We only see it in the pilot, I think.
(This site notes that Lydia has something similar… maybe hinting at some similarities in their backstories? I certainly haven’t seen Lydia show any hints of genius, though.)
An award for excellence in business is an accomplishment, but it ain’t exactly a Nobel. Gale had a backstory that was kind of similar to Walt’s. I thought he was intended to be a touchstone in that way.
Didn’t he make some in his kitchen once?
That’s what I was alluding to, though I admit that I conflated the work Walt did as a grad student that won his Professors a Nobel with the work he did for Gray Matter (founded while he was in grad school) that made Elliot rich. Thinking that they were one and the same I thought that WW had not only lost out on the money but the award as well.
I still hold out hope that the writers have a blockbuster of a scene that helps flesh out Walt’s back-story. IMHO it’s a needlessly weak spot in the show.* For example: Did Walt finish his PhD? Sure, thematically what matters is that he’s a brilliant chemist working as a HS chem teacher. But the answer to that question would inform our understanding of how he wound up there, what that says about him and further highlight how he changed/reverted to form subsequent to his diagnosis. I don’t agree that we can assume, as posited up-thread, that it was just intended to show he was always egotistical and prone to maladaptive responses because there’s no evidence to back it up in his early interactions with Gretchen, Elliot or any other former colleagues, who greeted him with open arms seemingly oblivious to any hostility he might have had.
That said, I don’t think it’s likely the topic is revisited, it won’t be a deal breaker for me, and agree that it was likely intended to have larger implications and just didn’t quite workout that way.
*Gilligan refused to write a back story, so Brian Cranston wrote one of his own. Maybe what I’m seeing as flaws are the inconsistencies that resulted from writers and directors enacting Gilligan’s vision for a character Cranston created without fully knowing where Gilligan was heading with him.
Absolutely. I rewatched the pilot a while back after finishing Season 5A, and I could see glimpses of Heisenberg showing themselves even way back at the beginning. The whole thing with Gretchen seemed like it was a situation of Walt’s own making; that he ruined his relationship with her and Elliot but blames them for the falling out. His own flaws cheated him out of an extraordinary life, despite his skills, but he just thinks it’s life that’s been holding him down. Heisenberg was buried under decades of doughy acceptance of the life he ended up in, but the cancer broke him out.
I think calling it a morality play is reductive. It’s a story first, not a lesson. But I absolutely agree that choices and consequences are up there with its primary themes.
I remember he had to steal some equipment from his school in order to do that, and it took some time to make.
Sometimes I think that Walt is like a kid who never grew up. He broke his own toys, but he throws a big tantrum and blames everyone else, and someone, somewhere owes him new toys, dammit!
His self-absorbed personality, gigantic ego and complete disregard for consequences makes him look an oversized five-year old at times. “It’s all about me, me, me!”
No. His students call him Mr. White, not Dr. White. I got the impression that the founders of Gray Matter met in grad school and dropped out to start their own company.
He’s on the run and intended to go back to ABQ anyway. It was just easier to get it at the house.
Yup. They have done only a very few flashbacks over the course of the show, which seems to suggest that they probably had more of that kind of thing planned originally,
but just had too much present-day story to tell.
Whoa, really? Do you have a source on this?
They founded the company while in grad school. But aside from the “Mr” there’s no implication that they dropped out and when Elliot opens the ramen Walt gave him as a gift he explains to everyone that it’s what they lived on while writing their thesis, pretty much the last step to the degree. That everyone called him ‘Mr’ could just as easily be an indication of how the world was riding roughshod over him. Moreover, plenty of people have PhDs but don’t go by doctor and plenty more wouldn’t call one that if asked.
From the NYT:
Yeah. There’s no chance he’ll do anything else. He will take the case to someone: a higher-up, an ADA, someone. It may take a week or so, but once he’s sure, he’ll go there. Whether he’ll be believed is something else. They may tell him he’s working too hard, or the blue meth is gone, or there’s not enough evidence. But he’ll go there, and he’s not going to stop until he’s “cracked” the case. That’s his character.
Walt, on the other hand, knows, or soon will know, the situation is unsustainable. He’s not going to be able to continue his phony life in ABQ now that his bro-in-law is on to him. But I think, for now, Walt’s done with killing. He’s had his reasons in the past, but he’s made his money, his cancer is (supposedly) back, and his family is supposedly the only reason he was doing any of this in the first place. What reason does he have now? To save himself? No. I think he’s done with killing. The next person Walt kills will be himself. He’ll fake his his own death - quote possibly with an explosion in his own house, and disappear.
Only, somehow it won’t quote work out the way it was supposed to. Somebody Walt left behind is going to get screwed: arrested, indicted, killed, or something; and Walt is back to settle scores.
One last prediction: he won’t use the gun for its intended purpose. I don’t know how he’ll use it, but it won’t be by shooting people.
If Walt fakes his own death, I’ll personally go to Vince Gilligan’s house and punch him in the face. Fortunately, I don’t think that will happen.
Well, I did say sort of. Obviously it’s more complex than a simple story about just deserts.
Well, New Mexico is *mostly *deserts.
Didn’t help that Mike and the waitress were on a first-name basis either.
In case you were chiding me about the spelling, I spelled it correctly.
Yeah, I was afraid that post would be misunderstood. 
I wasn’t complaining about the spelling, which was perfect.
I was just making a joke. It sounded really funny in my head, anyway.
I thought that you might be joking but I wasn’t sure, and I love being all pedantic and superior. 
Another irony about the Walt/Hank situation is that Hank was the one who inadvertently put Walt onto the idea of going into the meth business in the first place, at the birthday party in the pilot, when they’re watching the drug bust on TV. Then later, it’s during the ride-along with Hank that Walt spots Jesse escaping out the window.