"Bryan said you could have Vincent." HA! That was awesome.

I *LOVED* that bit. Asshole admits he didn't really want to raise your son after all? Asshole loses his dog.

Why was he so against Walt hanging out with Locke, anyway? Because Locke was a little creepy at first, then it became an issue of not backing down when Walt continued to hang out with him?

Because Walt had already been taken away from him once by another father-figure, and he wasn't about to let Locke become Brian II. And the whole knife thing.

Exactly. I also think that he's trying to act as if the father-son bond that would have been there if he'd been a part of Walt's life was actually there.

That killed me. I felt really guilty for assuming that Michael just didn't want to be a parent. (Which is of course why we loves the Fury.)

Ooh! Someone on TWoP pointed out that according to IMDb, Emilie de Ravin is now a regular. Yay! I don't recall seeing her name in the credits last week, though.

I'm pretty sure it counts, considering that's both what the TWoP recapper and cleolinda call him.

I realized I was getting all wierded out in some scenes because I kept expecting Michael to have Mercutio's dreads.

Gah, I just about wept for Michael trying to rebuild a relationship that once seemed to come naturally but is so removed now. That instinct is still there, though - especially the moment when he told Walt that taking him away from Bryan was his call, and there was nothing he or Bryan could do about it. Starting off their relationship by setting himself up as the bad guy to protect Walt from knowing the real story. I really hurt for him, and I totally get why he was a bit territorial with Locke right off the bat, even before the creepitude became apparent.

The thing with the letters plays into the dynamic a lot, too, though. Michael has had a relationship with his son, and it's Bitch!Babymama's fault that Walt has not had a relationship with his father. Michael had been thinking of him, and sending him bits of his life all that time (and can you imagine the pain of not ever hearing back from him, not once in nine years?) and up until the day he went to get him, didn't know that Walt hadn't been getting those glimpses as he grew up.

Bitch!Babymama

I want to see more about why she did what she did. Was she just that selfish or was there something else going on?

I want to see more about why she did what she did. Was she just that selfish or was there something else going on?

Well, considering I just flashed on the notion that the reason she saved Michael's cards was in case he ever made it as an artist so she'd have something of his work to sell, I'm leaning towards the former, but that's just me.

True. But it's going to take a lot of "why" to make me think it's a good thing to keep the letters of his father from your son.

I want to see more about why she did what she did. Was she just that selfish or was there something else going on?

I think she considered her relationship with Michael over, and did everything she could to sever it completely. Ergo, Walt's relationship with Michael was also now over.

I agree with all who have mentioned the Bryan-Walt "relationship"/takeover as a factor for the instinctual discomfort (pre-knives) of Walt with Locke.

The episode was set up so beautifully. A lot of satisfying emotional payoff from previous episodes. This is how I like my TV.

I want to see more about why she did what she did. Was she just that selfish or was there something else going on?

I'd guess her feeling was that Walt now had a mom and a dad and bringing a third party into the relationship would just confuse him. I.e. 'this is not an open adoption'. I still think she was a bitch, since she was completely heedless of anyone else's best interests in setting up her perfect life. "I'll move to Amsterdam and won't lift a finger to help sustain Michael and Walt's relationship; I'll emotionally blackmail Brian into adopting Walt even though he doesn't want him, because that way everything will be tidier; I'll not share his biological father's letters with Walt because then I'd have to explain... "

I still think she was a bitch, since she was completely heedless of anyone else's best interests in setting up her perfect life. "I'll move to Amsterdam and won't lift a finger to help sustain Michael and Walt's relationship; I'll emotionally blackmail Brian into adopting Walt even though he doesn't want him, because that way everything will be tidier; I'll not share his biological father's letters with Walt because then I'd have to explain...

Actually, I'm glad she died, because if anyone ever deserved to die, it was her.