Last night we got our answers as to how Breaking Bad could possibly continue with Walter apparently knocking on death’s door. After an intense and near-death experience in the desert with Jesse, cooking up over $1.2 million in blue ice, Walter learns what should be even better news about his cancer and the progress of the treatments he’s taken. And what does Walter do? He punches the shit out of a bathroom paper towel dispenser.
You’d think that being close to rather wealthy (after all the dealings are done) and then well on the way to recovery from the cancer, Walt would be jubilant. Not so. Above, I asked what Walter’s problem was, but for anyone having invested in this show, it’s pretty clear what’s going on.
When Walter figured out that, on paper, he stood to make over $600k for his cooking spree with Jesse, he thought he finally did something that could seriously make a difference for his family before he was dead and gone — which was something Walter thought was happening sooner than later. Now that it appears as though he’ll be sticking around a bit longer on this plane of existence, Walter’s meticulous monetary calculations are out the window. Instead of a family of three to consider for, he’s got himself to add to the equation. And, if he’s not going to die anytime soon, he has to live with the fact that he’s helped put some serious drugs on the street.
Add to all of this that Walter is still stuck in a thankless job, one that he’s clearly overqualified for and one he’ll have to endure for possibly many years to come. How can he possibly explain the money that will be coming in, whether he’s dead and gone or not? Will he simply sock it away for when he does die, hoping his family won’t question its origin?
The biggest question I have about Walter’s thinking is his explaining the money to those who will eventually receive it. He’s cleary an intelligent individual, but his dire circumstances may have clouded that area of judgement for him. It’s possible that a moment of clarity happened in that bathroom, and he simply took it out on an aluminum box. We shall see.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on May 04, 2009 @ 13:30 EST5EDT
