r/breakingbad • u/CirclePoster • 18h ago
Something doesn't add up
In the car wash scene, Walter says he makes 7 million a year after expenses, but the amount he buried in the desert was apparently 80 million?? The series takes place over the span of 2 years...
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u/Saturday_Is_Coming 18h ago
7 million a year was the "salary'" as Gus' cook.
The 80 million were made during the solo career and cooperation with Lydia
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u/CirclePoster 17h ago
Nope, "3 milion for 3 months of your time" would add up to 12 milion
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u/BostallBandits 16h ago
But doesn't he split it with Jesse? Or am I misremembering?
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u/CirclePoster 16h ago
He splits it after a while, post-RV disposal
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u/BostallBandits 16h ago
No I mean doesn't he split his pay from Gus with Jesse as part of the deal to bring Jesse in after Gus refuses?
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u/CirclePoster 16h ago
He does, but before that he was cooking with Gale and getting the full amount
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u/Saturday_Is_Coming 16h ago
Then when they agree for a year, and not only three months, the pay is 15 million (to split up with Jesse)
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u/windmillninja 15h ago
That was their initial arrangement. Gus later comes to Walter and offers to keep him on indefinitely.
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u/Mybravlam 18h ago
Bro made a fuck ton of money with the stolen methylamine and exporting his product.
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u/windmillninja 15h ago
Walt made the majority of his money through Lydia distributing his product overseas.
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u/ThePiderman Have an A1 day 18h ago
8M was what Gus paid him. After he started his own operation, he got most of it, meaning far more than 7M. There's a time skip during the Crystal Blue Persuasion montage. I forget how long it is exactly, but during that time is when he makes most of his money.
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u/Flat-Path4088 18h ago
holly was still a little baby at the end. how much time could have gone by?
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u/ThePiderman Have an A1 day 18h ago
According to Marie in the same episode, about 3 months.... Apparently, he cooked around the clock.
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u/JimmyMcGill222 14h ago
That was with Gus. He made the most by far after working with Todd. Mike and his guys were out of the way, and they had the Lydia connection with the Czech Republic.
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u/Flat-Path4088 18h ago
yeah that montage with the tents going up in that town didnt really add up to me. the first cook they got like a few hundred grand. somehow that turned into 80 million real fast
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u/ThePiderman Have an A1 day 18h ago
On the table, there's 367k for each of them, so 1,1M total. That's for one cook Jesse and Walt did. With Jesse and Mike out of the picture, Walt dictates everything that happens to the money. Probably negotiated a low rate from Gus and Lydia and the rest. Totally spitballing, but let's say he ran off with 750k per cook. That's not totally out of the question. If they did just two cooks per week, he would have about 80M in a year. And that's assuming Walt and Todd wasn't able to scale up operations, which I'm sure they did.
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u/Flat-Path4088 17h ago
as i pointed out below, holly was still a tiny little baby at the end.
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u/ThePiderman Have an A1 day 17h ago
Right, I'm not saying they spent a year, just spitballing how long it would take with the same numbers. But they evidently expanded production, probably to fit the quotas from the Czech connection, as well as selling to Declan, who sells it in Arizona, and probably further north and west. None of this was available when Mike Jesse and Walt counted their 1,1M.
Also, when Mike dies, it's possible Walt gets his 5M that Declan owed him. That's a nice chunk of Walt's 80M.
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u/Flat-Path4088 17h ago
I guess its possible. even gus made that much and he had that super lab. way bigger than the mobile lab in the tent. 200 pounds a week. 7 million a week which would take 11 weeks to hit that number, not taking into account the expenses. I hate to be a naysayer, but it always stuck out to me how he got that huge amount that fast
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u/minnis93 17h ago
Using your 750k per cook number from above, and the 3 month (90 day) timeline mentioned elsewhere, they need to average 107 cooks so just over a cook a day. That's unrealistic if nothing changes (as we know that a house is tented for a few days), but no reason why they couldnt expand, both in terms of the yield per cook but also in terms of more equipment - so they tent a house, Walt cooks, then moves on to the next house the following day whilst the team exterminates and packs up.
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u/Young122915 17h ago
I think the time frame of Walt’s cooking career is 18 m to 2 years so this math works
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u/Shalltry 18h ago
During his solo career, Walt made a lot more money