We later learn that Junior wears the crutches, and speaks with a stutter, because he has cerebral palsy. The actor who plays Walt Jr., RJ Mitte, actually has CP himself, but slightly exaggerates the severity of it when playing Junior.

The number made of bacon and eggs on Walt’s birthday seems like a silly gimmick now, but it becomes an important symbol of Walt’s relationship with his family as the series progresses. The “50” is made with crappy veggie bacon that Skyler forces him to eat, but it is made with love. This shows that while Walt might not have much control over his life or money, he still has a family that cares about him.

As the series progresses and Walt’s family situation deteriorates, Skyler becomes less willing to give him his bacon, which seems trivial but speaks volumes to how bitter their relationship has grown.

As the series continues, this is a recurring theme. It transforms into being an allusion to the saying “bringing home the bacon” meaning making money. In the beginning, Walt has his bacon handed to him. It is of low quality and he did not get it himself but it was given to him with love. By the end of the series, he sits at Denny’s getting the bacon himself and cracking it into the number 52. Although in the end Walt is making a lot more money and “bringing home the bacon,” literally and figuratively, himself, he does not have a family that wants to share it with him.

The stair-stepper is symbolic of the fact that Walt is figuratively stuck in place – he isn’t making any progress after showing so much promise at a young age. In fact, in the original version of the script, Walt breaks the stair-stepper in a later scene after his diagnosis when he decides to get his life out of a rut and start cooking.

Another deleted scene from Season 3 Episode 11 shows the stair stepper alive and well- again when Walt is stuck in place because he feels he’s lost and out of his depth – so we can, unfortunately, assume it’s survived.

This ultimatum is extremely dangerous. Most drug dealers would kill you with such a threat, but it shows it’s the first time Walt has made an independent choice throughout the whole episode (devoid of truly knowing the consequences).

It’s also worth noting that Jesse and Walt’s entire partnership, and eventual friendship/companionship, is based upon Walt’s manipulation. Had Walt not twisted Jesse’s hand by threatening to turn him in, the two would probably have never met again – which is relevant because Walt is going to continue to use Jesse throughout the course of the series to achieve his own ends.

Baroque was a style of painting in 17th and 18th century Europe that paid hyper-attention to details. Mick’s raps are just as vivid, but they aren’t still lifes. They are more like the vivid but fluid movies made by acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorcese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed, and many more)

CARFAX is a website that gives you all of the past information about a used car you are buying. A running internet joke is that this would be a useful website to have when picking out the women you date. Royce says that he has checked the “HOEFAX” on this girl, and she has “low mileage”, meaning she hasn’t slept with many guys and is a suitable choice for him.

This plays off of the last line about “keeping his paper stacked in layers”. Black Thought is so well known and respected around his city that store owners let him shop for free, but Thought still keeps wads of dough on him just in case. This also refers a scene in the movie The Amistad, about passengers on a slave ship who fought against the courts for their freedom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kk5iXZFaCQ#t=0m52s

Armadillos are animals with a tough exterior that are known to roll into a ball when threatened. But Black Thought has been known to “ball” even harder than these armadillos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uYTvITSamc