Breaking Bad always tells us exactly how much each of its characters stand to gain (and, inevitably, lose). The gang's first meth batch this season earned Walter, Jesse, and Mike $367,000 each—until the cuts earned by Saul, the underlings, and Mike's "legacy costs" eroded the number to $137,000. When cooked, the methylamine stolen from the train in this season's "Dead Freight" episode would be worth $300 million—but Mike and Jesse opt to cash out by selling their shares for $5 million each, and urge Walt to do the same. And when Walter complains about the tens of millions that Mike and Jesse stand to lose in the following episode, "Buyout," Jesse turns Walter's numbers back on him: "I know for a fact all you needed was $737,000, because you worked it out, like, mathematically."

Breaking Bad has been known to hide messages in its episode titles. When put together, the titles of the first, fourth, tenth, and 13th episodes of Breaking Bad's second season spell out "737 down over ABQ," which turned out to be the resolution of the season's central mystery. But if those episode titles served as the literal Rosetta stone for that season, the episode titles of Breaking Bad's fifth season serve a more symbolic purpose. "Live Free or Die," "Hazard Pay," and "Buyout" are oblique references to the primary motivator in Walter's life: money.

It may seem self-evident to say that an aspiring drug kingpin who says he's in the "empire business" is interested in making a lot of money. Currency certainly defines each of Walter's relationships, from the hypothetical $130 million with which he unsuccessfully attempts to bribe Jesse, to the money laundering that has turned his marriage with Skyler into an unpleasant business partnership, and even his problematic relationship with Walter Jr., which Walter attempted to fix by buying him a car. It's why Walter is befuddled when new recruit Todd waves away his earnings, saying, "We can talk money once I get this right"—if it's not about money, what is it about?

But Walter's interest in money isn't about actual value anymore; it's the validation that the money represents. In "Buyout," Walter tells Jesse about his decision to sell his stake in science firm Gray Matter, the company he helped found, for $5,000—a company that's currently worth $2.16 billion, as Walter, of course, knows. Taken at face value, this revelation is a little trite. Walter's greediness is rooted in the legitimate hundreds of millions he lost by selling his shares in the company too early, and his illegitimate meth business is a subconscious attempt to make those millions back. But in the full context of the series, it tells us something about Walter that Breaking Bad has only hinted at before: that the point at which Walter had the capacity to "break bad" happened long before the series began. In chemistry terms, cancer was merely the catalyst for Walter's transformation; all the elements that have since turned him into a monster were already in place.