"He is capitalism, raw and unadorned." absof-ckinglutely, yes, a million times yes.

i apologize if this has been said, but both the intensity and duration of jesse's suffering (3-4 months as opie's meth slave?!) have me convinced that he'll make it out of this alive and on a path to some kind of recovery.

we don't get his whole backstory, no, but i think the gus we see in that flashback is clearly a different man than we saw in the present, and that flashback gives us at least part of what made him that way. he turned cold—he wasn't always that—and, to go back to dandan's original argument, maybe jesse could do the…

@avclub-a8a3434c9173850186f8779db1124537:disqus regarding your first point: good looks. hadn't noticed that.

possibly, but i think there's a difference between mannerisms and characteristics. walt has adopted mannerisms—cutting the crust of his sandwiches, ordering drinks on the rocks, driving a volvo in the flash forward, etc.—not characteristics, such as heartlessness (he was well on his way to developing that trait on his…

jesus, there's a theory. i mean, the show did take the time to show how gus got to be so cold. between that and walt's journey, it's pretty clear that the show believes sociopaths are made, not born. maybe we are watching jesse be pushed over the edge. gus, too, was undone by the unjust death of someone very close to…

i'm going to go ahead and join the praise-fest for this show by noting how deftly it has always handled the need for a new character. it's something a lot of shows struggle with, the need for a new regularly-appearing character. even the sopranos (which i respect just as much as i respect breaking bad) was less than…

i must be loyle to my capo.

oh, go to hell, misogynist.

yikes. that's pretty disheartening, and that's assuming somebody ever comes to rescue him.

"Maybe but I hate Jessie, at least Walt grew morally corrupt trying to protect and save everyone even Jessie."
right, that's what he was doing when he let jane die. walt's moral disintegration began the moment he chose to begin cooking, a choice he by no means needed to make. then, he compounded that bad decision with…

exactly.

i have to say, two of the happy surprises about 5b for me have been 1) the writers' development of marie, and 2) betsy brandt's acting. not that either of these things were ever inadequate—she was always just a minor character, the least significant of all the characters who got screen time basically every episode. i…

ah, yes. right you are. thanks for clearing that up.

well, by the time of the flash forward, it will only have been a few months since he was first enslaved, if that makes you feel better.

could you remind me—how do the aryans know about the tape? i keep seeing it referenced in the comments but i can't remember when they found out.

i don't know how walt would ever come across the blue meth, but i like the idea of him seeing it, realizing how pure it is, and then figuring out that jesse's still alive.

my favorite version: the little willies (a norah jones-fronted country group).

when gus got found out, george merket, friend of gus, got fired.