PRED!CT!ONS:

PRED!CT!ONS:

1.          Jim and Kim will overdo Mesa Verde.

a.                       Their antics have already raised suspicions in Rick Schweikart and presumably Howard Hamlin.

b.                      Kim will try to get out of it before they lose everything.

c.                        Jimmy will push them over the line.

d.                      Kim will suffer the bulk of the consequences, while Jimmy’s reputation will skyrocket.

e.                        Kim will break up with Jimmy.

2.          One of the two junkies will remain (or die) in prison.

a.                       The second episode of the season, entitled “50% off”, is an exercise in classic Breaking Bad subtext. Everything revolves around the number two, whether presented as an integer or a fraction (half). Examples include:

                                                         i.      Two junkies,

                                                    ii.      Coming to on a Tuesday,

                                               iii.      Indicating, in unison, that this means “fifty-percent off”, as we see

                                                 iv.      A stolen garden gnome missing half his face, reminiscent of a certain rosy teddy bear and the climax of the episode “Face Off”.

                                                     v.      The title, reminiscent of “Half Measures”.

                                                 vi.      An elevator stuck between Floors two and three,

                                            vii.      For twenty minutes,

                                       viii.      After which Jimmy offers his accomplice legal services for the man’s “other half”.

                                                ix.      An ice cream cone, containing one scoop, as opposed to the two which he offers Kim in the previous episode. (Note that this was a symbol I had noticed well in advance, from its first instance in the first episode of the season, rather than after the fact, and the corroboration for its significance became irrefutable at the start of Episode Three; its meaning was NOT contrived a posteriori.)

b.                      My prediction is:

                                                         i.       that the junkies will only accrue the funds necessary to release one of them from custody. Saul will forego law and order by persuading one of the two to betray the other, thus acquiring the partial sum in good conscience, rationalizing that he only owes them one free pass.

                                                    ii.      By this point, he will be motivated by his anger surrounding his breakup with Kim and the part that Howard and Rich played in this. This will tempt him to embrace his wolf side more.

                                               iii.      The remaining junkie is likely to die in prison. At any rate, his disownment will reflect the death of Jimmy and the preponderance of Saul. This is a motif that was employed extensively in Breaking Bad, especially its later seasons, to represent Walter White’s final transformation into Heisenberg.

3.          Gus will try to have Jimmy killed, but instead he will have Saul hired. (Again: duality is at play, for the hiring of one is the death of the other.)

a.                       Learning that a crooked lawyer cost him thousands of dollars in drug money, a livid Fring will hire Mike to push Saul’s button.

b.                      Owing to a longstanding, if precarious, friendship with Jimmy, coupled with a newfound charisma, Mike will refuse to kill Saul, though he will not try to stop Fring from employing someone else to do the job instead.

c.                        Fring will become curious about Mike’s apparent loyalty to a seedy lawyer.

d.                      Fring will investigate Saul Goodman and find his services to be of use.

e.                        Fring will make Saul Goodman an offer Saul can’t refuse.

f.  Saul Goodman will become Fring’s new lawyer.

g.                       Saul will help Fring tie up loose ends regarding the completion of the Underground Lab.

4.          Nacho will kill Lalo.

a.                       Tuco will return to civilian life, hungry for bloodshed.

b.                      Tuco will track down Krazy Eight, hoping to squeeze the impressionable young upstart for information about who set him up.

c.                        Krazy Eight will inadvertently provoke Tuco to suspect Nacho.

d.                      Wary of Nacho’s retribution, Krazy Eight will use his status as a protected informant to sell out Nacho to the D.E.A.

e.                        Lalo, inferring that Nacho is a double-agent, will make a move on Nacho’s father.

f.  Nacho will kill Lalo.

g.                       Fring will kill Nacho.

h.                      Tuco will succeed Nacho.

i.   Saul will be suspected of involvement, which will endure as a personal phobia of his until his debut episode in Breaking Bad.

5.          Lalo will kill Stacy.

a.                       Lalo will discover Lydia through his surveillance of Fring.

b.                      Lalo will put pressure upon Lydia to talk.

c.                        A hysterical and vindictive Lydia will reveal the identity of Michael, rationalizing that it serves Mike right for questioning her authority.

d.                      Lalo will attack Mike’s family. Stacy will die.

e.                        Before Mike can avenge Stacy, Nacho will kill Lalo.

f.  Mike will hold a grudge against Lydia forever.

6.          Everett Acker will lose his home, as well as any hope of finding a new one affordably.

a.                       Kevin Wachtel will be a raging bull in the wake of Kim’s betrayal. Joining forces with Howard Hamlin, he will figuratively burn Acker to the ground.

b.                      This is consistent with the theme of duality and the myth of the death of a twin; whereas Acker’s property represents the Old Ethic, its alternatives represent the New Modus Operandi. These alternatives are twofold:

                                                         i.      From Acker’s perspective, the New Mode is represented by Kim’s offer to find housing elsewhere, reminiscent of a theme beginning with Mike’s recommendation that Jimmy find “parking elsewhere”.

                                                    ii.      From Kevin’s perspective, the New Mode is represented by the liquidation of Acker’s property, whereas the alternative to this rests in the use of the alternate lot.

                                               iii.      In both instances, idealistic Kim attempts to act as a mediator.

c.                        Kim will tire of legal life in Albuquerque. Friendless and jobless, she will return to her small-town Midwestern life.

7.          Saul will avenge himself against Rich, Howard, and Kevin.

a.                       No longer at liberty to call upon the services of Mike for his solo ventures, under strict surveillance from Fring, Saul will look for a new handyman to act as a fixer.

b.                      Saul will meet Kuby.

c.                        Combining forces with Hewell Babineaux, Saul will assemble his Dream Team.

d.                      The Dream Team, coupled with a final effort by the Film Crew, will pull a stunt too elaborate to predict. It will target, at once, Howard Hamlin, Rich Schweikart, and Kevin Wachtel, as well as their respective, respected enterprises.

e.                        Mesa Verde and Schweikart & Cokely will suffer substantial damages. Hamlin Hamlin McGill will finally go bankrupt. Goodman will celebrate the death of the name and legacy of McGill.

8.          Fring will finish the construction of his Underground Lab, representing the conclusion of the metamorphoses of the principal players.

9.          Gene will attempt to track down his “big fan”, only to discover that the man whom he is seeking is an undercover agent. Gene attempts to outrun law enforcement, but he slips and fails. So ends the illustrious Slipping Jimmy.

[({Dm.A.A.)}]