Mid-Season-break is here. Damn. So again nothing else left to do than predict what will happen in the final eight epsiodes one year from now, and recap what we got right in the first place. What we can expect is some big finale moment after that one, which appears to be the quiet before the storm:

Season 5 Pilot – Screenshot from AMC website

Beware, possible SPOILERS ahead. You’ve been warned Continue reading on your own risk.

So Hank knows. Just as we predicted here in the comments. „HIGHsenberg“ had it figured out on the 15th of January, go check it out.

And we had something else on our list – a female villain, lovely „Lydia“:

Lydia – the correctly predicted female villain

But all the speculations about Germans and Mr. Fring? A Nazi connection? Ok, there’s the prison gang Nazi crew, alright, but I was prepared for worse. Boy have I been of the page… as bad as the spoken „German“ on the show. I’m a native speaker, so I can judge this – and it’s pretty bad. I mean, really bad. Except for the one guy at the police hearing, who turned out to have been the language coach (they said something like that on the insider-podcast for epsiode 502). He must have had a really bad time, pulling his hair out. Yes, I can judge this as well, because I once acted as a language coach on a Polish TV-series. Boy, that can be a depressive task. Probably the best way to feel even more like a stranger in a strange land. The spoken German on Breaking Bad this season was so fake, that it partly ruined the great impression of the other departments, like production wise – the sets, the signs, the costumes – they even got the police uniforms quite right, and than they speak like backwards! It’s like the red room in TWIN PEAKS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_-WYMBvU30
another great season finale…

I mean come on! There’s fans out there, also native Germans, many of them actors, who would have bought a (one-way) flight-ticket to New Mexico on their own cost just to appear on the show! You bet! Being credited for Breaking Bad, what could match that? I mean, I would fly there on my own cost in case Kelly (or Skip) just would sneeze on the podcast! I’m kidding… but please: in case that there is the need for another new actor / actress on the final eight episodes, please give somebody the chance of a walk on role, and let it be Mr. Benjamin Heisenberg, the grandson of the real Heisenberg – that would be sooo awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkK8qVJyyW0
Benjamin Heisenberg – on a Q&A

And as a little reminder: he’s a director himself, and he’d be great for a getaway episode, if there would be a director’s slot left.

So… all future casting aside, what can we expect? Let’s switch back into prediction mode and get going:

1) What we can notice in the flash-forward opening scene from 501 is:

– hair (and beard)
– different glasses
– taking medicine
– fake ID on Skylers maiden name (if I got that correctly)
– no wedding ring
– big gun in the trunk
– he’s not with his family on his birthday…

One year later. Walter is in revenge mode, hence the gun. And kind of sad. On his birthday. We’ll find out more on that in the final episode, the big finale of one of the greatest TV shows ever. That’s for sure. And I still don’t think that Walt will be the last man standing. Or Hank. Or Jesse. Or possibly anybody. Well, maybe except Ted. And Saul. But who he will want to hit with that… thing? It’s got to be kind of personal, or somebody who’s hard to hit otherwise. Somebody like…

2) Jesse. He already expected to be killed by Walt (as was Lydia – and she was right, Walter had the ricin with him). He will be the bait between Hank and Walt, the only possible snitch left for Hank. And because it was „accidentally“ revealed by Walt in front of Declan (and his bodyguards) that Jesse is a stand-alone cook as well, and he knows the formula. And he knows Lydia. I think he will turn himself in, when he’s threatened, and someone else closer to Walt dies – probably a family member, Skyler or Junior. I wish at least Jesse survives this mess… but I’m not confident on that part. It would be nice to see him in a witness protection program. A program to protect him from his „Waltness“ White.

3) Hank knows, but he still needs evidence to prove it. I think there will be a great scene between Hank and Walt, where they confront each other on this. Maybe even in episode 509. Probably! So what is there evidence-wise? A big load of money, and Skyler knows about it. Will she tell something? Not if Walt stays out of business, I think. So he has to, somehow. What will change her mind? Oh boy, the cards look really bad for Junior. But this would be the last drop for Skyler, to protect Holly, she would turn in Walt as well. As does Jesse. It has to be like that, all family is turning away from Walt, even his former „associates“. He’ll be alone in the end. As in the teaser. There is no Mike left who would handle this gun for him. It’s just him left. Whatever he’s up to, he has to do it on his own.

4) Will Declan play a role further down the road? I don’t think so. They are paid of. It’s just 8 episodes left, and what is left is the core, the family, the best developed characters, how they react finding out. Hank was just the beginning. The house of lies that Walt build will crumble. That’s going to be painful, but true. There’s no time left for dealing with those guys, we had similar scenes already, I guess they’ll skip that.

5) What about Lydia? Well, she definitely will want to continue the business with Walt – alone for the „sake“ of the Czech republic market. And Walt will refuse, like Gus Frings offer at the beginning of season 3. Apart from that, they both need to get rid of one another, because each of them knows to much. As does Jesse. But Lydia will not stay in the US, she’ll be of to Europe, to get out of Walt’s reach. Or she’ll be dead. But than there would have to be an episode about that, and they simply don’t have the time to deal that much with her. So Europe is where she’ll be. Possibly with the recipe, she bought from Todd and his Nazi-family.

6) Does „Gray Matter“ still matter? Probably not. Just we don’t know what exactly made him leave. There is something in the relationship with Skyler we don’t know anything about yet. Why he left Gretchen and the company, and blaming them for having ruined his life. It maybe was the pregnancy on the one hand, but that alone is far from being sufficient. Whatever it is, it will surface and be the Gretchenfrage. And it’s the end to their marriage, or Skyler doesn’t live anymore. I’m not sure about that one at all yet.

7) The „new guy“ Todd and his Nazi family, which performed the simultaneous killing in the prisons. Are they a thread? I think they are paid of as well, no need for them to resurface. Unless… there are more bodies to disappear. But then Todd alone would do. And he as well did his homework, spent so much time cooking with Walt, that he should be able to master the process without. Just as Victor started to catch things. Maybe that’s the „exit“ that Walt took! Todd keeps on cooking for Lydia, Decan and whoever else wants the blue stuff. Which brings me to…

8) Junior. He’s alienating, keeping things to himself, disappointed about nobody telling him anything, so he stopped communicating as well. They gave a lot of hints in that direction this season. Nothing unusual on the one hand, but we should know better. The writers definitely laid the foundation for something bigger here. Maybe it’s not meth, but it’s gonna be a „I can’t take this shit of you no more!“ reaction. And he will be standing right in-between Walt and Hank, who he both loves. I think this could turn out similar like in the tequila drinking scene (it was in season 2, I think), just that the stakes are much higher this time, and I think it will be meth – the „cancer“ Walt produced will find a way to spread to his closest family. Walt will maybe realize what he has done. For a moment. Then he will keep on defending his (gone) empire, no – he’s going to take it down with him, because he saw with his own eyes what it did to his son. That sounds more like it. Because he’s so obsessed with his „product“, that when he has to leave the world (returning cancer, the pills), he’s taking the blue meth, his invention with him. That means the recipe as well. And everybody who knows it. Like Todd. And Jesse. Maybe Lydia. So he’s likely to shoot down a tented house, where they cook meth, to get Todd. And then he’s after Jesse, who’s protected by Hank. What would make Jesse flip? When Walt, in the aftermath of Junior having an overdose revealing accidentally that he saw that happening once before – with Jane. Than Jesse is done, and no matter what is going to happen to himself, he’ll do anything to take down Walt, and goes straight to Hank. And that’s the climax. Walt with his M60, going out to kill Jesse in the waltness witness protection program, with only Hank standing between them. Well, and maybe there will be Skyler, trying to convince Walt to turn himself in. Mexican stand off. All dead in the end. Except Marie and baby Holly. The bitter end.

That’s about it, for now. Please forgive me, I’m just playing around with bits and pieces here. I do that since I got my first set of LEGO bricks. And I work as a film editor, so it’s what I do. Going through possibilities. And as much as everybody else I just can’t wait for how brilliantly they will bring this amazing series to a satisfying (but bitter) end.

What do you think?

Join me again in the comments and let’s see how close to the real thing we can get together.

In 10 months we’ll know more…