Also, the twist is... it's actually a cooking show.
I like how every Salamanca is proud of his cooking ability. Even Tuco calms the fuck down when he's making burritos.
You know who doesn't cook? That piece of shit Walter White. Ironically, because he is "the cook."
Also on the general subject of Skyler, I think she took at least somewhat more shit than she deserved. Yes, she was kind of a bitch, she was barely more ethical than Walt himself, and did some pretty atrocious things in her own right. But she was set up from the beginning to contrast to Walt and basically harsh his buzz. Everything she was doing, though, was in reaction to being married to this fuckwad of a human in the first place, at least if you subtract out basic irresponsible shit like smoking while pregnant. Wtf Skyler?
Subtracting that out, though, she had stood by Walt for decades despite this utter genius completely squandering his talent and making nothing of himself, and being pretty much a bitter, useless asshole despite having no excuse at all for what an entitled cunt he was. If you ever go back and watch BB from the beginning, knowing what you don't know until the end, you realize Walt was always a fucking prick. Everything in his life that seemed unjust, like he was a deserving genius who had somehow been cheated by the world, was his own fault.
From Grey Matter on. You get introduced to that from Walt's perspective and it looks like they indeed ripped off this genius of his creation and then went on to make billions off his work, when really nothing of the sort is true. Walt threw that away out of some completely autistic resentment about shit that, while it's never completely explained, was obviously a mystery to everyone else involved. Especially re-watch the episode with the party where they try to help Walt. It looks, at the time, as if he is pridefully refusing their help for some honorable reason, and particularly that they're trying to salve their consciences over having ripped him off, but in the light of what you know later, he is actually just being a complete fucking prick.
Anyway, Skyler had to cope with all this bullshit from Walt for all their life together, stuck with him, and while not perfect herself by any means, was not motivated nearly purely by malice and resentment.
He still loves her even at the end, and one of the only things that at least partly redeemed him at the end was that heartbreaking speech where he finally admits he did all the shit he did for himself because he liked it. She really, really needed to hear that and Walt, on his way to hell, finally just told her the fucking truth. It was the only kind thing he could do for her.
Also, Anna Gunn is a phenomenal actress and her portrayal of this complex, often less than sympathetic character is one of the best parts of the show. I found myself going back and forth between being sympathetic to Skyler and despising her, sometimes at the same time.
