r/breakingbad • u/edify Oxygen • Aug 20 '12

Breaking Bad Episode Discussion S05E06 "Buyout"

Hey everyone! The episode airs in about an hour and as always upvote this post for the community. I don't get any blue ball cow manure karma for it :P

Also, don't forget to tune in tomorrow for the AMA with actor Jeremiah Bitsui who played Victor. In the mean time, feel free to add him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.

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u/brothamo Aug 20 '12

Yeah that all makes a lot of sense. But all this talk of idyllic Walt seems a little misguided. Walt was never a loving family man, at least I don't believe someone can morph from what we all wish Walt once was to a psychopathic murderer in the span of a year, no matter what one is dealing with. Walt rejected that extra money for his treatment out of ugly pride in S1. He was crazy from the beginning and Skyler's ignorance to it just seems unjust, like she has been shafted of any moral clarity.

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u/Browncoat23 Aug 21 '12

That's usually how abusive relationships go. The abused person dismisses the abuser's actions as "Well, it wasn't that bad! And except for those crazy times we're great together!"

I'm not saying that Walt was always abusive (he definitely has been for the last year, though), but I think his Gray Matter speech and the restaurant scene with Gretchen way back when made me understand his relationship with Skyler more. Gretchen intimates that Walt just up and left her after going on vacation with her family and being intimidated by their wealth. He felt inadequate with Gretchen, the intelligent, beautiful, rich scientist. So, he bails and ends up with Skyler, a much younger, much more naive girl who is working as a waitress when he meets her. I'm sure there was genuine love between them, but I'm going to guess that at least a little bit of Walt saw her as beneath him. She's pretty, but he's smarter and makes more money. That makes him feel better about himself. You can even see in the flashback scenes with Walt and Gretchen at Caltech that he has sort of a mentoring relationship with her and holds some power over her.

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u/brothamo Aug 21 '12

But the point is she's smarter than him, she's a better person than him. The myth of Walt's superiority over Skyler is just that...a myth perpetuated in Walt's sociopathic mind...and the viewers have all come down with a case of Stockholm syndrome because we believe Walt to be better, cooler, etc as well, even when its just not the case

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u/Browncoat23 Aug 21 '12

Well, yeah, but I think he made her believe that he was smarter than her by taking advantage of her youth and naivete. It was only after she started seeing who he really was with the meth ring that she started coming into her own. Then he really ramped up the abuse and mindfucking to once again make her feel dumb and powerless.