The breakneck pace of Breaking Bad’s final episodes worked diligently to wrap up most each and every dangling thread, though a few mysteries of Walt’s past were unfortunately left to the back burner. Now, creator Vince Gilligan answers a long-standing question of Walter White’s time at “Gray Matter,” which eventually set him on the path to Heisenberg.

Speaking to the Huffington Post (h/t UPROXX), Gilligan and fellow Better Call Saul executive producer Peter Gould opened up a bit about Walt’s time at Gray Matter, originally founded by a young Walt and Elliott (Adam Godley), the former of whom also shared a relationship with lab assistant Gretchen (Jessica Hecht). At some point before the series, things went sour enough for Walt to leave Gray Matter and Gretchen before the company struck it rich, leaving Walt a bitter chemistry teacher, though the actual circumstances remained a bit hazy.

Gilligan felt that Breaking Bad offered at least some context clues of the feud between Walt and his ex-partners, but that many fans mistakenly sympathized with Walt:

In my mind, the interesting thing here — and I always kind of hate to nail it down so explicitly — but let’s put it this way, most viewers of ‘Breaking Bad’ assume Gretchen and Elliott are the bad guys, and they assume that Walt got ripped off by them, got ill used by them, and I never actually saw it that way.

I think it was kind of situation where he didn’t realize the girl he was about to marry was so very wealthy and came from such a prominent family, and it kind of blew his mind and made him feel inferior and he overreacted. He just kind of checked out. I think there is that whole other side to the story, and it can be gleaned.

Added Gould:

I think the interesting thing is not exactly what happened but the fact that Walt hasn’t let it go over all these years. He has no perspective on himself. He gets to the point where all he can really do is try to justify everything that he’s done.

Of course, with Better Call Saul returning Breaking Bad characters left and right, it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility for Elliott or Gretchen to appear down the line, perhaps further their side of the story, but what other lingering Breaking Bad threads need tying off?

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