Gus is obviously keeping the Twins a secret from Walt. I thought for sure he was going to use that as a bargaining... like offer him protection for cooking plus money...

But now its obvious that Gus is keeping that a secret cause he has alterior motives. Like everyone is saying, hes a ruthless capitalist. All he needs Walt for is to cook... I say Gus hands him over to the Mexicans after hes done cooking.. or something...

For the series to go on, there needs to be some sort of secret in Walt's formula that he only knows or something. So that he cant just be disposed of. They have tons of ways to go.... but its obvious from what we've been given that Gus wants walt to cook then has no intention of protecting him from the Mexicans

he said last episode that he doesn't believe fear to be an adequate motivator.

Which is kind of an incorrect statement contextually imo.

'Motivation' is typically required for someone to do something they can't or won't easily do. Walt seems to be able to easily make the meth.

In other words...if someone told you that two Mexican gentlemen would chop you to death with an axe unless you sat on your ass and watched TV all day instead of going on a pre-planned hike it seems quite the adequate motivation for me.

So many great little details in this show.

My parents moved to Albuquerque in 1994 and a few years ago retired to Santa Fe. But when we had a house in ABQ it had the heated Mexican tile floors that Skyler was remarking about in the opening scene of this episode. I notice great local details about ABQ every week on Breaking Bad, but that one in particular is great because I always associate Albuquerque with things like heating that comes through the floor. In the winter, we could walk around in bare feet and it would be awesome. Heat rises, so it takes less power to heat the house, and of course it's great to the touch. Always wondered why that was something you only see in New Mexico.

I think possibly one of the reason's he's keeping Walt under his thumb is that he has the lab wired up with cameras and he's going to do his best to discern Walt's recipe/technique before the twins get to him.

I think the idea for Sky is that she doesn't want to get too comfortable. She doesn't want to leave stuff with Ted. She puts the towel on the floor because she doesn't want to get too used to the heated floors.

Started S1E1 Friday and finished S3E5 today. Excellent show. Starting Mad Men next I think.

^ good choices, both are top 5 dramas of all time imo! (I just made a list and put them at 4 and 5)

who do you think is more susceptible to making mistakes:

A. someone who is working under immense stress
or
B. someone who is working confidently.

Yeah this was also my impression. Since he owns so many restaurants -- I think they said like 15? -- he probably just shows his face in a couple of them from time to time.

I'm not completely convinced that Gus wants to just observe Walt, get his formula and then feed him to the cousins. I'm just not completely convinced that he's some ruthless kingpin as much as he's an honorable businessman re: drugs.

The wire sucked. I died in the first scene

wtf are you talking about?

I think he's saying that the showers are some kind of symbolic vehicle to show similarity between Hank and Ted. And since he proposes Ted is on the way out, somehow so is Hank

I wonder if Walt will ever be forced to choose to kill hank

I still don't think he's that ruthless, but he's in a bad situation.
Walt is the only person who knows how to cook the blue meth. The cousins want to kill walt, and Gus cannot jeopardize his cartel business by killing the cousins. Seems like sooner or later the cousins are going to get Walt, and Gus has to get access to Walt's knowledge in order to continue a steady stream of meth.

Put your god damn spoilers in tags, ffs! This isnt the The Wire thread...


BTT:
I think it is hard to predict what Gus will do to Walt. We have no real information on how he sees Walt besides a good cook, that he needs to get even richer.

Btw, does anyone know how much 1lbs of Meth is worth?

This is pretty bad. He wants Walt to want to do it to ensure the best product. The more pride Walt takes in his meth production, the better the product will be. If Walt is only doing it out of fear, he's not going to be as precise. He's not going to care as much. Gus doesn't really seem like the type to settle for mere adequacy.

Do you guys think the cousins can be bought off or negotiated with, or are they hellbent on avenging Tucos death?

I would think that hellbent is pretty much a given. Any negotiation is just going further delay their actions. It is possible that either Gus, Walt or both will end up tricking the cousins in some way such as faking Walt's death, but that is just loose speculation.

Pretty much zero chance they get bought off. Besides being lame, it just wouldn't fit their characters.

Complete speculation, but given we haven't had a big explosion yet this season, I think they come after Walt in the lab in the finale and **** goes kablooey.

maybe he just throws one of those dynamite meth rocks at their face

If you haven't watched The Wire yet you fail at life. That scene is like 7 years old. You want me to put any comparisons to The Godfather or Pulp Fiction in spoiler tags?

Everyone who is thinking Jesse will be killed off is way off base here. Jesse and Walt are actually going through a role reversal this season. Throughout the entire 1st 2 seasons, Jessie was always the unstable one who had to be reigned in by Walt, This season Walt is becoming increasingly unstable every episode, while Jessie is actually starting to display the cold-hearted business approach that Gus has perfected.

Gus telling Walt that Jessie's product was roughly the same quality as Walt's was a huge deal. I think the upcoming confrontation with Hank may give Jessie a chance to prove to Gus that he is clean, sober, and most importantly, more mentally stable than Walt.

Also regarding Skyler and Walt, I still think she eventually comes on board and helps him hide his money which causes a major conflict with Saul.

they were selling it for $2500 an ounce iirc - so $40k per pound.

another thing that seems a little odd: i didn't see S1, but i find it hard to believe walt's cooking skill could be this rare - i mean he's a chemistry teacher, but he's not a Nobel prize winner - and if pollos has the expertise to set up a state of the art meth lab, it seems he could use the same expertise to figure out how to make the stuff especially if he had a sample.