I only learned recently that Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan plans to end the show after five seasons. Holy crap — that’s only one more season after this! With that in mind — and the fact that Gilligan also once said the plan was to watch Walter become a drug lord — it’s pretty clear that Gus has to be taken out of the picture, and quite possibly this season. I believe I have a pretty plausible scenario in mind.
I knew eventually Hank would come back into the picture with regards to his profession, and when I saw Gale’s notebook in the season premiere, I was pretty confident that was going to come across Hank’s lap eventually. It was when that actually happened, in this episode, that I knew this was a likely path for Gus’ downfall.
It was said that Gale’s notebook was filled with scientific formulas regarding what appeared to be drug-related (meth, specifically) information. So when that notebook was handed to Hank, there was only one thing that made sense: he was going to ask for Walter’s help. Hank knows Walter’s a chemist (or at least he thinks he’s more knowledgable in chemistry than he is), and he doesn’t necessarily have access to those kinds of professionals anymore.
So, Halk goes to Walter. At first Walter freaks the hell out, because how can he do this without leading the way to himself? But … that’s not really true. He’d be leading the way to Gus, or at least the lab Gus helped build. After Walter’s panic subsides, he realizes he’s got a major head-up over Gus. If he can somehow find something in Gale’s notebook that subtly leads in the direction of that “super lab,” he can plan his clean escape from there before the place is raided and Gus goes down in flames. Walter could even plan somehow to make it such that Gus himself is at the lab when the raid happens.
Then, of course, comes the frightening case of the security cameras; this is where I’m starting to feel pretty confident that a raid on the super lab in the near future is inevitable. There’s a reason those cameras came into play, and it’s not just to piss Walter off. Once the raid happens, those tapes are going to be the next big hurdle for Walt and Jesse … that is, if they don’t plan for that to start with and get rid of them ahead of time.
Anyway, that’s my theory for what’s to come. As for the rest of the episode, here are a few quick items:
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Aug 01, 2011 @ 00:11 EST5EDT
Hank knows already that Jesse is involve in the production of the blue meth and that Walt made a lot of money recently. The notebook probably have no names in it or at best codenames but he is going to find out pretty soon it’s about the blue meth. Knowing that Jesse is going to become a suspect pretty soon.
Hank is going to figure out the whole thing this season for sure. How he’s gonna deal with the fact that drug money is financing his rehabilitation?
Gus is pure psychopath. He killed Victor because he was “seen” by witnesses at the crime scene and could implicate Gus if he was caught. That’s all. He chose to do it IN FRONT of Walt and Jesse (and Mike) to send a message, that this could easily be one of you if I chose for it to happen.”
I doubt that Jesse ever finds out about Walt watching as Jesse’s GF ODed. It is only to show that Walt could be cold-blooded and do whatever it took to protect himself and his family(remember she threatened to extort him).
Jesse is really the wildcard right now. He has lost his grip on reality. He could easily be the next one to be killed or he could be the one who kills Gus. Gus is obviously concerned since he has on of his goons watching his house. It may be too risky to let Jesse live.
I think there’s more to Victor’s death than meets the eye. Gus is cold and ruthless, but he’s also smart: crime bosses don’t just kill their own muscle to prove a point, because by doing so they risk losing the loyalty of their remaining henchmen. My theory is that Gus discovered Victor was a mole who was secretly working for the cartel. Recall the scene at the end of season 3 when the cartel’s goons try to take Gus’ chemical supplier hostage, only to be killed by Mike. I think Gus suspected that Victor had something to do with that incident, and that his suspicions were confirmed when he saw that Victor had learned Walter’s entire method (since Gus had charged Gale with this task, there’s no reason why Victor should also try to pick up the recipe). By killing him in front of Walter and Jesse in such a gruesome manner, Gus was merely “killing two birds with one stone”, so to speak.
But Gus isn’t perfect, and it seems inevitable that he’ll be taken out of the picture at some point. I think his downfall will be brought about through his one critical mistake: leaving Mike out of the loop. Mike was clearly spooked by Victor’s killing, and though he rebuffed Walter’s initial attempt at forming an alliance, I don’t think we’ve seen the end of that story.
The killing of the underling was totally about the notebook. But it served two purposes.
If it goes down as you say and the tapes become key, look for Walt to enlist Mike’s help………and then kill him.
This show has been really brave. Taking a sympathetic character and turning him into an evil one.
I can see Jesse being the one who takes Walt out eventually. Jesse still doesn’t know about Walt not saving his g/f and letting her od in season 2.
I say Jesse kills Walt end of season 5.
*POST AUTHOR*
I really don’t see Walter being killed, though if it did happen, I imagine it’d be due to Jesse in some way. I also don’t see how Jesse would ever find out about Walter not saving his g/f unless Walter blurts it out. I guess if that happens, then Walt’s number is up.
Mike probably know she died in front of Walt, if he need to put Jesse againts Walt he could used it.
When exactly did Hank show Walt the lab notes? I watched the episode twice, and only just right before the end credits did Hank even pick up the notes for the first time. I even watched next week’s sneak peek, and it didn’t happen there either. Very, very strange…and QUITE a spoiler if you’re not just guessing.
Could someone clarify please???
Awesome episode, BTW.
*POST AUTHOR*
Totally guessing. I have not seen any of this season’s episodes ahead of time, nor have I read anything. This is just my guess as to what’s going to happen down the road.
Gotcha, and I thought I was losing my mind, heh.
Your guess sounds spot on to me, that’s what had me so confused…