Line #20 WhatAnIdiot/BreakingBad


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7	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/breakingbathtub.png]]
8	[[caption-width-right:350:Why'd I ask you to buy that "stupid piece of plastic?" Well, let me count the reasons...]]
9	->''"Your imbecility being what it is, I should have known to say 'Jesse! Don't leave the keys in the ignition THE ENTIRE TWO DAYS'!"''
10	-->-- '''Walter White''', "[[Recap/BreakingBadS2E9FourDaysOut 4 Days Out]]"
11
12	One would be careful when cooking meth, a dangerous operation that can draw in enemies. Yet people from every side keep making dumb mistakes.
13
14	Moments from ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' also follow.
15
16	'''UNMARKED SPOILERS FOLLOW'''
17
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	----
21	!!''Series/BreakingBad''
22	[[folder:Season 1]]
23	* "Pilot": Hank and Gomez take Walt on a ride-along as they attempt to bust some small-time meth cook known simply by the alias "Cap'n Cook". They are preparing to raid the house that an informant (Krazy-8) told them where the cook is going down.\
24	'''You'd Expect:''' Someone in this elite taskforce of drug-busters to realize that there's a car parked outside with the license plate "THE CAPN", see who it's registered to, and figure out that "Cap'n Cook" is Jesse Pinkman.\
25	'''Instead''': Nobody notices the car. The place is raided, and one Emilio Koyama is mistaken for Cap'n Cook. They arrest him and don't look into the matter further. In reality they arrested Cap'n Cook's ''partner''.\
26	'''Result''': Jesse, who was upstairs in bed with a young woman, hears the commotion, escapes out the window and drives away from the scene. Walt meets with Jesse later that night and initiates their partnership, which ends up being one of the bloodiest meth operations in Albuquerque. Basically, ''Breaking Bad'' happened due to the DEA's sloppiness.\
27	'''Even Worse:''' Jesse doesn't exactly make it a secret that he's Cap'n Cook. Not only does he advertise the fact on his license plate, but on his public website too. [[PoliceAreUseless How did the DEA miss this guy?]]
28	* In "Cat's in the Bag", after killing Emilio Koyama (and imprisoning Krazy-8), Walt and Jesse decide that Jesse must corrode Emilio's corpse as while Walt must kill Krazy-8 himself and then corrode his corpse later on. Walt specifically orders Jesse to buy a polyethylene bin so that the corrosive hydrofluoric acid won't eat through it.\
29	'''You'd Expect:''' Jesse to get the polyethylene bin and if it's not in one store then try another.\
30	'''You'd Also Expect:''' Walt to tell Jesse just ''why'' it has to be polyethylene (especially by pointing out just what type of container the hydrofluoric acid is stored in), considering how inept in chemistry Jesse is.\
31	'''Instead:''' He forgoes the whole plastic bin failing to find it after trying in only one store (of course, getting jumped by Skyler's threat to arrest him on false marijuana-dealing accusations by Walt didn't help), and proceeds to use his own porcelain bathtub as the cesspool of hydrofluoric acid, thinking that a sooner solution is better than a sturdier one.\
32	'''Result:''' The acid dissolves Emilio's body... along with the bathtub itself and the floor underneath it. Jesse's house becomes a toxic wasteland uninhabitable for human life, leaving him with nowhere to sleep and making him flee for a motel.
33	-->'''Walt:''' I'm sorry, what were you asking me? Oh, yes, that stupid plastic container I asked you to buy. You see, hydrofluoric acid won't eat through plastic. It will, however, dissolve metal, rock, glass, ''ceramic''. So there's that.
34	* In "...And the Bag's in the River", Krazy-8 grabs a shard of plate after Walt suddenly passes out trying to bring him food. Walt figures this out when he realizes a shard is missing from the garbage, and as he slowly moves in to either free or kill Krazy-8, Walt calls him out on the broken piece of plate.\
35	'''You'd Expect:''' For Krazy-8 to reveal that yes, he did take a shard of plate, but that's because he thought Walt was going to kill him. He'd drop the shard and allow Walt to free him, having already gained Walt's trust moments prior.\
36	'''Instead:''' Krazy-8 immediately attempts to stab Walt with the shard, which forces Walt to choke him to death.
37
38	* A mysterious drug dealer named Heisenberg begins selling the purest meth ever cooked. Hank Schrader is the DEA agent in charge of catching the guy. His brother-in-law is Walter White. Who happens to be a brilliant chemist who works as a high school teacher despite being a genius and suffers from terminal lung cancer (and is very likely dying). On top of that, after spending well over a decade showing zero interest in Hank's line of work, he suddenly became very interested in how lucrative meth could be, and even asked to see an actual lab right after said diagnosis. Meanwhile, some chemistry equipment from Walt's school is stolen and being used to cook meth.\
39	'''You'd Expect:''' Hank to connect the dots and realize Walt is probably the only person to fit Heisenberg's profile perfectly, or at least is involved in his gang in some way.\
40	'''Instead:''' Hank never suspects a thing ... until Walt's own 'what an idiot' moment (see below). In Hank's defense, he does think that Walt is "book-smart but dumb at everything else", seeing him as a mild-mannered underachiever who "wouldn't know a criminal if he was close enough to check you for a hernia". That said, ''even that'' should perhaps pushed Walt onto Hank's suspect list, given that Heisenberg's activities are (initially at least) characterized by a somewhat amateurish approach and lack of "street" skills.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Season 2]]
44	* In "Grilled", Jesse gets caught trying to poison Tuco in an attempt to escape Tuco's house, and Tuco is enraged. In the ensuing fight, Jesse and Walt manage to knock Tuco out and steal both of Tuco's guns. They then decide to flee the scene.\
45	'''You'd Expect:''' They'd take Tuco's guns with them to prevent others from using them, or possibly defend themselves as they run away. Or if they really wanted to get rid of the guns, they'd flee far away from Tuco before disposing of them.\
46	'''Instead:''' Walt leaves behind one of the stolen guns, leaving it where Tuco could reach it if he ever got back up. While Walt might have done it to avoid being caught with a gun, given his plan to fake a fugue state when he returns home, it leaves him and Jesse vulnerable if Jesse's gun stops working.\
47	'''As a result:''' When Tuco wakes up, he uses the gun Walt left behind to defend himself against Hank. If Tuco had any decent aim (luckily he didn't), Hank could have been shot dead then and there.
48	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS2E4Down Down]]", after finding evidence that Jesse's been cooking meth in his basement, Jesse's parents decide to eject him from his Aunt Ginny's former house in order to sell it, having their lawyer tell him in no uncertain terms that they are [[IHaveNoSon disowning him]], that he has three days to vacate the house, and that they have no interest in helping him secure somewhere else to live.\
49	'''You'd Expect:''' Jesse to immediately start planning to find somewhere to live, and at the very least, to immediately ask Walt for his share of the meth profits so that he can book into a motel for the next couple of weeks while he works out a long-term plan.\
50	'''Instead:''' He assumes that his parents are just trying to scare him into cleaning himself up, and does nothing in the way of preparing for the impending eviction, even when it comes to basic stuff like hiding his stash and drug paraphernalia.\
51	'''Result:''' Jesse ends up being totally unprepared when his mother shows up on eviction day and makes it very clear that she's prepared to call the sheriff to physically remove him from the property if need be, forcing him to leave at short notice with no backup plan. This leads to a HumiliationConga over the course of the next two days, ultimately leading to a fistfight with Walt -- whose marriage to Skyler is by now starting to seriously fall apart -- before he can get hold of the money he's owed. Afterwards, Jesse is forced to take housing assistance from Jane Margolis, a drug addict herself who agrees not to charge Jesse a fortune for rent. This may seem like a good thing, though Jane puts Jesse back on course of becoming addicted to much harder stuff than crystal meth.
52
53	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS2E6Peekaboo Peekaboo]]", Walter wants Jesse to recover $1,000 of meth from a pair of addicts who stole it from one of Jesse's distributors, preferably without violence.\
54	'''You'd Expect:''' He'd tell Jesse this explicitly, or come up with a plan for getting it back.\
55	'''Instead:''' He tells Jesse to take care of business and to bring a gun.
56
57	* Jesse finds the addicts (Spooge and his wife), pulls a gun on them and coerces them into handing over what they stole.\
58	'''You'd Then Expect:''' He'd keep them at a safe distance using the gun, or just shoot them on the spot so they won't pose any danger to him.\
59	'''Instead:''' He plays peekaboo with their son after they fall asleep.
60
61	* Earlier, Spooge decided to break into an ATM from the bottom. Only using a chair to keep it upright.\
62	'''You'd Expect:''' Spooge would just lay it on the ground while he's drilling into it. Also, since he's in such a vulnerable position. He'd keep quiet and try not to provoke anyone.\
63	'''Instead:''' He follows the plan and gets into an argument with his wife.\
64	'''Result:''' [[BullyingADragon After he calls her a "skank" one too many times]], she pushes the ATM causing it to fall and crush his head.
65
66	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS2E8BetterCallSaul Better Call Saul]]", Badger realizes he's probably getting set up as part of a drug sting when he notices what look like surveillance vehicles parked nearby, and the customer he's selling to is a little confident in himself.\
67	'''You'd Expect:''' He'd walk away and go back later for the drugs.\
68	'''Instead:''' Badger being [[TooDumbToLive Badger]], the undercover cop manages to bait him into going through with the sale by convincing him that [[MustStateIfYoureACop undercover cops can't deny that they are cops when asked directly]].\
69	'''As a Result:''' The money changes hands and Badger gets arrested. Walt and Jesse has to go through a lot of trouble to get him released after learning from Saul that the DEA is offering to let him go in exchange for info about their meth manufacturing.
70
71	* "[[Recap/BreakingBadS2E9FourDaysOut 4 Days Out]]": Walt and Jesse have to go into a desert far from surveillance and city eyes with their RV to cook hundreds of pounds of Blue Sky to recoup the $80,000 they spent on fixing Badger's screw-up with the law back in "Better Call Saul". Jesse decides to put the RV keys on the counter, but Walt objects to that being the work station.\
72	'''You'd Expect:''' Jesse to either just hang onto the keys in his pockets, or inside one of his junk food bags so that the keys can stay inside the RV and still be secured.\
73	'''Or Better Yet:''' Place the keys on the driver seat.\
74	'''Instead:''' He puts them in the worst place imaginable - inserts them '''right back into the ignition lock'''. For two days straight.\
75	'''Result:''' The RV's battery drains.
76	-->'''Walt:''' Did your mother drop you on your head when you were a baby?!\
77	'''Jesse:''' I WANTED TO LEAVE THEM ON THE COUNTER, BITCH!
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Season 3]]
81
82	* "[[Recap/BreakingBadS3E2CaballoSinNombre Caballo Sin Nombre]]": At the start of the episode, a police officer sees Walter driving to work with his windshield broken and pulls him over. Walt tries to explain that this is a result of the recent Wayfarer 515 collision, the heavy debris of which broke his windshield, but the officer still writes him a ticket, saying that the cause of the damage does not exempt him from having to abide by driving safety regulations, and tells him to wait in his vehicle.\
83	'''You'd Expect:''' Walt to shut his mouth, cooperate with the police officer and accept the ticket. After going through several dangerous situations, he should know that getting angry will only get you in trouble. Plus disregarding an officer's orders to stay put can easily be perceived as a threat. If Walt still feels he has wrongfully been cited, he can file a dispute about it later, especially seeing how Saul could probably fight off a traffic violation in his sleep.\
84	'''Instead:''' Walt cockily maintains his belief that the officer has no right to cite him considering how his car was damaged, and gets out of the vehicle to belligerently chew the officer out for it, disregarding the officer's warnings to calm down and return to his vehicle.\
85	'''The Result:''' After one too many warnings, Walt gets pepper sprayed and arrested for his behavior. Hank has to step in to smooth the matter over.
86
87	* In the flashback teaser from "[[Recap/BreakingBadS3E3IFT I. F. T.]]", Tortuga, [[TheCartel a high-ranking cartel member]] ([[TheRat and DEA informant]]), not long after selling information to Hank Schrader, decides to meet with his boss Juan Bolsa in a [[BadGuyBar dingy tavern]] somewhere out in Mexico.\
88	'''You'd Expect:''' Tortuga, having snitched on his gang to law enforcement, would sooner-or-later realize that he's probably not going to survive if his superiors learn about his treachery, and would go into hiding (or maybe even enter WitnessProtection) for his own safety.\
89	'''Instead:''' Not only does Tortuga meet up with Juan Bolsa in that bar, they have a seemingly-friendly chat where [[FauxAffablyEvil Bolsa offers to give him a belated birthday present]]. Tortuga, [[TooDumbToLive still not feeling wary or suspicious at all]], decides to accept Bolsa's "gift": a pet tortoise.\
90	'''Result:''' Tortuga expresses his thanks and gratitude for receiving the new turtle, and Bolsa writes a message on its shell: "Hola DEA". Marco and Leonel Salamanca then walk in and [[OffWithHisHead decapitate Tortuga with a machete]].
91
92	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS3E6Sunset Sunset]]", Walt finds out that Hank knows about the RV and that he is surveilling Jesse's house. After consulting Saul he rushes to the yard where the RV is stored and orders its destruction. So far so good, but Badger is at the yard at the moment and asks Walt about Jesse.\
93	'''You'd Expect:''' That Walt would realize that Badger, being Jesse's buddy, would tell him about Walt's plan. Thus, you'd expect that Walt would tell Badger that Hank is staking out Jesse's house and would follow Jesse straight to the RV.\
94	'''Instead:''' Walt ignores Badger's question.\
95	'''Result:''' Badger does tell Jesse about Walt's plan, and a furious Jesse drives off to the junkyard to confront Walt, which of course, leads Hank right to the RV. It's only thanks to some quick thinking to get Hank to leave (by having Saul's secretary call Hank claiming that Marie has been involved in a car accident) that Hank doesn't end up busting Walt right there and then.
96
97	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS3E7OneMinute One Minute]]", the Cousins ambush Hank in a parking lot. Hank disables Leonel, and then there's a brief exchange of gunfire between him and Marco, which ends with Marco shooting Hank twice in the chest, wounding him. Marco then steps up to Hank, pistol drawn.\
98	'''You'd Expect:''' Marco to shoot Hank in the head, since Hank is now incapacitated and clearly in no condition to fight back. Both for that reason, and because since Marco killed a bystander earlier and almost killed another (but couldn't because he had to reload his gun), the police are likely on their way and could show up any second.\
99	'''You'd Also Expect:''' Marco to take away Leonel's gun, which Hank took after crushing Leonel's legs. Doing this would guarantee that Hank cannot fight back.\
100	'''Instead:''' Marco decides, "No, too easy," and walks back to his car to grab his chrome axe.\
101	'''Result:''' In the time it takes Marco to walk back to his car, pop the trunk, grab the axe, and walk back to Hank while dragging the heavy axe along the pavement, Hank manages to grab the spare "Black Death" bullet that Marco had dropped earlier when he reloaded, loads it into Leonel's gun, and shoots Marco in the head right when Marco prepares to swing the axe. While Marco probably didn't realize he'd dropped the "Black Death" bullet, the extra time taken likely would've reduced the chances of him getting far before the police arrived.
102
103	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS3E12HalfMeasures Half Measures]]", Jesse wants to kill the two dealers who used Tomas to kill Combo. He also finds out that the dealers were working for Gus, due to finding blue meth.\
104	'''You'd Expect:''' Jesse to not tell anyone about the discovery and wait till the opportune moment to strike, not even Walt, who is cozying up to Gus to make him pay more for both of them.\
105	'''Instead:''' Jesse tells Walt, who informs Gus. Gus promises Jesse that he will punish the dealers and let Tomas leave the gang safely.\
106	'''As a Result:''' The dealers kill Tomas instead (heavily implied to be under Gus's orders). Jesse is (obviously) furious and decides to kill them.\
107	'''You'd Now Expect:''' Jesse to contact Saul to hire hitmen, if necessary, to deal with the dealers. This way, if Saul plays the cards right, no one would tie it to him, or Walt, or even Gus.\
108	'''Instead:''' Jesse snorts up meth and charges in to kill the dealers. He almost fails and nearly gets killed instead, and is only alive due to ''Walt'' intervening and killing the dealers himself, and requesting Jesse to run.\
109	'''As a Result:''' Walt burns off any goodwill he gained with Gus, who decides to have him and Jesse killed and replace them with Gale. Walt realizes this and arranges for Jesse to kill Gale instead, eventually leading to [[{{Hypocrite}} Gus and Mike cozying up to Jesse]]. This eventually leads to a chain of events resulting in the death of Gus, the destruction of Los Pollos Hermanos, Mike's death, as well as the rise and fall of Heisenberg's own empire.
110
111	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS3E13FullMeasure Full Measure]]", Gus plans to deal with Walt's unpredictability by killing him and replacing him with Gale Boetticher once Gale masters Walt's meth formula.\
112	'''You'd Expect:''' He'd post guards around Gale or at least keep him under surveillance, in case anything unexpected happened to him.\
113	'''Instead:''' He does neither of these things.\
114	'''Result:''' Gale dies and Gus is stuck working with Walt, which eventually leads to his own death.
115
116	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS3E13FullMeasure Full Measure]]", Walt has Jesse kill Gale.\
117	'''You'd Expect:''' He'd destroy any evidence that he knew Gale.\
118	'''Instead:''' He keeps a book from Gale, with a note from the guy, in his bathroom where anyone could find it.\
119	'''Result:''' Come season 5A, Hank finds the book.
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Season 4]]
123	* "[[Recap/BreakingBadS4E1BoxCutter Box Cutter]]": Jesse has just shot Gale dead in his apartment. An unspecified amount of time later, Gale's neighbors are gathered around, on the phone with the police describing the scene. Victor, having been sent to protect Gale before Jesse can get to him, arrives at the apartment complex and sees the crowd of people at the door.\
124	'''You'd Expect:''' For Victor to realize he is too late, that Gale is dead. He'd turn around and leave before he is spotted and report back to Mike.\
125	'''Instead:''' He runs right into the scene and is witnessed by Gale's neighbors, and even walks into Gale's apartment, which is at this point a crime scene.\
126	'''The Result:''' While the specific reason why Gus slits Victor's throat is unclear, it is suggested that ''this'' was one of them. Indeed, he becomes a person of interest in Gale's murder and is wanted for questioning following his disappearance. There's even a police sketch of him. He is never brought in for questioning for obvious reasons.
127	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS4E5Shotgun Shotgun]]", Hank is at a dinner party with the Whites when he announces that "Heisenberg" has been found dead and was actually Gale Boetticher.\
128	'''You'd Expect:''' Walt would congratulate his brother-in-law for nailing a dangerous criminal, or at least keep quiet.\
129	'''Instead:''' He derides Gale as an amateur who couldn't possibly have been smart enough to be Heisenberg. Now, to be fair, Walt ''was'' inebriated, and Walt deriding Gale isn't out-of-character for him, as Walt's pride won't let anyone else get credit for what he sees as ''his'', but still...\
130	'''As a Result:''' Having had it explained to him that Gale could not have been Heisenberg is enough to prompt Hank to reopen his investigation. Though later on, it's implied that, subconsciously, Walt might be trying to get Hank to catch him out of the belief that he would be safe from Gus in prison and could drag Gus down with him.
131
132	* "[[Recap/BreakingBadS4E9Bug Bug]]": Ted Beneke has been cooking his accounting firm's books with Skyler's help since Season 2, possibly earlier, and the IRS begins to investigate him for embezzlement.\
133	'''You'd Expect:''' He and Skyler would meet together and work to get their stories straight, and maybe even hire a couple of good attorneys.\
134	'''Instead:''' He doesn't tell Skyler about the indictment until ''the day before'' his meeting with the IRS.\
135	'''Result:''' Although understandably annoyed that Ted didn't notify her earlier about the audit, Skyler helps him avoid criminal charges with an improvised DumbBlonde act; they just about get away with it. Crisis averted?
136	** In the next episode, "[[Recap/BreakingBadS4E10Salud Salud]]", Ted is revealed to have avoided jail thanks to Skyler helping him convince the IRS that the missing money is the result of ignorance. But he still owes the IRS back taxes. He then receives notification that a (fictitious) relative he didn't know he had has left him a sum of money which happens to be exactly the same amount as what he owes. \
137	'''You'd Now Expect:''' Ted would just use the money to pay the IRS.\
138	'''Instead:''' He uses it to buy a new car.\
139	'''Result:''' Saul is forced to send Huell and Kuby to strongarm him into signing the check. Panicking, Ted tries to run for it, only to trip on his carpet and break his back.
140
141	* In the same episode, Jesse desperately arrives at Walt's place wanting tips to fulfill his assignment in Mexico.\
142	'''You'd Expect''': Walt would [[PetTheDog actually help him in this]], and then "accidentally" let slip that Gus is targeting his family. It would have been a lie at this point in time, but later it's suggested Gus was indeed planning to target his family anyway. Jesse might surely have helped Walt kill (or incapacitate) Gus because harming innocents is one of Jesse's ''major'' {{Berserk Button}}s. Then covertly removing the bug once he gains Jesse's full support.\
143	'''Instead''': Walt reveals he has been bugging Jesse to track Gus, and spitefully curses Jesse to die in Mexico, "rotting in a Mexican barrel in the desert", clearly incensed.\
144	'''Result:''' They both brutally get into a fist-fight at which point [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Jesse breaks off with Walt]] and [[SelfFulfillingProphecy fully becomes Gus's accomplice]]. When Gus ''actually'' threatens Walt's family later, Jesse coldly brushes [[CassandraTruth Walt]] off when he asks for help because of the aforementioned fight. Walt is so desperate to bring Jesse back to his side and gain ''any'' edge over Gus that he decides to [[WouldHurtAChild poison Brock]] ([[EvenEvilHasStandards non-fatally]]) just to make Jesse think, first that Walt knew about the ricin cigarette and poisoned Brock (half-correct, as Walt uses Lily of the Valley), and then Gus poisoned him to 'motivate' Jesse into killing Walt. \
145	'''Even Worse''': Jesse eventually figures out that Walt poisoned Brock when he tries to skip town and tries to smoke his cigarette, and turns definitively against Walt. Jesse then helps Hank, almost arresting him in the process. Even though the plan doesn't work out, the consequences are so shattering that the masquerade is blown wide-open, leading to the fall of Heisenberg. In short, Season [=5B=] happens the way it did because of Walt's needless pettiness.
146
147	* Walt has just killed Gus in a truly impressive BatmanGambit in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS4E13FaceOff Face Off]]", and the explosion is reported on national radio. Walt phones Skyler to ask if she was all right, as the last time she saw Walt, he was immensely afraid that Gus will get him. Skyler asks Walt if he knew anything about the explosion that killed Gus.\
148	'''You'd Expect:''' Walt to not answer her, or to even lie to her that he wasn't responsible for anything at all. He's lied to her before, and it wouldn't be the last.\
149	'''Instead:''' Walt basically confesses to Skyler that he was behind the explosion on the radio, confirming Skyler's worst fears that Walt has slipped from a man trying to provide for his family to a man who doesn't think twice before killing someone.\
150	'''Result:''' Skyler and Walt basically make each other's lives a living hell in Season 5A. Skyler tries to attempt suicide to frame Walt, and even gets him to send their children to Hank and Marie for safekeeping. It's even shown that Skyler would have turned on him long before "Ozymandias", had she not been an accomplice to Walt, and therefore not in a safe position.
151	[[/folder]]
152
153	[[folder:Season 5]]
154
155	* Mike (by his standards, at least) in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E6Buyout Buyout]]": Mike and Jesse want out of the meth business by selling their shares of methlylamine to Declan, who will only buy if he gets all of it. Walt refuses to sell his share, but he is outvoted two to one. The next day, Walt arrives to steal the methylamine, only to find Mike who restrains him with a zip tie to a radiator. All right, tying up someone to a radiator by one hand with temporary handcuffs is perfectly reasonable.\
156	'''You'd Expect:''' That as Mike is doing it to someone he just called out for being a loose cannon and who is a genius at escaping, either use a second set of handcuffs, or clear the immediate area of objects that could be used to break these handcuffs.\
157	'''Instead:''' He leaves Walt unattended long enough for Walt to undo his restraints.\
158	'''The Result:''' Walt steals all of their methylamine so that Mike can't sell it.
159
160	* "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E7SayMyName Say My Name]]": Mike's lawyer, Dan Wachsberger, deposits hush money to Mike's nine guys so they don't talk to the DEA. He also puts in a trust fund for Mike's granddaughter Kaylee for her to receive on her 18th birthday. He bribes the bank's secretary, Dorothy "Dot" Yobs, [[FoodAsBribe with baked goods]] so that she doesn't report him to the authorities. One day during a routine deposit, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Dot seems unusually quiet]].\
161	'''You'd Expect:''' Dan would realize that something is wrong, make up an excuse to leave before he does something incriminating, and tell Mike about what happened.\
162	'''Instead:''' [[SchmuckBait Dan suspects nothing.]] He goes on to make his deposits, and is caught red-handed by Gomez and some other plain-clothes DEA agents. Even when the DEA are standing right in front of him, it ''still'' takes him a moment for him to process who they are, why they're here, what they saw him do, and what this means for him.\
163	'''The Result:''' The hush money and Kaylee's trust fund are confiscated. [[DirtyCoward Dan immediately flips like a lid and]] [[TheRat gives up Mike to the feds.]] They make him call Mike and ask for his location under the guise of meeting him so the police can arrest him. As Mike is talking to him at the park watching Kaylee, he has a confused and suspicious look on his face when Dan asks him what specific park he is at.\
164	'''You'd Then Expect:''' For Mike to realize that it's a trap and refuse to disclose his location, or hang up, or literally do anything other than give his location.\
165	'''Instead:''' He gives his location.\
166	'''The Result:''' The police move in on Mike's location to arrest him. He is able to escape thanks to an advance warning from Walt, but this sets off a [[DisasterDominoes domino effect]] that ultimately leads to Walt's downfall, in which Walt kills Mike in a murderous rage after he gives Walt a nasty TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, hires Jack Welker and his neo-Nazi gang (the former of whom ultimately becomes Hank's murderer) to shank Mike's nine guys (and Dan) before they can flip, further souring Walt and Jesse's already precarious relationship which eventually leads to Jesse turning on Walt and teaming up with Hank to get him arrested... which doesn't end well for ''any'' of them.
167
168	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E9BloodMoney Blood Money]]", Hank has figured out that Walt was Heisenberg and puts a tracking device on Walt's car.\
169	'''You'd Expect:''' Hank would remember how he showed a tracking device to Walt when he asked him to put on Gus's car in season 4, and put on a tracker in a location that Walt won't think to look. Like the gas cap (like Gus's guys used in ''Series/BetterCallSaul'').\
170	'''Instead:''' Hank uses the exact same kind of tracking device that he had Walt put on Gus's car...\
171	'''Result:''' ...which ensures that Walt knows exactly where to find it.\
172	'''Even Worse:''' This shortsightedness is even more idiotic if you remember that in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E5DeadFreight Dead Freight]]", Hank chewed out another agent for planting tracking devices on the methylamine barrels at the Madrigal warehouse that weren't hidden well enough. The only saving grace in Hank's favor is that it took several days before Walt found out about the tracker, meaning he can't remove it at his own leisure like Gus did;[[note]]Gus knew he was about to be bugged before the fact; by the time Walt found out about his tracker, he'd already visited Saul and Jesse[[/note]] still, it was a bit of oversight on Hank's behalf where he was putting the tracker.
173	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E10Buried Buried]]", Hank meets Skyler in a diner, as he knows that Skyler is the linchpin to bear witness to Walt's crimes.\
174	'''You'd Expect:''' Hank to focus on making Skyler feel ''safe'' first (e.g., taking Skyler and her family in, putting them in a safe house, advocating for immunity for Skyler, etc.) so that Skyler would be more willing to provide forthright testimony against Walt.\
175	'''Instead:''' Hank blatantly cares more about questioning Skyler than making her feel secure enough to testify, denying her the right to an attorney, and even pulling out a recorder to tape her right there in a public diner.\
176	'''Result:''' Skyler panics and leaves to return to Walt, and Hank loses his key witness.
177	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E13Tohajiilee To'hajiilee]]", Hank finally has Walt right where he wants him: blinded by rage, irrational, and leading Hank right toward a mountain of irrefutable evidence of Walt's wrongdoing.\
178	'''You'd Expect:''' Hank to immediately call for backup and bring the full force of the DEA down on Walt, complete with choppers and squadrons of agents and cops in SWAT gear, or at the very least, phone his findings in to other men at his office so that if the worst should happen, his investigation won't die with him and someone else takes Walt down.\
179	'''Instead:''' He shows up with Gomez and a couple of guns and tells no one where they're going or why.\
180	'''Result:''' Enter a militia of 6 heavily-armed neo-Nazis, who kill both of them and take Jesse prisoner.
181
182	* Speaking of that, in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E14Ozymandias Ozymandias]]", Jack Welker has killed Hank and Gomez, captured Jesse, and stolen every barrel but one of Walt's millions of dollars.\
183	'''You'd Expect:''' Having stolen his money and killed his brother-in-law, Jack to also shoot Walt, a man he knows must despise him, or even turn him to his side for good, as even Jack knew Walt would be a wanted man within a few moments.\
184	'''Instead:''' He lets Walt go.\
185	'''Result:''' Walt eventually comes back, and massacres Jack's crew sometime later, saving Jack to die the exact same way he killed Declan and Hank.\
186	'''Additionally:''' It's a strange decision since Jack clearly has no loyalties to anyone but himself and his fellow Neo-Nazi crew, so it's all the stranger when he leaves alive a witness who now has a million reasons to want him dead. It's partially handwaved in that Jack says that Todd respects Walt and would be angry with Jack if he were killed. Some fans even argue that [[PragmaticVillainy Jack left Walt alive to keep the heat on Walt]] (since killing him would just lead the police to look for Jack's crew), but even that was clearly a shortsighted idea.
187
188	* In the same episode, Walt arrives with a barrel of his remaining money to evacuate his family. By now, Skyler and Junior have definitively turned against him, and Skyler realizes Hank is dead because Walt is free and Hank is nowhere to be seen.\
189	'''You'd Expect:''' Skyler to talk down Walt into surrendering to the police for their family, as there's no way a DEA agent's death will be forgiven, and surrendering gives Walt a chance to take down Jack and his crew for good.\
190	'''Instead:''' Skyler, furious that Hank is dead, charges him with a knife.\
191	'''As A Result:''' A brutal knife-fight occurs between Walt and Skyler, which results in Walt overpowering her and taking the knife back, threatening to kill her. If Junior didn't get between them at the right time, Skyler would have been dead.\
192	'''Even Worse:''' Walt, realizing that his family hates him now, flees with Holly as she’s unaware of her father's secret. If Holly didn't cry for her mama, there's a possibility the rest of the Whites would never have saw her again.
193
194	* Earlier, Skyler and Walt Jr. demand to know what's going on from Walt as he’s rushing to pack his things.\
195	'''You'd Expect:''' Walt would tell at least half of the truth for once and explain that Hank was assassinated by a gang during his arrest, that he desperately tried to stop them to no avail, and that they need to leave town immediately. It may not get his family on his side but it's better than what he actually tells them below.\
196	'''Instead:''' He once again tries to lie his way out of the situation and babbles out that he [[BlatantLies "negotiated"]] with Hank and that he'll [[PoorCommunicationKills "explain later"]]. Skyler obviously doesn't believe him, and comes to the conclusion that Walt himself killed Hank, resulting in the aforementioned knife fight while leaving Junior to believe that Walt personally killed Hank.
197
198	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E15GraniteState Granite State]]", Jesse decides to mount an escape attempt from Jack's compound. He convinces Todd not to cover his cage with the tarp one night with the excuse of "wanting to see the stars."\
199	'''You'd Expect:''' For Jesse to wait a few hours when everyone is sound asleep before making a break for it.\
200	'''Instead:''' As soon as Todd is out of sight, he immediately undoes his restraints and breaks out of his cage.\
201	'''The Result:''' Jesse is busted by the entire gang as he is climbing the fence. He refuses to cook anymore and begs them to kill him, but instead Jack [[ForcedToWatch forces him to watch]] as [[TargetedToHurtTheHero Todd murders Andrea in cold blood]] like he threatened to do at the beginning of his enslavement, and further threatens to kill Brock next if he tries to escape again. They also tighten their security for good measure.
202
203	* In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E16Felina Felina]]", Walt confronts Jack and his white supremacist gang, intending to kill them and Jesse with a home-made automatic turret in his car's trunk. Jack quickly decides to kill Walt, who then accuses him of having violated their earlier agreement to kill Jesse and having instead gone into a partnership with him.\
204	'''You'd Expect:''' Jack to reply that he's holding Jesse prisoner and then shoot him dead. Or heck, just lie to Walt and claim that he ''did'' eventually kill Jesse, once Todd had been trained up to produce Blue Sky at the requisite quality. Whether or not Walt knows the truth of the situation isn't going to matter a whole lot when he's dead, and everyone else there already knows exactly what's going on.\
205	'''Instead:''' Jack gets offended by the accusation, and then has the chained-up Jesse dragged into the room just to let Walt know how wrong he is.\
206	'''As a Result:''' The time it takes to fetch Jesse to Jack's quarters gives Walt the chance to sneakily retrieve the activation key for his turret, which had previously been confiscated at gunpoint. Once Jesse is there, and Walt realizes he's been the prisoner of Jack's gang this whole time, Walt knocks Jesse to the ground and activates the turret, which ''kills the entire gang'' (except for Jack and Todd, who are quickly finished off by Walt and Jesse respectively) and mortally wounds Walt, leaving Jesse as the only survivor.
207	[[/folder]]
208	----
209
210	!!''Series/BetterCallSaul''
211	[[folder:Season 1]]
212	* In "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS1E1Uno Uno]]", Jimmy hires two skaters to jump in front of Betsy Kettleman's car as part of his scheme to get back into her good graces. He gives them information about the car and the route that Betsy takes. He even tells the skaters important information to memorize, like the license plate and the specific shade of brown on the car:\
213	'''You'd Expect:''' That the skaters would maybe write this down and maybe even take a picture of the car.\
214	'''Instead:''' They target a stationwagon that's a similar model and similar in color to the Kettlemans' car.\
215	'''Result:''' Said stationwagon which happens to be driven by Tuco's grandmother. Though in their defense, Jimmy trained and encouraged them to do this based on memory alone and even admitted that Tuco's grandmother's vehicle appearing was a stroke of bad luck.
216
217	* From the above, the car hits one brother and they start their act. But suddenly the car takes off.\
218	'''You'd Expect:''' The brothers to just call the police, since even though they were scamming the driver, the driver has committed hit-and-run. There are also lots of witnesses who saw the hit so can provide a license plate. Or alternately, that they wait for Jimmy to show up.\
219	'''Instead:''' They follow the stationwagon to another house.\
220	'''Result:''' They end up in Tuco's captivity.
221	** Add to that, when the stationwagon arrives at the house, the driver, an elderly Hispanic woman, climbs out:\
222	'''You'd Expect:''' That the brothers would immediately realize that there's no way this non-English speaking granny could be "Betsy Kettleman" and just go on their way.\
223	'''Instead:''' They follow her into the house and continue to try to shake her down for money, with one of them calling her a "bizznatch".\
224	'''As a Result:''' [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Tuco beats them up]] and [[DisproportionateRetribution comes close to using brutal methods of murder/torture on them,]] and Jimmy has to talk Tuco into breaking only one leg on each brother.
225	** After having the shit beat out of them and locked in Tuco's garage, the brothers later see Jimmy walking towards them with a box cutter to cut their binds.\
226	'''You'd Expect:''' The brothers to shut up and let Jimmy free them.\
227	'''Instead:''' One of them, presumably mistaking that Jimmy was about to kill them, yells out that Jimmy set them up for the scam.\
228	'''Result:''' Jimmy ends up captured along with them.
229	* Not long after the aforementioned incident, one of Tuco's henchmen, Nacho Varga, decides to try ripping off the actual Kettleman family. After Jimmy refuses to help out, it's left to Nacho himself to do surveillance on the house prior to his attempted heist.\
230	'''You'd Expect:''' Nacho to use an inconspicuous burner vehicle, or ideally a different vehicle each night he watches the house.\
231	'''Instead:''' He uses a highly conspicuous white van... which also happened to be the vehicle used to transport the two aforementioned brothers to the site where Tuco originally intended to execute them, and contains their blood stains.\
232	'''Result:''' While his attempted robbery is foiled anyway thanks to Jimmy tipping off the Kettlemans, he ends up being easily spotted and arrested when the family is reported missing. It's subsequently left to Jimmy to get him out of trouble, and also to point out that his assumption that the bloodstains in his van wouldn't matter because they didn't belong to the Kettlemans is kinda flawed considering that the two Lindholms are in the hospital for broken legs, and this would tie Nacho directly to their "accident."
233	[[/folder]]
234
235	[[folder:Season 2]]
236
237	* "Switch":
238	** It is in this season that [[StupidCrooks Pryce]] cements himself as one of the dumbest criminals on the show, possibly the entire ''Breaking Bad'' universe, to the point where the other characters lampshade it. Pryce has already been skimming drugs from his pharmaceutical company and selling it to Nacho, making loads of money in the process.\
239	'''You'd Expect:''' He'd spend his drug money wisely as to not alert the authorities of any possible illegal activity like drug dealing or tax evasion. If he must blow his money on luxury items, he can at least look into laundering it first or come up with a convincing cover story on how he suddenly came into a giant windfall of cash.\
240	'''Instead:''' He immediately spends his ill-gotten gains on a gaudy Hummer, complete with bright yellow and red flame paint job and spinning rims, with no explanation prepared for where the money came from. This comes back to bite him later in multiple ways.
241	** As soon as Mike sees the Hummer, he tells Pryce in no uncertain terms that he will not allow that attention-grabbing vehicle to be driven to the meet with Nacho. He tells Pryce that they will take his car instead.\
242	'''You'd Expect:''' Pryce would listen to Mike and let him drive them to the trade.\
243	'''Instead:''' Pryce fires Mike and goes to the trade alone.\
244	'''The Result:''' Nacho takes notice of Pryce's car and Mike's absence. He feigns interest in Pryce's Hummer.\
245	'''You'd Then Expect:''' Pryce would let him look around outside the Hummer, or at least keep an eye on him.\
246	'''Instead:''' Pryce invites him to look inside.\
247	'''The Result:''' While Pryce isn't looking, Nacho finds the vehicle's registration card and discovers Pryce's real name (Daniel Warmold) and address. That night, he robs Pryce's house, stealing his money, his remaining drug supply, and his baseball card collection ([[ForTheEvulz the last of which just to taunt him]]).\
248	'''You'd Then Expect:''' For Pryce to put two and two together and realize Nacho stole the cards. Or if he can't figure that out, call Mike to apologize and ask him to recover the cards.\
249	'''Instead:''' [[TooDumbToLive He calls the police]], putting himself, Mike, Nacho, and possibly even Tuco in danger of arrest, and if Tuco isn't arrested, he will probably [[YouHaveFailedMe kill Nacho for attracting police attention to them.]]\
250	'''The Result:''' The police see the giant, expensive Hummer in the driveway of Pryce's modest home, which prompts them to investigate the house for signs of illegal activity, which they find almost right away in the form of an empty hidden cache for drugs or drug money.
251	* "Cobbler":
252	** Pryce, completely oblivious to the fact that the police are onto him, innocently tells Mike that he reported his baseball cards stolen to the police and how they called him to the station to "ask a few clarifying questions". Mike, furious, tells Pryce that they are trying to trick him into confessing to his illegal drug dealing, and warns him not to go to the interrogation.\
253	'''You'd Expect:''' Pryce listens to Mike, turns around, and goes home.\
254	'''Instead:''' Pryce responds with a sob story about the baseball cards and that he doesn't care if the police arrest him or anyone else involved in his dealings.\
255	'''The Result:''' Mike decides to go retrieve the baseball cards so Pryce doesn't interact with the police anymore and flip. Pryce gets his baseball cards back, at the price of his beloved Hummer, which Nacho promptly sends to a chop shop. However, the damage is already done, and the police still want to talk to Pryce. Mike hires Jimmy to accompany him to the interrogation, who lies his way out of the situation on Pryce's behalf by spinning an embarrassing tall tale about the hidden cache in Pryce's home actually being a hiding spot for his fetish videos in which he sits and rubs his ass in pies while crying. To add insult to injury, Jimmy films a humiliating video of Pryce doing it for real so that the story is more believable. All because he didn't listen to Mike.
256	* In "[[Recap/BetterCallSaulS2E3Amarillo Amarillo]]", Jimmy comes up with the idea that Davis & Main could build a targeted TV commercial directed at a specific Sandpiper Crossing facility. It's a brilliant idea, and when he pitches it to Cliff, Cliff seems open to the idea. So Jimmy goes to work, hires his camera crew from the billboard stunt, films an ad and even does a dry-run for Kim.\
257	'''You'd Expect:''' That Jimmy would take his completed ad to Cliff first, so that the bosses can see exactly what's about to be put on the air with the Davis & Main brand name.\
258	'''Instead:''' Jimmy doesn't go by the bosses first and airs the ad.\
259	'''The Result:''' Kim gets demoted to doc review at HHM because she didn't give them a heads-up about the ad. Jimmy gets put under closer scrutiny at Davis & Main.\
260	'''Also:''' Davis & Main scraps Jimmy's ad and replaces it with one that uses the successful "white text on blue swirly nebulous background with monotone narrator" formula that Jimmy was not impressed by.
261	[[/folder]]
262
263	[[folder:Season 3]]
264	* At the end of the second season, Chuck records Jimmy confessing his tampering with paperwork in order to cause HHM to lose the Mesa Verde account. In the third season episode "Witness," Jimmy finds out about the tape through Kim, who after some research finds that the chances of it ever being accepted as evidence in any court case are close to non-existent. However, Jimmy is still clearly very concerned about the tape, and what Chuck intends to do with it.\
265	'''You'd Expect:''' Jimmy to just sit tight and wait and see what happens. About the only thing Chuck could use it for is blackmail, and even if he tried that Jimmy could probably turn his own scheme back on him.\
266	'''Alternatively''': Hire Mike -- who Jimmy had met for an unrelated matter just the day beforehand -- to break into Chuck's home and either damage the tape or swap it for a blank one, since they have a ''quid pro quo'' agreement.\
267	'''Instead:''' After finishing work for the day, he goes around to Chuck's home, smashes in the front door, assaults Chuck, finds and destroys the tape, and makes further threats of violence against his brother.\
268	'''Result:''' All of this ends up being witnessed by a private investigator whom Chuck had hired for just such an occurrence, along with Howard, who had just arrived to tell Chuck how his plan likely ''wouldn't'' work. Even Chuck himself had lampshaded just moments beforehand how unlikely it was that Jimmy would try breaking into his house in broad daylight.
269
270	* In light of the above, Jimmy is arrested, then gets put before the New Mexico State Bar who seek disbarment. Prior to the Bar hearing, Chuck and Howard tour the room where the hearing will be held. Howard asks Robert Alley, the Bar's attorney, to leave the room so he can have a moment to talk strategy with Chuck. Howard suggests that as he and the private investigator, David Brightbill, were there for Jimmy's break-in, it's unnecessary for Chuck to testify against Jimmy.\
271	'''You'd Expect:''' Chuck would realize Howard is making some good points and agree to let Howard and the private investigator carry all the weight, that their testimony alone will be enough to guarantee Jimmy's disbarment. Chuck's testimony as it were would just be "gilding the lily". Not only that, it would also protect HHM, because as Howard points out, the fact that Jimmy accessed documents that should have been locked up securely might very well come to light and cost the firm clientele.\
272	'''Instead:''' Out of sheer pride, Chuck dismisses Howard's concerns and decides to testify, saying that meting out justice against Jimmy is more important than protecting HHM, and insists that ''he'' has to personally strike the death blow to Jimmy's law career.\
273	'''Result:''' Chuck plays right into Jimmy and Kim's strategy, as it’s based around the assumption that Chuck would never in a million years pass up the opportunity. They are able to put their antics (bringing in Rebecca to unsettle Chuck, and hiring Huell to plant a charged cell phone battery in Chuck's pocket) into play, causing Chuck to break down on the stand when Jimmy cross-examines him and exposes his "illness" as fake. Everyone sees Chuck as a vengeful man with a petty grudge against his brother, and Jimmy gets a one year suspension of his law license, rather than the disbarment that Chuck had hoped for. This breach of document security also means Howard is forced to do damage control to retain HHM's clients, and eventually, the insurance company raises the malpractice premiums on HHM's attorneys when Jimmy informs them about Chuck's condition (and it's implied they would have found out anyway), forcing Howard to fire Chuck.
274	[[/folder]]
275
276	[[folder:Season 4]]
277	* Nacho has successfully induced a stroke in Hector Salamanca, and hides away the fake pills to swap them with the real ones. Problem is, Nacho also swiped them when Gus was trying to resuscitate Hector, and Gus is suspicious of him after watching Nacho. He then decides to dispose of the pills.\
278	'''You'd Expect:''' Nacho to act completely normal, as even he might have heard about Gus being a calm and cunning individual who is not to messed with. He can then dispose of the pills when he returns to his house, probably by flushing them down the toilet.\
279	'''Instead:''' Following an emergency meeting with Juan Bolsa to discuss the future of Hector's operation, Nacho drives to a nearby bridge and dumps the pills into a river.\
280	'''The Result:''' Unbeknownst to Nacho, his vehicle has been bugged, and his disposal of the evidence is witnessed by Gus's henchman Victor. Victor reports this information back to Gus, and when Gus later gets lab results from the doctor he's hired to oversee Hector's treatment, he pieces together what Nacho did. Subsequently, after Nacho and Arturo meet with Gus's men to pick up their next drug package, Gus ambushes them, murders Arturo, and strongarms Nacho into being a mole for him lest he and his father meet the same fate. With this, Nacho has jumped out from the frying pan and straight into the fire.
281
282	* Gus hires a crew of German engineers to secretly construct his superlab underneath the laundromat. The crew ends up having to spend much longer in America -- and in confined quarters with no access to the world outside, at that -- thanks to a series of mishaps during construction. Werner Ziegler, the project's lead engineer, manages to persuade Mike that the crew needs some time to unwind, otherwise it'll just lead to more mistakes and, in turn, more delays; as a result, Mike agrees to take his workmen to a bar and strip club to unwind.\
283	'''You'd Expect:''' Werner and his crew to remember that they're in the country illegally, and working for a man who is not above pulling a YouHaveFailedMe on his employees. Accordingly, you'd think they'd avoid anything that at would cause them to at best end up deported, and at worst, dead.\
284	'''Instead:''' Kai, the crew's explosives expert, is ejected from the club after touching one of the dancers and starting a fight with a doorman, forcing Mike to bribe the doorman into dropping the matter. Meanwhile, Werner starts talking about the project he's working on (albeit while leaving out who he's working for and where it's being constructed) with some fellow drinkers, and even makes a crude drawing of the superlab's layout on a napkin.\
285	'''Result:''' Not all that much, other than Kai's night out being ended early, and Mike giving a WhatWereYouThinking speech to Werner the following day. However, it leads to a far bigger and more tragic case of this trope...
286
287	* After speaking to Werner regarding the aforementioned incident, Mike recognizes that he's homesick and missing his wife, and persuades Gus to let Werner place a call to her.\
288	'''You'd Expect:''' That after the call is finished, Werner would realize that Gus has granted him a favor far beyond anything he's likely to grant to anyone else in his crew, and to get back to work, no questions asked.\
289	'''Instead:''' He ''breaks out of the crew's dormitory'', tells his wife to book passage to New Mexico, and books himself into a luxury spa to spend a few days together, in the belief that in a few days time he'll be allowed to go back to work after getting nothing more than another yelling-at by Mike.\
290	'''For Added Stupidity:''' Lalo Salamanca, having just arrived to take over operations Stateside in the wake of Hector's incapacitation, works out that Werner is working for Gus on some kind of engineering project. He therefore tracks Werner down to his resort and places a phone call to him, posing as one of Gus's employees.\
291	'''You'd Expect:''' Werner to remember that he's working on an extremely secret project, and to ask Lalo to speak directly to either Mike or Gus. Failing that, at least ask Lalo to somehow prove he's who he says he is.\
292	'''Instead:''' He completely fails to do this, and starts divulging details to Lalo, though Mike is able to catch him and end the call before he can reveal anything of any actual importance.\
293	'''Result:''' After delivering an even bigger WhatWereYouThinking speech than the previous one, Mike is ordered by Gus to execute Werner, which he reluctantly carries out. Mike is thereafter sent into a VillainousBSOD that lasts for the first half of the following season, the engineering crew is sent back to Germany with full pay, but the threat of a swift death hanging over them should they be as loose-lipped as their boss, while the ensuing turf war with Lalo ends up delaying completion of the superlab to the timeframe of ''Breaking Bad''.
294
295	* During his attempts to track down Werner, Lalo finds out that he went to [=TravelWire=], a money transfer service in downtown Albuquerque. He tries to question the clerk, Fred Whalen, but Fred becomes suspicious and refuses to answer his questions due to a combination of Lalo's unsubtle approach, and Mike having earlier questioned him on the same matter.\
296	'''You'd Expect:''' Lalo to come back after hours, break into the closed [=TravelWire=], and find the information he needs that way. Or if he doesn't want to wait that long, he could at least take the 10-20 minutes it would find to buy some alternate clothes and a means of disguising his face, break into the shop's inner section, and incapacitate Fred.\
297	'''Instead:''' He breaks in without bothering to disguise his identity, murders Fred, and then sets fire to the building once he has the information he needs about Werner's whereabouts.\
298	'''Result:''' Juan Bolsa ends up chiding him for this pointless and unsubtle act of violence, and it comes back to bite Lalo in the ass when Gus and Mike's machinations lead to him being arrested for Fred's murder, forcing him to pay a multi-million dollar bail and flee back to Mexico.
299	[[/folder]]
300
301	[[folder:Season 5]]
302	* Mesa Verde is on an expansion route, and is currently looking to build a call center in Tucumcari. Problem is, while most of the residents are paid out generously, Everett Acker, an old man living on the land on lease is stubborn and refuses to obey the court order stating he should vacate his house and settle for $18,000, a very generous offer amounting for 30 years. Kim is initially eager to help Mesa Verde, but after getting chewed out by the old man, Kim changes her tune and decides to help Acker in secret, and tries to dissuade Kevin Wachtell, Mesa Verde's president, from pursuing the land.\
303	'''You'd Expect:''' Kevin to understand that Acker has extremely sentimental value for his land, and agree to move to a location much suitable, which Kim and Paige have already drawn out for him.\
304	'''Instead:''' Kevin, in his {{Determinator}} state, refuses to accept Kim and Paige's compromise and orders his lawyers to set an eviction date.\
305	'''As a Result:''' Kim, still reeling from what Acker said to her, decides to take help from Jimmy. He goes full "Saul Goodman" mode as he troubles the construction crew from proceeding any further, with Acker's full cooperation.\
306	'''You'd Now Expect:''' Kevin to put two and two together like Rich Schweikart does in this same episode, and realize that Kim is secretly sabotaging the proposal, given that Jimmy took on Acker's case moments after Kim's disapproval, and calmly but gently either listen to her for a final time or assign her to a different case.\
307	'''Instead:''' He doesn't find out anything about Kim's sabotage, and fully trusts her with handling Jimmy and Acker.\
308	'''As a Result:''' Kim gives up on him and hires a private criminal investigator alongside Jimmy behind his back, who finds out sensitive information regarding Mesa Verde's logo.
309
310	* Jimmy has been sent out into the desert to collect $7.1 million[[note]]$7 million for the bail, plus a $100,000 commission for Jimmy[[/note]] in cash to pay for Lalo's bail.\
311	'''You'd Expect:''' Jimmy to keep his water resources available at all times.\
312	'''Instead:''' He wastes it to '''wipe his shoe'''.\
313	'''Result:''' Once Bolsa's men damage his car, he runs out of water... and {{Squick}}.
314	[[/folder]]
315
316	[[folder:Season 6]]
317	* Upon learning that retired judge Rand Casimiro is the designated mediator for the negotiations involving Sandpiper Crossing and the HHM-led class action suit, Jimmy and Kim come up with a plan to humiliate Howard and force him into settling up. To do this, they have an actor pose as Casimiro for some photographs that show him seemingly accepting a $20,000 bribe from Jimmy. The photographs are then developed and delivered to Howard by a bogus private investigator mere minutes before the arbitration meeting begins. Subsequently, Howard is suspicious when the actual Casimiro arrives to oversee the arbitration.\
318	'''You'd Expect:''' Howard to at minimum let the arbitration begin as normal, while keeping an eye out for any obvious signs of bias on Casimiro's part. If Casimiro does anything that does clearly demonstrate bias, Howard can call him out on it -- and if not, Howard can further investigate him and Jimmy after the fact, knowing (or at least believing) that he has the photographs to prove that any settlement was negotiated in bad faith. Or failing that, Howard could at least take Cliff Main aside to voice his concerns privately before the meeting goes ahead.\
319	'''Instead:''' As soon as Casimiro sits down, Howard openly accuses him of having been bought off by Jimmy, going on a lengthy rant before thinking to even send someone for the incriminating photos.\
320	'''Result:''' When Howard's secretary returns with the photos, it turns out that the fake P.I. has done a sleight-of-hand trick and replaced them with some photos of Jimmy handing a frisbee to a passing jogger. [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Casimiro storms out of the meeting]], and Sandpiper Crossing's lead counsel, Rich Schweikart, [[OffTheTable pulls the plug on the generous deal they had been working up to]], and gives HHM a short deadline to accept an earlier, less generous offer if they want to avoid taking the case to a trial that they will now have a far smaller chance of winning. After much badgering from Cliff, Howard reluctantly caves in.
321	* In "Waterworks", Marion discovers Gene Takavic's true identity as wanted criminal Jimmy [=McGill=]/Saul Goodman after watching one of his commercials on the internet. Suddenly "Gene" returns to her house while Marion is watching the commercial.\
322	'''You'd Expect:''' Marion would close the laptop the moment she notices him. This would put the laptop into standby mode so that the video would not play. Then Marion would call the police as soon as Jimmy is not in the room.\
323	'''Instead:''' She cracks, not closes, the laptop, allowing the video to continue playing.\
324	'''The Result:''' Jimmy hears audio over her headphones and recognizes it as one of his own commercials. He rips the headphones out of the jack and opens the laptop, realizing Marion knows his true identity. Jimmy threatens to strangle Marion with a telephone cord, and she’s only narrowly able to contact the police after talking him down.
325
326	* "Saul Gone": Jimmy, now on the run from the police who are hot on his tail, grabs his emergency shoebox of stuff and flees. While evading the cops, he hides in a dumpster to call Ed. From the shoebox, he produces a cellphone to contact Ed the Disappearer.\
327	'''You'd Expect:''' The cellphone is out of its packaging and ready to go after inserting a battery.\
328	'''Instead:''' Jimmy neglected to take the cell phone out of its package, and to make matters worse it's one of those vacuum-packed packages that you need scissors to open.\
329	'''You'd Then Expect:''' Jimmy would bury himself in the trash and wait for the cops to go away before trying to open the package, because even if he did succeed in contacting Ed and assuming he doesn't blow Jimmy off for attracting too much attention to himself (because there's no way Ed would try to pick up a client with police helicopters on his tail), what else could he do?\
330	'''Instead:''' Jimmy struggles and writhes around trying to get the package open with his teeth, only to spill his box of diamonds he would've used to pay Ed, making a huge racket in the process.\
331	'''The Result:''' As Jimmy frantically tries to pick them out of the trash, the police close in on his location and he is arrested, and the rest is history.
332	[[/folder]]
333	----
334	[[folder:''El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie'']]
335
336	* After managing to escape to Todd's former apartment and tracking down where he hid his share of Walt's drug money, Jesse is caught by two of the gang's former associates, Neil and Casey, who are [[ImpersonatingAnOfficer posing as cops]]. While Casey keeps a NosyNeighbor distracted, Jesse offers up the location of where Todd was hiding the money in exchange for his freedom. After he actually reveals it to Neil, however, Jesse starts taking some of the money for himself, saying that Neil can't shoot him because everyone in the building, especially said neighbor, would hear it.\
337	'''You'd Expect:''' Neil to pistol-whip Jesse into unconsciousness -- the sound of which could be far more easily explained away than a gunshot, seeing how Neil's disguised as a cop and appears to be searching the apartment -- restrain him again, then take all the money while leaving Jesse for the cops to find.\
338	'''Instead:''' Neil just shrugs, agrees to let Jesse take a third of the money -- equivalent to about $200,000, which Casey later calls him out on -- and even ends up indirectly reminding Jesse of exactly who he is, and where he works.
339	* As a direct result of the above, Jesse confronts Neil and Casey -- who have spent an evening on cocaine and prostitutes -- at their business, and demands $1,800 that he needs to pay Ed the vacuum cleaner guy for a new life. He promises that they'll never see him again, though is clearly armed with what appears to be a pretty weak pistol.\
340	'''You'd Expect:''' Neil and Casey to just give Jesse what he wants, considering it's such a miniscule fraction of the half-million or so that they've got. Or heck, ask Jesse for something in return for the $1,800 -- maybe his and Walt's crystal meth formula, which would be worth its weight in gold seeing how Walt and Todd are both dead, Gus Fring's operation is long-defunct, and Jesse's about to skip town for good.\
341	'''Instead:''' In a bout of cocaine-induced insanity, Neil ''challenges Jesse to a duel'' for the money, and in their drug-addled state, neither he nor Casey notice that Jesse has concealed a second, much more powerful gun in his jacket. He accepts the duel, promptly kills them both, takes ''all'' of their money, and for good measure blows up their workshop.
342	[[/folder]]

Context WhatAnIdiot / BreakingBad