Very interesting. Right after Walter White releases his anger for the first time in a long while, red and blue lights flash over his head – the colors of police sirens. It appears things are going to get dangerous now that the cat is out of the bag.

This is the first of many “____ this” jokes made during the series, usually followed by a vulgar gesture.

While the eyebrows part solely provides some well-needed comic relief, the scene is a whole is hugely important and shouldn’t be taken as a joke. This is the first time Walt ever stands up for himself, and he does it in dramatic fashion. 50+ years of built up anger is finally being released on those that Walt feels are responsible for the current state of his life.

How quickly things can change… (spoilerish)

Walt’s fixation on the mustard stain instead of his cancer diagnosis is intended to show two things. One, that Walt is so dead and empty inside that he can be given a death sentence without being phased in the slightest. And two, this news is so much to process that Walt is deflecting rather than addressing the reality of his situation.

This somewhat foreshadows Walt’s powerful sense of denial that permeates the series. If he can deflect this, he can deflect almost anything that affects the lives of others too. This first instance casts Walt in a sympathetic light whereas later on he is portrayed as a loathsome hypocrite running from reality.

Mirrors/reflections are a huge meme in Breaking Bad, generally used to show the duality of the characters. In this instance, Walt is getting the cancer diagnosis which sets him of the path to becoming Heisenberg, so we see the first glimmer of a second side to Walt.

Walt can’t even process the information he is being given. He’s acting calm, but all he can think about is his inevitable demise – as well as the countless medical bills he is about to burden his struggling family with. So rather than listen intently, he blocks the doctor out.

The same technique is used much later in the series (spoilers!).

We see a few aerial shots like this of Walt throughout the series, generally when he is at a vulnerable low point such as this one.

In an attempt to make Walter White an even more sympathetic character, it is revealed that he got lung cancer despite being a non-smoker. This raises the question as to how he did get lung cancer, with the most popular theories being:

• From his exposure to the chemicals during his time with Grey Matter. This makes the most sense, as Skyler revealed Walt once complained about working without the right type of ventilation hood. It also explains his insistence that he and Jesse wear the proper equipment when cooking, and fits in well thematically as it indirectly makes Gretchen and Elliot responsible for creating this monster (for the science lovers, the most likely cause is radon gas)
• It’s also possible that he got it from Skyler or his mother second-hand – Skyler smoked before the start of the show and picked up the habit again in Season 2, and Walt’s mother’s ash tray is brought up when Walt mentions he might visit her
• Or, maybe the writers intentionally left this vague. The important thing to consider isn’t who or what is at fault for the cancer, but rather how Walt reacts to it. Walt never really fusses over the cause of it, and we aren’t expected to either.