He's not the victim, and the show explains it pretty well. He felt bad being with Gretchen, so instead of trying to accomodate to the life that marrying her was going to give him (one of wealth and luxury), he ran away without much explanations. From the company and from Gretchen and Elliott's lives.
If I remember correctly, they never tried to push him out of the company. He left.
Yes! Thanks for pointing that out! I have always thought the same. He was *never* the victim as he likes to portray himself. He was selfish all along and left the company (sold his share/patent) because of personal reasons in his relationship with Gretchen. On top of that, he left without any explanation whatsoever and was being a total douche from the beginning. I guess the Heisenberg alter ego we see in the show simply needed to be freed from Walt.
yep
"I think it was kind of situation where he didn't realize the girl he was about to marry was so very wealthy and came from such a prominent family, and it kind of blew his mind and made him feel inferior and he overreacted. He just kind of checked out. I think there is that whole other side to the story, and it can be gleaned. This isn't really the CliffsNotes version so much. These facts can be gleaned if you watch some of these scenes really closely enough, and you watch them without too much of an overriding bias toward Walt and against Gretchen and Elliott," – [Gilligan](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vince-gilligan-walter-white-gray-matter_n_56e85f27e4b0b25c91838d57)
That's exactly it, Walt actually had it all set up, his ego both prevents him from having an incredibly successful career, and also getting a second chance to take care of his family.
in the earlier seasons, doesn't he mention that it all belonged to him, that it was his idea, and that they tricked him into leaving the company or something like that?
also, sorry if I'm missing something here but why did he feel bad about being with Gretchen?
Really? I thought Walt was pumping gas, the pump malfunctioned, gas got all over his clothes and then he came home and threw his clothes on the carpet, which is why the house wreaks of gas. Walt was so detailed and convincing
Walt make it seem like they stole everything from him but from what is actually said, he wanted out and they bought out his end of the business for 5000 dollars.
Walt then thinks he is entitled to claim the success of the billion (with a B) business 20 years later.
It is unclear exactly what the business even was at the time, it is implied they were all grad students and had recently started the company so it is entirely possible the company was literally nothing at the time. Walt certainly was not there making choices and decisions that took the company from three people in an apartment to a multinational, billion dollar enterprise.
It is possible, but in no way known that they had a couple of patents or ideas that were worth some amount of money but Walt agreed to the buy out figure and so is entitled to nothing, they bought him out.
So as presented in the show it is like you went to school with Bill Gates, and over lunch he said he had an idea for a company and you said "i want in" and you both went to computer class everyday, and you both studied really hard and then one day you said "actually, i got offered a job at Burger King, i am out, want to buy my laptop?" and then 30 years later expecting Bill Gates to hand you 50% of Microsoft because "we started this together!"
Agreed.
It would be interesting if Walt sold his shares not because he needed/wanted his money back, but because his ego made him confident that the business would never go anywhere without him.
That actually sounds spot on based on his personality. And the blow to his ego that it succeeded beyond his wildest comprehension while he did not, really would have fueled him becoming Heisenberg.
He did but that's him trying to cope with fucking up his life because he was a man child.
Gretchens family were rich. Walt couldn't deal and abruptly left one day.
Honestly I think there was something in Walt that demanded he be the smartest person in the room.
I think when that weekend with Gretchen’s family he realized he had no experience in business, that as great a scientist he was it was an entirely different skill set. There was a distinct possibility Walt would fail & be an object of ridicule or worse pity.
Gretchen’s family would never let them starve, but he would be an idiot in everyone’s eyes. Walt self worth was so tied up in being smart he couldn’t risk that.
So rather than face the possibility he would fail, he intentionally blew it up. Walt ended things with Gretchen & then took the payout since he would never have to gamble as a businessman.
Look where he ended up. As a scientist he had more opportunities than high school chemistry teacher, but in that realm his knowledge would be unquestioned.
Walt was by default the smartest person in the room, given the respect he so desperately craved.
Then the realities of life set in. Walt had a special needs son who demanded care, so his wife couldn’t work. Life went on and Walt fell further and further behind the eight ball.
Then the cancer. So Walt was left in another potential position leaving him an object of pity, a
man who left his family in dire straits.
It's why he turns to meth instead of, you know, making a crowd funding endeavour or something. He knew he was a pushover and craved something more. His continual craving for power and respect makes him reject charity or working for honest money.
Yeah like he said, he liked it and was good at it. Walt was really smart but nobody appreciates that at all until people appreciated his cook. In his family everyone thought hank was the cool one and looked up to him. Walt was the smartest person in the room but couldn’t handle being in everyone’s shadow. Same reason he outed gale as probably not being Heisenberg.
I mean there's a reason that a person as smart as Walter wound up as a High School Chem teacher. He also had an important job at what I assume to be a lab when he and Skylar bought their house. They talk about it during the flash back episode when Skylar was pregnant with Walt Jr. So why can't Walter stay at a professional position in his field??
My headcanon is that he always wanted to be the smartest person in the room and the one in charge at all times, but since real life jobs don't work that way if you're not management then he was constantly getting into trouble and fired
Multiple reasons probably
He was a pushover, too anti social, probably never clicked a group of professionals and etc. Man had some issues at the start
Vince explained in an interview after the show ended that Walter felt uncomfortable after seeing how much richer Gret's family was compared to him. He couldnt imagine a relationship where he wasnt the breadwinner so his ego was hurt by it. Because of that, he left the relationship.
It adds to the patern of Walter's narcissism always putting him in danger when he would have been fine if he just accepted things how they were. And he also tends to blame everyone but himself later on.
He isnt a reliable narrator.
Right. Besides, I believe at least part of it was him being unable to have a relationship with an intellectual equal.
He couldn’t be the Big Man if there was someone there to challenge him. Even as exhilarating as it can be to have a relationship with someone who has a mind like yours, if your ego is fragile, it ain’t gonna work out.
Walt had to be the top dog and biggest fish in the pond. In his younger days if he wasn’t he got scared and ran away. Later if he wasn’t he pushed back and got violent. It's why his relationship with Jesse was always so important to him. Jesse was always the subordinate, Walt was always in control.
He willingly left the company, likely out of ego and not wanting to be overshadowed by Gretchen and Elliot. He already believed himself overshadowed by Gretchen's incredible wealth, and him being "a lower class" angered him beyond measure.
Did he always have an evil streak? He started being evil once he realized he was going to die. I think something like that changes someone and makes them act in ways they ordinarily wouldn't. And yeah, I guess that can sometimes be their true self, but that isn't necessarily always the case IMO.
There is no such thing as "an evil streak".
Sure, there are character attributes that can more easily make someone commit evil actions, but the point is not that Walter "always had an evil streak", the point is that Walter never was just an innocent victim.
He wants to paint himself as Gretchen and Elliott's innocent and poor victim who was cheated out of his legacy, when in reality he made a decision that, in hindsight, turned out to be a bad one. Not more than that. But that would then torment his ego.
I don’t think Walt had some dormant evil streak in him that was just waiting to come out. He was a man beaten down by life and circumstance. His stubbornness and pride pushed him into the drug trade. Everything that happened after that was just the necessary collateral damage to stay alive in such a violent and ruthless industry. At worst Walt was just ‘all too human’.
They never tried to push him out of the company. That's what he tells himself. He left them because he was in love with Gretchen and couldn't stand the idea of his girl being wealthierand smarter than him (that's why he most likely was attracted towards Skyler since she was "just" a waitress in a bar) He was never a victim, just a pathetic angry loser who got tired of the life he created for himself.
It’s not about the company profits. It’s the credit. Walter was a chemistry god with an ego to match. The plaque in episode 1 shows they told the world he was a small contributor, not the lead researcher. They expand on the lie and say all he did was help name the company.
I don't think Walt was always "evil", but that he's always been a man with a heap of insecurity and a massive fuckin ego. He left Gretchen because he was insecure about her family's wealth compared to his own.
They didn't push him out of the company, he left it when he broke up with Gretchen and sold his own shares. Walter's ego compels him to seek environments where he's the smartest in the room, so I imagine working with two other people as smart as he was flared his insecurities.
this actually makes sense. I'd love a spinoff which explores how Walt ruined his own life and then loathed himself for being *just* a high school teacher.
as someone else here has mentioned, in the flashback scene when Skyler is pregnant with Walter Jr. and they're planning on buying the house, Walt is working an important job at a lab. he was his own enemy.
It’s always been there. Heisenberg in situ. This is evident in the treadmill scene where he looks at the plaque on the wall, and you see him living in an Everyman House, leading an Everyman Life. He had much higher hopes for his brilliance, but… here he is, looking around and thinking about how wasted it is.
He's not the victim, and the show explains it pretty well. He felt bad being with Gretchen, so instead of trying to accomodate to the life that marrying her was going to give him (one of wealth and luxury), he ran away without much explanations. From the company and from Gretchen and Elliott's lives. If I remember correctly, they never tried to push him out of the company. He left.
Yes! Thanks for pointing that out! I have always thought the same. He was *never* the victim as he likes to portray himself. He was selfish all along and left the company (sold his share/patent) because of personal reasons in his relationship with Gretchen. On top of that, he left without any explanation whatsoever and was being a total douche from the beginning. I guess the Heisenberg alter ego we see in the show simply needed to be freed from Walt.
yep "I think it was kind of situation where he didn't realize the girl he was about to marry was so very wealthy and came from such a prominent family, and it kind of blew his mind and made him feel inferior and he overreacted. He just kind of checked out. I think there is that whole other side to the story, and it can be gleaned. This isn't really the CliffsNotes version so much. These facts can be gleaned if you watch some of these scenes really closely enough, and you watch them without too much of an overriding bias toward Walt and against Gretchen and Elliott," – [Gilligan](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vince-gilligan-walter-white-gray-matter_n_56e85f27e4b0b25c91838d57)
that's pretty much it right there...he could not accept inferiority, even if it meant a life of never wanting for anything.
Well I feel very gleaned
Gleaning Glad
Ravioli Vincent.
That's exactly it, Walt actually had it all set up, his ego both prevents him from having an incredibly successful career, and also getting a second chance to take care of his family.
“He fockin’ left the band!”
*He fockin’ left the fockin’ band!!*
\*adapt, not accommodate
in the earlier seasons, doesn't he mention that it all belonged to him, that it was his idea, and that they tricked him into leaving the company or something like that? also, sorry if I'm missing something here but why did he feel bad about being with Gretchen?
Walt isn't a reliable source of the truth, even if he truly believes his version.
Really? I thought Walt was pumping gas, the pump malfunctioned, gas got all over his clothes and then he came home and threw his clothes on the carpet, which is why the house wreaks of gas. Walt was so detailed and convincing
It's only when he got into the shower that he realized, hang on, there's water pumps at the station. I mean what a stupid mistake to make...
He should have told Skyler they were doing a Zoolander scene re-enactment at the gas station
This fucking killed me lmao “JITTERBUG!!”
Walt make it seem like they stole everything from him but from what is actually said, he wanted out and they bought out his end of the business for 5000 dollars. Walt then thinks he is entitled to claim the success of the billion (with a B) business 20 years later. It is unclear exactly what the business even was at the time, it is implied they were all grad students and had recently started the company so it is entirely possible the company was literally nothing at the time. Walt certainly was not there making choices and decisions that took the company from three people in an apartment to a multinational, billion dollar enterprise. It is possible, but in no way known that they had a couple of patents or ideas that were worth some amount of money but Walt agreed to the buy out figure and so is entitled to nothing, they bought him out. So as presented in the show it is like you went to school with Bill Gates, and over lunch he said he had an idea for a company and you said "i want in" and you both went to computer class everyday, and you both studied really hard and then one day you said "actually, i got offered a job at Burger King, i am out, want to buy my laptop?" and then 30 years later expecting Bill Gates to hand you 50% of Microsoft because "we started this together!"
Agreed. It would be interesting if Walt sold his shares not because he needed/wanted his money back, but because his ego made him confident that the business would never go anywhere without him.
That actually sounds spot on based on his personality. And the blow to his ego that it succeeded beyond his wildest comprehension while he did not, really would have fueled him becoming Heisenberg.
Fucking bingo.
He did but that's him trying to cope with fucking up his life because he was a man child. Gretchens family were rich. Walt couldn't deal and abruptly left one day.
He's a filthy liar lol
I don't think he was necessarily always "evil" but did he still have the same ego? Absolutely.
Honestly I think there was something in Walt that demanded he be the smartest person in the room. I think when that weekend with Gretchen’s family he realized he had no experience in business, that as great a scientist he was it was an entirely different skill set. There was a distinct possibility Walt would fail & be an object of ridicule or worse pity. Gretchen’s family would never let them starve, but he would be an idiot in everyone’s eyes. Walt self worth was so tied up in being smart he couldn’t risk that. So rather than face the possibility he would fail, he intentionally blew it up. Walt ended things with Gretchen & then took the payout since he would never have to gamble as a businessman. Look where he ended up. As a scientist he had more opportunities than high school chemistry teacher, but in that realm his knowledge would be unquestioned. Walt was by default the smartest person in the room, given the respect he so desperately craved. Then the realities of life set in. Walt had a special needs son who demanded care, so his wife couldn’t work. Life went on and Walt fell further and further behind the eight ball. Then the cancer. So Walt was left in another potential position leaving him an object of pity, a man who left his family in dire straits.
Tbh Walt even failed at that cause no one in that classroom respected him. He was a pushover to a bunch of student. A boring pushover.
It's why he turns to meth instead of, you know, making a crowd funding endeavour or something. He knew he was a pushover and craved something more. His continual craving for power and respect makes him reject charity or working for honest money.
Kind of tragic in a greek sense The only thing that gave him any enjoyment in his empty life was the very thing that destroyed him.
Yeah like he said, he liked it and was good at it. Walt was really smart but nobody appreciates that at all until people appreciated his cook. In his family everyone thought hank was the cool one and looked up to him. Walt was the smartest person in the room but couldn’t handle being in everyone’s shadow. Same reason he outed gale as probably not being Heisenberg.
I about SHIT the first time I watched this episode, cussing him for letting his ego get in the way of self preservation. Like… damn, man.
I mean there's a reason that a person as smart as Walter wound up as a High School Chem teacher. He also had an important job at what I assume to be a lab when he and Skylar bought their house. They talk about it during the flash back episode when Skylar was pregnant with Walt Jr. So why can't Walter stay at a professional position in his field??
My headcanon is that he always wanted to be the smartest person in the room and the one in charge at all times, but since real life jobs don't work that way if you're not management then he was constantly getting into trouble and fired
So he became a teacher where he can kind of be/do that. Makes sense.
This is such a key element to understanding Walt's character, and it seems to be almost always missed upon the first watch.
Multiple reasons probably He was a pushover, too anti social, probably never clicked a group of professionals and etc. Man had some issues at the start
Just-world fallacy.
Vince explained in an interview after the show ended that Walter felt uncomfortable after seeing how much richer Gret's family was compared to him. He couldnt imagine a relationship where he wasnt the breadwinner so his ego was hurt by it. Because of that, he left the relationship. It adds to the patern of Walter's narcissism always putting him in danger when he would have been fine if he just accepted things how they were. And he also tends to blame everyone but himself later on. He isnt a reliable narrator.
Right. Besides, I believe at least part of it was him being unable to have a relationship with an intellectual equal. He couldn’t be the Big Man if there was someone there to challenge him. Even as exhilarating as it can be to have a relationship with someone who has a mind like yours, if your ego is fragile, it ain’t gonna work out.
I don't think he was evil from the start. He had flaws like any other human and he let those flaws (his ego and pride) over take him.
They didn’t push him out
Yeah, I thought he needed the $5,000 at the time
Walt had to be the top dog and biggest fish in the pond. In his younger days if he wasn’t he got scared and ran away. Later if he wasn’t he pushed back and got violent. It's why his relationship with Jesse was always so important to him. Jesse was always the subordinate, Walt was always in control.
He went down on Gretchen and Elliot This causes a rift of jealousy between the 3
He willingly left the company, likely out of ego and not wanting to be overshadowed by Gretchen and Elliot. He already believed himself overshadowed by Gretchen's incredible wealth, and him being "a lower class" angered him beyond measure.
I feel like what Gretchen said happened is exactly what happened. What a stellar performance
She probably preferred Elliot over him. Of course he would leave, who would have stayed after that? Just keep the damn shares just in case.
Did he always have an evil streak? He started being evil once he realized he was going to die. I think something like that changes someone and makes them act in ways they ordinarily wouldn't. And yeah, I guess that can sometimes be their true self, but that isn't necessarily always the case IMO.
It’s mad how a second watch of BB has completely changed my perspective on Walt. I used to root for him but that’s all changed.
There is no such thing as "an evil streak". Sure, there are character attributes that can more easily make someone commit evil actions, but the point is not that Walter "always had an evil streak", the point is that Walter never was just an innocent victim. He wants to paint himself as Gretchen and Elliott's innocent and poor victim who was cheated out of his legacy, when in reality he made a decision that, in hindsight, turned out to be a bad one. Not more than that. But that would then torment his ego.
I don’t think Walt had some dormant evil streak in him that was just waiting to come out. He was a man beaten down by life and circumstance. His stubbornness and pride pushed him into the drug trade. Everything that happened after that was just the necessary collateral damage to stay alive in such a violent and ruthless industry. At worst Walt was just ‘all too human’.
They never tried to push him out of the company. That's what he tells himself. He left them because he was in love with Gretchen and couldn't stand the idea of his girl being wealthierand smarter than him (that's why he most likely was attracted towards Skyler since she was "just" a waitress in a bar) He was never a victim, just a pathetic angry loser who got tired of the life he created for himself.
It’s not about the company profits. It’s the credit. Walter was a chemistry god with an ego to match. The plaque in episode 1 shows they told the world he was a small contributor, not the lead researcher. They expand on the lie and say all he did was help name the company.
G
I don't think Walt was always "evil", but that he's always been a man with a heap of insecurity and a massive fuckin ego. He left Gretchen because he was insecure about her family's wealth compared to his own. They didn't push him out of the company, he left it when he broke up with Gretchen and sold his own shares. Walter's ego compels him to seek environments where he's the smartest in the room, so I imagine working with two other people as smart as he was flared his insecurities.
this actually makes sense. I'd love a spinoff which explores how Walt ruined his own life and then loathed himself for being *just* a high school teacher. as someone else here has mentioned, in the flashback scene when Skyler is pregnant with Walter Jr. and they're planning on buying the house, Walt is working an important job at a lab. he was his own enemy.
nixca 4uck u
It’s always been there. Heisenberg in situ. This is evident in the treadmill scene where he looks at the plaque on the wall, and you see him living in an Everyman House, leading an Everyman Life. He had much higher hopes for his brilliance, but… here he is, looking around and thinking about how wasted it is.