Breaking Bad

Caballo sin Nombre - S3-E2

Question: When Saul buys Jesse's house from his parents, he said that he showed their lawyer, Mr. Gardner, "all the pertinent financials", meaning $875,000 in cash available to buy the house. Jesse only had $450,000 and that money was not in any account. How did Saul show Mr. Gardner that he had $875,000 in cash?

dweezel7

Answer: Saul is a criminal himself. It's not past his capabilities to forge some documents to show the 857k is available.

Ssiscool

Forged documents by Saul is most likely the correct answer.

The_Iceman

Answer: Saul has a stash of cash himself, hidden in his office. It's possible he used some of that instead as part of the scheme instead of having to go through the effort of falsifying documents.

Phaneron

Answer: In all likelihood, he sold some more meth.

Captain Defenestrator

At the time, they were not producing enough Meth to get that much money in the time frame of the events.

Ssiscool

Show generally

Question: Just how does Walt intend to explain the presence of all that meth money, even posthumously? Just how does he think his heirs will react to that, how is he going to launder it? How does he think his wife and kids will explain it? If they knowingly inherit and use such money, they could face charges of accessory after the fact. Is this ever addressed in the show?

dizzyd

Chosen answer: I'm not sure how far you are into the show but he does eventually come up with a way to launder it (wont spoil it for you but rest assured, when he gets a lawyer the show gets much better!) and in the final season he also comes up with a way to give his children his money without the cops or the DA knowing it came from him.

The_Iceman

Answer: Walt decided to buy a car wash to launder his money, which makes a profit without the dirty money. At the end he blackmailed Elliot and Gretchen in to giving his money to junior and Holly. However 90% of his $80m is stolen.

Ssiscool

Chosen answer: It is part of the ritual for la Santa Muerte. It is a sign of humility and sacrifice.

djm

Show generally

Question: I've noticed that every episode has scenes where the camera is swaying a little, suggesting the camera was handheld or resting on the cameraman's shoulder. Is there a reason for filming this way, instead of just using a steadicam? It doesn't really add any sense of style to the show.

Phaneron

Answer: As the other answer indicated, it is a common filming technique used to achieve various visual effects. Handheld cameras can create a deliberate sense of movement that follows a movie's action. A cameraperson can physically move in much closer to an actor, creating a more intimate connection between the character and the audience. It can also reflect a character's movement from their vantage point, and can be used to create a greater sense of realism with an edgier, less-rehearsed, or a documentary-style feel.

raywest

Answer: It is a style of filming a scene, a style of camerawork. In your opinion it doesn't add anything, but they do it for that purpose.

lionhead

Show generally

Question: Can someone please explain the swearing rules? I'm not American, so I don't know which channels have to follow the FCC rules. But I heard AMC said they could only use one F word per season. Why would they make that rule? If they have to follow the FCC rules, they can't say it at all. If they don't, they can say it as much as they want. And aside from Season 2, they all had more than one. How did they get away with it?

MikeH

Answer: The FCC actually only regulates local broadcast channels. Cable channels - even basic ones - are free to depict as much violence, profanity, and sexual content (as long as it's not pornographic) as they want. However, they choose to scale back on that so as not to offend viewers and potentially drive away sponsors.

Phaneron

Dead Freight - S5-E5

Question: How did the train conductors not hear the water pump Walt was using to pump water into the tanker? They were only around 800 feet away in open land, so it should have been audible.

Phaneron

Answer: For one thing the engine running the pump isn't that loud. The characters have conversations at a normal volume without having to scream at each other. Even if the conductors could hear it, there is no reason they should care or be suspicious. It just sounds like an engine running in the distance and they don't care enough to look for what is making the noise. At that very moment there is also a kid riding a dirt bike in the area. Engine noises are a very common thing.

BaconIsMyBFF

Chosen answer: There are several possibilities. Gus primarily does it to make an example out of Victor. Victor is one of Gus' most loyal henchman, and yet he had no problem killing him. Meaning it doesn't matter how loyal or valuable Walt is, he can still be killed and it won't bother Gus. However, Walt tells Jesse that perhaps Victor "flew too close to the sun." Meaning, Victor over stepped his bounds by learning how to cook meth. Gus didn't appreciate Victor's initiative and Gus only wants his employees to do the job they're given. Again, telling Walt and Jesse to do their job or else.

Bishop73

I think it was a combination of anger over Gayle's death and Victor being seen by witnesses makes Victor very vulnerable and therefore a dangerous liability to Fringe's empire.

By this point, the mugshot of Victor will have been spread around as a suspect in Gail's death. Victor had been come too hot to handle, so to say, so had to go.

Ssiscool

Answer: He originally wanted him dead but over the year or so he was on the run he lost his family and his money and realised the horrible person he had become. He thought Jesse was already dead but when Pete and Badger told hi the blue meth was still in circulation he realised Jesse was being forced to cook and decided to save him because he was no longer the ruthless Heisenberg but was now back to being Walter Whiter.

The_Iceman

Answer: "Rage."

Bishop73

Face Off - S4-E13

Question: Would Gus not die instantly from his injuries of that explosion? Instead, he has time to walk out, straighten his tie, traumatize the nurses, then die? Or is that all for the sake of good TV?

Answer: Definitely just for the sake of good TV; in reality, this would be instant death (or at least, very soon after, and no way one could just get up and walk). There's a featurette on the production of this scene, and Vince Gilligan addresses the liberties taken with reality here. He felt that since Gus was such an iconic character, he deserved an equally iconic death, hence the calm, cool, collected way he walks out of the room with half a face. Gilligan said he also wanted to briefly fake the audience out, as we see Gus walk out from his "unaffected" side first and assume he somehow survived the blast.

Grilled - S2-E2

Question: How did the DEA not find Walter's information and pill bottle in Tuco's house after Hank kills Tuco? I think a shootout between DEA agent and drug dealer would have all kinds of investigators at the crime scene. They would have asked what Walter was doing there. They probably would have found the cell phones Tuco threw in the yard too.

Answer: Having just watched this episode, Tuco asks Walt and Jesse to empty their pockets shortly after entering Hector's house. They are there for an extended period of time as Tuco cooks lunch, arranges for his cousins to come and collect them, he's then seen shooting at the animal through the window. So a few hours have passed. Enough time for Walt and Jesse to put the items back in their pockets. In regard to the DEA searching the property, they may have searched briefly but not overly hard as Tuco was a drug dealer and unfortunately some agencies won't put in as much effort to find out what happened due to their lifestyle. With the mobile phones, again the DEA may not have searched very hard or very far. Tuco is walking a short distance back to the house after throwing the phones. So who's to say they would have searched that far out.

Ssiscool

Show generally

Question: Were the interior scenes in Walter's house actually shot inside that house or at another location? The view down the hallway towards their bedroom doesn't seem to fit the size of the house, which from the front looks much smaller.

Answer: The outside shots were filmed on location but by the homeowners own words, "some liberties were taken with the inside"

Ssiscool

Answer: The flashback to Jesse and Jane helps remind the audience of what happened to her. That informed Jesse's decision to try and stop Andrea getting high.

Plus it could also be seen as Jesse remembering what happened to Jane.

Ssiscool

Answer: The corpse was old and he was around people he knew. Seeing a severed head walking around on a turtle was just too much for him.

lionhead

Adding to this, he also hadn't just recently killed a man when an arm was ripped off. He was still going through PTSD after his shootout and killing of Tuco when the head thing happened.

Quantom X

Answer: Hank is very emotionally vulnerable at this point. He'd just had an intense shoot-out with Tuco that affected him more than he is willing to admit.

Answer: In an episode of Better Call Saul, we see Gus prevent someone from murdering Hector, and even pay for some of his treatment after Hector has a stroke. He wants Hector to remain alive in the state that we see him: bound to a wheelchair, unable to speak, unable to take care of himself. It's Gus' way of making Hector suffer. He felt a quick death would be letting Hector off too easy.

jshy7979

Answer: Gus considered killing Hector as being "too good for him." He wanted Hector to suffer in the same way he had suffered. Hector killed Gus' partner, so Gus worked to destroy Hector's family before gloating and killing him. Gus even prevented Mike from killing Hector for this very reason.

Answer: Because for as long as Hector was alive Gus could gloat over his enemy.

Ssiscool

Answer: Part of reason for the firing was because George considered Gus a personal friend and ignored Hank's suspicions of Gus' involvement in the meth business. Even after questioning Gus, he still ignored Hank when Hank try's to tell him Gus is lying.

Bishop73

Answer: The DEA needed a scapegoat to throw under the bus as Gus made them look bad being right under their nose and George was the agent in charge so took the fall. And yes, had Hank not been killed he too would most likely have been fired.

The_Iceman

Say My Name - S5-E7

Question: Did Walt plan on killing Mike? If so, why? It seems like he just did it in a fit of rage, but then why did he take his gun?

MikeH

Answer: As you stated, it was in a fit of rage, he regretted it right afterwards.

Show generally

Question: How exactly did Walt poison Brock? It doesn't make sense, the hospital said it was lily of the valley, but Walt and Saul confirmed it was ricin.

MikeH

Answer: Walt does use Lilly of the Valley berries to poison Brock. Vince Gilligan said he and the writers imagined Walt went to Brock's school with a poisoned juice box (there's subtle clues to confirm Walt knew what school Brock went to). But, when Jesse went to Saul's office, Saul's bodyguard, Huell, does a cigarette pack swap on Jesse when he pats Jesse down. Now the cigarette pack Jesse has no longer has the vial of ricin in it and Walt tries to convince Jesse that Gus stole the ricin and used it on Brock.

Bishop73

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