just seems silly that they'd go thru this devious plan of destroying a laptop using science and reuniting mike + jesse/walt despite palpable tension between mike + walt and then it turns out that oops only the screen is broken and the HD is still fully intact and has videos of them cooking in the superlab which the police can recover at any moment

I think the most likely possibility is the writer is completely computer illiterate and shot it the way it appears with the logic of, "OMG laptop with broken screen, game over, can't possibly use any more."


But I don't want to believe that.

I'm just glad they didn't go for the cliche EMP bomb

I never considered that they weren't going for the "magnet>harddrive" thing. It might be an old wives tale, but that was a thing I heard a ton of times when I was younger.

I initially thought that's what they were going for too, but the way jesse describes the plan and the fact it's never even brought up at all ever, makes it seem like they were indeed going for the physical destruction of the laptop.

Struck me as strange throughout.

Can't believe I let myself get trolled.

i think that jesse had a great idea without even realizing it at the time. of course he only thought about the physical destruction of the laptop, but once he mentions the magnets walt realizes that they can destroy the hard drive with magnets even without destroying the laptop physically.

in "4 days out" walt also reached a dead end and had no idea how he could get the rv to run again. jesse rattles of things that walt could create and when he mentions the battery walt realizes how he could get them out of the desert.

They have to start cooking again and soon, seems like Walt is out of/low on money (had to borrow from Jesse to pay for the magnet truck).

Yea call me a troll rather than make 1 salient argument refuting what I've said here. Exactly where in the episode do they make any reference to wiping a hard drive being their plan?


Schooont, if this is indeed the case, why didn't they ever say it? Do they expect every viewer to have heard the story about magnets wiping a HD? (Which I think is very possibly a wive's tale.)


I mean honestly I'm surprised no one else thought of this. I think it's more likely crappy writing than any kind of weird angle, but still.

magnet truck at the scene may help clue hank into gus not being heisenburg

similar combination of technical proficiency and sloppy execution as season one's precursor theft

jmakin,

this will all be resovled next episode in a conversation like this

hank: "did you find anything that could store the footage from the security camera in the superlab?"

abq pd: "we found a laptop, but the hard drive was ruined by some guys in a magnet truck. everything was wiped clean. but we discovered some bank account numbers that you may be interested in."

No, jesus, no. How are some of you so bad at watching TV?

How they sent the evidence flying:

"To create this illusion, he said, the various items were fastened to cables tied to pulleys that crew members had to turn in a quick and specific sequence. (This scene had to be shot a second time when the objects did not appear to fly fast enough in the first go-round.) Then special-effects artists digitally erased the cables from the footage."

I thought the idea was to erase the data using a magnet. I can't imagine that damaging the computer will significantly damage or ruin the evidence, but I can't say I know that much about recovering data. But you're right, that was never mentioned in the show, so maybe that's not the plan.

that's what i think too but i'm still tilted at the vague way they shot it.

When Walt said, "What about a magnet?", echoing what Jesse had said, Jesse responded with a silent motion that clearly indicates using a magnet to wipe the hard drive. The motion he made didn't even remotely resemble "let's use a magnet to cause the laptop to slam into a wall."

LOL you can't be serious. He clearly illustrated the laptop flying across the room into a wall, even smacking his hands together at the end to drive it home.

The issue is the surveillance videos on the hard drive. Therefore, destroying the hard drive is their objective.

Perfectly willing to admit I jumped the gun saying Ted was definitively dead. Thought it might suck having him be alive, but I almost gasped a little at the reveal of what he looked like in his hospital bed. Didn't mind the way they did it.

Loved the premiere in general, particularly the opening shot. Really interesting to see where Walt will be a year or more from now in the BB timeline.

Also loved "Magnets, bitch!" and Mike pretending to be the Postal Service on the phone. Really excited about next week's episode, mostly because of the title.

And so it begins.

I believe Jesse also makes another noise and motion to indicate something else happens, my interpretation was him implying the wiping of the hard drive. This is all beside the point, though. They literally show you what they plan on doing in the test run. The laptop starts to visually fizzle out, Jesse says "That did it", and then a visual gag of the laptop flying towards the magnet. Wiping the hard drive IS destroying the hard drive. The fire and bombing options are merely over-the-top executions of accomplishing this.

Sure, it may not have worked, but their plan was clear as day.

edit:

Watch the scene again:

Jesse's motion at the magnet suggestion

not an old wives tale a strong magnet will wipe out a hdd, now usually you have to pass over it a few swipes.
Now here is the kick in the ass, if its a solid state drive/flash drive then a magnet likely wouldn't effect it.

jmakin do you think Walt will use that big gun he bought to fire bullets they didn't really say

ah, but this show has had plenty of caper epsiodes! I thought it was quite nice to get back to one of those.
Of course he's more proud and egoistic. He just murdered the meth kingpin of the southwest, he no longer has anyone in power over him, no immediate threats hanging over his head, and it's becoming clear to him that everyone fears him.
I wasn't sure if Breaking Bad could pull off a villain more intense / terrifying than Gus, but they seem on their way to doing it here.

Gus was scary because he was in control at all times and willing to do whatever it takes-- that his silent, professional exterior hid an absolute ruthlessness. Walt is scary because he's out of control-- he doesn't seem to care about maintaining a front, about collateral damage, about much of anything but relishing in his power and achievements. He's like a comic book villain at this point.

Seriously guys. Come on. Everybody knows that magnets do bad stuff to electronics. The dude from the dump even had a little spiel about it wiping credit cards.