Walter White, Family Man

Before you read on, I should tell you (since I don’t want to receive any death threats) that this contains spoilers up to and including the most recent Breaking Bad episode, Granite State. If you’re not up to speed and don’t wish to have the show spoiled for you, you continue reading at your own risk. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

When he created Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan pledged to turn Mr. Chips into Scarface over five seasons, and few would dispute that he has successfully done this. Mild-mannered chemistry teacher Walter White has become a methamphetamine kingpin and multiple killer, his actions devastating and sometimes ending the lives of others. The majority of the people he’s killed or ordered dead (Gus, Emilio, Gale, Krazy-8, Mike’s guys in prison) were not innocents, although this does not justify their deaths. His determination not to kill Hank, and his pleas for his life to be spared, do not outweigh his enormous role in his brother-in-law’s death. However, had it been anyone at the DEA other than Hank who was onto him, Walt would surely have taken him out in minutes. What stopped him killing Hank, and what prevented him from accepting his death, was the fact that he was family. This devotion to family, often irrational (immoral or not, killing Hank during the events of Blood Money would have made things far easier for Walt), has been a constant thread throughout the series. Some have questioned the authenticity of Walt’s insistence that everything he does is for his family, which is understandable, given his various atrocities. However, I think it’s entirely genuine, or at least, I think that Walt thinks it’s entirely genuine.

The fifth episode of the first season, Gray Matter, is a hugely significant one in terms of the future direction of the series. At this point, Walt and Jesse have already cooked meth and been responsible for two deaths and the destruction of one bathtub, but it’s not too late for them to get out. Walt’s former business partner, Elliot Schwartz (who may still have an important role to play in the finale), offers to pay for Walt’s cancer treatment, and he refuses, out of pride. He then tells Skyler that he has accepted the offer, but actually pays for it using meth money. This maintains his pride in the eyes of Elliot and his wife Gretchen, but not those of Walt’s family. However, it does leave him in control of his own destiny, and doing what he thinks is right for his family. When he dies, months or years from that moment, he will have left behind a nest egg which can be used to pay for his children’s education and anything else that Skyler may struggle to afford without him. Walt hopes that they will not find out how he made the money, at least while he is still alive, although this becomes impossible as time goes on.

Of course, as Skyler points out in season four’s Cornered, Walt’s involvement in the drug trade puts his family in danger. Despite Walt’s insistence that he is the danger, and that he is the one who knocks, there is nothing to stop Gus from killing his family, as he later threatens to do. This leads to Walt killing Gus, which takes him in deeper and places his family in (arguably) more danger. Skyler does not buy this line of reasoning, later in the episode delivering the brilliant, Ron-Swanson-esque line, “somebody has to protect this family from the man who protects this family.” She does this acknowledging that Walt Jr. will likely blame her for taking away his new car, and take Walt’s side, because that is what’s really best for the family. Skyler is prepared to appear to be the villain in the eyes of her son (and apparently those of many viewers; I find her annoying sometimes, but I don’t understand the level of hate that seems to exist for her) because she is doing what she believes to be best for her family. On the face of it, she appears to be right and Walt appears to be wrong. However misguided he may be, though, I believe that Walt still thinks he is doing the right thing for his family.

As the stakes get higher, almost nobody is safe from Walt’s destructive empire. Even Jesse, like a son to him in many ways, is eventually ordered dead, albeit reluctantly. He doesn’t explicitly threaten Saul, who, whatever else he may be, has always been loyal to Walt, but he does attempt to intimidate him into coming to New Hampshire with him, with the implied threat of violence. Yet Hank, the man who posed the biggest threat to Walt’s safety, was never a target, because he was family. Family is as important to Walt Sr. as breakfast is to Walt Jr., which invites a delightful but highly irrelevant parallel with Michael and George Michael Bluth. Although it is his devotion to family that ultimately appears to have brought down his empire, he never let it go. Why? I think it became an illusion to himself, a justification.

From the very beginning, Walt knew that what he was doing was illegal and immoral. He was doing it for his family, but it was still wrong. This became his go-to line, and even when the danger to him and his family became much to severe to justify his continuing involvement, he persisted in telling Skyler – and himself – that he was doing it for his family. If he could convince himself that what he was doing was okay, then he could be a good person, in his own mind. When it came to killing people – Gale, Gus, Mike, and nine convicts who might squeal on him – he justified it by telling himself and Jesse that it had to be done. Be it to protect the two of them, Brock, Andrea, Badger, Walt’s family; it was morally sound as it protected innocent people. Walt convinced himself of this so that he could live with himself.

This finally became impossible when Hank was shot dead before his eyes. In that moment, it was all for nothing, because that one thing for which Walt had done it all – his family – had been affected. The White/Schrader family had been disintegrating ever since Hank went for that fateful dump in Gliding Over All, demonstrated by that confrontation between Skyler and Marie over Holly and the incredibly awkward dinner scene. Yet there was still love there; as soon as Marie learned that Hank had Walt in handcuffs, she went to her sister to give her a way out. She took the opportunity to gloat and rub it in a little, but says that Skyler’s concern over her children’s safety, so there has “got to be hope for [Skyler] that whatever Walt did to her can be undone.” Marie said that she has “been forcing herself to remember” that Skyler is her sister, suggesting that she has a devotion to family similar to Walt’s. Walt can go to prison, and the rest of the family can work through everything, together.

Yet Hank’s death, and Walt’s presumed responsibility, changes everything yet again. Skyler knows, when she gets home and finds Walt packing, that something is very wrong, since Hank had him in custody. Walt Jr. doesn’t want to believe his aunt’s story, but his father soon gives him no choice. Walt angrily refutes Skyler’s accusation that he killed Hank, and there are tears in his eyes as he says that he tried to save him, but nobody has any reason to trust him or believe him any longer. In the confrontation that ensues, Skyler is the first to brandish a knife, but she does so in self-defence and does not attempt to use it until Walt approaches her. Had Walt Jr. not pulled his father off his mother, there’s no telling what he might have done. As he holds a bloody knife, Walt bellows at his wife, cowering behind their son, while their infant daughter cries in the background, “What the hell is wrong with you? We’re a family!” Only then does he realise how ludicrous this idea sounds. The only way this can ever truly be a family is if they are rid of “the danger.” He quickly analyses the situation as his son calls the police on him, and it occurs to him what he has to do. In this moment, Walt steps up, and protects the family from the man who protects the family. He grabs the baby and runs, before later dropping her at a fire station, ensuring that his whole family is united against him.

Walt then makes ‘that’ phonecall to his wife, knowing full well the police are listening and tracking him, despite Skyler telling him the opposite. This call serves three major purposes: to give Skyler an alibi to cover her involvement in Walt’s crimes; to make Walt appear still more monstrous than he is to further unite the rest of his family; and to air some legitimate grievances he has with Skyler. He complains that she never believed in him, saying that he was in over his head, despite the fact that she has now been proven right. He says that she was “never grateful for anything [he] did for this family,” which clearly still upsets him; even though it should now be clear even to Walt that what he was doing harmed his family more than it helped, he remains angry that Skyler never thought he was doing the right thing when he did. He all but confesses to killing Hank, before ending the call and going to meet the vacuum-cleaner repairman to start his new life.

In Granite State, when Walt is talking to Saul, it is clear that his major concern is the welfare of his family. He’s also keen to get revenge on Jack and his crew for killing Hank, but first and foremost he wants to get money to his family. Saul advises him that turning himself in would actually be the best thing for his family, but Walt ignores him. Again, he makes the wrong decision, but again, it still looks like he thinks he’s doing the right thing for his family. By running, he keeps himself out of jail, but I can’t imagine jail being less fun than being confined to a cabin with nobody to talk to. His first concern upon arriving is New Hampshire is how he can communicate with the outside world. When the vacuum-cleaner repairman comes to visit, he asks about his family. Three or four months down the line (judging by his hair growth), he asks the vacuum-cleaner repairman to give his money to his family when he dies. Once he has boxes, he decides to send a pile of cash to his family via Walt Jr.’s friend Louis. When he speaks to his son on the phone, it’s clear just how much his family means to him, especially when he pleads with him to accept the money. (I’ll be writing more on this and Walt’s other motives in the next couple of days). When Walt Jr. shouts at his father to die, and tells him he wants nothing more to do with him, something finally clicks in Walt’s head. The best thing for his family, as the very wise Saul Goodman had earlier told him, would be to turn himself in. He phones the DEA and does just that, then orders a drink and waits for them to come and get him. (He later changes his mind, but again, more on that later.)

I am not attempting to excuse Walt’s despicable actions; there is no defence for much of what he has done throughout the run of Breaking Bad. He often acted rashly and did things that were not in the best interests of his family, but I firmly believe that, most of the time, he thought he was doing the right thing for his wife and children. He was frequently wrong and usually misguided, but he believed he was being a good father and husband; and in the end, isn’t that what really counts?

The answer is no.