonetic spelling of "ABQ" (short for Albuquerque, and the title of one of last season's episodes), just like an episode earlier this season was "I See You" (ICU) - the episode with several significant scenes set in the ICU.

Turns out there's a town in New Mexico named Abiquiu. It was Georgia Okeefe's hometown. Thus the callback to Jesse and Jane visiting the Okeefe exhibit at the start of the episode.

DevdogAZ · 06-01-2010, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speaker city

Well it's been a few days since Jesse pocketed the meth from the lab, and Gus hadn't said anything prior. But the day after he and Skyler meet with Saul, the batphone rings and Gus wants to have dinner. Although now I'm thinking maybe Gus heard Jesse and Walt arguing about Jesse stealing in the lab and then decided to invite Walt to dinner. I didn't record this episode so someone else will have to verify the timeline.

I don't think the timeline is that important. I think Gus didn't have to hear them talking about it in the lab. Gus is a smart enough businessman to figure it out on his own. Frankly, I think if Gus and Walt could talk openly, I think Gus would encourage Walt to buy a business and use it to launder money. That's exactly what Gus is doing. Surely Gus has more than one "Danny" working for him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by catcard

Wanna bet Walt Jr. gets the Mustang he wants?

Most definitely. Walter Jr. gave too many details about the car he wanted ('71 Mach 1 Fastback, lime green with a shaker hood). I immediately thought, "that's one of the producer's dream car, and they wrote it into the show so they could buy it with the show's budget and then buy it from the show after the show has expensed and depreciated it."

Quote:

Originally Posted by danterner

I turned to Google to try to figure out the title of this episode (Abiquiu). I had assumed it was a phonetic spelling of "ABQ" (short for Albuquerque, and the title of one of last season's episodes), just like an episode earlier this season was "I See You" (ICU) - the episode with several significant scenes set in the ICU.

Turns out there's a town in New Mexico named Abiquiu. It was Georgia Okeefe's hometown. Thus the callback to Jesse and Jane visiting the Okeefe exhibit at the start of the episode.

Thanks. I wondered what that meant (wondered if it was Hispanic slang for Albuquerque and that was the area of town where Jesse bought the meth from the kid), but was too lazy to look it up.

BK89 · 06-01-2010, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john4200

I think he has one odd set of ethics. He has no problem with selling drugs to members of his rehab group, even a nice lady who pathetically tells him between kisses that she cannot afford to be caught again, until he finds out that she has a child. Then suddenly he is outraged!

I think Jesse is trying to convince himself that he is the "bad guy" but in reality he is not. Will be interesting to see if he goes after the gang bangers in the next episode. Maybe he figured this would be a better way to show how bad he really is and uses it as an excuse to not sell the girl drugs but still keep this bad guy image of himself going.

DevdogAZ · 06-01-2010, 01:19 PM

What I didn't understand was why Badger and Skinny Pete didn't branch out. Perhaps they originally thought selling to recovering addicts would be easy. But they found out it wasn't easy. So why just stop and assume you've failed? Why not try and find active users to sell to? And I didn't understand why Jesse didn't point this out to them when they voiced their concerns.

pdhenry · 06-01-2010, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DevdogAZ

Surely Gus has more than one "Danny" working for him.

Given how we see him working at Los Pollos Hermanos, Gus is his own Danny.

I got a kick out of how Badger and Skinny Pete are going through the 12 steps on their own...

DevdogAZ · 06-01-2010, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdhenry

Given how we see him working at Los Pollos Hermanos, Gus is his own Danny.

But given the size of his organization, he's not the only one involved in covering up the fact that Pollos is a front for drug distribution. We even saw a few episodes ago how the meth is packaged inside tubs of chicken batter and a black-light stamp is put on the lid to identify the tubs containing the goods. Gus obviously wasn't operating that production line by himself.

getreal · 06-01-2010, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BK89

I think Jesse is trying to convince himself that he is the "bad guy" but in reality he is not. Will be interesting to see if he goes after the gang bangers in the next episode. Maybe he figured this would be a better way to show how bad he really is and uses it as an excuse to not sell the girl drugs but still keep this bad guy image of himself going.

Since Badger and Skinny Pete cannot be relied upon to sell, I think once Jesse calms down about his dead dealer's killers, he may try to become their supplier ... which would be yet another bad decision on Jesse's part.

danterner · 06-01-2010, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DevdogAZ

What I didn't understand was why Badger and Skinny Pete didn't branch out. Perhaps they originally thought selling to recovering addicts would be easy. But they found out it wasn't easy. So why just stop and assume you've failed? Why not try and find active users to sell to? And I didn't understand why Jesse didn't point this out to them when they voiced their concerns.

The stopped because (1) they found it difficult to sell to recovering addicts, but (2) they began down the 12-step path themselves, so they didn't really WANT to find active users to sell to. I'm not sure I'm liking the whole Badger/Skinny Pete storyline. The show is at its best when its characters are breaking bad, not when they are on the mend/providing comic relief.

mrdazzo7 · 06-02-2010, 06:49 PM

Can someone remind me what the gist of Gus' conversation with Walt was? Gus scares the **** out of me because he seems like the most sincere, caring dude in the world but as we've all seen, he has no problem taking people out...and I don't mean to dinner.

I don't think Skylar is fully on board for vain reasons--I think at this point she's backing him because she knows that his drug money is the only way to help Hank. Hank's DEA insurance sucks and he will basically get third-rate care otherwise. I think she also started to realize that Walt was doing it because he wanted to provide for them. But at the moment I think it's mostly Hank's care that is motivating her. She was right though, Laser Tag makes absolutely no sense.

As for Jessie, I'm not really feel any part of his story right now. I can't see the motivation at all for him to be so stupid as to steal from these ultra-high-level, no BS guys that he works for. He's an equal partner, he's making 1.5M every three months... I can't grasp his motivation for double-crossing his employers knowing full well what awaits him if he gets caught, especially after Walt's warning. And he's selling the most unique meth ever made, it's not like they can't POSSIBLY track it back to him.

I can tell that this storyline will be the main focus of tension in the final two episodes and for the first time in the show's history, I'm actually a little disappointed. I don't feel like it makes any logical sense--it strikes me as the the writer's struggling to come up with a sensical and compelling story so they "settled" on this. Hopefully it plays out well but just the way they set it up just makes it a lot less tense than the show has been so far.

DevdogAZ · 06-02-2010, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrdazzo7

Can someone remind me what the gist of Gus' conversation with Walt was? Gus scares the **** out of me because he seems like the most sincere, caring dude in the world but as we've all seen, he has no problem taking people out...and I don't mean to dinner.

All we saw of the conversation was that Gus said he wanted to give Walt some advice. Walt asked what advice Gus would like to give, and Gus said, "Never make the same mistake twice." We don't know for sure what he was referring to, but knowing Gus, it was a veiled threat, basically telling Walt that he's on thin ice and that he'd better be careful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrdazzo7

I don't think Skylar is fully on board for vain reasons--I think at this point she's backing him because she knows that his drug money is the only way to help Hank. Hank's DEA insurance sucks and he will basically get third-rate care otherwise. I think she also started to realize that Walt was doing it because he wanted to provide for them. But at the moment I think it's mostly Hank's care that is motivating her. She was right though, Laser Tag makes absolutely no sense.

I think Skylar realizes that if she doesn't turn Walt in, she's complicit in what he's doing, and therefore, she doesn't just want a passive role in the enterprise, she wants to be hands on. She also now has a vested interest in ensuring that Walt's money is above reproach, because it's going to be used to help Hank, and if there is any possible question about the money's origin, it could put Hank and Marie in a bad situation, and Skylar's not about to allow that to happen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrdazzo7

As for Jessie, I'm not really feel any part of his story right now. I can't see the motivation at all for him to be so stupid as to steal from these ultra-high-level, no BS guys that he works for. He's an equal partner, he's making 1.5M every three months... I can't grasp his motivation for double-crossing his employers knowing full well what awaits him if he gets caught, especially after Walt's warning. And he's selling the most unique meth ever made, it's not like they can't POSSIBLY track it back to him.

I can tell that this storyline will be the main focus of tension in the final two episodes and for the first time in the show's history, I'm actually a little disappointed. I don't feel like it makes any logical sense--it strikes me as the the writer's struggling to come up with a sensical and compelling story so they "settled" on this. Hopefully it plays out well but just the way they set it up just makes it a lot less tense than the show has been so far.

This was discussed in previous threads, but it goes back to Jesse's speech at the support group about when he made a box in wood shop. He enjoys working with his hands and seeing the fruits of his labors. He's not the type to sit back and make a passive investment. Therefore, he's feeling unsatisfied in his current role as apprentice cook, just watching the product roll out the door and never being involved in the distribution. He's not selling for the money, he's selling so he can be personally involved.

cheesesteak · 06-03-2010, 06:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DevdogAZ

This was discussed in previous threads, but it goes back to Jesse's speech at the support group about when he made a box in wood shop. He enjoys working with his hands and seeing the fruits of his labors. He's not the type to sit back and make a passive investment. Therefore, he's feeling unsatisfied in his current role as apprentice cook, just watching the product roll out the door and never being involved in the distribution. He's not selling for the money, he's selling so he can be personally involved.

Plus, Jesse is pretty frickin' stupid.

tgrim1 · 06-03-2010, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheesesteak

Plus, Jesse is pretty frickin' stupid.

This.

I love how Saul is always throwing out subtle hints to Walt on taking him out.