Breaking Bad was one of the most satisfying television shows ever made, although, despite very few loose threads, there are still some questions that audiences are clamoring for answers to. While the spin-off prequel Better Call Saul and the epilogue movie El Camino addressed some of the most pressing mysteries in this show’s universe, there are still some gaps in the timeline that could use further explanation. Whether it’s concrete details on events that occurred offscreen or more nuanced insight into the character’s backstories, audience discussion around Breaking Bad’s mysteries continues well after the finale aired.

While Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has often given his opinion on the unanswered questions that the show left behind, some mysteries never received a definitive canonical answer. As viewers continue to discuss the early Skyler White moments that had audiences rooting for her, a show as thematically rich and narratively dense as Breaking Bad has endless discussion points. While these mysteries may never be answered definitively, the legacy of Breaking Bad means it will likely remain one of television's most talked-about shows for years to come.

10 The Years Between Gray Matter And J. P. Wynne

Breaking Bad never showed why Walt never reached his full potential

Breaking Bad does shed some light on Walter White’s backstory, yet many details about how he ended up where he did remain a mystery. It’s clear that Walt studied at the California Institute of Technology with his then-best friend, Elliott Schwartz, and together they founded Gray Matter Technologies. Walt’s groundbreaking research on proton radiography also contributed to a project that won the Nobel Prize, and he was briefly engaged to his lab assistant Gretchen before he freaked out about her family’s wealth and left her without warning on the weekend of the Fourth of July due to his own insecurity.

While Walt’s fragile ego led to him selling his share in Gray Matter for $5000, he had many more opportunities in the years before he ended up as a struggling teacher at J. P. Wynne High School. Shortly before Walt Jr. was born, Walter was still an active scientist at Sandia Laboratories, but the details of how he became a teacher and later took a degrading second job at the A1A Car Wash are unclear. Whether Walt’s ego caused him to quit or be fired, or if Jr.’s cerebral palsy forced him to stop pursuing his ambitions, remains a mystery.

9 Walt's Mom

Breaking Bad mentioned Walt’s mom, but she was never in the show

If Walter White were ever self-reflective enough to visit a psychologist, the first questions they would ask would be about his parents, yet the details about his upbringing were never fully explored in Breaking Bad. While it was revealed that Walt’s father died when he was six years old of Huntington’s disease, and watching his dad depend on others influenced his own reluctance to undergo cancer treatment, viewers learned very little about Walter’s mother. It’s clear that Walt’s mom was still alive during Breaking Bad, and Walter even lied about going to visit her in season 2’s “4 Days Out.”

However, viewers never meet Mrs. White, and while it’s clear that Walter was not very close to his mother, it’s hard not to wonder what her personality was like since she raised such a manipulative and narcissistic son. It would also be fascinating to see how Mrs. White reacted to the news that her only son grew up to be the notorious meth kingpin known as Heisenberg. These are major gaps in Walter’s backstory that would give great insight into the man he became, yet all viewers can do is speculate about what Mrs. White was like.

8 Why Hank And Marie Don't Have Kids

Breaking Bad never explicitly stated why Hank and Marie remained childless

ASAC Hank Schrader stood in stark contrast to Walter White in almost every way. As an ambitious and popular DEA agent, Hank rose through the ranks of Albuquerque’s law enforcement, and unlike the way Walt’s ego always caused him to falter, Hank’s ego was an asset that turned him into a high-ranking officer. As Walt’s brother-in-law and the husband of Skyler’s sister Marie, this childless couple had little financial worries at the beginning of Breaking Bad and represented the kind of lavish lifestyle the Whites could have had if Walt had reached his full potential.

Yet, there’s one major omission in the lives of Hank and Marie, and that’s that they don’t have any children. Marie clearly has a maternal instinct as she fawned over baby Holly, and the couple were like surrogate parents for Walt Jr., especially as the Whites faced marital difficulties as Walt’s lies broke their family apart. Whether Hank and Marie had fertility issues or remained childless to pursue their careers was never answered in Breaking Bad, although it made them the perfect juxtaposition to the trials and tribulations faced by Walter and Skyler.

7 Skyler, The Published Author

Breaking Bad gave limited insight into Skyler’s writing career

In the early seasons of Breaking Bad, it was revealed that Skyler White had published a book of short stories and had ambitions to continue her work as a writer. Skyler even subtly tried to speak to her sister Marie about her suspicions that Walter was smoking marijuana in season 1 by masking the questions as research for a short story. While Marie encouraged Skyler to write a novel because it would likely sell better, this was a plotline that had been dropped entirely from the show as it entered its later seasons.

However, knowing the background of Skyler’s history as a writer would be interesting, as Marie’s encouragement hinted she had enough talent to be truly successful. One interesting question about Skyler's writing talents would be if she returned to this hobby in the post-Breaking Bad timeline, as publishers would be eager to promote a tell-all memoir from the wife of the infamous Heisenberg. While Skyler’s time writing short stories may have been a way to earn some side money for her struggling family at that time, following the events of Breaking Bad, she had a real story to tell.

6 Marie’s Kleptomania

Breaking Bad never got to the heart of Marie’s tendency to steal

One of the most compelling aspects of Breaking Bad was that nobody was truly good or bad, and almost every character had something that put their moral fortitude into question. While Marie Schrader was about as far removed from the ruthless horrors of Heisenberg as one could get, she still battled her own demons as she herself broke bad and routinely stole from open houses and even jewelry stores. Marie was in therapy to deal with her kleptomania, and it’s apparent that this was an issue even before viewers were first introduced to her stealing habits in Breaking Bad.

Why Marie steals was never fully explained in Breaking Bad, although it appeared to flare up in times of high stress, and she used thievery as a coping mechanism. With obsessive-compulsive tendencies, Marie’s kleptomania highlighted that she, much like Walter, felt something was missing from her life and, rather than explore her insecurities, filled this gap with the thrill of criminal behavior. This was an interesting hint toward the hidden depth of Marie’s character, and while it can point to many things, such as the hardships of a workaholic husband or a childless marriage, this plotline was never fully resolved.

5 How Gale Broke Bad

Breaking Bad left many gaps when it came to understanding Gale Boetticher

Breaking Bad showcased how Walter White slowly gave in to his dark side and turned into a sinister force for evil, yet it does not shine much light on how Gale Boetticher made the decision to break bad. Gale was the chemist hired by Gus Fring to work in his underground meth lab and was at one time Walter’s lab partner before meeting a gruesome demise at the other end of a bullet fired by Jesse Pinkman. While it’s clear that Gale was a genius scientist whose intelligence threatened Walter, his ambitions in the criminal underworld were a mystery.

Gale was a man of varied interests who boasted not just an MS degree in organic chemistry with a specialty in X-ray crystallography but also a ion for coffee, food, learning foreign languages, and the music of Peter Schilling. As a self-professed nerd, the driving forces of Gale’s willingness to cook meth and destroy countless lives feel at odds with his backstory, even if his Libertarian beliefs could be seen as a justification. While Gale and Gus’s history with the Max Arciniega Chemistry Scholarship was further explored in Better Call Saul, there are still question marks over Gale Boetticher.

4 Walter, Gretchen, And Elliott

Breaking Bad never gave the backstory of Gretchen and Elliott that wasn’t clouded by Walt’s bitter perspective

There are enough clues in Breaking Bad to piece together the story of ego, jealousy, and insecurity that make up the complex backstory of Walter, Gretchen, and Elliott. It’s clear the Caltech alumnus Walter and Elliott founded Gray Matter Technologies at some point in the 1980s, and after Walter and his ex-girlfriend Gretchen broke up, she and Elliott got together, and the pair enjoyed Gray Matter’s success as it became a multibillion-dollar company. However, the actual details of what exactly transpired were never explicitly stated, and Walter has a very different perception of what happened than his former colleagues.

After Gretchen confronted Walter about him lying that she and Elliott were paying for his cancer treatment, Walter was overcome with anger, and he shouted about how they “cut me out” of their company, to which a shocked Gretchen replied, “That can’t be how you see it.” It’s clear there were a lot of hurt feelings involved in Walter’s exit from Gray Matter, and all hints point toward Walter allowing his ego to get in the way of extraordinary success. Although audiences can put the pieces together, a step-by-step rundown of exactly what happened would be fascinating.

3 Gus's Life In Chile

Breaking Bad left much of Gustavo Fring’s backstory a mystery

One character’s early life that remains almost entirely shrouded in mystery was Gustavo Fring, whose name may even be an alias since neither the DEA nor Mike Ehrmantraut could find any record of him before he arrived in Mexico in 1986. Gus claims to be from Chile, and the Cartel leader Eladio Vuente hinted he had knowledge of Gus’s criminal background in his home country in Breaking Bad season 4 episode “Hermanos.” This fascinating gap in the Breaking Bad timeline has been the most consistently proposed idea for another spin-off series set in this world.

Better Call Saul gives some further hints at Gus’s background in Chile, but the details have always been rather fuzzy, although they point toward his becoming a high-ranking general in the Chilean military. With the implication that Gus somehow destroyed all records of his time in Chile, it’s not illogical to presume he could become a war criminal or a wanted fugitive. While it could be fascinating to explore Gus’s past in a prequel series, there are many reasons that a third Breaking Bad show would be a bad idea.

2 How Walt Poisoned Brock

Breaking Bad never showed how exactly Walt poisoned Brock

One of the biggest twists in all of Breaking Bad was the revelation that it was Walter White who poisoned the young child Brock Cantillo to turn Jesse Pinkman against Gus Fring. This complex and cunning plan was truly one of Walt’s most despicable acts and proved that he was capable of unspeakable evil in the pursuit of his selfish goals. While viewers learned that Walter used the Lily of the Valley plant to poison Brock and Huell stole the ricin cigarette from Jesse to confuse the issue, the actual details of how it all went down were never explicitly outlined.

While audiences never got an in-universe explanation for how Walter poisoned Brock, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan did speak on the issue at the Comic-Con International 2013 (via Digital Spy.) Gilligan stated he and the writers spoke about “The Evil Juicebox Man” and that Walter crushed up some of the poison and “put it in a juice box” that “got into Brock's school somehow.” This interesting theory explains why Walt looked so suspicious when encountering Brock again after he recovered, although there’s still no definitive answer for how Walt ensured Brock ingested the poisonous plant.

1 What Happened To Walt's Money

Breaking Bad did not definitely answer how Walt’s money was used

Breaking Bad has one of the best finales in television history as Walter White wraps up all his loose ends and gets something close to a happy ending as he dies surrounded by the meth lab equipment that made him feel so alive. The throughline of the entire show was Walt’s desire to leave something behind for his family, and, in the end, it seemed he found a way to do just that by scaring Gretchen and Elliott with the threat of assassination.

While it’s likely that Walter managed to leave $9 million to his family in the form of an irrevocable trust on Walt Jr.'s 18th birthday, how this money was used or if it was seized by the police remains a mystery. It would be fascinating to know if Walt Jr. realized the money was from Walt and how he and his family lived their lives in the post-Breaking Bad years. While the White family would likely trade all the money in the world to avoid the dark shadow that Heisenberg’s legacy cast over their lives, how it was actually spent was never revealed.

Source: Digital Spy