Breaking Bad S3E7: Walt Meets a Soul Mate
Oct. 29th, 2024 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerIn episode S3E7 of Breaking Bad Walt meets a soul mate. It's in a fairly unlikely location, at least for Walt. It's in a meth lab. Drug lord Gus has hired Walt to cook for him, tempting him with not just a lucrative cash offer— "$3 million for 3 months of work"— but also with a commercial quality chem lab for making the meth. Gale is a chemist who worked with Gus in setting up the lab and will serve as Walt's assistant.
When Walt first meets Gale after taking the job, we learn that Gale is kind of like a 20-years-younger version of Walt... though maybe without quite as much bitterness. Like Walt, Gale has a B.S. and M.S. in chemistry. Like Walt, he was in a chemistry Ph.D. program until something happened that caused him to feel frustrated and leave it behind. In Walt's case it was something going wrong in his relationship with his ex-fiance, who wound up marrying his research partner instead. (Specifics about that breakup/love triangle haven't been made clear at this point in Breaking Bad.) In Gale's case it was more prosaic: his disillusionment with the amount of office politics required to advance in academia. (As one who left a Ph.D. program for a somewhat similar reason I can absolutely relate.)
Walt's eyes positively glow as Gale rattles off the details of his C.V. While Gale's academic pedigree isn't as sterling as Walt's (Walt studied at Cal Tech) he's the closest thing to a peer, or at least a mini-me, that Walt has met in probably 20 years.
Walt and Gale have more in common than just a strong academic background. Similar thought processes brought them from legit potential careers in chemistry to making illicit drugs. Walt never explained his reasons out loud, other than "I need money for my cancer treatment and to support my family after I die, and I can make drugs better than the clowns who are doing it right now" but Gale articulates his thought process clearly— and it matches up with how I've always interpreted Walt's thinking. Gale explains he figures someone is always going to be making these drugs, as there's a huge demand for them. Decades of the War on Drugs hasn't stemmed the demand. Since the reality of drug use is embedded in society, Gale figures (a) he might as well be a person who gets paid for supplying it while (b) delivering the users a much higher quality product than they'd get from almost anywhere else.
In the space of just this one episode Walt and Gale start to develop a bromance of sorts. Beyond even their similar chemistry backgrounds they have similar intellectual mindsets. They geek out talking about a coffee-making science project Gale is running. They have a chess game going while cooking meth. Gale mentions a line from a poem by Walt Whitman... and Walt wants to hear him recite it. It's a like a magical bonding moment for both men. For Walk, it's like the first time in 20 years someone's discussed poetry with him. For Gale, it's like the first time in many years anyone's cared about his interest in poetry.
Sadly for these two sudden soul mates, they're on a collision course. It's pretty obvious in terms of plot narrative and characters that Gus is pairing Gale with Walt to learn Walt's recipe so that Gus can get rid of Walt. We know that Gus doesn't trust Walt long-term. He sees his family relationship to a DEA agent and his friendly relationship with foolish junkie Jesse as major risks. Gale clearly has all the ability to do what Walt does; he just needs to learn the secret recipe. I expect to see Gus move to kill Walt before even the 3 months are up, as Gale can almost certainly glean the formula faster than that.
When Walt first meets Gale after taking the job, we learn that Gale is kind of like a 20-years-younger version of Walt... though maybe without quite as much bitterness. Like Walt, Gale has a B.S. and M.S. in chemistry. Like Walt, he was in a chemistry Ph.D. program until something happened that caused him to feel frustrated and leave it behind. In Walt's case it was something going wrong in his relationship with his ex-fiance, who wound up marrying his research partner instead. (Specifics about that breakup/love triangle haven't been made clear at this point in Breaking Bad.) In Gale's case it was more prosaic: his disillusionment with the amount of office politics required to advance in academia. (As one who left a Ph.D. program for a somewhat similar reason I can absolutely relate.)
Walt's eyes positively glow as Gale rattles off the details of his C.V. While Gale's academic pedigree isn't as sterling as Walt's (Walt studied at Cal Tech) he's the closest thing to a peer, or at least a mini-me, that Walt has met in probably 20 years.
Walt and Gale have more in common than just a strong academic background. Similar thought processes brought them from legit potential careers in chemistry to making illicit drugs. Walt never explained his reasons out loud, other than "I need money for my cancer treatment and to support my family after I die, and I can make drugs better than the clowns who are doing it right now" but Gale articulates his thought process clearly— and it matches up with how I've always interpreted Walt's thinking. Gale explains he figures someone is always going to be making these drugs, as there's a huge demand for them. Decades of the War on Drugs hasn't stemmed the demand. Since the reality of drug use is embedded in society, Gale figures (a) he might as well be a person who gets paid for supplying it while (b) delivering the users a much higher quality product than they'd get from almost anywhere else.
In the space of just this one episode Walt and Gale start to develop a bromance of sorts. Beyond even their similar chemistry backgrounds they have similar intellectual mindsets. They geek out talking about a coffee-making science project Gale is running. They have a chess game going while cooking meth. Gale mentions a line from a poem by Walt Whitman... and Walt wants to hear him recite it. It's a like a magical bonding moment for both men. For Walk, it's like the first time in 20 years someone's discussed poetry with him. For Gale, it's like the first time in many years anyone's cared about his interest in poetry.
Sadly for these two sudden soul mates, they're on a collision course. It's pretty obvious in terms of plot narrative and characters that Gus is pairing Gale with Walt to learn Walt's recipe so that Gus can get rid of Walt. We know that Gus doesn't trust Walt long-term. He sees his family relationship to a DEA agent and his friendly relationship with foolish junkie Jesse as major risks. Gale clearly has all the ability to do what Walt does; he just needs to learn the secret recipe. I expect to see Gus move to kill Walt before even the 3 months are up, as Gale can almost certainly glean the formula faster than that.
