Breaking Down: Breaking Bad, Season Five, Episode Five

"Dead Freight" brings us the second caper of Season Five. After sliming up Hank at the DEA, Walt and the other two stooges use a wire-tapped phone call to corner Lydia, who oddly enough wasn't lying about the tapped barrels. Walt, Mike, and Jesse then use Lydia's insider info to pull off a methylamine heist with the unwavering help of their trusty sidekick, Todd.

Landry, Moe, and Shemp

Craig Scholes: Can you hear that? If not, it’s my slow clap congratulating you on calling a train heist.

Stan Earnest: Well, thank you, but that was because I have inside info (not Breaking Bad spoiler info, but train info) which I will share plenty of later, but for starters I just want to say I have a lot of issues with this episode. Some are serious issues with the way the heist was pulled, others are simply timing issues with the show. The pacing has left the viewer off kilter at this point. It is fantastic that we get to see Walt dive to all new lows--and highs for Heisenberg--as he plots under the radar of Hank, but the show is snail-pacing the first 8 episodes of Season Five if we are going to see Walt use that M60 before the Summer of 2013.

This is going to get ugly. I am calling it right now. I know how TV works. Breaking Bad is captivating. It is the best show on television, yet it has one-third of the viewers as The Walking Dead. This first half is going to end on a cliffhanger and the madness that would be a Hank vs. Walt standoff will have to wait, for a whole year. A. Whole. Year. Meanwhile, AMC will have a standoff with Gilligan and Co., and we will probably have Breaking Bad move to Fox, and they will only want it if there are three more seasons to come. So, I'm not saying I have lost faith by any measure in Vince Gilligan. I'm on board the train. I just am seeing red lights at this point. But I have faith, and the episodes are still entertaining as hell to me.

CS: I don't think your Fox theory is going to happen at all. From what I understand, the second half of Season Five has already been agreed to. I think if they try and pull out there are going to be some ugly contract problems.

SE: Let's hope so, we never hear the full spectrum with these things. I've heard it has been "bought" but not necessarily paid for--like they could go in with a higher budget, and there would be problems.

CS: I heard a Reddit rumor that Morgan Freeman is going to have a part.

SE: Wait a damn second, Morgan Freeman? Oh, I get it; God finally comes down to give Walt his karmic bitch slap.

CS: It seems to me that everyone involved likes the idea of wrapping the show up and ending it on top, and at this point the show is what it is. Dragging it on forever doesn't do anyone any favors. I don't think AMC is actually making that much money off of it.

SE: That is why I am so on board. Gilligan doesn't lie to his audience. At the same time, I don't think he ever knew how far this show was going to go. I mean, we have had five episodes without Hank even sniffing a scent of Heisenberg. If AMC isn’t making mega bucks off of it--because they have their heads up their asses on the marketing of merchandise like we have previously discussed--then there may be a problem.

CS: And after so long, critical acclaim won't keep a show on the air.

SE: So how much longer can we go with Hank looking straight through Walter?

CS: They've done it for about three seasons so far. Clearly Mike would whip Walt’s ass if it came down to fisticuffs, but that hasn't stopped Walt from getting the best of other people.

SE: Can we add up what he has seen so far, and what has got to be churning for him?

CS: Go for it.

SE: Ok, so the first red flag is the gas mask that goes back to the high school and thus the missing beakers and cooking utensils. Hank still remembers this right?

CS: Oh shit, you said Hank, and I read Mike. Can you imagine how entertaining a showdown between Mike and Hank would be.

SE: Yeah, like a DeNiro and Pacino showdown from Heat: one world-weary guy on the good side sitting across the table of another world-weary guy on the bad side.

CS: Hank is eventually going to have that Chazz Palminteri moment at the end of The Usual Suspects. When he puts all this shit together, will he drop a Pollos coffee cup?

SE: Onto Mike's foot as Mike spills the coffee beans about Walt in a scroungy diner. Chazz Palminteri, where is that guy? He had his Keyser Soze moment and disappeared forever. I think he is in that junkyard with Tuco's henchmen and Jimmy Hoffa.

Give me the keys you fucking cocksucker.

CS: He was in the flick Poolhall Junkies which was all right.

SE: Of course, I am going to search IMDB and see 47 B movies he starred in over the last 5 years. (I clearly underestimated Chazz; searching IMDB an hour after this comment I see he has had exactly 46 roles since Suspects--damn, I was close--and one of my favorites I forgot about, Hurly Burly.)

CS: How is it that The Usual Suspects is a 17 year old movie? It would be a Senior in high school, or maybe even a Freshman in college.

SE: Because we are old. So this Keyser Soze moment includes: gas masks and missing equipment at the school, the poker hand, the tequila incident, the second cell phone, the Aztek at the Jimmy In & Out bust, Gus at the hospital (which he didn't witness but his family did), “WW” from the lab notes, the can’t-handle-red-wine speech, and the car wreck at the laundry. What am I missing?

CS: Acting weird with the GPS at Pollos. He'll probably find out that Walt has been paying for the medical bills, too.

SE: Let's also not forget the cover up story about the gambling. How long before Hank haphazardly asks Walter to take him on a tour of these so-called underground facilities? Are we going to get a dark humor scene like when Walt saved the day at the scene of Jimmy In & Out? I would love to see Jesse orchestrate a fake gambling hall with Badger and Skinny Pete as black jack dealers. Of course, Badger couldn't be seen by Hank, but damn that would be great.

CS: Also, the realization as to why Skyler has been so fucking weird.

SE: What if the show ended with Hank never finding out who Heisenberg is or Hank dying before that moment? Rank that scenario in your list of all-time letdowns.

CS: Unless Skyler takes over the business.

SE: Clearly, Walt's worst mistake so far to me is not taking care of the wife first. I know how it works. You have to keep the wife happy. He should have taken her shopping and put her in a Benzo or Beamer cross-over and then grabbed the SRT. Oh Walt, you can play games with the crime underworld, but you have to keep your lady happy.

CS: I’m not sure spending cheese would have made Skyler happy though. She lost her shit over that champagne.

SE: I like that the show can take any weird direction it wants to and leave plot lines open. For example, Mike was saying that Walt and Jesse don't know Lydia like he knows her. Does this mean that she has stronger ties to Gustavo Fring than previously thought? Is that kid his? Or does that just mean that she is a nutcase and put a hit on Mike? I went from thinking the M60 was for Lydia to thinking that wasn't possible in two minutes.

CS: My theory is that Landry (Todd) turns out to be a maniacal child killer and the M60 is what it will take to keep Landry's blood thirst away from Flynn and whatever that fucking baby girl's name is.

SE: Holly maybe? She is the perfect on screen baby.

CS: Holly is a total bitch diva; I'm sick of her shit.

SE: I am hanging my head in shame, not just at that comment, but because I haven't seen Friday Night Lights yet. But with all the internet Landry comments, I am totally on board and going to mow throw all the episodes in like two weeks. I can't stand not being in on a joke.

CS: I can't wait for Crucifictorious and TwaughtHammer to go on tour.

SE: They can tour with Wyld Stallyns, Station, and Vamonos Pest.

I just realized that Lydia has to be completely wigged out by the time this is over if she wasn't all ready. Laura Fraser is amazing. She has to be thinking, "How the hell did they get a bug in the DEA?" You know, Lydia has a small resemblance to Ron Swanson's ex-wife. If we get a Ron Swanson crossover, that is it, no one can deny this is the greatest show ever. Maybe the M60 is for a corn-rowed Ron Swanson?

CS: Being a Libertarian, Ron Swanson wouldn't give two shits about anyone doing meth.

SE: Until they stepped on his territory.

CS: Walt and Jesse escape the DEA in one of Ron Swanson's hand-fashioned wooden canoes, and don't forget Duke Silver.

SE: They are doing some serious CGI work at Breaking Bad to erase that wheelbarrow Walt is using to carry his grapefruits in. He put a bug in the DEA and slathered his fingerprints all over it.

CS: A friend sent me nearly that exact same message in a text tonight.

SE: Is he going to remove it next time? Or keep them going live? I mean surely the DEA does sweeps once in a while.

CS: It will be much easier to get it out of there than to plant it though. Walt can get it just by tying his shoe laces then accidentally knocking the picture off the table, then offering to re-frame the picture.

SE: And then DJ Roomba sweeps it up and he has to break into the custodian closet.

CS: I didn't exactly get a good look at what he put in the picture frame

SE: I thought he was jacking into Hank's computer for info, but wasn't the device in the frame just a simple mic?

CS: Thanks to the power of DVR, I just rewound it and saw that, yeah, it looks like a mic. I would imagine the thing attached to the computer was just a way to transmit the audio via the interwebs.

SE: Ok, moving on to the heist, we have a resident expert here. I worked as a train conductor for six years. I can’t get into detail, but the way they pulled off this heist was frightening to me. Like I said, I won’t give detail, but I’ve literally lived that particular scenario. I know I get some credit for thinking they were going to heist a rail car of methylamine, but I have insider knowledge that I didn’t want to mention. Apparently, Breaking Bad doesn’t mind sharing the fact that rail cars of dangerous material sit in the middle of nowhere all the time. I am anxiously awaiting the Insider podcast to see what they had to do to get it cleared.

CS: In my amateur opinion (but having a fairly good grasp of momentum), it seems to me they got that train stopped a little too easily.

SE: I'm really biting my lip. This is hard to talk about, but yes, stopping a train is very, very, very hard to do. The thing is, as Lydia mentioned (she was really spot-on with the insider knowledge), this was a small train, but if it was a "local" that switched cars out there would be three guys on board, not two. Your typical coal train that is a mile-and-a-half long takes like a mile to stop under safe conditions. A mile. A little train like that one takes much less distance. There is no way, I mean NO WAY they have any clue how much distance it takes to stop a train. I noticed the bridge was really long that they were going to boost the methylamine off of, but man, NO WAY they have any idea how quickly it stops. It was the middle of the desert where you can see for miles and miles.

CS: I remember in middle school we had a conductor come to our school to warn us about crossroad safety, and he told us that it can take up to a mile for a train to come to a stop.

SE: An empty coal train can screech to a halt in like a quarter mile or less if it needs to, but anything loaded--like tank cars full of methylamine--takes much longer. Lydia is also spot-on with her railroad lingo. The writer's did their homework again. There is "dark territory" railroad--it is actually called that--and it is scary as hell to ride on. I am accustomed to signals controlled by dispatchers that guide train movement, but occasionally there are pieces of dark territory that trains run over. It is old rail that doesn't have much traffic and the dispatcher controls movement through verbal commands the conductor records as a "track warrant". You have to really trust the dispatcher, and then you buzz on down the track in the complete darkness of the night with no signals, guided by all these old railroad rules. In no way does this mean you are ever out of communication with the dispatcher.

CS: I don't like you having insider knowledge over me. It isn't enough that you nailed this episode with the prediction.

SE: Further driving the point home, the first thing that train is supposed to do when it is stopped is contact the dispatcher, and then if the train has anything other than plain old coal cars or other less dangerous cars, is inspect the train. The ingenious part about this plot is that a giant truck in the middle of the road would completely distract the conductor from inspecting his train. The bullshit whistle I am blowing on this heist is huge; it's bigger than a tuba and louder than a train horn. With that said, if everything lined up perfectly, it could potentially happen. I mean everything. The crew has to be paying attention, they have to decide it isn't worth calling the dispatcher after they apply the emergency brakes (which is a violation of railroad rules), they both leave the train unattended anyhow (which is a violation, unless they are on a shortline with less rules and regulations), and on top of it all they don't inspect the train and just take off when the truck is clear.

CS: But isn't that the beauty of TV, everything working perfectly? Isn't it human nature to cut corners and assume things aren't astray?

We killed a kid in the desert, and all we got was this hose and a pet tarantula?

SE: Listening to the Insider podcast, Gilligan knows he takes liberties. The thing is, 99.9% of the people that watch the show haven't been acclimated to railroad procedure, and that may be why I have little suspended disbelief.

CS: I've had my doubts in other situations though. I’m still not convinced you could get that many car batteries to get an electromagnet strong enough to pull a U-Haul over like that.

SE: Yes, I am glad this madness is happening during Walt's off-the-rails phase. They are backed into a corner and don't give a damn, so why not take the risk. I love that he shares with Skyler what he was doing.

Let's talk about the elephant in the room, what does Todd's role mean for the series going further?

CS: It means Jesse is going to kill him.

Oh, and I almost forgot, once again the better half Saul's D team comes to the rescue. Bill Burr has been fantastic in this show. What a fantastic shirt with those nut-huggers too. "Of course you know something about engines, that’s why they call you an engineer."

SE: Most railroad engineers don't know dick about engines. A diesel locomotive is an electronically controlled engine ran on power from a diesel motor. They man the controls, not work on engines. That is why that Bill Burr line was so great.

CS: I'd really like to find out what they did to that dump truck to render it useless though. I know from experience that there are many engineers who don't know two shits about the most basic of engineering principles, hell, me being one of them a lot of the time--if not most of the time. Once, I had someone tell me that they didn't know you had to go to college to drive a train.

SE: You don't holmes, not at all. Any regular joe with half an IQ can hire on and get trained. That isn't to say the railroad isn't chock full of what some refer to as "wasted talent", men and women that could have been brilliant at other jobs, but flocked to the railroad for the money.

CS: Every walk of life is littered with those people. I've known many idiot savants in my day.

SE: Which is why Walter White is so believable. I worked with a guy that was a professional french horn player at one time, repaired microwaves at one time, could sing just like Van Morrison, and had famous relatives, top that.

CS: I had a roommate who's father was fired from Halliburton by Dick Cheney and still voted for Bush/Cheney twice

SE: Speaking of dicks, what is Todd's deal? Is he a psychopath? Did he want to prove he could handle himself to the guys? Or was he just afraid to go to prison?

CS: I think he is just a guy who sees things in black or white. He rectifies problems and worries about consequences later.

SE: So does Jesse immediately off Todd? How does this shake out next episode?

CS: It shakes out with a battle of the bands between Crucifictorious and TwaughtHammer. Faaaaaallacies!

Breaking Down: Breaking Bad - Season Four Finale & Season Five Talk

Season Four ends with Walt orchestrating his last ditch effort to kill Gus. Following the failed car bomb incident, Walt badgers Jesse for a place where he thinks Gus is vulnerable, but Jesse gets nabbed for questioning by the police about the possible ricin poisoning of Brock. Saul saves the day once again and relays information to Walt concerning the interest in the nursing home bell ringer, Hector Salamanca, who proceeds to give Hank one last spin around the wheelchair for old time's sake. If you're a fan, you know what comes next. Gus goes boom, the superlab gets torched, and we find out that Walt was the devilish poisoner of Brock all along.

Come on back to Inconsiderate Prick early Monday, June 16th for the recap of Breaking Bad's Season Five opener, "Live Free or Die."

Kevin Costner starring in Walterworld

Stan Earnest: Kaboom! The last episode of Season Four is Aztek-crunched with action. Did you know the title was "Face Off?"

Craig Scholes: More like Toyota Matrix-crunched with action. I did actually know this episode was titled "Face Off", the good ol' double entendre at its best right there.

SE: Yeah, thankfully it wasn't a homage to the Travolta/Cage thriller, although there is an ironic re-watchability to that one.

Jesse takes a back seat in this one, but he is still the moral backing for the show. I loved how he chastised Walt for bringing a bomb into a hospital, and the added touch of the magnet sticking to the hospital door is that little wink of comedy we've grown accustomed to with Breaking Bad. Even when doomsday is upon Walt there is still some laughs to be had.

CS: I loved the baby bag sticking to the elevator door, I would love to see a minisode with the camera staying in the elevator to see how the Doctor reacted to the strange event. Also, it's kind of hard for Jesse to be a major player in the episode when he is basically in the pokey the entire episode.

Walt is getting better at this criminal stuff, evading the people sent to get him at his house.

SE: Fun fact: the lady he sent over to flush out the goons was played by Vince Gilligan's mom. That was a point where I was like whoa, Walt really is willing to do anything. I like how he endangers everyone he comes into contact with in this episode. Another fantastic touch was Walt exiting Saul's broken door in the same way he broke in instead of just unlocking it. And how about a golf clap for Saul's assistant? Extorting the great Heisenberg was a well-played move.

CS: It's very conceivable that Walt and Jesse aren't actually paying Saul enough money.

SE: If it's the 5% Walt ground him down to when he re-upped, it definitely isn't enough. Saul has saved their asses more than once. I love YouTubing compilations of Saul quotes. And it sounds like Jesse has been following House as closely as Old Man Duggan.

CS: I really want to know how Hector's comments to the DEA ended. Suck my ferret? Fuchsia?

It was a pretty spectacular plan to have Hector fuck with the DEA one last time. Have they ever disclosed what Hector Salamanca has? I would assume its Lou Gehrig's Disease.

SE: Yeah, it's likely ALS because of the oxygen, as the neuromuscular symptoms of the disease hinder breathing, but I'm about to get all psychology nerd up in these digs. It could be a stroke with damage to Broca's area in the brain, the section that is largely responsible for speech. Damage to the area can cause weird things to happen with language, like with Hector, where he understands language because other areas of the brain process it, such as the frontal lobe, but he can't speak. Patients that have undergone split-brain surgery to cure severe epilepsy experience similar problems when viewing items with the left eye, which is processed in the right brain which doesn't have a Broca's area; they can point to the word corresponding to what they saw but can't speak it. This can seem very confusing to the person, but with both functioning eyes witnessing the object there is no problem and split-brain patients complete almost any normal life task with no difficulty. With that said, I researched and didn't realize ALS patients still had bladder control (the DEA is not impressed), so it is likely Stephen Hawking's Disease. Shouldn't we rename diseases by the most recent famous person that has it just for awareness?

CS: It's kind of remarkable how long Stephen Hawking has lived with ALS. After having checked with the official internet fact checker Wikipedia (which has never been wrong), it was in fact a stroke. And apparently Hector can still wink, because he shot one at Hank as he was being wheeled away.

SE: Wow, all that schooling is actually paying off. So I know Mike has some inside info on the cop front, but there almost certainly has to be someone close in the DEA tipping Gus's team off to Hector's "chattiness." I'm not discounting Gomez from the equation; he may have only had time get out a modicum of info and couldn't share the poignancy of Hector's messages. Gomez gave the lab entrance an awful strange look while surveying the laundry, and he's still sporting the Walt goat you know.

CS: I'm still dying to know who the cartel member's brother is, which leads me to believe it is Gomez; he didn't leave Albuquerque for very long when he got that promotion that Hank turned down.

SE: I thought the brother was just a local Mexican sheriff, but not much info was given from that phone call. The previews for Season Five show some scene with commotion at a police department, so maybe we'll find out.

So, as fellow Inconsiderate Prick Wordy Ginters put it, "Gus goes boom." Apparently the writers have had that particular idea for ending Gus on their "big board" for a long time, and it took them a while to figure out what pieces would fit to get to Hector's bell being the instrument that ignites the demise. I just want to give praise to Gilligan for shooting Gus's death march into the nursing home with some intense, sentimental music. We know Gus is a goner. That is how Walt becomes Scarface. I appreciate not being insulted and getting a sort of tribute to Gus at the same time.

Every time it comes on TBS, you can't leave the house.

CS: I thought the idea was great, and clever. Using Hector's bell as the device to end Gus was fantastic. I also loved the sheer look of panic on Gus's face when he realizes he's been had, but Jesus Christ, that cartoonish walk out of the room missing half a face was pretty stupid. I get that it's TV, and they were trying to create a superhuman--albeit brief--image, but I hated Two-Face Gus.

SE: Fun fact: The Walking Dead team helped with the Two-Face Gus makeup and effects. Was it a little hokey? Okay, I will give you that, yes, but for me the whoa factor was worth it. I am not talking about the visual effects that a lot of people were fans of, but rather the split-second where I thought Gus was still alive. I was pissed in that moment--my biggest fear is the show getting bombastic and formulaic--and then Gus straightens his tie and crumbles. Is it entirely implausible? Not at all. I've seen a guy on foot get clocked by a 50 MPH train with my own eyes, and he was still alive and moaning for an hour. I've heard EMT friends tell me disgusting stories of trying to save guys that they knew were brain dead from a skull crush, were still moving, and (**warning gross alert**) spewing chunks of brain matter. So shortly after first-viewing I convinced myself I liked the over-the-top shot. At least we know immediately and definitively that Gus is dead.

CS: I'll concede most of that, and I didn't mind him stumbling out of the room as much as how ridiculous it looked. My problem with it was that it looked like he took all of the damage to the one side of his face. Having said all of that, yes, at least we know that he is definitely dead.

SE: My soul cringes because there are people that actually theorize that Gus is still alive. I think that, like most post Season Two Breaking Bad plots, Gus's death is not necessarily about the fact that it happened, but how it happened. It happened because he underestimated Walter White in much the same way that Don Eladio underestimated him. No matter how cold and calculated he had become, he couldn't detach himself from the emotional weight he wanted to release on to Hector Salamanca.

CS: This show is different than other dramas. Most shows are about the story, where Breaking Bad is actually about Walt. The show really couldn't go on without him, so it's about how he evolves, as pretty much every other character is disposable. There really isn't a supporting character in Breaking Bad that could get offed that would anger me. This isn't to say that I wouldn't be bummed if certain characters were killed, but I am also very much interested in how Walt would take on any new challenges.

SE: I want to know how Walt snagged Gus's henchman and got him in that elevator. Jesse definitely has to be looking at Walt in a different light now. He is competent and ruthless. Not only did he dust Gus, but he smoked the other two clowns without any hesitation, and Kafka's snub-nose finally gets some use. They definitely weren't part of Gus's A-Team. How about the destruction of the superlab? That was masterful. One more shout of praise for the music. I know the music team contemplated several different tracks for that scene and finally found a song written by the teenage Taalbi Brothers, a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old. I don't know about you Craig, but that just pisses me off. I've been playing guitar for 12 years, practicing three to four hours a day for probably three or four years in the middle of that stretch, and I have never written anything as technical or cool-sounding as "Freestyle". Kudos young men. Kudos.

CS: Walt was all like, "I hate my job. I'm gonna burn this mother down." I'm a total fan of the way the lab was torched. I've been playing guitar for about twelve years now, and I'm lucky if I pick mine up every three or four weeks, there is no excuse for me not to be better at that thing than I am. One of these days I may just bite the bullet and actually take lessons.

SE: Bite the hollow-point and find a good guitar instructor. I progressed more in the first three weeks of lessons than I had in the first year of playing solo, but I also happened to have a worldwide superstar guitar teacher, Jason Riley. I am not joking, that guy has played all over the world, has about ten bands he gigs with, and works with the incomparable, Pulitzer Prize nominated Anthony Glise from time to time. If one is ever serious about guitar, those are guys to look up.

The phone call to Skyler was pure genius from Gilligan and Co. Instead of just saying it was over or that it wasn't him that orchestrated the whole deal or just anything that wouldn't shake Skyler to the core, he says, "I won." Walt is a complete madman now.

CS: Definitely. Walt has full on swung to the dark side now, and I fully expect that next season he is the guy to fear. Pretty much the only guy that isn't going to be scared of him is Mike. I can't wait to see how that dynamic evolves.

SE: There was an original line on the hospital parking garage roof where Jesse was supposed to say, "Mike is gonna be pissed." That is a good line; I kind of wish they would have left it in. I have to admit that I haphazardly stumbled upon the surprise that ends Season Four. That Apollo Sunshine song was so great that I YouTubed the scene from the previous episode where Walt is playing spin the .38 just to listen to the song a few times and noticed Walt pausing in pensiveness when it pointed towards that plant, and I figured it out. Walt really is going to be more evil than Gus ever thought about being.

CS: It just seems like a convoluted idea to go through Brock. I don't get the motivation for using him, or how you could logically go through him to accomplish what needed to be done, and that's for Gus or Walt. It just seems to me the Gus and Walt battle could have been done without dragging Jesse through a furlong of shit again. Regardless, I don't think there is any doubt that Walt has broken bad.

SE: Walt basically had a day before he or his family was dead, so he just closed his eyes and threw the haymaker. He had to find some way to get Jesse back into his camp. I'm positive Huell lifted the cigarette pack off of Jesse too, but how deep was Saul involved? Did Saul give Brock a poisonous Baby Ruth or something? I hope we get a flashback scene to some of this for Season Five, but that isn't really how the show works. Flashbacks are used on this show to advance the plot line forward, not muddy it with this-is-how-it-happened scenes. I thought for sure that Season Four was going to end with a Keyser Soze moment for Hank, maybe while Junior and him witnessed Walt meet with Gus on a stakeout, but now Hank might think he has already found "Heisenberg". You have any predictions for Season Five? I would be pretty disappointed if we didn't get a Gus flashback pretty fresh into the new season.

CS: I think they can definitely throw in a flashback to what went down with the end of Season Four. Mainly because Brock is old enough to be asked questions. As for genuine predictions, I think we find out that Walt has full-blown inoperable cancer. His coughing really started pick up with "The Fly" episode, and clearly Hank is going to find out at some point. It's really only a matter if the cancer is bad enough that he isn't going to try soil the name of a dying man.

SE: Interesting, so Hank might find out and then break bad himself to save Walt's family from shame. That would be one hell of a standoff. A lot of people, including myself, have predicted that Walt will eventually kill Hank, but I will tell you why that is not likely to happen: Skyler knows who Walt really is now and if Hank turns up missing, Marie and Skyler will be tougher for Walt to deal with than the cartel and Gus combined.

CS: I don't think Hank not selling him out would necessarily be him "breaking bad." I guess it would depend on how much time Walt had left. I still don't see Walt killing his own, including the in-laws. I do see something happening to his immediate family, maybe a kidnapping or even a family death.

SE: At first, I thought that Season Five would provide Walt with a new enemy to run from or destroy, but the more I think about what happened, with Gus's team being decimated and the cartel to blame for it, the more I think the show might just fill the rest of Walt's prophesy by putting a brick on the gas pedal and letting an insane Heisenberg run rampant with no ax-wielding enemies to track him down. This has certainly been touched on by the AMC promos. Hell at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Walt dug up some Uranium-235 and torched half of New Mexico just for a laugh. The writers have done their job and then some. I am just going to kick back and watch Walt scorch every bridge he crosses.

However, there are a lot of loose ends left. Did Gus's lab cameras leave any recordings behind? Who exactly was Gustavo Fring in his Chile years? Is Beneke dead?

CS: I doubt the lab black box will be recovered, as I doubt Gus was dumb enough to have any type of backed-up surveillance to incriminate him. I'd like to see how Gus became a successful business man in Chile, and Beneke is definitely dead. Also, there is always a cartel, and I imagine they will be more than willing to try to move into a perceived weakness in the New Mexican market.

SE: I guess I am clinging to the idea of Ted surviving his kerfuffle with Chekhov's rug for one final skirmish with Walt. From the looks of it, Mike is going to be forced onto Team White, but, like you said, it will be interesting to see how that conversation goes down. If Walt could punk Mike, that would be some kind of a feat. Any chance Mike has any new faith in Walt, or will he just be happy to have his old job back? Another loose end is the video of Pinkman cooking meth in the scum lab that might be circulating on the Mexican black market.

CS: Mike is a very practical man, I don't think he cares who he works for, he just knows not to bite the hand that feeds. So provided that Walt pays him properly, Mike is going to do his job and not really say anything about it.

SE: But what if Mike and Gus were secret lovers?

CS: That would be insane, though highly unlikely.

SE: There is a good chance that Mike will think that Gus's death was solely the cartel's work anyhow. Or do you think Walt is crazy enough at this point to sack up to it?

One thing we know about Season Five is that Walt and Jesse are going to continue to cook their blue meth. Any chance Walt sifts through his old buddies and finds a Gale type to hook him up with some lab equipment and maybe work for him? I know I bet Jesse and Walt wish they had the time to lift some of that pricey equipment from the superlab before it got toasted. Then again, if they keep Mike happy, I'm sure he has the connect.

CS: I think Mike is smart enough to know that Walt did this, but I also don't think Mike had any real loyalties to Gus.

Of course the blue meth is going to still be manufactured, hell they may even get themselves a new Winnebago temporarily until they can get a more secure setup. The hard part isn't the lab equipment, it's the materials.

SE: I have just one final plea to all television shows before we close this mother out: please stop with the "previously on" segments directly before a show airs. The annoying segments where every single plot line that is to come is spelled out in spliced clips from the show's past episodes, like Gus, have to go. Dexter is the worse about this, showing like two-to-three minute versions of these. Look, I know that the goal is to get as many viewers as possible and if people watch the show for the first time without knowing a key plot line it might detract them from the show, but any real fan would back track to figure out what was missed. There is nothing worse than getting all excited for what is to come in the episode and the "previously on" segment tips it off. It's a cheap way to shave a minute or two off of a television budget, and it must end. Give me all the preseason promo videos and pics as possible, but don't dick with me in season. And to Breaking Bad, if there is a super-violent scene, don't tip that off with a violent warning directly before the scene. Pay the FCC guy off or something. Good television is a commodity rarely witnessed, and I want to enjoy every second of it while this show lasts.

CS: I hate to rain on your rant, but I don't mind the episode previews. I don't understand why they don't just run the same warning before every episode. It would be easy to just show the warning with every mature subject in the season, listing that the episode may have one or more of the following.

"How much to put the Winnebago back together?"

SE: They do serve a purpose, and it's essentially what we do at the beginning of these articles, but some steps have to be taken to avoid a tip off. When something from ten episodes ago is shown it is pretty obvious that subject or certain character will be touched on in the coming episode. I think they need to be more concise and more vague. It's a fine line. It's weird, I don't have any problem with Breaking Bad tipping off viewers with the plethora of sneak previews and photos preseason. But Breaking Bad is an anomaly; I think I could read the entire script beforehand and still enjoy the show. I'll leave with a preview pic that shows Walt, Mike, and Jesse back together in a junk yard. You have to be happy that Carl from Billy Madison makes a triumphant return right?

CS: Super stoked for the return of Crazy Carl, I cant wait to see what other laws he has mastery of that give him an advantage in his shady business dealings.

Ok, folks, see you Monday. We look to cover each episode throughout Season Five, which will sadly only be eight weeks long for now. Look for an article each Monday morning. We don't have the privilege of having an advanced screening, so give us at least a couple of hours to deconstruct the episode and post our thoughts, and, as always, comments are encouraged and we will likely respond. If you have an idea or theory about the show--maybe Walt is going to start trying the product and get all Tuco'd out--we want to hear it.