Breaking Bad

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Happy to see Meth Damon making another appearance on the show.

Rubbish episode I thought.

I think its been really weak since its returned. Good acting has made up for some very shoddy writing.

I wouldn't go as far as rubbish, the last two episodes could have been one . They're drip feeding information at this stage so it feels like not much is really happening. It's because the writing and acting is so superb that they can get away with an almost spaghetti western level of story progression during each scene.

It just seems like we're getting a massive glaring plot hole an episode these days.

For example, Jesse's confession could not possibly have contained 'nothing', it explains his and Walt's new found wealth. It links them to Madrigal, Gustavo, Lydia and Todd at the very worst it gives them leads to follow up on.

The week before we have the completely out of character jump from Jesse figuring out the ricin/lily of the valley thing and at the start of it we had Hank guessing from nothing that Walt was Heisenberg and not just a meth cook.

None of this has been properly explained. Feels like the writing has been rushed.

How are those plotholes?

Jesse's confession isn't enough to lead to a conviction of Walt, so they want to get more evidence, something they can't do if Walt's locked up.

And I don't understand what you're on about with the other two, there's actually nothing wrong with them.

How can you not understand the problem with the last two? It's two characters making completely illogical jumps based on what they know and happening to be right, twice. All Hank could possibly have known from that book was that Walt was the cook, its not beyond the realms of possibility for him to guess that Walt might be more involved than that, but its not a logical guess, its irrational and its such lazy writing to just say 'Right, Hank's guessed and he's right' there was no nuance and no craft to what should have been the defining moment of the series.

Then if that wasn't bad enough they did basically the same thing with Jesse. Yes, theoretically he could have had the epiphany on the side of the road showing lateral thinking Walt would be proud of and piece it all together but this is a character they've crafted in the past few weeks to plumb depths of desperation, mental instability and being stoned 24/7. It was so lazy how he found the 'smoking gun' to flip on Walt.

As for yesterdays, at the very least his confession would have given vast ammounts of circumstantial evidence, it's hard to argue otherwise, but they disregarded that as 'nothing' and went for the Hail Mary of a meeting with Walt with Jesse wearing a wire.

But Hank always knew Heisenberg WAS the cook. He thought Gale was Heisenberg, until Walt got drunk and told him that he thought Gale was just the assistant or whatever. Hank put it all together quite logically. Walt made the phone call about Marie being in hospital, he drove into traffic to avoid showing Hank the laundry. Walt refused to come to Hank's house where the DEA were guarding them at the exact time Gus was blown up.

Jesse didn't just have some random epiphany. Huell slipped his weed from him when he left Saul's office - he was then reminded of when he believed Walt had told Huell to do the same with the ricin, before Walt talked him out of it. He realised he was right all along and that's why he confronted Saul.

And anyway, characters acting out of character isn't a plothole.

I've literally just explained how they didn't guess.

It really, really isn't a giant leap of faith to figure out he's Heisenberg. Hank's a smart guy, he figured out everything Gus was up to after all.

Why would he suspect Mike of killing those men? Well, he might, but he knows Mike is connected to Heisenberg.

It's not as if Hank figured out Walt killed those men so he must be Heisenberg, he figured out Walt was Heisenberg (through other evidence) and then linked him to everything Heisenberg has done.

And yeah, my Jesse point still stands.

Your Jesse point really doesn't stand up, because he can't actually have any idea that Walt has done anything. Yes, Jesse suspected him of having poisoned Brock, but when Brock was poisoned with Lily of the Valley not Ricin (which I don't think was ever explained at all how Walt managed that) and then Jesse found the ricin cigarette he realised he was 'wrong'.

Thats the problem with his epiphnay, it makes sense from an audience perspective who knows everything because we know he's right. From Jesse's point of view he thought Walt was responsible, but then was told by a doctor that Brock had accidentally eaten Lily of the Valley (which according to the same doctor isn't uncommon) and then found the lost cigarette. From his point of view Walt never pickpocketed him in the first place, so its a bit odd that he then goes around and threatening Sual on the basis of virtually nothing.

The problem is with that whole section is that whilst its possible to explain away what happened through mental gymnastics and out of character feats of intelligence, that doesn't particularly indicate that that plot point is well written. They could have got through the Jesse flipping aspect of the story a lot more comprehensivaly with Walt either erring and revealing he'd let Jane die or Jesse somehow discovering Walt's Lily of the Valley plant, both would be better than how they did it which was cheap and out of character.