‘Breaking Bad’: Walter White’s Crustless Sandwich Habit Has a Morbid and Creepy Backstory
The dark streaks of Breaking Bad are already widely known, even if the show still managed a dose of humanity to make it a worthy character study. Even then, fans love to look back at little details that prove how devious Walter White (Bryan Cranston) really was.
One thing picked up after Breaking Bad ended is that Walt seemed to acquire certain traits of those he killed. Some have found this a little chilling, almost on a serial killer level.
Then again, when fans look back at the people Walt killed, most of them were scummy individuals in the drug underworld. One of those characters had a particularly strange quirk Walter later assimilated.
A look back at Krazy-8 on ‘Breaking Bad’
Those who know their rogue’s gallery of Breaking Bad villains will remember Krazy-8 (sometimes spelled Crazy 8). This was Domingo Gallardo Molina, portrayed by Maximino Arciniega. Domingo became a meth distributor through family connections after failing to go to college and study music.
It was Domingo’s family being close with the Varga family that led to the meth connections. Nacho Varga hired Domingo to work for the meth organization run by Tuco Salamanca.
Eventually, Domingo started running his own covert distribution business, something Walt and Jesse (Aaron Paul) connected with when selling their own meth recipe.
The problem, of course, is most of these individuals were cold-blooded crooks who would kill to get ahead in the bleak world of meth production. Walt and Krazy-8 eventually had a horrific confrontation.
Krazy-8 always ate crustless sandwiches
Anyone who watched Breaking Bad in its first season will remember Krazy-8 being a big factor in the plots. Along the way, viewers learned some oddball quirks the character had. One of those was his refusal to eat sandwiches with bread crusts.
Much of this was established when Walt had to imprison Domingo in his basement. During this scenario, Walt fed Domingo sandwiches, yet noticed latter tearing the bread crusts off before eating.
As comedic as this was, things got violent eventually. Walt realized Domingo was intending to kill the former once being set free from the basement. As a result, Walt had to kill Domingo, and does so violently, if also reluctantly.
The rival drug lords later think Krazy-8’s disappearance was due to Tuco Salamanca and not Walt. Internally, though, it seems Walt is more ruthless than his rival drug kingpins.
Walt eerily acquires Krazy-8’s habit
Eventually, whenever Walt made sandwiches for himself or others, he cut the crusts off the bread himself. His habit of doing this became so commonplace in later seasons, a lot of people forgot it came from killing Krazy-8 in the first season.
In turn, this led to a wild theory permeating the internet since Breaking Bad left the air. Fans note Walter White obviously picks up little traits from everyone he kills. The theory is he does so because he felt remorse having to kill these people to stay alive himself.
Assimilating these little traits was like living out the life of those he had to bump off. As odd and creepy as this is, showrunner Vince Gilligan confirmed these little nods were intentional.
As Gilligan told The Hollywood Reporter: “There are probably examples of it we were not consciously aware of. But at a certain point we have Walt vomiting and he puts down a hand towel to kneel on. That is an exact visual echo of something Gus Fring did when he was vomiting to get the poison out of his system”.
Looking back at everyone Walt killed, he clearly acquired all their personality traits as part of a strange, personal catharsis.
Does that make Walt more sinister than fans thought?
It already took major balls for Walt to go into the pits of hell to do business in the world of meth. Viewers did find a sympathetic side to him due to his cancer and his basic sense of humanity for his family.
Seeing him acquire traits of his victims might change some perceptions to the negative. Or, it might make him seem more empathetic that he held a sense of extreme guilt over what he did.
How fans ultimately perceive Walt will have to be determined on fan forums. Yet, some columnists suggest Walt picked up the traits of his killed enemies to build the kind of power he craved in his pre-cancer years.
