Hot damn, that was one hell of a season fina… wait, it wasn’t the season finale?! That was one damn good hour of television, and the thought of another two episodes in this season makes me both nervous for the fate of some of our favorite (and not-so-favorite) characters, and giddy with anticipation. The thought of them being able to top this episode? Wow.
First of all, I don’t think Mike is dead, at least not yet. Yeah, he was pretty messed up, but we haven’t seen the last of him. It’s also pretty obvious that Gus’s plans for Jesse don’t involve him acting as another member of security. At this point, if Gus wants to make sure Walt stays out of the picture, he’d better keep Jesse pretty damned safe; surely that’s a big reason why Gus wants Walt to stay far, far away from Jesse from now on.
But, now, with Walter in pretty deep shit and Jesse able to take over blue-making operations alone, I can’t help but wonder if Jesse will not make it through the end of the season. Take out Jesse and Gus needs Walt again. But is the blue glass really so much worth Gus’s operation that he’d not simply want to clean his hands of both of these bozos and figure out some other way to get some decent-quality meth? It seems the trouble they’ve caused Fring’s business might not be worth the hassle coming down the pipeline.
No, I don’t think Jesse will be killed off. At least I hope they don’t. But I’m having a hard time piecing together what scenario could possibly work out in Walt’s favor here. I think back to one scenario I suggested, which was that Walt rats out Gus’s operation in full to the DEA, using Hank to get the job done. Hank gets a commendation and his job back, while Walter has to clean up evidence that points to him having involvement with Gus in the first place. Then, in the next and final season, Walter spends his time trying to keep Hank from knowing what’s been going on. But … that seems to make for a rather boring season, doesn’t it?
As for Jesse, though, I’m sorta wondering why he’s still protecting Walter at this point. He seems to want him far out of his life, yet he wants him kept safe. Would Jesse really decide he’d want to be killed as well, if Walter was killed? I’m not buying it. Jesse seems really happy when he’s with his new woman and her son, so would he really give up what could be a good thing just because this old bastard who’s disrespecting him is offed? I need more convincing.
Part of me also wonders about one commenter who suggested that Hank is jerking Walter around, and he knows Walter’s behind things in some capacity. Those smirks he gives Walter when he’s bringing him to a new location seem to smell of mind games, though it’s more likely that we’re meant to understand that Hank may come across as rather uncouth, but that doesn’t mean he’s unintelligent.
Last week I mentioned that I was surprised that $600k was so little that Walt wouldn’t notice … and boy, he did notice. I thought Saul said he’d only need $500k to take care of him and his family — to make them disappear — but that means Walter only had maybe a million stored away? Maybe a lot of it went away with the car wash and Hank’s medical bills … and then to Ted Beneke, of course. I take it he tried to run because he’d spent a whole lot more of that money than he led on? Or was he just afraid those thugs were going to cap him, no matter what?
That final scene … chilling. The deed was done, and Walter effectively fucked with Gus’s business of killing Hank, and now there’s going to be hell to pay.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Sep 25, 2011 @ 23:37 EST5EDT
The last 10 minutes made my jaw hit the floor. Seriously I should probably go the ER to have it set back in.
What a way to completely erase that goodwill for Gus and that desire to see Walter’s downfall that the last few episodes has led me to develop.
So is Ted dead or will he be back next week with a reaaallly bad headache?
*POST AUTHOR*
I take it, based on Saul’s reaction to what happened at Ted’s, that he’s dead. The twitching hand certainly seemed to indicate that as well.
He is definatelly dead, I watched the episode of 1000 ways to die a month ago and the exact same thing happened to some teenage girl, same slide same corner of a wall, and same location (between the left shoulder and base of the neck) perhaps they got the idea from 1000 ways to die, so yes, he’s a gonner, poor guy, even though he was a damn weesle.
*POST AUTHOR*
I should have mentioned that I wonder if Walter’s lung cancer is making another appearance, since he was coughing quite a bit in this episode. If that’s the case, then once again he has reason to need that money (treatments, his family) and makes for how he may ultimately meet his fate at the end of next season.
Great post…a lot of it echoes what I think will happen in the future. One thing that could also account for their lack of money is that maybe Skyler had to pay Saul for having his two guys show up at Beneke’s, though even then, the fact that Walt has so little money left over still surprises me.
I remember an earlier episode where Skyler calculated Walt’s income to be over 7 million dollars a year, which Walter confirmed. I can’t for the life of me remember how long he has been working for Gus, but SURELY he cannot have burnt through all his savings already, right? The first thought that came to my mind as Skyler admitted the money was all gone was that she may have been lying to him and had some stashed away. I remember the episode where she was putting the cash in those vacuum sealed bags along with clothes. Then again, the seriousness and panic of the whole situation during the last 10 minutes was pretty evident and I felt like Skyler was being truthful, so we’ll just have to see.
I also can’t believe this wasn’t the season finale, but I’m glad there are still 2 episodes left! I hate seeing Walt and Jesse growing apart and resenting one another. I’m sure Jesse is still going to be pissed when he finds out Gus’ plans.
I believe the entire series is occurring in a matter of months, much less than a year.
She calculated Walt’s yearly income from what he had given her so far.
Plus they had to pay almost a million to get the carwash, between the carwash and what Skyler gave Benneke that’s all Walt had.
*POST AUTHOR*
In a pinch I guess Walter could beg Jesse for money so he could get the hell out of there. Jesse would probably gladly pay for him to not only be out of his life but safe.
About the money, let’s calculate a bit. 1.2 million at the first operation with Gus, that gives walt 600.000 for his 50% share, let’s say his been working for 3 months now,that 3 millions splited by 2 gives Walt 1.5 million. Now, 1.5 plus 600 equals to 2.1 millions. The car wash was 800.000 and to Beneke another 600.000. 700.000 left. Hank and Walt’s treatment costs are unkwon, but must be pretty expensive, right? Ok, to vanish, walt has to pay 500 thousand. And one more thing, that little incident with the brand new Challenger cost 52.000 (ouch). 148.000 left, the treatments costs that are unkwon, must take a cut at the most part of it. Anyway, to start a whole new life, the money left may not be enough.
what do you mean where did his money go? on top of their paying for walt’s treatment, they paid for all of his brother in law’s medical treatment , their recent cover up costs to Beneke, and ongoing legal expenditures to the lawyer and his ‘A team’ which were an unusually high percentage if i remember correctly, and of course they bought a couple of cars for their son (one expensive) and the car wash …
They were paying Hank’s bills too.
it’s pretty obvious that the main reason jesse won’t kill walt is the blowback from jesse killing gail/gayle/whateverhisnameis, the geeky meth cook. jesse’s meltdown in the meth group therapy meeting was an attempt to come out of his death spiral funk after the killing and find at least a bottom line moral position as an anchor so that he can maintain some sort of sanity and life. jesse doesn’t seem to mind killing random totally morally bankrupt drug cartel scumbags. but from now on, his position is apparently that he will not kill someone he believes is at least a semi decent human being ever again (or maybe just someone that has been good and loyal to him). whichever reason it is, or both, this is why jesse can’t kill walt no matter how mad he is at him, and also why he can’t kill even Gus, who as bad as he is, of late has shown some real humanity and loyalty to jesse, so that jesse is starting to see him as not just evil but a human being. it isn’t a profit motive with jesse, it is an internal moral conflict. which way it will be resolved i don’t know, but by the end of this season jesse will at least make an attempt to murder walt, gus, or maybe even mike as a surrogate for one or the other of the first two, if doing so would solve his various conflicting problems with the least amount of further damage to his new moral construct. he will choose the choice he sees as the least violation of his new bedrock principles.
They have been laundering all of their money through the car wash. Walter gave Saul a 1 hour timeline for the phone call, so he obviously didn’t have time to go to the bank and make a suspicious $500,000 withdrawal before he disappears with his entire family. He was planning on using his cash stash for a quick getaway. Neither of the show’s main characters are going to be killed off. When Jesse finds out that Gus is going to kill Walt’s entire family, he will kill Gus. Mike is out of commission for the time being, so Jesse has pretty direct access to an unprotected Gus. Jesse can cook the blue. He has also had some recent on-the-job training in running a meth business and taking out your competitors in Mexico. That leaves him in a pretty key position after Gus is killed to maybe meet whoever is running this German conglomerate they keep mentioning. Gus just managed a fast-food chain. You can bet the parent company would have some awareness of where all the extra income is coming from. Gus has a boss, who is the other chicken brother?
*POST AUTHOR*
I’m pretty sure the other chicken brother was not replaced after he was killed in that flashback scene in Mexico.