By Dave Winer on Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 11:31 AM.
When I wrote a positive review of The Big C, a number of readers told me I should check out Breaking Bad, for a more interesting take on a TV series written around the death of its main character. So I did. I've now watched all three seasons of the show, and while some of it was very hard to watch (how could the characters be that stupid or mean), the last season was terrific. Right up there with The Wire for artfulness and acting. All the characters are interesting, none of them are simple or one-dimensional. The music is great, and the New Mexico desert scenery beautiful. And the last season ends with a real cliff-hanger. Did Jesse do it or not? (I think not.)
If you're reading on the home page or in the feed, click through to the story page on the web for a theory about what comes next, and don't click on the little plus sign if you don't want to see spoilers.
To be clear -- this is a big spoiler. If you haven't seen Season 3, hit the Back button.
No way Jesse shot Gale. For a lot of reasons.
1. Jesse is modal. We're currently in the mode of Jesse-the-thoughtful (even though he's back to smoking meth). Look at him crying as he pulls the trigger. He can't kill Gale when his heart is full of love. No more killing!
2. If you think he shot Gale, then why did he pull the gun to the side just before he shot? He hit the wall, and scared the shit out of Gale, but he didn't kill him.
3. Gale is too interesting a character to kill. He's kind and sweet and brews tea and makes the best coffee and listens to really wacky but coooolmusic (and he sings too!). And he loves Walt, you can tell. And Walt loves him. He's all that and he's becoming a master meth cook! What a guy!
This won't take long cause Gale has already figured it out.
You gotta know Walt will find a way to break away from Mike and the security guy while they scramble to try to catch Jesse (and of course they can't kill Walt as long as they don't know Gale's fate).
What happens is this -- the three chefs hook up and form a super meth lab, and force the cartel to deal with them. But from a secret location.
The cartel will hold Walt's family hostage, but Walt controls access to the product, so it's a standoff that's at least good through the first couple of episodes of Season 4.
;){kind=spacer}
;){kind=spacer}
