A masterful example can be seen at the beginning of "Felina". He initially tries to reason with, after fatally shooting Mike, when he realizes he could've just gotten the information he wanted elsewhere. Jesse began to resist his influence through his relationship with Mike, angering Walter further and making him more paranoid. He's also the victim of one in To'Hajiilee. I did it for me. He dismisses Saul as a "two bit lawyer", even though Saul has been consistently and insanely useful to Walt throughout the series. The RV was a busted up piece of junk as well, at one point a malfunctioning mechanism nearly gets both Walt and Jesse killed in the desert. Answer by Susan Bertlino, Former Chicago Public School Teacher, on Quora: He is a fluid character who we could call an antihero, except that many viewers stop sympathizing with him, particularly when he begins to hurt Jesse from killing his girlfriend to poisoning Brock. He keeps the eye from the furry toy from the plane crash in ABQ. Although Walter White becomes very arrogant by the end of the series, he is an incredibly by the book guy when the series first begins, and it's clear that he's terrified to be dealing with unhinged criminals. That kind of bravery in the face of life threatening danger is impressive. And when Declan identifies him as Heisenberg, to which he responds, "You're goddamn right. "Blue Sky" catches the attention of dealers who want a piece of such high-quality product, and also the DEA who want to find out where it's coming from.Walt adopts the moniker "Heisenberg" as an alias as he immerses himself in the drug trade and works his way up to the international level, becoming a famous and feared drug kingpin who leaves a trail of money, bodies, and meth behind him.Now has a self demonstrating page. With his family taken care of and his enemies killed off, he strolls through a meth lab before falling dead. Jesse's desire to leave the meth business after the death of Drew Sharp. And an automated M-60 turret made with a garage door opener and car keys. assume the position of the now-deceased Gus Fring, you're an insane, degenerate piece of filth and you deserve to die, selfish, petty, stubborn, vindictive, hotheaded, spite everyone who ever angered him in any way. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. his selling out of Jesse to Jack's crew and telling him the truth about Jane can easily be interpreted as Walt blaming him for Hank's death. He even had a smug, shit-eating grin on his face as Walt Jr. retched in the pool in front of dozens. Usually averted, but one time, in a combination of bitterness and alcohol, Walt forced his son to down a bottle of tequila until he vomited his lungs out, solely out of spite (it's implied in that scene that he was annoyed by his son looking up to his "badass" uncle Hank and Walt just wanted to prove his masculinity). Flynn refuses and declares he wants Walter dead. "Where is the, "I slept with my boss bullet point?". A more positive example would be Walt's relationship with Jesse. When he sees the dying Mike, Walt realizes he could have just gone to Lydia for the list of names. he admits to Skyler that this was his main motivation for cooking meth, as he was. Halfway through season 3 he tells Jesse to not complain that he is getting a million and a half to cook meth just because the guy above him is making even more. He also makes it sound like he killed Hank, even though he didn't, so that Marie can know that her husband is dead and get some semblance of closure. Just before dying, despite still being completely unapologetic about the decisions he's made throughout the series, it's clear that Walt at least feels some guilt over the unintended consequences and had regained at least some of his lost humanity. Also in "Salud" to Walt Jr. to explain his injuries, he lies that he's back into gambling. Jack's crew and Lydia completely underestimate Walter because he looks like a wreck and has no money left. Almost everything he does ends up making the situation worse, including the sole fact he went into the meth business. Unforgivable.

Invoked by Skyler twice in Season 5, first during a fight in "Fifty-One", Skyler lists ways she can make the kids stay away from Walt. After he kills Jack and his gang in "Felina", he tells Jesse that he wants Jesse to kill him. You'd think it was inverted when he admits his fault and guilt in driving Jesse too far when trying to get him to kill Gus with the bug and everything. Details. Of all the cars he chooses to carjack in "Felina", he picks an old Volvo with the exact same paint scheme. This and the news of his cancer returning help him decide to quit his empire. He's very sarcastic when listening to Skyler's story in Season 4 too. The final shot of "Crawl Space." (the nine prisoners whom Walt denied security payments owed by Gus and Mike). They forget that he also has nothing else to. When he sees that Pinkman has been turned into a slave, however, Walt's face expresses visible regret over the fact that he handed him over to them. I was good at it. once he found out, about how necessary it was to poison Brock. the entire rant was recorded by Hank for the purpose of busting Walt, murdering several people to secure his own safety, continuing to cook even though he has more money than he ever needed, and stating outright that with his family life in ruins, his goal now is to build a drug empire. Sliding Scale of Unavoidable vs. Although Walter spent most of his public life languishing as an underappreciated high school chemistry teacher, his career in the drug trade really proved that he was an unparalleled genius when it came to chemistry (and when it came to a lot of other things too, actually). Hank's death, Walt tells Jesse that he watched Jane die. He's the closest thing to a father figure in Jesse's life and unlike his real parents, he actually cares for him (and saved his life several times). He keeps his poker face on after breaking into. This is where you get to make it right, he could've helped humanity if he'd only wanted to.

It bites him in the ass in "Gliding Over All". Walter's life as Heisenberg begins on his 50th birthday, the day Hank offered to take him on a ride-along for a meth bust, and ends on his 52nd. His psychological abuse of Skyler in Season 5. I liked it. Like Saul, he carries out business under an assumed name and an alter-ego. Walt does the things he does because he comes to enjoy them and enjoy how important and potent being good at them makes him feel. Or the bell-activated pipe bomb that kills both Hector and Gus. his kidnapped daughter's first word is "Mama". Completely outsmarting the most powerful drug dealer in the whole state can have that effect on you. Seems to finally get the message in "Ozymandias" when baby Holly's first words are "mama". It's. It culminates with the killing of Mike, the first truly pointless crime Walt commits. It never occurs to him that Jesse can just take the money and spend it on himself, which is exactly what happens. Ultimately dies without any of his friends or family, of blood loss. Manly Man to Jesse's Sensitive Guy. Hank attempts to arrest him, it goes all down hill.

Walt's paranoia over Gus murdering him causes him to pick it up in "Open House". Jack for stealing 70 million dollars of his money and murdering Hank. Just for good measure, Jesse also goads him into admitting to the many crimes he has committed, all recorded by Hank. Non-lethal poison may not be off the table, but he never kills anyone who isn't already a part of the criminal underworld. Walt ties up his loose ends and finally admits the truth to Skyler. In the end, he claims that he was really doing everything for himself, though he at least tries to redeem himself in the last episode. he figures out that appealing to his need for approval is the best way to manipulate Jesse, Mike calls him out on that ego for causing problems in the meth business. Ruthless move for sure but Tuco is the man who kidnapped Walt and tried to force him to abandon his family. He kills Gus, who threatened to murder Walt's family if he thwarts Gus' attempts at dealing with Hank. The scene in "El Camino" that shows Walt encouraging Jesse to leave his life of crime and pursue college. The little nod they both give each other before Jesse leaves is about everything they needed and could say. Furthermore, this stands out for his serious drive for malice, egomania, and a desire to be dominant. As the series goes on, it reflects his increasingly unforgivable actions. Knowing that the police are listening to their conversation, Walt puts on a harsher tone when talking to Skyler in order to make her look like an innocent victim of a dangerous husband to the police so she can get off the hook. Walter is always changing in the series, which means we change our feelings about him. What you did to Mom, you. He's very easy to love or hate. killing Mike for insulting his ego after not wanting to reveal the names of his imprisoned men whom holds sensitive information about them. He was arguably partly responsible for putting Hank in the position to begin with but he still did take action to save his career wheh he didn't have to. has let Jane die and shrugged off Brock's death. He leaves Skyler alone at home throughout the first couple of seasons, on some truly flimsy excuses, and expects her to be happy with this despite his clear bullshitting. And finally, after lying relentlessly to himself as well as his family, pretending that everything that he did he did for his family, he finally, calmly acknowledges the truth in Felina. As time goes on and his behavior becomes more flagrantly amoral, it begins to seem as though there may not really be a difference between the two, and maybe there never was. It's the only one of his many heinous acts that can truly be considered a pointless act of sadism - appropriately, Walt takes a disturbing amount of glee in the act - and Vince Gilligan considers it his most evil deed as a result. Despite it being more than anyone could ever want (and more than he could ever realistically spend), he keeps all his. Hank's death, one of the few things that Walt is genuinely not responsible for (in fact, he tried his damndest to prevent it), is the thing that finally breaks his relationship with his wife and son. His belittling Jesse's intelligence throughout the show. He was also fairly close to Hank until Hank finds out Walt is Heisenberg, slaughters the entire Neo-Nazi gang via a machine gun. For what reasons will J.K. Rowling's books be read in 100 years. Panic stricken, Walt leads Jesse and Hank straight to it. It represented his morality and his regrets about what he was doing. he saw his father die as a weak shell, struck down by his illness. You just had to be the man! your pride and your ego! In "Felina", he dies from blood loss after being shot in the side by the M60 he rigs in the trunk of his car which he uses to kill Jack and his Aryan Brotherhood gang. ", He finally receives a recompense of sorts from. By the time he realizes just how far he's fallen, the only things left for him to do are humble himself and make amends before dying. When Skyler confronts him on his odd behavior, he tells her he's buying pot from Jesse. He destroys the last ounce of trust his family had for him and gets into a physical altercation with Skyler and Walt Jr. Walt manages to build that nest egg for Walter Jr. and Holly before his death, but his actions have led to his brother-in-law's death, his family losing their house and his remaining family disowning him. And to cap it all off, he embraces the Heisenberg persona fully, so he can protect Skyler from being complicit in his crimes. That is the beauty of Breaking Bad: they gave us a main character who encompasses all definitions and yet goes beyond them as well. Walter White is one of the most iconic television characters in history. Walt then proceeds to twist the knife even further by attempting to use Jesse's murder of Gale in order to convince him that he's just as morally bankrupt as he is. By the last season Walt himself is making more money than he could ever spend, and has no intention of holding back. him trying to fulfill his role as a parent. I would call Mike an antihero, and possibly Jesse, but Walter is the center of the story who goes from hero to antihero to villain to sociopath to pathetic (the death of Hank which was his last tie to any moral universe) to preparing himself for his own death by ridding the world of some rotten people like Jack and Lydia.

Moreover, his family will never know it was his money, instead they'll think it was an act of charity from Walt's resented former business partners, the very thing he refused to accept back in season 1. Walt invents "Heisenberg", his criminal alter ego, as both a convenient pseudonym and a coping mechanism. He briefly becomes the biggest meth distributor in the US, but it's quickly undermined by his lack of criminal experience and Hank finding out the truth. the confession video he makes to frame Hank, Hank sought him out to be his chemist, believing him to be smart enough to make the best possible meth, and he still takes credit for building the bomb that killed Gus (while claiming it was under duress, of course), Jesse manages to trick him into admitting to all of his crimes over the phone while Hank and Gomez are listening. Tell Jesse to just negotiate the price and leave him alone with the money. Although he sometimes has a completely backwards way of showing it, Walter is actually incredibly caring and considerate when it comes to the people that he loves. I am the one who knocks! the Schwartzes bring Walt back from the very edge of the, he finally kills the Nazis, months after they killed Hank, stole Walt's money, and enslaved Jesse in "Ozymandias", For the first half and most of the second half, he's. Gale Boetticher's notes, with a dedication to a "W.W.". In "Ozymandias", he loses the position of Season 5's, Walt goes into exile after being exposed as Heisenberg, after Hank and Gomez are killed by Jack's gang. A tearjerking one, to boot. Mike dies for no good reason, thanks to Walter, when we are rooting for him to get away. However, by season 5, this trope no longer applies, seeing as how Walter has become just as ruthless as anyone else in the business, and remains in it solely for his ego. Averted in "Kafkaesque" when he is perfectly content with his $1.5 million deal with Gus, and it is Jesse who believes that he isn't being paid enough. He definitely has an intense cruel streak at times, but ultimately he repeatedly puts himself in a position to do absolutely terrible things simply because he doesn't want Jesse to have to do them instead. The neo-nazis, who are supposed to be his henchmen, have no problem stealing from him once they realize how powerless he really is. The story of Breaking Bad is truly the story of Walt, and the character arc and developments that he goes through are some of the most intriguing and extreme that any character can experience. More questions: Part of HuffPost News. While going to Uncle Jack's compound to kill him and his gang for murdering Hank and Gomez, he makes a split-second decision to tackle Jesse to the ground so he isn't shot by the M60 turret in his trunk, getting hit in the side in the process. He often sees others as nothing more than tools to get what he wants, and he's willing to hurt people or even kill them if he believes that their suffering will result in some sort of benefit for him. Despite his seemingly weak body, he inexplicably survives for an extra six months past his doctor's original estimation (18 months) even though his cancer was. In early season 4, to explain his newfound wealth and erratic behavior, he tells Hank and Marie he got into underground gambling. Mike who was in no immediate threat to Walt, when Walt could have got the names from Lydia anyway. He single-handedly kills the entire Neo-Nazi gang using a remotely activated machine gun (with the exception of Todd). in "Felina", when he realizes exactly how much torture Todd and Jack have put Jesse through. when he has to go into hiding in complete solitude, pays someone 10 grand to be his friend for just an hour, and has his son yell at him that he needs to just die. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. They forget that he also has nothing left to lose. Come the final season he admits to Jesse he actually sold his shares when he walked away from the company and only regretted it later when they became successful. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. His reaction to Hank getting killed is so agonized, that it's inaudible.

in addition to the boost being a kingpin gives to his now massive ego. ", In spite of all the evil he's done, Walt makes it very clear that he would never, ever, dare. Initially confused at his words, she eventually catches on that he is trying to get her off the hook for all of his activities and that the act is for the DEA. After discovering he'd been, he poisons a child just to win Jesse's favor back from Gus, not as an equal, but always a subordinate. I AM the danger. ordering the deaths of ten people on the mere possibility that one might rat him out with no hesitation, Saul is deposited in Nebraska (to his obvious displeasure). Hank shows no signs of letting up on his pursuit of Walt, fingers Hank as Heisenberg, claims to have been forced to work as Hank's unwitting chemist, and claims that Hank is trying to engineer his death. Attempted in "To'hajiilee".

In "Seven Thirty-Seven", he confesses to changing the TV channel when Hector attempts to accuse Walter of poisoning Tuco's food. In Season 5 he brings Jesse to dinner with Skyler in an effort to guilt him into staying in the business, telling Jesse that Skyler now wants him dead and he has nothing to live for, ignoring that it was his own actions that turned Skyler against him. His reaction to being told that his life saving isn't enough to buy an RV?

Sensitive Guy to Hank Schrader's Manly Man. thinks Jesse is about to have him killed, and summons Jack's white power gang for backup. At the end of the series, the only way Walt can get his remaining drug money to his family without them rejecting it and/or without law enforcement confiscating it is to coerce Gretchen and Elliot into using it to open a trust fund for Flynn that he'll receive on his 18th birthday so it'll look like the money came from one of their acts of charity. Walter White also displays Asperger's syndrome/Autism traits, such as being very. he is completely out of it and can barely form a coherent sentence anymore. after killing Mike and acquiring so much money that it can no longer be laundered or even spent. Hank and Marie do not react well when they discover Walt is Heisenberg. I was good at it. makes more money cooking meth than they could ever spend in 10 lifetimes, nor could she safely launder without attracting unwanted attention. He returns to something of this status in Felina. Despite his frequent belittlement and manipulation of Jesse, Walt tends to get very angry if his protege is subjected to any serious harm, or is manipulated by someone other than him. seeing Elliott and Gretchen appearing on television and making him an. Walt goes in and out of this with Jesse until. His son finds out about his crimes and soon after, his family wants nothing to do with him and he lives several months alone in a cabin, before plotting to make things right for everyone he has wronged. He cuts off the crust from his bread in memory of Krazy-8. And an even more severe one in Season 5's "Ozymandias", when, Right before "Ozymandias", "To'hajiilee" sees Walt set up by. There is seriously no love lost between Walter and. Becomes one for Walter Jr. when he finds out who and what his father is. And the unfortunate fact is that he likely could have gotten out of the drug biz relatively unscathed had he not overestimated his own power and abilities. By the end, he's clearly proud of the legacy he's carved out for himself, affectionately leaving a bloody handprint on the chemistry equipment in Jack's meth lab before he bleeds out. But once he starts making meth, it seems like that pendulum swings way too far in the other direction. that he murdered Mike. to make Lydia and Jack plot to have him killed because they think he has nothing to protect himself with. Gives one to Jesse when the latter vents over how Walt is unable to be truthful about his motives for getting him to leave town. regardless of how they act or what their actual job is, given to Gretchen's actor reveal that Walt did this, increasingly turn to serving his own ego and hunger for power, A rare example where the One Man Army has no real combat skills. Season 4 is an example in which he has Jesse kill Gale, while continuing to pull a father surrogate role on him. Walt shielding Jesse from his machine gun trap and letting him go. While carrying some food down to Krazy-8, showing just how badly the cancer is crippling him. While Walt does become very callous and reprehensible, he never kills anyone who wasn't part of the criminal underworld. Both characters are also highly intelligent and talented, but terrible self-saboteurs who were struggling as a result of their poor life choices, and were then only able to find success by illegal means. I'm the man who killed Gus Fring. This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Walter finally does retire after this.

He gives up his drug business after "Gliding Over All," only to have Hank discover that he is Heisenberg, forcing him to go back into his criminal ways. Walt has a decidedly non-Kingpin's taste in transportation, beginning with a bland 2004 Pontiac Aztek SUV that's painted in a very dull green, and a perpetually cracked windshield. Season 5 Part 2 when he turns against Jesse and Hank. ", "I'm the cook. Hank. Intentional cases include managing to exonerate Skyler via a phone call where he takes the blame for his crimes, he succeeds in securing a college fund for Walter Jnr so he might have a happier future than Walt or Skyler's, and he kidnaps Holly to make Skyler look more heroic. When Jesse insists on leaving, Walt starts belittling him by essentially telling him that he has nothing else of value in his life outside of cooking meth, and proclaiming that nobody outside of the business cares for his well being. just before Jack's crew takes Jesse to interrogate him on what he told Hank and Gomez, he tells Jesse that he let Jane die, just to spite him. Walter develops a really strong sense of entitlement and superiority, and starts to seek out greater power and more authority because he believes that it's his right to have it. He starts out as a broken man about to die, then the show reveals layers of envy and entitlement in his character, personified in his meth creation. A lesser example, but when he gloats that he's in the "empire business", Jesse wearily points out that an empire based on cooking meth and getting people hooked on it isn't really that much to be proud of, no matter how good the meth is.

It dawns on him that no matter how hard he bullshits himself into believing that he's doing it for family, it's no longer possible to convince them. Walter White is a highly-intelligent high school chemistry teacher living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. By this time, he's not only dying from cancer, but also has a fatal bullet wound.

Until it gets thrown out of the window in "Crawl Space". He tries to call them off when he sees that Jesse is with Hank and Gomez. For all of his ego and pride, Walt instantly regrets. Although Walter obviously let himself get wrapped up in all of his most negative personality traits and impulses by the time Breaking Bad came to it's conclusion, the undeniable fact is that he did start his journey off with good intentions, and no matter what happened, he never lost sight of those intentions. And he hints at this by suggesting that Victor was killed for "flying too close to the sun.". When he is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer on his fiftieth birthday, Walt begins to worry what will happen to his family with his death now imminent and the treatments to keep him alive being very expensive.

originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. In a very dark sense, he is this to Jesse. This doesn't stop him from being horribly abusive to Jesse, as he constantly belittles him and manipulates him. This is used by Jesse and Hank to corner him in "To'hajiilee". Walt breaks down crying and apologizing over and over after being forced to kill Krazy-8.

Fortunately for both of them, Jesse just so happens to have a friend who can snatch a free RV for him once the money is spent. Until Gray Matter sparks his final move in the finale. He does it as a warning to Hank to get off his back. Like Hank, both have little regard when it comes to exploiting Jesse for their own ends. He's an incredible meth cook and he's a genius at problem solving, but he is willing to risk everything else in his life to prove his value as a drug kingpin and chemistry whiz. Walt spends all of Season 4 trying to convince Jesse of what Gus is up to no avail. A trio of bullies quickly find out it's a bad idea to make fun of Walt Jr's cerebral palsy in the pilot. Obviously one of Walter White's primary drives as a person is his desire to be a good parent to his children, and as the series goes on, it's clear that includes being a parental figure to Jesse as well. He admits it to Skyler in the last episode. "I am not in danger, Skyler. At the end of "Gliding over All", Walt realizes he'd like to end things on amicable terms with Jesse and decides to give him his 5 million dollars which he had previously withheld from him. Somewhat in "Felina". He bleeds to death shortly after Jesse finally escapes. taking out Gus' laptop in such a way that it reveals a clue that is more valuable to the DEA and actually manages to affect people's lives. YOU KILLED HIM! Werner Heisenberg, a theoretical physicist turned Nazi weapons scientist who died of cancer, also may have been a basis for Walt.

I was alive. During the season 3 premiere, he refuses to take any responsibility for his role in the mid-air collision. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. A heartbroken and guilt-stricken Walter calls the police, but then he sees his former business partner on TV. He also finally admits his criminal actions were entirely self-serving. But despite the fact that he genuinely cares for the people around him and is willing to do almost anything for them, his worst trait has got to be his willingness to manipulate them and lie to them for his own gain. His early victims, such as the boys picking on his son or the obnoxious man in the bank, keep him from seeming too bad. Later, Walter emotionally blackmails Jesse into murdering Gale in cold blood, to save his own skin, having previously saved Jesse from being killed. the police to arrive and arrest him, he sees a TV interview of Eliott discrediting his contribution to Gray Matter. Most notably is that he never truly apologizes to anyone in the end, only giving a brutally honest admission of his motives. His interactions with baby Holly - the only person in the entire series that he can't, and doesn't attempt to, manipulate - are the only consistently genuine ones he has. after he realizes he can't easily justify killing Mike and earning so much money that it begins to be a liability. I was alive. Deconstructed to all hell in "To'hajiilee" and "Ozymandias". Played straight in his "I am the one who knocks" speech. It's this lack of pragmatism that proves his downfall, as his. Many viewers say that Walter never came out of the crawl space, only Heisenberg. But it doesnt make him any betterthis is no redemption arc. At the beginning of the series, Walt rejects Gretchen and Elliot's offer because he didn't want to depend on their "charity". About the only thing that keeps Walter from turning into an irredeemable monster is that even at his worst, he still cares for his family, and he comes to see Jesse as a surrogate son in a twisted sort of way. shooting that results in Hank's death, Walter taunts Jesse with the exact details of Jane's death before Jack's men take him away.

It works. Walt constantly alleges that he got frozen out and his ideas were stolen. This leads to Todd killing Andrea in the Penultimate Episode. When she starts retaliating by doing the same thing to him, he. 2022 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. He barely manages to keep his wife out of jail for her role as an accomplice in laundering his money, and he has to do that by making himself out as an abusive spouse who forced Skyler into it.