Listen homeslices, the cancer, in the literal sense, is gone and never coming back. In the cold open for episode 501, those pills have nothing to do with cancer. Please believe me, believe me please. Walt doesn’t have cancer, he won’t get cancer, he won’t even acknowledge June 21- July 21st. He has, however, become a metaphor for cancer.

Walter White was a sap. The type of fella to eat turkey bacon and let his wife Sandusky him while ebaying it up. Walter is cancer in remission. Heisenberg, symbolized by the black hat, which nicely coordinates with his black heart and imagery of black lungs, is full blown, wear a goddamn pink ribbon, cancer. A cancer that corrupts all the “good” cells around him and turns them malignant or ruins them too. Everything he does under the guise of Heisenberg has effects that spread in all directions, usually without pattern.

As far as the flash forward; here’s what’s happened.;
At the Denny’s, Walt is using and referencing his fake ID for the first time. He’s just received the ID and has not yet been disappeared because he still has breakfast to eat and work to do. He’s taken Skylar’s maiden name because she has once again put her Chaz Bono pants on and asserted dominance. The medicine he’s taking in the bathroom is to combat the effect of the ricin that he’s ingested….

Walt still has cancer. He’s in remission, not cured.

Interesting point about Breaking Bad and the banality of evil. The term “banality of evil” was coined by Hannah Ardent in her book about the trial of Adolph Eichmann. What struck people about the Nazis is that they weren’t these drooling, inhuman monsters, but ordinary every day soldiers and bureaucrats who had just casually exterminated millions of people as if they were just maintaining the roads or managing ordinary prisons.

Interesting that we have a German company on the show highlighting the mundane nature of organized crime.

And what’s with Gomez being on the Madrigal website?
http://madrigalelectromotive.com/

Love the Madrigal site…it reminds me of the scene from “Shattered Glass” where Hayden Christensen tries to pass off an obviously amateur AOL personal user site as a major corporate website.

On Mike’s bald head being on camera during the heist, Hank and the ABQ cops would be all over him for it. They’ve brought him in for questioning and seized his hush money, so you don’t have to be Columbo to link him to the magnet heist. How many elderly bald security badass security ninjas are there in the ABQ? And how many of them would have an interest in destroying Gus Fring’s laptop?

Make that “elderly bald badass security ninjas”

I don’t care for your brand of logic, NatterCast.

But actually, I think that odd look that Walt gave during his dinner, where he told Flynn he was still in remission, was him hiding the fact that his cancer was gone or nearly gone. At that point, he didn’t want to say anything because he still thought Gus was going to kill him, so it didn’t matter anyway.

Almost as good as the premiere, but over four minutes longer to my relief, I’m glad Small Town Security ain’t raining on Breaking Bad time length.
Brilliant episode, not as epic as the premiere but still pretty amazing, directed by my fab BB director Michelle MacLaren, adding to her hits 4 Days Out, I.F.T, One Minute, Abiquie, 38-Snub, Shotgun & Salud, Guts and Pretty Much Dead Already from the WD and set to direct the anticipated episode 8.
The opening sequence was awesome, and so different from anything Breaking Bad has seen before. Watching an episode from season 2 or 3, and you wouldn’t no what the fuck show you were watching.
The ricin/ tidying up scene were pretty good and well acted, until Jesse’s breakdown, which seems a little out of character, drug kingpin accomplice crying because of some ricin-laced ciggarette which might of fell out on the street and he almost killed Walt because of a roomba. Was it just what, 5,6 episodes ago when he beat the living fuck out of him for puting a bug on his car? When SCDP got the jaguar account, Lane didn’t go breakdown and apologize to Pete for clocking him in the face. Still, it probably needed to happen and the song choice was brilliant as usual.
Everything else in the episode was amazing, and Lydia seems like a interesting new addition to the BB cast, I hope she returns. My favorite scene is split between the Mike interogation and the final scene between Walt and Skyler.
“You know it gets easier, I promise you it does. What your feeling right now, about Ted, about everything, It’ll pass. (Some gross kising) We do what we do for good reasons. We’ve got nothing to worry about. There’s no better reason than family. (Marital rape)”
Amazing. I know were only two episodes in, but Cranston could win his fifth emmy for this next september.
Great episode, great podcast, amazing show.

Andrew, I like your thematic take on the cancer, but I don’t know why you dismiss that he has cancer so categorically. IMO, everything points to the cancer coming back. I don’t think that’s what will kill him, but I think it will be one of the things racing after WW trying to be the first to bring Heisenberg down.

Jason, the amount of bald people in the employ of evil in the ABQ is clearly staggering. Interesting take on the banality of evil; in the show it goes down to the objects themselves. A broken shard of glass. A toy big. Caster beans. All lethal in the right hands.

WW, Surprised you find Jesse’s breakdown out of character. Unlike the real WW, Jesse always feels the weight of the evil he does. He is tormented by it; Walt ignores and justifies it.

What signs point to the cancer coming back? An innocuous cough? The man had just finished a DEA fun run obstacle course over his fence into a crawl space.

I just think that it would be more ironic and more despicable if Walt kept doing this without his cancer. The whole reason he started his descent into badness was because he knew that in the long run, he wouldn’t have to pay for his actions because he’d be dead. It would be much more of a punishment if, at the end, he not only survives, but is forced to live with all the bad things he’s done.

For him to become Uncle squared, rather than Gus, would be a much more fitting form of Karma. If he’s justifying his actions via family and he alienates them, ends up dying old and alone and having no one… well that would suck a fairly large D.

Also, I remember you talking about some number “8″ symbolism last season. Couldn’t those “8s” have also been that weird little 69ish cancer symbol? hmmmm? hmmmm? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

Just getting into podcasts this year. I’ve been shopping around for the best podcast shows for Mad Men and Breaking Bad. You guys are clearly my favorite. Great work

Breaking Good clearly is t best of t lot w its only comparative downside being that yall didnot start untill season four.

Listening to BB podcasts is one of my current obesions/addictions. So I am listening to all of them. Nattercast and t David Chen casts are also good. Tho t latter didnot start untill se. five.. And t TV critic casts are intelegently done. The Cutting Edge casts and t Afterbuzz casts both manage to irritate me somehow generally. The Afterbuzz is still going o about Walt basf

The Afterbuzz, thru “Salud” anyway, was still going on about Walts “comparative basic goodness”. And then one of them stated that Walt hadnot “The Afterbuzz, thru “Salud” anyway, was still going on about Walts “comparative basic goodness”. And then one of them stated that Walt hadnot “”directly” killed anyone just befor his companion pointed out the two bulletheads in “Halfmeasures” and Crazyeight in the pilot.

Walt also killed Crazyeights partner in the pilot

I guess they dont figure killing someone w phosgene gas to actually count as a direct killing. Idk. He did end up pretty de

ad tho regardless.