Methinks Gus’s hitman, Mike, is gettin’ too old for this shit. Every time something doesn’t go the way Mike wants it — even when it means he almost lost his life — he gives a simple, almost audible sigh and a roll of his eyes. Here’s an interesting question I have about Mike: If he decided to wrong Gus in some way, who would Gus turn to, to … right that wrong? No doubt Gus has a small army of some kind at his disposal, should he need it, but would that be enough to take down his top man?
Speaking of Mike, any guesses as to what he was doing stowed away in that chicken sauce truck? Obviously it was a rival gang who made Swiss cheese out of that truck — and Mike’s ear (ew!) — but is it the same gang/family? My guess is Mike took a stealthy trip to Mexico to take out another rival to Gus, and this was part of the retaliation from that.
I’d really like to see more background story to Mike, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to see it. We’ve already seen that he has a family he cares about, but I don’t believe we have any idea how he went from cop to hit man. That opening scene in this episode was clearly a way of once again showing us that Mike wants out of this life, and he’s probably seriously considering Walt’s offer to take out Gus at this point.
Obviously Mike’s not going to do anything to Jesse, though I imagine he’s being taken somewhere to whip him into shape. Then again, I guess it’s possible — though unlikely — that Mike will have a gun to Jesse’s head, while at the same moment Walt will have a gun to Gus’s head in the back of the restaurant, prompting a stalemate. Jesse clearly has to clean up in some way, though, at this point, hasn’t that happened enough times already? I’m not entirely convinced Jesse’s totally back on the junk, even if we’ve seen him do a bit of it already. Instead, he gets off on making others get completely fucked up. I mean, he even took a wasted girl upstairs to his bedroom to … play video games!
As for Saul’s offer to Walt — to erase him, give him a new identity — I don’t believe that is how things ever will go down. For one thing, it would’ve been a completely stupid offer to consider, given that it wouldn’t take Gus or Mike more than two seconds to know Saul helped Walter disappear. Also, this person has a “card” to have passed around? Alright, maybe it wasn’t meant to be literal, but that contact information left in the wrong place … game over.
I’m glad we — and Walter — got to see the complete contents of Gale’s notebook, and that Walt’s name isn’t mentioned. What are the chances that the chemical exhaust process is noted in that book, and how it is mixed with that of a laundry service?
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Aug 07, 2011 @ 23:53 EST5EDT
Just a quick comment to say that Mike was guarding the chicken sauce because that’s where Gus and his associates hide the bags of meth for transportation across state lines. They showed this at the beginning of a previous episode in the last season. Mystery=solved! :)
I thought that Mike was obviously guarding the shipment, and it was clearly a good idea for him to do so given what happened. I suppose it’s possible that he had just gone to Mexico to carry out some mission, as you suggest, but there really isn’t any evidence to support that view. For all we know, guarding the shipment may be a regular part of Mike’s duties, or at least it’s become that way since Gus took out the head of one of the cartels.
Please tell me that’s Klingon that Gale’s video was subtitled in…
And nice call on Hank showing Walt the notes, it went much better than I feared..
The language it’s subtitled in is Thai. That makes it all the more hilarious, in my opinion.