[quote name='continuegaming']as bad/tough as you think gus is (since "boxcutter") i think they will introduce some real tough mexican gangsters later this season... it'll be like deadwood, where the "bad guy" was "swearengen", then "tolliver" then "the leviathan" ("george hurst"). [/QUOTE]
Speaking of Deadwood, how about Ellsworth the small arms dealer?
As for the threat to Walt not ending at Gus, I can see that. However, I don't know that anyone's set up Gus as a Super Bad Villain -- or rather, any worse than any other bad guy we've run into. I think we all saw the writing on the wall for Victor, the question is why Gus insisted on that bit of theater. At first we think it's just to get people to get in line and STFU, but both Walt and Mike are starting to think there was more to it (each in his own way).
Where Walt's thinking on that theater, focusing on himself as usual, and seeing a threat to his own life, Mike might be slowly realizing what you're talking about. Sure, Mike definitely understands the point Walt makes, that Mike could be as disposable to Gus as Victor. But it's possible that Mike saw in Gus's display something in Gus, maybe he saw signs that Gus is threatened/unsettled by the competition and realized the influence that might have had on the bit of theater in the lab.
That's all conjecture on Mike's thoughts, but I think you're right that they won't have Gus be Walt's primary focus for much longer. I think the way Gus deals with them, by staying the hell away from them, is how it'll stay, I don't think there will be a scene with Gus and Walt in the same room anytime soon. (Or rather I hope not.) I think you're right that new threats will pop up to shift our focus from Walt v. Gus, and it'll give Walt an idea what *real* danger feels like -- it's not just hiding shiners from Skyler.
[quote name='continuegaming']
i'm still thinking there was more to walt's murder of gus's dealers. . .what was so special about those dealers walt killed?)
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This is the part I don't quite agree with. Not that it's necessarily "off," just that you may be working too hard at that point. I don't see how Gus risked his "whole operation" over those dealers. What was special about them was that Jesse wanted them dead, and they're Gus's guys, and if anyone gives the order for them to die, it'll be Gus, not Jesse. These 2 guys were part of Gus's operation, and he deals with them in his way, not Jesse's.
The fact that Jesse/Walt circumvented the process Gus has in place was what prompted his going after J/W. There wasn't much risk to it, he had Gale as a contingency. He just got outplayed on that point, it never occurred to him or Mike that Walt and Jesse were capable of murdering an innocent. It could be that the writers decide to make those 2 dealers somehow "connected," but for the time being, I think their murder is representative of the threat that Walter and Jesse's impulsiveness and frailty poses to Gus's operation. That's it. (For now.)