I would be shocked if the USB thingie never came back. However, doesn't the black market have superior technology over law enforcement in these things? I figure it's very hard to find without seeing it sitting in the computer.

Yeah, maybe you guys are right. I think I must have been raped by a Hank lookalike as a child or something

Agree

Eh, I just didn't really agree with your assessment that he was a clown/goofball/basically dumb whatever. Hank has proven to be pretty sharp in the last couple seasons especially, and pretty easy to root for too.

I just listened to the podcast and bbfg's take on it is pretty misleading. Gilligan was describing a talk he had with the actor, and he was all over the place about how the scene should be played. The woman speaking right before Gilligan on the podcast, who I think was the writer for the episode, was pretty clear that the spider scene was meant to show that something was creepy and "not right" about Todd.

I've used keys to break plastic ties before. Mike took his keys and tossed them out of Walt's reach so he couldn't use them for that purpose. Doesnt change the fact that he could dive off if he got out, but still.

I don't remember it that way at all. I could be wrong though, but I am pretty sure they said multiple times that Todd was being sincere in the scenes and that he was indeed sorry, and then Giligan said that him keeping the spider was a way of showing that indeed he was sorry about what happened? And Giligan said that Todd isn't meant to be some psycho after too?

You mean cable ties, or the plastic cuffs cops use? I just assume that those are harder to break- but I've got no idea.

Actually, I called him a supercop, lol. I find his good-old-boy, cornball cop routine kind of grating (the dialogue with Gomez always seems especially rote, like something out of Cops Busting Balls 101) but he's obviously not a clown or goofball. If anything, he's almost preternaturally and unbelievably intuitive and sharp.

I think that is kind of the point with Hank's character though. The progression with Hank throughout the series and how you see him in the beginning as just being this huge d'bag who embodies all the macho frat BS that people hate about cops, and then he goes through a bunch of trauma and later has to force himself into acting like that again around his friends is a pretty great, and a big reason why I feel like I'm rooting for him now.

Him throwing Tuco's grill into the river, dealing with being paraplegic for awhile, and being contrasted with how Walt deals with all the crap that happens over the past couple seasons makes him a lot more sympathetic than in first couple seasons. Also, the fact that ultimately what snaps him out of depression is the prospect of catching Heinsenberg shows that at his center he's driven by doing actual police work and not necessarily just his ego or his image or money as opposed to Walt.

What you say is true, though even if he's putting on a show for Gomez, you still have to listen to it. But yeah, good points, and reading this thread I think I'm coming around on Hank.

Cable ties, ties. I called them plastic ties cause I thought there were different types but yes, cable ties. An edge of a key can help cut it or the metal gives leverage. I don't know. I'm just saying, that's what I took it to mean why he took 'em and only tossed them on the desk.

I don't know if there's a special brand of cable tie cuffs for cops, but I've tried to use my keys to go through like, heavy dude cable ties(like twice as think as the normal clear plastic ones) and that **** was not happening.

So you still don't even know what the point of the meeting was? Stop bitching about the writing if you can't even comprehend whats going on.

He had the meeting to buy him a window so he could do this meeting in the first place. I imagine lugging 1000 gallons of methylamine and getting 15 million in cash and then having to go pay his guys and make them whole is a day long thing, not just 3-5 hours. He isn't even looking to get out of town IMO, he wants to get out of the business and then become a model citizen.

No, you're right that Gilligan does say some of that. But the writer contradicts him. Starts at 23:30 or so. She (the writer) said they wanted that scene to show that Todd "might not be totally right," that they wanted to create an ominous sense about him, and that the spider thing was supposed to be "creepy and weird."

Gilligan contradicts this somewhat in his story about his conversation with Jesse Plemons ("maybe he just likes spiders"). But the point is, the podcast didn't definitively say one way or another.

Can we get a gif of Jesse eating greenbeans super awkward?

It's rare to have something that funny in a show as serious as BB, but it fit quite well.

I agree, people make mistakes. I agree, Mike is more likely to make mistakes because he is stressed about everything.


But the way in which he left Walt is just completely ridiculous and not plausible.

Mike "We are going to sit here all night until this deal goes down."

Mike knows Walt is going to **** it up. Mike knows Walt is a genius and has personally seen him slip out of tricky situations multiple times.


Mike then decides to LEAVE walt alone after telling him "We are going to sit here all night until the deal is done"

AND he leaves him his car keys.



So Mike makes multiple mistakes.

1. Leaving the store before the deal was done. (For a reason that is ******ed)

2. Not securing Walt better.

3. Not having Jesse or ******ed Matt Damon or ANYONE just sit and make sure Walt didn't go all MacGuyver

4. Leaving Walt's car keys on the table after he made a point of taking his car keys.





If Mike's only mistake was not thinking Walt would steal the MM, then that's different. He could think "Man, that was ******ed, I should have known he would try that."


But to just leave for no reason, and to leave Walt's car keys, and to leave him unwatched with only a little piece of plastic stoping walt from ****ing up a 15 million dollar deal?


That is too much for viewers that know the characters. It's just not believable and terrible writing.



and if I did this during the Lost show, it's because they probably had a character do something completely out of character to make the show go in a direction they couldn't otherwise go.


See Dexter season 5 finale. In what universe does Deb do that? She doesn't, but whatever, can't let that happen because then the series is over.

But they got one more season without __________ ___________ so it's more money for the network.



They obviously want Walt to have the MM, and the guys to want to get it from him, it was just ******ed the way it went down. And for a show like this, I expect better.

It's definitely easier to root for him after he nearly dies a few times on the job, recovers from paralysis, and does some good case work, but before that I don't think anyone was supposed to like him. Before the Tuco shootout, Hank is mostly a buffoon who insults Walt, often unintentionally, in the family scenes. Like in the pillow/couch scene in S1E5, Walt is thinking of refusing chemo, and Marie says maybe that's not a bad idea, Hank agrees, saying yeah maybe Walter should "go out like a man." Outside of the whole meth business, Hank's been the annoying in-law with zero respect for Walt the husband and Walt the father. Throw in stuff like him smoking Cuban cigars while going after other illegal drugs and there wasn't much to like about the guy.

you do realize Mike is in the shop


Mike being in the shop = the cops didn't follow him there.


If the cops didn't follow him there, the cops don't have a tail on him.


If the cops don't have a tail on him, he can drive the mother****ing MM right down main street in a pink corvette and the cops wouldn't know it was him.


Therefore, he doesn't need to go to the meeting to get the cops off his ass RIGHT NOW, because the cops aren't where he is, and unless he gets unlucky and a cop sees him drive by, there will be no cops at the meet.


So as long as he just stays with Walt, then drives with whomever to the exchange, there won't be any cops watching him.


But yeah, I'm ******ed.


Logic is hard.

I liked how Saul made the "Milton Berle had a large penis" reference to the only character old enough to understand it.

not ******ed. but not entirely correct either. as you say, it would be unlucky for mike to be tailed whilst transporting the MM to declan. but, here on the brink of getting out of the business and leaving dear kayleigh a reasonable-size inheritance, mike wants to be sure the sale goes through. that is, he does not want to countenance bad luck.

to argue that mike should never leave walt alone because he's run good/gotten out of tough spots before is ******ed. that is a logical leap.

walt gets out of jams in past --> never leave him alone restrained is not sound.

you're pretty smart. you would never have loosed yourself. in fact, even knowing now from heisenberg how to loose yourself, you're probably too soft to burn your arm up.

the point about taking the keys as best practices is well-taken. but this is a small error that is only exposed by a pretty sick escape.

if this is terrible writing, then we're a lock to never see a well-written show

Thanks to you both. I did try to listen but the friendly chat at the start didn't interest me particularly, as much as I love the show.

I interpreted the spider scene to imply something unusual about Todd. Really not sure how it could show sincerity, if that was intended. Will be interesting to see if it plays any further role. I suspect his prison connections will come into play anyhow.

Uh... maybe have someone deliver it for him.

TheHip- A character trying and failing to do something is not a plot hole. Yes, Mike could've restrained Walt in a better way. The point of that was just to remind us that Walt is a very good problem solver when he gets desperate.

The meeting with the cops was kind of contrived, but for all we know that meeting was scheduled by the DEA and it's not like he could say "No I'm busy Tuesday morning with selling this methylamine I stole from a train, how is Wednesday afternoon?"

Tying someone to a radiator is a pretty reasonable way of restraining them.

I think your issue is with Marie, who probably bought it and was on the other end of that phone call saying, "What? Miracle Whip, mayonnaise, it's all the same thing."