Breaking Bad: 4 Days Out Rewatch
September 25, 2014 7:50 PM - Season 2, Episode 9 - Subscribe
After Walt undergoes a PET-CT scan, he and his family wait for news about his cancer treatment progress. Fearing the worst, Walt follows Saul’s advice to cook as much product as he can with the time he has left. Jesse’s relationship with Jane develops, but is put on hold when he and Walt retreat to the desert for their marathon cook.
According to the Breaking Bad Insider podcast, 4 Days Out was intended as a "bottle episode" -- saving on budget by constraining the action to a single location -- but the large amount of on-location shooting actually made it more expensive than most episodes.
Jesse's suggestion "what if we just take some stuff off of the RV and build it into something completely different?" is a reference to the plot of Flight of the Phoenix (1965).
"Lie much?"
According to the Breaking Bad Insider podcast, 4 Days Out was intended as a "bottle episode" -- saving on budget by constraining the action to a single location -- but the large amount of on-location shooting actually made it more expensive than most episodes.
Jesse's suggestion "what if we just take some stuff off of the RV and build it into something completely different?" is a reference to the plot of Flight of the Phoenix (1965).
"Lie much?"
It's weird because some of the episodes I love the most are "bottle" episodes - like this one, and "Fly" - yet other people seem to dislike and consider a mistake or a stall (as Cannon Fodder says above). Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
I LOVE the bottle episodes and think they provide a much-needed change of pace that heightens and intensifies the roller-coaster episodes. You get a much-needed peek into the characters' internal states and thinking ("I deserve this..." to which Jesse is rightly shocked, but we know things Jesse does not).
Plus, they give the actors some real meaty dialogue and scenes to dig into, and places the emphasis on characters and relationships. Almost theater-like. LOVE the bottle episodes.
Nice tags, your quotes are cracking me up. Tag much?
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:21 AM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
I LOVE the bottle episodes and think they provide a much-needed change of pace that heightens and intensifies the roller-coaster episodes. You get a much-needed peek into the characters' internal states and thinking ("I deserve this..." to which Jesse is rightly shocked, but we know things Jesse does not).
Plus, they give the actors some real meaty dialogue and scenes to dig into, and places the emphasis on characters and relationships. Almost theater-like. LOVE the bottle episodes.
Nice tags, your quotes are cracking me up. Tag much?
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:21 AM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
Walt calculates that he and Jesse will each have about $670,000 once sell all the meth is sold. This is most of the way to the $737,000 he said he needed in 737, but of course he doesn't stop there. How different (and better!) everyone's life would have been if he had.
Walt's basically--to borrow a line from The Big Lebowski--a human Paraquat, but I still got a little choked up in the scene where he and his family find out the tumor has responded so well to treatment.
posted by johnofjack at 5:21 PM on October 19, 2014
Walt's basically--to borrow a line from The Big Lebowski--a human Paraquat, but I still got a little choked up in the scene where he and his family find out the tumor has responded so well to treatment.
posted by johnofjack at 5:21 PM on October 19, 2014
Vince Gilligan has revealed that his favourite line Breaking Bad was Jessie's response to Walt's remark about making the battery "You gave me the idea" - "What ... a robot?" - the idea for that line came from a key grip working on the crew, and the entire shoot was delayed to accommodate it.
I wonder how things would have turned out if Walt had partnered up with one of his most capable ex-students rather than with Jessie? We might have concluded that everything would have gone more smoothly - but consider ahead to how Walt's relationship with Gail goes. In fact, Walt seems to be every bit as bad a teacher as Jessie is a student: unable to really relate to others so as to explain to them - not really very good at learning topics outside his narrow domain (for example Jessie's world of drug selling on the street) - and fiercely defensive of his position as the singular voice of authority.
posted by rongorongo at 5:43 AM on August 31, 2022
I wonder how things would have turned out if Walt had partnered up with one of his most capable ex-students rather than with Jessie? We might have concluded that everything would have gone more smoothly - but consider ahead to how Walt's relationship with Gail goes. In fact, Walt seems to be every bit as bad a teacher as Jessie is a student: unable to really relate to others so as to explain to them - not really very good at learning topics outside his narrow domain (for example Jessie's world of drug selling on the street) - and fiercely defensive of his position as the singular voice of authority.
posted by rongorongo at 5:43 AM on August 31, 2022
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
This is where we have the miracle remission. I said it before, but it did feel like a cheat at the start. I was very glad that the cancer doesn't just go away forever.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 12:29 AM on September 26, 2014 [2 favorites]