Breaking Bad Round Table: "Dead Freight"

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A train robbery turned deadly on Breaking Bad last Sunday, and our weekly Round Table team of Matt Richenthal, Dan Forcella and Lisa Palmer is here to breakdown "Dead Freight."

Did it feature the most shocking event in incredible series history? Answer that question along with our panelists now...

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What was your favorite scene from the episode?
Matt: I'll break it down to a single line: Walt's response to Skyler when she commented on his appearance. We're robbing a train! Yes, even Scarface can crack a joke. Then again, he wasn't exactly joking, was he?

Lisa: Every part of the train heist was pure gold. I also loved the shot of Jesse, as the divorced child, sandwiched between two fighting parents, and again, enjoying a magnet moment.

Dan: Definitely the tail end of the heist. Watching Walt hold Jesse and Todd off time and time again only made me angrier and angrier. By the third time or so that he told them to wait longer, I was standing up and screaming at him through the screen. How can he be THAT cool? I would have wrapped it up as soon as I knew there were other people in the area.

Was Todd shooting that kid the most shocking single moment in Breaking Bad history?
Matt: Jane's death is the only comparison in my mind. But at least we saw that one developing, as we wondered for a solid minute: Walt isn't really doing this, is he? Is he? No way... right? Save her, man! So there was time to let that action sink in. But combine the lack of a warning in this case and the lack of any utterance afterward - just a few glaces and a fade to black - and I was left as speechless when the credits rolled as I have been in a very long time.

Lisa: Not quite. The series has been building to a moment like this, and I'd wager Walt watching Jane die and doing nothing, Walt running over those drug dealers, Gus slitting Victor's throat and the Lily of the Valley zoom out shocked me a bit more. As did Hector's final ding of the bell.  

Dan: Compared to some things Lisa mentioned, it probably wasn't as shocking as a moment - but might have been more shocking IN the moment.  Because it was so out of the blue, since we know very little about Landry... I mean Todd... it shocked me - for that split second - more than anything else on TV in quite a while.

Hank commented on Walt's watch and new car. Is he starting to suspect his brother-in-law?
Matt: Yes. With only three episodes remaining this summer (man, time flies when Skyler is not having fun!) and then eight to wrap up the series in 2013, there's only one showdown remaining: Hank vs. Walt. I foresee this year's cliffhanger revolving around the former truly coming to an epiphany about his brother-in-law.

Dan: Subconsciously he has to be. I doubt he's lying awake at night thinking that his geeky brother-in-law may be drug lord... but there has to be some details piling up in the back of his brain at this point. Those details will soon rise to the surface, and we all will be in big trouble.

Lisa: One can only hope. Hank is smart, but we as an audience have to understand why it'd be so hard to suspect Walt. We see so much more of Walt's transition into Scarface than Hank does, but I'm hoping Hank starts putting the pieces together. I'm sure he's heading in that direction. That extended camera hold on his face when his boss was talking about Gus being right under his nose was more telling to me than the comments on Walt's watch and car.

Walt Jr.: a spoiled teenage brat or a sympathetic young man?
Matt: I wouldn't go as far as to label him "spoiled," but he should be old enough to recognize some serious issues brewing between his parents. They aren't being mean just to be mean here. Lighten up, Junior. You're surrounded by purple now. How bad can life be?!?

Dan: Who? You mean Flynn the Baconator?

Lisa: Sympathetic! Look at things from his perspective. How confusing! He's a good kid, who just got a new car, and suddenly is forced to move in with his aunt and uncle and no one can give him a real explanation. He's an innocent.

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