It's time we talk about this.
Everyone's always like "Walt should have just taken Gretchen and Elliot's money. His pride got in the way. He could have just gotten his cancer cured and everything would have been fine"
And sure. That would work if Walt was a different person with a different brain.
But he loved Gretchen. More than he ever loved Skyler. And we don't get a lot of details about what exactly the blow up was between them, but the resentment is obviously still boiling.
If Walt depended on their money, that would mean TALKING to Gretchen and Elliot again. And if he didn't cook meth, Walt's midlife crisis could have taken the form of going back to work for Gray Matter. Elliot seems like a nice guy, but who can really say Walt is wrong, that Elliot would bring him back into the fold, use some of his ideas, and then try to cut him out when he (inevitably) becomes hard to work with?
I don't think Walt taking the money would have ended any better than the cannon timeline. In fact, I could easily see how it would end in a murder-murder-suicide.
So am I saying Walt had NO CHOICE but to do everything he did? No. There was another job opportunity Walt could have taken. But that's a post for another time.
