Is there an explanation for the oversight of the bomb-making evidence in Walt's kitchen?

Question

In the Breaking Bad episode where Walt plants the bomb on Gus's car, Gus stops dead in his tracks. After rewatching, I noticed that Walter goes home and calls for his neighbor to go inside and check out the house because Walt Jr. "left the burner on." His neighbor goes inside and checks the stove, and two men leave the backyard. Walt then runs in from the back and gets his money. The men return, and they walk in, down the hall, and past the kitchen. Walt already has the pipe bomb made; it's in his baby bag.

After Walt blows up Gus, he comes home and cleans up the evidence; the bomb was already made, which means the evidence was laid out in the kitchen and the two men walked right past it, which was obviously the makings for something dangerous, yet the two men didn't notice it.

I feel like this is a big hole in the story. Please, can I get some feedback or something? I'm not sure what to think of this. Was this really a plot hole, or is there some other explanation for it?

Answer 1

As you say there are the two options, whether they saw the evidence of bomb-making or they didn't, so I'll try to address them both, as the show doesn't really provide any clue as to whether they did or not.

They didn't see it

At the time they were looking for Walt, trying to capture or kill him on behalf of Gus, as he was trying to do the same in return. They really had no need to search the house or its contents, they knew that Walt lived there and they knew he would need to return eventually.

They really don't have any need to go around examining everything in his home, and assess it to see if it's dangerous or provides any evidence of Walt's intentions. They already know, or at least suspect, he is trying to kill Gus. They don't need any further proof to kill him.

They did see it

What would they have done? They knew that Walt lived there, so it would be obvious that it was he who made it. The only benefit that they could get from this was that Walt had been home at some point (which they already knew), and that he was going to try to use a bomb to kill Gus.

Considering how Walt ended up getting to Gus, knowing the method of assassination would really have offered him no advantage. It could have been a gun, or poison, but Walt had already outsmarted Gus by getting him to the place he needed him to be to ambush him.

The detail of Walt leaving the evidence in the kitchen was likely overlooked because it is insignificant, whether they saw the evidence or not would not have changed the outcome.