Any guilt the Grey Matter people feel is probably over the fact they bought out their partner for 5k when they went on to be millionaires. I think the point with Grey Matter is to show pride has always been his weakness.
Yes, Andrea was no more than a tool to manipulate Jesse for Walt, just like she was for the gang. He probably wouldn’t have punched her ticket right on the front porch, but he was quite willing to kill her child to serve his purposes. He’s not going to care one way or the other that she died.
I’m inclined to look at the Gray Matter clip as a plot device that got Hank’s attention, reignited his pride, and got him coming back for the ending we need. I don’t expect them to be a central factor in the last episode - interesting if they are and it works.
The main folks for resolution would be Walt, Walt’s family and Jesse, with Lydia and the Nazi guys after that…
I hope Lydia bites it in the finale. She is a particularly loathsome creature.
Not murdering Hank or stealing his children’s money? Pride? Really?
If that was a fair price at that point then they shouldn’t feel guilty about it.
A friend of mine had his family torn apart over something like that. His mom had a business, he had the business and property appraised and bought it from her for a fair price. 15 years later he had taken turned her little business into much bigger business with his own blood, sweat and tears. When his mom died his siblings came after him saying that he didn’t pay her a fair price for the place. He pulled out the appraisal, showed it to them, told him what he bought it for and explained that, yes, it was a fair price, but all they could say is “It’s got to be worth 10 times that now, just look at it, we want it reappraised and we want you to put what it’s really worth into her estate”.
That was several years ago and started a huge mess. To this day they still don’t talk. I’m sure part of it was that they were jealous of his success, but I honestly don’t know if they were just being greedy and hoping they could lawyer him into settling (they did eventually run out of money) or if they truly didn’t understand that he bought her out for what it was worth then, what it’s worth now has nothing to do with anything.
It would be like if I built a house and sold it to you for $200,000 and then you put a huge addition on, redid the kitchen and finished the basement, I can’t come up to you one day and say “Wow, place looks really nice…I want another $50,000 for it”
TL;DR Once Walt was out, it doesn’t matter what they went on to do.
Oh I agree completely. I am just saying it’s highly possible they have a twinge of guilt when they think of the wildly divergent path their lives took. Well before the meth anyway.
Sure. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to do a 180 on Jesse and decide he wants to help him.
No, he’s made something of a legacy for himself: there’s the blue meth and his deviousness and reputation for brilliance and destruction- and maybe for going down shooting at the Aryan Brotherhood. It doesn’t have to do with anyone living, least of all Jesse. Walt has torched that bridge to cinders.
Not as much as you think, though- Sampiro suggested she could make millions. It wouldn’t be that much, and it would quickly be eaten up by legal costs. And like I said, she can’t plead innocence and sell that story at the same time. Down the road she would also be sued by the families of Walt’s victims.
I agree. The specifics just aren’t that compelling. It was personal, it was business, it was awkward- the point was that Walt didn’t get rich and got resentful, and used the Heisenburg business as a substitute.
I think the key from the Grey Matter comments was that Walt is dead and only Heisenberg remains. Combine that with Flynn’s comments wishing Walt dead and I think Walt decided to go full Heisenberg, and Heisenberg wouldn’t turn himself in.
I agree with Hentor we don’t need more information about GM, using them as the final flame to light the ever-ready kindling of Walt’s ego and pride is fine as a plot device. I don’t really see how there is any big, important “reveal” about GM.
If people actually followed the few times they’ve delved into GM I think all you need to know is there:
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Both Gretchen and Elliott tell Walt they either believe he was very important to GM’s success (Elliott), or that he was so integral to it they consider their money “his” money (Gretchen says this in S1.)
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When Walt falls out with Gretchen, he starts to go on about how her friends and family were looking down on him, and how Gretchen was a rich girl playing with daddy’s money. Gretchen responds that she can’t believe how he sees their breakup, and mentions how her just left her there without saying a word.
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Later with Jesse, Walt reveals that he accepted $5,000 to get his interest in GM bought out. We don’t know the reasons, but we know Walt was working at Las Alamos or something when he met Skyler (not GM), so this would predate his meeting Skyler and conceiving Walt Jr.
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As a sidenote, Walt reveals GM is worth something like $2.4bn, and he believes his share would have been worth $600m+ or something if he hadn’t sold out. He mentions that he feels he sold his children’s birthright for $5,000.
If I had to guess why Gretchen and Elliott felt bad, I imagine it is because Gretchen indeed was from a rich family. Her family probably helped GM get started, and Walt probably left GM over his personal relationship with Gretchen collapsing but he also was not from money so he really would have needed that $5,000. She probably feels bad that because he wasn’t born into wealth like her he needed his share back in cash right away, when presumably if he had waited awhile he would have become wealthy. I also don’t think there is any indication Elliott and Gretchen had an affair behind Walt’s back, Gretchen seemed to put 100% of the blame on the relationship ending on Walt. So presumably Gretchen and Elliott hooked up because they worked so closely together and after Walt stormed out because he had a giant temper tantrum they just naturally developed a relationship.
This is all pretty easily concluded from what we know about GM, and I don’t know that much is enhanced by filling in what are only minor details about Walt’s backstory.
If not for his pride Walt might be able to accept that Hank was out there because of him and that once Hank was out there, no other outcome was possible. His pleading with Jack was sincere but ridiculous; all he did was talk himself out of a fortune. And the money is useless. His family doesn’t want it and they can’t use it. Maybe Walt has some previously-unmentioned cousins who are Swiss accountants or something, but how else is this supposed to work?
“I’m gonna need more Stevia.”
So, did Lydia tell Todd to kill anyone who might have ever heard of her, or is he doing it because he thinks she would want that, or is it to make Jesse cook?
Another thing, Flynn kept insisting that Walt killed Uncle Hank. If Walt goes back, mows down the Neo-nazis and produces proof that they killed Hank, Walt wins some redemption, even if he dies in the process.
Someone may be able to check on this before I get a chance to but I know we saw Gomie’s body dumped in the hole in the desert but I could swear I remember Hank’s body being dragged away towards the truck.
Not really. It’s still his fault that Hank was out there, so how much does it even matter? It changes the conversation from “you killed Uncle Hank” to “you got Uncle Hank killed.”
They buried him in the hole with Gomie but they probably searched him first. They uncuffed Walt and I assume they got Hank’s address by going through his wallet.
I bet $5 million cash and a ticket on the Hoover Mobile is looking pretty good right about now.
Yup. We can be sure he doesn’t end up there, though.
I thought there was some nice bookending with Lydia’s response to Todd’s statement that Skyler seemed like a nice lady protecting her kids. Her lack of sympathy was striking, given that the same circumstances were largely what stayed Mike’s hand when he had Lydia in a similar position, and was seemingly initially intent on killing her (IIRC).
It’s sad too. When Saul mentioned that he might be sent to Alaska, Jesse looked almost hopeful at the idea.
Jesse suggested Alaska, in fact. I thought he was trying to punish himself- Saul said he should go to Florida and go clubbing and meet girls on the beach, and he asked if they could ship him to Alaska instead.
I agree with Marley23. I’m not even sure that Junior/Flynn means that Walt literally and directly killed Hank. It’s certain that Walt feels he “killed” Hank in the sense of being instrumental in getting him into that position. That’s why he didn’t deny it to his son on the phone call. That’s why the best he could do was to stammer and ramble about decisions and consequences and …
Proving that he himself did not directly kill Hank is irrelevant.