Gray Matter

Episode Summary & Review

Summary

At a birthday party for a successful former science colleague, Walter is offered a job; Jesse tries gaining legitimate employment but winds up back cooking meth, and an inferior kind at that; Skyler assembles the family for an intervention to get Walter to agree to chemotherapy, but he’s concerned about quality-of-life issues and their financial difficulties.

Our Take

Walt refuses Elliott Schwartz’s offer of a job and paid treatment — because accepting it means admitting Gray Matter, the billion-dollar company he co-founded and walked away from for $5,000, was the mistake that defined his life. The intervention scene, where Walt is supposed to decide about chemotherapy and instead refuses everything, is the season’s emotional core. Skyler’s confusion and Walt’s explanation — “I am awake” — lay out the show’s real tragedy: not the cancer, the pride.