Sheesh, some Skylar defenders in this thread, go rewatch the scene were Mike talks about sexism.
Lots of people have always hated Skyler but I think part of it is because of the way her arc has been written. When she found out about Walt, she absolutely wouldn't even talk to him. Wouldn't let him see his children. When she found out that she could use Walt's money to help her brother in law and sister, she all the sudden thought that it was OK. Completely self serving and hypocritical.
But from there it was handled decently, she was inching her way into the fold, but then when Walt kills someone, who was threatening to kill not only him, but also her and his two children, she breaks down and thinks he's evil? No gray area, no subtle lack of trust, just mental breakdown? If Walt hadn't done what he did, his entire family would be dead. Period. Her reaction has been too rash, that's the way it was written. That's why people hate her. Because she completely fails to see anything other than "My husband killed people, he's a murder, he's evil, he's the Anti-Christ." When she should also see that he was acting in self defense, defense of their family. And never mind the fact that the people he killed were also, all murderers.
Exactly, she's just as self serving as Walt, but her capacity to do so is different. She's constantly trying to manipulate him the same way he lied to her, and she has had prolonged periods of being mentally abusive to him also. In fact she has been waging a war on him for some time now. Not that he didn't have it coming.
Walt is a scary man now, but Skylar did her part in helping to push him along. It wasn't 'fucking Ted' ((and then telling him torture him), it has been much more than that. Especially this season she's displaying the same 'black and white' thinking that Walt has been, but worse in many ways. What Walt does is selfish now, but it started as sincere and more or less was maintained as such for some time. He killed a person that was going to kill him and his entire family, and Walt did not have the option of going to the police (like that would have saved him).
I'm pretty sure it's a calculated move on the part of the writers to show you mild character flaws in Skyler like these and smoking while pregnant so you can say, "HOW DARE SHE" and then realize that her husband is cooking meth, poisoned an innocent kid and is a multiple murderer, and is doing it entirely out of pride.
So much more than just the thing with Ted.
Poisoning the kid
So what?
and before you flip out,think about it. Do you really think that Walt, Mr Science, would have given the child enough to kill him? Or would have just guessed at the amount and hoped for the best? Walt was staring down the barrel of a gun and needed to
survive. He didn't poison the child fatally, nor did he ever intend to. He was facing certain death and the death of his wife and two children, what would you do?
Murderer
Out of self defense with the exception of the other chemist, and to
save Jesse's life in season 4. It's like people are applying a moral standard to him that they would a normal person with no external threats. He's killing people that
are trying to kill him. People that he would not have killed otherwise.
Pride
Wrong. Pride is why he turned down the offer from Grey Matter, pride is not why he cooks meth. Ego and selfishness were almost always a part of why he decided to cook meth, but the end motivator was for his family for a long time even though other things got mixed up in that. Now, it's his job, more or less, and Skylar has been doing her best (rightly or wrongly) to take away his family, for a long time before his 'death' last season.