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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]].
* [[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.
* [[
* [[Alliterative Name]]: Both father and son are named Walter White. The name was deliberately chosen for its blandness.
* [[Analogy Backfire]]:
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** 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
* [[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."
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* [[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
* [[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.
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* [[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 [[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.
* [[Call Back]]:
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* [[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
* [[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 {{spoiler|place a tracking bug on Gus's vehicle}}, he utters this remark:
{{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.
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** 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
* [[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]]:
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* [[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.
* [[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: {{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
* [[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.
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** 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.
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** 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.}}
* [[One
** 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."
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* [[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.]]
* [[Pac
** 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 (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.
* [[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
** {{spoiler|"I fucked Ted."}}
** Again in Season 4. {{spoiler|"Get the fuck out of here and never come back."}}
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** 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}}.
* [[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 [[Complete 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.
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* [[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
* [[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 {{spoiler|right before Gus [[Kill
** 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" is the latest and perhaps whammiest of all.
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** It's not spoken aloud, but:
{{quote| {{spoiler|Lily of the Valley}}}}
* [[What Do You Mean
* [[What the Hell, Hero?|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}}.
* [[Who Watches the Watchmen]]:
{{quote| '''Skyler''': Someone has to protect this family from the man who protects this family.}}
* [[
* [[Worst Aid]]: Walt just let {{spoiler|Jane choke on her own vomit}}, 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.
* [[X Meets Y]]:
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