YMMV / Breaking Bad S5 E7: "Say My Name"

• Alternate Character Interpretation: While it's generally believed that Mike shaking his head upon Walter's declaration of having murdered Gus Fring was to correct Declan on his misinformation that the cartel had killed Gus, a sizable minority argue that he was shaking his head in disgust at the sight of seeing Walt's ego in full flow.
  • Walt's lifting of Mike's gun raises some unnerving questions. Did Walt intend on killing Mike even if the latter hadn't made a jab at his ego? If nothing else than to ensure that Mike wouldn't come after him later once the nine men in prison had been whacked due to their hazard pay falling through?
• Harsher in Hindsight: Mike's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Walt (which leads to his pointless death) takes on additional tragic context thanks to the revelations of the Better Call Saul episode "Breaking Bad". As the then-nameless PI who investigated and assessed Walt for Saul, Mike saw this coming. He correctly predicted Walt, for all his talent, was an amateur and that he was going to inevitably crash and burn and take anyone nearby down with him. Mike explicitly advised Saul not to do business with Heisenberg and all of this could've been avoided if Saul did not classically root for the underdog and wholesomely take a chance on someone.
• Moral Event Horizon: For those viewers who would argue Walt's previous heinous actions all had some kind of justification, Walt killing Mike was this for them as even Walt realizes In-Universe that he could have gotten the information he needed from Lydia and shooting Mike was completely unnecessary.

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