<p>Hey musicmom - when I was working in pharma, I spent most of my career in antiinfectives: quinolones for a long time, and then HIV protease inhibitors for a while. LOVED IT! I always admired bacteria for their ability to adapt…</p>
<p>And calmom, I never thought Walt was a “brilliant chemist” either. Precise; meticiulous; careful; proud of his work - all those things, but not particularly brilliant (at least no more brilliant than many clever, meticulous MacGyver-like chemists I knew in grad school).</p>
<p>I have a semi-theory that Walt will “rescue” Jesse in a huge shootout with the Nazis, but I don’t think they both will live. I think the Ricin may be for Lydia…I think she has to die, but I don’t think it will be in a shoot out. Maybe Todd will have to watch her die…the way Jesse had to watch his girlfriend die. There has to be some pain for Todd, since he showed his vulnerability toward Lydia, and Jesse heard it from his bunker. It’s going to be huge, whatever happens in the finale.</p>
<p>I’m with Miller514. BB has been one fabulous ride, and I want to see where it takes me. I’m willing to be surprised because I’m sure the ending will be dramatic, heartbreaking, riveting and veeeeery memorable. Like the whole series itself.</p>
<p>Great article in entertainment weekly with the show’s writers about how it all ends…</p>
<p>Last answer about the finale -
</p>
<p>Link
[‘Breaking</a> Bad’ writer talks last night’s episode, ‘Granite State’ | Inside TV | EW.com](<a href=“Dotdash Meredith - America's Largest Digital & Print Publisher”>Dotdash Meredith - America's Largest Digital & Print Publisher)</p>
<p>Thank you for posting that link, SouthJerseyChessMom. It sounds like one of the things I’ve been hoping for since season 1 is going to happen and that is the filling in of the story of Walt and his departure from Grey Matter. I’d given up all hope for that until last Sunday’s episode and now it sounds like I may get my wish next Sunday.</p>
<p>My favorite part of the article is that the writer talks about how Walter White is gone and Hiesenberg is now gone and the final episode will show him becoming someone new, hailing back to Walter’s chemistry lecture where he talks about growth, destruction and transformation. I love that this show’s creators are smart enough and care enough to resolve all the loose ends while preserving the logical consequences of all the characters’ actions leading up to the finale.</p>
<p>
He cooks the purest meth on the planet and his work launched a billion dollar corporation…</p>
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<p>Like he’s got some really stiff competition among the dopers and meth-heads out there. Any decent organic chemist with access to the right starting materials could do the same.</p>
<p>Rally good article in that link, South Jersey Chess Mom!</p>
<p>Yes, I loved it too! Fascinating to know Walt/Heisenberg are transforming to something else, something new…</p>
<p>I’m wondering about that package of money he wanted to mail…I’m just now watching a show about the unibomber and the re-inactments reminded me of Walt, all alone out there in the woods, tho not in New Hampshire…but he mails out packages…it was all reminding me of Breaking Bad…</p>
<p>But I don’t wanna speculate…</p>
<p>I think that package of $100k Walt wanted to mail to Louis is all he’s got now. Obviously, he couldn’t have gotten back 8 miles up the snowy road to his cabin since the police converged upon the bar shortly after he left the phone off the hook. It probably wouldn’t have taken long for the New Hampshire police to find the cabin and the big barrel of money so I think he’s back down to his final stash.</p>
<p>Walt’s always been like this though; he makes huge piles of money but always manages to lose it, lol!</p>
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<p>Then why couldn’t gayle? Why couldn’t the guy in Mexico?</p>
<p>He had more money but he only had the one box to fit it in. He pulled the money from the barrel. He even apologized to Flynn that he the reason he was only sending $100,000 was because he couldn’t fit any more in the box. (Talk about First world problems!)</p>
<p>Hey, I’m not arguing about made-up TV chemists. I’m saying that in the real world, it’s not that hard to make meth. I knew a guy in grad school who made PCP (…busted…) There was a chemist working at DuPont about 30 years ago who was arrested for making designer drugs in his spare time WHILE AT DUPONT (doofus).</p>
<p>I think the only really hard part of cooking good meth is getting the reagents since they are now so tightly controlled. That’s why so much of Walt’s competition is inferior - they’re getting their starting materials from pseudoephedrine (not from pure methylamine, etc.) It’s like cooking. Better ingredients make better product.</p>
<p>Eh. It’s a minor point, it probably only matters to chemistry nerds, and it certainly doesn’t detract from enjoyment of the program.</p>
<p>There is more than one kind of “smart”. Walter White may be chemistry-lab “smart”, but he’s life-stupid and criminal-enterprise-management stupid. He makes one horribly stupid and short-sighted decision after another.</p>
<p>Maybe he’s good at chemistry because it is more predictable and short-term – that is, if he is very precise in his measurements, temperature control, and timing – then the product he is manufacturing will always come out the same. Life isn’t like that.</p>
<p>AMC is running a Breaking Bad Marathon starting with the pilot episode this evening at 8, and concluding with the final episode on Sunday. </p>
<p>There is no humor left. Those first episodes had moments when I laughed out loud.</p>
<p>The last episode with humor was the one where they stared at the meth and tried to convince each other it was blue. There were a few moments in that episode. But humor would be inappropriate at this point.</p>
<p>We watched the first three episodes again last night and I too was struck by the many funny moments.</p>
<p>The only humor left now is black humor. Remember two episodes ago, after Marie and Skyler told Fynn about his dad, Skyler and Flynn were in the car driving back home and Skyler was nagging him to put on his seat belt because “it’s not safe”? Flynn turned to her and said “you’re s***ing me, right?”</p>
<p>I laughed at Saul’s scene with Walt Jr. in the car wash a few episodes ago.</p>
<p>I too watched the first three episodes of the series on AMC last night, and laughed quite a bit - I think in part because I know now what a long trip we were on in Season 1. Last night I didn’t have to fear for the safety of certain characters yet. Once The Cousins arrived in Season 3, I was afraid to laugh at much. The humor is in the Coen Brothers vein - almost ridiculous, but well-founded in the characters and the impossible situations they’re in.</p>
<p>Last night’s episodes made me sad, as well. I remembered the empathy I felt for Walt at first, how I hoped that somehow things would work out for him, even after he killed Emilio and Crazy 8 (pretty much in self-defense, after all). And I saw how much younger and simpler the characters seemed to be, and realized how Walt’s criminal journey damaged all of them.</p>