Breaking Bad Recap: I Know Why the Caged Walt Sings

Recaps

By Saint Clare of Assisi | Tuesday, August 21, 2012 | 3:08 pm | 5 Comments
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Posted in: Breaking Bad, Featured, Recaps

Jesse has come to tell Walt about Declan’s offer. Unsurprisingly, Walt isn’t interested in selling his share of the methylamine.

Walt and Jesse each state their cases. For Jesse, this is an ethical thing to do. They could sell out tomorrow and nobody else would have to die. No more Drew Sharps. But for Walt, selling out would be giving up on a business they’ve literally sweat and bled for.

To Jesse, Walt is being greedy…he reminds Walt how originally all he needed out of the meth trade was $737K. Walt could have that tomorrow if he wanted.

But Walt has a story to tell Jesse, and now we get to the heart of who Walt is what motivates him. I’ve assumed Walt has kept at the meth business because of greed and pride, and it is pride, but it’s more complex than I’ve thought. Here’s the story…

Remember Gray Matter? The business Walt started when he was in grad school with Gretchen and Elliott? Until this point, all we knew was that Walt had started it, but that he’d left the business before it went big. Gretchen and Elliott became insanely rich while Walt was relegated to becoming a high school science teacher.

Well, now we get the specifics. Originally Gray Matter was a three-person business—just like the meth business is now, oddly enough. Back then it was Walt, Elliott, and Gretchen. They were grad students with a lot of promise. But then something happened. Walt won’t tell Jesse what, but we can assume it has to do with Gretchen. Maybe Gretchen and Walt were together but she slept with Elliott? Anyway, Walt wanted out and sold them stake in Gray Matter for $5,000. Today it’s worth $2.16 billion.

We know the exact dollar amount Gray Matter is worth because Walt obsessively looks it up every Friday and has been doing that his whole adult life. File this in the “biggest mistakes of your life” category. Walt has. It’s so big, he’s been consumed with bitterness ever since. Years and years of bitterness eating away at him. Kind of explains why Walt was such a passive sad sack at the beginning of the series, doesn’t it?

Earlier when Jesse asked Walt whether he was in the meth business or the money business, Walt didn’t have an answer, because he’s in neither. Now, he tells Jesse he’s in “the empire business”.

Jesse starts to protest…is an empire of METH something to be proud of? But before Walt can answer, Skyler comes home with groceries.

Walt is hanging out in his own home with the guy who helped him get into the drug business, and Skyler knows Walt’s secret. Awwkwward.

So Walt invites Jesse to dinner!

KITCHEN

Jesse fucking accepts.

Chapter 8: Build Trust with Your Employees by Breaking Bread with Them

Walt, Skyler, and Jesse sit down to eat. Not much conversation is happening. Jesse tries to compliment Skyler’s green beans. Turns out the green beans are from Albertson’s.

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Saint Clare of Assisi attended Boston University and has written for The Onion.  He took his name from the patron saint of television, who was a virgin and saved a boy from a wolf one time.

5 Comments

  1. 1
    MrsMiaWallace MrsMiaWallace
    Posted August 21, 2012 at 4:20 pm

    Great recap, I love the book chapters!

    Ok, here is my thinking on the Grey Matter backstory. I may be dead wrong based on things they’ve already told us and I have forgotten, so feel free to slap me down.

    I think the whole other-guy-got-the-girl is too straightforward. Plausible, but not interesting enough. I want it to be something like Walt cheated with Skylar or split off to be with her. That and/or there were issues with Walt getting a temper, acting like a dictator, maybe doing something illegal/immoral. All things that he is displaying now and the friends asked him to leave. Finding out he has tendencies for this behavior would be interesting. I also wonder if he totally cashed out or if he expected to go it alone and use the $5k to build his own company and failed?

    As for his idea… not sure. At first I just assumed he wanted them to give him the chemicals and he would pay them back, but from the prequels it doesn’t look that way. Maybe since Walt has a disti problem and Dradel or whoever wants to expand he starts supplying to him? But that would only be palatable for Walt if he is still the boss and not just working for another version of Fring.

    My question is that Mike said he’d pay back all the guys out of his share… but with 9 guys cutting into $5M that cannot be enough. Didn’t Mike alone have $2M seized by the DEA? Maybe he got paid way more than the others?

    Love your recaps!

  2. 2
    mjhhawk
    Posted August 22, 2012 at 7:10 am

    Great recap.

    I think Todd is going to turn out to be a psycho. The tarantula is his trophy from the kill, kind of like Dexter with the blood slides.

    I do agree that Grey Matter is going to be something revolving around a love triangle. They’ve tried to basically spell that out, but is anything ever that straightforward in BB land?

    Mrs.Mia – Hank definitely said something along the lines to Mike during their initial meeting that his granddaughter had a much larger amount in her bank account than everyone else (I thought he said over double). But I would agree that $5M doesn’t seem enough to make everyone whole again.

    Do we think they are treating this half-season like a full season with a uge cliff hanger in two episodes?

  3. 3
    timgunnssister timgunnssister
    Posted August 22, 2012 at 8:48 am

    Stellar recap, as always.

    Based on the first season’s episode where Walt speaks to Gretchen, I got the distinct impression that Walt and Gretchen had an affair – that Gretchen was already married to Elliot and that’s what broke up their group. And that she and Elliot feel awful about the chintzy buyout Walt got. That’s why they offered to pay Walt’s medical bills. Remeber how Walt initially told Skyler THAT’s where the money was coming from? Of course, when she thanked them, it got a little weird because Walt had actually refused the money.

    I also thought Tod keeping the jar was weird. Was that just the little kid in him being as fascinated with the tarantula as the boy he shot? Are the kids fingerprints on the jar? Does Tod get caught or does he use this as leverage over our boys? No one can prove who actualy took the shot but, Tod now has a piece of evidence that one of them did the deed. And any one of the other three are a more likely candidate than Tod. Wonder if Tod now needs to die?

    As to Walt’s wonderful solution? I have no idea. I doubt he would be willing to work for Declan – remember, he wants to build an empire, not work for Guslight. And what about Jesse? He really is no longer interested in the money as we’ve seen from previous episodes – I think he just wants his life back. Or at least the promise of a relatively normal life since he doesn’t seem to have really had one. Ever.

    And Skyler always looks like she’s about to explode with the news of Walt’s ‘hobby’. She may be the weakest link in the chain.

  4. 4
    Kammie
    Posted August 23, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    There was a shot towards the beginning when they were disposing of the crime that gave me chills. Walt was standing on a chair and it was shot from below him looking up. He had his mask on the top of his head which looked like horns and gave him a devilish appearance – did anyone else notice that?!

  5. 5
    Corey
    Posted September 19, 2012 at 5:42 am

    I loved these two episodes but can someone explain why they only stole 1,000 gallons, when they were using multiple 55 gallon drums already (based on 1 drum stolen in the earlier seasons yielding 40lbs). That 1,000 gallons is about 18 drums worth of methlyamine. Sure, the drums were being bugged, but they were still able to acquire them without the risk of robbing it from a train.

    I feel like this is a little fact checker moment. If they had stolen 2,000 gallons or more, I could see this being worthwhile, but only 1,000…

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