Just amazing.

I was waiting for Walt's car to mow down the dealers as Jesse approached them. I didn't expect him to get out and execute the guy still alive.

Run!

i have no ****ing idea what is going to happen next

it makes sense the whole premise of this show is that walt is over his head, and doesnt really know how to be a criminal so he acted impulsively in saving jesse. It also makes sense why they would kill the kid, because obv there afraid of him ratting or something.

The thing that suprised me the most besides walt coming out of no where and murdering people was that Gus even comprimised with jesse in the first place. I figured once he said no to Gus in that scene that he was as good as dead, i mean jeese isnt his main cook and hes been stealing from gus so i was really suprised he spared his life in that scene.

They killed the kid to piss off Jesse. It was the ultimate way to hurt him.

It is starting to get obvious now that they are going for a happy go lucky ending to Breaking Bad.

What is going to happen next, best guess is:

Gus is angry at Walt and Jesse and forces them to keep cooking until whatever date, your classic James Bond scenario of bad guy forces good guy to do something at gun point until the other good guys bust in and kill the bad guy.

Hank then finds out Walt is a meth cook. He learns to walk. He agrees to help Walt get Gus in a setup so that Walt and Jesse can survive.

I sort of wanted a Soprano style progression where Jesse was killed and then Walt and Skylar are eventuality executed to end the show... but it is seeming less and likely that it will happen.

Walt shooting the dude in the head was ****ing awesome though.

Why not kill jesse though instead of doing this complicated act where they kill a kid to make jesse lash out and give them "justifaction" to kill him, if he wants someone dead he just does it. Gus is someone who just cares about business and doesnt care about anyones feelings or needs a justification in the eyes of others. I agree that hes probably going to die but I dont think the kid had anything to do with it, im suprised he didnt kill him early or middle of the episode for the reasons I wrote above.

What were the other two items that Walt was weighing in Sauls office? Some nice symbolism of him weighing the clips (murders), but I couldnt tell what the other two things were that were heavier in the last shot of the scale.

Very excited for next week.

I lol'd at ''Over the carnage'' by Walt Whitman on the tv.

lead to the final scene nicely : )

I also thought that half measures scene was that one guy giving a professional courtesy to Walt that there going to kill jesse (for stealing). I mean he sets it up by saying that this one guy made mistakes beating his wife so he gives him a harsh reminder which was what he calls a half measure. he ends up regreting it saying he only does things to the full measure so I thought it was his way of saying jesse doesnt deserve a warning and he just going to finish him off like he wishes he had killed the guy who beat his wife.

haha thats a good point i didnt think about that

Are you actually serious?

ya thats what i thought too. also so he doesnt snitch. highly doubt it was some chess move by gus to get jesse to snap. the dealers have a telling smirk at the office meeting too.

and ya, i would think irl gus would just take out the dealers for jesse or allow jesse to do it.

Moar thoughts and comments from PJ, plz!

Or just kill Jesse.

This show never fails to surprise me, so I wonder if there's going to be another explanation for the kid's murder. Like others have mentioned, maybe it was ordered by Gus (for whatever reason), was someone else (Badger and the other dealer guy, revenge for Combo), or was just random. Ok, the last two seem pretty unlikely considering how those guys were ready and pretty much just waiting for Jesse to show up for a shootout. But then again, if it wasn't them the show could explain that away by saying those guys knew Jesse would blame them and come calling.

Wonder how Walt is going to handle this now. If he's just going to be straight up and tell Gus, in an attempt to jump on this grenade and take the hit (knowing that he has more currency to burn with Gus, and might be able to survive the fallout), or if they'll just bolt from the responsibility and lie about it.

Damn, I feel like I have to watch this one again...

there's no way the kid would rat them out b/c they would tell him we'll kill you and your family

gus needed to be able to take out jesse w/o alienating walt

I couldn't disagree more with this, especially the bolded.

I wasn't surprised at all given how valuable Walt is to Gus. Gus knows that killing Jesse would jeopardize his relationship with Walt. It seems like a pretty easy decision to spare him.

Gus doesn't get his hands dirty. As we saw with his dealing with Hank / the Cousins / the Cartel earlier this season, if he can move the chess pieces in such a way to get his desired outcome without giving away his role in the game, he does it.

I don't know if Gus had the dealers kill Tomas so that Jesse would snap, but if he wanted Jesse gone, that's exactly how he would go about it-- especially considering he loses Walt if he blatantly has Jesse executed.

To tie into that theory, someone on another discussion board (probably the A.V. Club or Alan Sepinwall's blog) mentioned that the meeting Gus called was in part so that the dealers would see Jesse's face and be prepared to defend themselves if they recognized him. If Gus had decided to dispatch Jesse, this makes a lot of sense given how he operates.

The one thing that irks me a little, and i know walt did this in the spur of the moment and wasnt thinking of the consequences but i means theres going to be so much evidence against him like paint from his car on the victims or traces of the victims dna on his car, or tire treads in the area that match the car. If gus doesnt find out he killed those guys the police with todays knowledge could potentially screw walt. It alsmost seems like jeese's plan of using posion was the smartest thing to do. In addition walt really this whole time has been relatively smart especially when it comes to protecting himself, his own interests, and his family. This was maybe the stupidest thing to do in terms of his self interest, the smartest thing from his perspective would have just to let gus kill jesse but walt must really have a soft spot for jesse. Its going to be interesting how it plays out because obviously walt isnt going to die or else there wouldnt be another season.

You're "that guy" this week.

that's the whole point. Walt treats him like a son-- Jesse is the one person in his life whom he has any kind of personal relationship on him and who hasn't given up on him. "Family is all."

As far as the rest of your post, I think the police are not too terribly concerned about gang killings, and even if they were, Gus (and Mike) (and even Saul) would have some way to scrub the car of evidence.

I wonder if Walt's prints are on file from his traffic arrest...

Yes. It's just the vibe I got after this episode, which is that the characters aren't in any actual danger. Everything is going to be OK long term. I still love the show of course, it's just that happy endings are usually less powerful than the Soprano family getting whacked at their last supper. I am not really criticizing, as much as expressing my personal taste.

Nath,

Why do you think an unhappy ending is more likely now than a happy one?

What are you basing this on? The murders this episode, or the pissed-off crime bosses they left behind? Or the swath of human carnage the first three seasons of the show has left in its wake?

You realize that didn't actually happen except in your own interpretation, right?

this. i've been a critic of a lot of season 3 so far ( a few good episodes ) but this was a very good episode.