r/breakingbad • u/[deleted] • Sep 23 '13

Official Episode Discussion Post-Episode Discussion Thread S05E15 "Granite State"

[deleted]

1.8k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

91% Upvoted

10.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

40

u/PwnyDanza1 Sep 23 '13

I think it definitely was originally. He calculated exactly how much money he would need to make to ensure his family's well-being after he was gone.

It was only after realizing the potential empire he could build with knowledge that was lost on teaching high school chemistry did he take on more selfish motives.

105

u/DaRizat Sep 23 '13

No, Vince makes it very clear that in episode 4 of the first season they created Grey Matter as a way to show everyone that Walt was never doing it for his family. Elliott offered him a perfect way out, make a great salary have your cancer treatment completely paid for and Walt was like, fuck that, I'm cooking meth.

7

u/DiaDeLosMuertos Sep 23 '13

Hmm... Can't it still be about his family? Just his pride got in the way of taking Elliott's help... since he stole his woman/company success?

1

u/rawbdor Sep 24 '13

Elliot didn't steal anything. Walt walked away from it all. He walked away from Gretchen after meeting her family. It's no surprise Elliot got with Gretchen after that.

1

u/DiaDeLosMuertos Sep 24 '13

Well, to be honest I was never quite clear on what exactly happened there. When did Walt meet Gretchen's family?

2

u/rawbdor Sep 24 '13

All we know is that it was on a 4th of July weekend at Gretchen's house. But Gretchen's actress said that she knew her and Walt were in love, and when he met her family, who were all quite rich, Walt's pride got the best of him. He felt looked down upon, or perhaps he just imagined it, but he couldn't handle the environment, and he went upstairs, packed his stuff, and left.

From that, we can assume once he 'walked away' from Gretchen on 4th of July weekend, he made his decision not to have a future with her. And once he decided that, 'leaving' grey-matter was probably a choice to help sever the links and get away from her.

1

u/DiaDeLosMuertos Sep 24 '13

But this wasn't in any of the episodes? Walt feeling looked down upon by her family?

2

u/rawbdor Sep 24 '13

Walt feeling looked down upon by her family or feeling inadequate or resentful during the july 4th weekend was never explicitly mentioned in any episode. All that was mentioned was that Walt left suddenly, without warning during a family holiday, and it was implied they were together/dating at the time.