I have a question, which I could probably answer myself if I went back and re-watched season 3, but I don't really have the time to do that. Mike made the comment before Walt shot him regarding "we had a good thing with Fring, but you had to be 'the Man' and ruin it".

Is that an accurate portrayal of the history, or just something that fits the mindset and the personalities after-the-fact? I can't really remember what it was that made the relationship between Walt and Gus go so bad, so fast. Why didn't the "good thing" last, at least longer than it did? Because rationally, it seems like it should have. It was a good situation for everyone to make a lot of money in a well-run organization.

I have this vague sense that it was because Jessie was a screw-up and Gus wanted him out, but Walt was protecting him? There must have been other reasons, because Jesse eventually gets to be in Gus' inner circle.

Reading the season's synopsis on wikipedia is not refreshing my memory. It goes from "As for Walt, he realizes that his life was in danger and that it was only Gus' intervention that saved him" to "Gus, invites him to dinner and dispenses sage advice" to just two episodes later Gabe is getting shot to keep Walt from getting whacked by Mike.

Walt was gonna get out after their contract was up and then he would become a loose end. He realized Gus planned on killing him soon so he had to kill Gale so he was the only option Gus had for a cook.

I think it was ambiguous as to whether or not Gus was going to kill Walt once his contract was up. I think it was certainly an option, and it became the case when Walt acted the way he did. Walt acting paranoid about being killed once he wasn't useful become a self fulfilling assumption. The crazier and less stable he acted, the more sense it makes for Gus to not have him around knowing what he knows.

Anyone care to speculate about Gus' history in Chile pre-1986 that caused Don Eladio to spare him while executing his partner by the pool? Obviously the cartel missed the boat on methamphetamine at that moment by killing the cook, but who could Gus have been to walk out of that meeting alive with an eye towards partnership with the cartel?

Pinochet

Already getting soooooo mad that this is going to be over. FU AMC

It's better to end on a high note than to let the show drag out and become water trash for the sake of stacking a little more paper.

if i could tell 10 year old me changing channels as soon as malcolm in the middle was on the air that in the future you will get a boner over a teaser of bryan cranston reading a poem the first thing i would have said is "what's a boner"

It was after Walt ran over and shot two of Gus's men to protect Jesse. After that Walt convinced Gus to let him keep cooking, but he knew he was on a limited amount of time, especially as Gale was brought back as his assistant.

Ah, yes, that's right.

Many, I forgot about a lot of season 3... I'm not saying Walt hate is unfounded, but how do the "Walt is pure evil"'ers explain his protection of Jesse at times like this? Couldn't he just have let Jesse die and **** woulda been peaches?

And isn't Mike kinda wrong then? It's not like Walt just messed it all up. Jesse was gonna be killed and he saved him. He saved his friend, and that was the turning point. It makes sense though for Mike to see it that way. He certainly had a good thing going until Walt threw a wrench in it all.

The thing that makes rewatching Breaking Bad so great is you get all sorts of information after the fact that ends up changing your whole entire perception of how scenes can be interpreted through these changed attitudes.

On first watch, season 3 Gus comes across as purely a business man with the intentions to make as much money as efficiently and professionally as possible. To the viewer and Walt, he looks like the ideal boss and a major step up from the likes of Krazy-8 and Tuco, almost a match made in heaven for both sides. But it’s only later in season 4 through the Gus/Gale backstory do we get the true reasoning behind recruiting Walt in the first place: Gale couldn’t perfect the competition’s formula by himself so he asked Gus to bring in the superchemist to mentor him.

So Walt being accepted into the business had nothing to do with being a perfect partnership (from Gus’ POV), in fact it was the opposite for him, he hated Walt from the beginning. Didn’t like dealing with a highly untrustworthy calculating guy like Walt (with a drug-addicted partner to boot), it was a highly unstable situation to be in from the get go.

So when re-watching S3, what looked like Gus playing hero to Walt was actually Gus merely keeping Walt alive long enough for Gale to learn the recipes confidently himself.

Gus agreed to let Gale go when Walt asked him to. So, it's not like he just wanted Want to mentor Gale. You can see he had a lot of respect for him early, for example during their dinner together when Walt explained that memory and food stuff.

Watched an interview with VG on charlie rose today. I don't know how someone who made something so badass can be such a total nerd.

Most of the people who make most of the great things around these days are total nerds in one way or another. Don't hate.

nope
Gus actually offered Walt an extension(15mil/year) and Walt accepted

the reason it fell apart was Jesse, Gus even warned Walt beforehand to "not make the same mistake twice" during the dinner scene (not trusting a junkie)

jep there was mutual respect(good example is the scene where walt talks to gus about being aware that he was the original target and that gus played the cartel perfectly)

Also what I find interesting is that early on the women in the show are the most hate-able characters (Marie especially is portrayed as a huge bitch) but then from season 3 on it completely changes and they become the most sympathetic characters.

Hank's/Marie's roles basically reversed in season 3 after Hank got shot, Hank turned into a huge moody, depressive irrational bitch while Marie takes care of him as best as she can but is somewhat helpless(similar to Hank w/ moody, kleptomaniac Marie in earlier seasons)

Care to be wrong about anything else?

no u

Was thinking this (not exactly this) yesterday. To have my favorite poem ever read by someone who is most certainly my favorite actor now, and will most likely go down as my favorite all time, was like an out of body experience

Self preservation. If Jesse kills Gus' men he could end up in jail and rat out Walt

lol if you think jesse has even a semi-realistic chance 1vs2 in a gunfight vs those guys

Even if he dies, the investigation can certainly be traced back to Walt

jep that small possibility is certainly worse for walt than getting on the death list of a guy like gus

portraying the rescue of Jesse as self preservation is the most ridiculous thing i have read in a while

Gus let Gale go because he had no choice at that moment. It was still early in the partnership and to refuse such a request would have set off red flags to Walt that Gale was Gus' true endgame. Instead, he bided his time and waited for his opportunity to get Gale back into the lab with Walt while going about setting Jesse and Walt at odds with each other.

After Gale's execution he sought to make the best of a bad situation by angling towards Jesse being the cook knowing full well how little he thought of junkies. Gus saw Walt as nothing more than a large and valuable threat to be managed. Between his expertise in chemistry, his intelligence and ruthlessness, and his inability to let anything slide he was too dangerous long term. Gus even sniffed out the car bomb Walt planted at the hospital. The only reason Walt ended up getting him was his blind hatred for Hector, but even that tiny weakness ended up costing him everything.

Without Gale's insistence to Gus that Walt's skills were too great to ignore Walt never would have been brought in. Gus went in with both eyes open but ultimately Walt was too dangerous of an opponent to be handled.