He's the best agent the DEA has to offer and yet can't figure out his brother-in-law/drug kingpin despite so many opportunities to do so. He started out in the show as loud, macho comic relief and although his character was able to develop throughout the show's run, his investigative skills sure didn't. It can, and I'm sure will be argued that as Walt was a member of his family, Hank had a bit of an emotional blind spot. I can get behind that, but there are numerous incidences where it would have been prudent to at least spend five minutes following up a lead. Events like Walt's disappearances and his changing behaviour which he explained away using cancer should have started some sort of curiosity. Really early on there's the sequence where Hank inspects Mr. White's chemistry cupboard and discovers that there are items missing and although he scolds Walt, he pretty much just laughs it off. In the end he finds out Heisenberg's identity through Walt's hubris, not by any great detective work. As he grunts away on the toilet and finds the killer clue in Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass you can't help but wonder if this should have happened a long time before. If he could sniff out Gustavo Fring, the most careful man in crime, it's just ludicrous that it took him five seasons to bag Walter White.
A pop culture mad writer from the North East who loves films, television and debating them with whoever will listen.
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