Skyler's Reason for Giving Ted That Cash in 'Breaking Bad' Actually Makes Sense

If Skyler from Breaking Bad has no haters, then we're all dead. It is a common belief among longtime fans that Skyler is one of the most hated characters on the show. Others might be Skyler apologists, but mostly, fans tend to think she is annoying and that she is the thorn in Walt's side, despite Walt being a whole criminal.

This comes to be in a major way when Skyler gives $600,000 to Ted, her boss, to help him pay his IRS debt. But why did Skyler give Ted the money, and how did it set off a wave of events in Breaking Bad? She might have had good intentions, but some fans are still hating on Skyler for that decision, among others, in the show.

Although Skyler does have a short affair with Ted when she goes back to work for him, she doesn't give him more than half a million dollars out of the kindness of her heart. She is essentially cooking his books at his company as the accountant. When she worries about a potential tax audit, she knows she has to do something to make sure nothing goes back to her. Because if it did, then Walt could get into trouble with his own scheme of laundering drug money through the car wash.

So Skyler gives $600,000 to Ted for him to pay off what he owes to the IRS, and hopefully keep trouble away from not only Ted's company, but away from her and Walt as well. Unfortunately, viewers see Walt spend a chunk of that money frivolously. And, Skyler learns, that money was supposed to go toward helping their family get new identities and leave town.

Even though Skyler's motives are pretty clear, Breaking Bad fans still absolutely hate that she got the family into such a hole. Sure, she didn't mean to, but for Skyler haters, that doesn't really matter.

"Skyler knowingly cooked Ted's books when she was his accountant and then when she found out that he was in debt to the IRS and they were going to take action on him, then she takes Walt's money and gives it to Beneke without a second thought," someone pointed out on Reddit.

Another fan in the comments of that thread pointed out, "The chance of Walt getting caught from Skyler's remote involvement with Beneke was extremely low and not worth giving him the $600,000 in one transaction."

There really are few fans willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

The last time viewers see Ted on Breaking Bad, it's when he's in the hospital following a fall in his home. Afraid of Saul's henchmen who threatened him, he promises Skyler that he will pay back the IRS. But he also appears to be permanently injured. His final scene in the series shows him in a halo neck brace in a hospital bed.