TV

Breaking Bad Season 5 Part 2 Predictions and Detective Work: Putting All the Clues Together

Because this post is getting so complicated and involved, here’s a little Table of Contents so you can easily jump to any section you are interested in right off the bat. I’m going to keep updating as the season progresses, and promotional pics and teasers come out for each episode, so this will come in handy.

blood-money-20449Table of Contents

Introduction
General Pre-Seasons Teasers and Trailers
Episode 509 “Blood Money”
Episode 510 “Buried”
Episode 511 “Confessions”
Episode 512 “Rabid Dog”
Episode 513 “To’hajiilee”
Episode 514 “Ozymandias”
Episode 515 “Granite State”
Episode 516 “Felina”
Overall Season Predictions
Spoilers (mostly relate to the premiere)

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 18: Pics, teaser and updated predictions for episode 515 “Granite State” added to the section below about that episode.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 12: Pics and video teaser for episode 514 “Ozymandias” added to the section below about that episode. Updated predictions added for “Granite State”.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 5: Pics and video teaser for episode 513 “To’hajiilee” added to the section below about that episode. New info added for “Granite State”.

Also, no idea in what episode, but Gretchen will be returning! You can read the article here. It mostly focuses on another upcoming project for actress Jessica Hecht but at the very beginning, it says that she was in Albuquerque filming for an appearance in the final season. What do you make of that? What episode might she appear in? My thought is that Walter’s crimes become public knowledge and Gretchen finds out what she was inadvertently helping to cover up so long ago. I just imagine that finding out the truth about Walt could bring her out of the woodwork. As could Walt’s funeral, but I’m leaning more towards the first guess. Thoughts???

UPDATE AUGUST 29: Pics and video teaser for episode 512 “Rabid Dog” added to the section below about that episode. New cast member listings at IMDB and updated predictions added for “To’hajiilee” and “Granite State”.

UPDATE AUGUST 22: Pics and video teaser for Episode 511 “Confessions” added to the section below about that episode. And a tiny little thing is added to the section for “To’hajiilee”. Betting Bad results added for “Buried”.

UPDATE AUGUST 14: Pics and video teaser for Episode 510 “Buried” added to the section below about that episode.

I’m also going to start posting my Betting Bad results after each episode airs. For others that are playing, please share your updates as well.

UPDATE AUGUST 7: A few more teeny, eensy little spoilers have leaked out about the first episode. Critics got advanced copies of 509 “Blood Money” and wrote reviews and tried not to say anything, but some couldn’t help giving a few things away. Even though these all relate to the first episode, I’m putting them down below in the Spoilers section so people who want to avoid them can, and those who want to know can read on.

UPDATE JULY 27: I did come across some actual spoilers (Comic-Con). The new info raises more questions than it answers, but I’m going to add it at the very bottom to be sensitive to those who don’t want any, even tiny, spoilers (and I’m usually one of those people but BrBa and this long wait is just killing my willpower).

BEGINNING OF ORIGINAL POST: In less than four weeks, the final episodes begin. It’s getting so close but it still feels like an eternity, all this waiting. So what to do in the meantime? Dig, dig, dig up every clue and try to figure out what it means. And there are several clues to find, so let’s put it all together and make some predictions, even though we know that Vince Gilligan and co. will no doubt prove us wrong and surprise us with things we never would’ve thought up. Still, mysteries are fun, so let’s at least try. I have gathered up a LOT of little tidbits for you all.

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TV

Breaking Bad Episode 412 “End Times”

412aimagesGus’s “spidey sense” must be tingling towards the end of this episode.

This is a challenging episode to write about. It’s amazing, but there’s so much I can’t say until the next one without giving too much away.

It’s interesting, the first time I watched this one, I was so caught up in what was happening, and the drama and the suspense of it all. This time around, I paid more attention to some of the small things.

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Writing

My Essay “Seeing and Not Seeing” Won Third Place!

wwlogo-200Holy crap!!!

This spring I submitted several pieces of writing to a handful of contests and had almost forgotten about it. But last night I got an email that my essay “Seeing and Not Seeing” won third place in the Willamette Writers Kay Snow Writing Contest for non-fiction!

You can read a description of the essay at the Personal Essay and Memoir page.

I’ve also posted a few excerpts, Reading Eyes and Faces, Albino and My Face, which are part of the longer essay which you can read anytime.

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Metaphysics, Samples, Writing

A Somewhat Double Life – Dark As Roses 3

dar3imagesTo start this short story from the beginning, click here.

I take the box of this week’s letters and hold it close to me so that Kevin can’t hug me. With a quick wave I leave the office and head for my car across the parking lot. I throw the box in the trunk and close it tight. I get in the car and speed off to meet my two best friends for lunch. I like them because they’re never bursting with color, but dim like me.

When I arrive at the cafeteria on the ground level of our dorm building, Jade and Andrea are already waiting. “Hey, we were about to go inside without you,” Andrea says.

I catch up with them. “Sorry. Crowley let us out late again. Always seems to do that on Mondays. Then I had to run to the paper office to hand in my movie review.” They nod knowingly as we fill our plates with food.

Continue reading “A Somewhat Double Life – Dark As Roses 3”

TV

Breaking Bad Season 5 Part 2 Predictions and Wishes Post

breaking-bad-promo-062513spJust over a month away until the new season starts. You know, I remember how upset we all were when we first found out that the final season would be split between two years, and now I am so glad it was. I don’t want the ride to be over. I’m not ready to leave the world of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, no matter how dark that world has become, or how much darker it could get before the end.

But the final eight episodes are upon us. Time to make predictions, revisit last year’s predictions and pull together everything that’s out there to try to make some guesses. Some of this, no doubt, will be pure speculation and wishful thinking.

So, let’s get right to it, bitches!

Walt dies. I said it last year, and I’ll say it this year. Walt dies. I stand by that prediction. The new “Remember My Name” poster of Walt put out by AMC only strengthens my conviction that Walt will indeed meet his end in the final episode. I know that Vince Gilligan has said a few times that he was rethinking original ideas he had about the ending, and I think that was partly to throw us off, make us think the ending could be otherwise, but I don’t think it will be. For me, it wasn’t the words on the poster but the green smokiness around Walt that cinched it.

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Writing

Revisiting the Past

So, before I started this blog, before Foraging into the Blogosphere with WordPress, I had an old blogspot blog. It lapsed for a few years before the start of this one. So, why not merge the two? I’m going to try to import the old posts into this site. We’ll see how it works.

It actually worked a lot easier than I ever would’ve thought. So some old posts have already gone up and there will be lots more to come. I’m psyched to be able to have it all in one place!

~Chrys

TV

Breaking Bad Episode 411 “Crawl Space”

411index“My brother-in-law doesn’t deserve to die because of this,” Walt says.

As with all the thirteen-episode seasons, episode eleven is the point when everything starts to boil, situations become untenable and all the cards get stacked for what follows. All the makings of the storms are in play. This is true as ever here in Season Four.

As mentioned in the previous episode post, despite all the terrible things that Walt and Jesse have done, they have also learned to stand up in the face of fear. In this season, they each get a moment where a younger Walt or Jesse would have crumbled and this time they don’t. Jesse got his moment in the last episode and Walt gets his here.

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Blindness and Disability, Samples

The Circular Hotel – Blind Conventions 2

detriothotelEverywhere you walk, you “get caned”—hit by several canes from all different directions. There are just so many people navigating[1] their way around that it’s impossible to avoid. From the moment you emerge from your room to the time you reenter it, you get caned. There are dogs everywhere too. They are also getting caned at every turn, and surrounded by so many other dogs. I think they are more overwhelmed than the people. The hotel has set aside a place outside for people to relieve their guide dogs but I keep hearing that some of them, especially the ones that have never been to a convention before, are having some bladder issues.

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TV

Breaking Bad Episode 410 “Salud”

410imagesIn which Jesse’s Rage videogame skills pay off.

Another stellar, high drama, edge-of-your-seat episode, Breaking Bad at its finest. And this one has one of my favorite ever images.

Towards the end of last season, I was talking about these little moments Jesse and Walt both had standing up to Gus. The idea was that though Walt’s decision to start cooking meth back in the pilot has mostly wreaked havoc on both of their lives, their families, their souls, Walt and Jesse have also become more courageous. Maybe the good thing they’ve both gotten from all of this is a certain lack of fear. In the latter half of this season, Walt and Jesse each get a big moment of bravery. These are moments where maybe they should be afraid, and maybe they are afraid, and if these moments had happened a few seasons back, they would’ve crumbled, but this time they show big courage in the face of all that fear.

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Blindness and Disability, Music, Samples, Writing

Music Takes Me Back – Camp Marcella 1993

campmarcellarechallindexOn the Sunday that marked the midway point of the camp session, the routine changed. We got to sleep in an extra hour, and after breakfast, we had Sunday Morning Program. Phil opened the program with a new song, a slower song than the whale song or “Great Balls of Fire” or the aorta song.

“Welcome to my morning
Welcome to my day
I’m the one responsible
I made it just this way
I made myself some pictures
To see what they might bring
I think I made it perfectly
I wouldn’t change a thing
La-la-la, La-la-la-la-la-la…”

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