Breaking Bad: Difference between revisions

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** 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.}}

* [[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 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]]:

** 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.

* [[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]]:

* [[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.

* [[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 Ol' Eyebrows]]: Bogdan, as pointed out by Walt in the pilot.

{{quote|"Fuck you! ''And'' your eyebrows!"}}

* [[Bottle Episode]]: "And the Bag's in the River", "Four Days Out" and especially "Fly".

* [[Break the Cutie]]:

* [[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.

** 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"

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[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}}.

* [[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}}.

* [[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]].}}

** 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.

* [[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!"

*** 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.

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[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]]: