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'Breaking Bad' creator finally reveals the answer to the show's grossest question

10 years later, we have the answer

'Breaking Bad' creator finally reveals the answer to the show's grossest question
26 January 2018

It’s been 10 whole years since Walter White first appeared on our television screens in Breaking Bad’s pilot episode, and while it didn’t exactly make a splash at first, it’s now almost impossible to find someone who hasn’t heard of it.

After the show landed on Netflix it got so massive that Heisenberg instantly became a cultural icon, and when it reached its satisfying conclusion, everyone was still so hooked on the world of Breaking Bad that creator Vince Gilligan decided to make a spin-off, Better Call Saul.

Five years since that ending, most questions about Breaking Bad have been answered. Yes, of course Walt is really dead. Yes, Jesse did end up OK in the end. And yes, Huell did make it out of that safe house, thank god.

But the show’s most disgusting question went unanswered… until now.

It’s not exactly a gamechanging one, but it’s one a lot of fans obsess over nonetheless - why on earth does Lydia put soy milk in her chamomile tea?

Lydia’s tea turns out to be very important, of course - Walt substitutes her trademark Stevia with risin in order to poison her and get her out of the picture in the penultimate episode, but why suck the odd choice of beverage?

Actress Laura Fraser certainly wasn’t on board with the choice, telling the Guardian back in 2013 that the drink was ‘disgusting’ and drinking it made Lydia ‘a monster’, so it certainly isn’t down to her personal preferences.

Is there some hidden clue we’re missing here? Well, no, it turns out the answer is very simple, and its actually Vince Gilligan who is the monster.

“Oh, I actually put milk in chamomile tea,” he told HuffPost. “A lot of people don’t, though, I guess. I guess you’re right. No, I don’t think there was any hidden message there.”

Stevia or risin, Lydia?

“I don’t know about soy milk because I’m not a big soy milk person,” he added. “That sounded kind of healthy, like health-medy, but I actually put milk in any kind of tea, including mint tea and chamomile tea. I guess you’re right. I guess most people are not into that.”

Vince, we expected better of you.

In the interview, Gilligan also discussed the perennial question of whether Walter White might be showing up in Better Call Saul anytime soon, and his answer was surprisingly positive.

“I greedily want to see that happen, so every year I’m kind of looking for that possibility, and as viewers of the show have seen in the first three seasons, he’s nowhere in sight, nor is Jesse Pinkman. I think we’re always kind of open, definitely — not to speak for co-creator Peter Gould and the writers — I think it’s fairly safe to say they’re always open to the idea. I am as well,” he said. 

“I think it would be a real shame if the show ran its entire course without us ever seeing Walter White, maybe Jesse Pinkman, too.”

(Images: AMC)