Breaking Bad – Walt is becoming Gus Fring, in more ways than one

*Snnnniiiffff!* Ahhhh… Smell that? That’s the smell of a new, freshly baked episode of Breaking Bad, baby. Don’t get to used to ‘em, though — there’s a mere handful of episodes left, and then they’re done … forever. But what a fine way to kick off that last batch.

There was one scene in particular in “Blood Money” that made me think, “huh, well now look at that.” Though hugely interesting, it wasn’t the opening scene showing Walt’s fenced-in and dilapidated house, or him coming back to said house for the ricin he’d hid several episodes ago. It was that whole exchange between Walt and Lydia at the car wash. It felt very familiar. As in, isn’t this exactly how Gus Fring spoke to Walt when he came to his front business, Los Pollos Hermanos? He carried on the conversation very matter-of-factly, making sure no mind was paid to how they were talking nor what they were talking about. Just. Like. Fring. It was spooky. Walt even folded a towel to kneel on when he was vomiting, something Gus did once before when he was upchucking the poison he’d fed to his competition.

When I was reading the Breaking Bad sub-reddit this weekend, a link to a theory was posted that solidifies the fact that Walt not only is very close to becoming the new embodiment of the late Gus Fring, but he’s been taking on characteristics of people he’s killed:

“When Walt killed Crazy 8, he started cutting off the crusts of his sandwiches – just as Crazy 8 had done.

Gus drives a Volvo. After Walt kills Gus, at the beginning of Season 5 (at the Denny’s), Walt is driving a Volvo (w/ NH plates).

When Mike and Walt meet at a bar in an earlier season, Walt orders his drink neat while Mike has his on the rocks. After Mike is killed, and Hank offers Walt a drink in his office – he asks for it on the rocks.”

You can now add to that list the way Walt uses his car wash as a front, AND CONTINUES TO ACTIVELY WORK THERE. I remember when we first learned that Gus was a drug kingpin, how bizarre it seemed that this guy would very publicly be owning and operating this franchise, not just from behind a desk but often out in the open. Now, with Walt, we’re likely seeing how Gus worked his way into that position in the first place.

What doesn’t seem likely, though, is that Walt will suffer the same demise as Gus did. The fact that he’s still alive a year later, and then apparently ready to unleash some major mayhem on someone (and likely end his own life with ricin), it’s unlikely someone’s taking half his face off in a surprise attack. Could it mean, though, that Walt’s sorta-business-partner Skyler will meet the same fate as Gus’s former business partner? It’s been hinted that a big main character dies before the series is through, so besides possibly Walt … ?