12 MONKEYS: Season 3 Teaser (now w/visual aids)

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I posted a version without screenshots here. Along with the stills, this v.2 is slightly wordier (can you believe it?), including some edits and additions to the first post’s text/crazy talk.

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So…Syfy’s posted a new trailer for season 3 of 12 MONKEYS. Usually, I would do my best to dodge promos before a show or movie is actually released. I like to get hit w/the text with minimal hints and no spoilers, as little pre-text as possible. But, given the paradigm-shifting “linear-binge” release of this season—leave it to 12 MONKEYS to Splinter an entire season (encompassing centuries =) into a single weekend, with all 10 episodes beamed in order over May 19, 20, and 21—I’m thinking I’ll need to get my wheels-spinning crazy talk wherever I can. And thusly, I ramble…

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The first new shot of Cole, from the front (against Raritan National Labs?) and then from behind (against Times Square from I, LEGEND?), has him holding a tech-festooned staff. The design calls to mind a computerized tuning fork, *just* the thing for time/dimension/reality-hopping, or tuning/dialing. Perhaps one of its components is a tank of red tea, reloadable via Keurig-like cartridges? With a regulated IV feed or retractable needles in the handle? Maybe this device enhances or adapts Cole’s mental time travel abilities, allowing him to view specific points in time or even what-if?s. Could it be a way to enable him to physically travel? A staff version of the vests? =)

Titan appears as a complex/city in the distance with a sea with rocks or wreckage or maybe ice floes in the foreground. Does Titan only move in Time and not space (relative to the Earth)? Is it always in Colorado? Climate change is real, people! It's not magic…It's science!

We see someone with great posture ascend the steps within Titan to meet w/Tall Man, or perhaps his father, both surrounded by robed figures. RE: that posture…It reminds me of Ethan Seki, but knowing that he’s in this season, I’m thinking Gaius Baltar.

Someone sits at the center of a spiral of glyphs drawn in white on a dark floor. My funnest thought about these is that they might be a new form of math, notation, and/or language, developed specifically to describe and understand Time. Unfamiliar to most humans, but somehow native and natural to Time. These characters represent values, constants, operators, functions, ripples, and paradoxes and describe relationships between them that we wouldn’t understand, but someone whose mind is steeped in Time would. The Witness…maybe Primaries…maybe maybe some human geniuses or those with an intuitive knack and understanding of Time…

That first shot of the four hat-and-coated figures, silhouetted in the fog or smoke in the dark…The three lights on each of their vests powering on…Gorgeous! Evokes DARK CITY for me (a good thing =), and some kind of clockwork men. I want the tech to be embedded in these people, but a later shot shows us that this is likely tech mounted on a vest. Portable Splinter/Titan units, a la Doctor Who’s Vortex Manipulators? In a future world (like, the future of the future, post-2044) of 12 MONKEYS, that’s where my head immediately goes. Although, honestly, that seems very unfair, no?

Still, if that IS what they are, I'd associate them with some very interesting story/logic that necessitates their not being usable before some year. After all, if the Witness's forces *ever* had this tech, they could have used it in the times Team Splinter has visited, right? Maybe the use of these vests shreds spacetime, and jumping back beyond a certain point would undo their invention in the first place? Or, y'know, something like that. =)

I’m *really* hoping that these figures are Something Else, tho. At the bottom of the season 3 poster, we see them standing in front of a console with the Witness’s/Titan symbol, and so, we want to associate them, right? But what if that’s just a couple of these…Time Shadows entering the Titan city limits? What if these guys are representatives of another player in the war across/for time? Perhaps descendants of the Witness and the Titanians, who know more than W does…Or are using W as their agent in their relative past?

Or maybe they serve a Time Variance Authority. Some organization—who knows under what authority/morality?—that watches over and polices Time and History, countering and punishing anyone who seeks to change too much. Maybe to preserve their own existence, Time’s existence (assuming damage is done by reckless splintering), or their own ideal mission outcome.

Cuz, how great would it be to have everyone we know, set up as enemies and rivals in so many permutations, ultimately be on the same side versus some (apparently) greater Time fascist?

Or greater threat to Time itself? If we take the Red Forest being an End-of-Time paradise as a feint, constructed to get all the splinter chess pieces into the right places to bring about the birth of the Witness, then the Witness was never really about that, right? Maybe he didn’t come up w/that threat himself, tho. What if he adapted it from a greater threat to Time? So…Casserole & Son (*and* Jones, Jennifer, Ramse & Son, Olivia, the Daughters, the X-Monkeys, & Agent Gale, Primaries, Monkeys, Druze et al) are destined to fight someone who truly does want to destroy all of Time and replace it with… Well, nothingness seems like a good ultimate goal, let’s go with that for now.

What if the super-future is amazing, but in a universe in which time travel is ever invented, history must be choreographed in order for it to be realized and persist? So, this paradise future has a black ops arm that manipulates events in the past to keep it safe. The paradise is a wonderful destiny for humanity, but it robs humans in the past and present of free will. Which side would you fight for in that scenario?

Hrm…Looking a little harder at the season 3 poster again…Are there four Time Shadows (that works, right?) holding, like, an Ark of the Witness between them? I thought it was some kind of console/control panel, but now I’m seeing it differently. Interrrresting…

• A funeral for Time? For the Witness?
• A Time bomb?
• If the vests aren’t vortex manipulator-y, maybe their portable splinter device?
• A Witness trap or cage?
• Time picnic dinner?

The Word of the Witness is shown preserved in plastic or lucite, hanging in a candelabra-lit room, a red-vine patterned banner (or glass pane?) behind it. Its Ramse-torn corner is still absent. Does Ramse still have that swatch tucked in a coat pocket somewhere?

COLE: The man behind the apocalypse is my son?

Seems like Cassie’s breaking the news to him there. What if this is soon after the pointing-the-gun-at-wee-Witness scene? What if he draws on L’il W, hesitates, and Cassie finds him, stops him, and explains the horr-ironic truth?

Meet Johnny (Night Room), Jr. =)

A clip of some creepy Edgar Allen Poe-y Masque(rade) of the Red Death…EYES WIDE SHUT Cole and Cassie apparently in attendance. Hrm…Red Death…I had a theory back in season 1 that the Army might be an influence throughout history responsible for all major epidemics/plagues, as a way to thin the herd, perhaps disable or control meddling Primaries, and keep a population manageable via their resources and manipulations.

Cross fade to Cass and Cole going Nicholas Nickleby/Christmas Carol on some cobblestoned street…

KATARINA: It's been about them…

That's Jones apparently referring to Cass and Cole.

[aside]
What would Cassandra name her child? I’m guessing, sadly, that Cole won’t be present for the birth. Assuming it’s a boy, maybe she’d go with her father, whom we haven’t met yet. Has Cassie mentioned him by name on the show? If not that grandpa, then how about Cole’s father, Matthew? (I don’t think we have confirmation that he’s James’s bio dad, but we never saw anyone question it.) Or—How about someone important to *both* of them? The person responsible for bringing them together? Katarina Werner Jones! Boy, *that’s* gotta sit well with Katarina, eh? (see/watch above line of dialogue =)

So, how about Jones? Like the space cat in ALIEN! Or Jonas? Jonas Cole. Jonas Railly? Or…Werner? Not so cute, but somehow fitting for a Witness-to-be, eh? Werner Cole, The Witness. Yeah. That’ll look good on his business card.

I’m hoping for Morris. =)

[/aside]

RAMSE: About time we set things straight…

If that is actual dialogue between Jones and Ramse, it signifies the formation of an alliance, between Ramse (and Olivia and her X-Mon/Orphans of Time) and Jones and Project Splinter. Their goal? To undo and/or destroy the Witness, which would likely pit them against one or both of his parentals. Ramse *does* like to boast about how he eats blondes for breakfast…~

Next we see an eyes-burning return to the Emerson Hotel, sometime in the mid to late 80s.

Will we ever see the lightning storm/strike that freezes the lobby’s clock? =)

Cole is dressed as Marty McFly. O, man! Are we gonna get an in-universe origin/inspiration encounter for BACK TO THE FUTURE? Whoa…

So, how about this? Agent Gale’s granddaughter, Roberta, has somehow inherited his dossier on his wacky misadventures with Cole & the Gang, and is staking out the Emerson in the 80s, perhaps at her grandpa’s direction, but maybe on her own. She meets them, maybe joins them in splintering, if the tech allows (Deacon as Time…ummm…Peter? Paul? Judas doesn’t seem right, right? =) helps them out, but of course, is sworn to secrecy—who’d believe her, anyway?—but hey, disinformation as a 3-movie franchise wasn’t disallowed, right? Story credit: Bob Gale. =)

CASS: Help me save him.

It’s just a pronoun, people. "Him" could be anyone…Junior/Witness, Cole, Deacon, Nessie the Time Puppy… =)

Christopher Lloyd, wearing the Titan pendant, apparently standing in an event-y tent illuminated by standing and hanging lamps…a remote location? An excavation site? A wedding reception? A pop-up portrait studio?

The pendant and wardrobe sells the Tall Man's father identity pretty hard. As far as we know, he wouldn’t have any Messenger blood. So, if he’s not enhancedly long-lived, what era/s would he have been operating in? Given the garb, perhaps from within the clergy? Maybe late 19th century into the first half of the 20th, to find/meet Vivian in the 40s. There’s gotta be a story there about why/how Vivian returns to the Army after rejecting the Witness. I still would really love for Tall Man to be playing a long con within the Army, a sleeper agent of revenge upon the Witness for doing his mother wrong.

Maybe Christopher Lloyd's playing TM’s *adopted* father or Army mentor? Cuz I still *really* want his biodad to be Agent Gale! =)

Oh! What if he’s a missionary to the Druze?! Oooooo…I *like* that. That’s how/why he acquires the Titan pendant. In this scenario, he might not even be part of the Army! Although, if not, then he’s definitely an unwitting pawn or asset of theirs. Yeah, I definitely like that.

COLE: If there's something wrong with him, he got it from me…

We see some drawings of gun-pointing Cole, surrounded by arcane, rune-ish characters… There’s also a shot somewhere earlier in the teaser, looking down on a figure in the center of a spiral of similar marks on a floor, suggesting that the figure has drawn them. Jennifer? Young W?

What if these aren’t all different drawings of the same moment, but of two? One in which James reconsiders killing the Witness, and a second in which he follows through?

What if what if—relative to James’s personal timeline—the first time is when W is an adult and the second time is when he’s a child? OOooooooo~ That would be a history-rewriting temporal nukular option! =)

The drawings are followed by a matching image of Cole pointing the gun in reality, the exact some POV. If this were season 2, I’d say the drawings were done by a Primary who’d been targeted by Cole. His mission would have been to kill the Primary before a Messenger could paradox him or her. Could that strategy still be in play by the Witness or another party?

Or are these drawings by the Witness, who has seen that Cole would come for him as a child? Does Cole know at this gun-pointing time that W is actually Jimmy, Jr.? I’m guessing not. Hrm…

As determined as Cole might be to do in baby Witler, pointing his gun at any child should give him pause, especially with his own child no doubt foremost in his thoughts, separated by centuries.

We see Katarina approaching the mothballed/covered up Splinter device. A beautiful moment I think. When is this? In history and in her personal timeline? Could this be a flashback to when she first arrives at Raritan National Labs from Spearhead? Or a visit that calendar-year predates that (maybe in Kat’s past, maybe her future), after the Army shut down Mr. Dr. Jones when Cole and Ramse went off-Word. Or her return to the lab, in a future (splintered-forward?) visit, post-2044.

OLIVIA: …the very edge of time…an inch from falling over…

I *think* that’s what she says. Is there an End of Time? Following thru on the idea that Time is a living thing, given life by Humanity, the End of Time would be coincident with the end of Humanity. Maybe Titan’s “home” setting is that era? If only Titanians live then, then they (and their one or few Primaries) basically ARE Time, no? Whoever lives then, would essentially *be* Time.

We see someone bathed in the *golden* light of the Beast. This splinter event does not look optimal. Hopefully the splinterer survives…. Remember that the splinter beam goes to yellow/gold when zapping forward in time, and blue when zapping backward. I believe red is shutdown-slash-fail.

Hrm…Those splinter colors do seem to match those of the lights on the Time Vests…Time Packs?

We see Cass approach a pedestal with a Witness plague doctor mask mounted on it…The mask is lit from above, but the space is lit by candles. This may be the same space in which the WotW is hanging.

JENN: Stop talking like a super villain.

Jennifer continues to rock! Olivia and Jennifer seem to be speaking to each other through a chain link fence. Olivia’s lucky there’s something separating them, cuz *that* is going to be an interesting reunion. I wonder how close the nearest stabby item is when that happens. =)

THE COMPLETE

NEW SEASON

KATARINA (or the new girl?): Don't make me put you down…

As Jones pushes thru double doors (at Project Splinter?)…Daughters behind her?

JENN: They're coming—they're coming!

This may be Jennifer the Titan-zapped girl-out-of-time dropped into WW1 (or later, 2?), exercising her Primary abilities to warn her unwitting captors or guards of imminent Monkeys Army meddling.

DEACON: Go!

This looks like a shot from the season 2 finale, caught between a rock and robed-and-masked place, facing Witness acolytes in Titan, holding the pass so that Jennifer can escape get coin-tossed into Time. Maybe just cuz that footage is available, but maybe cuz we’ll see it again when we learn how he survived.

Ramse, leading with a gun and firing…Nothing new there, right? Actually, when I saw this, something in the shot, maybe the building interior, got me thinking this might be from Berlin.

IN ONE

WEEKEND EVENT

CASS: He's mine…

Cut to Cass apparently giving birth…a new age-y red leaf infused water birth?

Tall Man looking true-believer-ecstatically pleased…Maybe a shot we’ve already seen?

EVIL ANNIE LENNOX: You can't have him…

She's sporting a 3-lights vest vortex manipulator over her MIB/Stranger/Observer/Chosen One/Time Shadow coat…

Jenn and Cole stomping thru a complex (looks like Project Splinter), Cole loading his gun, Jenn following…

A chapel or small-ish cathedral (I don’t know what determines the difference), the sanctuary heavily candlelit…Are the walls decorated with gilded red vines? A figure before a table before the altar with his back to the pews…It seems the voice we hear should belong to that figure…

W: Mother…Father…After all this time…

Two people walk down the aisle, approaching the figure at the front of the chapel… Seems like Cass on the left, Cole on the right, guns in hand, possibly in those black coats—in disguise?—maybe wearing Time Vests.

Did Cass and Cole ever officially get hitched? Maybe their ordained son can marry them here? =)

Looking harder at this still, I’m seeing that the Witness is standing facing a casket! Is this then a very poorly attended funeral service? Who died? Tall Pops, perhaps? Or is the casket empty? A funeral for Time? Or is it not a box for a body, but an item, a device or a trap? Is this the “Ark” that the four Time Shadows carry in the season 3 poster? Pallbearers of Time?

A Time capsule! Some artifact in this past era that needs to be preserved for use in a future one. Could this be the origin—or a stopover?—for the Annapurna Remains?

Cut to a figure raising a mask to reveal his face during "After all this time…"

Knowing that James “Gaius Baltar” Callis is in this season, I think it's him and his Brit-ish/aristocratic accented voice. Not sure that the unmasking happens in that same chapel space or as part of that same scene.

Based on W’s choice of words, seems like Cass will be separated from her son at some point in his infancy. Sad. =(

Then again, if that’s the case, who’s to say that this person confronting them *is* actually Jimmy, Jr., huh? =)

12 MONKEYS

NEW SEASON

MAY 19

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It’s later than you think =)

Keep on keepin’ on~

STAR WARS : Episodes 1 thru 6 as an alternate timeline…

I've had this notion in my head for a couple weeks now and I kinda love it and kinda hate it at the same time. At first it seems like a maddening deus-ex, an excuse for a story that doesn't matter, but—oh, I just thought of a horrible way to frame it, too, bonus!—if it's done in just the right way (which I don't exactly know what that is) it could be awesome.

Okay, here it is: alternate universe created via time travel.

See? You hate it. Yeah, me too a little bit. Especially given the STAR TREK reboot, right?

But give the crazy talk a chance here. Let's say there's an original STAR WARS timeline and an "alternate" that is created by a change to the original. Both are basically identical until a specific moment in ROTJ. This way the history of the timeline of TFA, set 30 years after ROTJ, makes sense to us in the audience.

However, the events and history of TFA belong to the *original* timeline, and are decidedly darker than one would hope and expect. In the course of events, a Jedi—maybe Luke, maybe one of the ghosts, or perhaps an untrained Force-ful civilian like Leia—recalls a vision of a brighter future, based on a slight difference in how events unfolded in the story we know as ROTJ. And things are bleak enough that the Resistance have come up with a plan to take advantage of a device or spacetime phenomanomaly to make that difference happen in the past, and thusly reset things from that moment on.

Does that make sense? Not a lot, probably.

Okay, let me try it w some specifics. Let's say in the history of TFA, Darth Vader saved Luke on DS2 by killing the Emperor. However, instead of being mortally Force-lightninged in the process, he survives, seriously wounded. So, the Emperor is dead, the Rebels destroy the second Death Star, and Luke and Vader fly away to hide out on a not-sandy planet on the Galactic rim. With Imperial government and military leadership destroyed, the Empire is leaderless. The Rebels attempt to keep the Galaxy together with an interim government and senate, but can't sustain it, and the New Republic fractures into territories run by local governments, many led by ex-Imperials, criminals, and warlords. The Galaxy is in chaos. For years, Vader trains Luke in secret, and when he eventually succumbs to his wounds and dies, Luke returns as a shadowy figure who seeks to reunite the Galaxy thru military might and fascist rule, to finish what his father started (balancing the Force? ruling the Galaxy? exterminating the Tusken Raiders?). His identity is a mystery to most, but Leia senses that it's Luke. She does whatever she can to meet him face to face and confronts him with the Force vision that she once had of a better Galaxy. Things could go a lot of ways, but in the end Luke realizes that Leia's vision is worth fighting for, and breaking a lot of Jedi rules and physical laws for.

So Luke, along w Leia's children, use their abilities in conjunction with some creative navigation of the Falcon thru hyperspace to send a telepathic message to, or otherwise influence, the past. The result is that the events surrounding the Battle of Endor play out as we've already seen them in ROTJ. ROTJ takes place in the new/alternate timeline, not the original. The Emperor is dead, the Rebels destroy the second Death Star, and Luke flies back to Endor with his father's body, not completely a Sith Lord, but certainly in touch with his Dark Side.

Yeah, not great. I haven't figured out a great and perfect critical event that creates a divergent timeline and is also practically tweak-able somehow from a moment in the future. Ideally, the event that creates a brighter timeline would be some time-shunted act of sacrifice. For instance, that A-Wing that plows into the bridge of the Executor (if the Executor seriously crippled the DS2). So, in the original TFA timeline, the Executor is unmolested. But in the course of TFA, someone in an A-Wing is sent back to Kamikaze into the bridge, thusly destroying the super star destroyer.

I want the critical event to be part of ROTJ's story so that when TFA starts, we can't easily tell that this future is divergent, but maybe the event is earlier. Like maybe the gunners on Vader's Star Destroyer in STAR WARS blast Threepio and Artoo's escape pod and the Rebels never figure out how to destroy the Death Star. In TFA, the Jedi manage to influence that gunner into being more concerned with policy and conserving ammo than free target practice.

I know on the surface it seems like just the kind of thing that would cause fans to feel cheated by a gimmick, but I think if the story telling was good enough, it would be pretty satisfying, and enlightening. You get to see characters you know in wackadoo situations, unusual/unexpected relationships, but hopefully true to the selves that you already know. Love it when notions of fate and destiny are explored. Isn't there some truism about character being destiny? And hey, who doesn't love seeing the good guys with goatees? At least, y'know, if it's done right, right?

Or maybe it's some kinda sci-fi sideburn dimension. = )

Keep on keepin' on~

STAR WARS : Rey & Finn : All in the Family?

I know I’m gonna short circuit some power converters with my crazy talk here, but I’ve just gotta get it out of my head and into words in front of me…

First, let me say that I’ve done my best to limit my exposure to anything related to STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS online, official, rumor-milled, or fan-tastic. So, it may be that some of my nutty notions are already contradicted by some official something or other or in sync with other fan conjecture. I honestly do not know.

The trailers do seem to be everywhere online, but I’ve always preferred to see my trailers on a big screen before a feature. I admit I *did* click to watch the teaser trailer online last year. The second one I saw on the big screen before a feature earlier this year. So far I have yet to see the third one, but hope to see it as a big screen preview soon. No interest in watching it during halftime of sportsball. I was at the movie theater waiting for tickets to go on sale when it premiered anyway = )

Crazy talk begins after the art…

Okay, there are two apparently Force-strong youngsters featured in the next film: trooper Finn and speeder Rey. Of course, behind that mask, Kylo Ren might very well be a third (twins run in families, right?), but I'm just gonna focus on these two for this post. Now, we know that the Force has been strong with a certain bloodline for six movies.

The Force is strong in my family…

Sure, Luke may have met someone special in the 30-ish years since ROTJ, but we know that Leia and Han were already in “I know” back then, and it’s not difficult to imagine their romantic trajectory leading to space matrimony and family, right? And thusly, young Rey joins the Solos.

But, given their personalities, and 30-ish years, it’s also not impossible to imagine there being some bumps in the relationship, right? Maybe even a space divorce or separation? Who might be around to comfort and charm a freshly un-Solo-ed hot-to-trot Princess?

You truly belong with us here among the clouds…

Welcome, Finn Calrissian! Crazy talk? Maybe. But I *like* it. Think of the possibilities. Note that I’m just playing w the last name here.

Is FORCE AWAKENS set actually 30 years after ROTJ? I have it in my head that it is, but can’t think of where/how I picked that up.

Maybe Finn is the older half-sibling. How much time passed between EMPIRE and RETURN? I mean, how long was frozen Han hanging in Jabba’s palace? Could Leia and Lando have hooked up sometime then? And Leia disappeared to a spa world for a few months or so? Leaving her son with a decent family (maybe an aged clone?) to be raised in safety, as seems to be the accepted practice in this far far away galaxy.

Or, he could be the younger. Perhaps Rey was conceived on Han and Leia’s space honeymoon. Some years later, while on a routine mission or beer run, a bounty hunter catches up w Han and Chewie in a bad way and in the wake of the ensuing chase/confrontation/battle, the pair were presumed killed. Maybe they even faked their deaths.

We’re home…

And Lando was the good friend of the family until he became something more and along came Finn!~

Of course, a long time ago “defense of marriage” might not have been such a big deal, and Leia being involved with Han and Lando could be part of a completely non-scandalous triangular relationship and/or union. No big whup. Still, I like the potential for drama.

Perhaps Leia and Luke (and Han) keep the their sibling connection a secret from everyone else. Might not be the best PR to advertise that Luke and Leia are the children of the Emperor’s Sith Lord enforcer, right? A secret even from Han and Leia’s (and Lando’s) children, who begin to discover their abilities and destinies when thrown into whatever dangerous adventure Episode 7 holds for them.

Yeah, Yoda would say they’re too old to start any training, but I think Luke’s school of Jedi training disagrees. Having more life and living done before training should be seen as a plus. I think that Luke will be responsible for a Jedi Reformation. While there’s a dark side and a light side to the Force, it’s not natural for any sentient social being to only live in one.

Remember, in eps 1 thru 3 (if you acknowledge them), there was a prophecy about One who would restore balance to the Force. Whether that One is Anakin or Luke is debatable I think, but consider the assumption that prophecy is built on: the Force was out of balance. The polarization of its character was impressed upon it. The teachings and training were effective, true. The Force “worked,” it flowed, it obeyed its wielders’ wills on both sides, but is a near-monastic culture really the best kind for individuals who are so connected to a life-force? And if drawing exclusive from the so-called dark side does whatever it did to Sidious/the Emperor, becoming more of a gaping maw than powerful being, well, what’s really the point?

Sorry, I could probably ramble on and on, and not at all eloquently, bleah. But if any of that sounds interesting, feel free to ask me about Anakin’s supposed divine conception. =)

Keep on keepin’ on~
aka
May the Force be with you~

BREAKING BAD: two finale plot-theories…

1. Walt surveils Camp Swastika and confirms that Jesse is alive and cooking, chained up, for the $hitkickers. He puts together a plan to rescue him. He's not gonna walk thru the gate blasting away w that M-60. No, he needs help, but who? Badger and Skinny Pete! He also needs some transpo, an RV he buys off a Native American (they're BB's deus exes, no?), and the magnet-o-truck he manages to steal from police impound (or gets Junkyard Joe to recreate)!

Walt decides to attack in the afternoon, when Jesse is in the lab w Todd. Skinny Pete leads the charge in the magnet-o-truck. He does a zig-zagging circuit that yank nuts, bolts, and whatnot out of the camp's buildings and machinery and most of the weapons right out of the (Walter?) white supremacist jackholes' hands. Walt follows in the RV, letting Badger out on the edge of camp w the M-60 to perforate everything in sight but the lab. Walt exits the RV and enters the lab to find Jesse. Todd has left him to join Uncle Jack and the goons to deal with the obvious threats. When Walt cuts the chains, Jesse knocks him to the ground and backs away, flabbergasted, frightened, and enraged, still PTSD broken and hysterical after witnessing Andrea's execution. When Walt tries to talk him down, he's struck w a coughing jag that wracks his body and sprays blood on some machinery and the floor. Jesse softens just a bit at this, realizing how sick Walt is now, like his aunt was. Which is just when Todd enters the lab and gets the drop on them. He calls Uncle Jack and whoever else is still around. A few of the scumbags are dead or injured. The magnet-o-truck drove off out of the camp and the machine gunner is probably dead (his firing stopped abruptly). Todd starts a convo w Walt w the intent of recruiting him as their new master cook. Uncle Jack starts to put his foot down on that notion when Jesse yells, "Mask up, Mr. White!" Walt grabs the mask nearest him as Jesse grabs a mask for himself in one hand, a beaker of something or other with the other, and chucks that beaker into a bubbling part of the lab works, triggering a flash band and creating a cloud of phosphene gas. We see Walt make it out of the lab, half dragging Uncle Jack. Walt begins to explain the ways that Jack screwed up, but hey, he's lucky he caught him on a good day, and Walt explains what will happen to him given his exposure to the phosphene and then turns away from the gagging mostly blind Jack to find Jesse. Still sputtering, but apparently more able than he made out, Uncle Jack draws a blade from his boot and readies to lunge from behind at Walt. He's stopped by a bullet in his chest, and dropped by a second one. Walt looks to the gunshots and a cloud of smoke blows away to reveal Todd, mouth and nose covered with a rag, bandit style. He uncovers his face, revealing his smiling human mask. "Are you okay, sir?" We see that he's carrying a duffel from the lab, full of the most recent batches of Blue. Soulless dead-eyed homunculus that he is, Todd's done the math and realizes that Walt is way more valuable than Uncle Jack, and by killing him, he's proven his loyalty and trustworthiness. Todd approaches Walt and begins to parley, to paint a picture of a rebuilt Heisenberg empire with Todd as his apprentice, and maybe, one day, partner. Walt will have none of that, but he plays a receptive Heisenberg, and waits for an opening of some kind. He fingers the pack of smokes in his jacket (we see him earlier in the ep, alone, re-hiding the ricin this way).

Which is the same moment that Jesse (who made his own way out of the choke-smokey lab a while ago) chooses to whack Todd's legs out from under him—with a shovel, or no, the chain!—crumpling him to the ground. Jesse might have the presence of mind to explain to Walt that he has some unfinished business with Todd as he kicks Todd's weapon away. Walt graciously steps back, giving Jesse room to tenderize Todd viciously, delivering a slightly early eulogy that highlights his merciless inhuman acts, his f'd up excuse for a life, and his laughable attachment to both Walt and Lydia.

Bitch.

Todd's skull now crushed, Jesse turns to Walt. Walt hands him Todd's gun. I feel like they should be sitting, side-by-side, when they have their final conversation, so maybe they make their way to the RV, maybe they sit inside, maybe they sit on the ground in the shade against the vehicle. No, make it inside, cuz this RV is a better model in better shape than their first lab, inspiring Walt and Jesse to walk halfheartedly down memory lane again. Walt takes this to be a softening on Jesse's part, and he turns to his other, adopted, son now, to tell his story, for confession, forgiveness, and maybe to sell Jesse on carrying on his legacy as Heisenberg. I don't have the wordsmithing for it, but I'd have Walt deliver a speech about Heisenberg and how people get his principle wrong and what it really means. Part of him is still Mr. White, so of course he makes of it a teaching moment as well as a metaphor for their relationship, history, transformations, survival, and loyalty.

JP: I. Don't. Care. I only want to know two things. You watched Jane die?
WW: Yes.
JP: You poisoned Brock?
WW: Yes.
Jesse raises the gun.
WW: Do it. Yes. I deserve it and you deserve to do it. I *want* you to ki—
*BLAM*
JP: I don't give a $hit about what you want.

Jesse throws Walt's body out of the RV. We hear Walt groan—he's not dead, but bleeding and barely conscious. Jesse throws the duffel out after him.

Wouldn't want to forget your legacy…

From across the camp, we hear someone call Jesse's name. It's Skinny Pete, helping a limping Badger along. Jesse: "My boys! Yeah! Wait there, I'll pick you up!" And he gets back in the RV and helps get Badger inside. He gets Skinny Pete to follow him into one of the office buildings and they roll out and load the money barrels into the RV, then drive out of the camp and onto the road. Badger asks about the barrels, thinking that they're precursor so that Jesse will get back to cooking. Jesse ignores the question and asks the boys if they know anything about Belize.

Back to the blasted camp. All quiet and still except the wind… until a door swings open and out steps Lydia. She'd been at the camp to pick up the latest batch of 90-some percent. When the $hit started going down, Todd put her in a safe room and told her to wait. Sweet psychotic boy. Well, since the gunfire stopped, she's been watching what's been going on, and tracking the product. She apparently makes a bee line for Walt's body and finds his hands wrapped around the duffel. Walt might be conscious enough to say a few words, but Lydia cuts him short w some snarky pinched remark thanking Walt for taking care of loose ends for her. Walt blacks out and Lydia yanks the duffel bag out of his hands and shoulders it. She looks in the bag, assured by the baggies of Blue. She reaches in and pulls out a pack of cigarettes and smiles a tight little smile. She puts them in her pocket and begins walking to another building. We hear a garage door open, Lydia getting into her car, and then see her drive out of the garage, exit the camp, and get onto the dirt road. We then see her in the car as she puts on her music (I haven't figured out the perfect selection—opera? a broadway musical? learn-a-language? Andrew Carnegie?) pushes in the car's lighter, reaches over to the passenger side, where the duffel is, and pulls out the pack of smokes. She shakes out a cigarette and drops the pack back in the duffel. The car lighter pops.

Cut to black. Music continues. It should definitely be music. How about "Across The Sea?" (I *think* the show has already used "My Way," right? =)

Finish w a montage…

Flynn entertains Holly while Skylar takes her turn in front of Robert Forster's camera for their new IDs at the vacuum repair shop. Pan over to two money barrels in a corner of Forster's workspace.

Robert Forster is escorted into a bank vault. Once he's left alone w the unlocked safety deposit box, he transfers the contents of the carry-on bag he has with him into the box—a ton of cash, topped with an envelope that reads "To Kaylee on her 18th birthday - love, Grandpa."

Elliott and Gretchen fighting in Elliott's fancy library. On the screens of a couple of laptops are headlines about proof identifying Walter White as Heisenberg and open emails with attached legal docs with the word "patent" and "Walter White" and "Gray Matter" letter head.

Jesse in a Hawaiian shirt running on the wet sand, chased by Brock as waves lap their feet. Jesse stops and catches him and swings him around until they're both looking out at the water and waving. It's Skinny Pete at the controls of a motorboat, a girl at his side, with Badger yelling at him, being dragged on waterskis behind him.

Music fades down as voices come up and we see a hotel room. We don't see the two men in the room, but we hear a job interview wrapping up in a foreign language. Camera focuses on a painting of figures on a beach and a boat in the water a short way off. One of the men says, "You know, I'm certain I've seen that exact painting somewhere before… In another hotel room on the other side of the world. Who do you suppose paints these? Where do they come from? There must be a warehouse somewhere filled with the things, right? Oh, never mind. My mind does wander sometimes. Thanks for taking the time to speak with me." The interviewer explains that it's not final, but he's 95 percent certain that Madrigal will be calling him back later today, tomorrow at the latest. The camera slides from the painting across the room, passing the exit as the two men shake hands and the one departs, out of focus, and lands on the bed, at a black pork pie hat. The interviewer: "Oh, sir! Mr. Lambert? You've left your hat! Sir…?"

2. I'm unclear on the potency of the ricin, but hopefully there's enough in the vial to deliver a killing dose when mixed in with a batch of Blue. When Walt sneaks into the $hitkicker lab, without rescuing Jesse, he poisons the Blue, which ends up hitting all of his enemies where it hurts. The batch of lethal blue, which kills hundreds in the Southwest and Eastern Europe, is blamed on Heisenberg in the media. And, with a couple of emails with particular attachments sent to the right newspapers and stations, Walt leaks proof that he was *vital* to the foundation of Gray Matter Tech.

So, Elliott and Gretchen are undeniably tied to the drug dealer turned mass murderer known as Heisenberg. Gray Matter's stock plummets.

Lydia distributed the poison Blue, guaranteeing that she will either be outed or eliminated by upper management.

Todd, Uncle Jack, and the $hitkickers produced the deadly meth, ensuring their liquidation by some wetworks subdivision of Madrigal.

Walt manages to contact Skylar and get her to give him up (along with proof and the location of Hank and Gomez's bodies) in exchange for immunity and relocation for herself and her family. She does it, and the police find Walt, along with instructions and evidence, dead, sitting in a chair in a room at the Crossroads motor inn, facing a clone of that painting from the Hacienda motel where he contracted Uncle Jack to kill Mike's people.

Keep on keepin on~