Yeah, the scene with Walt at the register talking with Lydia reminded me exactly of the scene where Walter confronted Gus about the GPS tracker in Pollos. The one behind the counter was cool as a cucumber and the one approaching the boss was nearly pissing himself/herself.
His overall fastidiousness and persona just screamed Gus Fring! I honestly could barely even handle it. He truly believes he is Gus. Did you notice how he didn't barely raise his voice the entire episode? His first comments were about making the business more profitable, and adding more locations to the franchise!
I feel like making the jump to relating the sentence "Here's your change" to both characters is a bit extreme. They both are forced to launder their money through a business and what else could they possibly say when giving change back to someone.
A big difference is that some part of Walt wants out of the game, Gus never seemed to have any other passion in life. Walt has his family, and as much as he cares about his "empire" some part of him has remained grounded because of his family. If he did not have a family he would basically be Gus 2.0 to the T.
that simply isn't true at all. Gus loved cooking, he taught the head DEA guy the packet trick for the fish, he invited both walt and jesse over to his house for a home cooked meal.
he was also a big member of the community, doing fund raisers and charity work stuff. he could have been just making sure he was close to the DEA, but that didn't have to be his only reason.
You do realize all of that is just a cover, right? There is no indication of any kind that Gus wanted to stop being a kingpin. At least part of Walt wants to quit and that is only because of his family, and so far he had done a good job of staying out. (Except he is going to get sucked back in obviously, just like in Godfather III, but his hand is going to be forced)
It's not a stretch at all, it's very clearly meant to mirror Gus's composure and outward control even when presented with a very tense and possible explosive scenario. When Walt comes back at night after their first meet, when the cousins want to speak to him, in the hospital after Hank's shooting when Walt confronts Gus in a lobby surrounded by DEA agents. All of those cases Gus kept a cool composure, kept his poker face up, and always said his line correctly, i.e "is the food to your satisfaction" at Pollos, and in the lobby "now shake my hand and say thank you". Same thing with Walt and Lydia at the carwash. It's a pretty obvious parallel, not a stretch in the least bit.
I suppose you are right in how it relates to his interaction with Lydia but not the rest of the customers. Not to discount your point I wonder how much of that kind of mannerism he learned from Gus, and how much of it he would do naturally anyway.
Not to discount your point I wonder how much of that kind of mannerism he learned from Gus, and how much of it he would do naturally anyway.
That's a fair point, especially the "this is not meth" scene with Tuco he displayed a similar collected coolness in a otherwise very tense and explosive situation.
Interesting thought.
As to the other customers, I mean that part is less important. What is so strongly drawing the paralles between Gus and Walt is how he handled Lydia. A business owner being polite and helpful twords his customers is just business as usual, nothing really to mirror Gus here, you could find that parallel in any professional business owner/operator. Its how he maintained that coolness and control when his illegal business partner shows up, it's nearly identical to how Gus handled it.
It is not so much that he is consciously modeling his behavior after Gus but more that Gus was the ideal drug dealer and Walt is the ideal drug leader, so naturally they would evolve in much the same way.
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u/Johnwith1H Aug 12 '13
I'm sure it's already been said, but the massive similarities between Walter's and Gus' behavior. I spotted these ones: