Mike86

Yeah it seems like there must be something major that happens at the home at some point this season. I almost have to think someone is murdered there. Otherwise I don't see why the home would necessarily be blocked off the way it is as it's not as though Walt was cooking the meth on the property and the police or whomever would probably have investigated the home.

My Other Self

I've never seen a house fenced off and seized by the city over a murder. They usually put up police tape and call it a day. They certainly wouldn't have all of the furnishings removed.

redrum

whotony

The house was ransacked and pillaged.

Jimmy James

Okay so working theory:

Walt's family dies. Walt fakes his own death in whatever it was (thus neighbor looking like she saw a ghost) so that he could avenge the killing. That would tend to suggest to me that he's back to get the ricin to administer it to perhaps an as yet unnamed character.

Cooking up a batch of meth gone wrong somehow (but not flammible clearly) would mostly keep people out of the house and cover up at least some sins. Maybe Walt made it look like he died in a fire somehow in a room we didn't see and had to asphyxiate some portion of his family to sell it.

dino88

I was just going to post the same response. Walt has probably been all over the news at this point. Carol nearly shits her pants at the sight of this monster, while all kids are treating him as their own hometown Scarface. Good or bad, he's become a local legend.

Jimmy James

That didn't read like monster to me. It read like ghost.

JumpCutz

Good point.

However the house certainly looks "condemned" and it's not like it was a meth house and uninhabitable, because we know Walt never cooked there....at least thus far. Obviously something heavy definitely went down at the residence.

mwbmis

I think they established that Walt has more than Hank to worry about this year. Lydia's visit surely means there will be ramifications there. Both Laura Fraser and Lance were made series regulars this (half) year so one would assume we'll be seeing some more of them.

Jimmy James

I think Walt has to be presumed dead because otherwise if Carol saw him and he was wanted you'd have to think there would be so much law enforcement there quickly that he'd totally just synthesize new ricin (I hear it's not that terribly hard). He certainly wouldn't be able to let her live.

Mike86

Walt being on the run by faking his death would make sense. The only thing I would question is if that happened I don't see how he could have made it look like he perished without a body.

Good point but I also don't see why the house would have been condemned and seized by the city when nothing that we know of yet actually happened in the home. Unless like someone else mentioned maybe he cooks a batch or is forced to by Lydia or someone working with her and it's done in the home.

Jimmy James

Think Jesse's charred body could pass for Walt? Saul's?

ETA: An accident while cooking meth the "shake and bake" method very well might make a dental ID impossible, and it might even compromise DNA if you know what you're doing?

dino88

Watch it again. She was scared as hell.

I don't think Walt is worried about being caught at that point. He's about to enter his final act (trunk full of guns, pocket full of ricin) and he knows it.

Jimmy James

Oh I know she was scared. I don't think that's the part that's diagnostic. It's that she didn't run away and call police. She stared, gawked, and looked to me like she saw someone she strongly believed was dead.

Mike86

Maybe Walt is forced to cook a batch in his home by Lydia or someone who's working with her so they can learn his "recipe" so that the meth that they're cooking can be more chemically pure. An accident occurs or Walt does something to try and take the people out who are holding him and he's believed to have perished during this event. This could also make sense as to why the home is condemned and fenced off.

Jimmy James

While that's not outside the realm of the possible, I'd think the issue would be like in times past where they would need him at an advanced lab to get the purity to where they wanted it.

An in home cook looks much more like non-corporate meth than anything Lydia would be involved in (at this stage). That would be my slight skepticism to that theory, though it is admittedly somewhat plausible (particularly if Walt talked her into hey I can show you what you're doing wrong).

dino88

We'll have to agree to disagree.

I saw it as her frozen in terror out of fear for her life. I thought the reason they showed the 2 scenes with him and Carol interacting was to show how someone that wasn't directly affected by this storyline reacted to finding out the truth behind someone she thought she once knew. Happy, friendly "Hello neighbor" to scared as hell at this monster I've been living next to all these years. It's the whole "he was the nicest man, I couldn't imagine him doing all these horrible things" that we always hear in the news after some crime.

But we'll have the answer soon enough (unfortunately).

Mike86

If you think of it though, weren't the cooks done in the RV pretty chemically pure? I can't remember what the percentage was but I remember in the first season where Hank says the meth they turned up was the most chemically pure stuff out there and that the guys in their own lab would have difficulty replicating it. I think if Walt can cook a batch like that in an RV he could do it in his home with the right equipment. Besides I don't think she necessarily said how pure she wanted it, she just made it seem like the quality was noticeably not as good as when Walt and Jesse were cooking it and that she wanted (or is being pressured) to get a better product out there again.

Throwing Copper

I loved the "paper route" scene (as I call it) with Jesse in the car during the second half of the episode. He didn't have much to say in this episode, but he was great.

dino88

Now that we've finally seen the Walt/Hank confrontation, the next huge moment I can't wait for is Walt telling Jesse that he watched Jane die. It has to happen at some point.

DJariya

That will be epic when it does happen.

bluetoast

I don't think Walt will be revealing that to Jesse. He'll probably keep that secret forever.

Throwing Copper

I agree. No way he tells Jesse that, IMO.

My Other Self

The purity sounded in the same range as Declan's before he took over distribution of the blue meth. Since Walt gave up the business, I would assume he ended up selling off the remaining methlamene to Declan to continue his business and they are the ones now supplying Lydia's buyers with their own cook (once again dyed blue to look like the real stuff).
I can't see that happening. Now that Walt knows Hank has found out, I think he's done soul searching and trying to dig up forgiveness for the past. At this point, he just moves forward. Hell, he just lied to Jesse's face about Mike's death.

The closest we'll get to him apologizing to Jesse or even discussing her death was in the episode everybody but me hates, Season 3's "Fly".

bluetoast

Plus why would he reveal the truth about Jane, yet present that fairy tale to Jesse about Mike living happily ever after? Walt already knows Jesse is on the edge, pushing him off would not be a good idea.