AVP77

When you think of some of the over-the-top elements in previous seasons, like 2 passenger planes colliding over Walt's house being related to his actions, and the silent ultra-stylish Mexican twins, Gus's death was actually kind of toned down. Thankfully.

I love the show, but it's not aiming for realism all the time.

Double_Oh_7

You do know it's a TV show, right?

Raul3

Yeah, basically what AVP77 said. Don't look for ultrarealism here. They go more for style, and they deliver.

JayDerek

if the Gus thing happened in a show like The Wire...I would agree with you. Like others have said above me, Breaking Bad is not ultra realistic.

Me? I loved his death scene. Fitting for a bad ass character.

auto

I would consider BB fairly realistic. I am by no means disappointed with the scene, but I would have rather had him stumble out before the big reveal. No doubt he was in shock and would not have been walking out like nothing happened.

Anubis2005X

But he's Gus Fring...

Dragon Tattoo

That's ridiculous.

PacMan2006

I agree. As much as I love this show, I'm surprised so much of the discussion has revolved around how believable it was for Walt to supply Brock with the Lilly of the Valley, and less about how unrealistic it looked to see a man walk non-nonchalantly out of a room with half his face completely obliterated.

Not only that, it didn't shock me much simply because I saw the same exact effect in The Dark Knight. I admit the effect was well done, but it didn't fit into the world Breaking Bad has created (to me).

But anyway--getting back to the foreshadowing. I don't know if that skull in Gale's room has anything to do with anything, but for those that think Vince and the writer's didn't plan out that sequence in advance, check out the official BB podcasts on iTunes. Vince specifically says that they had Gus' demise figured out by the end of season three, and didn't want to do it because they wanted him as the villain for season 4. They even called it "DING BOOM" because they knew Tio would ring the bell and set off the bomb.

So that was something they've been holding onto for a LONG time.

Mike86

One question I've had and maybe I missed something. Where did Walt get the car that he was in at the end of the show? It wasn't his Aztek but rather some kind of white Toyota SUV.

Deftones

i assume he rented it (not show) so he could drive around and do his thing without being spotted.

RobLutter

Walt crashed the Aztek in order to stop Hank from investigating the laundry

Mike86

I realize that but I figured he might've had it fixed by now. He's damaged it a bunch of times and had it repaired. I guess I was just curious as we never saw that vehicle up to that point that I remember. Actually in episode 12 wasn't he driving the Aztek? That would've been after the crash.

Gdrlv

Thought I read somewhere that the Aztek is totaled and will not be back. I hope that's not true. That ugly car is one of my favorite characters on the show.

AVP77

I'd say it's more of a hatchback or station wagon than SUV. Not sure of the model though. The first time I saw it was when Walt got cattle-prodded outside Jessie's, and then they took it out with him in the desert. I assumed it was a car belonging to Gus's operation, but it wouldn't make sense for him to keep driving it around.

I guess it's whatever the insurance company gave him after his Aztek "accident".

ETA: It's a Toyota Yaris: http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_440479-...-P90-2009.html

Rubix

with the show ending in 16 episodes, i wonder if the final episode will involve sulfur (atomic number 16 on the periodic table). it has a lot of uses: gunpowder, bombs, poison.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/elementfacts/a/sulfur.htm

hdtv00

Before this week I'd never seen a single episode of this show ever. Crammed 4 seasons back to back etc etc one after another to lead me to this....Great television. Amazing.

Mike86

Yeah truthfully in terms of drama series this and Dexter are the best thing on tv probably in my opinion. This show is just so amazingly good. It's going to suck when it's over and it really doesn't have a whole lot left.

SpinalGuffman

So true. Here's hoping Vince Gilligan puts something else out right away.

Septemberbaby

Aaron Paul is now on twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/aaronpaul_8

We should make an official Who's on Twitter thread.

Raul3

Thanks! Following him now.

windom

Anyone else see "Badger" on the show ABC show "Man Up" this week? I wonder if he'll be a recurring character.

Goat3001

I've been watching these seasons back to back for the last 6 weeks now and I've just now completely caught up.

First of all, great show. I don't know why it took me 4 seasons to start but I'm happy that I did.

I thought this finale was great. A little too much went right for Walt for this to be realistic but that's ok. I don't watch this show for realism.

I for sure thought Gus had poisoned Brock until we found out that he wasn't poisoned by the Ricin. The scene where Walt and Jesse were on the rooftop proved to me that it was indeed Walt that did it. I would have liked if they didn't show the plant there at the end so we could have debates on if Walt actually did it.

They did get me on Gus' death. When he walked out I thought he was ok until they did the pan around. That was shocking to see. The makeup job was fantastic.

I obviously haven't been following the threads so I'm curious to see what everyone's thoughts on Aaron Paul are as Jesse. I have two friends that watch the show and neither seems to be fond of Jesse the character. I think Jesse is a great character and the only one that isn't truely "bad". In fact, aside from a few of the secondary characters, he's the only GOOD character. I also think Aaron Paul knocks it out of the park. Emmys well deserved.

I wonder where they go from here. I can't see why Jesse and Walt have any reason to go back and start cooking again. Maybe it'll turn into a Jesse vs. Walt thing after Jesse finds out what Walt did. I'd like the final season to be Walt's final turn into truely bad. He's gotten progressively worse each season. It would be great if next year Walt is the real bad guy and the one we end up rooting against.

wearetheborg

I've not been able to reason about whether cooking meth is good or bad. On one hand, walt's meth is responsible for ruining the lives of many many people, and deaths. But, on the other hand, if Walt never cooked meth, someone else's meth would be on the streets, perhaps with more contaminants.

Walt's cooking meth is certainly illegal, but I dont know if is morally bad.

And Walt poisoning Brock: not sure about the ethics involved. if he had not killed Gus, then Hank would have been killed. If Walt had gone to the police, his family would have been murdered. So, it was a balance of Brock getting getting really sick, and maybe dying; vs Hank being killed (with certainty).
So, it was


I didnt like the sudden character change this season where Jess becomes the sane and trustworthy one, and Walt is the one who needs to be eliminated. I didnt buy that.

Mike86

Cooking meth is bad basically no matter how you cut it. Walt was selfish and started doing this out of his own self pride and wouldn't take help from others. He had the opportunity to have his treatment paid for let's not forget. It was justified in his own mind that he was doing it for his family, but the fact that he turned to a life of crime rather than accepting help is pretty selfish. Walt has always been a bad guy with a big ego throughout the series. He's just getting worse as the series goes on.

Jesse has more or less been a good guy the entire series really. He's made his share of bad choices yes, but you can see numerous times where he feels conflicted about what he's doing (the scenes with the child with the deadbeat addict parents, feeling bad about Andreas's son who was dealing drugs for Gus and was killed, and killing Gale was something he obviously didn't want to do). Jesse is an overall decent guy who's been roped in by bad influences.

Dragon Tattoo

That's your justification? Seriously? That if Walt didn't cook meth someone else would anyway?

It wasn't a sudden character change. Jesse's always been the more morally sound one between them, going back to the very first time Walt killed someone and then was immediately able to justify it.

This is the man who has an entirely separate personality for meth-dealing, including a ridiculous little hat he wears to "transform". He was never the more sane one. He was only more trustworthy because Jesse was a meth head, young, and inexperienced.