Breaking Bad



"Some straight like you, giant stick up his ass, all the sudden, age -- what, sixty? He's just gonna break bad?"

Breaking Bad -- AMC's first substantial success with original programming -- debuted in 2008 with a seven-episode season (shortened because of the writers' strike) and soon found itself renewed for a second, full season. The show's fifth and final season, consisting of sixteen episodes, will debut in 2012 -- and it will be split into two eight-episode halves.

Kindly Albuquerque, New Mexico high school chemistry teacher Walter White receives a diagnosis of lung cancer after a meager lifetime of playing it safe; his world begins to fall apart as he realizes how the medical bills will cripple the finances for his family (a pregnant wife and a son afflicted with Cerebral Palsy). After going on a ride-along with his lovable Jerkass DEA agent brother-in-law, Walter learns of the money to be made in the highly dangerous world of illegal methamphetamine. Later the same night, Walter enlists the aid of one of his former students -- who managed to escape the DEA raid by sheer dumb luck -- and hatches a plan to manufacture and sell crystal meth in order to provide for his family. As Walter's journey stretches forth, bodies begin to pile up, and dark, violent Hilarity Ensues.

Walter becomes known as the high-level drug dealer Heisenberg, as nobody knows who he is, what he looks like, where he produces his product, or where he is other than they suspect he is in the Albuquerque area. Walter is rather amused at times when his completely clueless DEA Agent brother in law tells Walter about his efforts to catch Heisenberg or asks Walter for tips they might use to find Heisenberg since Walter knows chemical production and chemistry.

How awesome is this series? It transformed Bryan Cranston -- a man best known for playing a Bumbling Dad -- into the virtual lock for the "Best Actor" Emmy each time he's nominated. Cranston has already won three in a row, which ties the record set by Bill Cosby.

"Jesse: "And why'd you go and tell her I was selling you weed?" Walt: "Because somehow it seemed preferable to admitting that I cook crystal meth and killed a man.""
 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: The Cousins' axe falls out of his hands and cuts into the asphalt far enough to stay upright. Keep in mind that it wasn't even swung downwards -- it just fell about seven feet and landed on the blade.
 * Abusive Parents: In season 2 Jesse encounters a couple of meth addicts who do nothing but rob people and get high living together in a filthy, dilapidated house -- along with their horribly neglected young son. He is suitably disgusted.
 * Affably Evil: Most notably, there is Saul Goodman, the cheerfully corrupt lawyer. Gus is a ruthless drug lord, but most of the time he comes off a polite, soft-spoken, genteel businessman (until you piss him off...). Also, Mike, a personable, world-weary grandfather who'll still straight-up murder you if Gus wants it done.
 * Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Both Walt and Gale plead for their lives.
 * Alliterative Name: Both father and son are named Walter White. The name was deliberately chosen for its blandness.
 * Analogy Backfire:
 * Hank talks about how he wanted to bring Heisenberg in himself, like Popeye Doyle. Walt points out that in The French Connection, Doyle never successfully arrested anyone.
 * Hank also makes references to Rocky that seem to ignore the fact that Rocky actually loses in the first film.
 * And Some Other Stuff: Mostly done quite subtly, we're never shown entire recipes for anything particularly dangerous.
 * Anti-Hero, Anti-Villain or Villain Protagonist? Where Walt falls is unclear, and he keeps seeming to slip further down the Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes. Jesse envisions himself as a kind of Anti-Villain, but it's probably a pose.
 * Ax Crazy:
 * Tuco takes this trope Up to Eleven. He will take any and every excuse he can get to beat someone up, especially when he's high on meth. Walt tells him, "We tried to poison you because you are an insane, degenerate piece of filth and you deserve to die."
 * The Salamanca Cousins, quite literally. One of them carries around a chromed fire-axe with which they kill several people. One of them even refuses to shoot his victim in the head when he had the chance, choosing instead to go back to the car to get the axe.
 * You Fail Law Forever: In-universe example: Badger is tricked into believing the urban myth that undercover cops have to identify themselves as such when asked. He quickly learns that this not how the law works.
 * Badass Boast:
 * Walt: "I am the one who knocks!"
 * In "Crawl Space",
 * Walt gets a one line Badass Boast in the season 4 finale after
 * Badass: A number of characters get their time to shine.
 * Walt walking straight into Tuco's office and blowing it up with homemade explosives.
 * Walt tracking down some local meth pushers and kicking them out of his turf.
 * Mike taking on multiple cartel assassins.
 * Gus walking into a hail of sniperfire, daring the assassins to shoot him.
 * Gus poisoning himself in order to assassinate the entire cartel leadership.
 * Jesse bending a cartel meth lab to his will.
 * Hank taking on Tuco and then the Salamanca twins.
 * Badass Family: The Salamanca family.
 * Bad Boss:
 * Tuco. Shortly after we're introduced to him, we get to see him beat one of his henchmen to death.
 * Gus is a much less psychotic, much more cold-blooded Bad Boss.
 * Bogdan is a more... well, maybe "common" example is better. While not a murderous druglord, he's about as bad a boss as any normal people are likely to have.
 * Bald of Awesome: Quite a few characters. Hank and Mike are naturally bald, Walt shaves his head early in the show. Gus trims his hair almost down to scalp level. The Salamanca brothers also sport shaved heads. Jesse also crops his hair down after a traumatic event in an apparent effort to toughen himself up.
 * Batman Gambit: Two of epic proportions in the last two episodes of season 4
 * Becoming the Mask:
 * Jesse has his two drug dealing cronies join a 12 step program to sell meth to the addicts. They can't bring themselves to do it, and end up going sober instead.
 * Weak Walter White pretends to be the ruthless Heisenberg until he becomes ruthless for real. Then Heisenberg starts pretending to be the weak Walter White.
 * Beneath the Mask: When Walt meets with Gretchen, he reveals years of pent-up bitterness and malice that provokes the question: what sort of man had Walter quietly, secretly become even before his 50th birthday? How many of us remain good people on the surface, but end up becoming ripe for the sort of trigger events that launched Walt's career?
 * Berserk Button: Walt is incredibly defensive of his son in the first season. Jesse, on the other hand, gets protective of anyone's kids.
 * Best Served Cold: Gus once saw his friend and partner murdered in front of him by the cartel. He then proceeds to bide his time and establish trust for twenty years. Then, when the man who pulled the trigger is finally in his power, he still doesn't kill him, but visits him again and again, each time telling him that another one of his relatives has been killed, until he's the last member of his family alive.
 * Big Bad: Tuco in season 2, Gus in seasons 3 and 4. The two are polar opposites; Tuco is violent and erratic while Gus is cold and calculating. Each time, Walt and Jesse come to believe it is necessary to kill the Big Bad,.
 * Black and Grey Morality: "Heisenberg" vs the Cartel.
 * Black Comedy: Comedy so black, no light can escape it.
 * Bloody Hilarious: In the first season, Jesse tries to dispose of a body using hydrofluoric acid. In a bathtub. It doesn't work out well for the body, the bathtub or the floor underneath. By the time the floor's weakened enough for the remains of the body to fall through, it's no longer recognizable as human. As long as you don't vomit, you'll bust a gut laughing. Also, the head getting crushed by the ATM.
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: Where to begin? The drug-cooking school teacher, his attempted Stepford Smiler wife, the Gung-ho DEA agent brother-in-law, the kooky kleptomaniac sister... No wonder "Flynn" wants to change his name.
 * Blofeld Ploy: In the season 4 premiere "Box Cutter", Gus kills a mook just to make a point.
 * Boredom Montage: Used in the episode "Shotgun" when Jesse begins working for Mike.
 * Bottle Episode: "And the Bag's in the River", "Four Days Out" and especially "Fly".
 * Break the Cutie:
 * Jesse, over the course of the show.
 * Skyler in the 3rd season.
 * Break the Haughty: Hank and Jesse.
 * Bribe Backfire: Walt and Jesse's first meeting with Saul.
 * Bulletproof Vest: The Cousins purchase a pair from an illegal arms dealer.
 * But He Sounds Handsome: Walt commenting on Gale to Hank who thinks he was Heisenberg, telling Hank that his "genius might still be out there."
 * Butt Monkey: Jesse's first scene is him falling out a window with no pants on. His humiliation grows with his success. Walt has been the Butt Monkey his whole life, but the events of the show make him more assertive and aggressive. Which is not really a good thing, it turns out.
 * Call Back:
 * In episode 2, Jesse fails to appreciate how important a plastic bin is when dissolving a body in hydrofluoric acid. Three seasons later, he finally gets to do it properly, saying "Trust us" when Mike questions if it'll work.
 * When Walt serves Krazy 8 a sandwich, Krazy 8 plucks off the crust, which Walter makes a point to cut off when he gives him another sandwich. Ever since, when Walt makes a sandwich, he cuts off the crust.
 * A season after they needed it, Jesse tells Badger that the RV should have "one of those buzzers that tells you when you leave the key in the ignition"
 * The scene where  is pretty reminiscent of Mike's backstory from "Half Measure". One wonders if Gus would have gotten the same speech from Mike if he was around at the time.
 * Call Forward
 * Jane in "Abiquiú".
 * Can't Kill You - Still Need You: The main plot of season 4. kill Walt and Jesse because he has no one else to cook meth for him. Enforced by Jesse in Season 3 when he.
 * Car Fu:
 * The Cartel
 * Cassandra Truth: In season three, when Hank helps Walt move his belongings into his van, he lifts one particularly heavy bag, wondering what was inside. Walt's reply? "Half of a million dollars". Hank thought Walt was kidding about it and laughs off his presumed optimism.
 * Cerebus Syndrome: A rare case of the show starting out as a black comedy and the comedy getting blacker and blacker and slightly more sparse in favor of the drama.
 * Chekhov's Gun
 * Played straight in "One Minute" where
 * Also see the season 4 premiere we get Chekhov's Box Cutter and the final shot quit possibly gives us Chekhov's Folder.
 * Subverted in the episode  when Walt tells Saul to set things up with the man that he said could help him disappear under a new identity if necessary. When Walt goes home to retrieve the necessary money
 * Walter's, throughout all of Season 4. It is however used as a prominent prop in various scenes where its presence alone has either thematic or plot-relevant resonance. However, he doesn't actually use it until the end of the final episode.
 * Subverted with  in season 4, which.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: Seemingly one-shot characters would routinely come back with more importance to the story, such as Skinny Pete and Badger.
 * Chekhov's Skill: Walt training himself to fast draw his pistol in season 4 apparently becomes a waste of time when he realizes he'll never get a chance to use this ability against Gus,
 * Chessmaster:
 * Gus is gradually revealed to be one of these, a reputation cemented halfway through Season 3 when.
 * Walt gradually becomes one as well . Season 4 is basically a chess match between Walt and Gus, which.
 * Children Are Innocent:
 * Played with. Tomas is an 11-year old murderer, but he was coerced into it.
 * Jesse strongly believes in this trope. For one, when Jesse's family's housemaid found a marijuana joint that his parents initially believed was his but actually belonged to his overachieving younger brother, he took the fall, and later stomped on it to prevent him from smoking it. Jesse also pulled out on selling meth to a woman he met in rehab when he discovered she had a child.
 * Cliff Hanger: A number of episodes, though only season 3 has come close to having the season finale variety.
 * Confess to a Lesser Crime:
 * In the first season, Skyler confronts Walt about his odd behavior and consorting with Jesse Pinkman. He tells her he's been buying pot from Pinkman. She immediately confronts Pinkman at his house.
 * Confess to a Lesser Crime:
 * In the first season, Skyler confronts Walt about his odd behavior and consorting with Jesse Pinkman. He tells her he's been buying pot from Pinkman. She immediately confronts Pinkman at his house.

""Walt, don't make me beg here. Just stick it in there!""
 * Skyler explains away all of Walt's bizarre behavior and sudden, inexplicable funds with an elaborate lie about a card counting spree in underground casinos.
 * Consummate Liar:
 * Walt, who lies in order to conceal his drug activities as well as out of a sense of pride.
 * Skyler eventually shows that she's a much better liar than Walt when she wants to be.
 * Continuity Nod: The teddy bear eye in season 2, and Walt's method for disposing of a body with acid in the season 4 premiere.
 * Contrived Coincidence:
 * Cradle of Loneliness: After Jesse can be seen cradling his cell phone, then calling her number just to hear her speaking on her voice mail, until her line is finally disconnected.
 * Crime-Time TV
 * Cross Referenced Titles: "The Cat's in the Bag..."/"...And the Bag's in the River", "No Mas"/"Mas", "Half-Measures"/"Full Measure". There's also the foreshadowing.
 * Extra props to the "737" title because within a few minutes of the episode, Walt has calculated that he'll need roughly $737,000 to support his family for up to ten years after he's gone.
 * Crowning Moment of Awesome: Walt is mad at his wife for being upset, that when she won't let him come in the house, he takes the pizza he bought on the way over (which he ordered uncut) out of the box and flings it on the roof. It lands perfectly. It's reported that the actor Cranston actually got the pizza on the roof perfectly on the first try.
 * Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Gus owns quite a few legitimate businesses that would see him living quite comfortably on their own. The fact that he must "hide in plain sight" means that he cannot actually spend all the millions that he's raking in through his illegal meth trade. What's the point of it, then? A flashback episode in season 4 suggests that.
 * A Day in the Limelight: "Hermanos" in season 4 for Gus. The episode focuses more on him than any other character and gives a look into his Mysterious Past
 * Description Cut: Done several times; one particularly notable one involves a couple of addicts who have stolen an ATM machine saying that they've committed a "victimless crime", followed by a cut to a shot of the clerk at the store from which they stole the ATM lying shot to death in a pool of blood.
 * Despair Event Horizon: Walt seems to have reached one in the beginning of the episode  He promptly returns to it in
 * Diabolus Ex Machina: Not related to the main plot, but honestly, can you say anything else about the end of "ABQ"?
 * Dies Wide Open:.
 * Directed by Cast Member: As if being the best actor on TV wasn't enough, Cranston also directed the Season 2 and 3 premieres.
 * Disposing of a Body: Walter and Jesse dispose of bodies with acid, to the point that Mike decides that it's their specialty.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Walt refuses some charity from an old friend out of pride and a lingering grudge, the friend can only react with shock and pity. This enfuriates Walt into delivering a Precision F-Strike.
 * Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Drugs Are Bad, m'kay... but a guy in a gas mask pouring a beaker of pure Mad Science into a bubbling flask of Technicolor Science with thick white clouds of Deadly Gas pouring over the sides, all mixed into a Hard Work Montage set to funky music... that's pretty damn cool.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Hank asks Walt to, he utters this remark:

"Walt: Ice Road Truckers. What happens on that one? Jesse: Guys drive on ice."
 * Dramatic Irony: The show is absolutely filled with dramatic irony. It's difficult to count the number of times a major drug dealer or manufacturer has a casual, friendly chat with a DEA agent or someone they intend to kill.
 * Dropped a Bridge on Him  receives an exceptionally anticlimactic and hilarious death when two of Saul's Mooks confront him in his home and he runs away only to   much to the Mooks' dismay.
 * Drowning My Sorrows:
 * Walt dealing with the awful news that his cancer is in remission. Dragging his underage son into his tequila-slugging match is something of a Kick the Dog moment.
 * Walt does it again with Jane's father.
 * Walt attempts to do this with Mike as a way of cooling off tensions between them. Mike goes along with it... and then beats him up.
 * Drugs Are Bad: A major theme of the film. Walter makes a deal with the devil to provide for his family after his death with drug money. As a result, he becomes a hardened murderer and manipulator, his relationship with his family is irreparably damaged, and his brother-in-law is nearly killed. Jesse, for his part, loses his family, kills a person, gets his girlfriend killed, and almost dies several times. Jesse's addiction and attempts to cope with his suffering also locks him into a downward spiral.
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him: Hank's prewedding jitter Hank still doesn't seem to understand...
 * Dumbass Has a Point: When Walt and Jesse are stuck in the desert in the RV after the battery dies, Jesse starts throwing out suggestions including stripping down the vehicle to make either a robot or a dune buggy (he was a bit delirious). Believe it or not, this helps Walt strike on the solution that actually does save their lives.
 * Dying Moment of Awesome:
 * Just after that,.
 * Ear Worm: In-universe example, for Walt the catchy theme song for a furniture store’s late-night commercials where he bought Walter Junior’s crib 16 years ago. "Don’t let shopping strain your brain-o, Just sing this short refrain-o, Our furniture is buen-o, Tampico is the name-o!"
 * Early Installment Weirdness: Bryan Cranston's Bald of Awesome and Beard of Evil are now iconic for the show, so people might be a little startled to see him with a full head of hair and a particularly bad mustache in the first few episodes.
 * Epic Fail:
 * Walt's hilarious attempt to shatter a glass office door with a potted palm tree; the only thing that broke was the tree. Well, and Walt's composure. Oh, and then he got dragged outside by staff
 * Walt discovers a housefly in the meth lab. He begins trying to swat the fly, but it's just too fast for him. Growing increasingly frustrated, he spots the fly on the ceiling and throws his shoe at it--and ends up breaking an overhead light, raining glass down on himself. His shoe gets stuck in the light fixture. THEN, he goes up on the catwalk to dislodge his stuck shoe... and falls off the catwalk, landing painfully on the floor. Just to make things worse, the fly then lands on his glasses.
 * Literally referred to in Season 4 "Epic fail, I believe that's what the kids call it these days".
 * Empathy Doll Shot: The teddy bear in the pool, as well as a doll in the background of a derelict junkie house in season 2.
 * Enemy Mine:
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:
 * A flashback reveals that the Salamanca kids have had this stomped into them Hector. Tuco cares for his tio in spite of being an Axe Crazy meth-head drug lord, and the Salamanca twins make an arduous journey into America to avenge Tuco.
 * Walter, rapidly losing any moral high ground he might have started with, still loves his family.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. Gus acts insulted when Walt accuses him of murdering a child, then later reveals that he's quite willing to such a thing, and more, if it suits his purposes.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: In-Universe.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: In-Universe.

"MILFs? What the hell is a MILF?"
 * Face Framed in Shadow: Very often; numerous important conversations have the lighting do this for both characters, switching back and forth between shots of their faces.
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * The whole series is one big one for Walt.
 * Gus, who initially appears to be a nice friendly man who runs a chicken restaurant and sells drugs on the side to being revealed as Of course, he's able to switch back and forth between his two personalities within the same scene.
 * Facial Horror:
 * Fake American: Walt's former friend Elliot is played by Brit Adam Godley with a flawless accent.
 * Fan Service:
 * Jane does quite a bit of it in the second season.
 * The boob shot in the pilot.
 * Walt in his white briefs. If you have a thing for middle-aged men in their underwear, this will be paradise for you.
 * Filler: Walt and Jesse spend an entire episode trying to kill a fly. There's a lot of characterization going on, but this is probably the closest this series is ever going to get to a pure filler episode (and textbook Bottle Episode).
 * Fire-Forged Friends: Walt and Jesse.
 * Foot-Dragging Divorcee: Skylar threatens to tell the police about Walt's uh... drug problem if he doesn't sign the paperwork, which he refuses to do.
 * Foreshadowing:
 * Several Cold Opens in season 2 reveal progressively more of a mysterious crime scene, the circumstances of which are not revealed until the finale. Moreover, the titles of the episodes spell out the impending disaster:
 * A lot of the chemistry classes in the first season, like the one about explosions. Walt's lecture on chirality doesn't appear to have any relevance on anything later in the episode until your remember that methamphetamine is a chiral molecule.
 * "Lie on your side, "
 * In "Over", Jesse wants to bring Jane breakfast in bed, but she walks on him in the kitchen. He says
 * The water heater. Walt Jr. mentions it in the first episode of the first season, and its breakdown in Season 2 starts Walt Sr. on a home repair spree.
 * You can tell Tio wants Gus dead early in their confrontations, but it doesn't appear to mean much as Tio can't do anything. Come the Season 4 finale, however,
 * In the season 2 premiere, you see Skyler looking fondly of old photos of her and after she and Walt start having marriage troubles.  isn't even introduced at that point and doesn't appear till 6 episodes after.
 * Madrigal Electromotive Gmb H, a faceless international conglomerate, was first mentioned significantly in Season 4, when it is revealed that the company owns the industrial laundry that houses the superlab. Interestingly, though, it was stated as the owners of Los Pollos Hermanos in the fine print of a television ad in Season 3. Overall, its full role has yet to be seen as of Season 4.
 * Gambit Roulette:
 * Gus'  in "Salud" also depended on a lot of luck.
 * Genius Bruiser: Hank initially comes off as tough, over-bearing cop who's main skills are kicking down doors and surviving gun battles. As time goes on, however, he reveals himself to be a pretty brilliant investigator. He basically deduces Gus's entire operation from his hospital bed, when no one else suspected a thing.
 * Genre Savvy: Badger correctly susses that a customer looking to buy meth is a police officer, and also spots the two conspicuously inconspicuous vans parked nearby.
 * Gilligan Cut:
 * After Marie's bet with Hank over whether he can still get erect after being hospitalized.
 * Also in the season 4 finale, when Marie forbids Hank to leave the house and go to the DEA . Cue Hank in the DEA. Also doubles as an ironic echo for the previous situation.
 * "Glad to Be Alive" Sex:
 * In the first episode, Walt with Skyler after just escaping two drug dealers who were about to kill him and a fire that one of them set accidentally. A few more times in later episodes as well.
 * Subverted in the season 2 premiere, Walt returns home from a traumatic ordeal and needs some sexual healing from his wife. His abrupt and unwelcome advances escalate into a Near-Rape Experience.
 * Gorn: Not every episode, but at least once or twice a season something mind-blowingly gruesome happens.
 * Heroic Blue Screen of Death:
 * Jesse in the Season 4 premiere, too shaken up to even flee the crime scene.
 * Walt at the end of "Crawl Space" after
 * Hidden Depths:
 * Hank in Season 3.
 * Jesse's soft-heartedness is also unexpected for Walt as well as the audience.
 * The flashback to Gus' past may count as well.
 * Hollywood Acid: Hydrofluoric acid, Used twice in the series to dispose of bodies by Walt and Jessie. Hydroflouric acid is highly corrosive and will dissolve a human body completely. Its effects are portrayed more or less realistically, though the handling of it is Hollywood Science.
 * Hollywood Hacking: Skyler tracks Jesse's number through a website and somehow ends up on his homepage.
 * Hollywood Science:
 * Hydrofluoric acid will kill you dead if you breathe the gas it produces or get any on your skin. Using the chemical safely in real life requires a full body suit, as opposed to casually wearing aprons and masks. The less lethal sodium hydroxide would work much better.
 * Mercury-(II) Fulminate is normally a powder. Mind you, Walt is meant to be a badass crystallographer, but even assuming he could make it into crystals and somehow not accidentally cause a reaction and somehow make it potent enough to wreak that much havoc, he'd still be dealing with lungfuls of poisonous gas.
 * Walt suggesting he's gonna make phenylacetone in a tube furnace like it's the most natural thing in the world. It isn't. However, this is in reference to Uncle Festers' Guide to Making Amphetamine, which advocates the use of this process as it evades several legal restrictions on ingredients and even has instructions to building your own furnace. Of course, Walt is enough of a badass chemist to know how to do this without reference material.
 * Some of this is probably deliberate, as they likely didn't want to give real life criminals too much help. Though that didn't stop a handful of Moral Guardians and complete idiot celebrities from claiming the show actually teaches people to make meth. The rest is likely Rule of Cool and Acceptable Breaks From Reality.
 * Hollywood Silencer: Averted in Episode 313, "Full Measure."
 * Hope Spot: Inverted with
 * How We Got Here: The episodes "Pilot", "Crazy Handful of Nothin'", "Grilled", "Breakage", "ABQ", and "Bug".
 * Humiliation Conga: Season 4 is one long one for Walt.
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Several season 2 episodes basically clue the viewer in on the initially out-of-the-blue disaster which closes the season.
 * Several episodes such as "Negro Y Azul", "Mandala", "No Mas" and "Salud" among others have titles in spanish.
 * "I.F.T",
 * Season 4 has had the habit of naming a lot of its episodes after objects that play into that episode's story to some degree: "Box Cutter", "Thirty-Eight Snub", "Shotgun", "Bug," "Crawl Space" and "Face Off"
 * The Igor: Jesse; Gale.
 * Incurable Cough of Death:
 * Walt's coughing in the pilot is a sign of his cancer.
 * Subverted; in the episode where he starts coughing up blood, it turns out  and that was just a relatively minor secondary condition.
 * Averted, for the moment, by Mike, who coughs two times in early episodes of season 4, but doesn't get sick later on.
 * Indy Ploy: Walt's "thinking on his feet" attempts to obscure the truth about his second life. Much of it in the first season revolves around making up lies to tell his wife. She gets wise after a while. He comes up with more dramatic ones to throw off Hank. In one episode he drives up in front of him and to say hello in order to block his view during a sting. In season three, he pulls some spectacular shit out of his ass to get Hank away from the RV in the salvage yard. In the fourth season, he gets into an auto accident to prevent Hank from scoping out the laundry.
 * Infant Immortality:
 * Subverted towards the end of Season 3.
 * But then played straight in Season 4.
 * In-Joke: In the pilot, Hank's irresponsible and unsafe demonstration of the .40 caliber Glock 22, followed by his interview on Channel 3, is a reference to this video.
 * Insistent Terminology: Hank's collects "minerals," not "rocks."
 * In Vino Veritas:
 * Walt lets it slip that  whilst under the influence of anesthetics prior to his cancer surgery, thus beginning the unraveling of his web of lies.
 * Walt also lets his pride get the better of him while drunk and shoots down Hank's notion that Gale is Heisenberg.
 * Subverted in "Fly" when Walt comes this close to telling
 * After taking prescription pain medication, Walt calls his son by Jesse's name.
 * It Got Worse: This is pretty much the show's M.O.
 * It's for a Book: When Skylar thinks that Walt is smoking pot, she asks Marie about how could it affect someone, claiming that it's for a short story she's writing. Marie doesn't fall for it, but she thinks it's Walt Jr. who is smoking pot.
 * It Will Never Catch On: When Gus and his brotherly friend pitch the idea of mass producing meth to a cartel don in Mexico in a flashback to the 1980s, the don and his associates laugh it off.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
 * Walter's brother-in-law, Hank, is a loud, lewd and frequently obnoxious DEA agent. This is partly due to the culture of the police department and partly due to being a Sad Clown. He's a decent man underneath the bluster.
 * Jesse is an abrasive, thickheaded junkie, but underneath it all he's far gentler than Walt.
 * Jittercam: The show is shot mostly on handheld cameras, with the camera operators told to be as still as possible when filming, which results in minor but noticeable jitter.
 * Justified Criminal: The main crux of the series, though pride is a big factor too, showing justification really only exists in Walter's mind. The show is arguably a Deconstruction of this concept.
 * Kick the Son of a Bitch: Normally the Big Bad poisoning an about a dozen unarmed people in one sitting would be harrowing, but when it's  its hard not to give him a pass.
 * Killed Off for Real: Any characters that die on the show stay dead though some return in flashbacks. As of season 4 that list includes:  Needless to say if you take a supporting role on this show you should probably keep your resume current.
 * Kitschy Local Commercial: Saul Goodman's ads. "Better Call Saul!"
 * The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: In "Fly," Walt tellingly adds the birth of his daughter as an after-thought, seeming to place more importance on the first million he made as a reason to have not dropped dead.
 * Laughing Mad: Walt's reaction
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: "High school teacher turned meth dealer, brother-in-law's in the DEA? That'd make one hell of a story..."
 * Let's Get Dangerous: A big draw of the show is watching the timid, suburban dad with a bit of a chip on his shoulder turn into a diabolical mastermind when his back is to the wall or he's just had enough.
 * Locked in a Freezer: "4 Days Out", where Walt and Jesse are lost in the desert with no water and a flat battery.
 * Logical Fallacies: When Skyler and Walt are practicing blackjack, Skyler acts like Walt knows nothing about the game because Walt lost the few hands they played. Actually, Walt made decent to good plays, but simply got unlucky twice.
 * Love Makes You Evil: The central premise of the show, with a side order of crazy.
 * MacGyvering: Walt often uses his chemistry to solve practical problems,
 * Walt makes thermite with the aluminum powder from an Etch-a-Sketch.
 * The makeshift battery made from sponges, bolts and brake pads was pure grade-A vintage MacGyvering.
 * Walt makes a bomb, mostly from stuff he's got lying around.
 * Walt makes ricin from the chemicals he's got in his lab.
 * Machiavelli Was Wrong: Subverted by Gus. He doesn't believe in using fear as a motivator as Mike suggests.
 * Marijuana Is LSD: Jesse sees two men in white shirts who want to talk to him about Jesus as hulking, leather-clad thugs with machetes and hand grenades after smoking methamphetamine. Meth isn't a hallucinagen, but it can caused paranoia and long periods of sleep deprivation, which can cause hallucinations.
 * Meaningful Name:
 * "Heisenberg", as in "Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle". Considering all the uncertainties surrounding Walt's character and that persona, it's a good bet the writers had that in mind.
 * Saul Goodman's name is pronounced like "'S all good, man". This may be intentional on Saul's part, as he tells Walter that his real surname is McGill, and he changed it to appeal to Albuquerque's criminal underclass.
 * Mega Corp: The German company Madrigal Electromotive, which owns Los Pollos Hermanos and.
 * Midair Collision:
 * Mood Whiplash: So, so much. The show goes from comedy to tragedy and back at the drop of a hat.
 * Motivational Lie: In the season 4 finale:.
 * My Rule Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: Hank gets into a legal debate with the junkyard owner while Hank is trying to break into the RV, which contains Walt, Jesse and their meth lab.
 * Naked Apron: Walt wears a lab apron over his tighty whities in the pilot. He still gets confused for being a nudist, though.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
 * Tuco is very fond of this.
 * In season 3, Hank does this to Jesse.
 * In season 4, Mike does this to Walter.
 * No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine:
 * Gus invites Walt to his house to cook dinner with him in one episode. Which at the time seems harmless, but in retrospect...
 * A season later, Gus invites Jesse for dinner while Walt and Jesse are actively conspiring to kill him and Gus is trying to manipulate Jesse into letting Walt be killed.
 * Noodle Incident:
 * Something that happened on a 4th of July weekend at Gretchen's father's place precipitated Walt and Gretchen's falling out.
 * Gus's history in Chile causes the cartel to spare him even though they just killed his partner in front of him.
 * Oblivious Guilt Slinging: A lot of it.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity:
 * People that only know of Saul Goodman's public persona as a sleazy ambulance chaser tend to rather underestimate his competence in serious matters. Badger getting arrested and Jesse buying his house back are just two examples.
 * Oblivious to His Own Description: In "Cat's In The Bag..." Hot Mom Skyler inadvertently enters a "certain" website.
 * Oblivious Guilt Slinging: A lot of it.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity:
 * People that only know of Saul Goodman's public persona as a sleazy ambulance chaser tend to rather underestimate his competence in serious matters. Badger getting arrested and Jesse buying his house back are just two examples.
 * Oblivious to His Own Description: In "Cat's In The Bag..." Hot Mom Skyler inadvertently enters a "certain" website.
 * Oblivious to His Own Description: In "Cat's In The Bag..." Hot Mom Skyler inadvertently enters a "certain" website.

""I've got this... nephew...""
 * Obstructive Vigilantism: Hector Salamanca goes in to testify against Jesse, but he doesn't actually tell the cops anything.
 * Oh Crap:
 * Walt and Jesse when they discover that
 * One-Scene Wonder:
 * Old Joe, the crooked owner of the junkyard where Walt wants to dispose of the RV. When Hank gets mixed up in the action, Joe stalls him long enough with some pretty extensive knowledge of law.
 * Also, the weapons dealer in "One Minute."
 * The Oner:
 * In the final scene of the episode "Bug," Jesse begs Walt to teach him the full formula, going through a long, tortured explanation of how Gus wants him to teach it to the Cartel in Mexico, all shot in one take. Quite an acting tour de force by Aaron Paul.
 * Also, the final shot of "Crawl Space."
 * Only a Flesh Wound: Averted. Injuries and healing times are depicted generally quite realistically on this show. Hank's road to recovery is unusually (but realistically) long and grueling.
 * Only Sane Man:
 * Walt thinks he's this, because he's the only one who hasn't forgotten the drug business is just that, a business.
 * Mike clearly thinks he is, always behaving rationally on the job and looking annoyed when people start going off the rails.
 * Out of Focus: Used to create the twist ending in Season 4.
 * Overt Rendezvous: Drug deals take place in public places, but for another reason in addition to secrecy: if negotiations go badly, people are less likely to shoot each other in public in broad daylight. Walt, in the first drug deal he participates in, sets it in an abandoned junkyard because that's where drug deals take place in the movies.
 * Pac-Man Fever:
 * Averted in one episode. Jesse plays Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing with a girl in a realistic manner; i.e., no button-mashing.
 * Averted again in Season 4 when Badger and Skinny Pete discuss differences in the zombies of Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead with actual references to the games' content.
 * And later, in "Thirty-Eight Snub," Jesse is seen playing Rage. Granted, it's not the real Rage (it's depicted as an on-rails shooter), but hey, it's a real game being played in a real way.
 * Parodic Table of the Elements: The logo plays with the periodic-table boxes for Bromine (Br) and Barium (Ba). An element is also highlighted in each actor's name in the opening credits.
 * A Party - Also Known as an Orgy: Jesse holds quite a few of these. In Season 4 he has a constant, increasingly out of control party at his house 24 hours a day because he can't stand being alone for even a few hours.
 * Past Victim Showcase: Gus Fring likes to screw with Tio Salamanca's head, even going as far as personally delivering Don Elaido's pendant to him after killing him in "Salud."
 * Pet the Dog: Walt and his relationship with Jesse. Jesse has a few moments too.
 * Playing Sick: Walt's fugue state.
 * Poor Communication Kills: When Gonzo gets himself killed (funny story), the DEA raid Tuco's headquarters. Walt and Jesse incorrectly believe that Tuco is killing any witness to No Doze's murder and Tuco believed Gonzo disappeared and sold him out. As a result, Walt and Jesse make a plan to kill Tuco, Tuco kidnaps Walt and Jesse and wants them to go to Mexico with him to cook Meth.
 * Precision F-Strike: Occasionally used despite being blanked out for broadcast on basic cable.
 * Again in Season 4.
 * Also, way back in the pilot, Walt delivers one to Bogdan when he quits the car wash "Fuck you and your eyebrows!"
 * In "Peekaboo", Walt says "fuck you" to Gretchen.
 * Pretty Little Headshots: Averted; use a hollow point and it gets messy.
 * "Previously On...": Used to recap events seen in previous episodes, as well as give us brief events that are never seen in the show.
 * Protagonist Journey to Villain
 * Punch Clock Villain:
 * Mike, a loving grandfather and hitman for the Meth King of South-West USA. Don't make him beat you till your legs don't work.
 * Walt and Jesse become examples as clock-in and clock-out meth manufacturers for Gus, despite being comparatively moral people. It's lampshaded by Jesse. As they walk in to the industrial laundromat that houses their hidden meth lab, he sees the line of workers punching a clock and says, "I'm surprised he doesn't make us do that."
 * Pyrrhic Villainy: OK, so Walt has his money, earned it his way and has survived. But in the process he's killed several people, put massive amounts of drugs on the street, become permanently entangled with dangerous organized crime, and caused the wife and family he was earning the money for to leave him.
 * Rage Against the Reflection: Walt, after finding out.
 * Ramming Always Works:
 * Real Life Writes the Plot:
 * The house used as Jesse's house was sold during season two, so they made do with a set of the kitchen for a couple episodes (with the RV blocking the view out the window) before Jesse's parents kick him out. In the next season, they were able to use it again and Jesse moves back in.
 * Krazy-8 was going to be killed in the pilot, but was kept around for two more episodes just because everyone loved working with the actor so much.
 * Vince Gilligan originally planned on killing off Jesse in the first season, but Aaron Paul was so good in the role that he essentially became the second main character.
 * Had it not been for contract issues with Raymond Cruz, Gus would never have been introduced, and Tuco wouldn't have been killed off.
 * Reality Is Unrealistic: Many people complained that, in which he  , was over-the-top. In truth,.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: plays around with this. For starters, Jesse and Walt epitomize recklessness (youth) vs. calculation (experience). Hank and Walt similarly reflect this, mainly with the former's direct, almost obnoxious way of dealing with his family and job. However, Jesse plays Blue when dealing with his less smart cohorts Badger and Skinny Pete. Walt and Gus also flip this around: the first acts more out of emotion and concern for his family and (sometimes) Jesse. The latter, who has no emotional attachments the audience knows of (or at least living ones), conducts business the way only a cold-blooded monster would, taking extreme caution to keep his respectable businessman facade while not minding his underlings' (or anyone else's) deaths to keep his outfit operating.
 * Reverse Whodunnit: An entire show of one.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Gustavo's whole life since entering America seems to have been one long plan to position himself for revenge against the cartels. His final coup is quite impressive. He also visits Salamanca regularly to gloat about it.
 * Sad Clown: Hank suffers from panic attacks and later PTSD, but he hides his suffering with his gregarious personality.
 * Sarcastic Confession: In the 3rd season premiere, brother-in-law Hank is helping Walter move out of his home after a falling out with his wife. One black duffel bag is heavy, and Walter isn't supposed to do any heavy lifting. Hank insists, and feels the heft. "What have you got in there, cinder blocks?" Without a drop of Irony, Walter replies, "Half a million dollars in cash." Hank only chuckles and says, "That's the spirit." It happens again in season four, when Hank speculates that . Walt jokingly "confesses".
 * Scenery Porn: Makes me want to live in New Mexico.
 * Seamless Spontaneous Lie: When Skyler needs to justify the large amount of cash Walter earned from making meth, she spins a tale about Walt gambling that also explains the fallings-out they had. It's so good Walter himself begins to listen in awe.
 * Series Fauxnale: The fourth season's ending.
 * Serious Business: You can't have a fly in your meth lab, it taints the product.
 * Shown Their Work: The usage of hydrofluoric acid to dispose a body is actually realistic, since the character of Walt happens to been a chemistry teacher prior to the events of series.
 * In one episode, cold packs were used in the making of improvised bombs. Ammonium nitrate is a common oxidizer, which are found in cold packs.
 * Shouldn't You Stop Stealing?: Thoroughly explored with Walt. Once he achieves his original goal, he attempts to make good on his initial promise to get out of the business. Of course, his cancer temporarily going into remission means he's not going to die when he expected to (a rare case where somebody gets upset that they're not dying of cancer) and Skyler doesn't just accept the "I did it for my family" motive at face value. He goes back to cooking at one point because being the world's best meth cook is the only thing he still has pride in.
 * Shout-Out:
 * Juan Bolsa: Juan is Spanish for John. Bolsa means "bag" in Spanish. Johnny Sack.
 * The name of the last episode of season one is "A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal", after a line from Fargo.
 * The season four premiere ends with Walt and Jesse getting breakfast in a diner, wearing t-shirts after their other clothes got covered in blood.
 * fatally bangs his head on a table, sending several oranges falling onto his body.
 * In Season 4 episode 4, Skyler remarks "Tonight's the night", a likely shout-out to Dexter.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Definitely towards the cynical side.
 * Snowball Lie: Pretty much every lie Walt feeds Skyler.
 * Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb:  fails to realize that   has been rigged with a bomb until a moment before it detonates. Cue Oh Crap moment.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: This show is quite fond of this trope. Used to great effect in "Half Measures," in which The Association's bouncy sunshine pop song "Windy" plays over a montage of Wendy the hooker's sad daily routine.
 * Steal the Surroundings: Two crooks steal an ATM machine. They are shown having difficulty actually breaking into the machine. And then it gets worse, as usual for the show.
 * Stealth Pun:
 * Saul Goodman = S'all good, man! Explicitly lampshaded in one of the 'Better Call Saul' promos for Season 4. Badger ends his account by saying that 'S'all good man, cause I called Saul Goodman.'
 * Walt takes the name Heisenberg as his pseudonym. So the show is all about Heisengerg's principles.
 * Suicide by Cop: subverted; the very first scene of the pilot
 * Suspicious Spending: Walt's attempting to justify his ability to pay his medical bills is a continuous problem. Finding ways to launder the money from his booming drug trade accounts for much of the conflict in many episodes.
 * Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Hank is always in pursuit of the elusive "Heisenberg"...his brother-in-law. Yeah, he's never really close to figuring it out. Or Is He?
 * Taking the Heat:
 * Edward James Kilkelly does this for money. ("The outside hasn't been too kind to old Jimmy").
 * Jesse took the heat for his younger over-achieving brother Jake after their housemaid found a joint that he smoked, and whose parents initially assumed it to be Jesse's.
 * Taking You with Me:
 * Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Walt and Jesse. They do get better over time though.
 * Tempting Fate:
 * When she says, "Call me a skank one more time," it is not an invitation.
 * Jesse building a contraption to reach the ceiling in the lab and standing on top of it trying to swat a fly.
 * Tension-Cutting Laughter: Tuco is the master of this.
 * There Are No Therapists: Walt is forced to see one after his fugue state incident, but it wasn't a psychological problem to begin with. On the other hand, Hank clearly suffers physchological trauma from his many violence job incidents, yet is never seen getting therapy. He'd probably pretend to be fine anyway.
 * Title Drop:
 * In the first episode, Jesse uses the expression "break bad," and it also appears in one of the webisodes.
 * Plenty of the episodes have title drops. See, for example, Season 4, Episode 10 - "Salud".
 * Took a Level In Badass
 * Trailers Always Lie: The season 4 trailer ends with the narrator claiming that "Walter White is not in danger. He is the danger", echoing his speech in "Cornered". It's obvious since the season premiere that in this season Walt is totally, totally in danger.
 * Trash the Set:
 * Trauma Conga Line: Everybody. If they're not dancing the Conga, then they're playing the tune.
 * Tropaholics Anonymous: In Season 3 Jesse and his cronies attempt to sell methamphetamine to people at recovery meetings. In the end, none of them can bring themselves to do it. "It's like shooting a baby in the face." In fact, Jesse's cronies end up actually going into recovery.
 * True Companions:
 * Walt and Jesse.
 * Tropaholics Anonymous: In Season 3 Jesse and his cronies attempt to sell methamphetamine to people at recovery meetings. In the end, none of them can bring themselves to do it. "It's like shooting a baby in the face." In fact, Jesse's cronies end up actually going into recovery.
 * True Companions:
 * Walt and Jesse.

"Skyler: Walt, where's your cell phone, did you bring your cell phone? Walt:"
 * seem to have potential for this,
 * Tuco, Tio and The Cousins make up an evil version.
 * Ultimate Evil: The cartel. We rarely get exposition on how they relate to the story, and we often see the results of their acts rather than such acts themselves (like the tortoise incident). It's only in season 3 where they start taking an active role in the plot and we begin seeing glimpses of the inner workings of their organization.
 * Unflinching Walk:
 * The Cousins. No matter what's happening.
 * Walt does one after blowing up a Jerkass lawyer's car.
 * Gus does this
 * Yet another one occurs
 * Subverted when Walt sets up a car to explode and starts calmly walking away. But it takes longer than he was expecting, so eventually he just awkwardly sits down and waits for it.
 * Useless Security Camera: DEA Agent Hank Schrader is trying to interrogate a gas station clerk to find out who sold her some meth. When he finally realizes she knows nothing, he looks up and asks if the security camera is regularly on. It isn't.
 * Vanity License Plate: KEN WINS, LWYR UP, THECAPN, and GRAYMTR
 * Villainous Breakdown: Walt has one in "Crawl Space" when he begins laughing hysterically, though it's more of an anti-hero/villain breakdown.
 * Villain Song:
 * "Negro y Azul" for "Heisenberg."
 * "Black" in the closing moments of season 4.
 * Villain with Good Publicity: Gus, a firm believer in 'hiding in plain sight'.
 * Villainy-Free Villain: Skyler's role as an antagonist early on stems purely from her concern for Walt's health and her wish for him to be honest with her.
 * Vomit Discretion Shot: Used several times in "Crazy Handful of Nothin", when Walt is throwing up because of the chemotherapy.
 * Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Walt's son pukes in the pool sick on tequila with Walt and Hank. It's Walt's fault. Then there's Worst Aid...
 * Watering Down: Jesse initially spiked his meth with chili powder before Walt put a stop to that.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: The juxtaposition with meth and other class A drugs only makes Skyler's horror at Walt smoking pot look even more naive. On the other hand, that could be the point - emphasizing the rift between her own and her husband's worlds.
 * Wham! Episode: "Crazy Handful of Nothing", "Phoenix"
 * The endings to "One Minute", "Half-Measures" and "Full-Measure" respectively.
 * "Salud"-after four seasons of build up and some flashbacks we finally get to see some of the main characters in Mexico interacting with the cartel
 * Followed immediately by another, even more terrifying Wham! Episode, "Crawl Space".
 * With the and The Reveal that   the season 4 finale "Face Off" is the latest and perhaps whammiest of all.
 * Wham! Line:

"Hank:"

"Gus:"


 * It's not spoken aloud, but:

"Skyler: Someone has to protect this family from the man who protects this family."
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome??: The fly falling to the ground dead at Jesse's feet in slo-mo.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Walt's entire life has become this trope.
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic:.
 * Who Watches the Watchmen?:

"Saul: I sense you're discussing my client. Anything you care to share with me? Hank: Sure, your commercials? They suck ass. I've seen better acting in an epileptic whorehouse. Saul: Is that like the one your mom works at? Is she still offering the two for one discount?"
 * Women's Mysteries: When Skyler is detained by a jeweler on suspicion of shoplifting, she fakes going into labor to scare them into letting her go. Or possibly just to get her to stop Lamaze-ing at them.
 * Worst Aid: Walt just let, even when he had a chance to prevent it from happening. Especially subtle since he dealt with the same problem just prior with his own daughter and prevented it.
 * Would Hurt a Child: A child is among the victims to be killed by Todd, which includes.
 * X Meets Y:
 * American Beauty meets Scarface with a touch of Fargo.
 * Alternately, Weeds with (and on) HARD DRUGS!
 * Trailer Park Boys meets The Shield.
 * Weeds meets Bill Nye the Science Guy?
 * Show creator Vince Gilligan has described the show as "Goodbye, Mr. Chips Meets Scarface."
 * This show is good and creative enough that you can't really define it that easiest, but Vince Gilligan describes it best.
 * In-universe, Hank described Gale as if "Scarface had sex with Mister Rogers."
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: The Season 3 finale "Full Measure" is basically a protracted game played between Walt and Gus.
 * Your Head Asplode:
 * When it's shot with, it does.
 * this happens only halfway.
 * Your Mom: In "Better Call Saul":