@@ns7353 Gus just couldnt, the blue was the best at the time even before they started producing in their lab so his plans where doomed to fail for months in advance.
The difference between talent and hard work, I guess. You can be competent at almost anything you really put your mind to and sink your time in, but if you don't have that inborn talent that comes so easy to others, competent is as good as you're ever going to be. Very competent at best, but you'll always fall short of people who have that innate spark of talent that you just don't have. Talented people need to work too, but they start with an advantage. If they have both talent and passion, the sky is the limit.
Still, a major oversight, as future episodes would show. Gus not only had in Gale a very competent chemist who could syntetize 96% pure product. He had that and someone he could trust, who was involved in his plans from the beginning. Gale was part of the years-long plan to build the superlab from the beginning, someone he could trust to run it and not to bring trouble. Walt... Gus already mistrusted Walt before they met. He knew Walt's brother in law was DEA, and even voiced his concern over Walt's partner being a junkie. The difference in quality was negligible. Mr. Fring dug his own grave.
@@DarkLink606 There was a line somewhere in the show similar to this- "We're worried about purity when our average customer lives in a roach studio and survives mainly on Twinkies and Mountain Dew?!"
The fact that Pinkman, who had no background in chemistry, was able to also get a purity of 96% tells you what a great student he was and Walter a great teacher.
It also tell us how unrealistic it is. 😅 Gale had close to elite medical grade equipment and this high school teacher beat him hands down with school equipment
@@zurielsssthe whole point is that Walter was waaaaaay overqualified for a chemistry teacher that's part of what drove him to become a kingpin and master cook
Yeah, those percentages are just arbitrary. Legal pharmaceuticals for ADHD that either contain amphetamine or methamphetamine is the gold standard for addicts when it comes to a "pure high", but, those pills are still at most like 30% pure by weight, the rest is pill binder, stabilisers, dyes and coatings. So the purity isn't really important.
This is a perfect example of the saying "don't let perfect be the enemy of good." Gus should have stuck with his gut bc pursuing that extra 3% ended up costing him (and Gale) everything.
well had Gus not hire Walter his entire plan would have been a flop as sooner or later Walt would get an offer from cartel directly making the Salamanca family unstoppable.
@@why9321 not really how the cartel and specifically the Salamancas do business. If you cross them, they will kill you. Slowly. But they will still kill you
Honestly Gale is really such a softspoken person, he dosen't see it as a drug but a science creation of a genious and it just makes him look like a giddy child as well.
That's exactly why he and Walt were so good at it. They loved and understood every aspect of the science behind creating it. WHAT they created was just coincidentally also getting them a lot of money.
@@twisted_nether373 After Walt watched Jane dye he stopped giving a fuck. He wouldn't have hesitated at all to kill Gale if it were him instead of Jesse.
I mean at the end of the day I think Walt saw it the same way. Perhaps not as intensely as Gale. But I feel like if you reach that level of purity, you almost have to view your craft as an art form in some way. Or you will not be that good.
It's actually sad, that Gale is the only one who really fully understood the genius behind Walter, who struggled his whole life underappreciated. And in the end Walt is the one who got him killed.
If gale is so smart he should have realized that the blue color is caused by Walter's use of those barrels of industrial methalazine or whatever its called, instead of Sudafed
Gus knew Gale was the smartest option, but unpurposely Gale did to Gus, what Gus did to Walt: he played to his weakness. Walt's being his ego and Gus' being perfectionism.
Yeah, but if Walt didn't go to Gus, then Walt would probably go to the Competition which wouldn't be good for Gus. Walt by himself managed to make a good amount of money without Gus in season 5 and before he met Gus. Of course before Gus he was working with unreliable distributors. But without Gus, Walt will look for another way since he needs more money.
@@drlukas4242 I really doubt that. As Mike said to Saul in the Season Finale of BCS, alone, Walter and Jesse would get caught sometime soon. Gus gave Walter more time before getting caught. And after Gus, we need to considerate that the Cartel was really weakened (Gus call do Bolsa), Lydia was desesperated and the other Cartel from the North (dont remember the name) was a mess. Walter, Jesse and Mike wouldn't last long after Gus.
@@raoulhery you're right that the end user would probably not notice unless said person was a connoisseur lol but if you're producing mass amounts it matters a lot because first less weight/volume/etc of what you're moving is not product and second higher purity product can be diluted more and therefore basically you need less product to make more money also Gus was a perfectionist and most likely had OCD and therefore it would have mattered to him to know that he was getting the second best especially when he could be getting the best PS ¡viva Allende! ¡viva la revolución! ¡hasta la victoria siempre!
I love the little detail that, when Gus interprets Gale's nervousness as him worrying that the superiority of the outside sample threatens his position as cook, he responds as a boss firmly shutting down an insecure subordinate and refuses to talk about anything outside of Gale's "compartment". When Gus thinks it's a regular criminal power dynamic thing he uses his standard, cold, criminal managerial style. But when he realizes that Gale's nervousness is more that of a junior craftsman trying to talk his way into an apprenticeship with a hugely talented master, he instantly warms up a little, and explains, with an honest to god smile, the reasoning behind his decision. That's the sort of respect you'd give to a peer of intelligence if not authority, not some dumb subordinate you have to babysit to prevent from fucking up. The fact that Gale felt comfortable enough to actually push his point is pretty significant too. Gus must have had a lot of patience and quiet respect for people who focused on the work. I bet that's a big part of the reason he treated his non-criminal staff vastly better than all his other henchmen and seemed genuinely concerned over their well being. The lowly civilian burger flippers had the good sense and overall competence to do their job, properly and consistently, with minimal supervision; meanwhile, Gus constantly had his hands full meeting with delegators coming to him with problems caused by the rest of the dysfunctional maniac dipshits that worked FOR him instead of WITH him. I bet that after having to deal with Walters and Lalos and Sauls all the time, Gus came to cherish his loyal, simple, predictable little fry cooks/shift leaders/cashiers that just wanted to come in, get shit done on autopilot with minimal issues, then clock out.
During this point, in this season, it's where you begin to see in Gus' eyes that he realizes Walt is much more than a genius Chemist and you can see that it always bothered him. He was slightly intimidated by Walt. You can't blame him - as Walt had a numerous amount of tricks up his sleeve.
It’s funny because ever since I watched the video essay titled Gustavo Fring: The Better Walter White, I’ve always thought that Gus thought of Walt as a possible peer, but saw that he had too much flaws to be reliable so he turned to Jesse Pinkman.
I love that! There's so many that just see Walt as someone who was unreasonably lucky and there's an element of that in the story but truth is at the end of the day, he was a force of nature and everyone in the ABQ crime scene underestimated him and ended up paying a heavy price.
It’s honestly stupid because I’m real life being a good chemist of any sort hardly ever depends on being able to raise the yield/purity by a few percent. Those are technician crafts, not what you do a PhD for.
To me, this scene shows how Jesse has grown throughout the series. Gale says "I can guarantee 96%, I'm proud of that figure, it's a hard earned figure" Jesse was able to do 96% of purity by the end of the show. A guy with no education, no degree in chemistry, just 2 years of internship with the best, and he was capable of producing meth just as good as a trained chemist.
@L-silent that’s the lore of Heisenberg. Even the DEA was blown away. Heisenberg wasn’t just a good chemist who decided to be the best in the criminal underworld. He was one of the best chemists in the world, period. Gale was saying that it wasn’t a matter of tech or practice to clear that 3%, but that Heisenberg is a god among men.
Gale is the embodiment of what Walt always wanted: unbridled respect from his peers and a genuine notice of his genius. Gale was a guy that was not consumed with wanting constant affirmation of his genius. He was comfortable with who he was and lived within his means, something Walt was seemingly incapable of doing, and that bothered Walt more than Gale's almost equal talent as a chemist, which was also something he resented. He was devoid of self destructive ego, so much so that he insisted that Walt should be included in the fold. He fawned over Walt, and then he gets repaid with a bullet in the head. It's one of the sadder parts of Breaking Bad.
@@therealbs2000I'm not sure of that -- Gale has a humble, learning mindset. He's not scared to admit he can learn a thing or two from other people. If he's an A- and Walt is an A+, Gale makes it up to an A with his approach. Walt on the other hand has the superior intellect and skills, but is an ego-centric prick with a massive chip on his shoulder. Walt can't work in a team, and it costs him everything (this happens at Grey Matter and numerous times in his illegal dealings). Think of all of the times Walt dismisses Jessie's opinion about running the dealing side -- Jessie is admittedly nowhere near kingpin level, but still far more savvy than Walt. Walt's first couple of (very forceful) suggestions nearly gets both of them killed by Krazy8 and then Tuco. The things Jessie warns him about immediately happen. Walt learns nothing from this. Gale would've proactively learned and corrected his approach. I think there's trusting your own instincts about the things you're very good at, and then there's Walt -- he thinks he can be Gus, Mike, Jessie and Saul all in one package. Gale knows he's a good chemist and he can learn to be great. Walt thinks he can be the best at everything he turns his hand to and do them all simultaneously.
@MSimp2k6 there is nothing to disagree with your analysis. However, it rests on a few flawed assumptions. The first and most obvious one is that you assume walt does not or cannot learn from those who are superior to him in some way. The gale growth mindset is the neatly packaged one that all the HBR types like to talk about in the publications. But there is ample evidence that when walt actually meets someone who he respects as an equal, he is more than willing to learn and to exchange notes. Even in his interaction with gale, who might be said to make an inferior meth product, walt had no hesitation in remarking that gale brewed the best coffee he'd ever had. My suspicion is that if walt ran into someone making 99.5 or 99.9 pct pure meth, it might bug the hell out of him, but you can be sure he would be willing to figure it out. However, that is speculation, which is the point--we never know. What we know for a fact is that walt makes the best meth in the show and by extension the fictional brba universe. Which goes back to the original point. My only remark was that the gap between gale and walt was by gales own admission vast. This is a gap regarding the science. Not the soft skills, or the social mores, or the morality, or the ability to get along with others, or anything else that you made very good points about. For the purposes of the argument, they do not have any material effect on the claim that gale made, and that i substantiated.
@@therealbs2000 fair points, but I still don't think Gale's outlook held him back in his approach to science compared to Walt. If anything, I believe they make him a better, well-round chemist. Perhaps Gale had been ploughing a lone furrow and it held him back. He was early in his career, was still studying and had probably yet to work with a person better than him. Walt had already been surrounded by smart people who he could bounce off, and I think that's why Gale was so drawn to him as a mentor figure. Walt is also older and more experienced after Grey Matter. I agree that Walt _does_ occasionally learn from others (indeed, it's a bit of a trope that he 'absorbs' traits from people he has eliminated), but it's pretty superficial, all told.
@@HendersonHinchfinch it ain’t about the twist, you just feel bad for the guy. Because in the last episode he was shot in the face, which incidentally was Walters fault. So it’s ironic. Lol
And thus began the Downfall of Gus fring. They literally had the entire world in the palm of their hand, and they chose to piss off a High school Chemistry teacher.
Walt was always going to explode at some point though. It's really nothing that Gus did. He should've never signed up for Walter White to begin with. He's too ambitious, too obsessed with his own power and ego to just stay in Gus' basement and cook for him.
Gale's dialogue and acting is incredible. Up until now all we have is the word of junkies and drug dealers that Heisenberg puts out a good product. Then we have Gale, a brilliant chemist with a multi-million dollar lab at his disposal. And the thing I love so much about the writing/acting is that Gale is not just impressed, he is literally in awe at how chemically pure Blue Sky is. The way he talks about the "tremendous gulf" between his product and Blue Sky is almost reverential. Amazing scene.
It is a massive gulf. Gale's best leaves 4% impurity. Walt's leaves 1%. In other words Walter can remove 75% of the crap Gale leaves behind. Walt is over twice as good as Gale at cooking meth
...and Walt achieved 99% purity while using a chemistry set in the back of an RV. Just imagine how high the purity must have been while working from the super lab.
@@Watcherofprovidence The purity in this case is more complicated than it just being 99% Meth. Methamphetamine has a left + right handed isomer. Being able to produce 99% Dextro-Methamphetamine (the right handed isomer) without any Levo-Methamphetamine in it is tremendously more difficult, this is the purity they are talking about. Producing 99% Methamphetamine with say relatively equal amounts of Left+Right hand isomers isn't particularly difficult with the pure chemicals and equipment they are working with.
Yeah, I mean gale would have probably improved his product and process over time too , and Gus could have easily had the competition killed. Besides as brought up by many ppl in the shoe, you're essentially selling poison to some of the less picky customers in the market,
A lot of the mistakes in this series are driven by people overriding their logic and intuition because they couldn't resist temptation in one form or another. But that's an extremely realistic flaw in people and, to me, just makes the show better.
Everyone is saying Gus should have stuck with Gale, and he'd still be alive.... But he also had a chance to survive by not taking the side of his child killing dealers. It boggles my mind how many people solely blame Walt for the downfall of their relationship when Gus, and Jesse played a much bigger role.
Let’s be real here; Walt never wanted to be anything other than top dog. He had severe insecurities and disdain for authority, he always had to be right, always had to be in control, always had to be all-knowing and all-powerful and absolutely despised being told what to do. Regardless of what moral or ethical transgressions Gus did or didn’t make, Walt would sooner or later find a way to justify taking him out of the picture so that he could gain power. It was exactly like Mike said, Walt’s ego is what ruined everything. Walt knew Mike was 100% right and that’s why he was angered enough to kill him out of spite.
@@serendipitousslim1529 this is all hypothetical. From what we saw walt didnt act against gus until he absolutely had to. Walt was perfectly content doing what he was told until gus had the intention of killing and replacing him with gale.
@@serendipitousslim1529 imagine using hypotheticals to excuse what gus did. let’s see the list of what gus did. he used children in his operation killed said child tried to get walt to the laundromat to kill him killed victor (his top guy aside from mike) in front of walt tried to drive a wedge between jesse and walt threatened walt’s family and brother in law now, after hearing ALL OF THAT, how can you excuse what gus did?
@@marcusvergara6193 when or where did I excuse what Gus did? Assumptions make an ass out of you. Walt also; Poisoned a child to get Jesse to hate Gus in an attempt to kill him Let Jane die which did everything that it did Killed 9 people in a prison on the fear they may snitch Killed Mike for losing an argument Paid the neo-nazis to kill Jesse
For anyone who hasn’t seen the TV series Suits, the actor who plays Gale has a role of a big shot corrupt corporate lawyer on the show, he’s an antagonist that attacks very similarly to Gus Fring. Very innocent looking, very professional, light voice so soft that you’d think they’d never hurt a fly, but for those who’ve seen Suits, you know that’s not the case. Giancarlo Esposito did an amazing job, nobody could’ve done it better, but it makes me curious to see what it would’ve been like to see Gale’s actor portray Gus, because it would’ve been just as legendary believe me.
Actors often read for multiple, very different parts in the same movie/show..I wouldn't be at all surprised if Gale and Giancarlo each read for the other's part as well.
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
Y’all better listen to these chemists man 3 percent is not a joke small figures mgs etc even mls of drugs etc can be enough to fuck u over 3 percent is a lot
2:35 can we just appreciate this moment? Gale was being honest (and a touch fearful, all things considered). He KNEW that Heisenberg, without even knowing him, was an artist of chemistry. Gus kept Gale because he was a professional of his craft, and Gale was proud of his work. Here, Gale being vulnerable, and Gus knowing him so long, that look Gus has says, "this man - whom I have had make quality work- is telling me this man is perfect compared to him. THAT is a problem."
Gale has devoted his entire life to exploring and mastering a craft. To peel back the layers, to pierce the veils, to instinctually feel the mechanics of give and take, to know what is possible. He knows everything that is known about his craft. He is at the pinnacle of understanding. What he sees in Walt's product is Walt knows things that nobody knows. Walt is operating and dominating on a level no human being ever knew existed. If he tried to explain this to the top professors in the world, they would laugh at his attempt to bullshit them. He would laugh if anyone tried to convince him. But.. the proof is in his hands. It is concrete and irrefutable. He needs to meet and learn from this man. To be denied the opportunity to work with Walt would make his life a sick joke.
But the thing is any decent chemical or pharma company like Pfizer can produce 99.99%+ pure substances on the daily. Look at the labels haha. They even make methamphetamine.
I mean if only Gus dealt with those drug dealers for Jesse like he asked, then Jesse would shut the fuck up and do his job with Walter. Once Gus had his revenge he would definitely let Walter go and everyone would be better off in the long run. Gus was too desperate to jeopardize his income for his revenge.
@@masterzombie161 Not really. Walt was descending into a power trip madness during that period. Sure killing Gus pushed his ego into new heights, but it was inevitable Walt would not keep working under Gus for long.
@@masterzombie161 Gus ordered them to kill the boy. He did it to provoke Jessie because he wanted him gone. He didn’t anticipate Walt intervening though
I don't know how obvious this is but having taken a bit of chemistry in college I like how he appreciates the difference between those purities. It's not just a difference of 3% it's more like doing all that work that was required to get to 96%, then removing another 75%. As with that it's not about the total amount but the relative amount. So of Gale's 4% of impurities, 75% of that was removed. Which could be very very difficult with how little there is left.
Not necessarily because meth crystallizes so there should probably be a rinse and repeat type process to reach increasing levels of purity with the right equipment. It would really come down to it not being with the time and effort to purify it to that degree, not that he couldn’t do it
To know that Howard and Lalo are both buried underneath that lab is a terrifying detail BCS gave us. “Empires built on the bones of our enemies and the unfortunate souls that perished along the way”
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
So many themes in this show. So deeply layered. Every characters motivations and the cause and affects of those motivations. Every character was a player in their own personal Greek tragedy.
Let's not forget that while Gale's admiration for Walt gets him and Gus killed, it also gets Walt in the end (a certain dedication in a certain book in a certain bathroom).
That's what most normal people want you to believe. In real life, hundreds of thousands of people have become super rich in the drug business. Producing, moving, securing, dealing, you name it. The highed ups get away with it A LOT. And even if you're a lower to medium level thugh, it's stil worth it. Lets say you make 40k a month. Not a crazy figure in the drug business. That's almost half a million per year. Lets say you get caught every 4-5 years. You have to sit for like 4-8 months, maybe less. Who cares to sit, if you're rich as fuck anyways when you get out again? The "gang war" and "turf war" thing doesn't happen that much honestly. Because of the hard societal demands on individuals, people need drugs. And because of that the demand for drugs is so high that multiple distributors can easily coexist in peace.
@@macinnocuous6702 I have a master's degree in criminal law and worked in criminal law for years, both on the government side and for clients ('criminals'). What I said is the reality. I would like to know which part of what I said triggered you to question my credentials
@@jminkvihubyb I'll second that. I've had people that I used to get weed from, go on to buy homes and businesses from that shit. Basically they achieved the Stringer Bell dream of using street money to go legit.
02:24 the details of Victor’s footsteps getting louder approaching behind Gale, and Gale’s instant realization he may die right now because he can only do 96%….this show is the greatest
Gus just cant help but to please his employees, he just cant . He is such an amazing manager. If a worker wants to work with someone, he makes it possible, if a chicken doesnt quite taste as well he gets you a new chicken if a worker steps out of line, he cuts the issue short before it becomes a problem
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
Losing Gale was my final heart-shot from this show. He was so pure of mind and spirit despite manufacturing drugs for a kingpin like Gus. He was in it purely for how well he could make the chemistry go not necessarily for the money. A bit odd and eccentric? Yes but then again some of the best people on the planet are.
@@Aurongel If I were to decorate anything related to my lab work, I would much more likely plaster my laptop with stickers and post funny lab-related comics all over the lab, like “Carol never wore her lab safety goggles. Now she doesn’t need them.”
As much as Walt shits on him in the first episode, Jesse had made a name for himself on the local meth scene with basically no formal education. He definitely had aptitude.
Gale can tell that his own 96% was on a good day and from the sound of it 99% was Walt on a bad day. Gale understands that and respects it. For that I respect Gale.
Can we just take a second to appreciate the willingness of Fring to listen to his people and honestly consider what they are saying to him. First rate manager.
Gus really was the best judge of character. He knew Walt was trouble, and had to be convinced by everyone else that the money and the product was too good to pass up.
I love this scene, because Gale is shock that there is someone who is better at synthesizing than himself. If Walt never worked for Gus it would have killed Gale that there was someone out that can synthesize at 99% without having expense equipment. In the end it still would have been the end of Gale. His love for chemistry was the ultimate cause of his death.
The difference between 50 and 60 percent purity is peanuts compared to the difference between 95 and 99, that’s what gale is trying to convey. The higher the number, the more difficult it becomes to attain purity. And what Walter has accomplished is unheard of. That’s why gale is so adamant.
and that is just math about relative quantities, if you take into consideration the dificulty involved on reaching high levels of purity then you know that Gale was right when saying that the diference is tremendous.
Gale could have phrased it as "Imagine a person just like you, but they only make one quarter of the mistakes you do. Imagine what could be learned from that person." Of course Gale might have stuttered on saying that as he would be insinuating that Gus makes mistakes, and that insinuation is a bit unhealthy when in the drug trade.
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
Everyone’s talking about gale persuading Gus into their deaths, which is true, but without the blue stuff Gus wouldn’t have grown into a position to destroy the Cartel/Salamancas, which was the only thing that gave his life purpose. Dying didn’t matter to him once he saw Hector go first
If your meth is 65% pure to 68% then it doesn't matter as much, but they're talking about perfection here close to being 100% pure and Walt just achieve it by a long great margin (99%) inside of an RV with p2p pseudo while Gale spends a lot of time inside a professional lab with funding only to get 96%.
@@idkidkidk7112 it wasnt with pseudo. The whole point of switching to P2P was to avoid pseudo. They made phenylacetone (Phenyl-2-Propanone) in a boiler tube then used reductive amination to swap out the oxo for a methylamino group, yielding methamphetamine, 4 lbs.
Well, it's like this. The purest ethanol you can get out of a bottle is 95.6% - your Everclear and the like. Removing the final 4.4% of water from the ethanol, to get pure 100% anhydrous ethanol, is much more difficult than producing the 96% ethanol (at least, if you want to be able to drink it). It's a big deal!
I love that Gale always did everything that Gus, Victor or any of the other guys told him to do without question but when it came down to the chemistry he put his foot down and spoke his mind, to the point that he had Gus thinking about it. As far as I know only Mike was another one who had Gus rethinking his plans aswell
It’s like blackjack: Sometimes the correct play on a hand results in a loss. Over time that correct play pays off. If you change it based on emotion or recent results you will lose over time. Gus and Gale made the right call, they just got the shit end of the stick on variance.
I like that within the context of the show, Walt's level of chemistry genius seems unattainable to everyone else. Jessie could only get to 96% following Walt's exact formula, and Gale could also only do 96% as well, with the concept of Walts level of purity being something no one has ever seen before. It almost gives Walt this mythical slant to his character - that he's so good at what he does that even attempting to copy him yields subpar results in comparison.
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
Gail was the most tragic adult death of BB. He had the job of his dreams but respected the chemistry of his craft and his employer too much not to voice his recognition that there was someone better than him out there. Had he said nothing, he could’ve had the head job, made more money and lived a longer life. Looking back, he probably had no regrets even with his death; his honesty cost him his life but allowed him to work with the man who would become his idol. In terms of Gus; he knew that Walt was better than Gale, but his business-instinct told him that Walt wasn’t worth the trouble; he was 100% right. He was fine with settling for the 2nd best as a businessman, but his ego couldn’t handle someone else knowing and reminding him that he couldn’t make it work with the master. Gus’s brain knew Gale was the safer choice but his heart told him he needed the best of the bunch. Gale convinced him of that.
A perfect example of a REAL scientist. No ego, just passion of his own work, great work ethic and accurate acknowledgement of facts/data. He KNOWS the other cook is better than him (the results/data speaks for itself) and he simply wants to work/learn from them.
Basically despite Gales nerdy behavior, he's exactly the type of dude you would want. Would anyone look at Gale twice as anything but some nerdy guy, no they wouldn't. Wouldn't think really anything about him, you might snicker about him as the weird friendly guy in the apartment, its was kinda refreshing that it was gale and not some other guy that might stand out.
Im a chemist who specializes in Gas Chromatography, and this is exactly the kind of talk we have when observing aberrant results. We wonder, what happened? Where did it come from? Only the Validator and Director is allowed to see the full patient file from the doc and the police, they provide a possible scenario explaining what we analyzed. True chemistry detective work.
correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't gas chromatography make literally zero sense for methamphetamine? I'm an undergraduate student but I thought gas chromatography is only usable for volatile liquids.
In my opinion Gus should have accepted 96%. As it is shown later in the show, when Heisenberg had a talk with Skinny Pete and Badger, they told him that they didn't even notice the 3% less purity when Jesse was cooking for nazi gang. It means that other consumers did not either. If he had just stayed with Gale's product, both of them would have been alive. Ironic.
It's kind of a hilarious irony that Gale being almost an inversion of Walt in so many ways beyond their shared expertise, he still talked Gus into something Walt couldn't. He set in motion something that would take out Gus, Walt (ultimately), Mike, and so many more... all without even knowing it. Gale in some ways really was the perfect other side of the Walter White coin. Less a foil to him than Jesse, but arguably far more connected to his origins as simply a chemist in love with the chemistry, sans the ego.
This scene with Gale really makes me respect the kind of man that he is. He's innocent, and a straight shooter, which isn't the best thing in the world he just became a part of. I never had any problems with Gale, but he had to go. Let that be a lesson for any of you nerds out there that wanna jump in the dope game. Stay in your lane people.
Everyone who gets a taste of Walt's meth becomes obsessed with it, and it ultimately ruins and/or ends their life. Jesse, Emilio and Crazy 8, Tuco, Saul, the Cartel, Gale, Gus, Declan, Mike, Lydia, Jack, etc. The whole show is just a metaphor for addiction.
Gale was a true scientist, who admired the chemistry for its own sake, and he talked Gus into what would ultimately be the death of both of them.
He knew it was no fluke as Gus played it off. If anything Gus should have shut him down so not to tempt himself as well.
@@ns7353 Gus just couldnt, the blue was the best at the time even before they started producing in their lab so his plans where doomed to fail for months in advance.
The death of all three of them...w.w
An artist
Technically all three
Walter White was able to cook this in a RV! With a box of scraps!
ha nice Iron Man reference, still the best MCU movie (for me)
In the RV it was only 91% pure
@@JohnDoe64738 Walt was still cooking out of an RV at this point, he was making 99% out of it.
Well I'm sorry. I'm not Walter White.
Thank you that was a good one 😂
“I’d hate to talk myself out of a job”
Nah, man, you talked yourself out of living
And only by wanting to be good to his boss..
Out of a living and out of living
@@capnprice0673 Nah. For love of chemistry.
He knew what he saw when looked over the new product.
Lmao exactly. Though I don’t think he’s realized he was signing off on his death warrant
Gale's 96%:
"Proud of that figure. It's a hard earned figure"
Walt's 99.1%:
"It's just basic chemistry"
The difference between talent and hard work, I guess.
You can be competent at almost anything you really put your mind to and sink your time in, but if you don't have that inborn talent that comes so easy to others, competent is as good as you're ever going to be. Very competent at best, but you'll always fall short of people who have that innate spark of talent that you just don't have.
Talented people need to work too, but they start with an advantage. If they have both talent and passion, the sky is the limit.
Then there's those with Inate talent but never strive to improve or grow and skate by on talent alone. Which leaves them living like starving artists
Still, a major oversight, as future episodes would show. Gus not only had in Gale a very competent chemist who could syntetize 96% pure product. He had that and someone he could trust, who was involved in his plans from the beginning. Gale was part of the years-long plan to build the superlab from the beginning, someone he could trust to run it and not to bring trouble.
Walt... Gus already mistrusted Walt before they met. He knew Walt's brother in law was DEA, and even voiced his concern over Walt's partner being a junkie. The difference in quality was negligible. Mr. Fring dug his own grave.
@@DarkLink606
There was a line somewhere in the show similar to this-
"We're worried about purity when our average customer lives in a roach studio and survives mainly on Twinkies and Mountain Dew?!"
walt is older than gale lets factor that in there too, prob 15-20 years older than gale
The fact that Pinkman, who had no background in chemistry, was able to also get a purity of 96% tells you what a great student he was and Walter a great teacher.
It also tell us how unrealistic it is. 😅
Gale had close to elite medical grade equipment and this high school teacher beat him hands down with school equipment
@zurielsss it was already stated that Walter's background was far beyond q hs chemistry teacher. He had just happened to settle for that job
have you seen the show?@@zurielsss
@@zurielsss Buddy, watch the show. please
@@zurielsssthe whole point is that Walter was waaaaaay overqualified for a chemistry teacher that's part of what drove him to become a kingpin and master cook
Gus: "Gale! 96% will do just fine. Don't let this trouble you"
Gale: "Ok."
*Gale doesn't die.*
Well, not for the moment. Messy business, this drug thing...
and then Walter gets arrested after failing to create meth and is subsequently dies in prison
Gus lives, Mike lives, Jimmy doesnt go to jail! This really is the best alternate version of the event!
Yeah, those percentages are just arbitrary. Legal pharmaceuticals for ADHD that either contain amphetamine or methamphetamine is the gold standard for addicts when it comes to a "pure high", but, those pills are still at most like 30% pure by weight, the rest is pill binder, stabilisers, dyes and coatings. So the purity isn't really important.
@@OB1canblowme And nobody can explain the blue of those things either!
This is a perfect example of the saying "don't let perfect be the enemy of good." Gus should have stuck with his gut bc pursuing that extra 3% ended up costing him (and Gale) everything.
well had Gus not hire Walter his entire plan would have been a flop as sooner or later Walt would get an offer from cartel directly making the Salamanca family unstoppable.
@@why9321 the salamancas wanted Walt dead
@@calikid05 that doesnt mean they cant imprison him and make him cook meth like Jack did with Jesse.
@@why9321 not really how the cartel and specifically the Salamancas do business.
If you cross them, they will kill you. Slowly. But they will still kill you
@@ethanharmer5151 then why were they doing business with Gus?
Honestly Gale is really such a softspoken person, he dosen't see it as a drug but a science creation of a genious and it just makes him look like a giddy child as well.
Walt too actually. Even the song at the end perfectly fits for walt
"I'd never do you wrong, My baby Blue"
@@Hellenic_Empire Yeah, expect Walt has also killed a bunch of people, that tends to rob one of their innocence.
That's exactly why he and Walt were so good at it.
They loved and understood every aspect of the science behind creating it. WHAT they created was just coincidentally also getting them a lot of money.
@@twisted_nether373 After Walt watched Jane dye he stopped giving a fuck. He wouldn't have hesitated at all to kill Gale if it were him instead of Jesse.
I mean at the end of the day I think Walt saw it the same way. Perhaps not as intensely as Gale. But I feel like if you reach that level of purity, you almost have to view your craft as an art form in some way. Or you will not be that good.
It's actually sad, that Gale is the only one who really fully understood the genius behind Walter, who struggled his whole life underappreciated. And in the end Walt is the one who got him killed.
Hey thanks man! Say hi to Deborah and the kids for me! I’ll see you on Easter!
Gale and the Nobel Committee
Nice
Walter white did 9/11
If gale is so smart he should have realized that the blue color is caused by Walter's use of those barrels of industrial methalazine or whatever its called, instead of Sudafed
‘If he’s not, I don’t know what that makes me’ - one of the best acted lines in the show. You can really tell how much chemistry means to Gale.
Gus knew Gale was the smartest option, but unpurposely Gale did to Gus, what Gus did to Walt: he played to his weakness. Walt's being his ego and Gus' being perfectionism.
Yeah, but if Walt didn't go to Gus, then Walt would probably go to the Competition which wouldn't be good for Gus. Walt by himself managed to make a good amount of money without Gus in season 5 and before he met Gus. Of course before Gus he was working with unreliable distributors. But without Gus, Walt will look for another way since he needs more money.
@@drlukas4242 I really doubt that. As Mike said to Saul in the Season Finale of BCS, alone, Walter and Jesse would get caught sometime soon. Gus gave Walter more time before getting caught. And after Gus, we need to considerate that the Cartel was really weakened (Gus call do Bolsa), Lydia was desesperated and the other Cartel from the North (dont remember the name) was a mess. Walter, Jesse and Mike wouldn't last long after Gus.
Does a couple of percent make that much of a diffrence? The high is probably the same.
@@raoulhery I’m not sure if it is irl but in breaking bad does make a difference.
@@raoulhery you're right that the end user would probably not notice unless said person was a connoisseur lol but if you're producing mass amounts it matters a lot because first less weight/volume/etc of what you're moving is not product and second higher purity product can be diluted more and therefore basically you need less product to make more money
also Gus was a perfectionist and most likely had OCD and therefore it would have mattered to him to know that he was getting the second best especially when he could be getting the best
PS ¡viva Allende! ¡viva la revolución! ¡hasta la victoria siempre!
I love the little detail that, when Gus interprets Gale's nervousness as him worrying that the superiority of the outside sample threatens his position as cook, he responds as a boss firmly shutting down an insecure subordinate and refuses to talk about anything outside of Gale's "compartment". When Gus thinks it's a regular criminal power dynamic thing he uses his standard, cold, criminal managerial style.
But when he realizes that Gale's nervousness is more that of a junior craftsman trying to talk his way into an apprenticeship with a hugely talented master, he instantly warms up a little, and explains, with an honest to god smile, the reasoning behind his decision. That's the sort of respect you'd give to a peer of intelligence if not authority, not some dumb subordinate you have to babysit to prevent from fucking up. The fact that Gale felt comfortable enough to actually push his point is pretty significant too. Gus must have had a lot of patience and quiet respect for people who focused on the work.
I bet that's a big part of the reason he treated his non-criminal staff vastly better than all his other henchmen and seemed genuinely concerned over their well being. The lowly civilian burger flippers had the good sense and overall competence to do their job, properly and consistently, with minimal supervision; meanwhile, Gus constantly had his hands full meeting with delegators coming to him with problems caused by the rest of the dysfunctional maniac dipshits that worked FOR him instead of WITH him. I bet that after having to deal with Walters and Lalos and Sauls all the time, Gus came to cherish his loyal, simple, predictable little fry cooks/shift leaders/cashiers that just wanted to come in, get shit done on autopilot with minimal issues, then clock out.
Literally LOL at you writing a dissertation thinking people were going to read it.
@@danielocean3699 Sometimes you just start writing something up and have so much fun you don't wanna stop :)
@@bobbob3458 I enjoyed your commentary
Nice read bro i enjoyed your analysis
@@danielocean3699 LOL at you for not having the mental capacity to finish reading 130 words.
Maybe lay off the weed??
During this point, in this season, it's where you begin to see in Gus' eyes that he realizes Walt is much more than a genius Chemist and you can see that it always bothered him. He was slightly intimidated by Walt. You can't blame him - as Walt had a numerous amount of tricks up his sleeve.
I agree!
It’s funny because ever since I watched the video essay titled Gustavo Fring: The Better Walter White, I’ve always thought that Gus thought of Walt as a possible peer, but saw that he had too much flaws to be reliable so he turned to Jesse Pinkman.
@@TheGary108 Yeah lol that's so true
I love that! There's so many that just see Walt as someone who was unreasonably lucky and there's an element of that in the story but truth is at the end of the day, he was a force of nature and everyone in the ABQ crime scene underestimated him and ended up paying a heavy price.
It’s honestly stupid because I’m real life being a good chemist of any sort hardly ever depends on being able to raise the yield/purity by a few percent. Those are technician crafts, not what you do a PhD for.
To me, this scene shows how Jesse has grown throughout the series.
Gale says "I can guarantee 96%, I'm proud of that figure, it's a hard earned figure"
Jesse was able to do 96% of purity by the end of the show. A guy with no education, no degree in chemistry, just 2 years of internship with the best, and he was capable of producing meth just as good as a trained chemist.
Gale is smart enough to realize that he doesn't know what he doesn't know.
You can't compare executing an already existing formula to developing a new one.
@L-silent that’s the lore of Heisenberg. Even the DEA was blown away.
Heisenberg wasn’t just a good chemist who decided to be the best in the criminal underworld. He was one of the best chemists in the world, period.
Gale was saying that it wasn’t a matter of tech or practice to clear that 3%, but that Heisenberg is a god among men.
@@Dustyplastic73
*Walter liked this comment*
trust me, 2 years of experience is a lot. especially if you have a good teacher.
Gale is the embodiment of what Walt always wanted: unbridled respect from his peers and a genuine notice of his genius. Gale was a guy that was not consumed with wanting constant affirmation of his genius. He was comfortable with who he was and lived within his means, something Walt was seemingly incapable of doing, and that bothered Walt more than Gale's almost equal talent as a chemist, which was also something he resented. He was devoid of self destructive ego, so much so that he insisted that Walt should be included in the fold. He fawned over Walt, and then he gets repaid with a bullet in the head. It's one of the sadder parts of Breaking Bad.
Oh God, I didn't even notice that when watching 😭
At the same time, those qualities are what kept gale 3 percent below walt...and in gales own words, that is a tremendous gulf
@@therealbs2000I'm not sure of that -- Gale has a humble, learning mindset. He's not scared to admit he can learn a thing or two from other people. If he's an A- and Walt is an A+, Gale makes it up to an A with his approach.
Walt on the other hand has the superior intellect and skills, but is an ego-centric prick with a massive chip on his shoulder. Walt can't work in a team, and it costs him everything (this happens at Grey Matter and numerous times in his illegal dealings).
Think of all of the times Walt dismisses Jessie's opinion about running the dealing side -- Jessie is admittedly nowhere near kingpin level, but still far more savvy than Walt. Walt's first couple of (very forceful) suggestions nearly gets both of them killed by Krazy8 and then Tuco. The things Jessie warns him about immediately happen. Walt learns nothing from this. Gale would've proactively learned and corrected his approach.
I think there's trusting your own instincts about the things you're very good at, and then there's Walt -- he thinks he can be Gus, Mike, Jessie and Saul all in one package. Gale knows he's a good chemist and he can learn to be great. Walt thinks he can be the best at everything he turns his hand to and do them all simultaneously.
@MSimp2k6 there is nothing to disagree with your analysis. However, it rests on a few flawed assumptions. The first and most obvious one is that you assume walt does not or cannot learn from those who are superior to him in some way. The gale growth mindset is the neatly packaged one that all the HBR types like to talk about in the publications. But there is ample evidence that when walt actually meets someone who he respects as an equal, he is more than willing to learn and to exchange notes. Even in his interaction with gale, who might be said to make an inferior meth product, walt had no hesitation in remarking that gale brewed the best coffee he'd ever had. My suspicion is that if walt ran into someone making 99.5 or 99.9 pct pure meth, it might bug the hell out of him, but you can be sure he would be willing to figure it out. However, that is speculation, which is the point--we never know. What we know for a fact is that walt makes the best meth in the show and by extension the fictional brba universe. Which goes back to the original point. My only remark was that the gap between gale and walt was by gales own admission vast. This is a gap regarding the science. Not the soft skills, or the social mores, or the morality, or the ability to get along with others, or anything else that you made very good points about. For the purposes of the argument, they do not have any material effect on the claim that gale made, and that i substantiated.
@@therealbs2000 fair points, but I still don't think Gale's outlook held him back in his approach to science compared to Walt. If anything, I believe they make him a better, well-round chemist. Perhaps Gale had been ploughing a lone furrow and it held him back. He was early in his career, was still studying and had probably yet to work with a person better than him. Walt had already been surrounded by smart people who he could bounce off, and I think that's why Gale was so drawn to him as a mentor figure. Walt is also older and more experienced after Grey Matter.
I agree that Walt _does_ occasionally learn from others (indeed, it's a bit of a trope that he 'absorbs' traits from people he has eliminated), but it's pretty superficial, all told.
So ironic that the man who vouched for Walter ends up dying by Walter. This show is brilliant.
Wow yeah that’s such a brilliant twist you never see 🙄
@@HendersonHinchfinch it ain’t about the twist, you just feel bad for the guy. Because in the last episode he was shot in the face, which incidentally was Walters fault. So it’s ironic. Lol
Wasn’t fring who also tried to convince Walter to cook for him afterwards when Walter wanted to quit. Basically Gus buried his own grave lmao
@@wajsp crazy that Walt essentially caused Gale’s death & Gale caused Walt’s
Congratulations on your correct use of Irony. Gold star ⭐
And thus began the Downfall of Gus fring. They literally had the entire world in the palm of their hand, and they chose to piss off a High school Chemistry teacher.
lol!
It is written "HE" not "THEY" you bundle of sticks
You do NOT piss off a High School teacher
Walt was always going to explode at some point though. It's really nothing that Gus did. He should've never signed up for Walter White to begin with. He's too ambitious, too obsessed with his own power and ego to just stay in Gus' basement and cook for him.
Hahaha, I think I had a couple teachers as bitter and power hungry as walt
And people say Howard and Lalo weren't in breaking bad. Their cameo in this scene is amazing
where?
@@Real_A0 It’s a BCS spoiler
@@Real_A0 youll know if u are going to watch better call saul
@@pinchingcares3304 i thought that i missed the actors themselves. i watched BCS and was thinking maybe he meant something different lol
😐😂
Gale's dialogue and acting is incredible. Up until now all we have is the word of junkies and drug dealers that Heisenberg puts out a good product. Then we have Gale, a brilliant chemist with a multi-million dollar lab at his disposal.
And the thing I love so much about the writing/acting is that Gale is not just impressed, he is literally in awe at how chemically pure Blue Sky is. The way he talks about the "tremendous gulf" between his product and Blue Sky is almost reverential.
Amazing scene.
He’s also pretty good as Mel’s cuck husband in Flight of the Conchords.
It is a massive gulf. Gale's best leaves 4% impurity. Walt's leaves 1%. In other words Walter can remove 75% of the crap Gale leaves behind. Walt is over twice as good as Gale at cooking meth
...and Walt achieved 99% purity while using a chemistry set in the back of an RV. Just imagine how high the purity must have been while working from the super lab.
I think it caps at 100%
@@geoDB.is that even scientifically possible? Like considering that Meth is a compound not an element.
🤓
@@Watcherofprovidence
The purity in this case is more complicated than it just being 99% Meth.
Methamphetamine has a left + right handed isomer. Being able to produce 99% Dextro-Methamphetamine (the right handed isomer) without any Levo-Methamphetamine in it is tremendously more difficult, this is the purity they are talking about. Producing 99% Methamphetamine with say relatively equal amounts of Left+Right hand isomers isn't particularly difficult with the pure chemicals and equipment they are working with.
Yup, he would have went over 100% for sure, so that meth would then have to make Walt more pure.
It’s wild, Gus’ intuition was spot on. If he had stuck to his gut feeling, he, and his business, would have continued to flourish.
Yeah, I mean gale would have probably improved his product and process over time too , and Gus could have easily had the competition killed. Besides as brought up by many ppl in the shoe, you're essentially selling poison to some of the less picky customers in the market,
That is how you build a good villain. Good villain are supposed to WIN if not for the protagonist intervention.
A lot of the mistakes in this series are driven by people overriding their logic and intuition because they couldn't resist temptation in one form or another. But that's an extremely realistic flaw in people and, to me, just makes the show better.
@@stealthcobra1525 LOL in the shoe. It's a good shoe.
Gus had a drive for perfection. He needed Walter in order to satisfy this drive. And it got him killed.
Wish we got to see more scenes of Walter and gale geek about chemistry more
Dude, it's a story about cooking meth. If you want that you're looking in the wrong place.
@@oliverboii7034 what 😂😂
@@jamkick8 if you want wholesomeness don't look for it in breaking bad
@@oliverboii7034 that’s such nonsense there were plenty of wholesome moments in breaking bad.
@@jamkick8 it's a show about cooking meth and fuckin' shooting people. My point still stands, don't watch it for wholesome moments
Everyone is saying Gus should have stuck with Gale, and he'd still be alive.... But he also had a chance to survive by not taking the side of his child killing dealers. It boggles my mind how many people solely blame Walt for the downfall of their relationship when Gus, and Jesse played a much bigger role.
What i loved about the shows is that everything went to crap because of a mistake after another
Let’s be real here; Walt never wanted to be anything other than top dog. He had severe insecurities and disdain for authority, he always had to be right, always had to be in control, always had to be all-knowing and all-powerful and absolutely despised being told what to do. Regardless of what moral or ethical transgressions Gus did or didn’t make, Walt would sooner or later find a way to justify taking him out of the picture so that he could gain power. It was exactly like Mike said, Walt’s ego is what ruined everything. Walt knew Mike was 100% right and that’s why he was angered enough to kill him out of spite.
@@serendipitousslim1529 this is all hypothetical. From what we saw walt didnt act against gus until he absolutely had to. Walt was perfectly content doing what he was told until gus had the intention of killing and replacing him with gale.
@@serendipitousslim1529 imagine using hypotheticals to excuse what gus did.
let’s see the list of what gus did. he
used children in his operation
killed said child
tried to get walt to the laundromat to kill him
killed victor (his top guy aside from mike) in front of walt
tried to drive a wedge between jesse and walt
threatened walt’s family and brother in law
now, after hearing ALL OF THAT, how can you excuse what gus did?
@@marcusvergara6193 when or where did I excuse what Gus did? Assumptions make an ass out of you. Walt also;
Poisoned a child to get Jesse to hate Gus in an attempt to kill him
Let Jane die which did everything that it did
Killed 9 people in a prison on the fear they may snitch
Killed Mike for losing an argument
Paid the neo-nazis to kill Jesse
For anyone who hasn’t seen the TV series Suits, the actor who plays Gale has a role of a big shot corrupt corporate lawyer on the show, he’s an antagonist that attacks very similarly to Gus Fring. Very innocent looking, very professional, light voice so soft that you’d think they’d never hurt a fly, but for those who’ve seen Suits, you know that’s not the case. Giancarlo Esposito did an amazing job, nobody could’ve done it better, but it makes me curious to see what it would’ve been like to see Gale’s actor portray Gus, because it would’ve been just as legendary believe me.
Also played a high level mastermind in Sons of Anarchy, impeccably dressed, well spoken, reserved, educated, and would kill you.
Great actor. Made me want to punch Daniel Hardman in Suits but give a bro hug to Gale in BB 😂
Actors often read for multiple, very different parts in the same movie/show..I wouldn't be at all surprised if Gale and Giancarlo each read for the other's part as well.
he also played Wags in Billions... Ruthless greedy and dastardly all rolled into one
Gus said "don't let this trouble you".
But he was trying to convince himself more than anyone.
The boxcutter that Gale picks up at the end, I think its the same one that Gus uses to help Victor with his blood being inside his body problem.
Are you referring to when his ‘blood pressure’ was too high and Gus relieved him?
Now that's one super sharp analysis
@@zno3177 Good one guys. References are best to trick yt
Lmao
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
Gus is like,"Yo chill the F out Gale, the methheads won't even know if our product 96% pure or not, they don't care" 😂
Yeah, if the dialog was written inside an alley dumpster.
Y’all better listen to these chemists man 3 percent is not a joke small figures mgs etc even mls of drugs etc can be enough to fuck u over 3 percent is a lot
I agree. Does any drug dealer actually give two shits about the purity of their gear?
if it increases profit, sure.
@@mattcorcoran7082 yes
Man Howard and Lalo's performance in this scene was so good
@@frankbloom6650 the were under cement 🤣🤣🤣 they would’ve never been found unless someone knew where to look
😂😂😂
@@frankbloom6650 Nonsense. No burn would ever have reached them six ft down in soil and under at least six inches of reinforced concrete.
Groundbreaking performance.
The foundation of the whole scene..
2:35 can we just appreciate this moment? Gale was being honest (and a touch fearful, all things considered). He KNEW that Heisenberg, without even knowing him, was an artist of chemistry. Gus kept Gale because he was a professional of his craft, and Gale was proud of his work. Here, Gale being vulnerable, and Gus knowing him so long, that look Gus has says, "this man - whom I have had make quality work- is telling me this man is perfect compared to him. THAT is a problem."
Literally LOL at you writing a dissertation thinking people were going to read it.
Gale has devoted his entire life to exploring and mastering a craft. To peel back the layers, to pierce the veils, to instinctually feel the mechanics of give and take, to know what is possible. He knows everything that is known about his craft. He is at the pinnacle of understanding.
What he sees in Walt's product is Walt knows things that nobody knows. Walt is operating and dominating on a level no human being ever knew existed. If he tried to explain this to the top professors in the world, they would laugh at his attempt to bullshit them. He would laugh if anyone tried to convince him.
But.. the proof is in his hands. It is concrete and irrefutable. He needs to meet and learn from this man. To be denied the opportunity to work with Walt would make his life a sick joke.
Gus thinks 96% is good enough for their purposes? This chicanery? He's seen purer!
Best response.
Probably one of the top 20 comments on the Internet...ever!
Bravo.
But the thing is any decent chemical or pharma company like Pfizer can produce 99.99%+ pure substances on the daily. Look at the labels haha. They even make methamphetamine.
Gus would of been better off with gale and the 96%
I mean if only Gus dealt with those drug dealers for Jesse like he asked, then Jesse would shut the fuck up and do his job with Walter. Once Gus had his revenge he would definitely let Walter go and everyone would be better off in the long run. Gus was too desperate to jeopardize his income for his revenge.
@@masterzombie161 Not really. Walt was descending into a power trip madness during that period. Sure killing Gus pushed his ego into new heights, but it was inevitable Walt would not keep working under Gus for long.
@@JeffCJY Walt Killed Gus , because Gus was going to kill Hank.
@@masterzombie161 Gus ordered them to kill the boy. He did it to provoke Jessie because he wanted him gone. He didn’t anticipate Walt intervening though
Idk how successful they would’ve been with Walt’s sky blue out there blowing peoples minds
I don't know how obvious this is but having taken a bit of chemistry in college I like how he appreciates the difference between those purities. It's not just a difference of 3% it's more like doing all that work that was required to get to 96%, then removing another 75%. As with that it's not about the total amount but the relative amount. So of Gale's 4% of impurities, 75% of that was removed. Which could be very very difficult with how little there is left.
Purity really doesn't matter when it comes to meth irl tho. Gus was actually right about this in following his intuition.
I like how you guys act like you know what you're talking about to feel smart. It kinda cute
@@theatrix333 I don't know how to break this to you, but you sound mentally handicapped.
Not necessarily because meth crystallizes so there should probably be a rinse and repeat type process to reach increasing levels of purity with the right equipment. It would really come down to it not being with the time and effort to purify it to that degree, not that he couldn’t do it
what about cost of production. If it takes more time and man power for a couple of percent, it is not worth it. Junkies wont feel the difference...
Gus won't admit it. He is a perfectionist. He chooses 99% over 96%.
Gus could have had 96% purity + the blue's brand benefits by using food colouring and the storyline would have been fine.
@@alainportant6412 What part of "He is a perfectionist" don't you understand?..
To be fair, the difference between 96 and 99% is immense.
@@Onigirli I understand the part where your body is my choice, forever.
Patrick Fabian and Tony Dalton really killed it in this scene
Too soon
@@leonrobinson8180 it's been over a year
To know that Howard and Lalo are both buried underneath that lab is a terrifying detail BCS gave us. “Empires built on the bones of our enemies and the unfortunate souls that perished along the way”
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
@@Menace2Society7701
...and he did it mainly as a memorable object lesson.
gus did not deserve gale
None of us deserve gale.
What about huel?
@@2boredtowatch2003 nah. Gus groomed him
@@2boredtowatch2003 definitely not friends
@@hiThere-im6wt i don't trust a guy who can't spell Huell namd correctly
If you listen close enough, you can hear a voice from the ground saying "...Werner Zieeegler"
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
@@Menace2Society7701bot
This man was trying to get himself fired.
So many themes in this show. So deeply layered. Every characters motivations and the cause and affects of those motivations. Every character was a player in their own personal Greek tragedy.
Gale's reason is 96% is all he can get. The competition's 99% is all there is to get.
Gale's child like demeanor and admiration towards Walt is adorable.
Let's not forget that while Gale's admiration for Walt gets him and Gus killed, it also gets Walt in the end (a certain dedication in a certain book in a certain bathroom).
All of Gus' meticulous preparation to build the super lab, and it was only operational for one year. Wow...
To everyone saying rejecting Walt would've saved them both, I'm unconvinced. In their industry, it always ends in flames one way or another
That's what most normal people want you to believe. In real life, hundreds of thousands of people have become super rich in the drug business. Producing, moving, securing, dealing, you name it. The highed ups get away with it A LOT. And even if you're a lower to medium level thugh, it's stil worth it.
Lets say you make 40k a month. Not a crazy figure in the drug business. That's almost half a million per year. Lets say you get caught every 4-5 years. You have to sit for like 4-8 months, maybe less. Who cares to sit, if you're rich as fuck anyways when you get out again?
The "gang war" and "turf war" thing doesn't happen that much honestly. Because of the hard societal demands on individuals, people need drugs. And because of that the demand for drugs is so high that multiple distributors can easily coexist in peace.
@@maxk880 You wrote a lot for someone who has absolutely no idea what they are talking about.
@@macinnocuous6702 my old plug was in his 50s & never had a job in his entire life...talkin bout retirement
@@macinnocuous6702 I have a master's degree in criminal law and worked in criminal law for years, both on the government side and for clients ('criminals'). What I said is the reality. I would like to know which part of what I said triggered you to question my credentials
@@jminkvihubyb I'll second that. I've had people that I used to get weed from, go on to buy homes and businesses from that shit. Basically they achieved the Stringer Bell dream of using street money to go legit.
02:24 the details of Victor’s footsteps getting louder approaching behind Gale, and Gale’s instant realization he may die right now because he can only do 96%….this show is the greatest
Gus just cant help but to please his employees, he just cant . He is such an amazing manager.
If a worker wants to work with someone, he makes it possible,
if a chicken doesnt quite taste as well he gets you a new chicken
if a worker steps out of line, he cuts the issue short before it becomes a problem
That box cutter gale used at the end was the one Gus used to to give victor a red necktie.
Victor was such a fuking clown to think he could cook the meth anywhere near as good as Walt and Jessie
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
This is the exact moment when Gale became "Heisenfail"
Fail Boetticher!
Gale signed his own death warrant at this moment
Gale is not only a true scientist, he's a true artist, and a true artist always knows when he's in the presence of a superior artist.
It's not art. It's science
@@LonglongMan-pp7uq a scientist would know how close science can sometimes be to art
@@LonglongMan-pp7uq art is the expression of self, anything can be art. I do coding for a living and man it’s like I’m writing poetry to the computer
@@mandiprai8593 ha I take the point I'm just quoting Walt-uh
@@LonglongMan-pp7uq oh damn fair point
Losing Gale was my final heart-shot from this show. He was so pure of mind and spirit despite manufacturing drugs for a kingpin like Gus. He was in it purely for how well he could make the chemistry go not necessarily for the money. A bit odd and eccentric? Yes but then again some of the best people on the planet are.
0:04 Ok, I’ve had several different lab notebooks in my life for my experiments, and I’ve never had one that was as decorative as that.
Seems kinda on brand for Gale though, they guy is a head-to-toe cornball.
@@Aurongel If I were to decorate anything related to my lab work, I would much more likely plaster my laptop with stickers and post funny lab-related comics all over the lab, like “Carol never wore her lab safety goggles. Now she doesn’t need them.”
"I know you want the best" and grabs the box cutter lol
Pretty impressive that Jesse was able to cook meth as pure as Gale (if not slightly more pure) by the end of Season 4 in an unfamiliar lab.
As much as Walt shits on him in the first episode, Jesse had made a name for himself on the local meth scene with basically no formal education. He definitely had aptitude.
@@demongraves Cap'n Cook, yo!
0:11 What a waste of some (almost) perfectly good crystal meth.
You “WORTHLESS JUNKIE”. Just quoting Gustavo Fring :)
Gale can tell that his own 96% was on a good day and from the sound of it 99% was Walt on a bad day. Gale understands that and respects it. For that I respect Gale.
Don't you just love scenes where a character metaphorically killed themselves? lol
Nah he started his own butterfly effect on himself
I love how Gale was more concerned with the chemistry than making money. Also the ability to improve his knowledge.
I would have loved to watch a show about Gale Gus and Mike all just being friends it seems so wholesome to me
Can we just take a second to appreciate the willingness of Fring to listen to his people and honestly consider what they are saying to him.
First rate manager.
"Three percentage points, not three percent." - Heisenberg.
This is basically an engineer talking to a manager.
“Gale, for our purposes, 96% is good enough.”
“I’m not trying to talk myself out of a job” my mans talked himself out of his whole life
I love how all of these scenes took place over the rotting corpses of Lalo and Howard
Rip
Gus really was the best judge of character. He knew Walt was trouble, and had to be convinced by everyone else that the money and the product was too good to pass up.
I love this scene, because Gale is shock that there is someone who is better at synthesizing than himself. If Walt never worked for Gus it would have killed Gale that there was someone out that can synthesize at 99% without having expense equipment. In the end it still would have been the end of Gale. His love for chemistry was the ultimate cause of his death.
Chemistry is a deadly mistress.
If you look closely, you can see Lalo and Howard cuddling in the background
Lmao 🤣. Dude that's messed up
There spooning to be exact😂🥄
The difference between 50 and 60 percent purity is peanuts compared to the difference between 95 and 99, that’s what gale is trying to convey. The higher the number, the more difficult it becomes to attain purity. And what Walter has accomplished is unheard of. That’s why gale is so adamant.
99% is 5 times more pure than 95%, meanwhile 60% purity is just 1.25 times more pure than 50%.
and that is just math about relative quantities, if you take into consideration the dificulty involved on reaching high levels of purity then you know that Gale was right when saying that the diference is tremendous.
The word you're looking for is "logarithmic"; the inverse of exponential. I don't mean to be condescending, text sucks at conveying tone...
Gale could have phrased it as "Imagine a person just like you, but they only make one quarter of the mistakes you do. Imagine what could be learned from that person." Of course Gale might have stuttered on saying that as he would be insinuating that Gus makes mistakes, and that insinuation is a bit unhealthy when in the drug trade.
“I’d like to know who synthesized it.”
And then curiosity killed the cat ):
1:04 gus reaction showed that's he impressed
poor gale... he just loved the chemistry. he represents the purest form of Walter's intellect.
You gotta admit that despite him being a criminal he still displays his academic integrity and humility when comparing himself to Heisenberg
And all of this while standing on top of Howard's and Lalo's grave.
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
Everyone’s talking about gale persuading Gus into their deaths, which is true, but without the blue stuff Gus wouldn’t have grown into a position to destroy the Cartel/Salamancas, which was the only thing that gave his life purpose. Dying didn’t matter to him once he saw Hector go first
In Mexico, Jesse got a purity or 96.2 and Gus said he was ready to run the lab by himself.
Howard and Lalo’s performance in this scene is truly astonishing.
I love how much of a nerd Gale is in this scene, being so star struck by a product that’s 3% better even when it’s meth 😆
You can think of it this way - Walt's product had four times less impuritiy than his.
@@szymonnedzi7718 until I read this, I knew 3% was a lot, but I definitely did NOT internalize it without an analogy like this. Jesus..
If your meth is 65% pure to 68% then it doesn't matter as much, but they're talking about perfection here close to being 100% pure and Walt just achieve it by a long great margin (99%) inside of an RV with p2p pseudo while Gale spends a lot of time inside a professional lab with funding only to get 96%.
@@idkidkidk7112 it wasnt with pseudo. The whole point of switching to P2P was to avoid pseudo. They made phenylacetone (Phenyl-2-Propanone) in a boiler tube then used reductive amination to swap out the oxo for a methylamino group, yielding methamphetamine, 4 lbs.
Well, it's like this. The purest ethanol you can get out of a bottle is 95.6% - your Everclear and the like. Removing the final 4.4% of water from the ethanol, to get pure 100% anhydrous ethanol, is much more difficult than producing the 96% ethanol (at least, if you want to be able to drink it). It's a big deal!
Purity of the meth doesnt matter between %96 and %99 all those junkies could not known the differnce anyway.
Definitely. Gale was just fanboying over the high quality meth craftsmanship
If you go for a max yield of 10,000lbs of meth, that is a difference of 300lbs between the two purities.
Except the junkies did know the difference, that's why Walter's product was selling even at twice the usual rate.
@@nav5738 I’m pretty sure the blue gimmick also helped with that though
The junkies knew the blue meth was better and would pay more for it even if they couldn’t afford it that’s how good it was.
Both of them are perfectionists and that cost them their lives..
I love that Gale always did everything that Gus, Victor or any of the other guys told him to do without question but when it came down to the chemistry he put his foot down and spoke his mind, to the point that he had Gus thinking about it. As far as I know only Mike was another one who had Gus rethinking his plans aswell
It’s like blackjack: Sometimes the correct play on a hand results in a loss. Over time that correct play pays off. If you change it based on emotion or recent results you will lose over time. Gus and Gale made the right call, they just got the shit end of the stick on variance.
I like that within the context of the show, Walt's level of chemistry genius seems unattainable to everyone else. Jessie could only get to 96% following Walt's exact formula, and Gale could also only do 96% as well, with the concept of Walts level of purity being something no one has ever seen before. It almost gives Walt this mythical slant to his character - that he's so good at what he does that even attempting to copy him yields subpar results in comparison.
I love when characters that usually think at a higher level than other characters get shut up like 2:29. Gus knew he was right.
This scene is devastating. Like watching him sign his own death warrant.
If only Gale knew what really went on during the construction of this meth lab.....
Gus is a man of focus, commitment and sheer will. I once seen him kill a man with a box cutter, a fucking box cutter . . . "The bodies he buried that day layed the foundation of what they are now."
Gail was the most tragic adult death of BB. He had the job of his dreams but respected the chemistry of his craft and his employer too much not to voice his recognition that there was someone better than him out there.
Had he said nothing, he could’ve had the head job, made more money and lived a longer life. Looking back, he probably had no regrets even with his death; his honesty cost him his life but allowed him to work with the man who would become his idol.
In terms of Gus; he knew that Walt was better than Gale, but his business-instinct told him that Walt wasn’t worth the trouble; he was 100% right. He was fine with settling for the 2nd best as a businessman, but his ego couldn’t handle someone else knowing and reminding him that he couldn’t make it work with the master.
Gus’s brain knew Gale was the safer choice but his heart told him he needed the best of the bunch. Gale convinced him of that.
I am the one who knocks, Gale. I am.
A perfect example of a REAL scientist. No ego, just passion of his own work, great work ethic and accurate acknowledgement of facts/data. He KNOWS the other cook is better than him (the results/data speaks for itself) and he simply wants to work/learn from them.
Basically despite Gales nerdy behavior, he's exactly the type of dude you would want. Would anyone look at Gale twice as anything but some nerdy guy, no they wouldn't. Wouldn't think really anything about him, you might snicker about him as the weird friendly guy in the apartment, its was kinda refreshing that it was gale and not some other guy that might stand out.
Gail is such an absolutely tragic character. I know that he ended up having to cook meth for a drug lord, but he really did just want excellence.
Gus Fring channelling some real 'Anatoly Dyatlov' energy right there:
"You're delusional. You don't have any competition...because it's not there! "
Im a chemist who specializes in Gas Chromatography, and this is exactly the kind of talk we have when observing aberrant results. We wonder, what happened? Where did it come from? Only the Validator and Director is allowed to see the full patient file from the doc and the police, they provide a possible scenario explaining what we analyzed. True chemistry detective work.
correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't gas chromatography make literally zero sense for methamphetamine? I'm an undergraduate student but I thought gas chromatography is only usable for volatile liquids.
At 2:40 you can see the box cutter gale is using here is the same box cutter used by Gus to kill Victor. Fun little detail.
In my opinion Gus should have accepted 96%. As it is shown later in the show, when Heisenberg had a talk with Skinny Pete and Badger, they told him that they didn't even notice the 3% less purity when Jesse was cooking for nazi gang. It means that other consumers did not either. If he had just stayed with Gale's product, both of them would have been alive. Ironic.
It's kind of a hilarious irony that Gale being almost an inversion of Walt in so many ways beyond their shared expertise, he still talked Gus into something Walt couldn't. He set in motion something that would take out Gus, Walt (ultimately), Mike, and so many more... all without even knowing it.
Gale in some ways really was the perfect other side of the Walter White coin. Less a foil to him than Jesse, but arguably far more connected to his origins as simply a chemist in love with the chemistry, sans the ego.
Basically, he’s Walter white if you stripped Walt of his inner demons (ego)
"Thank you Gale, by the way it is very windy in here"
This Gale fella seems like such a nice guy. I sure do hope nothing bad happens to him.
ego is a key ingredient for success, but with pride comes fall
And in this very moment, Gale sealed everyone's fate
This scene with Gale really makes me respect the kind of man that he is. He's innocent, and a straight shooter, which isn't the best thing in the world he just became a part of. I never had any problems with Gale, but he had to go. Let that be a lesson for any of you nerds out there that wanna jump in the dope game. Stay in your lane people.
Everyone who gets a taste of Walt's meth becomes obsessed with it, and it ultimately ruins and/or ends their life.
Jesse, Emilio and Crazy 8, Tuco, Saul, the Cartel, Gale, Gus, Declan, Mike, Lydia, Jack, etc.
The whole show is just a metaphor for addiction.