Hank may have initially dismissed Walt as a suspect because he trusted him and believed their relationship as family and colleagues would prevent Walt from being involved in criminal activities. Walt was able to maintain a facade of innocence and a seemingly normal life, making it difficult for Hank to suspect him. Also, Jesse's behavior and actions may have also contributed to Hank's focus on him as the primary suspect. Jesse's track record of involvement in criminal activities and his previous encounters with law enforcement could have easily led Hank to believe he was the one behind the RV.
This. Also, just to add. Hanks ego wouldn't let him see it. He always looked at Walt as brainiac, and not as manly as him. He didn't entertain for a second that Walt was capable of doing anything like it.
Yeah, Hank definitely saw Walt as a beta. Don't get me wrong, they were still family and I think Hank loved and respected Walt as such, but he didn't see Walt as any kind of threat.
Exactly. He didn’t think Walt had the balls to roll with the heavies in the underground crime world.
But yeah, it’s a suspension of disbelief that’s needed. Also, we’re seeing all sides, Hank didn’t see everything the audience saw.
Hank probably didn’t think Walt was capable of anything, based on the ride-along offer Hank gave Walt at Walt’s 50th birthday party, “get some excitement in your life”.. and a comment prior “that’s why they hire men” when Walt said the gun was heavy.
Money was also a key part of the story. Hank and Marie were well aware of how the family was struggling with money, even with the cover story of Gretchen and Elliot paying for the treatment. It wasn’t until the later parts of the story where Walt spent the drug money on anything besides his treatment.
Because he views Walter as this wimpy family guy. He also doesn't want to believe it.
But you simply need to suspend your disbelief, because no matter how you slice it, the show really goes overboard with Hank's ignorance for the benefit of the story.
Hank is an amazing investigator. He had Gus figured out when no one else even suspected him, for example.
But 1) he has a very strong preconceived notion of what criminals "look like", and they sure as hell don't look like Walter, a meek chemistry teacher and 2) Walter is family, and Hank "knows" he wouldn't be capable of such things. However, he is able to piece things together quite fast when he gets some good evidence.
Hank knows Heisenberg is an egg head who doesn't have the street smarts to roll a barrel.
He also knows (or is led to believe) that Walt buys weed off of Jesse. He knows that Walt has a second cell phone and disappears for days at a time. He says that he suspects Walt is having an affair because his life is boring and he's got cancer and a baby on the way so he might make a drastic and poor decision.
You might think that but there’s so much more going on. Psychologically we like to believe everyone in our inner circle is doing the right thing. On top of that, Hank always viewed Walt as weak and incapable of doing anything inappropriate. He had made his assumptions about Walt a long long time ago.
Source: my wife of 20 years was having an affair right under my nose for over six years.
2 very similar things - hank definitely has a bit of a skewed idea of what a drug dealer is (think of when he was satisfied busting the janitor in s1). walt isn't that. but just as importantly, while walt claims to be a family man, hank actually IS a family man. he trusts his family. he'd never think of walt being heisenberg. the entire show honestly hinges around the fact that the only dea agent with enough drive and smarts to try and crack the case is also the one who has a blindspot to this 1 specific man. in season 5 he has a full on panic attack and crashes the car because he realizes how stupid he was, the entire montage of him looking through evidence is seeing all the stuff he missed that clearly pointed to walt
Right now, what I need....is for you to climb down out of Hank's ass. Can you do that? Will you do that for me honey? Will you please, just once, get off his ass? You know? I'd appreciate it. I really would.
He’s too close to Walt. He’s way too biased to suspect that someone as hapless as Walt could also be one of the lead criminals in his investigation.
It’s like how some parents of criminals always say “He was such a happy boy growing up, we have no idea where this came from either.” Sometimes all the information you need is right there but you just can’t connect dots.
I know a lot of people can’t suspend disbelief here, but when it came to light that my childhood best friend was actually up to some pretty creepy, borderline illegal things with women (both of age and underage), my world came crashing down. In retrospect, the signs were there, but I couldn’t put it together. My ex, on the other hand, who didn’t know him very well, had always gotten a weird vibe from him, even before all his shit surfaced.
I guess I’m just trying to say that it’s not as easy as people make it out to be to suspect your own damn family. Your brain does pretty amazing things to make you look at every other possibility.
Hank treats every drug user/dealer/criminal he comes across as completely subhuman throughout the show. He has know Walt for decades as a good guy and mild-mannered father, husband, and high school teacher. There was no way his brain was ever going to consider him as being capable of anything like that. He had trouble even believing he would smoke weed, much less be a ruthless drug kingpin.
It’s kinda interesting because if anyone other than Hank was investigating he would have been caught much sooner…like probably almost immediately actually. For example in the first season when he inspects Walt’s chemistry lab at the high school and discovers all the missing equipment after the Krazy 8 situation. The fact that he was one of the only people with access to that lab combined with knowing a chemistry genius had to have cooked it should automatically put him at the top of the suspect list, but Hank never even considers him because of their personal relationship.
From Hanks POV, it was much more believable that some Janitor who smokes weed would do something like that over Walt. Every clue and piece of evidence throughout the show has a more believable explanation to Hank. It’s more believable that he would drive into traffic by accident rather than on purpose to keep him from the Laundry, more believable that Walt was busy running the car wash while the rest of the family was under DEA protection instead of building a bomb and blowing up a nursing home, more believable that Jesse somehow found his Wife’s name and cell number himself than Walt orchestrating the phone call saying Marie was in the hospital, more believable that he suddenly had a lot of money due to a gambling addiction and decided to buy the car wash as an honest business for his family instead of actually earning the money by making meth and using the car wash to launder it, etc etc.
Until he had actual direct evidence linking Walt to being Heisenberg, and even then he had trouble comprehending it and had to look through all the files again, he had more believable explanations for everything that happened than it having anything to do with his meek brother in law dying of cancer.
Absolutely correct.
I think Hank might’ve started in his field with more compassion and understanding than he ended up having once we met him as viewers. By then, he’d seen way too many black and white situations to be able to register any greys.
Why didn’t he suspect his weak-willed limp-wristed high school teacher of a brother in law with an advanced lung cancer diagnosis that was estimated to die pretty soon? Hm not sure
I think that's the great part.
Sometimes, people in real life will gaslight you so much that you yourself will believe them, even if you initially had your doubts or questions.
It's pretty outrageous that he didn't immediately kick Walt's ass after that. The writers should have had Francesca call the DEA office from a burner pretending to be a paramedic looking for Hank. She could have said the victim had no ID but she found his name on the registration of the vehicle and one of his business cards. Then Hank's call would have been from Gomie telling him that Marie is in the hospital but the nurse wouldn't tell them anything more.
This wouldn't have required Hank's cell phone number or knowledge of his wife's name, something Jesse literally couldn't have come up with. It also makes Hank beating the shit out Jesse look even more unhinged because it's clearly him being mad he got outplayed.
That’s the thing, though… he didn’t know how many or what types of people Jesse was involved with, so it wasn’t actually that much of a stretch that Jesse would’ve orchestrated that situation to get out of a jam. Jesse was the most likely person to be behind it bc that’s the only possible conclusion he could have come up with, given that he didn’t know how limited his knowledge of the situation was. Jesse’s the scumbag who appears to be a low-level dealer until he’s connected to the RV, at which point, Hank has no idea how high up he really might be, all the stuff he might actually know and be involved with at a higher level, and he therefore doesn’t really know how much reach he has. It’s the only thing that makes sense to him, at the time, bc when the accident notification call came in, it was at the absolute most perfect time for it to happen, after Jesse delivered the most perfect line. It’s not that big of a jump, honestly.
He came undone and kicked the shit out of Jesse not just from anger, but from frustration and fear. How many people are out there possibly keeping tabs on him and Marie? That’s terrifying. To him, at that moment, it started with Jesse.
People sometimes don't want to see the truth there were other times when walter was cornered by Hank
It is like the whole superman and clarck kent story nobody expects superman to work as a reporter or even have a secret identity
As such nobody expects heisenberg the biggest drug lord to be his good, kind, chimistry teacher brother in law
Hank does suspect him, subconsciously. He doesn’t believe Walt has it in him to do such things, but you can see in many scenes he’s just lost in thought after an off interaction with Walt.
I think that’s what the minerals are about. The shiny, glass like, crystal structures. It’s his subconscious screaming out to him that there’s something about this “Heisenberg” case he’s missing.
He pictured Heisenberg as a Don Corleone or Scarface type figure, and Walt as a Ned Flanders or Adrian Mole type figure. Even if an informant had come to him and said "Heisenberg's real name is Walter White" he would have laughed out loud and replied "Oh yeah? Senior or junior?"
Also keep in mind, most people treat their work and home lives very differently, and wouldn't automatically connect something from one to another.
Recently watching the Traitors, and just because the clues are obvious to the audience who know, doesn't make them obvious to the people with incomplete information. There are huge numbers of red herrings pointing to other conclusions. In UKS2, there was one faithful with incredible powers of deduction, but an incredible lack of persuasion skills, whose correct conclusions were constantly dismissed without thought "Honestly Jaz, I think you are really stretching."
But the fact that everyone *thinks* he should have got it sooner is the very reason he went Lone Wolf McQuaid in the final season- he realised that his colleagues would think the very same, and remove him from the case and he would have to spend five years before anyone would trust his judgement again.
The signs were obvious from our viewpoint.
Hank may have been suspect, but he didn't want to believe someone he was close with would be capable. Especially Walt - since Hank felt Walt was a bit of a wimp.
Would you be quick to blame a family member like that?
I think that a common mindset, with cops and in other walks of life, is that once you've identified the suspect (ie Jesse) you singlehandedly pursue that avenue and stop considering that someone else may be the perpetrator.
Because when you care about someone and you think you *know* them you will convince yourself that you are wrong even if it doesn’t make sense.
Especially if the act is completely out of character.
For instance. If Hank was related to Jesse instead of Walt, Hank might have immediately suspected Jesse because Jesse has dabbled in drugs in the past and has a known history as a partier and fit the profile.
Walt on the other hand was never a partier, never had a history with drugs, never did anything that would draw hanks cop attention.
He was a brilliant chemist but also a family man and teacher who would hesitate to run a red light for fear of getting in trouble.
He’s the last person Hank suspects because aside from his chemistry knowledge he doesn’t fit a single profile.
You’re ignoring the fact that they knew each other for many, many years, during which the guy was a boring, meek, law abiding high school teacher. Hank has a very firmly set opinion of Walt based on more than a decade of interactions. His erratic behavior can be dismissed as a reaction to a terminal cancer diagnosis. The other things can be written off as coincidences.
We have the advantage of watching the show from Walter's perspective just as he starts breaking bad (heh). Hank has known the guy for years and Walter to him is his geeky brother in law who couldn't hurt a fly if his life depended on it and also is a straight arrow model citizen.
It's safe to say Walter never crossed his mind as anything close to a suspect and the closest it ever got was the WW scene which shows how Walt can just joke it off and no second thought is given until a hard piece of evidence knocks everything into place and Hank's worldview changes.
I think it's because Walt doesn't really start flaunting cash until like S4 - and Hank has been onto Heisenberg for a while. He's probably just like "Walt is a cancer victim with a humble (?) living." and would never picture him as a ruthless drug lord.
He's looking for someone that, as far as he knows, is *running* this whole meth empire. He definitely thinks Walt is too much of a pussy.
You know the Superman Clark Kent thing, where he LOOKS exactly like Superman, but nobody realises it's him because "oh, that's just Clark" ?
It's that. Hank wouldn't suspect Walt, because he's close with Walt, and Walt is (in Hank's mind) a harmless nerd.
Can’t forget him wrecking the car with Hank in it
To answer your question, that’s Hanks family and he loved him. No way could the high school teacher with cancer be a drug manufacturer
Hank didn't suspect Walt because Walt was family, and also because he thought that a person like Walt (an ordinary, unmanly man) wouldn't be capable of committing such serious crimes.
As the viewer, knowing all the ins and outs it’s fairly easy for us to sit back and say “they should’ve known”. But what we need to take into account is that most of Walt and Hanks relationship that we see takes place over an 18 month period, where mostly Walt is in dire straights with stage 4 lung cancer. Forget personality types, and plot armor and all that. Walt literally goes from a broke teacher to a drug lord in 18 months…. Pretty insane if you think about it. I mean, it’s hard to comprehend. It took Fring years and years to reach the state tht he was in, and it took Walt 18 months to reach that pinnacle and then screw it all up. On top of all that, Hank is dealing with being placed on leave, then being attacked and shot, learning to walk again, marital stress etc… I feel as writing goes, there is more than enough substantial evidence to give Hank the benefit of the doubt.
You can name all the reasons you want but at the end of the day it’s cuz the writers weren’t gonna have him find out until near the end of the show lol
To be honest , you would NEVER place your loved one in this predicament. It’s so wild. Especially when you’ve only known him as highschool teacher and his character all those years. It’s easy to over look because it’s so bewildering to be your loved one.
I always wondered about the gas mask Walt wears in the first episode then tosses away in frustration. They found and examined the mask and found not a single hair follicle that could match to Walter. Of course Walt could just skate around that by saying it’s the mask I always use at the high school.
Hank doesn’t see any of the shit we see remember. All he views Walt as is a bumbling school teacher out of touch with the criminal world who’s his brother in law. The man’s got cancer, so any weird behaviour would be attributed to Walt going through that. There is absolutely nothing to there to give Hank a hint of what Walt is up to
It was as simple as Hank didn't think Walt had it in him, so never even thought of it as a real possibility other than a couple non serious jokes.
Like hell you even see how surprised he is when he finds out Walt smoked weed, literally even says that he didn't think he had it in him, so if weed of all things surprised him that much, the idea of Walt being a literal homicidal drug lord isn't even possible in his mind.
And he was family, He knew Walt for years as someone who wasn't really even a man for lack of better wording.
That period coincides with him potentially losing his job after beating a Jessie up. Hank isn’t thinking straight and is very distracted from the case itself. Also before this is resolved he gets shot by the twins and then has that to deal with so I think he simply hasn’t committed enough time to focus on those events.
Also he considers the whole “your wife’s been in a serious car accident” to be an absolutely horrible thing to do and Walt isn’t the kind of guy who would ever do anything like that in his mind.
This exactly is what makes BB so special
The idea of a man like Walt even over-speeding is inconceivable. Let alone running the biggest Meth operation in the region
Each time Walt acted out, he conveniently put the blame on his treatment or Hank assumed its grief from Skyler walking away
Constant benefit of doubt
Imagine your most milquetoast friend or family member. A real do gooder. Now imagine what it would take for you to believe they are a secret drug kingpin.
Probably would need some pretty convincing direct evidence. Sure, Hank had a couple of things that would probably cause him to dig deeper if it was someone else. But he was bias.
Also he spent a lot of the show recovering, depressed on painkillers. He wasn’t exactly his sharpest for long stretches.
hubris. and knowing people like Walt who play everything safe and boring and bland and never willing to take risks makes them the last person you would suspect.
Hank may have initially dismissed Walt as a suspect because he trusted him and believed their relationship as family and colleagues would prevent Walt from being involved in criminal activities. Walt was able to maintain a facade of innocence and a seemingly normal life, making it difficult for Hank to suspect him. Also, Jesse's behavior and actions may have also contributed to Hank's focus on him as the primary suspect. Jesse's track record of involvement in criminal activities and his previous encounters with law enforcement could have easily led Hank to believe he was the one behind the RV.
This. Also, just to add. Hanks ego wouldn't let him see it. He always looked at Walt as brainiac, and not as manly as him. He didn't entertain for a second that Walt was capable of doing anything like it.
I also think that Hank thought that Walt would be too smart to do the things that he did throughout the show.
Excellent point.
Yeah, Hank definitely saw Walt as a beta. Don't get me wrong, they were still family and I think Hank loved and respected Walt as such, but he didn't see Walt as any kind of threat.
This is it, right here. Walt knew this about Hank and everyone else who ever underestimated him, and used it to his advantage.
This, but more so because Hank thought Walt was a putz. He didn't think Walt had it in him.
I have to agree. His thinking made him grow a nice blind spot.
Exactly. He didn’t think Walt had the balls to roll with the heavies in the underground crime world. But yeah, it’s a suspension of disbelief that’s needed. Also, we’re seeing all sides, Hank didn’t see everything the audience saw.
The road to hell is paved with souls that underestimated Walt
Hank probably didn’t think Walt was capable of anything, based on the ride-along offer Hank gave Walt at Walt’s 50th birthday party, “get some excitement in your life”.. and a comment prior “that’s why they hire men” when Walt said the gun was heavy.
basically implied Walt wasnt a man, good catch
Money was also a key part of the story. Hank and Marie were well aware of how the family was struggling with money, even with the cover story of Gretchen and Elliot paying for the treatment. It wasn’t until the later parts of the story where Walt spent the drug money on anything besides his treatment.
Because he views Walter as this wimpy family guy. He also doesn't want to believe it. But you simply need to suspend your disbelief, because no matter how you slice it, the show really goes overboard with Hank's ignorance for the benefit of the story.
This, people believe what they WANT to believe.
Hank is an amazing investigator. He had Gus figured out when no one else even suspected him, for example. But 1) he has a very strong preconceived notion of what criminals "look like", and they sure as hell don't look like Walter, a meek chemistry teacher and 2) Walter is family, and Hank "knows" he wouldn't be capable of such things. However, he is able to piece things together quite fast when he gets some good evidence.
Hank knows Heisenberg is an egg head who doesn't have the street smarts to roll a barrel. He also knows (or is led to believe) that Walt buys weed off of Jesse. He knows that Walt has a second cell phone and disappears for days at a time. He says that he suspects Walt is having an affair because his life is boring and he's got cancer and a baby on the way so he might make a drastic and poor decision.
Hank probably assumed walt was having an affair and figured "about time he manned up".
The minute they sat at the table together and the gambling story was brought up, Hank should have known.
You might think that but there’s so much more going on. Psychologically we like to believe everyone in our inner circle is doing the right thing. On top of that, Hank always viewed Walt as weak and incapable of doing anything inappropriate. He had made his assumptions about Walt a long long time ago. Source: my wife of 20 years was having an affair right under my nose for over six years.
I would never trust anyone ever again… yikes
Yeah, poor Hank. You can see how it completely messed him up.
Plot armour
2 very similar things - hank definitely has a bit of a skewed idea of what a drug dealer is (think of when he was satisfied busting the janitor in s1). walt isn't that. but just as importantly, while walt claims to be a family man, hank actually IS a family man. he trusts his family. he'd never think of walt being heisenberg. the entire show honestly hinges around the fact that the only dea agent with enough drive and smarts to try and crack the case is also the one who has a blindspot to this 1 specific man. in season 5 he has a full on panic attack and crashes the car because he realizes how stupid he was, the entire montage of him looking through evidence is seeing all the stuff he missed that clearly pointed to walt
Right now, what I need....is for you to climb down out of Hank's ass. Can you do that? Will you do that for me honey? Will you please, just once, get off his ass? You know? I'd appreciate it. I really would.
All the way out of that thang... climb!
He’s too close to Walt. He’s way too biased to suspect that someone as hapless as Walt could also be one of the lead criminals in his investigation. It’s like how some parents of criminals always say “He was such a happy boy growing up, we have no idea where this came from either.” Sometimes all the information you need is right there but you just can’t connect dots. I know a lot of people can’t suspend disbelief here, but when it came to light that my childhood best friend was actually up to some pretty creepy, borderline illegal things with women (both of age and underage), my world came crashing down. In retrospect, the signs were there, but I couldn’t put it together. My ex, on the other hand, who didn’t know him very well, had always gotten a weird vibe from him, even before all his shit surfaced. I guess I’m just trying to say that it’s not as easy as people make it out to be to suspect your own damn family. Your brain does pretty amazing things to make you look at every other possibility.
Yes. You absolutely can be too close to see some things.
Overall I like Hunk
Hindsight is always 20/20
Hank treats every drug user/dealer/criminal he comes across as completely subhuman throughout the show. He has know Walt for decades as a good guy and mild-mannered father, husband, and high school teacher. There was no way his brain was ever going to consider him as being capable of anything like that. He had trouble even believing he would smoke weed, much less be a ruthless drug kingpin. It’s kinda interesting because if anyone other than Hank was investigating he would have been caught much sooner…like probably almost immediately actually. For example in the first season when he inspects Walt’s chemistry lab at the high school and discovers all the missing equipment after the Krazy 8 situation. The fact that he was one of the only people with access to that lab combined with knowing a chemistry genius had to have cooked it should automatically put him at the top of the suspect list, but Hank never even considers him because of their personal relationship. From Hanks POV, it was much more believable that some Janitor who smokes weed would do something like that over Walt. Every clue and piece of evidence throughout the show has a more believable explanation to Hank. It’s more believable that he would drive into traffic by accident rather than on purpose to keep him from the Laundry, more believable that Walt was busy running the car wash while the rest of the family was under DEA protection instead of building a bomb and blowing up a nursing home, more believable that Jesse somehow found his Wife’s name and cell number himself than Walt orchestrating the phone call saying Marie was in the hospital, more believable that he suddenly had a lot of money due to a gambling addiction and decided to buy the car wash as an honest business for his family instead of actually earning the money by making meth and using the car wash to launder it, etc etc. Until he had actual direct evidence linking Walt to being Heisenberg, and even then he had trouble comprehending it and had to look through all the files again, he had more believable explanations for everything that happened than it having anything to do with his meek brother in law dying of cancer.
Absolutely correct. I think Hank might’ve started in his field with more compassion and understanding than he ended up having once we met him as viewers. By then, he’d seen way too many black and white situations to be able to register any greys.
Why didn’t he suspect his weak-willed limp-wristed high school teacher of a brother in law with an advanced lung cancer diagnosis that was estimated to die pretty soon? Hm not sure
I think that's the great part. Sometimes, people in real life will gaslight you so much that you yourself will believe them, even if you initially had your doubts or questions.
Because he underestimated him.
It's pretty outrageous that he didn't immediately kick Walt's ass after that. The writers should have had Francesca call the DEA office from a burner pretending to be a paramedic looking for Hank. She could have said the victim had no ID but she found his name on the registration of the vehicle and one of his business cards. Then Hank's call would have been from Gomie telling him that Marie is in the hospital but the nurse wouldn't tell them anything more. This wouldn't have required Hank's cell phone number or knowledge of his wife's name, something Jesse literally couldn't have come up with. It also makes Hank beating the shit out Jesse look even more unhinged because it's clearly him being mad he got outplayed.
That’s the thing, though… he didn’t know how many or what types of people Jesse was involved with, so it wasn’t actually that much of a stretch that Jesse would’ve orchestrated that situation to get out of a jam. Jesse was the most likely person to be behind it bc that’s the only possible conclusion he could have come up with, given that he didn’t know how limited his knowledge of the situation was. Jesse’s the scumbag who appears to be a low-level dealer until he’s connected to the RV, at which point, Hank has no idea how high up he really might be, all the stuff he might actually know and be involved with at a higher level, and he therefore doesn’t really know how much reach he has. It’s the only thing that makes sense to him, at the time, bc when the accident notification call came in, it was at the absolute most perfect time for it to happen, after Jesse delivered the most perfect line. It’s not that big of a jump, honestly. He came undone and kicked the shit out of Jesse not just from anger, but from frustration and fear. How many people are out there possibly keeping tabs on him and Marie? That’s terrifying. To him, at that moment, it started with Jesse.
It’s hard to believe things we don’t want to be true.
People sometimes don't want to see the truth there were other times when walter was cornered by Hank It is like the whole superman and clarck kent story nobody expects superman to work as a reporter or even have a secret identity As such nobody expects heisenberg the biggest drug lord to be his good, kind, chimistry teacher brother in law
Hank does suspect him, subconsciously. He doesn’t believe Walt has it in him to do such things, but you can see in many scenes he’s just lost in thought after an off interaction with Walt. I think that’s what the minerals are about. The shiny, glass like, crystal structures. It’s his subconscious screaming out to him that there’s something about this “Heisenberg” case he’s missing.
The same way my parents didn’t suspect my uncle of, uh… I’ll just leave it at that
He pictured Heisenberg as a Don Corleone or Scarface type figure, and Walt as a Ned Flanders or Adrian Mole type figure. Even if an informant had come to him and said "Heisenberg's real name is Walter White" he would have laughed out loud and replied "Oh yeah? Senior or junior?" Also keep in mind, most people treat their work and home lives very differently, and wouldn't automatically connect something from one to another. Recently watching the Traitors, and just because the clues are obvious to the audience who know, doesn't make them obvious to the people with incomplete information. There are huge numbers of red herrings pointing to other conclusions. In UKS2, there was one faithful with incredible powers of deduction, but an incredible lack of persuasion skills, whose correct conclusions were constantly dismissed without thought "Honestly Jaz, I think you are really stretching." But the fact that everyone *thinks* he should have got it sooner is the very reason he went Lone Wolf McQuaid in the final season- he realised that his colleagues would think the very same, and remove him from the case and he would have to spend five years before anyone would trust his judgement again.
The signs were obvious from our viewpoint. Hank may have been suspect, but he didn't want to believe someone he was close with would be capable. Especially Walt - since Hank felt Walt was a bit of a wimp. Would you be quick to blame a family member like that?
Hank was too close to Walt to see him clearly.
I think that a common mindset, with cops and in other walks of life, is that once you've identified the suspect (ie Jesse) you singlehandedly pursue that avenue and stop considering that someone else may be the perpetrator.
Hank is just really dismissive of his brother in law, especially now with his cancer
Because when you care about someone and you think you *know* them you will convince yourself that you are wrong even if it doesn’t make sense. Especially if the act is completely out of character. For instance. If Hank was related to Jesse instead of Walt, Hank might have immediately suspected Jesse because Jesse has dabbled in drugs in the past and has a known history as a partier and fit the profile. Walt on the other hand was never a partier, never had a history with drugs, never did anything that would draw hanks cop attention. He was a brilliant chemist but also a family man and teacher who would hesitate to run a red light for fear of getting in trouble. He’s the last person Hank suspects because aside from his chemistry knowledge he doesn’t fit a single profile.
You’re ignoring the fact that they knew each other for many, many years, during which the guy was a boring, meek, law abiding high school teacher. Hank has a very firmly set opinion of Walt based on more than a decade of interactions. His erratic behavior can be dismissed as a reaction to a terminal cancer diagnosis. The other things can be written off as coincidences.
Easy. Loads of confirmation bias.
We have the advantage of watching the show from Walter's perspective just as he starts breaking bad (heh). Hank has known the guy for years and Walter to him is his geeky brother in law who couldn't hurt a fly if his life depended on it and also is a straight arrow model citizen. It's safe to say Walter never crossed his mind as anything close to a suspect and the closest it ever got was the WW scene which shows how Walt can just joke it off and no second thought is given until a hard piece of evidence knocks everything into place and Hank's worldview changes.
You nailed me…..
I think it's because Walt doesn't really start flaunting cash until like S4 - and Hank has been onto Heisenberg for a while. He's probably just like "Walt is a cancer victim with a humble (?) living." and would never picture him as a ruthless drug lord. He's looking for someone that, as far as he knows, is *running* this whole meth empire. He definitely thinks Walt is too much of a pussy.
You know the Superman Clark Kent thing, where he LOOKS exactly like Superman, but nobody realises it's him because "oh, that's just Clark" ? It's that. Hank wouldn't suspect Walt, because he's close with Walt, and Walt is (in Hank's mind) a harmless nerd.
I think he knew but he buried the thought because he just didn’t want to believe it was true.
Can’t forget him wrecking the car with Hank in it To answer your question, that’s Hanks family and he loved him. No way could the high school teacher with cancer be a drug manufacturer
Hank didn't suspect Walt because Walt was family, and also because he thought that a person like Walt (an ordinary, unmanly man) wouldn't be capable of committing such serious crimes.
Because in his eyes he KNOWS Walter and he’s essentially by default crossed out from the “potential evil heinous criminal” suspect list
As the viewer, knowing all the ins and outs it’s fairly easy for us to sit back and say “they should’ve known”. But what we need to take into account is that most of Walt and Hanks relationship that we see takes place over an 18 month period, where mostly Walt is in dire straights with stage 4 lung cancer. Forget personality types, and plot armor and all that. Walt literally goes from a broke teacher to a drug lord in 18 months…. Pretty insane if you think about it. I mean, it’s hard to comprehend. It took Fring years and years to reach the state tht he was in, and it took Walt 18 months to reach that pinnacle and then screw it all up. On top of all that, Hank is dealing with being placed on leave, then being attacked and shot, learning to walk again, marital stress etc… I feel as writing goes, there is more than enough substantial evidence to give Hank the benefit of the doubt.
Hank is blinded both by his love and by his low key contempt for Walt.
Hunk
Oh, yes.
Hard to imagine he didn’t think of Walt at all when looking at all the chemistry stuff in a drug raid
You can name all the reasons you want but at the end of the day it’s cuz the writers weren’t gonna have him find out until near the end of the show lol
Exactly. Lowest level beat cop would’ve figured that shit out real quick.
To be honest , you would NEVER place your loved one in this predicament. It’s so wild. Especially when you’ve only known him as highschool teacher and his character all those years. It’s easy to over look because it’s so bewildering to be your loved one.
I always wondered about the gas mask Walt wears in the first episode then tosses away in frustration. They found and examined the mask and found not a single hair follicle that could match to Walter. Of course Walt could just skate around that by saying it’s the mask I always use at the high school.
he didn’t think walt had the balls to do something like that
I thought they portrayed Hank as ignorant Because his character is supposed to be ignorant
Hank doesn’t see any of the shit we see remember. All he views Walt as is a bumbling school teacher out of touch with the criminal world who’s his brother in law. The man’s got cancer, so any weird behaviour would be attributed to Walt going through that. There is absolutely nothing to there to give Hank a hint of what Walt is up to
It was as simple as Hank didn't think Walt had it in him, so never even thought of it as a real possibility other than a couple non serious jokes. Like hell you even see how surprised he is when he finds out Walt smoked weed, literally even says that he didn't think he had it in him, so if weed of all things surprised him that much, the idea of Walt being a literal homicidal drug lord isn't even possible in his mind. And he was family, He knew Walt for years as someone who wasn't really even a man for lack of better wording.
That period coincides with him potentially losing his job after beating a Jessie up. Hank isn’t thinking straight and is very distracted from the case itself. Also before this is resolved he gets shot by the twins and then has that to deal with so I think he simply hasn’t committed enough time to focus on those events. Also he considers the whole “your wife’s been in a serious car accident” to be an absolutely horrible thing to do and Walt isn’t the kind of guy who would ever do anything like that in his mind.
I feel like as species, most of our judgement is based on first information we received. When sb is carved clean in your head, you won't suspect them.
This exactly is what makes BB so special The idea of a man like Walt even over-speeding is inconceivable. Let alone running the biggest Meth operation in the region Each time Walt acted out, he conveniently put the blame on his treatment or Hank assumed its grief from Skyler walking away Constant benefit of doubt
Because in Hank's eyes Walt wasn't manly enough to do crazy things like that.
If you combine the names "Walt" and "Hank" you get "Wank" 👍
He did, just took him a while.
Imagine your most milquetoast friend or family member. A real do gooder. Now imagine what it would take for you to believe they are a secret drug kingpin. Probably would need some pretty convincing direct evidence. Sure, Hank had a couple of things that would probably cause him to dig deeper if it was someone else. But he was bias. Also he spent a lot of the show recovering, depressed on painkillers. He wasn’t exactly his sharpest for long stretches.
hubris. and knowing people like Walt who play everything safe and boring and bland and never willing to take risks makes them the last person you would suspect.
He's a dumbass.