Overall I thought it was a tad boring, but there were some good elements.

Walt losing it was interesting. He's obviously very scared for his life and the lives of those he loves. And the eventual bonding with Jessie was good.

However, as others have stated, it seems everything wound up being pointless when it was over. Walt didn't confess anything... him and Jessie's bonding was dead after Walt accused Jessie at the end. So basically the only thing that was accomplished was Walt warned Jessie that these guys aren't to be fucked around with - even though IMO he didn't stress it enough.

Many wasted opportunities.

Agreed. Fast-forwarded through most of the fly stuff, which went on WAAAAYYYYYYY too long.
Just really, really bad episode, but I guess it can happen to the best of 'em.

Don't forget that they killed the fly.

Like others have stated, I was ok with this episode until the end when the bonding went out the window. Made everything seem pointless.

I watched this for the first time last night. I didn't try to watch this after I watched LOST - because I would have fell asleep.

However - the last line of "not accusing" Jessie of stealing was a powerful line. They did bond, and that line was a kind of warning - hey we are in this together - and we will live and die by our actions as a team.

They had just bonded by working together to achieve a goal that was important to just one of the team members -even if it was an insignificant goal. Had they not just bonded, the old Walt would have thrown a fit and just outright blamed Jessie. This would have caused a whole bunch of trust issues, fighting, production conflicts, etc.

However, the new Walt did the mature thing and is giving Jessie and "out" as well as a warning him that his actions, as insignificant as he may believe they are, will have dire consequences not just for one of them - but the both of them.

I guess I'm in the minority, because I loved this episode. Walt's speech about the "perfect time to die" was brilliant. It was probably Bryan Cranston's strongest moment of the season.

I'm in both camps, a bit boring, but great acting loved Jesse misting up as Walt talked about having a beer with her dad, the night she died. And it was also nice to see Walt finally feeling bad and guilty for some of his actions, which I think he has been pretty immune to so far.

I liked this episode, but I can see where some would think it was boring (especially after the past few episodes!). I wonder if this episode should just be considered a "breather" before they hit the ground running in the last 3 shows. Also, maybe some of the things that happened will play a part in a future show (similar to the teddy bear in the pool at the start of Season 2)? The writers have not let me down yet....

--John

I pretty much hated it - easily the worst episode of the series... but it did have a few really great moments, but those add up to about 5 minutes out of 47. I think Rian Johnson really screwed the pooch on this because I found the directorial touches to be distracting and off putting - feeling NOTHING like an episode of Breaking Bad IMO.

Yea, this episode had moments that were awesome, like this one you mentioned.. But overall... ZZZZZZZZZZZZ I mean literally.. I fell asleep a couple times..

My favorite part was when Jesse thought he got the fly after jacking Walt across the face and then Walt picks it up and says "It's a raisin."

I really liked this episode a lot. Not every episode necessarily has to be action packed/tense like a lot of the episodes this season have been to be enjoyable. This was a good episode to take a breather with and I enjoyed seeing the bonding between Walt and Jesse. It was also interesting to see Walt starting to lose it was pretty interesting to me. I guess the main thing I might have changed was to have Walt confess to Jesse about being able to save Jane when she OD'ed.

I'm all for non action packed episodes.. It didn't have anything to do with that.. It was just sooooo slow... The thing with the fly was pretty retarded IMO and the ENTIRE episode was based around it.

Yeah, this show has had some great non-action packed episodes. The one in Season 2 when Walt and Jesse get stuck in the middle of the desert on a meth-cooking marathon comes to mind. "Fly" just didn't interest me much.

Yeah, after all that has happened this season I needed a little bit of a break from the constant action. A two man episode is great once in a while and I really liked this one. Cranston especially and Paul are great actors and to watch them show off their chops was a pleasure.

I dont understand this talk about the 'final scene'

The ACTUAL 'final scene' is Walt seeing the fly in the blinking light of the smoke alarm in his room that has been keeping him awake...dangerously paralleling Jessie's story of his aunt who was obsessed with the Possum and its indication that her cancer had spread to her brain.

And yes, Walt's soliloquy was brilliant.

^ Outside with Walt in the car.

That's better than my interpretation. I was really struggling to figure out why the fly was so important they had to base a whole episode around it. I thought the fly symbolized Walt's paranoia about the lab being 'bugged'. He only spoke to Jessie outside about the skimming because of it. Then when he got home, another fly. Thus realizing his apartment (his car, everything) is probably bugged as well.

this episode slowly grew on me and became as equally sublime as the entire series.

Yep! That's why this episode was so good ... Was it just paranoia or has his cancer spread to his brain? Or is the guilt starting to take it's toll?

At first I thought Walt was just worried that the fly would contaminate the lab, and when his batches came out wrong Gus would 'take care of him'. Then, I moved on to the bugged metaphor, but at the end I think they really wanted us to get the idea that Walt's cancer had moved into his brain. It kept swerving me.

It's funny, so many people disliked this episode, yet 5 days later, we're still trying to figure out what exactly it all means.

Maybe that's why some people didn't like it.

This is exactly what I took away from this episode. And I am in the camp that thought it was brilliant. This is one of the few shows that can concentrate on two characters in one room and make it go in a totally different direction than we all anticipated.

Also big ups to Rian Johnson for his great direction and Aaron Paul for that scene in the car with the cigarette butt. That was brilliant.

I loved this episode very different from normal breaking bad but I loved the claustrophobia of it all.

Anyone else think this is Aaron Paul's year to win an Emmy?