no to everything you just said

I thought this at first but then I thought that Gus completely cut out the Cartel's supply... so yeah, he pretty much is dependent on Walt.

I'm still stuck on the fact that I don't think killing Gayle bought Walt that much time. But oh well, I'm over it

yeah, no way jesse shoots walt... no wai

well one thing that breaking bad really mind****ed me on -- and im sure this was discussed in this thread, i havent been keeping up -- was putting stuff re: jane in the previously on, which made me spend the entire episode (particularly, of course, the fly episode) freaking the **** out that walt was going to confess. in fact -- and there are tons of examples of this, although the only other one that comes to mind right now is the scene with hank and the camper -- this show builds and maintains palpable edge-of-your-seat tension better than any show ive ever watched.

I concede to all of your counter points, very well put. As for the quote above, I think that Walt was simply using sick meta game. There was no direct positive or negative outcome from the accusation, but Walt was able to make it, and then when Gus got all emotional Walt was able to essentially tell him to stfu. On that issue there was simply nothing else that Gus could say, he got all worked up and then had to let Walt have the last word.

best part of episode was gus visiting gail and sitting down then gails tries to sit down and his couch has obviously never had 2 people on it. crazy how perfect they made his character and he was in 2-3 episodes?

Gaehl was awesome. I felt like I really got to know him and then poof he's gone.

Rip

In a way, I'm actually hoping that Season 4 will be the final season. (I know that in interviews Gilligan has been saying 4 or 5 total was his goal) Unless there's a fracture in Gus's "small" team - which I'd be very surprised to see - or the DEA or rival cartel takes out Gus's operation, it looks like next season, if it were the last, would resolve the primary Walt/Jesse vs Gus conflict.

Ive only watched the episode once live but when I was watching it I remember thinking to myself that it sounded realistic to an actual silenced gun and not completely mute. Also you can reuse silencers you that right?

I do agree with the point though that you cant have everything perfectly realistic on tv or tv would be incredibly lame.

Just rewatched & didnt catch Sauls license plate the first time "LWYRUP"

Que? To many negatives here. Anticipating an interruption to supply seems pretty sane for any business, and standard for the drug trade where the occasional shipment is going to be raided or caught in transit.
Stockpiling meth would be a pain as it has a short shelf life before degrading in most forms. I'm sure Walts recipe is tv-stable though.

I really don't have any problems with any sort of nit picking or other complaints. I'm sure they are reasonable and fair and cast some doubt on the reality of it all.

That said, in the world of the show, Gus made it clear when he was talking to Gayel that he could not abide a week without production. There is an enormous urgency/sense that he is exposed investment wise. Production is his imperative beyond all else -- in Gus's own words. I accept that.

Yeah, and to be honest, I'm not sure how much that particular nitpick even holds water in the "everything must be likely to happen in the real world" sense.

Gus just took over production from the cartel. He has a huge network of people he's got to distribute to, and this is the drug game. They're not going to be happy with a delay in shipment. Not to mention the whole investment in this lab.

Yes, this was a risk and Gus put himself in this situation, but it was a calculated risk. The reward is huge, and he had been confident in his control over Walt at the time he originally chose this path.

Me too, me too. I personally think it will be treated as a short term solution by the writers.

I was just trying to clarify what he was saying "the fact that anticipating uninterrupted production on an ongoing basis seems a little unrealistic?" - seems nonsensical.

ha the look of disgust when Walt sees a recumbent bike is great. Only tools ride recumbents.

was thinking the same thing. Once he had that talk with Gus, he knew what was going on.

oh definitely. But the point is, Gale knew what kind of world he was getting mixed up in. Also why is everyone's phone on vibrate on this show?

Sepinwall's take on Gale is spot on. In only a few short scenes with the man, he became a character with a life. It was a really sad ending to me. I thought Gale was awesome in that final scene. Very touching.

Another also: the music on this show is great. I still listen to the mexican Heisenberg song. The stuff Gale was listening to was pretty good. Sick work by the actor who plays Gale to get all this lyrics down and sing them fairly well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROf8KnDW4j8

I always thought that Heisenberg song was suppose to take place in the future.

i agree. Granted, i know nothing about cooking meth, but most of the scenes with Walt in his lab is him just telling his asst "hey do this I'll watch." Show could have done a better job of showing why an asst is even necessary (beyond cleaning).

So what you are saying is you agree with what i said... that Gus should've planed for an interruption in productivity/supply. My point was that Gus has been presented up until the last 2 episodes as the perfect drug lord, and not planning for even a week's interruption in production seems extremely short-sighted for such a criminal mastermind.

If that's the case, then I can accept that, since everything I know about meth I have learned from this show and the Jim Carrey Ride the Snake SNL sketch. But everything in the show so far has treated meth as having a long enough shelf life to last a few weeks at least. Especially the episode where Walt tricks Jesse into cooking for 3 days straight telling him one of the chemicals will breakdown.

Gus is at an extremely volatile time in his business. He's trying to take over the manufacture and total control of the meth trade in a huge section of the country. He probably works with mid-level guys who buy his stuff and do their own distribution. If Gus keeps them with the blue stuff, they're happy to deal with him exclusively, but if he starts missing shipments then they may have to go with alternate sources to supply the demand, which means letting the cartel (maybe with a new gus type guy) getting their foot in the door. Gus needs to keep to keep his operation running at 100% during this transition until he's got the distribution solid and the cartel shut out.

In a month or two he might be able to afford a week without shipment, but not now.

Hank was busy shooting an episode of Medium.

Dont need hank anyway. We know he went home and hes recovering.

Even if he has two weeks meth stockpiled, where is he going to find someone to start cooking 200 pounds a week of ultra-pure meth? Is he going to post a Craigslist ad?

The same way he found Gale. We don't know, but if a bunch a junkies can manage to make it on a regular enough basis that cold medicines have to be pulled off the counter these days, I am sure he could find someone to make decent enough quality product that he could continue to keep his empire rolling even with a drop-off in the quality of the product.

Well as long as you're sure.

I'll tell you this. I'm a chemist (OK a poker player with a degree in chemistry), and any competent professional organic chemist could pull off what Gus needs him to. BUT ALL THE COMPETENT ORGANIC CHEMISTS HAVE GOOD JOBS AT DOW AND AREN'T GOING TO START A NEW CAREER COOKING METH. There's just no ****ing way.