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Breaking Bad – The ricin cigarette that won’t die

The cigarette of death makes another appearance on 'Breaking Bad', but is it its finale one? Meanwhile, business starts to get back on track, as a Mr. Ehrmantrout has to make a couple of critical decisions.

- Season 5, Episode 2 - "Madrigal"

I’ll admit up front that I know very little about who the next “big bad” might be in the Breaking Bad universe, though I’ve heard rumblings. Who comes next, now that the big guy Gus is gone? Was he answering to anyone? As it turns out, he was, and it’s these people Walt is going to have to contend with as the series winds down to its finale. The people at Madrigal are obviously going to be a force to be reckoned with, and neither Walter, Mike nor anyone else has any idea that Gus wasn’t the top rung of the ladder.

It’s really interesting how Jessie still calls Walter “Mr. White.” Jessie’s called Walter by his first name before, but Gilligan clearly wants to remind us who Walter is to Jessie. Walter is as close to a father as Jessie’s going to get right now; seeing Aaron Paul‘s great performance in showing the agony Jessie felt at almost putting a bullet into Walt’s head shined a light on that. The fact that Jessie also continues to follow Walter into reestablishing their meth business also shows what kind of hold Walter has on him, especially considering Jesse probably has little reason for the money at this point.

Speaking of those two, why do you think Walt kept the ricin and instead threw a salt-filled capsule into the one he faked Jessie into finding? It was classic Walter to have him go way overboard in hiding it, in a place I’m still not sure feds or DEA agents wouldn’t look. Was us seeing Walter keep that aside a means for foreshadowing, or just to further show Walter attempting to cover all of his bases? I can just picture an episode down the line where we see that wall plate hanging opened, and we’ll all know what’s likely coming next. Whatever the reason for seeing Walt keep that ricin, if it’s the writers’ goal to make us wonder what’s going to happen, it’s working.

I thought sometime last season that Mike (who we now know is Mike Ehrmantrout) would be part of Walt and Jessie’s business after Gus was inevitably taken out. It also made some sense that Mike had really no interest in getting back into the game, since his only real reason for doing anything he’s doing at this point is for his granddaughter. I had no idea that those off-shore accounts would lead to Mike — and the others — to lose pretty much everything Gus had put aside for them while under his employment. Ouch. That’s a lot of people out some serious cash. It seems a bit sloppy, though, for tidy Mr. Fring to have to hide account information in a picture frame rather than on his encrypted laptop. And, on top of that, not have those accounts thoroughly locked down and completely unassociated with him or his business. Can the DEA so easily obtain account holder information for off-shore accounts like that?

I have little to say about Skyler’s reaction to Walter except that it accomplished what it meant to, for the viewers: Skyler is completely skeeved out by Walter, and the thought of even his touch repulses her. Mark my words: she will be part of, if not THE reason for Walter’s downfall, should he have one.

The scene in departing DEA boss Merkert’s office, when discussing Gus Fring, had a line that spells out the tone for the rest of Hank’s involvement in the hunt for Heisenberg: “He was somebody else completely; right under my nose.” In my talks with the Breaking Bad cast at the San Diego Comic-Con, it was all but said outright that Hank will find out about Walt — it’s only a matter of time. How Hank reacts to that — and how his life is affected should he bring Walt in — is going to be one hell of a fascinating thing to behold.

Photo Credit: Ursula Coyote/AMC

6 Responses to “Breaking Bad – The ricin cigarette that won’t die”

July 23, 2012 at 1:36 AM

I don’t like that they dropped a new character, that Lydia nut on us and suddenly made her a tie to Madrigal Electromotive. She should have been killed. I do not for one second think she will not go back to her “bosses” about Mike’s actions. I believe they sent her to tie up the loose ends in the first place. Somehow, this will reflect on when the new team of Walt, Jesse, and Mike meet up with the drug kingpins.

I really want to know more backstory on what Peter Schuler did to the company to have to kill himself over. I loved the slow dramatic opening of this episode.

I, for one, think that that ricin vile may be how Walt dies altogether. I have no doubt in my mind that he will die this season. There is really no other way to end the show.

Walt could have made many choices, to eat his money loss and go back to teaching and move on to a possibly better life (since he was obviously given that chance.) However, now his arrogance is so apparent, and he is in the “I will NOT LOSE” mode. That is what will get him killed.
The choices we make in life determine our fate and his fate is bitterly obvious.
Great review. Thanks!

July 23, 2012 at 8:46 AM

Best show on TV. Not even close.
Will it be a movie next?
Here’s An Exclusive First Look: Rumored Posters For “Breaking Bad: The Movie”
https://wp.me/p1VsTV-2i5

July 23, 2012 at 9:34 AM

Wow that’s bad. Don’t click, people. Not worth it.

July 23, 2012 at 6:19 PM

I’m wondering when Jessie called Walter by his first name? I can’t remember this

July 23, 2012 at 6:37 PM

I’d have to go back through especially the episodes when Jessie was shunning Walt a bit, but I know he’s said it.

July 26, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Nice.

The German was good. The pronounciation was so/so. One (e.g. me) could tell that they didn’t know what they were saying and most likely got what they had to say written down in “Lautschrift” (phonetic language, we have a Wikipedia entry for it, you guys only have this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonetic_transcription#Types_of_notational_systems ).

It sounded better than anything they ever did on “Royal Pains” and I bet it cost them quite a bit of money. The dialogue was exactly what they had in the subtitles, meaning that this was a better translation into German than the German translators do for the German “Simpsons” dub. Again I guess that wasn’t cheap. The actor most likely had a German family member, he sounds like he heard some of the words but has never really spoken them. Kinda like Sarah Chalke.

The “POLIZEI” uniforms looked spot on because they used the right font. I didn’t really like that they made the head detective (“Komissar”) wear something that looked like he was part of the SS. Bad stereotype. He basically looked like the mind reader on “Starship Troopers” or the Nazis on Raiders.

Ok so much for the insight nobody asked for ^^;

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