Foreshadowing / Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad

• When Walt was recording his suicide-confession tape while in fear of being arrested, he specifically mentions 'This is not an admission of guilt', as well as 'I only had you in my heart.' Later episodes reveal Walt to be protective of his family, and his Lack of Empathy towards anyone else outside the circle, and also the fact that he decides to cook meth for himself and the power he gets as an illegal drug cook.
• The amount of vindictiveness Walt shows to the bullies in the clothing store shows just how sadistic Walt can be, which becomes more and more apparent as the show goes on.
• Walt is told by the doctor when he receives his cancer diagnosis on his birthday, that in the best case scenario, he has only two years to live. Walt dies exactly two years later, just not by cancer.
• In the first episode, when Hank has Walt accompany him on a drug bust, he explains to Walt that making meth can be dangerous because screwing it up could produce dangerously toxic gasses (although Walt, as an accomplished chemist, already knew that). Near the end of the episode, Walt is forced at gunpoint by two drug dealer to show them how to cook his high-quality meth, and Walt escapes by intentionally messing up the recipe to create poison gas and asphyxiate them to death.
• Hank takes Walter Jr to a SRO to try and scare him straight about marijuana, and it sounds like something out of the worst after-school special ever, with all his bullshit about gateway drugs. Only look at what's happened to Walter over the last five seasons and ask yourself, "What did Hank say about gateway crimes again? How they ruin your lives?"
• Krazy-8 tells Walt, "This line of work doesn't suit you, Walt." regarding his budding meth cooking business. Although Krazy-8 might have been softening Walt to kill him later, Krazy-8 proves to be absolutely correct, as due to an emergency Klingon Promotion made by Walt meant he was naive about how exactly the criminal world worked, making so many mistakes that his empire crashed in little more than a year. Walt was better off in hindsight using his talents in any legal field.
• The Season 1 episode "Cancer Man" has Jesse willingly take the fall for a marijuana joint found at his parents' house. His parents assume it's Jesse's and kick him out, but it was actually Jesse's younger brother's joint. Jesse then stomps on the joint to discourage his brother from getting into drugs. This establishes Jesse's very strong Big Brother Instinct, a character trait which remains consistent over the rest of the series, eventually driving a wedge between Walt and Jesse, such as attempting to take revenge for Tomás' murder or being disgusted by Todd's murder of Drew that he quits cooking meth.
• Walt refuses the Schwartzes' offer to pay for his cancer treatment, due to his pride about accepting charity and his unresolved issues regarding Gretchen and Grey Matter. In an example of Irony, this is how Walt finally gets his remaining $9.72 million to his family, by threatening the Schwartzes into donating it to them in an 'act of charity', although unknown to everyone but them they'll be using Walt's drug money.
  • Walt also refuses an easier exit offered by Elliot, who promised him a job and insurance that will not only help his treatment, but more importantly, will actually leave enough for his family once Walt passes away. In later episodes, it's revealed that the Pride and power of making pure meth has got to his head, to the point where unknown to even Walt, he gets a Motive Decay. He also refuses a risk-free Cut Lex Luthor a Check opportunity for this very reason.
• Several Cold Opens in season 2 reveal progressively more of a mysterious crime scene, the circumstances of which are not revealed until the finale. Moreover, the titles of the episodes spell out the impending disaster: "737"/"Down"/"Over"/"ABQ". Plus, the teddy bear in the plane crash also foreshadows Gus's death.
• Another foreshadowing for the teddy bear occurs in the last episode of season 2, as one of the murals Jane painted on the wall depicts a pink teddy bear descending from the sky in the corner.
• A lot of the chemistry classes in the first season, like the one about explosions. Walt's lecture on chirality doesn't appear to have any relevance on anything later in the episode until you remember that methamphetamine is a chiral molecule.
  • In more metaphorical and symbolical sense, however, the lesson on chirality becomes meaningful when considering Walt's relationship to his Heisenberg persona. Heisenberg is made of the same elements as Walt, and he looks the same, yet he is also Walt's evil mirror image. Where Walt was "inactive", i.e. keeping his head down and trying to confirm to the expectations society put on him, Heisenberg is "active", i.e. by channelling the aggressive and confrontational emotions that Walt has kept bottled up into his actions, he makes waves that causes Disaster Dominoes to fall everywhere. And where Walt uses his intelligence on a noble and benign purpose, i.e. teaching, Heisenberg uses the same intelligence towards a malevolent purpose, i.e. committing crimes.
• In "Over", Jesse wants to bring Jane breakfast in bed, but she walks on him in the kitchen. He says "You weren't supposed to wake up", and she responds "Ever, or...?" A few episodes later, she dies asphyxiating on her own vomit while the two sleep off a heroin binge.
• You can tell Hector wants Gus dead early in their confrontations, but it doesn't appear to mean much as Hector can't do anything. Come the Season 4 finale, however, he finally gets his revenge... and sorts out Walt's problems at the same time.
• Hank's condition in "One Minute" before he kills Marco is exactly like the time he's injured in 'Ozymandias'. Sadly, this time he didn't survive.
• In the season 2 premiere, you see Skyler looking fondly of old photos of her and Ted after she and Walt start having marriage troubles. Ted isn't even introduced at that point and doesn't appear till 6 episodes after.
• Season 2 establishes that Ted is cooking his company's books in order to keep it afloat, and Skyler reluctantly helps him commit tax fraud as his accountant. This plot thread does not become important until near the end of Season 4, when the IRS notices the discrepancies and begins to investigate Ted's taxes. Skyler is fearful because her name is on the fraudulent papers and the IRS will likely investigate her as well, potentially leading to the discovery of her and Walt's drug money laundering.
• Madrigal Electromotive GmbH, a faceless international conglomerate, was first mentioned significantly in Season 4, when it is revealed that the company owns the industrial laundry that houses the superlab. The company was shown to own Los Pollos Hermanos in the fine print of a television ad in Season 3. The company's full role was only revealed in Season 5.
• At the beginning of "Peekaboo" we see Skinny Pete stomp out a beetle. Later, Spooge's head gets crushed by an ATM. Both were done without second thoughts and the same aloof amount of ease.
• Season five starts with a flash-forward to Walt's 52nd birthday, giving a tantalizing glimpse of how the series will end.
• Gus once said to Walt, "A man provides. Even though he is not appreciated." Walt manages to win in his original goal, providing money to his family, when he becomes a nation-wide most wanted, with his family disowning him.
• In a fit of anger, Jesse calls Todd "Ricky Hitler". Todd's uncle has prison connections in the Aryan Brotherhood. Also, he later ends up in captivity of Todd's uncle.
• Additionally, Todd works for Vamomos Pest, which has a running insect as their mascot. If you look at the mascot closely, it's limb placements resembles a swastika, hinting at those same connections that Todd's uncle has.
• Twice in "Phoenix". First Jane tells Jesse to roll over on his side after shooting up in case he vomits ("Lie on your side, or you might choke"), and Walter does the same thing for his infant daughter. When Walt tries to shake Jesse awake at the end of the episode to talk to him, Jane rolls over on her back, and a few minutes later throws up and starts choking.
• In "Full Measure", when Saul is pitching the Lazer Tag arcade hall to Walter as a potential money laundry, he jokingly says "plus, you get to shoot at kids". In season 5 one of Walter's schemes ends up with a kid being shot.
• In the fifth season, Marie a couple of times while babysitting jokingly says she loves Holly so much she never wants to let her go. When Walt's secret gets out, she tries to abduct Holly for her own good. This in turn foreshadows how Walt actually does succeed in abducting Holly several episodes later when Flynn calls the police on him (although he eventually gets remorseful and leaves her at a fire station to be recovered).
• At the beginning of season 2, Jesse tries to convince Walt to sacrifice his life for him, since he's going to die of cancer anyway. Fast-forward to "Felina," in which Walt is fatally wounded after pushing Jesse to the ground to spare him from being hit by the rigged machine gun.
• After the truth about Gus Fring gets out, the DEA chief ruefully muses over how he was friends with the man for years, even inviting him into his own house for dinner, and not once even suspected who Gus really was. This fiasco forces him to resign. A bit later Hank will face the same dilemma - he'll find out that his beloved brother-in-law Walter is the notorious drug-dealer Heisenberg he's been chasing for a year and that should he expose him, Hank's career will be over as well. It gets better, he dies when in process of arresting him.
• Early in season 5, Skyler tells Walt she doesn't want her kids living in a household where people being murdered is brushed off with "shit happens." Fast forward a couple of episodes later, and Todd says "shit happens" after murdering a kid.
• In "Blood Money", Badger's Star Trek script may foreshadow some of the events of the final season. Badger claims that the crew of the Enterprise are having a pie eating contest, and that it is down to just three: Kirk (Hank), Spock (Walter) and Chekhov (Jack). Kirk is the first to leave, foreshadowing Hank's death in "Ozymandias". Chekhov has Scotty (Todd) helping him, but when Uhura (Lydia) walks in, Scotty accidentally gets Chekhov killed, leaving Spock as the winner. If Todd hadn't become attracted to Lydia, Walter likely wouldn't have killed Jack and his gang, as they had to keep Jesse alive in order to keep making the meth, prompting Walt to go after them.
• In the Season 4 episode "Bug", Walt demands to know why Jesse didn't use to ricin to poison Gus when Gus invited Gus him over to his house for dinner. Jesse angrily retorts there was only one pot of stew; what was he supposed to do, poison himself too? In the following episode, this is exactly what Gus does to kill off all the Juarez Cartel capos, poisoning a bottle of expensive tequila, but also drinking some of it in front of them to dispel any suspicion (he swallowed an antidote prior and induces himself to vomit it up shortly after, but he still almost dies from it).
• Ted stumbles slightly over his rug, which he takes the time to go back and smooth out before going to answer the door for Skyler. Later, Huell and Kuby come to force him to sign a check for the IRS. Guess what Ted trips over when he tries to make his escape?
• In Season 3, Andrea tells Jesse that she'll "die first" before letting anything happen to her son Brock. Fast-forward to "Granite State," and Todd shoots her in the head. Fortunately, Brock does survive the series.
• Walt ominously mentions Victor while disregarding Mike's request for hazard-paying Gus's men. Walt not only kills Mike regarding Gus' men, but his downfall can also be attributed to Walt's words, "He flew too close to the sun, and got his throat cut".
• Jesse establishes Walt as a credible threat and as one to never be underestimated, when he states that 'Seriously guys, what you guys are expecting, the exact opposite is going to happen'. Hank, Gomez and Jesse successfully arrest Walt, only for Walt's Nazi backup to arrive, kill Hank and Gomez and imprison Jesse. Walt arrived back in Todd's life, where he planned with Lydia to Mercy Kill Walt. Well, Todd was killed along with his uncle and his crew, and Lydia herself was poisoned with ricin when Walt made his final entry. Jesse expected to cook one more batch of meth, only for Walt to arrive back in his life, and Jesse suddenly going free, as all his captors are dead.
• When making thermite to cut through a lock, Walter tells Jesse a story about how it could take out a World War 2 German super-gun called Gustav. Walter ends up using explosives to kill Gustavo Fring, who, although himself of Chilean/Argentine descent, was partnered with a Germany-based conglomerate Madrigal Electric.
• In "Bullet Points", Hank assumes Gale was the Heisenberg he was hunting for months, and laments the fact he wasn't involved in busting Gale. Hank tells Walt he wishes he was there to "slap the handcuffs" on Heisenberg, just like Popeye Doyle and Frog One. Walt points out Popeye Doyle never actually caught Frog One (at least, in the first film). This becomes a Be Careful What You Wish For moment for Hank, because he does get to slap handcuffs on the real Heisenberg later, but he never actually manages to catch him, because he's gunned down by Jack soon after, and Walt has to go on the run. If The French Connection 2 is taken into account, then it also ends with the antagonist dying of a gunshot wound.
• In "Hazard Pay", Mike is going around visiting his former associates to ensure that they will still be receiving this hush money, even after their offshore bank accounts were discovered and suspended by the DEA. Mike's attorney is shocked that Mike intends to get to all nine men in one day considering they're scattered in three different prisons all across town. Several episodes later, Walt decides to kill them all when it seems likely they might rat him out. However, he has to ensure they're all killed within two minutes of one another to prevent the others from being alerted.
• After she put out a hit on him, Mike sneaks into Lydia's house at night to kill her. When Lydia pleads with Mike not to shoot her in the face so that her daughter won't find her body looking so gruesomely disfigured, Mike tells her nobody will ever even find her body at all. This makes her even more terrified because she doesn't want her daughter to think she abandoned her. This alludes to Mike's fate several episodes later, where he indeed ends up getting killed before even getting to say goodbye to his beloved granddaughter, and the fact that his body is dissolved in acid means no one will know what happened to him and think he just fled town to evade police. It also comes to pass that Lydia is eventually killed in a way that leaves her body perfectly intact and with in a way that everyone will know exactly what happened to her.

Better Call Saul

• When berating the skaters for their attempt to pull a Staged Pedestrian Accident on him, he gives them "a 9.6 for technique, and a 0.0 for choice of victim." After all, as we later learn, "Slippin' Jimmy" knows a thing or two about the proper way to pull this off...and it also foreshadows an even poorer choice of victim later in the episode: Tuco Salamanca's grandmother, for whom they get a 9.6 for technique and -6.0 for choice of victim...
• In "Pimento," when Hamlin harshly tells Kim that the "partners have decided" in not hiring Jimmy. Note the use of "partners," as in the plural sense, which foreshadows the revelation of Chuck's involvement in denying Jimmy a job.
• One of Chuck's earliest acts is to try to convince Jimmy to give up the McGill name due to Howard's insistence to which Jimmy innocently asks, "Whose side are you really on, Chuck?" Chuck is revealed to be behind Howard's efforts to block Jimmy's law career in HHM.
• When Jimmy informs Chuck about the influx of new clients, Chuck despite the EMS ravaging him, goes to check the neighbor's house for the news being suspicious. This is an early hint about his condition being purely psychosomatic.
  • It also foreshadows the extent Chuck will eventually go to hinder Jimmy later on.
• Marco's occasional coughing and pounding his heart in "Marco" foreshadow his heart attack and death at the end of the episode. The Green Ribbon cab company is an allusion to green ribbons showing respect for patients, worn in the 18th century.
• The first letter of each episode title in season 2 form the anagram "FRINGS BACK", foreshadowing the return of the said character in Season 3.
• One of the first things Lalo ever says to Nacho is "You're gonna die." It's innocently in reference to tasting Lalo's cooking, but prophetic, as Lalo's presence sets off a chain of events that ends in Nacho's death.
• The first thing Jimmy ever says to Howard in the series ends with "and you will atone!" Howard does end up paying very dearly for siding with Chuck against Jimmy, ultimately (if indirectly) leading to his murder at Lalo's hands.
• Near the start of "Bagman", Jimmy notices a spot of dirt on his shoe and decides to rinse it off using his Davis & Main water bottle. The second that precious clean drinking water hits the New Mexico desert sand you know he's going to regret wasting it.
• In the Flash Forward opening of "Wine and Roses", a worker places a Saul Goodman cardboard cutout in the dumpster. This alludes to Saul's brief hiding place after running from the authorities in "Saul Gone".