LOL you try narrowly surviving a ****ing Cartel deathtrap in which you see your men gruesomely slain and NOT come away from that experience with fears and anxiety.

yea but that is his job, he realized he couldn't handle it and thats why he didn't go back to El Paso. Which of course also has its reasons that he stay where he's at.

While the episode left me wanting more, I can definitely see the wisdom in ending where it did. It marks the clear departure for amateur hour with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman and the rise of Heisenberg and his associate(s). It also lets Gus survive another season.


Also, anyone watch Rubicon sneak preview after the show? If so thoughts?

I thought there is an interesting differentiation between Rubicon and Breaking Bad's use of sound.

Tonight's episode doesn't leave a very healthy working relationship for Walt and Gus in the future.

I checked out of the Rubicon episode because it was boring the shit out of me. To be fair, following a thought-provoking episode of Breaking Bad wasn't doing it any favors.

Immediately after it happened, I thought the cliffhanger ending to the season was the biggest misstep that the series has ever made (the only misstep, one might say). Why do I say cliffhangar? Because Breaking Bad has been so good in the past about not letting who seems to be in control actually have control... I was so worried that Jesse was going to get shot from behind... and it feels like a cliffhangar because it isn't outside of the realms of possibility that he did get shot. So I'm RRRRRAAAAAAAAAGGGGEEE-ing at the fact that I won't get resolution until ****ING MARCH!!!

But the episode is ****ing killer either way. Funny and tense like no other show knows how to be.

Reaper, I'm really thinking you should give Rubicon a chance. If you can get past the slow-ness, I think it might actually be a fun ride.

Also, another thought: Aaron Paul should win the Emmy based on his face in the last minute of this episode. Forget the hospital scene. :p

In case you wondering Reaper, there's an answer to your suspense given by Vince in an interview to Sepinwall.

That's what they want you to think. :)

I will give it a chance, if only because AMC's track record so far is legendary. I must not have been in the right mindset for that pilot.

I thought this episode was supposed to be longer, and my DVR grouped Breaking Bad and Rubicon as one show so I thought the episode was supposed to be 1:48 long.

Awesome episode. As close to perfection one episode of a TV show can be. Back to back weeks that were just awesome.

Valid statement.

I am stunned at the strength of BB's writers. Vince Gilligan has interviews up w/ Sepinwall and at AV Club, and he remarks in both that they didn't plan out season 3 from start to finish. They mostly winged it! Yet there were no dropped plot points, no jarring inconsistencies, nothing that resulted in anything less than one of the best seasons of TV that a drama has had (not quite as good as BB season 2, a season that was planned out fwiw). BB's writers are super-good and most other dramas ought to be ashamed of themselves; here's BB, writing episode-to-episode like you other dramas, and they come out with perfection while you come out with far less.

I hope that season 4 is planned out.

Walt: I'm going to need some type of assurance.
Mike: I can assure you I can kill you from all the way over here.

That exchange made me chuckle.