I kind of thought the neighbor (and by extension, everyone) must've believed he was dead.

That exchange reminded me a lot of one on HBO's Oz.  Between, let's see, the guy in charge of Oz, and this guard who he knew was secretly a Nazi skinhead.  Played by Bill Fagerbakke.  I think it was almost the exact same words.

Shit, you hadn't lost sympathy for him yet?

As for me, I could give a shit about Arrested Development.

Upon rewatch, I still don't see why Mike gets involved with Walt again.

Upon rewatch, I still don't see why Mike gets involved with Walt again.

$20 Sack Pyramid is the best skit ever.  The other one or two are dumb, but fuck, it's still the best rap album, and one of the best albums of the '90s.

Upon rewatch, yeah, Hank was outside of the bounds of legal investigation more than I remembered.

One thing, in retrospect…
Of course, given the timing of the show's premiere, you can't help comparing Mackey's tactics with America's world policing.  And one thing that has always annoyed me in conversations about torture tactics is the insistence upon "ticking time bomb" scenarios, as if they can possibly represent…

But he's also been outplayed by Walt at every step.  (Side note, I don't remember ever thinking that he went way outside the bounds of the law in any of his investigations.  In fact, he let that d-bag at the junkyard talk him out of busting into the RV with a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo.)

I've imagined Hank kidnapping Jesse and telling him the only way out is to give him Walt.

I have trouble believing that his position will turn out to be really, genuinely that fragile, but I do acknowledge that that's me.  I also thought the strike team would wriggle free of meaningful retribution in The Shield.

My biggest question going in is: How can Hank proceed?  Who can he possibly discuss his newfound knowledge with?  And how can he come after Walt?  Particularly since, in my opinion, the writers have previously gone to tremendous, tremendous, tremendous lengths to make Walt always able to cover all his tracks if any…

The general idea seemed to be that success became a drag, somewhat like punching a timeclock.  But I really like Dr. Necessiter's answer.

Some of those justifications are pretty weak, Waltmobile.  "He made Jesse kill Gale only because he was held hostage by Mike and Victor before he could do it himself."  i.e. if he'd been able to murder Gale himself, that wouldn't have been such a 'misdeed'?

@prostars.prosky No it's not.  It is thoroughly evitable.

@ToddVanDerWerff, I think you just shouldn't have opened the "I know something you don't know" can of worms in the first place, no matter how skillfully you think you opened it.  It teases us.  It makes our minds run.  ("Oh, so the upcoming episode is going to build up to a decision by Walt, ok, that probably means…

Ah, touche, Pickleshitter.  I was thinking only of the past.

Good article, but it's a big stretch to call the shooting of Gale the show's climax when the entire Walt/Gus conflict was still unsolved.  I can see it as a kind of moral climax, if that makes sense…  but Face-off is much more of a traditional climax.

Though I think you might be mistaking the antecedent in the sentence.  It's the show that won the acclaim, not the magnet plot line (which, again, was dumb).