Even an episode with two extremely contrived situations (and I'm talking about the final two scenes, both of which called for Walt to be in just the right place at just the right time)

Oh, but they set up that last scene so nicely, with Walt propping up the baby with towels earlier while the s-i-l talked about Hammacher-Schlemmer, and then Jane propping up Jesse after she found out how much money Walt owed him. And she only flopped over because Walt shook Jesse, so I see it more as him causing it than being there at the right time.

The previous scene was pure indulgence, but they don't do that often enough for me to really ding them on that.

Poor Q.

I'm pretty afraid of the season finale.

Rescue Me: I was thinking the same thing re: Katie, erika, but when she was listing all the ways their homelife is fucked up, well, she's not wrong. of course, she's wrong in thinking that being all upper crusty will make anything better, but she'll have to figure that out on her own.

wrod, and she denied them and implied that their jobs weren't good enough...which would have gotten me the "Every job has dignity" speech.When I was a teenager, I said something sarcastic about my my mom's job, which she hated, but I guess I took it too far, and she felt clowned, cause she slapped me for it. And, wrod, "The rich are different," does not mean non-alcoholic and not fucked-up. I sometimes wish life could be that simple, myself, but alas. I've missed Breaking Bad a few times.

She was probably disappointed for not getting slapped down, whether she realized it or not. For her dad not to say "We're as good as these assholes" must be a shock, right?

Yep.

Re: Breaking Bad

Yeah, a bit contrived but still, the whole set up was well done. Every time I get up from watching one of those episodes, I tell myself how important it is to keep my kids away from drugs. Just, so messed up.

Okay, the Breaking Bad finale disappointed me. It felt like a giant set up for next season with very little of moving the story forward. And the plane crash teaser seemed vauguely connected and symbolic but not all that related. Last week was way better

I like the way Jesse and Walt are both so totally screwed, and that the disaster was not anything I'd supposed it might be.

The whole show is based on Walt doing something - deciding to cook meth - that seems kind of justifiable in his dire situation but has all these terrible consequences, not just for him but for people he doesn't even know, and the plane crash is just another big splashy consequence. He watched Jane die and did nothing to save her because she was inconvenient to him and there's a pretty direct line between that and two planes full of people dying.

It was all to provide for his family, and now he's losing his family and can't claim the credit for the money that's coming in.

I like it.

I think he has told himself that it was all for his family, but really it has always been all about him and his pride the whole damn time. And I thought the plane crash, with bodies literally raining down on his house (and the whole season, the pink teddy bear has always been about a child who died because of a decision Walt made), was a rather perfect metaphor for the way that he keeps ignoring the consequences of his actions.

I'm really enjoying this season of Rescue Me.

It's interesting that Tommy's now seeing those "future" ghosts - his son and never to be grandson.

Joe and I watch Breaking Bad together and we were talking about how the plane crash was sort of symbolic - like Corwood said, bodies literally raining down around him. But how will Walt ever know that? I mean, we could see all sorts of negative consequences from the meth, but if Walt never sees it, it's not really part of the story.

But, yeah, I guess having thought about it, I do like the fact that Walt now sees, I think, that this meth thing has become about his pride/identity, especially since he's now lost all the things he said he started it for.

btw, I keep trying to imagine Walt telling Skylar that he's been cooking meth. I'm sure she would freak out but she might even go tell Hank.