The last episode hinted at why Jesse (Aaron Paul) got involved in making meth, suggesting he drifted into the business naturally as a troubled young man. Coming from very different circumstances, Walt’s (Bryan Cranston) foray into the business makes a little less sense, but this episode reveals a lot about why he did.
The episode has Walt and Skyer (Anna Gunn) attending a party held by the wealthy Elliot (Adam Godley) and Gretchen Schwartz (Jessica Hecht), the owners of the company Gray Matter that Walt helped found (though he left before the company made it big, as he explains in season five). The exchange between the former colleagues is awkward, clearly indicating some sort of falling out previously. When Elliot offers to aid Walt in his cancer battle (with a twinge of condescension, at least in Walt’s eyes), the terminally ill chemistry teacher is insulted. Also suggested, here and in flashbacks the third episode, is some kind of past relationship between Walt and Gretchen, possibly the catalyst for said falling out.
The show only offers scraps of characters’ pasts, so we don’t yet know exactly what happened between Walt and the Schwartzes, but the way it motivates Walt suggested he still hasn’t let it go. He’d rather just let the cancer kill him than take their help. When his family talks him out of this option (the intervention scene is all at once laughably awkward, uncomfortable, mildly hostile, and highly emotional, which makes it seem more real), he chooses meth instead, even after the ordeal he and Jesse just went through.
When Walt clumsily entered the world of meth in the first episode, it seemed out of desperation, and without knowing what he was getting into. When he returns at the end of this one, he is fully and consciously aware and invested in his choice, even though he has a much easier choice available to him. This can’t just be Walt’s pride making him do this; there is clearly some sort of grudge that he harbors that impels him to take the criminal path. Understanding that makes Walt's actions from here on out a lot more plausible than before.
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