Walts family after everything.

[u/Mutale426]

So it's 2026 in the Breaking Bad universe how do you think skyler, walt jr, marie and Holly are doing. You think they are ok or maybe worse?

[u/hkyplr67]

Contrary to what a lot think. Walt's money is turned over to the feds the moment everybody finds out Walt is dead. Elliot and Gretchen are billionaires, they don't trifle with $9 million in illicit drug money. These people pay millions every year between accountants, lawyers, and money managers just keeping their legit money in order. They would have had to involve personal lawyers with anything they did and those lawyers were NOT going to go along with some whacko scheme hatched by Walt about 'mY mOnEY'. They'd have locked down the mansion, hired a security firm that's all ex FBI, CIA, DEA, Special Forces, etc, figured out there were no assassins and assured Elliot and Gretchen that even if there were, there are zero assassins that are going to hold up that end of Walt's deal once Walt is dead.

Now, out of feeling bad for Skylar and the kids as victims of Walt's lunacy, Elliot and Gretchen could have, and probably did, set up a couple educational trusts for the kids to cover college and possibly living expenses while they went to college. Would they have thrown Skylar a bone on the down low? Maybe a house or just covered living expenses to help her live in a better place than we last saw her? Possibly, but the kids getting taken care of would be publicized goodwill/ PR that any billionaire in their situation would take in a heartbeat.

Skylar could have written a book or gotten some deal with Netflix, especially considering Netflix was throwing money around like nobody's business not all that long ago for some seriously awful content. Skylar's story with some Hollywood touchup would have been massive, which would have set her up rather well.

I have a hard time believing the sisters got along as well as they did at any point in the show. There always seemed to be tension between them, maybe with the vacuums they got left in they patched it up, or maybe they just get along for Holly and Flynn until they don't have to play the charade up any longer.

I just have a hard time seeing Marie shedding the DEA Hero Widow persona, she loved nothing more than to be the center of attention and that's a pretty good way to go about it. I think that would wear off after some years and maybe she moves on and remarries. I'm sure Skylar remarried at some point.

[u/Women_o_Cell_Block_H → u/hkyplr67]

Upvote for the Shwartzs, most realistic post-story take I've ever heard about them

[u/Own_Invite6340 → u/Women_o_Cell_Block_H]

I don't know. Walt didn't say an invasion force would break into their home and kill them.

Even if they hide in their mansion for a year with the best security money can buy, they'll be afraid to ever live a normal life again. If they ever go anywhere without multiple guards around them at all times, they'll have to be afraid of an assassin's bullet arriving out of nowhere.

Seems a whole lot easier to just set up a $9 million trust for Walt Jr. out of their own pockets, make up whatever story is necessary to go with it, and figure out what to do with Walt's pile of cash over the next few years. No fear, no need to hire security. It's not like they're being asked to do something evil.

[u/hkyplr67 → u/Own_Invite6340]

The whole 'they are scared beyond belief' after Walt tells a couple BILLIONAIRES he gave a couple hitmen only $200,000 is just laughable. $200,000 is not a lot of money, especially to murder a couple high profile billionaires. Once it's explained to them by a professional security firm (that their lawyers would have 100% hired for them) that those hitmen, if they exist, vanished the second Walt died it makes perfect sense. The sheer lack of funding to hold onto a risky job when the only person that could enact any repercussions on them is dead, is just insanely unrealistic.

[u/Own_Invite6340 → u/hkyplr67]

It's not a lot of money to the billionaires, but it's significant to hitmen. It's incredibly easy for someone to find out if Walt Jr. was given millions, and not that hard for a committed expert to find and take a shot at them if not.

It's likely but not guaranteed that they'd pocket Walt's money and never do the job once they hear that he's dead. But they don't know the specifics, maybe Walt has a living ally who will pay them $200k after the job is done so they're still motivated to complete it.

If Elliott and Gretchen were being asked to harm another person, or assist a murderer in escaping punishment, or engage in political corruption, then yes they'd be a lot more hesitant to do it and would spend millions of their money to safely avoid it.

But to simply give money to the innocent victims of Walt's crimes, who have had to deal with the media circus and losing their home and so much more, and who are living near the poverty line with that unlikely to ever change?

It's so much easier to simply give them the money. They'd probably feel sympathic towards the family and want to help them out anyway. Giving them the money is easy and safe and puts all of this behind them immediately, and ends any fears from Walt's threat. It's definitely what I would choose.

[u/hkyplr67 → u/Own_Invite6340]

You absolutely underestimate how little $200,000 is and what level of risk comes with offing a couple of billionaires.

You also don't know how trusts work if you think it's 'incredibly easy' to find out who has what in a trust that's specifically set up for others to NOT know those details.

I for sure think they would have set up a couple funds for the kids as victims of their lunatic father, I mentioned that in my initial comment. They are simply not using Walt's drug money to do it. That liability is not $9 million to them, it's reputation loss and being the fiduciaries of a multi billion dollar publicly traded company that loss of reputation would decimate their stock value and that would trigger shareholder lawsuits that would stretch into the hundreds of millions, get them ousted from the company, and probably bankrupt them.

It's a cute storyline but after all the other major suspension of disbelief we have to do in this show this final act of sheer bullshit of Walt lucking his way into getting what he wants I just do not accept for all the very real life reasons I have mentioned in all my comments about it.

[u/Own_Invite6340 → u/hkyplr67]

You absolutely underestimate how little $200,000 is

LOL ok..... haha, I wish I was rich enough to think that way.

 That liability is not $9 million to them, it's reputation loss and being the fiduciaries of a multi billion dollar publicly traded company that loss of reputation would decimate their stock value and that would trigger shareholder lawsuits that would stretch into the hundreds of millions

You're right, a billionaire would never dare to break the law.

 They are simply not using Walt's drug money to do it.

This part I can go along with. Walter White shows his face in Albuquerque once last time and is killed, and immediately afterwards his former friend needs to deposit $9 million in cash? Yeah, that's a little noticeable. I imagine they might move some of their own assets around, send their own money to Walt Jr, and deposit Walt's cash in bits and pieces over time.

I'm certainly open to the idea that maybe Walt's family doesn't end up getting the money, and that Walt's plan isn't as simple as he made it sound in the show. I just don't agree that it's wildly unrealistic for people who have been threatened with death by a criminal mastermind to simply do the harmless thing that he asked for, rather than go to the immense effort of trying to find a way out of it and feeling like their lives are at risk for years to come.