Breaking Bad: Difference between revisions
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* [[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]].
** Walt himself flirts with this trope. While he never hurts his own children (aside from a moment where he forced Walt Jr. to drink tequila to the point of vomiting purely to spite Hank), he's incredibly cruel to Jesse, who he sees as a foster son. He verbally and mentally abuses him, demeaning him and making him feel stupid on a regular basis. And when he ''does'' treat him nicely, it's usually under the pretense of manipulating him for his own ends.
* [[Adorkable]]: Earlier in the show, Walt's a lot more goofy and endearing since he has yet to truly embrace his Heisenberg persona, and acts like a dorkier, tragic version of [[Malcolm in the Middle|Hal Wilkerson]].
** Despite working for Gus Fring, Gale's goofy and geeky to a fault. When he isn't cooking meth, he's singing Italian opera, tending to flowers, and fanboying over Walt.
* [[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. And finally, Todd's sociopathy doesn't stop him from acting genuinely chummy towards his "friends" and family, albeit in a warped and twisted way.
* [[Ain't Too Proud to Beg]]: Both Walt and {{spoiler|Gale}} plead for their lives during the very end of Season 3. Jesse also breaks down and begs for help when Tuco's ready to kill him, at least before he fights back and turns the tables on him.
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{{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]] {{spoiler|Ted}}'s exit from the show is exceptionally anticlimactic and hilarious. 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 end up crippled for life}}, much to the Mooks' dismay.
* [[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...
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* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]:
** For all his faults, Walt will ''not'' kill anyone in his family no matter how much of a risk they pose to his operations. {{spoiler|When Saul suggests [[Deadly Euphemism|sending Hank on "a trip to Belize"]] once he finds out that Walt is Heisenberg, he's genuinely disgusted with him.}}
** Saul himself is disgusted with the idea of hurting children. {{spoiler|When Walt used him and Huell to poison Brock, he's absolutely ''livid'' when he
** 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.
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** You can tell Hector wants Gus dead early in their confrontations, but it doesn't appear to mean much as Hector can't do anything. Come the Season 4 finale, however, {{spoiler|he finally gets his revenge... and sorts out Walt's problems at the same time.}}
** 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]. Come Season 5, the company itself gets quite a bit of focus when the feds come knocking in the wake of {{spoiler|Gus' death}}, and employee Lydia
* [[Gambit Roulette]]:
** {{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.}}
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** "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 and Gale both serve as this to Walt throughout the show, though Gale's more of a traditional example given his naivete, social awkwardness and slavish devotion to his boss.
* [[Implied Death Threat]]: While it's made clear that {{spoiler|actually killing Hank is, and always will be off the table}}, Walt exits the conversation where {{spoiler|Hank reveals that he knows he's Heisenberg by dropping one of these}}.
* [[Incurable Cough of Death]]:
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* [[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.]]
* [[Pac-Man Fever]]:
** Averted in one episode. Jesse plays ''[[Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing]]'' with a girl and her son 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 (video game)|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.
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* [[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 Hector 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
** Likewise, Jesse's got a tenderhearted side to him, which tends to come out when children are involved. He refuses to sell meth to a woman when he learns that she's taking care of a small child, and he saves another kid from a family of psychotic meth-heads and ensures that the police will find him and give him the help he needs.
** 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 tell that he's the reason why Jesse's suffering to begin with.}}
* [[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.
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* [[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. He's an underboss for an organized crime syndicate. In other words, he's ''Breaking Bad'''s answer to [[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]]''.
** The season four premiere ends with [[Pulp Fiction|Walt and Jesse getting breakfast in a diner, wearing t-shirts after their other clothes got covered in blood.]]
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