It's a better story if he's dead. Skylar blew their chance at a new life protecting the old one which no longer needs to be protected but that only came about due to her efforts to fix the problem another way. Sort of Gift of the Magi.

Yeah, it's a pretty well constructed (by the writers) mess.

Except for that rug. Because I had been thinking about how everything bad that happens on this show is a consequence of a character's actions, how it didn't just use plot devices. But that rug? What the hell? Act of God.

Yeah, and the initial tripping was such an anvil. One of those "this is only happening for later plot development".

It would have been better if Beneke had gone out and bought, say, super expensive shoes with all his new money and then he had slipped because of them while rounding that corner. Or you know, something like that.

I do mostly like this show because it is so character driven and well thought out. Like, I would love to have long discussion about why stuff happened the way it did and so on because it seems like there is thought behind it when writing.

I keep coming back to: Walt didn't give this up when he could have because it made him feel good, powerful, and successful. But he only felt that way because almost all of his life, he was downtrodden and not living up to expectations. So, now, he seems to have grossly overestimated his importance but that is not who he has always been. Which I find curious because I think people usually default to their life long self-image, even if it's not true anymore.

It's sort of the same with Jesse. He thinks he is so much better than Jesse even though Jesse is now "in" (maybe) with Gus. He never thought to thank Jesse or apologize. Jesse saved his ass but Walt can't imagine that Jesse, an addict, might actually be able to help him.

He tripped on the rug when he went to answer the door to Skyler. Given what we've seen of him, I can easily believe that he's been tripping over that rug for months without bothering to do anything about it, or even trying to remember that he needs to step over the edge. It was bound to happen eventually.

Psych's "Unofficial Official" trailer.

Nyeeeerrrgggh Gus Fring I am so conflicted you are so terrible yet so awesome.

So frickin' tense. I'm kind of relieved Breaking Bad has an end date in sight.

Do you guys think Gus really poisoned that little boy? I mean, I"m sure Walt didn't and ricin (is that how you spell that?) poisoning seems most likely, given what we know. But damn, not only is that really really cold, but I don't think we saw anything that hinted at that.

You know, I like Breaking Bad a lot. But today I sat with a client who was a victim of kidnapping/extortion by what was almost certainly a Mexican drug cartel in the border region while he told his story to the FBI. Thankfully, he escaped but after his escape, he nearly died of dehydration wandering in the desert looking for anyone. It adds a level of scariness to Breaking Bad that wasn't there before I lived here and did this sort of work.

Yeah, I can see where that would make it feel more personal. That the show is so unflinching is why I like it, but it can make it very hard to watch sometimes.

I am thinking maybe Gus didn't poison the boy - I think he's capable of it but, I don't know, when he was standing there in the parking garage thinking before he turned around maybe he was figuring out what really happened. I have no idea what that may be. But if the point of poisoning the boy was to frame Walt, the framing part was sloppily done.