Breaking Bad

[FlamesAddiction]

Well, yeah... that is the obvious chronology that the writers want the audience to believe. It just seems far fetched.

It's forgivable though as if we are being totally honest about the show, there are numerous leaps and coincidences that are far fetched. This one just doesn't sit right with me 100%, but whatever whatevs.

[JonDuke]

Random theory straight outta left field...

Spoiler!

Jesse clearly despises Walt right now. The gas in his house suggests maybe even wants to kill him. With the Walt confession tape, Hank can't allow Jesse to harm Walt. With the hatred that already exists between the two, I could see Hank killing Jesse to stop him from killing Walt. Then Walt uses the ricin to poison Hank, makes it look like a suicide or natural death and blames him for Jesse's death and Marie's death (I have a feeling Skylar kills Marie, but Hank will be framed)

[Tinordi]

I love how Walt even manipulates his son by bringing up his cancer so that he wont go over the Hank and Marie's. Walt's a despicable character at this point.

[Tinordi]

I despised Skylar because she cheated on Walt. Now that that has kind of faded, I don't mind her as much. People look at Walt now and see someone who is truly evil and no longer have sympathy for him, but going back to seasons 2 and 3, he was still a very sympathetic character and Skylar's affair with Ted was just terrible. Beyond that though, I don't find her to be a particularly interesting character. When compared to people like Walt, Jesse, Gus, Mike, Hank, etc., she is just boring and tends to take away screen time from these more compelling characters. In contract, Game of Thrones has several interesting female characters that I really like, so I don't think it is fair to call someone's negative feelings towards her sexist.

She had an affair on Walt because he was emotionally unavailable and detached from both her and her family. Walt's "affair" with a life of crime including drugs and murder and his increasingly extreme ends that he took to cover it up and conceal from Skyler was the impetus for the affair. Skylar has culpability for having an affair but it wasn't like she did it out of nowhere. Walt has a significant amount of responsibility to bear for that. Further, Skylar had significant suspicions that Walt was having an affair with the second cell phone and the like. Sure, eye for an eye isn't a justification but Skylar is a fallible human and broke down at a moment of weakness when she thought Walt had stopped loving her. Had he just been the normal father he was at the beginning of the series it likely wouldn't have played out.

This again shows the double standard. Produce thousands of kilograms of dangerous addictive drugs and killing people, even innocent children is okay. Have an affair because you're jerk husband lives a second life and you're the bad guy.

Much of the Skylar hate is rooted in sexism. "If only that nagging wife would get out of the way of this awesome guy, she's the problem."

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

I love how Walt even manipulates his son by bringing up his cancer so that he wont go over the Hank and Marie's. Walt's a despicable character at this point.

He's Heisenberg now.

[Coys1882]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

He's Heisenberg now.

Agreed - Walt died a while ago.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Much of the Skylar hate is rooted in sexism. "If only that nagging wife would get out of the way of this awesome guy, she's the problem."

I'm not sure if it can be classified as 'sexism'. I think it's more a conditioning of audiences to identify with male/masculine characters and perceive the events and situations of a story through their eyes. Laura Mulvey calls it the "male gaze" (although most of her work revolves around female physical imagery), and the theory not only makes a lot of sense but applies perfectly to fans' opinions on characters like Skylar.

It certainly is that aspect of "If only that nagging wife would get out of the way of this awesome guy", but I think it's more that we like to identify with Walt's badassery and want to reflect a bit of ourselves onto his character. The guy has confidence, intelligence, is a provider, and has the balls to get things done. Apart from the mild sociopathy he has a lot of the traits most people desire, and Skylar is the only character with the sway to impede Walt's progress. We don't like seeing, essentially, ourselves held back like that, and develop resentment for the character.

Gunn's article has me re-evaluating my opinion of her interpretation of her own character somewhat (omitting the affair in making her argument), but to attack her as a bad actress simply because you don't like her on-screen character is completely misguided.

[nik-]

It may be sexism and it may not be, but lets be honest here. Walt was newly diagnosed with terminal cancer, and Skylar was constantly nagging him for acting different and distant.

Well no ####, he's dealing with his own mortality, he's not going to care about mundane things.

She's much better now, but she was pretty bad for a long while.

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by nik-

It may be sexism and it may not be, but lets be honest here. Walt was newly diagnosed with terminal cancer, and Skylar was constantly nagging him for acting different and distant.

Well no ####, he's dealing with his own mortality, he's not going to care about mundane things.

She's much better now, but she was pretty bad for a long while.

Except that that wasn't the reason he was acting different and distant. You're basically parroting Walt's own logic here in making up a justification. The reason he was different and distant was because he chose a life of crime for essentially his own vanity. While Skylar is trying to hold the family together, Walt is cavorting with drug dealers and putting his entire family in danger. Skylar had a right to nag, be suspicious and call Walt out. It was because something very bad was up and she detected it. As any good wife and mother would do.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Except that that wasn't the reason he was acting different and distant. You're basically parroting Walt's own logic here in making up a justification. The reason he was different and distant was because he chose a life of crime for essentially his own vanity. While Skylar is trying to hold the family together, Walt is cavorting with drug dealers and putting his entire family in danger. Skylar had a right to nag, be suspicious and call Walt out. It was because something very bad was up and she detected it. As any good wife and mother would do.

But she didn't know that, her actions were a response to what Walt was presenting, so given that she thought it was legitimate cancer related issues, she still chose the nagging, annoying path.

Looking through that filter, I felt the way she acted was unreasonable and so did a lot of people, which is why the character wasn't liked in the start.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by nik-

But she didn't know that, her actions were a response to what Walt was presenting, so given that she thought it was legitimate cancer related issues, she still chose the nagging, annoying path.

Looking through that filter, I felt the way she acted was unreasonable and so did a lot of people, which is why the character wasn't liked in the start.

I think part of character development of Walt was to show him as someone who was basically a wimp, which included being a man that was emotionally emasculated by his wife. The Skylar character was starting from a position of negativity from the start of the series.

If it was sexism as some people here claim, then those same perceptions would be held against female characters in other series. I am willing to bet that a lot of the Skylar haters have female characters on other shows that they are fond of.

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by nik-

But she didn't know that, her actions were a response to what Walt was presenting, so given that she thought it was legitimate cancer related issues, she still chose the nagging, annoying path.

Looking through that filter, I felt the way she acted was unreasonable and so did a lot of people, which is why the character wasn't liked in the start.

Yes but deep down she did know something was up. Skylar is a flawed character but she's not stupid. Infact she is one of the smartest characters in the show and has always been written as such.

This gets even more to the point. You're apologizing for Walt who used his cancer as an excuse to cover up his behaviour and playing with Skylar's emotions on the impact that the cancer was having on him personally. All the while, you're criticizing Skylar for noticing a huge change in Walt's personality and actions (for the worse) and "nagging" him for it. Double standard.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Yeah, it's not sexism. If Walter had an annoying nagging best friend/neighbor that was always on his case early, and was constantly trying to thwart the cool stuff he was doing that character would be equally as hated. It's not about the fact she's female, it's the fact she was trying to stop the main character from doing cool stuff.

A little surprised we're still having this debate, especially after that killer episode last night and when only 5 episodes remain.

[nik-]

She notices someone with terminal cancer has a personality change. Mind blowing intuition.

If it's a double standard then fine, I found a wife nagging her dying husband (because that's all she knew) as really annoying.

[djsFlames]

I actually don't think it was much of a leap at all. I see why others do, but it's more a case of Jesse knowing Walt's tendencies from working with him for so long. Especially after Saul admitted that they did it. Obviously it was being kept under wraps that they lifted that cigarette from him, and it took a gun to Saul's head to get him to admit it. Jesse knows how Walt takes measures to manipulate people when he Needs it to happen, to protect himself. So why take the cig and keep it so secret? Why call the cig lifting "crazy" when Jesse had the gun to his head in season 4? If it was for the sake of something good, like taking it out of his hands as to eliminate the danger, and nothing else, then Walt would have admitted it. But Brock being sick and the ricin missing at the same time and Walt claiming he had nothing to do with it, then shifting the blame to Gus is what caused Jesse to change his allegiance at that point. Those two occurrences happened too perfectly, and served to Walt's advantage when his life and family's lives were under threat. Jesse knows it wasn't just a coincidence now. He knows Walt kept this very secret from him. And he knows that Walt has a vast knowledge for such things as natural poisons (Ricin). And he makes drastic, calculated moves to protect himself when needed. So it's not a stretch to think he planted the Lily of the Valley to set up his plan to manipulate Jesse. If it were the ricin, then Saul and his loose mouth would be all that would keep Jesse from finding out, and he knows that Walt wouldn't risk that. Plus it would have likely killed the kid, and Walt only needed him sick for a while to get his plan to work.

I dunno, just with Jesse knowing how Walt operates and thinks, it doesn't seem like a stretch for him to put 2 and 2 together, especially after Saul admitted they had been keeping that truth from him.

[Flash Walken]

Or the part where she confronts jesse and says don't sell my husband pot.

It's part of the context in the first season or two to get you on Walt's side. Skylar, when she's not being an insufferable control freak, is constantly on her cancer ridden husband's case. It makes you sympathetic to Walt.

I find her article to be quite disingenuous, at least from the perspective of someone on the show. That's how the show is written to start, Skylar is awful, it helps you empathize with the main character. Also of note, in the story line, she cheats on Walt with Ted years earlier. I don't remember if the first time is unknown to walt or not and whether it's used to further hurt him the second time she does it, i.e. re-opening old wounds, but it's part of the story line before the Meth. Marie is aware of it.

The show starts with a totally emasculated Walt. Poor, unappreciated, lacking respect and playing beta male to Hank. Skylar being an awful caricature of a nagging housewife is used to illustrate that further.

Edit: Two other things. Ted makes an allusion to Junior being his child (from the aforementioned affair), Skylar smokes around her baby, participates, unsolicited mind you, in the tax fraud Ted has started...

[smoothpops]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

She had an affair on Walt because he was emotionally unavailable and detached from both her and her family. Walt's "affair" with a life of crime including drugs and murder and his increasingly extreme ends that he took to cover it up and conceal from Skyler was the impetus for the affair. Skylar has culpability for having an affair but it wasn't like she did it out of nowhere. Walt has a significant amount of responsibility to bear for that. Further, Skylar had significant suspicions that Walt was having an affair with the second cell phone and the like. Sure, eye for an eye isn't a justification but Skylar is a fallible human and broke down at a moment of weakness when she thought Walt had stopped loving her. Had he just been the normal father he was at the beginning of the series it likely wouldn't have played out.

This again shows the double standard. Produce thousands of kilograms of dangerous addictive drugs and killing people, even innocent children is okay. Have an affair because you're jerk husband lives a second life and you're the bad guy.

Much of the Skylar hate is rooted in sexism. "If only that nagging wife would get out of the way of this awesome guy, she's the problem."

Walt also had an affair, infact i'd say he had two (that we know of). obviously, one of the affairs is his obsessive building of his drug empire which alienated him from his family. and the second affair (which happened first), was with the his old company ceo's wife, from grey matter. That's why he left and was bought out for $5000

[To Be Quite Honest]

I'm not even guessing at the story; I'm sitting back and watching the lives implode. This is such a great show.

[getbak]

If you don't want to know how it ends, don't watch this: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/636...s-breaking-bad

[Radio]

I don't recall either of those previous affairs happening.

Skylar used to work for Ted and went back to apply for a job and ran into Ted who offered her her old job back. Then we find out that Ted and his wife had marital problems, that Ted's wife had an affair and they got divorced. He's always been attracted to her, but she initiates the affair.

Walter dated Gretchen first and unexpectedly left her when she took him to meet her parents. Skylar suspected Walter was having an affair with her, but wasn't.

By all accounts Walter has never had an affair and Skylar had 1 out of revenge (not that that is a good reason)