I thought so, too.

Donna, thank you for all the great reviews!

Count me in the "liked it" camp. Didn't top Ozymandias, but didn't need to. Seeing Lydia get poisoned, Todd get strangled, Gretchen & Elliot get the shit scared out of them, and Jesse getting loose was enormously satisfying.

Yeah, Nebraska seems waaaaay too close to Albuquerque to me. Saul would need to go to Florida or Mexico or something.

It's weird how I totally believe that Walt walked out of Grey Matter in an entitled rage and that Elliot and Gretchen are totally blameless for his departure, and that they're good people for offering him a job/treatment money, and yet I still hate their dumb, smug faces. That beige birthday party was insufferable.

Well said. Walt also could have walked away with $5 million of Declan's money, but he actively conspired to keep himself in the criminal game. Walt's had any number of opportunities to get out, and get out with a boatload of cash that would support generations of Whites, but he's always dragged himself back in.

I figure Walt felt *some* satisfaction that Elliot and Gretchen are feeling the heat thanks to his crimes.

What's so scary about Todd is that if he were raised in a normal family, he'd be a great kid. Kind, polite, respectful, always doing the right thing b/c that's what people told him to do. His emptiness is so terrifying.

Yes! I was just thinking this as the episode wrapped up. She makes Todd actually look like the boy scout he pretends to be.

I will be sort of impressed and horrified if we never see Jesse and the Neo-Nazis (also the name of John Stamos' band on "Full House") at all in the final episode, and it's just 75 minutes of Walt gunning down everyone at Gray Matter.

Yeah, they're great as the end game villains. Totally repulsive and terrifying (I hate Nazis), so there's no attraction like there was with Gus, but with enough character that they're not generic thugs. They remind me of the hyenas in "Lion King" weirdly enough (and Walter is our scar)—hungry pack animals that move in…

Yeah, there's been a weird trend in mainstream media sites lately (Slate did this, too, for Twilight I believe) of having critics unfamiliar with the work wander into a beloved franchises toward the endgame and offer their thoughts. It's stupid and lazy and pointless, and is basically just trolling fans.

That, too. "In the future, the US and China will unite to form the Alliance. And despite China currently having 2 billion people to the US's 300 million, the result of that union will be planets full of white people living as if in the American Old West, and speaking English with American accents, punctuated by…

I agree.

Agreed. His delivery of the line "I do" after Mal says "I don't kill children" is deeply chilling, but also sums up the character in two syllables. "I'll do whatever I have to, and I'll do it quickly and without a pinch of regret, even if they're things I don't really want to do."

I liked Serenity a lot, but was underwhelmed by Firefly. I mean, I *liked* Firefly. The characters and dialogue were great. I enjoyed spending time with them, which is saying a lot. But the Western aspects were waaaaay too literal (I know, I know, show budgets, terraforming, whatever). Like, the settings just were the…

Yeah, exactly. At that time, Saul didn't underestimate Walt at all. Walt was a rank amateur at the criminal game. He was still more Hal than Heisenberg. I think having to outsmart and outmaneuver Gus Fring is what truly turned Walt into the meth-lord Heisenberg.

Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish is probably due a bad end someday, but damn if he's not managed to weasel/snake/cockroach his way out of some serious sh!t.

Another good inventory would be "attempted break-out characters nobody would actually be friends with in real life because they are horrible people and also deeply annoying." Sheldon would be on there, though the top spot would definitely be Jack from Will & Grace.

Both! But also, specifically, Hank. I'm not saying Hank's evil or as bad as Walt, but this weird critical narrative that's developed that Hank is "a good, decent man" is built on ignoring pretty key components of his character and history (and the show's for that matter).