CliqueClackBreaking Bad – It’s now all a matter of Gray Matter
As ‘Breaking Bad’ leads to its final episode, one glaring piece of the past needs wrapping up, and it will all lead to Walt’s final actions and how his family might still live (somewhat) happily ever after, or at least not poor.
As for the Gray Matter … matter, that’s a complicated one. First of all, the ambiguous story around Walt and Gray Matter is certainly a big catalyst for what’s happened to Walt. Previously, Walt was a clearly happy, brilliant scientist, in love with then-assistant Gretchen and ready to take the world by storm. Then “something happened,” Walt quickly sold his stake in the company “for personal reasons,” and his life took a completely different turn. He struggled on a teacher’s salary, facing mountains of cancer treatment bills and an additional mouth to feed. In desperation, Walt “broke bad” and wound up where he is today. The question is, whose fault is that really? We don’t know yet. All we know of Walt’s reasons for leaving Gray Matter are his quick, vague stories, and then this quote from Gretchen:
“You left me. Newport, Fourth of July weekend. You, my father and my brothers. And I go up to my room and you’re packing your bags. Barely talking.”
As I’ve said before and has been noted countless places, creator Vince Gilligan has said he’s leaving no (or very few) loose ends here (we may never see what happens to poor Huell — does he ever leave the hotel room??). One major loose end is definitely Walt’s early days with Gray Matter and what happened to cause Walt to leave the company. Everything that’s happened to Walt is a result of that decision he made. What happened that Fourth of July?
I have a pet theory relating to Gray Matter and how it will work out for Walt in the end. Walt still has (or we can assume he still has) a barrel of cash that he only wants to get into the hands of his family. Clearly he’s having trouble doing this, especially when they won’t want a penny of it if they know it’s from him. Walt has to find a way to get that money to his family and not alert them nor the authorities where it came from. He needs a cleaner: Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz. He does this, of course, by threatening them. He gives them this barrel of cash (or, if he gets everything back from the Nazis, barrels) and instructs them to use it to pay “the poor, suffering family of Walter White,” all while continuing to badmouth Walt’s involvement and actions. Nobody’s the wiser, as it makes sense: these same people once paid for Walt’s treatment (as far as some people know) and are billionaires. They’ve been friends with the Whites for years. Who’d question where the money came from?
The seemingly impossible-to-guess part is what Walt would use to threaten them. My first thought is that Walt has something on them — something he knows that could ruin them. This seems to be the most likely scenario, as opposed to Walter outright threatening them with some M-60 violence. The thing is, I don’t believe Walt knows something necessarily damaging about the company itself, as he never seemed to indicate he had hard feelings about Gray Matter and what they were doing. If Walt knew they were doing something wrong, he wouldn’t have been as friendly with the Schwartzes, even somewhat contemplating taking a job with them again. Could it be, though, that he knows about some corporate secrets of theirs that could ruin them? Is it something Gretchen’s father or brothers revealed to Walt that not only cause him to fly the coop, but to later use against her as blackmail?
A very unlikely theory I had was that something that Gray Matter was developing caused not only Walt’s cancer, but led to Skyler having pregnancy difficulties before Walt Jr. was born, leading to him to develop Cerebral Palsy. That wouldn’t fit with Walt’s previous interactions with the Schwartzes, though.
Getting back to what I said about Lydia’s fate. Her involvement could be related as well to how Walt gets his money to his family. Could it be that he uses Lydia and possibly the company she works for to have the money delivered to his family, perhaps in the same way as he might do with Gray Matter? I think this is unlikely, but it did occur to me that her corporate influence might be of help.
Keep in mind AMC’s description of the “Granite State” episode was this: “Events set in motion long ago move toward a conclusion.” That’s pretty telling that this all has to do with Gray Matter. At the very least we’ll learn a lot about what happened way back when, leading to what cause the eventual Heisenberg transformation.
10 Comments on “Breaking Bad – It’s now all a matter of Gray Matter”
I agree with your comments. Here are my thoughts on finale. Jesse will do one last cook. We saw Jesse taking out a cigarette in the ole RV when first starting to “cook”. Walt comment, “What are you stupid do not light that in here”..Jesse in return sates “I am not stupid Yo”…I believe Told will force Jesse into anther cook. While cooking the Todd Clan will be in the compound along with Walt’s millions in the background. Jesse will kill two birds with one stone. Jessie will blow himself up along with Todd’s gang and Walt’s barrels of money.
As for Lydia…She is about to get some Ricin in her drink. They clearly showed her drinking another Java while meeting Todd. Walt is upset she continues to sell his product. She must be dealt with.
As for Grey Matter…Walt is furious. He was cut out/left behind in this business adventure. They stole his ideas thus making Millions. Heisenberg would never allow this. I see Walt going in with the machine gun devastating the place killing the Husband and Wife team of Grey Matter.
As for Walt still up in the air on this one. Cancer is either going to get him or will die in the shoot out. Who knows maybe Walt Jr is the Love Child between him and Grey Matter chick.
If everything comes to an end what will happen to Maria, Skyler, Walt Jr and Baby? We know if will be without Walt. Walt still has the winning Lotto numbers correct?? Maybe those will hit a jackpot leaving Skyler and Family legit money. Or just maybe Walt Jr is that Love Child. When Walt kills the Mother and Husband Billions from Grey Matter left to Walt Jr???? Hmmmm
I like your idea with Jesse and the lottery numbers — I’d forgotten I wanted to mention that! That is sorta a loose end, but then again I feel like it wouldn’t be a suitable thing for a show that’s been so tight. I also imagine the numbers have been chosen by now — it’s been months. It’s *possible* they just never checked into it, but that just seems too convenient.
As for Walt shooting up Gray Matter, I don’t think that’s really something we want to see him resort to. The Gray Matter folks have done nothing so far for us to want to see them dead. We’re talking Walt’s word that they screwed him, and they sure seemed to sincerely want to help him when they learned of his cancer. Him laying waste to them would truly cause us to hate Walter, and I’m not convinced Gilligan wants that.
Good points. I do like the idea of Walt funneling money through Grey Matter. However, In the last episode Walt appeared so violently angry with them. I feel he wants revenge for his ideas. Its as if Walt seeing Grey Matter using his formula as Todd/Lydia continue to use the Meth recipe. I think Walt to prideful to let them off. We see him slam the door when Grey Corp offers him a job and becomes angry at Skyler when he suspects them paying for his treatment. As Grey Corp commented Walt is already dead and Hindenburg LIVES.
Yet another scenario I considered was Walt using the AK to gun down Todd’s gang. However, Walt is all alone and a AK machine gun is huge. Not sure Walt is that handy with a gun.
At this point we have seen Jesse beaten, tortured and mentally anguished with the death of Brock’s mother. I don’t see Jesse escaping. In fact most viewers would like to see Jesse have revenge on Todds gang. Blowing himself up along with Todds gang would be a quick solve. Who knows maybe Walt will be in the Lab as well since Walt always concerned Jesse was going to blow things up.
So many sceneries..
Two things are pretty certain, to me: Walt will not save Jesse, and Jesse will die in the end. Jesse’s too broken to have a life he can live. Walt has already written Jesse off completely, going so far as to give the nod to the Nazis to shoot him in the head. Walt has no reason to save Jesse, and Jesse — at this point — is beyond being saved from anything anyway.
Agreed!! He is WAY beyond saving. The pure emotion displayed last episode in the car suggest he has no will to carry on. Its sad, because I loved Jesse’s character and hate to see him suffer so much. He has truly lost everything. Would have like to see him catch a break.
Walt has destroyed sooooo many lives it will be interesting to see what takes place.
Americone Dream ice cream that Todd gives Jesse also fits with the Fourth of July theme.
Agreed that it’s now all a matter of Gray Matter. But, why does Walt need to threaten Gray Matter or otherwise having them distribute the money to his family? Recall that Charlie Rose referred to “shoring up stock price”. With the $80 million plus Uncle Jack’s cash stash for the ongoing meth sales, Walt and his ego/pride can probably purchase majority ownership of Gray Matter. He could then either leave the shares to family (perhaps just to Holly) or simply die happy that he owns the company at the root of his troubles. As to the unlikelihood “Walter White” would ever get approved so as to purchase stock of Gray Matter, perhaps “Mr. Lambert” could! After all, doesn’t Saul’s form of witness protection include not just an ID but also a Social Security # and a life story?
Regarding the ricin, I don’t see why Lydia needs to be killed and moreover, what is morally stopping Walt from using a gun on her? I think its rather for suicide. Walt won’t last very long on the run especially in ABQ. Likewise, he also knows he probably has weeks to leave before succumbing to cancer, He’ll dodge authorities just long enough to kill the nazis, get the cash and purchase the stock. He’ll die satisfied, taking the ricin just as the police surround him. Perhaps a series- ending pan out to stock certificate in Gray Matter….in the name of “Lambert in trust for Holly White”.
I recently did some hair-brained theorizing about this… https://meaningofbreakingbad.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-path-i-take-1-facebook-buy-out.html
I disagree about the remaining barrel of money. Once again Walt “broke bad” and “left the reservation,” the risk in his mind was justified to “help” his family. When Jr reacted as he did, it pretty much crushed Walt. At that moment he decided to take Saul’s advice and turn himself in, hence the call to the Albuquerque DEA office. Also by making that rash decision he effectively decided to give up the remaining money he has with him and the money in the barrel. Whatever epiphany he had watching the Charlie Rose interview with Elliott and Gretchen caused him to change his mind. However as we see the police raid the bar, his glass of alcohol is still on the bar. To me that means he only had a few minutes to high tail it out of there before they got there. I don’t think he can risk going back to the cabin to retrieve the barrel without getting cornered there. So that means he now only has a little over $100,000 left out of his $80,000,000 fortune. Being that we are witnessing his rapid descent into his own personal hell, I don’t think Walt is going to “pull a rabbit out of his hat” to help his family and redeem himself. I think he will die a penniless, sad and lonely man!
I don’t think we can necessarily assume Walt lost that barrel of money — the authorities went to that town to find Walt, not to his cabin that’s miles away and isolated. I’m not sure how they’d find him all that quickly.