Here’s a thought we came up with over at NatterCast:

Gram for gram, Methamphetamine is very powerful drug. Much much moreso than heroin or cocaine. It takes a very small amount of the drug to get you high and keep you high for hours if not days at a time.

Even in superlab conditions, handling that much meth, is it possible that Walt and Jesse are getting a contact high? Jesse is a tweaker, so he’d probably be able to handle it and might not even really notice, but Walt’s single-minded megalomania has come on just like a newbie smoking his first bowl. He’s indestructible and a brilliant master of the universe. That is pure meth high. Even the creepy sliming on Skyler is consistent with a meth high.

Just a thought.

-Jason from NatterCast
nattercast.blogspot.com

Why wouldn’t Mike have put a GPS tracker on the methylamine tank?

What changed for Walt? Gus changed. I season 3, Walt saw Gus as someone he could happily work for. He, in fact, turns Gus down several times because he has lost his family and wants to redeem himself. Only when Gus shows him the superlab does he become seduced.

Over the course of season 3, Walt goes from a guy who feels he made a huge mistake in cooking meth to a guy who feels he can have a nice, safe, clean and professional job as a meth cook with Gus’ sponsorship to a guy who has to fight for his survival. Defeating Gus put the idea in Walt’s head that he can be more than a wealthy, accomplished chemist.

I also think the Gus incident gave Walt a realization. From the beginning, he’s wanted this to be a “no rough stuff type of deal.” But after several failed attempts to deal reasonably with gangsters, Walt has realized that the only way to survive in that world is to be the biggest gangster. It’s not just the Tucos of the world who are the danger, the Guses are too. So now he is determined to build an empire because the Gus situation made him realize that you’re either the emperor or you’re a foot soldier. And foot soldiers get killed.

I have to admit that when Walt gave his ?I?m in the empire-building business,? I found myself yelling ?Go Heisenberg!? Yes, I know we?re supposed to hate Walt but I have to admit that I find myself respecting and even admiring his determination not to shortchange himself again for less than he?s worth.

That being said, I?m still pulling for Hank to catch Walt, Jesse and Mike before the end of the series.

Yeah, the only problem with that is that Walt wants a one hundred million dollar…or three hundred million dollar…meth empire.

One hundred million dollars is about as much money as a large Las Vegas casino keeps in cash. No way you’re laundering that through a carwash. Laundering five million dollars would be difficult enough as it is.

And by pushing Skyler and now by extension his children further and further out of his life, Walter is shortchanging himself far more than he would be by selling out to Declan. Sure, his marriage with Skyler is almost certainly unsalvageable, but if he actually went clean and actually kept the family out of danger and actually provided Skyler with millions of dollars, then he does have the hope of getting to the place Michael and Kay were at in Godfather III. There’s a lot of pain between those characters, but ultimately they are the parents of each other’s children and so long as there is no danger it is possible for them to at least try to understand each other.

We know that the choices Walter is making now leads to him living in New Hampshire for a year with a fake identity and returning to the ABQ in dire need of a machine gun. I’d say he spent his 52nd year short changing himself pretty severely.