Things you can learn from the s5.1 Breaking Bad dvds

[selenak]

...which I dipped in in order to prepar for the rest of the season in five days.

1.) The scene at the end of 5.02., with Walt sliding into bed with Skyler, was originally even creepier and grosser.

Comments

[falafel_musings]

The extended 'Madrigal' scene also struck me as a very dark disturbing twist on the Pilot handjob scene. Do you think Walt continued having sex with Skyler through the S5a episodes? In the early seasons we've seen Walt using sex as a release after his dangerous experiences in the drug game. There's the moment Walt almost rapes Skyler in the S2 opener after his scary encounter with Tuco. He stopped because Skyler told him to on that occasion but at the end of 'Madrigal' I got the impression Skyler was too scared to say 'Stop

[selenak]

. Do you think Walt continued having sex with Skyler through the S5a episodes?

At least until 51, yes. Her "I'm waiting for the cancer to come back" may have psychologically impossible for him to, depending on whether you think Walt's need for sexual release and/or to dominate/punish Skyler trumps his need to see himself as a loving husband and father who is deeply misunderstood.

Chicks & Guns scene: I was thinking about our dialogue re: male ganster fantasies! Also that the scene was very efficient in giving the stripper, Cristal (of course that's her name), a personality (her impatience with the guys being unable to finish the carpe diem quote, her exchange with Saul re: her kids) so that while for the guys she wasn't a person, she was a fantasy, that wasn't true for the narrative. Re: Saul giving Jesse the gun and warning him of Walt (and also the implication that if Walt has killed "Mike's guys" regardless of Mike, this probably means nothing good regarding Mike's continued existence), it's arguably the first non-selfish thing

[falafel_musings]

it's arguably the first non-selfish thing we see Saul do.

I think there's a few other times that Saul's gone beyond the call of duty, like, hiding Jesse in the laser maze and not giving him up to Mike who was threatening to break Saul's legs. On the one hand, I think Saul is a good lawyer in the sense that he wants to prove to his clients that he looks out for them and he's someone they can trust. But I wonder if Saul does have a genuine soft spot for Jesse. Or perhaps Saul feels guilty because he helped with the ricin cigarette & Brock poisoning manipulation that Walt pulled on Jesse.

she'd rather her daughter traumatized by finding her body than being traumatized by never knowing what happened and never knowing whether her mother is dead or alive, left her deliberately or was taken etc

Wow, that's a great connection. I hadn't thought of that. It is also reflected in Mike's fate when he just disappears from his granddaughter's life and she'll probably grow up thinking he just abandoned her in the park.

[selenak]

I'm afraid that if they had broadcast the extended version, those male commentators probably would have reacted with feedback on the note of "serves the bitch right" or "karmic punishment, ha ha ha". Want to know what's additionally disturbing? Now the show has a third memorable handjob, the one Marie gives Hank in hospital. Emotionally, it's the opposite of either of those between the Whites. Marie is fully focused on Hank, she does it to cheer him enough out of his PTSD to get him to agree to leave the hospital, and it works. Does that mean Marie's more popular with the male audience? No, it does not. Marie hate is no less visceral than Skyler hate, it just doesn't get voiced as often because Marie is a less present character on the show. In conclusion, the patriarchy is a zero sum game.

[selenak]

As far as I can tell, the arguments of the Marie haters are, since she can't be accused of "emasculating" Hank or getting in the way of his fun, or smoking while pregnant and havng an affair

[selenak]

As Abigail said, Jesse's tragedy is that he has the potential to be good but on his own not enough willpower or direction to act on it. (Well, rarely; refusing to continue working with Walt or to continue profitting from the money probably counts. But that's how many months in show time after Peekabo? And also, while the Spooges graphically illustrated the damage meth does not just to its addicts but also their dependants, like their child, this can't have been news to Jesse. Wendy the prostitute is hardly a poster child for health, either, and he must have seen plenty of crackheads when he was still a small time dealer cooking on his own.