HopsGuy

Man, I won our basketball bracket for $325. Dude paid me with 2 Franklins & 2 Grants in winnings. I still have one of each even after paying off a few guys I owed for golf team winnings (I'm keeping the $20s because you left early!). Six months and they're still in my stash. That's the world.

Ok, just thought of another plot hole. On the insider podcast they mentioned that they never try to set where the show is in time. Judging by the technology we see, this show was to have started in real-time in 2008 and the smartest phone we've seen is Lydia's Blackberry. Everyone else uses a flip-phone/burner. We're told about 15-16 months have passed based on the premiere being Walt's 50th birthday and this season's "51" being the titular nod to Walt's birthday. S508 had a nice cook montage that supposedly lasted 3 or so months. HOWEVER - Todd's Aryan Nation uncle mentioned that the plan to knock off Lydia's 9 (plus the lawyer) was "more complicated than the plan to take out bin Laden). This throws off the timeline, doesn't it? It's a small point but still...

I agree. Lydia made the list and when she initially met with Mike she noted that these were 9 people that knew about her and Mike. The warehouse guy that the DEA arrested in Houston wouldn't have known Walt. Maybe the logic is that these folks were linked to Lydia who in turn was linked to Walt. Walt was going to poison Lydia so he was trying to eliminate everyone who could possibly be linked to him at all. Jesse might have been next if Skylar hadn't shown Walt the massive pile of money. Walt had a "Come to Jesus" moment when he realized that he actually had won. He's out and has paid off Jesse. Now we have Hank realizing that Walt is Heisenberg but there's no obvious way he should proceed. The note from Gale in the book of poems is probably not enough to get an indictment, so what does he do? Maybe he confronts Walt and gets him to give him info on the Phoenix group? How exactly Walt extricated himself from the business also provides for some story lines. What becomes of Todd? How about Todd's uncle? Maybe Walt needs an M60 because he has to mow down the Aryan Nation of New Mexico? Are we done with Lydia? I presume she did quite well with proceeds from the Czech Republic. I'm glad that spoiler I had related from "Breaking Good" was wrong. The way the story played out is much more interesting and provides for many more options for the writers.

Two things: (1) Totally right about the Phillies. (2) Chipper Jones should not retire. He's still got a lot left and - seriously - what is he going to do? Run for office? C'mon!

Agreed. That leg can't possibly be right... also - who cares? Finally caught "Career Opportunities" a few weeks ago. It was better than than I thought it was going to be but I kept thinking "Someone told this girl to lose weight." Worked out for her, though.

Definitely. He took at buyout for $5k, meaning he felt the company (which had "a few patents") was valued at $15k. It's really strange for them to put a price on something like that. They had nothing but patents. Wouldn't you just want to have some sort of small claim on that? Why not take a licensing deal for future work? Something must have happened at Gretchen's parents' house that made him just want out. That's the story I hope they explore. This is ultimately the motivation that make Walt want to be in the "empire business".

There was a scene where Gretchen had figured out that Walt had told Skylar that he had received lots of money from Gretchen & Elliot. She demanded that she not be part of whatever lies he was telling his wife. Then she brought up an instant where while they (Gretchen & Walt) were still dating and were at her parents home and there was a change in their relationship that led to its undoing - something along the lines of "I still don't know what happened at my parents' house..." After Walt told Jesse about his Gray Matter experience, that plot-line MUST be explained by the end of the series.

The laundry manager would be able to recognize Walt & Jesse as the guys who showed up each day and entered the Super Lab. That's the only one I could think of that could implicate him.

Tough week for the Armstrong clan. RIP.

That was fantastic.

Brian Moritz has some thoughts (I saw this via our own Lori's twitter account): http://sportsmediaguy.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/skip-bayless-view-from-nowhere/

http://nymag.com/daily/sports/2012/08/please-stop-feeding-the-skip-bayless.html

Wow. Great example of the human spirit. Not all humans have it.

It's natural for there to be fan-hate for Skylar. The story is about how the main character, Walter, had made horrible decisions since he first found out that he has inoperable lung cancer. These decisions have led to horrible actions that have had even worse consequences. It has been an incredible journey and quite good television entertainment. The Skylar character is doing what any actual person would do in this situation: Try to get her husband to stop doing these things. We the audience view her with scorn. "How dare she try to stop this incredibly interesting ride?" I just analyzed Jim's brain so now I have to do something awful: I have a spoiler for you. This is no ordinary spoiler, so if you don't like spoilers DO NOT CLICK on the SPOILER button. Ok?

That lady really understood comedy. Rapid fire, incredibly aware of timing. Also - wore unflattering clothing despite being physically attractive to focus on the funny. My dad loved to tell me the same story (over and over) about meeting Martha Raye. I kept getting the two mixed up and asking him, "Is that the one you met on the train?" He'd say, "No, that one (Phylils) is funnier - but not by much."

AJ, That IS... AWESOME!

Some season 7 stuff. I'll link rather than embed in case anyone is avoiding anything spoilerish: First 2 minutes of the Season 7 premiere 2 Minute trailer for Season 7

Uggh... we need Skylar & Marie. A requirement of drama is conflict. They create conflict. They're both good actresses because they can emote without even saying words. This show is awash in great actors. Dean Norris (Hank) is a Harvard grad and can pull off anything that is required of him - he was one of the guys chasing Tom Cruise in "The Firm" and hardly said a word. Like Bryan Cranston, he can fill a scene with just the look on his face. Anyway, we're going to have to deal with the fallout of Todd murdering (that's what it is) a kid on a dirt-bike - and who didn't ride a dirt-bike back in the day? Counting the hours until tonight's episode. Has anyone done the "two screen experience"? I was thinking of trying that tonight.

I was good with it. It's interesting to see how a large group of folks will reorganize in a dystopian environment. In "The Walking Dead", it's a smaller group so there's a different dynamic at work. But with a much larger group it's fun to play with the possibilities. In this one hour, we had something of a benevolent dictator running things with the idea that it was similar to the American Revolution. Things went sour fast. It sort of reminded me of "The Stand". What would Randall Flagg do?

Could be. The bloggers love to talk about "Chekov's ___". Season 5 is being treated as 16 episodes broken into two sets of 8. We know that ricin has to come back, but will it be by episode 8? Probably. If your theory is correct, then episode 7 (title via IMDB "Say My Name") is the explosion & episode 8 will be the denouement of the first half of the season. I hate waiting a whole week for another episode. Also - "The Newsroom" was pretty good last night. Sorkin might have found his fastball.

Quite an episode. Loved the wide shots of the countryside. I laughed when Lydia called Mike "!@#$" when they learned that it was the Houston DEA agents who put the tracking devices on the methylmine barrels. How about Hank being so squeamish about Walt pouring his heart out he had to leave the room. Walt can manipulate even Hank now. Nothing in the preview really tipped off what might be in store. I'm hoping the Marie/Skylar sneak peek is just a throw-away scene like the one with Walt Jr. was this week. The insider podcast had one tip: Also - remember we still have the ricin behind the outlet plate.

I agree with all of that. I like the show while I'm watching it, but I don't find myself really looking forward to the next episode like "Breaking Bad", "Mad Men", etc. Maybe the Irish brothers will shake things up a bit?

I got an instant sense of dread when I saw the kid on the motorbike in the cold open. Last time we saw a kid on a bike was Andrea's brother Tomas. That didn't work out too well for Combo - or for Tomas. Bill Burr was great again. If we can't have Saul, we need some other comic relief.

Sure, I'll take your word for it. It's not like it's a subjective thing or something. No one I know, but it's a big world.

I heard there was a shoot where the invaders were the Chinese but then the studio or something was bought by a Chinese company who insisted they wouldn't release the film as-is. So they re-did it all so that it was the North Koreans. So now we have a country that can't feed itself invading us. It's entirely plausible.