That was one of the best episodes of the series. It was perfect. Everything we saw and heard was integral to the main themes. Not a shot was wasted.

and in case it isn't clear:

Mike only spares Lydia because he knows Walt and Jesse need the methyl. And he's only reconsidering because his money has been seized by the Feds. He has no choice. But yeah, it's going to bite him the ass.

That last scene with Walt and Skyler was chilling.

They should have established how Mike knew they were having trouble getting methylamine.

Also, they could have synthesized the methylamine themselves. Looks like a pain in the ass but definitely not a show stopper:

http://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodiu....chemhack.html

We don't really know that, do we? More likely it's only his alias's 52 birthday and not his own.

Also, I love that the laptop was encrypted and they likely wouldn't have been able to get anything from it anyway, which means that Walt's scheme basically only served to expose the offshore accounts and put everyone in a world of ****.

He didn't mention methylamine at all.

Didn't they mention in the meeting with him that they needed his contacts to get precursor? (edit - even if they didn't mention methylamine specifically, I think Mike has some idea of what is necessary to the process, if not how to cook himself.)

We talked about this last week, but it's not that likely that Walt would celebrate a fake birthday with the bacon-numbering. It's also fairly likely that his alias would retain his original birthday, simply to make it easier to remember.

There are several precursors. Only Saul, Walt, and Jesse were in the meeting where they specifically talked about Methylamine IIRC.

It's possible, but someone else mentioned that Walt went through a lot of trouble to make sure that waitress would remember him ($100 tip, birthday bacon, talk about the long drive from New Hampshire). He made that alias have a birthday on that day because he needed an excuse to show his ID to the waitress. No reason it had to be his actual birthday.

precursor = methyl

If you weren't convinced by the bacon (a callback to the pilot) that it's clearly a scene from the not-so-soon future, you could just look at, you know, his full head of hair and thick beard. They're not going to show us a scene from six months in the future and dupe us into thinking it's 15 months, mostly because there's no point to doing so. We were obviously supposed to take away from that scene that Walter White makes it to his actual 52nd birthday.

That's actually an interesting point I haven't considered. His actual 52nd birthday also seems pretty far into the future, considering slightly less than a year has lapsed so far (that's not a spoiler, is it?) I guess I could see it going either way-- but I do agree we're *meant* to think it's his 52nd birthday.

Also, would the DEA / the U.S. really have jurisdiction over offshore accounts? How does that work? I thought that was the whole reason to have offshore accounts.

what about the phenylaskylar acid?

you only think she's hot because you're comparing her to skylar

top 3 character.

Mike is top 1 though.

No.

Walt: "Precursor: Where are we with that?"
Jesee: "Uh, we're good on everything except uh, methylamine."

You'd think I'd have figured out by now not to get drunk before watching. Mind blown even though I don't think I could tell you what happened.

Oh no! I have to watch it again sober! Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

I foresee a Mike-getting-kicked-out-of-Philly-PD cold opening in the near future

Really enjoyed that episode after being a bit underwhelmed by the premiere. As some other posters said, it really felt like every shot advanced the story in some way and no screentime was wasted.

I love the way they lingered on Hank at the end of the DEA office scene. That shot really planted the seed for the Hank vs Walt arc this season. It will be interesting to see how long it takes Hank to start acting on his suspicions.

Did anyone make out what Mike whispered to Lydia when he initially confronted her and had a gun to her head? There was something said but it was hard to make out over the maid. Probably nothing too important, but would be cool to know.

I feel like the bday thing is likely mostly giving viewers a landmark for when the flash forward takes place. That's just a guess.

Agree that it's great they mentioned the encryption on the laptop.

Was that Mia Kirshner all grown up who plays Lydia?

it's her giant anime eyes imo

But if we were only supposed to think it's his the 52nd birthday of his alias, why show us the bacon? Why wouldn't they just have him walk in and tell the waitress it's his birthday to get his free meal? The bacon is meant as a sign for us, not the waitress.

Now, if you want to argue that the writers are trying to dupe us into this line of thinking, I guess I understand that, but I just don't really see the point. If they were trying to fool us, why even use the bacon in the first place? And it's not like that would be some fantastic reveal anyway. I just don't see the logic of it if it doesn't end up being Walt's actual 52nd birthday.

jesse made it clear that there is a shortage of methyl. Being intimately involved with the meth trade, mike would just know.

When he asks Lydia, she says "maybe", making it clear that this is just a problem for meth producers in general.

CLEAR!

Lord no. Unless she's aged horribly since The L Word- Kirshner is way hotter.

RIP Chow, Never Forget!