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Monday, August 27, 2012
11:24 pm
16 Comments
Gomez stops by and asks for a moment of Hank’s time. They step out of the office, and luckily for Walt, they leave the door open, because next Walt hears some startling news. Gomez has sweated Dan the lawyer for 14 hours, and Dan is willing to give them Mike. Uh-oh.
Walt then coughs loudly and knocks over all the objects on Hank’s desk, drawing attention to himself. That’s right, they started doing slapstick this week.
ACT FOUR
PLAYGROUND
Mike is at the playground with Kaylee. He’s doing a crossword while Kaylee swings on the swingset.
Mike’s phone rings. It’s Dan. Dan wants to talk and says it’s urgent, so he asks Mike where to meet. Mike tells him he’s at the park in Alameda, thereby giving up his location to the cops. Dan agrees to meet him there.
Then Mike gets another call. It’s Walt, with a warning that the DEA is on their way to snatch him. Uh-oh. Mike jumps to his feet and heads towards Kaylee, but just then a cop car pulls up right behind his own car. Two uniformed cops get out and examine his car…they know he’s in the area. And Kaylee is too out in the open for Mike to grab her and go. All he can do is hide behind a tree and watch, helpless. (I guess he COULD just flee, too)
Another cop car pulls up on the other side of the park. Mike is quickly becoming trapped. He can’t get to his granddaughter without getting caught. And, in a move that clearly hurts like hell, Mike does decide to flee. What’s tough is, this probably fucks Mike’s relationship with his daughter, too. Abandoning your own granddaughter in public? Traumatic.
SAUL’S OFFICE
Walt and Jesse have come to Saul’s office to talk about the Mike situation. Saul is just pissed Mike used another lawyer to do his dirty work. “Dan Woxford? You’d be better off with the law firm of Moe, Larry, and Shemp!” (Side note: who the fuck picks Shemp? Every man in America would’ve gone with Curly. I call bullshit).
(Another side note: why is Jesse even here? He’s out!)
Walt tells Saul to focus on the task at hand. What to do about Mike? Well, there’s not much they CAN do besides hope Mike doesn’t get caught. Because if Mike does get caught, they’re screwed. Jesse doesn’t think Mike would flip on them, but Saul reminds Jesse that now the DEA has probably confiscated the nest egg Mike socked away in the safety deposit box. This is the second time the feds have frozen his money. Mike might just be desperate enough to turn on them.
Just then, a phone rings in Saul’s desk. Saul opens a drawer and, hilariously, sifts through a pile of about fifteen burner phones all obviously used for one illegal purpose or another. He answers, and it’s Mike.
Mike tells them he’s on the run, and that he’s stashed a “go bag” in a car at the airport. (This is the bag we saw Mike hide earlier in the episode this week). He needs one of them to retrieve it and get it to him. Saul can’t do it. The DEA knows Saul works for Mike and is probably tailing him. Jesse offers to do it—and, if you ask me, his pleading tone suggests he wants to impress Mike one last time—but Mike doesn’t want Jesse involved. So it all falls to Walt. Mike tells Walt where to find the go bag and Walt heads for the airport.
16 Comments
The movie Mike was watching is called “The Big Heat”. It is about a cop who continues to investiagte a case after he is told to stop (aka Hank).
I do like this season as much as the past, everything is steaming towards the finish line. The one area where I think you are off in your review of the season is in saying that there is no super-villain. Walt has clearly jumped into that role and is the scariest villain yet. What the show truly lacks is the hero. Most people I watch have pulled for Jesse or Mike as the hero this season, but neither of them are admirable (while I love(d) them both). The only true hero can be Hank. I am thinking that they 2nd half of this season is going to be Walt versus Hank.
I do agree with you that the Skylar stuff has become repetitive, but to be honest I was never a huge fan of her character anyways. And I think Anna Gunn has stepped up her acting a notch this season, whether she is just laying in bed terrified or this chilling fight scene she finally had with Walt I think she has performed well.
I also agree about the lack of comedy in this season, but I think that was a direction the show had to move as it went forward. They are waist deep in running their own meth operation now and everything has gotten real.
Anyways there is rarely a Sunday night that I am not satisfied with the show (even when they do cheat a little a make Hank-Gomey have a convenient conversation in front of Walt).
I understand the changes in Skylers behavior. Way back when she thought that Walt was just a cook working for someone else, well, he might as well have still been a teacher. They had problems in their marriage before and nothing’s really changed. Walt works and is Walter Milktoast, Skyler handles the family and the finances and hates that her life is so boring and the kids are just background.
All that was true up until the end of last season. That’s when Skyler discovered that Walt is the danger at the door. Walt is not the shy, retiring always ready to be stepped on guy she thought she knew. Walt is a bad, bad, dangerous man. And Skyler is no longer driving this bus. And she’s terrified, as she should be.
I’ll miss Mike and wish Walt hadn’t killed him but I did see it coming. Is Jesse in Walt’s gun site now? Hope not but yeah, probably. And no matter what Todd has done, so long as he treats Walt and Walt’s genius with proper reverence, he’s got a job.
Hate to say this but…. I wish i believed more in walt shooting mike. Just
having a hard time with it. Almost like the writers are trying to make
Walt more and more evil just for its own sake. Thoughts?
I think Todd is seriously dangerous. Something very, very bad is going to happen with him once he knows all the ins and outs of a cook.
And I LOVED that they used The Monkees music during the cook scene.
When Walt fired that gun, I let out an involuntary “NOOOOOOO!!!!!”
Is next week the semi-finale? IIRC they were breaking this season into two eight episode blocks. If Walt kills Jesse, I’m going to be pissed. Completely, totally, ineffectually PISSED.
Christinawilde85 – I don’t think the writers had Walt shoot Mike just to make him look more and more evil, they have done a great job at that. I just think they didn’t want any loose ends. If they had Mike just go away then the last few episodes we would probably all be wondering when he was going to show up again until the end. But I do agree the one character flaw with Mike was that he was incredible professional and into every last detail, but he underestimated Walter consistently, which seems a bit out of character.
SuburBint – next week is the half-season finale. There is no way Jesse dies before the second half of the season. Is there?
I’m loving this season, if only for the way Walt has become a true villain. He is losing any remaining redeeming qualities with each episode.
I think some of the plotline bears more than a passing resemblance to Scarface, and the episode where that movie is playing on the TV (and the particular scene at the end) I think is very foreboding. Some examples, Skyler’s out-there behaviour is not unlike Michelle Pfeifer when she realized how she was trapped; the “nobody” (Walt) becomes the kingpin through a series of really ballsy moves, including killing the top guy; while at the top, megalomania sets in, and Pacino loses it with everyone (he kills his long time friend and sister too, if I remember – uh oh, Jesse!).
Does anyone else think Mike pre-planned the whole thing, expected Walt to react like that, and faked his own death? MIke just seems waaay to smart to let Walt catch him like that. And he knows how to toy with Walt’s ego and how Walt will react. Is it too crazy to think Mike is still alive? Didn’t the spot where he died look suspicially close to the spot he stored the guns and computers? Am i just in denial that Mike is gone?
You know, Amanda, I was lamenting Mike’s death last night and a friend of mine said that it was possible for him to still be alive. I thought about it and I really think that might be what happens.
I thought Beneke was dead for sure after that fall and he showed up this season in a halo. I’m jumping aboard the “Mike is Alive” boat.
Great recap!!!
I kind of agree on losing the fun from earlier seasons and not loving this show the same way, but it is still gripping and well done and one of the highlights of the week!
I totally agree on Skylar, I was just telling MrWallace I wish she’d do SOMETHING. Join Walt, leave him, hire a hit man… When Jesse said “Vamanos” and she said “I wish” it made me wonder if Jesse was going to figure out the meaning of that word and rescue Skylar and Walt’s kids! Like they all go on the run, vamanos!
Love the idea that Mike is alive, I don’t think he will be though. He failed completely at this point in securing a future for his granddaughter and had to leave in disgrace. The tying up loose ends comment is apt as well. Also if the DEA finds Mike obviously murdered, it just sharpens Hank’s interest since all this time he thought Mike was the mastermind… there is someone else out there! That amps things up for the final Walt/Hank showdown.
Oh, and inevitably Hank will know it was Walt, and there will be a confrontation of course. I kind of can’t wait for Walt to reveal that all of Hank’s hospital bills and recovery therapy were paid for by Meth! Too hilarious!
Hey everyone. Thanks for the reads and the comments!
The “Mike is alive” idea is interesting, but I’m not sure I buy it. From a storytelling perspective it’s way more tragic for Mike to be dead than for him to have made it out alive, because he dies just as he was trying to leave the business behind. It’s way more tragic for him to come THIS CLOSE to escaping with his life only to be killed thanks to Walt’s ego. (Insofar as it can be tragic for someone as shady as Mike to die tragically).
Another thought I’ve been having, regarding Mike and all the other members of the criminal class, is that they all don’t seem to know what to do with Walt. I think most criminals (on the show) have spent their careers dealing with other criminals. Other criminals are predictable. Since Walt’s still an amateur, he’s unpredictable. Maybe that’s why Mike maybe didn’t see his death coming. A professional criminal kills for practical reasons. Walt killed Mike in a fit of rage. For me, part of the show is about our collective inability to adapt to unknown variables.
Also, I think I’ve said it before, but I’m calling it again: Hank will find out about Walt, but Walt will kill him before he can do anything about it. That’s one of the only lows to which Walt hasn’t sunk yet: killing his own family members. Mark my words!
Go to amctv.com and watch the making of video clip, which will answer the question of whether Mike is alive.
Great recap!
A third thing to add to the I’m-not-quite-buying-it list (the other two being the kid eating the lily-of-the-valley with no explanation of how Walt got it to him and the storyline taking place within a year) is the kids staying with Hank and Marie. It makes for a dramatically gloomy atmosphere in the house but it just isn’t realistic. I guess the writers made a decision to drop the realism for this last season and make it be more “pure drama,” which explains why the comic elements had to be sacrificed, but the thing I really appreciated about this show was the way it balanced the domestic details with the cosmic good/evil stuff. Drop one half of that equation and I’m not sure if you have such a complex, groundbreaking tv show.
I would have rather Mike take his own life to avoid Prison. I hated him being bested/killed by Walt. I enjoyed the show more when I felt conflicted by Walt’s complexities. Now he’s just bad and for me, it’s less compelling/fascinating. I understand what drives/motivates him, it’s all about the Prestige/Power/Money and success and he feels he missed the opportunity that his scientist friend/collegue got (who we met back in Season One). Perhaps this is the only direction they could take this with it all soon coming to an end. I wonder if he will somehow force Jesse’s hand, ie threatening the lives of that Mother and Son
Why is Mike so shady. As far as the criminals in this show go he seems like the most loyal, straight shooter of the bunch. And he was trying to look out for Jesse. What did I miss?
But wouldn’t Mike taking his own life amount to Walt besting him? Mike was all about fixing things so that he could end his life being a normal grandfather. Walt ruined that for him.