Breaking Bad: Difference between revisions
After a few months' worth of gradual updates, I think it's safe to say that this page is no longer outdated
No edit summary |
(After a few months' worth of gradual updates, I think it's safe to say that this page is no longer outdated) |
||
| (3 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work}}
[[File:Breaking-Bad-550x7351_5805.jpg|frame]]
Line 41 ⟶ 40:
** Walt: "I am the one who knocks!"
** In "Crawl Space", {{spoiler|Gus delivers one to Hector Salamanca at the retirement home, saying that he killed off all members of the cartel and Jesse killed his grandson, making him the last of the Salamanca line.}}
** 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
** 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.
** Walt {{spoiler|wiping out an ''entire neo nazi compound'' with an automated machine gun booby trap.}}
* [[Badass Family]]: The Salamanca family.
* [[Bad Boss]]:
Line 56:
** 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 {{spoiler|by Walt. First, he gives Brock a non-lethal poison and steals Jesse's ricin cigarette; Pinkman storms his house wanting to kill him, since only the two of them knew about the poison, but Walt convinces him at gunpoint that he would have nothing to gain and that it's a ploy by Gus to gain Jesse's compliance in killing Walt. When
* [[Because I'm Good At It]]: What ultimately keeps Walt cooking, his pride and ego from realizing that he has a unique skill that has created an empire that would rival that of Steve Jobs both in its value and impact on the meth industry. He's not a failure anymore and has become "the one who knocks."
* [[Becoming the Mask]]:
Line 63:
* [[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? [[Fridge Horror|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
* [[Big Bad]]: Tuco in season 1 and the very beginning of season 2, Gus in seasons 3 and 4. The two are polar opposites; Tuco is [[Ax Crazy|violent and erratic]] while Gus is [[Chessmaster|cold and calculating]]. Each time, Walt and Jesse come to believe it is necessary to kill the [[Big Bad]], {{spoiler|and each time they eventually succeed}}.
** Season 5, on the other hand, has something of a [[Big Bad]] pileup. There's Hank by way of being the [[Hero Antagonist]] who manages to pick up Heisenberg's scent, then there's the duo of {{spoiler|Jack Welker and his nephew Todd}}, both of which being very personal villains to Walt and Jesse for different reasons. And finally, Walt himself is responsible for a good deal of the season's conflict due to being too arrogant and greedy to know when to walk away from the meth business.
* [[Big No]]: Jesse delivers an impressive one the second he realizes that {{spoiler|Todd is going to shoot a kid.}} Same with Walt when {{spoiler|Skyler accuses him of murdering Hank.}}
* [[Big Ol' Eyebrows]]: Bogdan, as pointed out by Walt in the pilot.
{{quote|"Fuck you! ''And'' your eyebrows!"}}
Line 79:
* [[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. He goes from a goofy [[Jive Turkey]] who's way in over his head to a traumatized, broken shell of a man.
** Skyler suffers this as well, where she goes from a somewhat domineering-yet well-meaning housewife to a perpetually nervous, stressed-out criminal.
** Walt Jr, while prickly from the offset, was still a fun-loving teenager at the start of the show. By the end he's been completely broken down by {{spoiler|his family falling apart and the revelation that Walt is a murderous drug lord.}}
* [[Break the Haughty]]: Hank and Jesse. Both go from gung-ho and cocky to grim and introspective as they're beaten down by traumatic moment after traumatic moment.
* [[Bribe Backfire]]: Walt and Jesse's first meeting with Saul.
* [[Broken Pedestal]]: Unsurprisingly, when people close to Walt discover his secret, their love and/or respect for the man is permanently lost. Skyler, for one, becomes far more antagonistic once she starts ''suspecting'' that something's off about him. {{spoiler|Hank becomes hell bent on taking him down and is perfectly willing to throw morals and standards out the window to do so. And poor Walt Jr. makes it clear that he wants his dad to kill himself and permanently changes his name so he no longer has to associate with him.}}
* [[Brutal Honesty]]: For better or for worse, Walt Jr. is ''not'' the type to mince words. If he thinks Walt is being a pussy over his cancer diagnosis, he'll tell him. If he thinks Skyler's a bitch, he'll tell her.
* [[Bulletproof Vest]]: The Cousins purchase a pair from an illegal arms dealer before shooting him to see if they work. They do, and the poor schmuck ends up being one of the very lucky few to meet the Cousins and live.
Line 91 ⟶ 93:
** 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 {{spoiler|killing Krazy 8}}, 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
* [[Call Forward]]: Jane in "Abiquiú". {{spoiler|"I think I just threw up in my mouth a little"}}
* [[Can't Kill You - Still Need You]]: The main plot of season 4. {{spoiler|Gus can't}} kill Walt and Jesse because he has no one else to cook meth for him. Enforced by Jesse in Season 3 when he {{spoiler|kills Gale so that Gus can't kill Walt}}.
* [[Car Fu]]:
**
** {{spoiler|Hank cripples one of the Cousins with it, with just one minute's warning.}}
* [[The Cartel]]: One of the main villainous factions, and the first that Walter and Jesse come into conflict with.
* [[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.
Line 103 ⟶ 105:
** Played straight in "One Minute" where {{spoiler|The "on the house" bullet that the Cousins got from the arms dealer is used by Hank to kill one of the Cousins.}}
** 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
*** However, {{spoiler|we finally ''do'' meet that man in "Granite State" when Walt gets a new identity and skips town. He's a very prominent character in that episode, too!}}
** Walter's
** Subverted with
*** {{spoiler|Much like with Saul's "disappearing guy", the ricin cigarette is finally used in Season 5. Walt uses it to kill Lydia as a way to tie up loose ends involving her and Madrigal at the very end of the series.}}
* [[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, {{spoiler|but then he uses it to rescue Jesse at the end of the season.}}
Line 129 ⟶ 131:
* [[Cradle of Loneliness]]: After {{spoiler|Jane's death}} 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.
* [[Creepy Twins]]: Marco and Leonel Salamanca. They rarely ever say a word, and will gun down scores of people without a second thought when they're in pursuit of a target.
* [[Crime-Time TV]]: But what else would you expect from a show where a drug manufacturer's rise to power is the main focus?
* [[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 {{spoiler|"737"/"Down"/"Over"/"ABQ"}} 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.
Line 135 ⟶ 137:
* [[Cute Mute]]: The little boy from "Peekaboo", likely as a product of his horrible upbringing.
* [[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 {{spoiler|his entire meth enterprise has been fueled out of a desire for revenge against the cartels that murdered his partner and humiliated him}}.
* [[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]] {{spoiler|and provides a lot of subtext for his relationship with the Cartel,
* [[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 {{spoiler|"Salud", after getting the shit beaten out of him by his surrogate son Jesse. However, his real son helps him through it.}} He promptly returns to it in {{spoiler|"Crawl Space", when he learns that Gus declared him and his family free game and all of the money they had was given to Ted Beneke by Skyler. And Ted is now dead, with the money given to the IRS.}} He slips into this one last time in {{spoiler|"Ozymandias", when he's forced to watch Jack Welker gun down Hank and goes catatonic as a result.}}
* [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]: Not related to the main plot, but honestly, can you say anything else about the end of "ABQ"?
* [[Dies Wide Open]]: {{spoiler|Jane starts choking when she's asleep. When she finally dies, her eyelids slide partially open. She's seen later with her eyes still open}}.
* [[Directed by Cast Member]]:
* [[Dirty Coward]]:
** During the climax of Season 3's finale, {{spoiler|Walt pretends to be one when Mike is about to kill him. He acts like he's going to sell Jesse out, only to order him to kill Gale right before going from panicky to smug as Mike and Victor [[Oh Crap|realize that they've been had]].}}
Line 146 ⟶ 148:
** {{spoiler|When Walt guns his gang down and Jesse strangles his nephew to death, Jack shows no concern for them in his final moments. He's shot in the middle of bargaining with Walt for his life. With that being said, [[Downplayed Trope|he does go out with some dignity since he keeps his cool even with a gun pointed at him]].}}
* [[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
* [[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
{{quote|"Walt, don't make me beg here. Just stick it in there!"}}
* [[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.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|With Gus dead and Madrigal being investigated due to its ties to his now-defunct superlab, Peter Schuler knows that it's only a matter of time before he's arrested and kills himself with a defibrillator.}}
* [[Dropped a Bridge on Him]]
* [[Dropped a Bridget On Him]]: [http://www.amctv.com/videos/breaking-bad/?bcpid=9787693001&bclid=69511873001&bctid=12064411001 Hank's prewedding jitter] Hank still doesn't seem to understand...
* [[Drowning My Sorrows]]:
Line 158 ⟶ 160:
** 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 show. 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
* [[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.
* [[Dumb Blonde]]: Skyler pretends to be a ditzy, slutty secretary in order to keep Ted from getting audited by the IRS. Specifically, she acts like a complete idiot so the guy they sent will think his books were cooked by complete accident as opposed to willful malice. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|It works.]]
Line 174 ⟶ 176:
* [[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]]: {{spoiler|How Walter gets Hector Salamanca to kill Gus.}}
** {{spoiler|Jesse and Hank team up once the former finds out that Walt poisoned Brock. Despite the bad blood between them and Hank's willingness to let Jesse die to further his agenda, they prove to be a surprisingly effective team.}}
* [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]]:
** A flashback reveals that the Salamanca kids have had this stomped into them by 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. Even Hector seems to genuinely love the younger Salamancas despite his horrible parenting: the Cousins come to America to avenge Tuco's death on his orders, and {{spoiler|when Gus torments him with the knowledge of their deaths, he seems to be genuinely heartbroken.}}
Line 224 ⟶ 227:
** Gus and Mike's henchmen Victor and Tyrus lack their bosses' many cool or likeable traits, and are cold, creepy dickheads who love belittling and antagonizing Walt and Jesse.
** While he's a white-collar criminal who never physically hurts people, Ted Beneke makes up for it by being spineless, cowardly, and moronic to ludicrous extremes. Whether it's hiding from Walt when he has an affair with Skyler, nearly destroying their lives as a consequence of being audited, or [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|being responsible for Skyler's cringeworthy "Happy Birthday" scene]], you will absolutely want to reach through the screen and ''strangle'' this idiot for making everyone's lives worse with his bullheaded stupidity.
* {{spoiler|[[The Hero Dies]]}}: {{spoiler|The show ends with Walt's death. While calling him a "hero" is ''really'' pushing the definition of the word, it ''does'' come after he manages to carve out some manner of a redemption for himself by ensuring that his family will be well off without him and saving Jesse from the neo nazis.}}
* [[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 {{spoiler|Skyler tells him she gave the money they needed to escape Gus to Ted Beneke.}}
Line 266 ⟶ 269:
** Walt lets it slip that {{spoiler|he has a second cell phone}} whilst under the influence of anesthetics prior to his cancer surgery, thus beginning the unraveling of his [[Fawlty Towers Plot|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.
Line 275 ⟶ 278:
** 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 that the 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
* [[Killed Off for Real]]: Any characters that die on the show stay dead, though some return in flashbacks. As of season 5 that list includes: {{spoiler|[[Sacrificial Lamb|Krazy 8]], [[Big Damn Heroes|Tuco]], [[Death by Cameo|Tortuga]], [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|Combo]], [[Worst Aid|Jane]], [[Boom! Headshot!|The]] [[Sickbed Slaying|Cousins]], [[Kick the Dog|Gale]], [[Blofeld Ploy|Victor]], [[Anticlimax Boss|the]] [[Perfect Poison|Cartel]] [[Kill'Em All|bosses]], [[Dying Moment of Awesome|Hector]] [[Suicide Attack|Salamanca]], [[C-List Fodder|Tyrus]], [[Out-Gambitted|Gus]], [[Would Hurt a Child|Drew Sharp]], [[Retirony|Mike]], [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|Declan]], [[Last Stand|Gomez]], [[Defiant to the End|Hank]], [[I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure|Andrea]], [[Karmic Death|Todd]], [[Killed Mid-Sentence|Jack]], [[Your Days Are Numbered|Lydia]], and finally, [[The Hero Dies|Walter White]] [[Redemption Equals Death|himself.]]}} 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 Concept|High school teacher turned meth dealer, brother-in-law's in the DEA?]] [[Blackmail|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.
Line 292 ⟶ 295:
** Walt makes ricin from the chemicals he's got in his lab.
** When Mike uses a plastic zip-tie to cuff him to a radiator in "Buyout", Walt tries to break a coffee pot and use the broken glass to cut himself free. Unfortunately, he knocks the pot too far way to reach. So instead, he bites open the cable and uses the ''wires'' to burn the ziptie off.
** We get perhaps the show's grandest example in the series finale, where {{spoiler|Walt booby traps the trunk of his car with a mechanism that will fire sweeping rounds of ''automatic
* [[Machiavelli Was Wrong]]: Subverted by Gus. He doesn't believe in using fear as a motivator as Mike suggests. {{spoiler|Season 4 on the other hand...}}
* [[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
* [[Master Poisoner]]: One character proves to be truly adept at slipping poisons into people's food unaware: {{spoiler|Walter White, of course.}} He manages to slip {{spoiler|Lily of the Valley into Brock's juice box, and manages to use ''just'' enough to put him in the hospital without killing him as part of a [[Batman Gambit]] that turns Jesse against Gus.}} And in the final episode, {{spoiler|he slips ricin into Lydia's stevia so he can tie up loose ends before dying.}}
* [[Meaningful Name]]:
** Heisenberg is the quantum physicist who came up with the 'uncertainty principle': Walt's diagnosis with cancer means his future is uncertain (and that of his family). Also, his nefarious activities and constant lies to Skyler indicate that his character is uncertain, even to those closest to him.
Line 322 ⟶ 326:
* [[Obstructive Vigilantism]]: Hector Salamanca goes in to testify against Jesse, but he doesn't actually tell the cops anything. [[Troll|He takes a nasty shit in the interrogation room and immediately leaves.]]
* [[Oh Crap]]:
** Walt and Jesse when they discover that
** {{spoiler|Gus noticing that
* [[One-Dollar Retainer]]: Kidnapped by Walt and Jesse, shady lawyer Saul Goodman essentially solicits a one-dollar retainer from both of them in the second season episode "Better Call Saul", in a bid to keep them from killing him by becoming their lawyer.
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]:
Line 349 ⟶ 353:
*** In general, when it comes to the main villains petting dogs, Mike's the most likely candidate given that he isn't a sociopath so much as he is a stoic, tired old hardass. He dotes on his granddaughter Kaylee, goes beyond the call of duty to make sure that his "guys" are given millions of dollars for their hard work, and he's even shown to enjoy feeding some chickens in the Season 5 premiere.
** Evil Neo-Nazi he may be, Jack's got a soft spot where his nephew Todd is concerned. Whether it's genuine love or fondness for someone he can manipulate, he enjoys palling around with him and is supportive of him when he starts crushing on Lydia.
** {{spoiler|Todd's relationship with Jesse after he's been enslaved by the Neo-Nazis is a ''creepy'', twisted take on this trope. He gives him ice cream and is very nice and polite to him, but he overall treats Jesse more like a pet than a person and is genuinely unable to understand why Jesse's so upset over his predicament.}}
* [[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. {{spoiler|"Get the fuck out of here and never come back."}}
** Also, way back in the pilot, Walt delivers one to Bogdan when he quits the car wash "Fuck you ''and'' your eyebrows!"
Line 363 ⟶ 367:
* [[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]]: Walt's character development in a nutshell.
* [[Psychopathic Manchild]]: Tuco and {{spoiler|Todd}} represent two different versions of this trope. Tuco is loud, boisterous, and prone to violent temper tantrums that end with him feeling confused and angry at the destruction he's caused. {{spoiler|Todd}}, on the other hand, is a cold-blooded murderer who nonetheless is incredibly awkward and childlike in his mannerisms, to the point that he comes off as an innocent schoolboy with a crush when he starts to develop romantic feelings for Lydia.
* [[Punch Clock Villain]]:
Line 387 ⟶ 391:
* [[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.
* [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]]: Walt's claims that Elliott betrayed him and screwed him out of a fortune that should have been his seem to be validated when {{spoiler|he catches him and Gretchen lying through their teeth about his contributions to Gray Matter Technologies on ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Rose_(talk_show) Charlie Rose]''. However, they only do this after Walt has been exposed as the drug kingpin Heisenberg and attention has been drawn to his connections with the company. Any CEO worth his salt would try to distance himself from a known violent criminal in order to avoid (or at least minimize) the PR disaster that could follow.}}
* [[Self-Serving Memory]]:
** When Mike chews out Walt {{spoiler|shortly before his death}}, his explosive tirade where he blames Walt for {{spoiler|Gus' criminal empire going down the toilet}} isn't ''completely'' unwarranted. But it also conveniently leaves out all the heinous shit Gus did to force the issue, as well as the fact that {{spoiler|his men killing a ''kid'' was the thing that led to Jesse and Walt falling out of favor with him.}}
Line 454 ⟶ 459:
** 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.
* [[Undignified Death]]: For all his careful scheming and steely nerves, {{spoiler|Gus completely loses his shit when he realizes that he's been lured into a trap and Hector's about to blow him up. What are his final words right before he tries to make a run for it and gets blown to Kingdom Come?}}
{{quote|[[Oh Crap|''"HAAAAAAAAW-!"'']]}}
* [[Unflinching Walk]]:
** The Cousins. No matter what's happening.
Line 476 ⟶ 483:
** "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 {{spoiler|right before Gus [[Kill'Em All|wipes out the Don and all his captains in one fell swoop]] [[Anticlimax Boss|with some poison.]]}}
** Followed immediately by another, ''even more terrifying'' [[Wham! Episode]], "Crawl Space".
** With the {{spoiler|deaths of Gus, Tyrus, and Hector}} and [[The Reveal]] that {{spoiler|not Gus but Walter poisoned Brock thus finally making the jump to [[Villain Protagonist]]}} the season 4 finale "Face Off"
** The wham moment in the season's debut, "Live Free Or Die", isn't the ending. It's the beginning, where we get a flash forward several months into the future and see that {{spoiler|Walt's criminal empire has gone tits-up. While there's no context, he's disguised and on the run from the law, and his house has been abandoned and fallen into ruin. Whatever happened that led up to this moment, it wasn't pretty.}}
** "Dead Freight" seems like it's going to be a fun train heist [[Breather Episode]]... {{spoiler|until it turns out that a kid stumbled onto the crime scene. And [[Would Hurt a Child|Todd fucking SHOOTS HIM.]]}}
** "Say My Name" is the beginning of the end, with {{spoiler|Jesse making a permanent exit from Walt's criminal enterprise in the fallout of Drew Sharp's death. And when Mike decides to do the same, Walt shoots him dead purely out of spite when he gives him a ''scathing'' [[The Reason You Suck Speech]].}}
** "Gliding Over All" gives us one of the series' biggest examples of this trope. {{spoiler|Right when things are looking up for Walt and he's ''this'' close to making a clean exit from the meth industry, Hank finally realizes that he is Heisenberg, the man he's been chasing the last few seasons.}}
** Picking up from the previous episode, "Blood Money" has {{spoiler|Hank confront Walt with the knowledge that he knows he's Heisenberg and vows that he'll stop at ''nothing'' to take him down. Walt stands defiant and makes it clear that he better [[Implied Death Threat|tread lightly]] going forward.]]}}
** "Buried" has {{spoiler|Marie finding out Walt's secret, while Skyler finds out that both she and Hank know. In spite of all her issues with Walt she chooses to side with him in the conflict against Hank, ensuring that if he goes down, so will she. Meanwhile, Jesse completely melts down and gets arrested after he spreads his share of the drug money all across the neighborhood, further endangering Walt's operation.}}
** "Confessions" finally has Jesse learn the truth about {{spoiler|Brock's poisoning. He nearly murders Saul in a fit of rage and breaks into Walt's house so he can burn it down.}}
** "Rabid Dog" is the moment where {{spoiler|Walt and Jesse's relationship is irreparably damaged: Jesse teams up with Hank and Gomez so he can bring down his former partner, and after desperately trying to avoid it, Walt finally decides that Jesse has to die and arranges a meeting with the Neo Nazis...}}
** Probably the second biggest example of this trope is "To'Hajiilee", where {{spoiler|Jesse tricks Walt into walking right into the trap that he, Hank, and Gomez set up, meaning that Hank finally gets to slap the cuffs on Walt just like he wanted. All's well and good right? It is until [[Oh Crap|the Neo Nazis show up]] and get into a shootout with Hank and Gomez. They're hopelessly outgunned but determined to fight to the bitter end anyway, all while Walt can only look on in horror.}}
** Ladies and gentlemen, this is it. The ''big one''. It's the episode where shit completely hits the fan, and is considered by many to be the defining [[Wham! Episode]] of ''Breaking Bad'''s entire run: "Ozymandias". {{spoiler|The episode opens with Gomez already dead, and things just get worse from there. Despite everything that happened Walt begs for Jack to spare Hank, but he guns him down anyway and leaves Walt in a state of utter despair. Meanwhile, Jesse is sold out to the Nazis by Walt, who decides to twist the knife in the cruelest way possible by revealing that he let Jane die. When Walt tries to flee the state with Skyler and Walt Jr., the latter finally learns the truth about Walt and takes it ''horribly''. Walt and Skyler get into a nasty fight that causes Walt Jr. to take his mom's side and calls the police on Walt, forcing him to flee the house... but not before kidnapping baby Holly, which causes Skyler to completely lose her shit. He ultimately can't bring himself to separate his daughter from her mother, however, and leaves her at a fire station before calling the number for Saul's disappearing guy.}}
* [[Wham! Line]]:
{{quote|'''Skyler''': Walt, where's your cell phone, did you bring your cell phone?
Line 486 ⟶ 503:
** It's not spoken aloud, but:
{{quote|{{spoiler|Lily of the Valley}}}}
** Walt drops probably the cruelest one possible in "Ozymandias":
{{quote|'''Walt''': {{spoiler|I watched Jane die. I was there. And I watched her die. I watched her overdose and choke to death. I could have saved her, but I didn't.}}}}
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]?: The fly falling to the ground dead at Jesse's feet in [[Slow Motion Fall|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?]]:
{{quote|'''Skyler''': Someone has to protect this family from the man who protects this family.}}
| |||