In the latest episode of Vanity Fair‘s Psych of a Psycho, former FBI profiler Candice DeLong, who is a regular commentator on the Investigation Discovery (ID) channel, uses her skills to analyze and profile the Breaking Bad character Walter White. DeLong looks at what motivated him to go from a financially struggling high school teacher to an incredibly wealthy “meth king pin” and how it eventually led to his complete demise.

In any ongoing criminal enterprise the person at the top is getting plenty of money. Power is what is really propelling them, the money is secondary. How does this relate to Walter? He feels that he was screwed over by his buddies Elliott and Gretchen and he saw all the money he should have had taken away. …Once he got a taste of the money in that first sale, it was no longer enough for him to be the meth cook – make the product, take the money and stay in the background. He had to possess the entire process. He had to be the boss. …It was an ego thing and it was his ego that was his undoing.