Pluribus - Does This Show REALLY Deserve the Hype?
https://youtu.be/svk6jwszkJU

Telling Walt “I feel sorry for you” is probably the worst attack on his ego possible

When I watched Breaking Bad the second time, I immediately realized this scene was the key. That Walt was absolutely an unreliable narrator about what happened at Grey Matter, and that he likely destroyed his relationship & the working relationship because of a combination of his pride and insecurity. It's so good

Walter probably thought that if he left Grey Matter, they would fail without him.

This scene is, imo, the key to my reading that there was no moment when Walter White “became” Heisenberg; Walt always had these negative qualities to him, the selfishness, the arrogance, the eternal need to paint himself as the hero or the victim in any situation. Cancer just gave him a subconscious excuse to let his wildest impulses out, and lie to himself that he was doing it all for noble reasons.

theres a scene in s2 ep5 or ep6, where walt is talking about diamonds to his students in class, and awkwardly remarks about how General electric gave a 10$ gift to the man that invented circonia diamond and made GE billions

you can feel the resentment in his every word, scene is very awkward

Mike said it best.   "You...and your PRIDE, and your EGO".  That pretty much sums it up.

12 years after it ended and people are still making video essays about whole new events or events regarding BB, im still clicking on them asap. best...show...ever

This scene showed it was never about getting health insurance

8:26 his face here, turning into this sinister entity. It’s soo good. Bryan Cranston absolutely killed this role.

You realize his entire crusade was revenge against his former girlfriend, his former best friend and the success they had without him. His anger is at himself for letting it slip away by his deep insecurity. His drift for years numbing the pain and regret of his failure which he refuses to face and eventually projects as a betrayal. His ego was fragile and it was only the death sentence that galvanized him to prove to himself and his imaginary foes what he was capable of by himself. He had to do things without anyone that was the linch pin. He would accept Jesse because he could play the mentor but a true collaborator was out of the question. He wanted to prove that he needed no one and nobody, not his girlfriend’s money, not his friend’s business savvy. He wanted to stand alone because then he could fill the hole of his insecurity.

I never thought of the concept of someone becoming addicted to the adrenaline of lying and confrontation. Makes me wonder how many relationships crumble because someone thinks that way

The fact that someone can analyze this scene as if these were real people having a real conversation is a testament to this brilliant cast.

My Dad is a textbook narcissist and I think one of the reasons I loved the show was that it’s a bit of a character study of this personality type. My Dad is quite intelligent and good at what he does, and he seems quite friendly and affable at first but his professional life has been a never-ending series of perceived betrayals, lawsuits and drama. As a kid I thought, gee Dad is so unlucky to always meet these bad people in business. As an adult I saw first hand how he would perceive any little slight as an insult or challenge to HIS authority and it would quickly lead to serious conflict. It never stops, and it is almost as if he enjoys fighting and repeating the sob stories about how so-and-so turned out to be a bad partner, another betrayal. That spills over into the personal life too and my Dad has estranged and alienated more and more people over time, including me his own daughter, his other children and multiple wives. When Gretchen says “this isn’t you”, I can so relate. It took me a long time to reconcile that the Dad I thought I knew did not exist. Great, great writing and character development in this show.

Walt doesn’t have that 0.111958% in the body

I love how they use swear words for effect in Breaking Bad. If every conversation was just using the f word as an adjective, then it wouldn’t have any effect. Hearing it be used suddenly in a setting like this adds weight to it and it catches the viewer off guard. Genius.

What I think is really interesting about that last scene when Walt lies about Gretchen and Elliot being broke is not ONLY is he doing it because he wants to manipulate Skylar, but his ego also enjoys the narrative of Gretchen and Elliot being BENEATH him. This not only covers up Walt’s tracks, but also gives Walt a semi-ego boost, that prideful: “not even the richest man i know can help a man like me”, which manipulates Skylar twice-fold because now she thinks that Walt is the ONLY man who can save himself

Never considered that Walt omitted his past with Gretchen wow

This says a lot too about Walt's "transformation" into Heisenburg, that it actually goes way further back before the events of Breaking Bad. He was always Heisenburg.

One thing I didn’t see in the comments is that after Walt apologised 3 times and that didn’t work he got colder, prodding her with lies. He really did not want to answer to her. He in fact wanted her to leave with no answer. Master manipulator