“He did it for himself, not for his family”

So, two days ago I finished the series for the very first time. Gotta say - it was incredible and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. Of course, after I finished the first thing I did was get on Reddit to start looking at some of the analysis and thoughts people have on the show.

One thing that has stuck out to me is that most people seem to have interpreted the final speech to Skyler very differently than I did. It’s the speech where Walt admits to Skyler that he didn’t do it for the family, he did it all for himself.

So, it seems that most people have just taken him at face value when he said that. But that was never my impression. My impression was that, knowing that this was the last time he’d likely ever speak to Skyler, he told one last lie in the hopes that his family would forgive him someday. I truly do believe that he did it all for his family, and telling Skyler “I did it for me” was just the thing she needed to hear to plant the seed of forgiveness.

So, we already know that Walt has no qualms with lying to Skyler and we know that his ego is pretty massive. I think he hated the idea of his family all hating him for the rest of his life. In his mind, he was still the good guy at some level, although after Hank died I think he realized just how much he had crossed the line. And I think he hated the fact that his family didn’t see things his way because he didn’t want to be remembered this way.

So I think he lied to Skyler in that last scene. I think he told her “I did it for me” because that’s the only thing she wanted to hear. By planting that seed, I think he hoped that with time Skyler would forgive him, or at the very least she would be more sympathetic towards him. Feelings and tensions are at their peak during this conversation but ten years later once Skyler and everyone else have cooled off a bit, I can definitely see Skyler at least telling his children his side of the story. Skyler didn’t seem to have a problem with the illegal stuff beyond the fact that it put them all in danger, but she really didn’t like how Walt had lied to her so much. I think that by telling her what she perceived to be the truth at the end, he ends things with her on as good of a note as he could hope for. And at least in his mind, this might redeem him just a bit.

But anyway, like I said it seems that everyone else has interpreted this as a true admission on his part so I’m curious if anyone else had the same thoughts I did. Or, if I’m totally off base tell me why!

Submitted July 31, 2018 at 04:35PM by Gimmedat_chicken https://ift.tt/2Kdi0Ch