It's one of my favorite TV shows, probably my favorite if I had to pick. Lately I've just been watching scenes on Youtube, but one scene struck out to me as a clever thing the writers did. So the part where Skylar is explaining how they've had money coming is becuase Walters been gambling, is a gambling addict and is shockingly good at it because of his intelligence making him good at counting cards and whatnot. If you piece together earlier scenes and look between the lines it's clear that this story is a lie, that actually he's been making his money by cooking and selling meth.
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (36)
sorted by:
The real secret gem is that Skylar cheated on Walt and Holly isn't his.
But the writers didn't realize people would hate an emasculating bitch-wife so much so they abandoned that leaving only some clues.
This has been my head canon since it aired. Skylar fucked Ted before she left her job the first time, and the story about "Mr. Grabbyhands" was a lie to Marie to cover it up.
Everything points to this: Skylar's evasiveness over why she originally quit, that "Happy Birthday Mr. President" apparently wasn't the first time she did that for Ted, that Ted's secretary hated her from the jump, etc. They absolutely fucked before their affair shown in the show. The only leap of logic is whether it led to her getting pregnant.
The only thing I wish went differently in the show was for Skylar to get her comeuppance like everyone else. It's probably more realistic that she got away with everything though, since women usually do in real life.
Edit: and then I just scrolled down to find that you covered all of this. Fuck it. I'm leaving it, even if it is redundant.
Your version is more succinct.
I'd like an epilogue scene 20 years later when Skylar finds out the money for Holly and Walt Jr didn't really come from Gray Matter guys but from Walter.
And it's too late to refuse it so she has to live with the fact that Walter actually did it all for them. He did what a man does: a man provides. Walter wins in the end.
That would be so epic.
Yeah, I was team Walter the whole show. People have this "breaking off point" where they aren't rooting for him anymore.
I don't understand why Walter doesn't get to wear the anti-hero label like others do. A person doesn't need to be moral for you to root for them. Henry Hill in Goodfellas is probably less moral and certainly less cunning and intelligent and compelling as a person, but you root for him because of the context of the movie.
(I don't personally believe that Henry Hill never killed anyone in real life considering the company he kept; it's just he can't admit it, unlike other crimes for legal reasons).
With Walter White it's the whole "his heckin ego" thing. Well yeah, he's got a chip on his shoulder and yeah he's got an ego but it's because he's brilliant. But if all he had was "muh heckin ego" and wasn't ballsy and took serious risks that could have gone extremely poorly even to protect others like Jesse, and was a coward, he wouldn't be in the anti-hero class like the Punisher or Charles Bronson in Death Wish. Yes, I understand in their two cases they kill criminals rather than strictly speaking becoming one, but there's plenty of films where people become criminals and we quasi root for them, such as Blow, Goodfellas as mentioned before, Casino, The Godfather, and dozens of other mafia movies.
But with Walter White, anytime he does anything immoral he's framed as a monster, whereas Michael Corleone is looked at as this nuanced deep character who you still root for.
I don't think Walter's ego was even the problem.
The go-to ego example is Walter refusing Gray Matter money, but did Walt refuse it for his own view of himself, or did he do it for Walt Jr's benefit?
We see him freely admit to mistakes over and over in building his drug empire, degrading situations, he doesn't ignore his failings. On the other hand, Walter tells Jr in the hangover black eye scene that what he remembers of his own father was him being weak and pathetic from disease and smelling of death, and that he doesn't want Jr to remember him that way.
So refusing Gray Matter money is Walt 'providing' for his son - providing a strong, manly father image. Another case, Walter reluctantly gets talked into using the donation page to launder money, but stops it after he sees the effect on Walt Jr; he didn't stop it because he wasn't getting the credit - he knew before he did it he wouldn't get the credit - but because of Walt Jr getting all into begging for money.
This maybe breaks down in season 5, but the writers had to finish their arc of hero to villain and they shoehorned in a bunch of stuff to make Walt into a comic book villain; he's literally on the side of nazis and shoots children, almost literally says "I'm the worst person in the world and did it all only for myself", come on - it's so hamfisted compared to 1..4. Season 5 is more an indictment of the writers than of Walter, I'd say.
Thank you for putting into writing what I have always felt for a long time.
Yes, Walter developed an ego, but it was out of necessity. He had to build the Heisenberg character to make sure he didn't come across another Tuco and get his shit pushed in.
Then later on, just about everything he did was in some way justifiable, such as the (well-merited) deaths of Gus and Mike.
Walt and Jesse had warned them multiple times what would happen if they tried to cheat him out of his part of the empire. Then they tried to kill them both anyway and Gale had to die to ensure they lived.
Everything Mike says to Walt in his death monologue is exactly how Mike undid himself. His ego and pride in thinking he could continue the meth empire without the two who had first laid the golden egg. All he had to do was leave well enough alone and everyone would have profited.
But no.
They had to call in the Aryan Brotherhood (who were Gus and Mike's clean-up men btw) to tie up loose ends who probably would have wound up dead sooner or later anyway. Lydia as well - that was Gus & Mike's mess to clean up, not Walt's.
I was rooting for him until I saw how he turned against Hank/Jesse. I recently rewatched it, and he's very much a villain the whole time. It makes it fun, I love the show more after rewatching it, but he's absolutely the bad guy (among a cast of bad guys/gals)
But he didn't. He did it all for him. He said so in the final episode. "I did it for me. I liked it."
"You can't just have your characters announce how they feel. That makes me feel angry!"
He also said he believes there's "some combination of words, certain words in a certain specific order that would explain all of this". Like for instance...
S01-S04 Walt would say those words to Skylar in the end because that's what she needed to hear to move on, and also to protect the money he's laundering through Gray Matter from her asking too many questions about it. If she finds out the money is from Walter she'll reject it out of spite.
S05 Walter we're supposed to believe is now a totally different person who when he was calculating how much he needed and how many more deliveries before he could get out was secretly loving it and lusting after Tuco's job. He got off on killing the guy with a bike lock. In the Fly he's delirious almost to the point of telling Jesse about his role in Jane's death, yet has the presence of mind that the whole episode was just a way to obscure his criminal lust from Jesse. And he arranges a complicated scheme to get the money to his kids but he never really cared about that at all - just did it for fun I guess.
S05 Walter is obviously absurd and totally out of character, but they had to finish their arc and they had screwed up on making Walk less liked over time because the writers didn't understand actual people's (at least men's) morality is so they had to go 180 degrees all in one season.
Can't help that, if that character is actually played by a biological female that it's the ugliest woman I've ever seen.
I have seen worse, but I know what you are feeling
Okay, ugliest white woman I've ever seen.
My post was a joke, but where did you find this/ where are the clues? I've never picked up on it. Also Skyler is already completely emasculating b - wife. The reason she's so hated is because almost every man knows a woman who does the passive agressive things she does. I don't think a more emasculating character has ever been created without going into woke shows where they create that character as someone to root for which Skyler isn't.
I wouldn't doubt what you're saying that it might have been in the original plan and some DNA of that original idea is still in there, I just haven't seen it. It's in line with her characterization.
Even before Walter "breaks bad" she's very much not in love with him and just barely engages with him. She sucks before he does anything crooked, illegal or immoral. She just uses his actions as an excuse to quadruple down on the unsupportive wife behavior she was already exhibiting in episode 1.
In interviews Gilligan says they were shocked at how much hate Skylar got so changed her story to make her less hated, so we have it straight from the horse's mouth that she was initially going to be even worse than on screen.
Skylar lied to Walt about why she left Beneke Fabricators; she told Walt it was because of the 'fumes' whereas her sister says it was because of Mr Handsy (?). She was known for her sexy Marylin Monroe impersonation. Then when she goes back she almost immediately sacks up with Ted. So she left because of some sexual impropriety, which was probably more than just some type of Christmas party incident like she told Marie since she's a flirt and a liar.
Holly was unexpected, if you're having an affair you might not have or use contraception.
I think there were some other little clues I've forgotten by now, but knowing she was originally going to be less likable, she's a flirt, sexual impropriety at work, she does have an affair, Holly was unexpected it adds up.
edit: one I forgot, when she's going back to get a job at Beneke Fab the secretary obviously loathes Skylar and tries to prevent her from even talking to Ted - secretary is going to know the gossip and that's not a reaction for a mere victim of assault from a guy who isn't there anymore (Mr Handsy supposedly Ted's late father).
For me I stopped liking her when she went full Lady MacBeth. She supported Walt until it got scary for her, but instead of walking away or turning Walt in she still chooses to benefit from Walt's activities while shaming him.
Of course any criticism of a character that is a woman, it gets called misogyny.