Why Skyler White Isn't a Total Harpy
Image via breakingbadmania.com
In the time of social distancing and quarantine, I know I’m not the only one to binge watch one of my favorite TV shows on Netflix. In fact, last month, I found myself in the heat of New Mexico in the early 2000's learning how to cook blue meth on Breaking Bad. Now, I’ve been a fan of Bryan Cranston since his Malcolm in the Middle days and have come to really endear Aaron Paul as well, particularly in Bojack Horseman, but who I’d actually like to focus the spotlight on is Anna Gunn, and her tremendous performance as Walter “Heisenberg” White’s wife, Skyler.
Skyler is almost immediately shadowed as a sort of domestic baddie because she provides constant and continuous roadblocks for Walt to become completely enmeshed in the drug production industry. Although her character justifiably wants answers for Walt’s sketchy absenteeism, she is portrayed as a nag and a shrew because the writers designed the narrative around Walt’s experience. Just like he has to dodge law enforcement, such as the police and even his own DEA brother-in-law, Hank, Walt has to pacify Skyler’s suspicions to maintain his clandestine operation. And naturally, since Walt is on the defensive, Skyler’s bids for answers and intimacy come off as meddling just the same as they make it easier on the viewer to sympathize with the main protagonist.
Interestingly enough, though, in the early seasons, Skyler also acts as a foil to her soon to be kingpin husband. She represents the honest, wholesome, family-centered life he leaves behind for greed and glory. In the beginning of the series, she is an innocent and doting mother and while I will admit that that half-assed hand-job scene was cringe-worthy, the woman does write “50” in heart-healthy veggie bacon for her husband on his birthday breakfast. Unfortunately, no matter how loving Walt’s family (Hank and Marie included) is, he begins to resent the lack of dignity and control he feels he is missing in his life.
Walt’s animosity is evident when he fails to adequately address misbehavior at school, when he reluctantly cleans his student’s flashy sports car at his part time job, and when he tells off his boss at the carwash. Furthermore, Walt betrays bitterness for his circumstances when he admits he just wants to live out his days in peace without battling the effects of chemo. In this particular moment, it is easy to sympathize with Walt as a victim grasping for control. All this considered, I tend to think of Walt’s descent into the criminal underworld as a classic case of overcompensation. It’s obvious to the viewer pretty immediately that his character lacks balls and that his Cancer diagnosis suddenly makes him painfully aware of the ways in which he has settled and underachieved. Thus, the meth business is Walt’s last chance to build the chemical empire he feels he should have always built (evidenced by his resentment towards Gretchen and Elliott and their success with Grey Matter) and to earn the respect he feels he deserves.
Now, you may be wondering why I’m psychoanalyzing Walt instead of focusing on the female lead the title promises. Suffice it to say, I feel it’s critical to understand Walt before examining Skyler. This is because her actions are usually direct reactions to his behaviors and because examining her reflexes and decisions without context would be a disservice. I’ll be the first to admit the first time I watched Breaking Bad, Skyler wasn’t one of my favorite characters. She can certainly come off as highly critical and she has some toxic traits (i.e. passive aggression, ineffective communication, and failure to take responsibility for her own contributions to problems), yet despite these shortcomings, the vilification of her character throughout the show’s five year running time was unnerving.
Photo via breakingbad.fandom.com
At a public event a man reportedly asked her why her character is “such a bitch,” and yet another individual made a fan post asking where she lived so he could kill her – actually her – Anna Gunn, the actress, not Skyler, the fictional woman she portrays on TV. In addition, there are nasty blog posts and even several memes blasting her character, not to mention a vitriolic Facebook page called “Fuck Skyler White” with more than fifty thousand followers. Yeesh. Nevertheless, for as much as Skyler may be scorned by Breaking Bad’s fan base and despite the blatant misogyny inflamed by her lack of submissiveness and denial of a Stepford wife scenario, there are five key reasons I think Skyler’s character deserves a different lens.
First and foremost, Walt’s a fucking dick. Skyler is clearly the one who wears the pants in the relationship and who governs their finances, domestic lives, and consequential decisions. This lack of authority at home combined with passivity and a woe-is-me attitude, causes him to subconsciously resent her. Thus, in attempt to reclaim his fractured masculinity, Walt creates an entire drug empire behind Skyler’s back while abusing her psychologically, putting the family in harm’s way, and making her an accomplice to his criminal activity by using dirty money to pay their bills. Furthermore, Walt’s emotional distance is enough to freeze the white flame from one of his Bunsen burners.
The first time I watched this show I was maybe twenty-two and just finishing graduate school. I hadn’t made enough significant life decisions to really see that Walt is mostly only a victim of his own poor judgment. Sure, some of the bad luck that befalls him truly is unfortunate, like being obligated to sell his share of Grey Matter to pay rent or receiving a lung Cancer diagnosis. But when it comes down to it, Walt often gets in his own way, thwarting tremendous opportunities and squandering safe exits to the industry.
It’s clear Walt and Gretchen used to date and that after a falling through, she ended up with Elliot. Yet, even though Walt found and married Skyler, who he lusted after enough to devise a touching cross word puzzle ploy, he obviously still feels a punch in the gut whenever he sees his old friends together. His sullen attitude is then compounded by the fact that they run a multi-billion dollar company whereas he coughs up blood between high school chemistry classes.
This is why when Gretchen and Elliott offer him a position at the company, he declines out of pride. Walt tells Skyler he doesn’t want their “charity,” even though the agreement would be mutually beneficial. Walt would earn the money he needs for his Cancer treatment honestly while doing work he loves and getting much anticipated respect while Gretchen and Elliott would once again have access to Walt’s scientific brilliance. As a now thirty year old woman with deeper life experience, I can’t believe he didn’t take that deal. Accordingly, it was this early in my second viewing of the series that I lost my empathy for Walt. If he really wanted to provide for his family as he so adamantly claimed, he could have done so. Instead, he wanted to play king of the castle. His involvement in the production of methamphetamine was purely for his ego’s sake.
Worse, the deeper Walt got in his addiction with power, the more he began to maltreat his wife. He constantly neglected, devalued, and gaslighted Skyler. He pretended he didn’t have a second cell phone despite the fact that she heard it ring, denied her suspicions regarding his whereabouts although she correctly surmised he wasn’t being honest, and even pretended to have a fugue state to avoid taking responsibility. For Christ’s sake, the man consciously stripped down naked in a convenience store to make his lies more credible.
Furthermore, adopting his pseudonym’s dark and brooding personality, “Heisenberg” threatens Skyler once she does discover his secret. He avows she will only incriminate herself if she divulges his crimes to the police as she has been unknowingly spending his illegal earnings. In fact, when Skyler does try to get the authorities involved, he humiliates her and makes her feel powerless, implying she is merely an overemotional housewife and making her the bad guy in front of her son. Walt plays the good father and tends to baby Holly’s cries while admitting he hasn’t been the most attentive lately to the police, who are looking more and more skeptical. He tells Flynn not to be angry with his mother, eliciting pity and painting her black by proxy.
Finally, and most importantly, Walt literally murders people, all the while justifying his damnable actions as self-preservation. Throughout the series, “Heisenberg” kills dozens of people that pose a threat to his kingpin legacy, including Krazy 8, Gale, Gus, Jane, and Mike. The man is pure eek.
Photo by loophole.com
Yet Walter’s abhorrent behavior on its own isn’t enough to sully Skyler’s focal ethics; her moral compass is misdirected only when manipulation tactics and emotional reasoning betray her philosophical ideals. She struggles most when her sense of self is threatened by having to choose between two evils and when her decisions affect the wellbeing of her kids. This is the second reason Skyler’s character should be viewed through a more forgiving lens; she was continuously put in impossible situations with morally grey solutions.
For example, Walt uses money he earned illegally to pay for their combined assets, like their home and family cars. So if Skyler were to turn him in and if he were convicted of a federal crime, the government would likely forfeit those assets and leave Skyler and the kids destitute. Or at least entirely dependent on the hospitality of Hank and Marie. I can see how that would stress her out, particularly because she doesn’t want Flynn to be to evicted from his house or to find out his role model is actually a murderous drug lord because, well… holy trauma. Moreover, Skyler might face criminal charges as an accessory which might mean doing the proverbial right thing would leave Holly and Flynn more or less orphans.
If we examine the first time Skyler tried to involve the police, when the wound of discovering Walt’s new profession was still fresh, it is clear he backed her into a corner via some pretty unabashed manipulation, using her love for her son as a weapon to keep her docile. When Skyler called the police, Flynn was due home from school and he arrived before the officers. Like the viper he is, Walt pounced on this opportune moment to guilt trip his wife, doting on his son and making Skyler out to be the villain. And what mother wants to cause painful, psychological damage to her child? So Skyler stayed quiet in what was visibly a very uncomfortable scene, afraid of implicating herself and of emotionally damaging her son by dragging his father through the mud in some sort of Jerry Springer home drama.
Plus, as things began to escalate and Skyler continued to worry about safety, Walt became the buffer between the cartel, Gus, and the family. He was the one who maintained the peace, making sure all parties were either happy or just dead. It was his machinations and underhanded schemes that prevented anyone from retaliating against his loved ones. Thus, Skyler wisely surmised that if her husband didn’t fulfill his responsibilities to his crooked business associates, some pretty dangerous people would come out of the woodwork. So again, she stayed quiet. All things considered, I think I might have stayed stuck in her position too. “Uh, have a good day at work, honey. Please make sure we don’t get killed.”
It’s also worth mentioning that Skyler is scared shitless of this “Heisenberg,” persona she’s discovered. Walt is a man she thought was compassionate, gentle, and trustworthy, but who, as it turns out, she hardly ever really knew. Walt proves to be a total stranger after more than a decade of marriage. He is literally one of those guys you find out is a serial killer after attending one too many summer barbecues. It’s super creepy. Plus, how could someone not be terrified of a man who leads a surreptitious life cooking meth, associates with the Mexican drug cartel, and removes threats to his business with unmatched violence? Remember that whole “I am the one who knocks” speech? It still gives me shivers.
With all this in mind, it’s easy to pinpoint the third reason I feel empathy for Skyler; her mental health is compromised. A pending divorce is enough to put anyone off balance and send emotions spiraling, but to add fuel to fire, Skyler finds out her husband is a meth cook and is almost immediately coaxed into feigning an ordinary life in front of coworkers, neighbors, and even her own nuclear family. Her life quickly becomes a twisted theatrical performance in which she must wear a mask of civility or risk unraveling the few threads holding her family together. Understandably, she is not always able to pull off this guise of normalcy and often wears a sneer or a blank stare as she attempts to navigate the murky waters of a damned marriage.
Speaking of water, the scene where Skyler gets up from dinner and walks directly into the freezing cold pool reminds me of one of my favorite classic novels, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. If you aren’t familiar with the text, the story’s protagonist, Edna, slowly breaks away from a life of ennui and obligation to her husband only to discover her new lover wants to marry her and thereby cast her in the same role she spent years escaping. This leads her to realize she cannot elude the social constructs regarding men’s and women’s roles in society and depresses her to the point that she swims out as far as she can in the ocean and drowns herself. While this may seem dreadfully dismal, Edna’s suicide is actually an act of rebellion and one in which she frees herself from a world she cannot accept, making her suicide, in a perverted way, empowering.
Photo credit to fastcompany.com
In terms of Breaking Bad, Skyler’s submergence in the family swimming pool has similar meaning. Her actions reveal a few things: a visceral expression of her desire for escape, a call for help (as she is hardly alone enough to properly execute a suicide), and a desperate grasp at power. It is this psychological episode that allows her to prompt Hank and Marie to take the kids for a while, which she believes will keep them safely away from Walt and his shady dealings. Though, honestly, I can’t blame Skyler for having an emotional breakdown considering her circumstances. She is suffering simultaneously from a myriad of mental health issues including anxiety, depression, and cognitive dissonance as she struggles to reconcile her past memories of Walt with the monster she has come to know in the present. And let’s not forget that sexual assault scene that ended with Skyler’s underwear yanked down, a bump on her head, and green face mask smeared against the refrigerator.
This all being said, it’s no wonder Skyler makes several attempts at escape, which coincidentally is the fourth reason I think she deserves a little slack. It’s no walk in the park extricating oneself from an abusive relationship and even more so when an abusive partner wields considerable influence and power. Skyler makes several attempts to get out of Walt’s grasp and even though she is largely unsuccessful, her efforts warrant merit. Victim blaming should not be society’s justification for hating Skyler. When watching someone else make mistakes, it’s easy to feel omniscient and convince ourselves we aren’t so fallible, much like movie-goers often tease characters who trip while running from a monster, but reality is much more sobering. We would probably trip too. We also may not be able to escape Walt. It’s just something we refuse to be vulnerable enough to admit and we get away with it because we’ll never be put to the test.
When Skyler realizes her husband is no longer committed to their marriage – when she realizes she is married not only to a liar, but a drug peddler – divorce is her first recourse. She finds a lawyer, kicks Walt out of the house, changes the locks, and serves him papers. Walt, however, undercuts her at every turn – refusing to sign the papers, breaking into the house, moving back in without permission, and intimidating her by suggesting she needs his protection. He even rejects her most reasonable appeals – like the practical desire that Flynn drives a safe, mid-range vehicle typical of a middle class family – by buying him a flashy, sports car anyways… twice.
Image via YouTube and Breaking Bad
I get why Skyler fucked Ted. It’s certainly not her most gracious moment, but it’s understandable. She’s separated from her husband, in desperate need of a little R and R, and seeks affection, appreciation, and a sense of control in the arms of another man. At one point Skyler breaks down, revealing to her legal counsel that although she’s aware she’s subconsciously having an affair as a last ditch hope to get Walt to leave her, it is also the only part of her day she doesn’t feel like she’s “drowning.” Holler back to those pervasive mental health issues. Those little buggers present themselves in just the strangest ways.
Indeed, the scene where Skyler admits her affair is a captivating one. In a strange and unpredictable power play, she whispers nonchalantly “I fucked Ted,” as Walt hands her a salad to put on the dinner table. Although these three words initially come off as vindictive and spiteful (and even though they are), I think they serve an underlying purpose; Skyler is trying to take her power back. She wants to make Walt devalue and discard her because it would be an escape. Unfortunately, at this point, Walt wants Skyler simply because he is arrogant and entitled; he views her as more of a possession than a person. In fact, she herself concedes, “I’m not your wife; I’m your hostage,” in a tell-tale moment in which she defiantly shows obedience does not equal allegiance.
Although Skyler essentially “breaks bad” over the course of the show (her worst moment revealing itself when she suggests Jesse be taken out), she does finally build the courage to physically fight back when Hank goes missing and she pulls a knife on Walt. She takes back control when she lifts the wool from Flynn’s eyes and reveals his father for the scary stranger he really is. However, being that Skyler herself is not a skilled fighter, she is easily overtaken by her larger husband. Yet, Flynn is the key here. Flynn, weighing the new information he has regarding his father’s endeavors with the urgent mania of his words and actions finally has a long awaited epiphany. He acts as a buffer between Walt and Skyler, simultaneously creating a dynamic where his father finally has to leave.
At this point, despite the awful things Skyler does by proxy, the fifth reason I am able to muster a little compassion for her is that she feels remorse. In season five, it’s painfully obvious she hates herself for what she has become, particularly when she suggests Walt “take care” of Jesse. She mutters “We’ve come this far… what’s one more?” Yet, as she mouths the words, her seemingly unfeeling eyes are scared and she is visibly shaking. Since Skyler already knows Walt has eliminated far more dangerous men than Jesse, it is safe to say she isn’t worried about his capabilities. Instead, her distress comes from self-loathing and turmoil within that makes her viscerally sick and anxious. The hate dripping from her lips when she says the words isn’t just for her husband and Jesse, but for herself as well.
In truth, Skyler admits wrongdoing more than once. When Walt antagonizes her and criticizes her inability to devise a legitimate plan of reprisal against him, she spits back, “I'm compromised…I'm a coward. I can't go to the police. I can't stop laundering money. I can't even keep you out of my bed.” By her own words, it’s rather clear Skyler can’t forgive herself for her weaknesses or for her failures. A person who doesn’t feel remorse doesn’t actively list their shortcomings as if they’re in confession. Skyler, however, is shamefaced and culpable, and admits awaiting the return of Walt’s cancer because she feels his death is her only exit strategy. Besides, I can’t help but think back to how harshly she judges herself when she smokes those three and a half cigarettes while pregnant with Holly. She is so guilt-ridden she flushes the rest of the carton like a delinquent teenager.
Image by mtv.com
As a person, Walt tends to lead others down a fallacious path, a phenomenon which may be observed via his interactions perhaps most notably with Jesse, but also pervasively with Skyler. He corners and blackmails those who once trusted him and uses their loved ones as leverage to manipulate and control their behaviors as it behooves him, guiding them down an irredeemable rabbit-hole. It is Walt who pressures his underage son to shoot whiskey until he pukes in the pool. It is Walt who bastardizes the student-teacher relationship by manipulating Jesse (who clearly seeks approval from a father figure). It is Walt who demeans the sanctity of marriage. It is Walt that gets Hank killed. So, if Walt lost his morality with his hair, why do we loathe Skyler and laud her husband?
The answer is seemingly simple. As the viewer, we watch the show so that we may vicariously enjoy the thrill Walt seeks in Breaking Bad, yet Skyler provides a counterweight to his actions that interrupt the fun. Although her character is trapped living with an ogre of a husband, forsaken in a world of morally grey decisions, suffering from mental health issues, unable to escape, and consciously remorseful, she becomes an easy character to hate as Walt’s foil. And yet, there is a deeper reason society may have condemned Skyler from the beginning and it’s one I find truly unsettling.
It may be that in 2008, and perhaps even now in 2020, people still struggle[d] to accept women’s modern roles in society as decision makers, as analytical thinkers, and as independent people expressing free will. It may be that as a society, a “boys will be boys” mentality is adopted for men while women are still expected to be saints. And it may be that the power struggle we pretend to have eliminated between men and women is still very much alive. While it’s disquieting to acknowledge that viewer’s mass contempt for Skyler isn’t solely the result of brilliant screenplay and her position as Walt’s adversary, it’s important we explore why so many people are unable to acknowledge her as a fallible human being with multifaceted emotions and behaviors – just like the show’s protagonist. Whatever the reason Skyler’s been the target for so much scorn, her character deserves reconsidering and Anna Gunn deserves to feel safe at home.