Lithose
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The whole reason people dislike her is in the article itself. Here.
Consider what Walter White has put her through over the course of four and a half seasons: He's disappeared for long stretches of time. He refused to accept money for his treatment out of pride. He hid the fact that he was a meth manufacturer from her. He missed the birth of their daughter. He gets her brother in law shot and nearly killed. He was responsible for putting her entire family in witness protection. Most importantly, he put the lives of his family at risk. And yet, at each turn, Skyler tries to make it work. She launders his money. She saves him from the harebrained Saul Goodman schemes.
Without Skyler White, there would be no Heisenberg Empire.
But she also ends the affair with Ted.She doesn't turn Walter in when she had the opportunity to do so. She doesn't divorce him because she doesn't want to testify against him. She protects him. More than that, she never ratted Walter out to her son. She did what Walter could never do: She swallowed her pride and allowed Walter Jr. to believe that she was the reason they were separated, that she was the reason Walter Jr. had to live with the Schraders.
So she lost it. Wouldn't you? Can we also agree that Marie had that coming?
But why would she go to such lengths to protect her husband?Because she believed and trusted Walter as a father, and as a provider, and as a protector.Remember, after all, that only a little more than a year transpired between the time that the series began and the end of the fourth season: The man that Skyler used to know - the meek chemistry teacher weakened by cancer - is not that distant a memory. She had a glimmer of hope that there was something of Walter White remaining. However, once Walter killed Gus Fring, she understood that Walter White could no longer protect her family. He is the danger, not just to the Gus Frings of the world, but to her. To get her children out of Walter's path of destruction, she orchestrated a suicide attempt, outflanking Walter White.
Smart lady.
Without Skyler White, there would be no Heisenberg Empire.
But she also ends the affair with Ted.She doesn't turn Walter in when she had the opportunity to do so. She doesn't divorce him because she doesn't want to testify against him. She protects him. More than that, she never ratted Walter out to her son. She did what Walter could never do: She swallowed her pride and allowed Walter Jr. to believe that she was the reason they were separated, that she was the reason Walter Jr. had to live with the Schraders.
So she lost it. Wouldn't you? Can we also agree that Marie had that coming?
But why would she go to such lengths to protect her husband?Because she believed and trusted Walter as a father, and as a provider, and as a protector.Remember, after all, that only a little more than a year transpired between the time that the series began and the end of the fourth season: The man that Skyler used to know - the meek chemistry teacher weakened by cancer - is not that distant a memory. She had a glimmer of hope that there was something of Walter White remaining. However, once Walter killed Gus Fring, she understood that Walter White could no longer protect her family. He is the danger, not just to the Gus Frings of the world, but to her. To get her children out of Walter's path of destruction, she orchestrated a suicide attempt, outflanking Walter White.
Smart lady.
I underlined the parts that are pertinent. Walter is a terrible person. He absolutely is. Skylar has the ability to stop it all but she does not do that. Instead she complains in a bunch of passive aggressive remarks about how terrible Walter is--consistently conveying she understands the depths of the danger and showing how she actually dislikes him a great deal now. So even though we are shown this dislike of Walter, and made to viscerally feel how much Skylar objects to this--She doesn't end it.
This is the irrationality of the Skylar character. Her every action leads us to believe she is in an emotional state with which shecouldextricate herself from Walter. Just by the way she is consistently mean, emasculating, distant and cold with him. But rather than actually ending it, she decides to complain more vocally--until eventually she becomes complicit and helps, but hey, she's still not happy about it and she lets us know, ineveryscene. The article tries to say it's love tempering her but where is this SHOWN...As said above, every scene, nearly every scene, beyond Season 1, is filled with Skylar being emotionally distant, passive aggressive and pretty much downright hateful/controlling (Controlling when she needs to maintain her own hero complex facade and be magnanimous with the very blood money she hates). No scene should lead anyone to believe Skylar issodeeply in love that she is willing to risk her kids for even a minute longer, every emotional conveyance by the actress through the character Skylar is antithetical to this notion. We are SHOWN a visceral hatred for everything about this life, we are SHOWN a complete understanding of the danger, we are SHOWN rational ways to end it but then when the time comes for actual actions to prevent disaster? Well, I'll take a half measure (Because love...but that love is not felt, shown or even talked about beyond her emotional break down when Walt says he wants to die.)
This is why she is an annoying character...Because until halfway through season 3, she has been a one dimensional device used to symbolize certain broader aspects in the show, and that's it. She is the cliche, vocal, scornful but ultimately impotent authority figure that proves simultaneously both how inept X or Y institution is (In this case their marriage) and how personally crushing it is to the main character (In this case Walter.) It wasn't until midway through Season 3 that she became anything other than that device. But before that she was shallow, and now all of the sudden, for whatever reason, they are trying to write her as more. And while I agree, it's working (She has a little depth now), it's a drop in a very large bucket of hate Gilligan has filled. After 50% of the show being portrayed as this device....it's silly to think it's the audiences fault for hating on her when she's been the symbolic embodiment of how much playing by the rules in society sucks, and is grossly unfair, for most people.
Anyway, it's difficult to see all this in an overview. In a contextually bereft synopsis of events, Skylar feels like a better character...but that's because it lacks all the emotional dialogue we've been SHOWN in the show. We've been SHOWN by Skylar that, for all the reasons above, sheshouldhave been able to go the police--but then we are expected to believe she doesn't, becauselove. The reality is, she doesn't end this because the show needed a device to make Walt an every-man hero (Someone lashing out at the injustices in society, bringing down the machine that grinds decent, but perhaps meek, people to dust.) and when it came time for Walt to fall, they tried to quickly dig some depth to her to give him a nice grave.
