Heisenberg was Walter White’s alter ego developed as a result of his bitter departure from Gray Matter Technologies. Walt doesn’t seem to open up about his past and friendship with Gretchen and Elliot, who are now billionaires benefited from his research. What shapes up Walt’s flashback is based on our understanding of his character. Somehow, the show’s most crucial part comes out as Walt’s backstory when he formed a company, Gray Matter Technologies, with his grad. What makes ‘Breaking Bad’ a fascinating show is the manner in which it is able to bring out the little details that do not contribute to the plot but gives immense depth and insight to its characters. It is here where we see the first instance of Walt showing his hidden, dark persona. He meets Pinkman and blackmails him to be his partner in cooking meth or he will turn him over to the police.

Walt immediately recognizes his former student, Jesse Pinkman, who escape from the cops and run away. He goes on a ride-along with his DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank where Hank busts a few meth-heads. Walt realizes the impact this news will have on his family and decides to keep quiet. One day he collapses and is taken to a hospital where he is told that he has terminal lung cancer and only has a couple of more years to live.

What becomes clear here is that Walt is a man who has suppressed his emotions and left his dreams behind and got caught up with the mundanities and practicalities of real life. We soon learn that his research on proton radiography helped a team win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1985. Towards the first half of Season 1, we see Walter White as a soft-spoken, mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher who loves and struggles for his family by working part-time at a car wash.

Walter white alter ego