Inconsistencies in Todd's Behavior

Question

I've recently finished Breaking Bad, and although I really loved some characters such as Walt and Jesse, I feel weird about Todd. Even if many characters have multiple personalities, they tend to stick with their ideals without strong spikes while Todd goes from overconfident to clumsy and from highly responsive to disoriented. Here some examples:

• He kills Drew without a blink in [s5e5], but then he seems to be insecure and even shaking before and during the shootout between Hank&Gomez and White Supremacy Gang [s5e13];
• He tortures ruthlessly Jesse and then he treat him like a beast, chaining him while he works and keeping him handcuffed also when sleeping, but he seems to show humanity both with Walt [s5e13] and Jesse speaking like he never tortured and allowing him to watch the sky for the night;
• When White Supremacy Gang gets wiped by Walt's ambush, he gets up unharmed, shows a terrible lack of empathy saying just an "Uncle Jack?" and then looks outside, like he didn't understood anything about what has just happened. I find his reaction weird because previously he always reacted and understood the situation pretty quickly and also gave the idea to care much about uncle Jack and his crew.

That said, I don't know how to feel about him. He shows two sides: the ruthless assassin and the naive boy, but those sides doesn't seem to be very delineated.

Was he meant to be that type of character? Have I misunderstood something? I feel I missed something about him, I find him a fish out of water compared to all other characters.

Answer 1

Todd's mind was just like a boy. He wanted to prove his worth to his uncle about his abilities and he also had a crush on Lydia and would do anything to impress her.

This was the reason for his inconsistent behavior. For impressing and proving his worth he would easily do killing and torturing but whenever these boosting factors went off due to any factor in that case his childish behavior was visible like confusion or no reaction as there will not be any factor to give him confidence so he will just flow with the wind.

Source Wiki

Despite his soft spoken nature and child-like fascination with the criminal underworld, Todd has proven himself to be a more than capable criminal, and will normally act on instinct when he feels that the secrecy of his occupation is in jeopardy. Todd's primary motivation seems to be gratification from his employers, rather than greed or morality, and will go to great lengths to please them. His relationship with his employers is always one of respect and loyalty, and will execute any command unflinchingly and without remorse. His attitude towards his uncle and his uncle's gang is more familiar, and though he shows an eagerness to impress them with his abilities, he does not show them the same sycophancy that he treats his bosses with. He also appears to be infatuated in Lydia, a sentiment not reciprocated.