I heard Peter Gould and I believe Tom Schnauz on NPR last night. Terry Gross specifically asked them how Walt inserted the ricin into the Stevia packet and neither of them had an answer. They basically said they didn't know, which I found kind of funny. It happened off screen and Walt certainly has the skills to pull it off, so I guess it doesn't really matter how exactly he did it.
Sure it doesn't matter, but it kind of flies in the face of the promoted writing process of "hashing everything out to the nth degree over and over until it's decided to be perfect by a committee of masters." It's mildly amusing that they had no way to fully explain the murder weapon. Eliminating the possibility of choosing any other packet was easy enough, and I think that what Carl Landover said is pretty spot on:
"Maybe if Lydia had thoroughly investigated it then she would have caught on, but she was always seems a bit jumpy and uptight, so when she sees Walt everything is kind of a blur for her."
On a different note: all those critical reviewers claiming to not be caught up in the emotion of the moment, and actually bitching that the final episode had a different feel than before, and that everything went smoothly for Walt, seem to be missing vital aspects of the character of Walt and the nature of the episode in general. He was a man who was constantly underestimated, and, indeed, most likely the smartest guy in most rooms he occupies/chose to occupy. So while he might have looked like a pathetic sad sack begging for a game of cards with the bail bondsmen from Jackie Brown, he had plenty of time and relative freedom to plot his ultimate revenge, which to be honest, was simply finding a way to kill a group of white trash and one uptight business woman...not to mention a barrel of money to do it with.
No doubt about it, though, the scene in the car where he seems to be praying to a higher power marks a definite change in who we knew Walt to be. Who knows what happened there, but, if the ultimate man of science was hell-bent on experiencing as much of life as possible before he died, what could be a bigger adrenaline rush of uncertainty than leaving it up to God?
Also, I've definitely pounded the inside of a car window in the middle of winter and had that snow fall just like that in one big sheet. I AM HEISENBERG!
About that one New Yorker bitch, it would seem that they hold up a picture of their logo in front of their writers as the attitude to aspire to. I did like the idea of Walt actually freezing to death, and the rest of the episode is a DMT dream, but she seemed to insist on believing that in order to enjoy/accept the episode, which is a little weird.
