You've reached the point in the series. The crossroad or intersection of the series. The scene with the reflection was very well done, showing that Gus and Walter are mirror images, but the image is slightly distorted. This is when the series went into it's legendary status and was no longer like other series, and became one of the best series, among other greats like the Sopranos and the Wire.
I love Walt's plan. Go expand your turf with 3 guys and a myth that you got muscle. Saul's response to Combo' s death is hilarious to me. "Drug dealer getting shot. I'm gonna go a limb here and say that's been known to happen."
Tbf, Walt is a high school chemistry teacher. He doesn't know how the street works. But, he's making all the decisions cause the guy who's *suppose* to be in charge of distribution is busy playing house.
@@Serryy Expanding is a core business principle. It's necessary for growth. How is expanding a stupid idea? If you mean to say that the feasibility of their operations to successfully expand is a stupid idea, then again, that's on Jesse to address those feasibility issues so as to continue growing the business. When Walt was faced with supply issues, he worked out a solution to increase production. That problem solving. That what running a business is.
@@thedarkemissary Expanding without the necessary tools to do so is a stupid idea. Jesse told Walter that this was not the way it works. That it would be impossible. He was right. "You figure it out, thats what business is", Yeah and sometimes you figure out that it doesnt work. Thats also what business is. In the real world, theres no success guarantee.
That scene of Skylar singing happy birthday is never not cringe! I also completely forgot Jesse went down the heroin route. I had it in my head it was just the meth!
It was so so cringe. I can’t believe the other people in the office watching thought it was cool. I would have went back to work. I’d rather work that watch that shit.
Combo's death is one of my favorite moments of violence in anything, ever. The look of pure shock and disbelief in his eyes after he gets shot and looks at his assailant... The kid's got a look of pure horror at that he's done, but he keeps on going cuz the gang guy's almost certainly threatened and pressured him into it some way. And then the last few, clumsy moments of Combo's life as he tries to run away but just drops. It's really stuck with me for some reason. It all feels so real. Also love the detail of the soda cup exploding lol
You are allowed to feel Any way that you want to feel about any character. If you are wrong, then you will find out later as the show goes along. Anyone giving you grief for your opinions in season 2 just needs to chill out. .. Great reaction ladies!
The camera shakes a bit because it's filmed by a camera man holding the camera himself on his shoulder. Old school style. I personally like it. It's a decision from the director.
Arianna was quite intuitive on this episode guessing that Skyler was going to do the Marilyn Monroe thing and figuring out that Gus was the contact Walt was supposed to meet up with. It also cracks me up how squeamish many ppl are with needles, granted I had epilepsy as a child so I would get blood tests often as a small child, and as a teen my brother was a heroin addict so I learned to give him his shots at a young age.
I will say I give blood and it's fine, but the heroin injection scene does make me a little sick in a way only a couple other things on the show do. These two characters are basically kids, and we know they're addicts but they're still so innocent emotionally, so watching them inject poison is deeply unsettling. It's not just injecting into their arms, it's into their heads. It's a combination of the innate fear of needles, the context of the characters, and the substance itself for me.
Knowingly choosing what you know deep down to be the "wrong" path and following it anyways is a common theme and unfortunately a fairly relatable element of this show. Love you reactions and can't wait to see you experience where it goes from here!
The Skyler talk is a huge can of worms (very opiniated people on both sides), but I think there's a lot to say about how they're presented; Yes, Walter is a significantly worse person than Skyler, he has done much worse things.. But the show doesn't try to hide that fact and make him look like a great guy. When Combo dies and Walter goes "Which one was he?" like he doesn't give a damn that someone lost his life, the show is presenting Walter as a bad guy... When Skyler does something bad - and yes, it's not nearly as bad as what Walter does - the show seems to present her as an innocent victim who acted under these circumstances; "She smoked those cigarettes because Walter stressed her out!" "She flirts with her boss because Walter isn't present in her life!" "She works for her fraud/criminal boss because she needs the income!" When Walter does something bad, the show does not skirt around, it shows you that Walter does the bad thing because he's a bad person (or is turning into a bad person, anyway). When Skyler does something bad, the show tries to explain you what led her to do this. Of course the show does explain why Walter does bad things too, early on (to pay for his cancer treatment) but given they also gave him a "way out" (Gretchen and Elliott offering to pay for his treatment), then Walt having cancer is no longer an excuse to do these things, because he doesn't have to do them anymore. So it's just "Walt being a bad guy/criminal". So, I'd say this is like... Imagine that someone stole a million $ and was exposed as a thief and faced consequences. Some other guy stole HALF a million, but his politician daddy pulled some string to make him avoid jail, and also tried to justify his crime because he was depressed or affected by his parent divorce or something... Most people would have more resentment for the second guy. Even though he stole less money, the fact that the situation presents him as a victim, makes him MUCH worse in our eyes. He's not a victim, he did bad things because he's a bad person. The other guy did worse things, but he's not pretending otherwise. So that's kinda how I see the Walt/Skyler situation. The show is presenting us with a monster (Walter), and tells us "That's a monster!" Then it presents us a bad person (Skyler) and tells us "That's a good person/innocent victim of her circumstances". This makes people a lot more resentful about her, than about the monster who's shown to be a monster.
Shout out to Skylar singing happy birthday to Ted and being one of the most cringe scenes I've ever seen in tv show history. I literally have to skip it every time I watch the show.
The color yellow in this series represents drugs/meth (Gus' shirt, Jesse wears red/black/yellow, Jesse's place, Jane's popsicle). Can't wait for the next reaction!
Misogyny and power fantasies aside, I suspect some people dislike Skyler more than Walt because they are more likely to run into overbearing people in real life than murderous meth kingpins. Same reason people hate Umbridge more than Voldermort or Xander on Buffy more than the various mass murderers; they remind us more of flaws we encounter personally.
That's a REALLY good point. My explanation has often been that it's OBVIOUS that being a drug dealer or murderer is evil but abusing your suburban privilege or setting up toxic patterns in your marriage (which Walt does too) is more subtle and worth discussion. Why must we insist on discussing the obvious before the subtle? But that really just stems from one of those things being extreme (and therefore obvious) and the other being uncommon at best, as you say.
Camera shaking is a deliberate cinematic technique. It builds tension and immersion. In real life your head is not on a tripod, but maybe it differs from person to person. I personally never noticed the shaking because for me it was expecting, as I was imagining I am seeing the movie unfold through someone else's eyes so the shake seemed natural to me, didn't even notice it until someone else pointed it out.
A lot of people miss the whole "I have your NUMBERS" dude is so in the know he knows Walt has a burner and the number to it. He's been well aware of Walt for a while.
You can say what you want about the u.s Healthcare system and most is right but people come from other countries to get care. My aunt is from Canada and was told she had stage 3 ovarian cancer and there wasn't anything they could do. She searched around the u.s and found a doctor in Michigan who gave her surgery. That was 12 years ago and she now lives here in Indiana.
It's great your aunt had that option, only coming at the cost of others not. (And of course the people who can't afford it don't JUST sacrifice for the benefit of your aunt. Plenty goes to the middlemen and their executives.) I say this without malice. My uncle has cancer. He can afford pretty high end care. I'm glad. But don't pretend that's not a concentration of resources for the benefit of few over many. And don't assume that's the only way the system could've worked.
@jerodast she wasn't some rich person at all. She is full blooded native American from Ontario that was living on native land. I say aunt but she's my aunt through marriage to my uncle. They 100% sent her home to die in Canada though and that's the honest truth. She came across the border to Michigan and the first oncologist she found saved her life. He wasn't some huge expensive oncologist. He was just your regular oncologist that every big city has 10 of. My whole point was that social Healthcare in theory is great but when you need specialized care you either get sent home like her or have to wait a long time. Now she has family still in Canada and if you have late stage cancer the first thing they ask is if you want assisted suicide which I'm honestly ok with because who am I to tell you to want to live.
@@BigMoore1232 But isn't that more a comparison of a system that doesn't have enough resources to a system that is literally broken at every level? If Canada chose to allocate more money and cultivate more healthcare professionals in a wider variety of fields, they could, and that would ease the wait times significantly. Since it's provided as a public service, you can vote for people who will vote in those funding increases. In America, it's just a fundamental problem with the way the system is structured--everything is either privately owned or investor-owned, so the focus is always on profit, not service. The end user has zero control over what they get, especially since health care is a natural monopoly. And don't get me started on insurance here. It's literally designed to suck up as many dollars as possible without returning anything to the person paying in.
Looking back, you KNOW Gus already had Walt under manned surveillance, gps tracked, and knew every known detail there was to know about Walt's life, before Walt even knew who Gus was. Makes their first meeting that much more intense.
Always interesting to see how the Jesse/Jane situation is perceived differently by different people. And that only shows how well the show is written, there is no clear black or white, almost every situation can be viewed from different directions. I'm with Arianna. I would even go as far as to say, Jane is a bad influence to Jesse, not the other way around. Not only was Jesse asking her to leave, and she stayed anyway, she used Jesses situation as an "excuse" to come up with heroin and talk Jesse into taking it. And she is a clever girl, she actively choose to get into that relationship in the first place, knowing what Jesse is, with her background and with 18 month of being clean. It's not like she was naive or dragged into that without knowing.
I mean sure but none of that would've happened if Jesse didn't want to smoke again. I don't think the bad influence goes one way. She stayed, presumably, because of her love for Jesse. It's difficult to walk away from a loved one hurting themself, even if that was the best move for her in that moment. Idk I guess I'm just saying it's a really bad situation and there's no point in figuring out which one of them is to blame.
@@schmuck.on.wheels Like I said, the great thing about the show is, that there are nearly always multiple (valid) points of view. I don't claim that mine is the only "correct" way. I'm with you, it's a really bad situation for both of them, both are addicts (clean at the time or not), and the reason for that is way in the past, still it's something you have to deal with your whole life. My point is more that pointing the fingers at Jesse and making Jane the "victim" is not my takeaway from what happened until now. Yes, Jesse wanted to smoke again. But there are multiple thing before and after that Jane decided herself. In the end, non of that would have happened if she didn't rented the house to Jesse in the first place. Like she stated, someone using a fake name and only paying cash was a giveaway, and that was when they first met. And it was not like "love as first sight". We are just past the "who is you and me" thing. Jesse was way more into her at first than she was into him. Plus yes, Jesse starting to smoke again was bad, but as we have seen before, it's something he could handle somehow OK. Actively talking him into "upping the game" to heroin was completely on her.
@@schmuck.on.wheels Yeah, it's a toxic relationship. Sometimes, there's no one bad guy, and no good guy. These two people just don't function well together and bring up all their worst traits and habits.
Another really good reaction! And I appreciate the extended discussion afterwards, as always. For anyone who's been down the road of drug or alcohol addiction, getting that next fix is paramount, so it IS fair to say never fully trust someone who's deep in that shit until they get clean.
It's crazy that Jessie was an experienced meth user & pretty much always smoked it, and the first time he tries smack he injects it rather than snorting it first. I'm not sure how many people understand that some people can experiment with it without succumbing to addiction. It's known as 'chipping.' But I imagine injection is going past the point of no return.
Is the concern that the audience will end up empathizing with Walt? Is that why there's the surprise that there's no response from Walt? I'd say wait on that. As far as an analysis goes, it's way better to just think of this like a movie. Other commenters are correct on saying its the mid point. The direction is only going to become clearer.
Two Sopranos references/homages in this episode: the white doctor plays a doctor in the Sopranos too (also oncology), and the cringe-inducing Happy Birthday scene. This one manages to give me PTSD.
I thought it was the manager because I knew who the actor was from his earlier work. Some things are just too obvious, but Vince and the gang keep surprising us all the way through this brilliant series.
the intense polarity of fans' opinions of Skylar is a testament both to the writers and to the extraordinary performance of Anna Gunn - though some of it of course is just gender/culture war bullshit
"Black Tar Heroine: The Dark End of the Street" is a documentary that takes an emotional toll. Up there with the "The Act of Killing" in the bleakness of it's subject. Both are worth watching at least once.
I've developed trypanophobia so even if the needle is used medicinally, I freak and can't watch. And tattoos bother the heck out of me, knowing how they got there. Needles really needle me.
Earlier in the episode Jesse told Saul they had 38 lbs. If each bag was 2 lbs that would be 19 bags (19x2=38). So maybe you missed a bag when counting?
The RIGHT thing to do is get the 18 bags “18 x 2 is the 36 pounds” “two pounds per bag” to GUS! The problem right now is Jesse should be sober or conscious enough to deliver it to Gus himself, but being him, he’s high lmao 😂😂😂❤
Great show, but not for the faint of heart my any means. Sadly I don't think any reactor will ever watch it, simply because editing for RUclips would be a nightmare
Jesse honestly seems like a misguided dumb kid with adhd (at least im the early seasons). Also, he was mostly posing and selling crappy meth. While he is not a good person, he is not inherently bad imo and more like a white wannabe gangster who does not realize that it is all a stupid idea (also, his peers are a terrible influence). Walt on the other hand is a full fledged adult who runs into it and thrives off the power and violence - amd turns jesse knto his lackey. But yeah, jesse dies also a lot of harm to other people. It would just be much more limited. Honestly, maybe he wouldve stopped in a few years when he matures further?
Being a junkie is not immoral lol how is that a point against him? That's a thing that hurts himself. Obviously not saying everything Jesse does is excusable, but he's obviously a troubled guy trapped in a bad system, whereas Walt is driven by WANTING to do this. He gets off on it. It's not comparable.
@@mappes1 crappy or not he is still a meth deal and a danger to young kids getting hooked on meth. No he is no a good person. Hi crappy meth as u put it could end up in the hands of your kids
Jesse wasn't addicted to meth, it just seemed like a casual user, at least until these few episodes wit Jane, there are tons of casual users of lots of hard drugs, tons of people who only do cocaine or painkillers on the weekends or whatever.
so the camera shakiness was a choice by the director of the show. he thought it made the show feel more real and visceral, not as tv show. personally i never noticed it but to be fair a lot of reactors i have watched noticed it.
3:13 can we just pause for a second and acknowledge that Skylar is valuing money over Walt’s life? Now that she’s mad at him she wants him to sacrifice himself to avoid further debt. Wow.
@@pencil6965the dude was dying alr, although he did get wrapped in it and spiraled, don’t act like he did this maliciously to destroy his family and didn’t care. this all started for his family. honestly had it not been for the baby i think he wouldn’t even have joined the meth business to begin with. it all starts with him wanting to provide a future for his daughter and family he WONT be there for. he finds a way in meth to make quick big bucks. not excusing or saying walt is right that’s what the intention was. no baby and i think he’s probably ask gretchen and her husband forgot his name to help them after he passes or something because it would just be skylar with walt jr who would be out of highschool by then and an adult. skylar can clearly take care of herself so there wouldn’t be a need to go out and make meth for money. that’s just my opinion tho
I think it was more so her being surprised that Walt agreed to the operation so quickly, considering they don’t know how they’re gonna pay for it (because Gretchen and Elliott “cut off” the money)
24:18 No they were all there. Episodes have shown Walt & Jesse meticulously weighing those exact bag shapes, on average they weigh between 2-3 pounds & some ounces each. If 18 bags weighed 2 pounds each it’d be up to 36, each bag has some ounces extra. Up to 38 pounds in total. My OCD was going into overdrive, lol
In the 8th grade we had to dress up as a famous person and tell the story of their life in character. One of the girls dressed up as Marilyn Monroe and sang Happy Birthday to our teacher while standing on his desk. His smile was so incredibly creepy and unsettling. And I don't think anybody else in the class understood just how wrong it was. 1990. Times were different back then.
I think Walter and Skylar had a good relationship. They loved each other but Walter changed. And it’s understandable to change facing your mortality. She is trying to deal with for better or for worse but Walt is lying, being secretive and not doing his part in the marriage. I find her behavior understandable under the circumstances.
The funniest part of this reaction was Maple thinking Giancarlo Esposito was just playing a bit part as a Cluck Shop Manager. I take it it's only Arianna who has watched The Boys? Has either of them seen The Mandalorian either? .... or even Do The Right Thing (although he looked A LOT different in that)
As someone who works in a chemistry lab, it just dawned on me the one issue with this show, Maple and Ariana triggered this in their weight discussion: No chemist with a minute of college education would weigh meth in Imperial pounds. Grams and kilos only. Especially the work I do with large scale drinking water, SI is so much easier, especially with mass. A gallon of water is 8.34-ish pounds, but 1000ml of water is exactly 1 kilogram. 1 gram is one ml. 1ml/liter is one part per million. All the dosage math is far easier in metric than imperial. Now way I'd run the superlab and crank out huge volumes of, well, crank, and weigh it in pounds. I don't think my outrageously expensive certified lab scale CAN even weigh in pounds, i don't even think that's an option they include.
Maybe for next season, consider doing 2 episodes per video? Even Arianna and Maple noted how the episodes just fly by now. With how cut-down each ep needs to be for RUclips, 2 eps just makes a lot more sense. (imho)
Oh SHIT I always misremember Gus coming in at the start of season 3. Fuck yeah dude. Though it’s immediately leveled out with the least appealing rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ ever. Giancarlo Esposito could make billions doing asmr.
essentialy.. if u take responsibility for your decisions and actions and believe you have control in your life - then it dosnt matter who you with.. just saying
Yeah any little thing he does is under an incredible amount of scrutiny. I get that Walt isn’t the greatest person but dang they could have a little more nuance with their observation of him. I just feel like their hate for him is making them a little too biased and keeping them from being objective
It's 100% justified, where Walt draws the line morally changes throughout the series but the toxic traits driving him are there from the start, and very clear by season 2. So while his actions may not always warrant so much hate, his mentality does.
@@schmuck.on.wheelsseriously. It even predates the events of the show. The show drops a ton of hints that his fallouts with Grey Matter and Sandia Labs were driven by his ego and resentment
I'm from Brazil, and I just realized that if this show were here, there would only be one episode, my grandfather had lung cancer a few years ago and all the treatment was free
The ladies are right about the characters of the show; they're all flawed and make human decisions (i.e. weird, funny, stupid, etc). Walt is often praised because he's viewed as a hero of sorts and yet he's a flawed man who sought out the worst possible path to regain himself as a person. Skyler is deeply flawed and her choices going forward are just as flawed but Walt treats her pretty terribly as well and yet what she's dealing with regarding Walt's treatment of her is understandable, she's trying to connect with him and he keeps pushing her away, of course she's going to seek that connection elsewhere.
I agree with your take on Skylar, she's not great, but she isn't worse than Walt. She's one of most hated TV characters, and fanboys love Walt, for whatever reason.
Yeah, I think mostly people hate Skyler just because she's always in Walt's way and he's the protagonist. To me almost all her actions were completely logical, imo she's one of the most reasonable chatacters in the series
It always annoys me when people shit on the health care system in the US. As a cancer survivor, I'm grateful I live here. Walt would be fine if he took Elliott's money. His pride is the problem not American heath care. It's not the system's fault Walt made poor choices in his life.
It is hilarious of you hype up the US health system then in the next breath point to a RICH BILLIONAIRE BUDDY as the obvious solution. At least the guy a few threads back wasn't so OBVIOUSLY lacking self-awareness haha.
@brownsey1 then what? Walt made poor choices throughout his life and has to live with the consequences. When I was in school, I paid for insurance. Then I joined the Navy. After that I had access to the VA. But I then took a job with good insurance. At no point in my life was I without because of the choices I made. And even in Walt's case, doctors don't withold treatment because you don't have money. They bill you after the fact. That's why people are burdened with medical debt. But that debt can be discharged through bankruptcy.
I agree with another post I saw on here. The Marilyn Monroe, happy birthday scene, is cringe. However, a lot BB fans love to hate on Skylar. I think it's a little unjustified. Yeah, she has a affair, but besides lying, Walt has killed people. She is trying to protect her kids. Oh, and Walt makes meth. So, Skylar is Not the bad guy here. I'm not defending Skylar. Well, maybe I am. I am basically neutral on Skylar, just don't think she deserves the hate she gets from BB fans. Yeah, she has sinned, but who is worse? Skylar or Walt?
You've reached the point in the series. The crossroad or intersection of the series. The scene with the reflection was very well done, showing that Gus and Walter are mirror images, but the image is slightly distorted. This is when the series went into it's legendary status and was no longer like other series, and became one of the best series, among other greats like the Sopranos and the Wire.
The episode where Jane dies is much more pivotal.
@@Batt-man Cause the trailer was an extended cut scene and nothing more 😂
dude, delete@@mikeceebo8611
@@mikeceebo8611 Perhaps you can elaborate with some more detailed spoilers.
@@brownsey1 fair
I love Walt's plan. Go expand your turf with 3 guys and a myth that you got muscle. Saul's response to Combo' s death is hilarious to me. "Drug dealer getting shot. I'm gonna go a limb here and say that's been known to happen."
i love sauls dry humor :D
Tbf, Walt is a high school chemistry teacher. He doesn't know how the street works. But, he's making all the decisions cause the guy who's *suppose* to be in charge of distribution is busy playing house.
@@thedarkemissary The guy whos supposed to be in charge of distribution told Walter its a stupid idea.
@@Serryy Expanding is a core business principle. It's necessary for growth. How is expanding a stupid idea? If you mean to say that the feasibility of their operations to successfully expand is a stupid idea, then again, that's on Jesse to address those feasibility issues so as to continue growing the business. When Walt was faced with supply issues, he worked out a solution to increase production. That problem solving. That what running a business is.
@@thedarkemissary Expanding without the necessary tools to do so is a stupid idea. Jesse told Walter that this was not the way it works. That it would be impossible. He was right. "You figure it out, thats what business is", Yeah and sometimes you figure out that it doesnt work. Thats also what business is. In the real world, theres no success guarantee.
That scene of Skylar singing happy birthday is never not cringe! I also completely forgot Jesse went down the heroin route. I had it in my head it was just the meth!
The double up floored me when i watched this the first time. I knew people did them separately but holy shit
I knew the Skyler scene was coming and I had to skip it during this reaction video. I can't watch it. It's like physical pain to me :D
@@TheOldMan-75 😂😂 I was the same!
Meth is Jesses Drug.
Heroin was Janes, & her even giving instructions to Jesse about how to properly inject it.
It was so so cringe. I can’t believe the other people in the office watching thought it was cool. I would have went back to work. I’d rather work that watch that shit.
Combo's death is one of my favorite moments of violence in anything, ever. The look of pure shock and disbelief in his eyes after he gets shot and looks at his assailant... The kid's got a look of pure horror at that he's done, but he keeps on going cuz the gang guy's almost certainly threatened and pressured him into it some way.
And then the last few, clumsy moments of Combo's life as he tries to run away but just drops.
It's really stuck with me for some reason. It all feels so real.
Also love the detail of the soda cup exploding lol
100% agreed, it's extremely real and painful.
Having said that, the violence of Skylar singing happy birthday still affects me more. Ew.
Also Combo's such a guy he could have killed the kid with his gun, but he chose to run instead. What a guy!
@@utsavbose424 I'd wager when you have a bullet hole in your midsection, the last thing you're thinking about is drawing and firing
@@winstonmarlowe5254 You'd be surprised, I mean I wouldn't lol, but people react differently, there's some real savages out there.
I just hate how he fell. Other than that, perfect. 👌
You are allowed to feel Any way that you want to feel about any character. If you are wrong, then you will find out later as the show goes along. Anyone giving you grief for your opinions in season 2 just needs to chill out. .. Great reaction ladies!
Sometimes it’s just been hard with all the Badger and Skinny P slander. Can’t wait for El Camino.
The attitude towards the comments in this video is great haha.
But I agree Badger and Skinny Pete must be defended at all times :)
"Well, that is what managers do...."
Maple that had me dying!!!!!!! 😂😂😂😂
The camera shakes a bit because it's filmed by a camera man holding the camera himself on his shoulder. Old school style. I personally like it. It's a decision from the director.
I think Gus dropped the manager act because Walt compared himself with Gus. I think he was offended at the notion of Walt being 'cautious'
And at that point it wasn't a reckless decision since it was clear Walter was well aware of the man he was speaking to
Arianna was quite intuitive on this episode guessing that Skyler was going to do the Marilyn Monroe thing and figuring out that Gus was the contact Walt was supposed to meet up with. It also cracks me up how squeamish many ppl are with needles, granted I had epilepsy as a child so I would get blood tests often as a small child, and as a teen my brother was a heroin addict so I learned to give him his shots at a young age.
Saw your profile pic and just wanted to say BOOMER!
I will say I give blood and it's fine, but the heroin injection scene does make me a little sick in a way only a couple other things on the show do. These two characters are basically kids, and we know they're addicts but they're still so innocent emotionally, so watching them inject poison is deeply unsettling. It's not just injecting into their arms, it's into their heads. It's a combination of the innate fear of needles, the context of the characters, and the substance itself for me.
I saw other comments saying she already saw the show before. And the marilyn Monroe guess , makes me think that to.
Knowingly choosing what you know deep down to be the "wrong" path and following it anyways is a common theme and unfortunately a fairly relatable element of this show. Love you reactions and can't wait to see you experience where it goes from here!
The Skyler talk is a huge can of worms (very opiniated people on both sides), but I think there's a lot to say about how they're presented;
Yes, Walter is a significantly worse person than Skyler, he has done much worse things.. But the show doesn't try to hide that fact and make him look like a great guy.
When Combo dies and Walter goes "Which one was he?" like he doesn't give a damn that someone lost his life, the show is presenting Walter as a bad guy...
When Skyler does something bad - and yes, it's not nearly as bad as what Walter does - the show seems to present her as an innocent victim who acted under these circumstances; "She smoked those cigarettes because Walter stressed her out!" "She flirts with her boss because Walter isn't present in her life!" "She works for her fraud/criminal boss because she needs the income!"
When Walter does something bad, the show does not skirt around, it shows you that Walter does the bad thing because he's a bad person (or is turning into a bad person, anyway).
When Skyler does something bad, the show tries to explain you what led her to do this.
Of course the show does explain why Walter does bad things too, early on (to pay for his cancer treatment) but given they also gave him a "way out" (Gretchen and Elliott offering to pay for his treatment), then Walt having cancer is no longer an excuse to do these things, because he doesn't have to do them anymore. So it's just "Walt being a bad guy/criminal".
So, I'd say this is like...
Imagine that someone stole a million $ and was exposed as a thief and faced consequences.
Some other guy stole HALF a million, but his politician daddy pulled some string to make him avoid jail, and also tried to justify his crime because he was depressed or affected by his parent divorce or something...
Most people would have more resentment for the second guy. Even though he stole less money, the fact that the situation presents him as a victim, makes him MUCH worse in our eyes. He's not a victim, he did bad things because he's a bad person. The other guy did worse things, but he's not pretending otherwise.
So that's kinda how I see the Walt/Skyler situation. The show is presenting us with a monster (Walter), and tells us "That's a monster!"
Then it presents us a bad person (Skyler) and tells us "That's a good person/innocent victim of her circumstances".
This makes people a lot more resentful about her, than about the monster who's shown to be a monster.
I really forgot how much of a turning point this episode is for the series.
Shout out to Skylar singing happy birthday to Ted and being one of the most cringe scenes I've ever seen in tv show history. I literally have to skip it every time I watch the show.
It's really crazy how controversial any opinion on Skyler is
You guys need to release these faster. From here on out the show goes up to another level and I can’t wait to see these reactions.
The color yellow in this series represents drugs/meth (Gus' shirt, Jesse wears red/black/yellow, Jesse's place, Jane's popsicle). Can't wait for the next reaction!
3:17 all of a sudden Skylar is capable of recognizing the debt to lifespan debate because she’s mad at him. Horrible
Misogyny and power fantasies aside, I suspect some people dislike Skyler more than Walt because they are more likely to run into overbearing people in real life than murderous meth kingpins. Same reason people hate Umbridge more than Voldermort or Xander on Buffy more than the various mass murderers; they remind us more of flaws we encounter personally.
Exactly. One's ficticous. The other is real.
That's a REALLY good point. My explanation has often been that it's OBVIOUS that being a drug dealer or murderer is evil but abusing your suburban privilege or setting up toxic patterns in your marriage (which Walt does too) is more subtle and worth discussion. Why must we insist on discussing the obvious before the subtle? But that really just stems from one of those things being extreme (and therefore obvious) and the other being uncommon at best, as you say.
Camera shaking is a deliberate cinematic technique. It builds tension and immersion. In real life your head is not on a tripod, but maybe it differs from person to person. I personally never noticed the shaking because for me it was expecting, as I was imagining I am seeing the movie unfold through someone else's eyes so the shake seemed natural to me, didn't even notice it until someone else pointed it out.
A lot of people miss the whole "I have your NUMBERS" dude is so in the know he knows Walt has a burner and the number to it. He's been well aware of Walt for a while.
I think he was referring to both Walt and Jesse’s numbers
The happy birthday scene i was cringing so hard my chest imploded and it happens everytime BLERG
You can say what you want about the u.s Healthcare system and most is right but people come from other countries to get care. My aunt is from Canada and was told she had stage 3 ovarian cancer and there wasn't anything they could do. She searched around the u.s and found a doctor in Michigan who gave her surgery. That was 12 years ago and she now lives here in Indiana.
Yeah, the fact that the options are either essentially a deadly wait time for care vs potentially life-ruining debt is a nightmare.
Glad she could afford it.
It's great your aunt had that option, only coming at the cost of others not. (And of course the people who can't afford it don't JUST sacrifice for the benefit of your aunt. Plenty goes to the middlemen and their executives.)
I say this without malice. My uncle has cancer. He can afford pretty high end care. I'm glad. But don't pretend that's not a concentration of resources for the benefit of few over many. And don't assume that's the only way the system could've worked.
@jerodast she wasn't some rich person at all. She is full blooded native American from Ontario that was living on native land. I say aunt but she's my aunt through marriage to my uncle. They 100% sent her home to die in Canada though and that's the honest truth. She came across the border to Michigan and the first oncologist she found saved her life. He wasn't some huge expensive oncologist. He was just your regular oncologist that every big city has 10 of. My whole point was that social Healthcare in theory is great but when you need specialized care you either get sent home like her or have to wait a long time. Now she has family still in Canada and if you have late stage cancer the first thing they ask is if you want assisted suicide which I'm honestly ok with because who am I to tell you to want to live.
@@BigMoore1232 But isn't that more a comparison of a system that doesn't have enough resources to a system that is literally broken at every level? If Canada chose to allocate more money and cultivate more healthcare professionals in a wider variety of fields, they could, and that would ease the wait times significantly. Since it's provided as a public service, you can vote for people who will vote in those funding increases. In America, it's just a fundamental problem with the way the system is structured--everything is either privately owned or investor-owned, so the focus is always on profit, not service. The end user has zero control over what they get, especially since health care is a natural monopoly. And don't get me started on insurance here. It's literally designed to suck up as many dollars as possible without returning anything to the person paying in.
Looking back, you KNOW Gus already had Walt under manned surveillance, gps tracked, and knew every known detail there was to know about Walt's life, before Walt even knew who Gus was. Makes their first meeting that much more intense.
His main competition; with Tucco gone? Yeah. Of course he would.
Always interesting to see how the Jesse/Jane situation is perceived differently by different people. And that only shows how well the show is written, there is no clear black or white, almost every situation can be viewed from different directions.
I'm with Arianna. I would even go as far as to say, Jane is a bad influence to Jesse, not the other way around. Not only was Jesse asking her to leave, and she stayed anyway, she used Jesses situation as an "excuse" to come up with heroin and talk Jesse into taking it.
And she is a clever girl, she actively choose to get into that relationship in the first place, knowing what Jesse is, with her background and with 18 month of being clean. It's not like she was naive or dragged into that without knowing.
I mean sure but none of that would've happened if Jesse didn't want to smoke again. I don't think the bad influence goes one way. She stayed, presumably, because of her love for Jesse. It's difficult to walk away from a loved one hurting themself, even if that was the best move for her in that moment. Idk I guess I'm just saying it's a really bad situation and there's no point in figuring out which one of them is to blame.
@@schmuck.on.wheels Like I said, the great thing about the show is, that there are nearly always multiple (valid) points of view. I don't claim that mine is the only "correct" way.
I'm with you, it's a really bad situation for both of them, both are addicts (clean at the time or not), and the reason for that is way in the past, still it's something you have to deal with your whole life. My point is more that pointing the fingers at Jesse and making Jane the "victim" is not my takeaway from what happened until now.
Yes, Jesse wanted to smoke again. But there are multiple thing before and after that Jane decided herself. In the end, non of that would have happened if she didn't rented the house to Jesse in the first place. Like she stated, someone using a fake name and only paying cash was a giveaway, and that was when they first met.
And it was not like "love as first sight". We are just past the "who is you and me" thing. Jesse was way more into her at first than she was into him. Plus yes, Jesse starting to smoke again was bad, but as we have seen before, it's something he could handle somehow OK. Actively talking him into "upping the game" to heroin was completely on her.
@@schmuck.on.wheels Yeah, it's a toxic relationship. Sometimes, there's no one bad guy, and no good guy. These two people just don't function well together and bring up all their worst traits and habits.
Another really good reaction! And I appreciate the extended discussion afterwards, as always. For anyone who's been down the road of drug or alcohol addiction, getting that next fix is paramount, so it IS fair to say never fully trust someone who's deep in that shit until they get clean.
Usually drugs are packaged by the kilo. So ... Walt said he had 38 pounds. If there were 17 bags that would make each bag 1 kilo .... more or less.
It's crazy that Jessie was an experienced meth user & pretty much always smoked it, and the first time he tries smack he injects it rather than snorting it first. I'm not sure how many people understand that some people can experiment with it without succumbing to addiction. It's known as 'chipping.' But I imagine injection is going past the point of no return.
Is the concern that the audience will end up empathizing with Walt? Is that why there's the surprise that there's no response from Walt?
I'd say wait on that. As far as an analysis goes, it's way better to just think of this like a movie. Other commenters are correct on saying its the mid point. The direction is only going to become clearer.
Two Sopranos references/homages in this episode: the white doctor plays a doctor in the Sopranos too (also oncology), and the cringe-inducing Happy Birthday scene. This one manages to give me PTSD.
please do 2 episodes a week youre gonna be watching this show for another year D:
I thought it was the manager because I knew who the actor was from his earlier work. Some things are just too obvious, but Vince and the gang keep surprising us all the way through this brilliant series.
In fairness, prior to this role he wasn't nearly so recognizable. It caught a lot of us off guard back then.
I remembered him well from the last season of Homicide: Life on the Street.@@proudpapaprick
@@proudpapaprick I'm actually surprised Marple and Arya didn't recognize him at all, I feel like there was a time Gus memes were EVERYWHERE.
the intense polarity of fans' opinions of Skylar is a testament both to the writers and to the extraordinary performance of Anna Gunn - though some of it of course is just gender/culture war bullshit
"Black Tar Heroine: The Dark End of the Street" is a documentary that takes an emotional toll. Up there with the "The Act of Killing" in the bleakness of it's subject. Both are worth watching at least once.
Two of the most gutwrenching scenes in the series, Combo's death, and Skylar singing happy birthday 😔😔
Haha
@@Diegesisshut up dude
I've developed trypanophobia so even if the needle is used medicinally, I freak and can't watch. And tattoos bother the heck out of me, knowing how they got there. Needles really needle me.
Earlier in the episode Jesse told Saul they had 38 lbs. If each bag was 2 lbs that would be 19 bags (19x2=38). So maybe you missed a bag when counting?
Or a continuity error
Fun fact a week before Abe Lincoln was shot he was in Monroe, Maryland a week before Kennedy was shot he was in Marylyn Monroe.
The RIGHT thing to do is get the 18 bags “18 x 2 is the 36 pounds” “two pounds per bag” to GUS! The problem right now is Jesse should be sober or conscious enough to deliver it to Gus himself, but being him, he’s high lmao 😂😂😂❤
These ladies are so sheltered, not knowing what a bag of meth weighs.
1:35 "probably the only thing protecting you" 😂
The naïvety of you two just makes this even funnier.You would need therapy for years if you ever watched the 1997 HBO classic OZ.
Great show, but not for the faint of heart my any means. Sadly I don't think any reactor will ever watch it, simply because editing for RUclips would be a nightmare
Jesse is no better than walt, he's a junkie and crystal meth dealer even before he met walt. We shouldn't like either of them
Jesse honestly seems like a misguided dumb kid with adhd (at least im the early seasons). Also, he was mostly posing and selling crappy meth. While he is not a good person, he is not inherently bad imo and more like a white wannabe gangster who does not realize that it is all a stupid idea (also, his peers are a terrible influence).
Walt on the other hand is a full fledged adult who runs into it and thrives off the power and violence - amd turns jesse knto his lackey.
But yeah, jesse dies also a lot of harm to other people. It would just be much more limited. Honestly, maybe he wouldve stopped in a few years when he matures further?
Being a junkie is not immoral lol how is that a point against him? That's a thing that hurts himself. Obviously not saying everything Jesse does is excusable, but he's obviously a troubled guy trapped in a bad system, whereas Walt is driven by WANTING to do this. He gets off on it. It's not comparable.
@@mappes1 crappy or not he is still a meth deal and a danger to young kids getting hooked on meth. No he is no a good person. Hi crappy meth as u put it could end up in the hands of your kids
@@schmuck.on.wheels there you go always blame it on system not the individual. Bullshit
Jesse wasn't addicted to meth, it just seemed like a casual user, at least until these few episodes wit Jane, there are tons of casual users of lots of hard drugs, tons of people who only do cocaine or painkillers on the weekends or whatever.
Skyler is easily the worst character, you guys don’t have to be afraid of people commenting otherwise
Walt wouldn’t have to make both things work if Jesse wasn’t out of his damn mind off the H 😂
I really can't wait for them to seethe when Walt reconsiders flipping Jane.
Happy birthday song the most devastating scene of the series
so the camera shakiness was a choice by the director of the show. he thought it made the show feel more real and visceral, not as tv show. personally i never noticed it but to be fair a lot of reactors i have watched noticed it.
After a half dozen rewatches I never noticed it either until these two pointed it out. There's always something new to discover with this show.
If you watch a lot of single cam sitcoms then it’s pretty much unnoticeable in BrBa
3:13 can we just pause for a second and acknowledge that Skylar is valuing money over Walt’s life?
Now that she’s mad at him she wants him to sacrifice himself to avoid further debt. Wow.
That’s kinda the precedent Walt set no? He’s telling himself it’s for family but he’s killing his family in the process. Ofc Skyler picks up on this
@@pencil6965the dude was dying alr, although he did get wrapped in it and spiraled, don’t act like he did this maliciously to destroy his family and didn’t care. this all started for his family. honestly had it not been for the baby i think he wouldn’t even have joined the meth business to begin with. it all starts with him wanting to provide a future for his daughter and family he WONT be there for. he finds a way in meth to make quick big bucks. not excusing or saying walt is right that’s what the intention was. no baby and i think he’s probably ask gretchen and her husband forgot his name to help them after he passes or something because it would just be skylar with walt jr who would be out of highschool by then and an adult. skylar can clearly take care of herself so there wouldn’t be a need to go out and make meth for money. that’s just my opinion tho
@@pencil6965skylar never even respected him before the show lol. why you think he loves making meth and that life style
I think it was more so her being surprised that Walt agreed to the operation so quickly, considering they don’t know how they’re gonna pay for it (because Gretchen and Elliott “cut off” the money)
24:18 No they were all there. Episodes have shown Walt & Jesse meticulously weighing those exact bag shapes, on average they weigh between 2-3 pounds & some ounces each. If 18 bags weighed 2 pounds each it’d be up to 36, each bag has some ounces extra. Up to 38 pounds in total.
My OCD was going into overdrive, lol
This episode is just terrific. That's all I can say for now.
Get ready for seasons 3 & 4. The writing & acting definitely get better from here. Insane!!
They are on s3 already
The funny thing is Hank, Skyler and Marie will be your most likeable characters by the end. At least it was like that for me.
I'm team Walt the whole way
@@Diegesisyou say that now
Next episode is insane.
In the 8th grade we had to dress up as a famous person and tell the story of their life in character.
One of the girls dressed up as Marilyn Monroe and sang Happy Birthday to our teacher while standing on his desk. His smile was so incredibly creepy and unsettling. And I don't think anybody else in the class understood just how wrong it was. 1990. Times were different back then.
Jesus... I wonder if it was the teacher's idea for the girl to do Marilyn Monroe. If so, then he deserves all the cancers.
My uncle was born on Friday the 13th with an extra thumb.
skylar's singing was the hardest thing to watch in this show 💀
My next youngest sister was born on a Friday the 13th. Fun fact, you only have to deal with it every 7 years.
Tuesday the 13th has no panache.
My dad's birthday is the 13th and I just remember it with Friday the 13th haha. I believe it was a Monday in reality.
@@jerodast Same, man. My dad's birthday is 13th of October and when he was born it was Friday
I have to give it to Combo. Instead of shooting back and killing a kid he decided to run
The skylar happy birthday is still UNWATCHABLE. I'm not a skylar hater but for that one scene I am 😂
"Bing!" 😂 Chandlers boss
Hank is flawed, but acts from good intentions, mostly.
As a Walt stan I can see the route this is going...😂
That is what managers do 😂
0:59 “ 👏 I 👏 am 👏 not 👏 rea- 👏 -dy “ lol
I think Walter and Skylar had a good relationship. They loved each other but Walter changed. And it’s understandable to change facing your mortality. She is trying to deal with for better or for worse but Walt is lying, being secretive and not doing his part in the marriage. I find her behavior understandable under the circumstances.
The funniest part of this reaction was Maple thinking Giancarlo Esposito was just playing a bit part as a Cluck Shop Manager. I take it it's only Arianna who has watched The Boys? Has either of them seen The Mandalorian either? .... or even Do The Right Thing (although he looked A LOT different in that)
Or The Internet around the time Breaking Bad was airing :)
If I could change one thing in this series, I’d trade Badger for Combo.
As someone who works in a chemistry lab, it just dawned on me the one issue with this show, Maple and Ariana triggered this in their weight discussion:
No chemist with a minute of college education would weigh meth in Imperial pounds.
Grams and kilos only. Especially the work I do with large scale drinking water, SI is so much easier, especially with mass. A gallon of water is 8.34-ish pounds, but 1000ml of water is exactly 1 kilogram. 1 gram is one ml. 1ml/liter is one part per million. All the dosage math is far easier in metric than imperial.
Now way I'd run the superlab and crank out huge volumes of, well, crank, and weigh it in pounds. I don't think my outrageously expensive certified lab scale CAN even weigh in pounds, i don't even think that's an option they include.
This is where we see how they react to the two women in this show. Let’s see if they still think so highly of them. 😂
"What's that thing in your hair?"
pay your taxes lol a get better healthcare lolol whats making it expensive is there insurance protecting themselves not the actual operations failure.
Maybe for next season, consider doing 2 episodes per video? Even Arianna and Maple noted how the episodes just fly by now. With how cut-down each ep needs to be for RUclips, 2 eps just makes a lot more sense. (imho)
Oh SHIT I always misremember Gus coming in at the start of season 3. Fuck yeah dude.
Though it’s immediately leveled out with the least appealing rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ ever.
Giancarlo Esposito could make billions doing asmr.
If you find yourself this kind of situation, what would you pick? your partner or your business?
19 bags. 2 pounds per bag. 38 pounds.
Maple: “What an interesting shot….”
Funny you should say that because… oh never mind, you’ll get it in a minute. 😬
If here were 19 bags. 2 pounds a bag. 38 pounds.
Jeez, you ladies can’t pick a side regarding Skyler, to shreds with you. Unforgivable, tsk tsk tsk!
This season has one of the darkest episodes ever: "Phoenix". You see Walt in s different way after the scene at the end.
essentialy.. if u take responsibility for your decisions and actions and believe you have control in your life - then it dosnt matter who you with.. just saying
The level of hate these ladies have for Walt is almost unbearable and we’re just on season 2.
They're pretty much on the same level that I was on at this point and I had no idea how much more I would despise him the following week.
@@John_Locke_108 it’s more blatant with the girl on the left. But yeah “that scene” is coming.
Yeah any little thing he does is under an incredible amount of scrutiny. I get that Walt isn’t the greatest person but dang they could have a little more nuance with their observation of him. I just feel like their hate for him is making them a little too biased and keeping them from being objective
It's 100% justified, where Walt draws the line morally changes throughout the series but the toxic traits driving him are there from the start, and very clear by season 2. So while his actions may not always warrant so much hate, his mentality does.
@@schmuck.on.wheelsseriously. It even predates the events of the show. The show drops a ton of hints that his fallouts with Grey Matter and Sandia Labs were driven by his ego and resentment
21:46 - The Hispanic Elon Musk...
Going to take 5 years to finish bb at this rate
Breaking Bad is the best show ever. There is a reason why it's no. 1 on imdb list .
I'm from Brazil, and I just realized that if this show were here, there would only be one episode, my grandfather had lung cancer a few years ago and all the treatment was free
That’s good it’s not in Brazil not that your comment made any sense since this a fictional story.
that's why people are always saying the US should be more like Brazil
@@clewis632 no shit sherlock
That's crazy to think about. Would have been one episode and a happy ending.
@@clewis632why you're mad bro? He just made a joke because Brazil's healthcare system is free. You should be mad at the US government lol
#UrNotGonnaEatACurlyFry!?
The ladies are right about the characters of the show; they're all flawed and make human decisions (i.e. weird, funny, stupid, etc). Walt is often praised because he's viewed as a hero of sorts and yet he's a flawed man who sought out the worst possible path to regain himself as a person. Skyler is deeply flawed and her choices going forward are just as flawed but Walt treats her pretty terribly as well and yet what she's dealing with regarding Walt's treatment of her is understandable, she's trying to connect with him and he keeps pushing her away, of course she's going to seek that connection elsewhere.
The thought of Boomers finding that “Happy Birthday” song unironically “sexy” gives me serious Douche-Chills, ugh!
Even more cringe that they're Gen X lol
Love this girls, they make my day, Americaaaa!
I agree with your take on Skylar, she's not great, but she isn't worse than Walt.
She's one of most hated TV characters, and fanboys love Walt, for whatever reason.
Probably because he’s the main character and we want the protagonist to succeed ps like skylar myself
I*
@@gontantog5505 I think once Walt lets Jane die the viewer has to bend over backwards to justify liking Walt. It only gets worse from there.
Yeah, I think mostly people hate Skyler just because she's always in Walt's way and he's the protagonist. To me almost all her actions were completely logical, imo she's one of the most reasonable chatacters in the series
Maple is my spirit animal
Drugs are bad MMMkay....😶
With the nicer sandwich’s
Brah I thought u was gonna watch 2 in one🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
why?
@@Diegesisprobably because of the length of the video
Flawed character is better writing period.
Please don’t knock America. We’ve got some problems for sure, but it’s still a great country.
Are you that insecure.
It always annoys me when people shit on the health care system in the US. As a cancer survivor, I'm grateful I live here. Walt would be fine if he took Elliott's money. His pride is the problem not American heath care.
It's not the system's fault Walt made poor choices in his life.
So if there was no Elliot, what then? For the average person, I mean, because we know what Walt did.
I mean yeah Walt's issue is primarily his pride and he should've just taken Elliott's money, but also most people don't have an Elliott
It is hilarious of you hype up the US health system then in the next breath point to a RICH BILLIONAIRE BUDDY as the obvious solution. At least the guy a few threads back wasn't so OBVIOUSLY lacking self-awareness haha.
@@jerodast I'm not hyping anything. I'm stating a fact. It is also a fact that Walt's problems could have been solved by Elliott.
@brownsey1 then what? Walt made poor choices throughout his life and has to live with the consequences.
When I was in school, I paid for insurance. Then I joined the Navy. After that I had access to the VA. But I then took a job with good insurance. At no point in my life was I without because of the choices I made.
And even in Walt's case, doctors don't withold treatment because you don't have money. They bill you after the fact. That's why people are burdened with medical debt. But that debt can be discharged through bankruptcy.
This episode was about toxic femininity. Let's talk about that 😆
Aw.
They don’t know Walt as well as they think they do if they believe He’d go to the birth of his child over making the deal
Got all my "like" volume for the day in one video!
I agree with another post I saw on here. The Marilyn Monroe, happy birthday scene, is cringe. However, a lot BB fans love to hate on Skylar. I think it's a little unjustified. Yeah, she has a affair, but besides lying, Walt has killed people. She is trying to protect her kids. Oh, and Walt makes meth. So, Skylar is Not the bad guy here. I'm not defending Skylar. Well, maybe I am. I am basically neutral on Skylar, just don't think she deserves the hate she gets from BB fans. Yeah, she has sinned, but who is worse? Skylar or Walt?