Breaking Bad: Difference between revisions

* [[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 [[Tear Jerker|horribly neglected]] [[The Woobie|young son]]. He is [[Even Evil Has Standards|suitably]] [[Family Values Villain|disgusted]].

* [[Alliterative Name]]: Both father and son are named Walter White. The name was deliberately chosen for its blandness.

** 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.

* [[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.

** 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.}}

** Hank taking on Tuco and then the Salamanca twins.

* [[Badass Family]]: The Salamanca family.

** 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.

* [[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 he initial attempt to kill Gus fails, [[Indy Ploy|he acquires Tio Salamanca as an ally]], convinces him to talk to the DEA so Gus will think he's snitching, then booby-traps his wheelchair. This plan hinges on the hopes that a) Hector hates Gus more than he hates Walt, b)Gus will insist on killing Hector in person and c) Hector is willing to kill himself to take Gus down with him. Amazingly, it all works.}}

** 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.

* [[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".

** Jesse, over the course of the show.

* [[Break the Haughty]]: Hank and Jesse.

* [[Bribe Backfire]]: Walt and Jesse's first meeting with Saul.

* [[But He Sounds Handsome]]: Walt commenting on Gale [[What an Idiot!|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.

** 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 {{spoiler|killing Krazy 8}}, when Walt makes a sandwich, he cuts off the crust.

** 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}}.

** {{spoiler|Delivered by Walt to two child-murdering dealers}}

** {{spoiler|Hank cripples one of the Cousins with it, with just one minute's warning.}}

** Subverted with {{spoiler|the ricin-poisoned cigarette}} in season 4, which {{spoiler|disappears. Walt makes Jesse believe that Gus used it on Brock, but he was lying}}.

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Seemingly one-shot characters would routinely come back with more importance to the story, such as Skinny Pete and Badger.

** Walt gradually becomes one as well {{spoiler|as terribly revealed in the last shot of Season 4}}. Season 4 is basically a chess match between Walt and Gus, which {{spoiler|Walt wins}}.

** [[Playing with a Trope|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.

** 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.

{{quote|'''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." }}

** 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.

** Walt, who lies in order to conceal his drug activities as well as out of a sense of pride.

* [[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]]: {{spoiler|Everything involving the midair collision in the season 2 finale.}}

* [[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 {{spoiler|"737"/"Down"/"Over"/"ABQ"}} foreshadowing.

* [[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]] {{spoiler|Ted}} receives an exceptionally anticlimactic and hilarious death when two of Saul's [[Mook|Mooks]] confront him in his home and he runs away only to {{spoiler|trip on a rug, bang his head on a table and die}} much to the Mooks' dismay.

** 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.

* [[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...

* [[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.

** {{spoiler|Hector Salamanca of all people gets one, giving Gus one last look of hate before blowing them all up}}.

** Just after that, {{spoiler|Gus walks out of the room, alive and well, not aware that he's lost half of his face. He straightens his tie before falling over, dead}}.

* [[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.

** 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. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Just to make things worse]], ''the fly then lands on his glasses''.

* [[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.}}

** 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.

'''Jesse:''' [[Deadpan Snarker|Guys drive on ice.]] }}

* [[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.

** 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 {{spoiler|an utterly ruthless drug overlord who uses the restaurant as a front}} Of course, he's able to switch back and forth between his two personalities within the same scene.

* [[Facial Horror]]: {{spoiler|Gus' death.}}

* [[Fake American]]: Walt's former friend Elliot is played by Brit Adam Godley with a flawless accent.

** Jane does quite a bit of it in the second season.

** 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.

** A lot of the [[Chekhov's Classroom|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 [[Genius Bonus|methamphetamine is a chiral molecule.]]

** "Lie on your side, {{spoiler|or you might choke.}}"

** In the season 2 premiere, you see Skyler looking fondly of old photos of her and {{spoiler|Ted}} after she and Walt start having marriage troubles. {{spoiler|Ted}} 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 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Rwsjzu178&feature=player_embedded fine print of a television ad in Season 3]. Overall, its full role has yet to be seen as of Season 4.

** {{spoiler|Walt poisoned Brock with a not-quite lethal poison and stole the ricin cigarette from Jesse, hoping that Jesse would realize he was poisoned, assume Walt did it and come after him. Then he had to convince Jesse that Gus had planned to the whole thing, right up to Jesse holding a gun to his head. It worked (almost) perfectly, but relied on a lot of luck.}}

** Gus' {{spoiler|wholesale poisoning of the cartel}} in "''Salud''" also depended on a lot of luck.

** 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 {{spoiler|after they receive a tip about an assassination planned on him.}}. Cue Hank in the DEA. Also doubles as an ironic echo for the previous situation.

** 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]].

** {{spoiler|Several dissolved corpses over the course of the show}}.

** {{spoiler|Gus Fring's death.}}

** {{spoiler|Jesse when he finds Jane dead. He has to be slapped out of it by Mike who wants him to tell police that he "woke up, he found her, that's all he knows."}}

** 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.}}

** 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.

** 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.

* [[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.

** Several episodes such as "Negro Y Azul", "Mandala", "No Mas" and "Salud" among others have titles in spanish.

** "I.F.T", {{spoiler|"I fucked Ted."}}

** 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.

** 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 {{spoiler|that his cancer is going into remission}} 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.

** Subverted towards the end of Season 3.

** But then played straight in Season 4.

* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Hank's collects "minerals," ''not'' "rocks."

** 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.

* [[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.

** 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.

* [[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 {{spoiler|the governing body of the Mexican cartel}} its hard not to give him a pass.

* [[Laughing Mad]]: Walt's reaction {{spoiler|when Skyler tells him she gave Ted the $600,000 they needed to escape Gus, who said he would kill them all if he interfered in tipping off the DEA about the hit on Hank... [[Irony|which Saul had done on his orders mere minutes before.]]}}

* [[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]]..."

* [[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 [[Love Makes You Crazy|crazy]].

** 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.

** "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.

* [[Midair Collision]]: {{spoiler|Season 2 finale.}}

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: So, so much. The show goes from comedy to tragedy and back at the drop of a hat.

* [[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.

** Tuco is very fond of this.

** In season 3, Hank does this to Jesse.

** In season 4, Mike does this to Walter.

** 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.

** 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.

** {{spoiler|After the CID catches onto Ted's book cooking, Skyler saves him from prison time by acting like a [[Dumb Blonde]] who hopelessly screwed up the company's ledgers completely by accident.}}

** 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.

{{quote|''MILFs? What the hell is a MILF?''}}

* [[Obstructive Vigilantism]]: Hector Salamanca goes in to testify against Jesse, but he doesn't actually tell the cops anything.

** Walt and Jesse when they discover that {{spoiler|Krazy-8 wasn't killed by the fluorine gas.}}

** {{spoiler|Gus noticing that Tio's bell isn't chiming, because the clapper's been replaced with a bomb that he's just triggered.}}

** 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."

** 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 [[Truth in Television|realistically]]) long and grueling.

** 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 [[Television Is Trying to Kill Us|that's where drug deals take place in the movies.]]

** 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.

* [["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 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 {{spoiler|he's in remission}}.

* [[Ramming Always Works]]: {{spoiler|Hank only has a few seconds to react before he's about to be shot, so he just puts the SUV in reverse and rams the guy. It works.}}

** 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.

** 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 {{spoiler|Gus' death scene}}, in which he {{spoiler|walks out of Hector's room and straightens his tie with half his face blown off before falling over dead}}, was over-the-top. In truth, {{spoiler|bombing victims do often survive briefly, and sometimes do weird things like calmly walk around looking for their own severed limbs, before they bleed to death. The body can behave strangely when it's in shock}}.

* [[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.

* [[Serious Business]]: You can't have a fly in your meth lab, it taints the product.

* [[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.

** Juan Bolsa: Juan is Spanish for John. Bolsa means "bag" in Spanish. [[The Sopranos|Johnny Sack]].

** The name of the last episode of season one is "A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal", after a line from ''[[Fargo]]''.

* [[Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb]]: {{spoiler|Gus Fring}} fails to realize that {{spoiler|Hector's wheelchair}} 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.

** 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.

* [[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?

** 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]]: {{spoiler|Hector's final confrontation with Gus. }}

* [[Teeth-Clenched Teamwork]]: Walt and Jesse. They do get better over time though. {{spoiler|And then a whole lot worse}}

** When she says, "Call me a [[Berserk Button|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.

* [[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.

** 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".

* [[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 [[Becoming the Mask|going into recovery]].

{{quote|''"I've got this... [[Honorary Uncle|nephew...]]"'' }}

** {{spoiler|Jesse and Mike}} seem to have potential for this, {{spoiler|assuming Mike survives his gunshot wound.}}

** 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.

** The Cousins. No matter what's happening.

** Walt does one after blowing up a [[Jerkass]] lawyer's car.

* [[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.

** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxYrjWMvmdg Negro y Azul]" for "Heisenberg."

** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3yAx2uCoHs Black]" in the closing moments of season 4.

* [[Villain with Good Publicity]]: Gus, a firm believer in 'hiding in plain sight'.

* [[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]]...

** "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".

* [[Wham! Line]]:

{{quote|'''Skyler''': Walt, where's your cell phone, did you bring your cell phone?

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Walt's entire life has become this trope.

* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: {{spoiler|Seconds before his death, Gus's face resembles the picture on the [[Two-Faced]] page}}.

{{quote|'''Skyler''': Someone has to protect this family from the man who protects this family.}}

* [[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.

** ''[[American Beauty]]'' meets ''[[Scarface]]'' with a touch of ''[[Fargo]]''.

** Alternately, ''[[Weeds]]'' with ([[This Is Your Premise on Drugs|and on]]) HARD DRUGS!

** In-universe, Hank described Gale as if "''[[Scarface]]'' had sex with [[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood|Mister Rogers]]."

* [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]: The Season 3 finale "Full Measure" is basically a protracted game played between Walt and Gus.

** When it's shot with {{spoiler|a hollow point bullet}}, it does.

** {{spoiler|For Gus}} this happens only halfway.