Let’s make this very clear; Walter White is an evil, irredeemable man. While he’s developed this reputation as a male character worshipped by dudebros, there is no denying that he deserved almost every awful thing that happened to him throughout “Breaking Bad.” He only cared about himself and not really about his family or business partners.

This is exactly why that flashback to after the events of “Ozymandias” from the fifth season of “Breaking Bad” was so important. In their safe house, Jimmy asks Walter the same question he asked Mike; what would you do with a time machine? Walter’s first response is to berate him for asking, saying that time travel is a logistical and scientific fallacy that is impossible to achieve. However, when Jimmy rephrases the question so that, theoretically, it could be possible, the former science teacher says that he would get some sort of revenge on the Schwartzs (Adam Godley and Jessica Hecht) for forcing him out of Gray Matter, the company he helped create with them. He then goes back to berating Jimmy when he says that he should’ve told the lawyer so that a lawsuit of some kind could be filed.

The further Jimmy went without any real consequences, the more selfish and disconnected from humanity he became. Unlike Walter, he knew that he couldn’t be able to live with himself knowing about all the awful things he had done. If Jimmy hadn’t run away and eventually confessed his crimes in that courtroom, he could have easily become distant, cold, and evil like Walter did.