I think that the writer’s are trying to show that Walt is in a hurry. He is bulldozing his way forward, cutting corners and picking up useful information along the way but burning bridges behind him because he really doesn’t need to sustain the facade once he gets what he needs ($62,000?). He even uses the word ‘exponential’ to describe the kind of growth he needs to see.
Don’t forget. The man has a brain tumor. He’s not acting in a most rational way in the first place. The brain tumor could be pressing on the wrong part of his brain, and turning off his common sense or judgement areas.
Walt is definitely not completely sane.
Much more than $62,000. A couple of episodes ago, he calculated how much he would need for in-state tuition for his two children, plus other expenses and determined that he needs to raise over $700,000.
I thought it was lung cancer. I didn’t know it was in his brain too.
[nitpick] - lung cancer.
And Spooje was the guy that the Skank family jacked the meth from, with Mr. Skank ending up under the ATM.[/nitpick]
It’s really worthwhile to listen to the weekly podcasts for this show. This week had some great insight and background that answers a lot of these questions, as well as info about the turtle and his workday.
Yay!! Podcasts! I had no idea. Tomorrow is my planned day-o-filing. Like, all day. At least now it’ll be a bit less grim.
Yay!! Breaking Bad podcasts!!
Not according to the AMC website.
http://www.amctv.com/originals/breakingbad/season-two-episode-7
By the way, I was wondering about the scene at the end, where Jesse and his neighbor sat there watching the “trying to connect to satellite” message. Did he not have a satellite dish and was he stupid enough not to realize he needed one?
It sorta looked that way, but would you even get that message without a satellite hookup?
“Trying to connect” – maybe that’s a metaphor.
I’m getting a lot out of this thread. You guys have great insights.
I saw that conversation completely differently. I think that there was some sort of real betrayal at the heart of his split with Gretchen and Elliott, and Walt is still deeply hurt and angry about it. He believes they stole his ideas and made billions, leaving him with nothing. If that’s even remotely true, he has every reason to be pissed. Then there’s the fact that his ex married his best friend, so who knows what was going on there, though obviously he’s also angry about that.
As soon as Gretchen got all hurt and said condescendingly said she felt sorry for Walt, I knew he was going to unload. It’s really never the right thing to say to someone who is angry at you, especially when that anger might have some real justification. His rage at her is his rage as a life gone wrong, with Gretchen representing the life he could have had, maybe should have had. Of course he said “Fuck you” to her. I would have too. She was trying to hurt him with her pity.
Despite what Walt is doing to get that money, no, he doesn’t owe Gretchen an explanation of where he got his chemo money. The only person he owes that to is Skyler, and if she’s not getting it, Gretchen sure ain’t. An apology, yes, and I think the first one was sincere, mostly because I’m sure he is sorry now that he involved them, but groveling to her was not going to go over well, was it? Nor were her demands for information. That entitled attitude, like he’s beholden to her and owes her, really stuck in his craw. She played that conversation totally wrong, and alienated him further. That “profane tirade” (really? one swear word = profane tirade?) was a long time in coming, and not entirely unprovoked.
My theory about the Gretchen/Walt break up is that her father and brother said something to him when they were out together, because Gretchen said he came back from being out with them and immediately packed and left. Time will tell if I’m right. She comes from a wealthy family (“a rich girl adding to her millions” Walt called her) so maybe they thought Walt wasn’t good enough for her.
Walt feels like he has nothing to lose. When my mother was dying of cancer, she sure let loose with a lot of pent-up rage, some of it understandable, some of it totally misdirected. Having a terminal illness doesn’t automatically ennoble you. What it does is give you a lot of time, seasoned liberally with great pain, expense, and bitterness, to think about everything that went wrong, what you won’t have now, and what you should have done. It also gives you license to lash out at people who’ve pissed you off but with whom you’ve made nice for years, because fuck it, why bother now? That’s where Walt is. Gretchen got caught in the cross fire, but part of me feels like she was asking for it.
:smack::smack::smack:
If your theory’s correct (which sounds reasonable to me) then it was Walt who walked out on Gretchen. Any subsequent misfortune (losing out on a fortune, losing Gretchen, etc.) is his own fault. It could be this regret and self-pity, along with his cancer diagnosis, that is fueling his rage and reckless actions (peddling meth and committing murder). Regardless of the reasons why (legitimate or not) he’s smoldering in a rage and hurting people who want to help him. He’s a fascinating, but not very sympathetic, character at this point. But the plot can change quickly in this show. That’s one reason why it’s so good.
Walking out on Gretchen would not justify Gretchen and Elliott not paying him for his contributions to their company. If he invented things that they used to make a fortune, they should have paid him. That seems to be Walt’s side of things.
On the other hand, his alleged contributions may actually have not been that significant. Or he did something stupid like having Elliot buy him out of his share before they made it big.
We don’t really know what he actually contributed. What we do know is that Walt feels strongly that he contributed significantly and was not compensated accordingly. Gretchen never really refuted it, just sputtered, “But you can’t really think that!” I have a feeling she doesn’t really know what went down, either between herself and Walt and between Walt and Elliott. She doesn’t know why Walt dumped her, and she doesn’t know why Walt feels so robbed by them. I doubt the whole betrayal was fabricated by Walt. That’s just my feeling.