The problem with Skyler and Walt is that they are from different social classes. He can’t love her because she’s too primitive for him. Walt is in love with Gretchen who is from his social class and closer to him in IQ.
There’s no love without admiration. You can’t love somebody you despise. Skyler does talking cushions. Look at Walt’s face in the scene with the talking cushions. And look at him in the scenes with Gretchen. After 20 years of marriage and two kids, you don’t react with great intensity to a discussion of who dumped whom with a random girlfriend from your youth unless your marriage is a sham.
Skyler is not bad. She’s just a vulgar person with unrefined sensibilities. You can’t have emotional closeness with somebody who’s much more primitive than you. The famous birthday hand job scene shows this perfectly. For Skyler, the thinking is, “husband has birthday. He deserves some form of sexual gratification. I provide it. Box ticked. Moving on.” That for people who are more complex sex is not simple mechanical release doesn’t occur to her. Similarly, it doesn’t occur to her that Walt might not want to be saved by a former girlfriend or a disabled teenage son. She sees everything mechanistically. “We need money. Here’s money. We take money. Problem solved. Moving on.” When she discovers Walt’s drug dealing, again, we see mechanistic thinking so common in primitive people. “Husband bad. Eject husband from life. Problem solved. Move on.” She is honestly confused that the teenage son doesn’t accept the ejection of the father he loves from his life. She doesn’t understand that other people don’t function like that.
The dumb confusion on Skyler’s face every time she is around people who are more complex is very typical. We can’t look at everything in terms of individuals. This isn’t about good individuals versus bad individuals. It’s a very well-written show about what happens when you don’t live your own life with your own people.
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