Forum Overview :: Breaking Bad :: Re: THIS.

[quote name="Horrible Gelatinous Blob"][quote name="Roop"][quote name="up with pod people"][quote name="Horrible Gelatinous Blob"]When Walt got the cancer diagnosis, it liberated him, all right. It liberated him to go right back to making the same mistakes he had been making his entire life. This is why I love Breaking Bad so much. Instead of having some sort of Touched by an Angel epiphany and "turning his life around," Breaking Bad depicts someone doubling down on every flaw, every shortcoming, and every failing.[/quote] Walt's central flaw is pride, and because he's <i>been great</i> he knows what it tastes like. nothing but nothing tastes better. he's as much a junkie for recognition and achievement and <i>a multimillion dollar operation will fall down if I don't go in to work today</i> as Jessie ever was for meth. I do think he loved and loves his family, but I completely buy the idea that they aren't his first love, both in a romantic sense and a life's work sense. everything he's done after the cancer diagnosis has been selfish. he doesn't want to provide for his family because they need providing for, he wants to do it because then he can say he did it. the cruellest injury at every turn as he spirals down is that he has to get more and more secretive instead of being able to crow publicly about what he's accomplished.[/quote] He got some dumb waitress pregnant and felt obligated to leave Gretchen and marry the waitress.[/quote] That's not it. He left Gretchen and Gretchen STILL DOESN'T KNOW WHY he left. If it was simply a matter of Walt impregnating Skylar, Gretchen would have worked out the math years ago. After all this time, Walt and his behavior remains an enigma to her because she made the mistake of assuming that Walt actually cares about her as a person; or if not her, than certainly his wife. If you recognize Walt for who he is and follow the conversational cues at the restaurant, it becomes crystal clear: he meets Gretchen's extremely wealthy family, realizes that Gretchen doesn't need him in the way he needs to be needed (if that sentence makes any sense), and instantly the relationship ceases to serve the myth of Walter White that Walt needs it to serve. Rather than approach the relationship as equals, he leaves. If Walter can't manipulate a relationship to his advantage, he searches for a way to disengage as quickly as possible. See: the psychiatrist sessions after his "fugue" episode, signing Skylar's divorce papers, paying off Jesse and Jane, looking for a way to kill Gus. The restaurant scene (quite possibly the single best scene in the series so far) is when Gretchen realizes just how wrapped up in himself Walter is and how <i>he doesn't even want to</i> reach out to those who care about him. That would diminish him in his own mind (the only place that matters) and is therefore unacceptable. And yeah, Skylar is not dumb by any means. She's bad at missing the forest for the trees (reprimanding Walt for buying champagne, then giving Ted $600k) and she cares for Walt, but she isn't dumb. Walt's deception wasn't successful for as long as it was because he was a cunning liar, it lasted because Skylar loved him and wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. [/quote]