Also, did anyone notice how Jesse was stupider than usual this episode? In previous episodes you could tell that despite him not understanding everything, he was still a pretty smart person. This episode it felt as if he was almost a caricature of himself.

I thought he was being pretty typical. The thing with the key in the ignition was dumb but not completely moronic if he was just pissed at Walt for yelling at him about the keys and also upset that he couldn't spend the day with his girlfriend at the museum or whatever. Then with the water on the burning generator, he obviously wasn't thinking about the value of the water if they didn't get out of there -- he just wanted to put the fire out and did it in a way that a nonthinking person would react. And of course I totally believe he wouldn't know that copper is the element that conducts electricity in wires.

And, in terms of smarts, he actually picked up on the fact that the chemical they use to cook doesn't actually go bad and that Walt was really doing this because he felt he didn't have much time to live.

One of my favorite episodes, and I've seen them all. The Jesse-Walt interaction is what makes the show for me.

He does meth. Show me any meth head out there that doesn't know that wire is made from copper.

I figure that most meth producers don't know enormous amounts of chemistry as much as they just follow the same exact steps every time they produce

Yeah, but they know ripping copper wire from walls = $$$

I was referring to the lengths that tweakers go to get copper of any kind, including risking electrical shock by getting the copper wire out of power cords and crap like that. They'll even try to steal transformers with power connected from construction sites.

lol at Walt hooking the battery up to both terminals and not positive/positive negative/ground when jumping from the generator. WTF, he knows better than that!

This episode was painful to watch. You knew they were going to get out of the desert. Generator failed, ok, call friend, fail, spend 20 minutes of air time turning a crank, start!, wait no fail again, wait some more, crack some jokes, create a battery.

On another note, does anyone else hate Walter Jr. as much as I do?

the last 3 episodes are like 3 different shows

dark, comedy, drama

i love this , you never know what to expect from BB

Jesse was definitely acting dumber than normal, but keep in mind he was stuck out in the desert for >12 hours with no water.

I like the remission angle - let's find out the real Walt, now that he's had a taste of taking control of his life.

He seems seriously pissed that his cancer isn't cooperating with his tidy plan to cook, sell, and die.

-d

Yeah I think it's pretty common amongst people who've accepted they are going to die soon to be very angry when they find out they are going to live.

I just took all of this to mean that the writers were showing that he is still basically a ******, despite the fact that things have been going well for him over the past few episodes. Like at any point in time, Jesse can easily do something that would instantly bring down the whole Heisenberg operation and land everybody in a pretty big jam. Kind of like, don't be fooled by his recent run of good luck, this kid's still an enormous ****-up and being involved in any kind of scheme with him is still a really bad idea.

One of the fascinating aspects of this show is that Walt immediately accepted his fate while his family started on the textbook "stages of death." They go through denial, anger, etc, sometimes directed at him, while he accepts it and comes alive (which to a certain extent means a lot of misdirected anger, but it is of a different sort, I think).

I would guess perhaps a scientific type like Walt might approach the big happenings in life a bit differently than most "normal" folk.

I always thought that the stages of death model for helping people transpire seemed hollow. A few years ago someone mentioned to me that, while possibly so, it sometimes lent itself to the family/support group more so than the dying. I thought that was interesting, but it didn't occur to me at the time that I'd never seen it explored on film.

Seriously. I would think a bunch of poker players would know that people can get really loopy when not eating and sleep-deprived.

YES! Horrible actor imo.... his facial expressions tilt me. This episode definitely had one in the doctor's office where he makes a big O face in the background.

Laughed at this more than anything I've seen on TV in awhile.

what condition does walt jr have? I thought it was just bad legs or something but he acts ******ed while appearing to have normal intelligence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy

That's my guess.

"Is that baby ever going to come out?"

Felt like he was speaking to the audience, hence why I loved that line.

Overall a great change of pace. They've been throwing out these uber intense episodes for awhile and I like seeing them (temporarily) return to basics. It started with Jesse/Walt and after teasing us with brief interactions for awhile they blew it up gave us an entire episode full of them. Awesome.

It's the Michael Corleone story, don't you see. Michael always said (and believed), "that's my family, that's not me." But it was him after all.

Walt has been pretending that he was just doing it all for his family, but he's discovering that he likes who he is becoming, and now he is not going to have imminent death as a way to rationalize what he is doing.

This