With the TV series finale episode that aired last evening, *sadness* we’ve put together a list of Top 10 “Breaking Bad” moments with you “Breaking Bad” fans, like me, out there.
Check out the list, and share with us your comments in the box below.
10. The ricin’s fate is revealed
For all its discussion over the course of the series, ricin had never been successfully deployed in the Breaking Bad universe. But as Chekov’s laws mandate, Breaking Bad couldn’t end until the poison—more specifically the vial that Walt initially intended for Gus Fring—had found a victim. In the series finale, that victim proves to be a deserving target: Lydia, whose Stevia obsession (and penchant for murder) proved to be her downfall.
9. Walt, Skylar, Hank and Marie have the world’s most awkward double-date
As well as Breaking Bad handles scenes of incredible tension, Vince Gilligan and his writing staff proved themselves equally adept at creating incredibly awkward moments. In the first half of the fifth season, there was the dinner with Walt, Skylar and Jesse. This time around, Hank and Marie replace Jesse—this time at a popular Mexican restaurant—but the end result is no less painful to watch—and no, they don’t want any chips for the table.
8. Walt decides to seek vengeance
By the season’s penultimate episode, the once-great-and-powerful is little more than a memory, and Walter White appears little more than a man broken by isolation and terminal cancer. When he travels to a local New Hampshire bar, it appears he has every intention of allowing himself to be arrested and brought to account for his countless crimes. But upon seeing old nemeses Gretchen and Elliot Schwartz on TV, Walt decides he has one more fight left in him, as the show’s theme song marks his imminent return to New Mexico.
(Image: Frank Ockenfels/AMC)
7. Jesse throws away his money—literally
For all the internal struggle that each character endured throughout the final season, none appeared more battered, bruised and broken than Jesse. Still reeling from Mike’s disappearance in the season’s first half, Jesse was entirely unmoored during the second half of the season—culminating in the fateful night when he drives down a local street, chucking his millions out of his car window like a paperboy.
6. “Hello, Carol.” Walter White returns home
With anticipation at a near-fever pitch, the second half of Breaking Bad’s final season began right where the first one left off: in the future. Walt takes his beat up Volvo and comically-sized machine gun back to the White family residence, only to find it condemned, tagged and inhabited by group of teenaged skateboarders. But if there was any concern that the man better known as Heisenberg had lost his swagger, his simple greeting to his neighbor served as ample reminder of how he became the most feared man in New Mexico.
5. Walt fights with Skylar and loses his family forever
In a season defined by uncomfortably jarring moments, perhaps none was more so than Walt and Skyler’s violent fight in “Ozymandias.”. Tensions between Walt and Skyler had been simmering for most of the series but had never turned physical—till now. When Skyler grabbed the kitchen knife, stakes were raised in a way they had never been for the embattled couple, and the fact that Walt Jr. and Holly were present didn’t help matters much. Oh, and neither did Walt taking Holly once the fight was over.
(Image: Ursula Coyote/AMC)
4. Todd kills Andrea
If Hank’s death was the most moving, Andrea’s was the most senseless. Guilty of nothing but caring for Jesse, Andrea is murdered in cold blood by Todd—who proves himself every bit as much the sociopathic sadist as his Uncle Jack. And we see that expression again of anguish once more, this time on Jesse’s face.
3. Hank confronts Walt
When Hank found Gale’s copy of Leaves of Grass inscribed to Walt, we knew the DEA agent would soon reveal that his brother-in-law is the infamous Heisenberg. Most shows would drag out this development for half a season, but Hank attacked Walt in the Schrader family garage before the conclusion of first episode.
2. Uncle Jack kills Hank and Steve
“Ozymandias” was the consensus pick for the best episode of television in 2013 (and Gilligan himself called it Breaking Bad’s best episode), and the handling of Hank and fellow DEA agent Steve Gomez’s deaths was a big reason why. From the moment the two traveled with Jesse out to the desert to apprehend Walt, it became clear that doom wasn’t far behind. Though we don’t see the actual moment that Gomez dies, Hank remains defiant until his last breath—and we can see the anguish on Walt’s face when Uncle Jack reaffirms his true colors (that face is a rather familiar one).
1. Heisenberg’s triumph
Perhaps no season finale in the history of television has invited as much speculation as Breaking Bad’s “Felina,” but no one could have predicted the show’s explosive end. Thanks to that enormous machine gun we saw in the very first episode of Season 5, Walt had his revenge against Uncle Jack, while Jesse finally turned the tables on Todd.
Perhaps most fittingly, Jesse escaped to a new life and Walt died in his natural environment: a meth lab.
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