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** Gus, whose unusually strong attachment to his initial meth-distributing partner (even ''twenty years'' after his death) has provoked audience speculation as to his sexuality. WordOfGod even states that this is a legitimate interpretation of their relationship. He references a wife and kids, but they never show up onscreen.
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** Gus, whose unusually strong attachment to his initial meth-distributing partner (even ''twenty years'' after his death) has provoked audience speculation as to his sexuality. WordOfGod even states that this is a legitimate interpretation of their relationship. He references a wife and kids, but they never show up onscreen.onscreen, and thus may not even exist.
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* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Ricin poisoning doesn't cause flu-like symptoms when it's ingested -- it causes severe digestive distress, including but not limited to vomiting and defecating blood.
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* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: ArtisticLicenseMedicine:
** When Walt starts taking chemotherapy, he only loses the hair on his scalp, not his facial hair.
** Ricin poisoning doesn't cause flu-like symptoms when it's ingested -- it causes severe digestive distress, including but not limited to vomiting and defecating blood.
** When Walt starts taking chemotherapy, he only loses the hair on his scalp, not his facial hair.
** Ricin poisoning doesn't cause flu-like symptoms when it's ingested -- it causes severe digestive distress, including but not limited to vomiting and defecating blood.
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* AmoralAttorney: Saul Goodman, Walt and Jesse's assistant in the business side of the meth trade. Has so many clients in organized crime he can't even keep them straight, and hires a fall guy to get arrested in Heisenberg's place. He even shamelessly milks the midair collision from the season 2 finale to increase his firm's business. ZigZagged in that, while he facilitates several illegal and immoral enterprises, he is unfailingly loyal to his clients, refuses bribes, and passes up several golden opportunities to double-cross them.
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* AmoralAttorney: Saul Goodman, Walt and Jesse's assistant in the business side of the meth trade. Has so many clients in organized crime he can't even keep them straight, and hires a fall guy to get arrested in Heisenberg's place. He even shamelessly milks the midair collision from the season 2 finale to increase his firm's business. ZigZagged [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zagged]] in that, while he facilitates several illegal and immoral enterprises, he is unfailingly loyal to his clients, refuses bribes, and passes up several golden opportunities to double-cross them.
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Not a batman gambit. Jesse was smoking for a different reason, it wasn't his plan to discover if Huell could have stolen the cigarette.
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** In Season 5, [[spoiler: Jesse smokes pot in Saul's office to determine if Huell is a professional pick-pocket.]]
** Also Season 5, [[spoiler:Jesse and Hank manage to scare Walt into driving to exactly where his money is hidden with a falsified picture, and Jesse egging Walt on so he won't stop and try to reason out whether or not Jesse actually has the money. It works so well that Walt ends up driving so recklessly he probably broke every New Mexico motor vehicle law on the books.]] All it took was knowing what Walter really cared about, even more than his family.
** Also Season 5, [[spoiler:Jesse and Hank manage to scare Walt into driving to exactly where his money is hidden with a falsified picture, and Jesse egging Walt on so he won't stop and try to reason out whether or not Jesse actually has the money. It works so well that Walt ends up driving so recklessly he probably broke every New Mexico motor vehicle law on the books.]] All it took was knowing what Walter really cared about, even more than his family.
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** In Season 5, [[spoiler: Jesse smokes pot in Saul's office to determine if Huell is a professional pick-pocket.]]
** AlsoSeason 5, [[spoiler:Jesse and Hank manage to scare Walt into driving to exactly where his money is hidden with a falsified picture, and Jesse egging Walt on so he won't stop and try to reason out whether or not Jesse actually has the money. It works so well that Walt ends up driving so recklessly he probably broke every New Mexico motor vehicle law on the books.]] All it took was knowing what Walter really cared about, even more than his family.
** Also
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none of these qualify as abuse really
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** Jesse's parents might be considered an example because of the excessively high expectations they hold Jesse's younger brother Jake to (and presumably held Jesse to as well). They also throw Jesse out on the street, although it's clear they have a long history of giving him breaks only to be disappointed. Additionally, one could assume that they're overcompensating with his younger brother to make sure they raise this one right - or that Jesse was under similar pressure before he gave up and turned to drugs, as Jake is apparently also doing.
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** '''Walt:''' Let me clue you in. I am not ''in'' danger, Skyler. [[IAmTheNoun I am the danger.]] A guy opens his door and gets shot, you think that of me? No! I am the one who ''knocks!'' Something of a subversion in that his initial aim is to reassure Skyler, but just ends up panicking her all the more as she realizes for the first time that [[spoiler: her husband may very well be a murderer.]]
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** Something of a subversion in that his initial aim is to reassure Skyler, but just ends up panicking her all the more as she realizes for the first time that [[spoiler: her husband may very well be a murderer.]]
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** '''Walt:''' Let me clue you in. I am not ''in'' danger, Skyler. [[IAmTheNoun I am the danger.]] A guy opens his door and gets shot, you think that of me? No! I am the one who ''knocks!''
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** '''Walt:''' Let me clue you in. I am not ''in'' danger, Skyler. [[IAmTheNoun I am the danger.]] A guy opens his door and gets shot, you think that of me? No! I am the one who ''knocks!''''knocks!'' Something of a subversion in that his initial aim is to reassure Skyler, but just ends up panicking her all the more as she realizes for the first time that [[spoiler: her husband may very well be a murderer.]]
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**
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Saul Goodman asks Walt and Jesse to give him a dollar each, claiming that it's a retainer and he's therefore forbidden from revealing anything they discuss because of attorney-client privilege. Anyone who knows how attorney-client privilege works knows doesn't apply here since Saul is himself part of an ongoing criminal conspiracy. However, he might have been twisting the truth so they would stop threatening him and start trusting him.
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Saul Goodman asks Walt and Jesse to give him a dollar each, claiming that it's a retainer and he's therefore forbidden from revealing anything they discuss because of attorney-client privilege. Anyone who knows how attorney-client privilege works knows doesn't apply here since Saul is himself part of an ongoing criminal conspiracy. However, he might have been twisting the truth so they would stop threatening him and start trusting him.
to:
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** Both the first and final episodes take place on Walt's birthday.
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** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbUa99W-N7M This video]], Youtuber ''Webvideo/{{Thunderf00t}}'' tests the idea that one can obtain enough aluminium powder from an ordinary 'etch-a-sketch'-type product to manufacture enough thermite to burn through a steel lock, as Walt does in ''A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal''. He finds the substance in an etch-a-sketch he purchased to be impure, and not of the quantity required to have the effect showcased in the episode.
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**
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* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Lots of characters, though usually not in an actual briefcase; it's more likely to be a backpack or duffel bag and in one scene there's a ''shipping pallet'' full of money. [[spoiler]]In the end, the totality of Walt's fortune is contained in seven plastic 55-gallon barrels full of money[[/spoiler]].
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* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Lots of characters, though usually not in an actual briefcase; it's more likely to be a backpack or duffel bag and in one scene there's a ''shipping pallet'' full of money. [[spoiler]]In [[spoiler:In the end, the totality of Walt's fortune is contained in seven plastic 55-gallon barrels full of money[[/spoiler]].money]].
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Changed line(s) 196 (click to see context) from:
* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Lots of characters, though usually not in an actual briefcase; it's more likely to be a backpack or duffel bag and in one scene there's a ''shipping pallet'' full of money.
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* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Lots of characters, though usually not in an actual briefcase; it's more likely to be a backpack or duffel bag and in one scene there's a ''shipping pallet'' full of money. [[spoiler]]In the end, the totality of Walt's fortune is contained in seven plastic 55-gallon barrels full of money[[/spoiler]].
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Changed line(s) 119,120 (click to see context) from:
** Jesse has his two drug-dealing cronies, Skinny Pete & Badger, pose as recovering addicts and join a 12-step program to sell meth to the other members. They can't bring themselves to do it and end up going sober instead.
*** They "unmasked," though, in "Thirty-Eight Snub."
*** They "unmasked," though, in "Thirty-Eight Snub."
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** Jesse has his two drug-dealing cronies, Skinny Pete & Badger, pose as recovering addicts and join a 12-step program to sell meth to the other members. They can't bring themselves to do it and end up going sober instead.
*** They "unmasked," though, in "Thirty-Eight Snub."for a time.
*** They "unmasked," though, in "Thirty-Eight Snub."
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* AllJustADream: In the [[http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/videos/breaking-bad-alternate-ending-reveals-it-was-just-a-dream-20131117 alternate ending from the complete series DVD]]. Turns out [[Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle Hal]] just ate deep-fried twinkies before bed.
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* AllJustADream: In the [[http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/videos/breaking-bad-alternate-ending-reveals-it-was-just-a-dream-20131117 alternate ending from the complete series DVD]]. Turns out [[Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle Hal]] just [[AcidRefluxNightmare ate deep-fried twinkies twinkies]] before bed.
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my bad, didn\'t know it\'s an YMMV
Deleted line(s) 140 (click to see context) :
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Season 2 Episode 7 starts with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUmpTKXpIdM weird narcocorrido song]] about adventures of Heisenberg.
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* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Season 2 Episode 7 starts with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUmpTKXpIdM weird narcocorrido song]] about adventures of Heisenberg.
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* BigShutUp: A truly epic one [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UosZ4mXL8EI from Skyler to Marie]] that verges on a mental breakdown.
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* BigShutUp: A truly epic one series of them [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UosZ4mXL8EI from Skyler to Marie]] that verges on a mental breakdown.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: "[[MeaningfulName Phoenix]]" is the episode in which Walt's daughter Holly is born and [[spoiler:Jane]] dies.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: "[[MeaningfulName Phoenix]]" is the episode in which Walt's daughter Holly is born and [[spoiler:Jane]] dies.
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* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Saul Goodman asks Walt and Jesse to give him a dollar each, claiming that it's a retainer and he's therefore forbidden from revealing anything they discuss because of attorney-client privilege. Privilege doesn't apply when the lawyer is himself part of an ongoing criminal conspiracy. However, he might have been twisting the truth so they would stop threatening him and start trusting him.
to:
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Saul Goodman asks Walt and Jesse to give him a dollar each, claiming that it's a retainer and he's therefore forbidden from revealing anything they discuss because of attorney-client privilege. Privilege Anyone who knows how attorney-client privilege works knows doesn't apply when the lawyer here since Saul is himself part of an ongoing criminal conspiracy. However, he might have been twisting the truth so they would stop threatening him and start trusting him.
Changed line(s) 124 (click to see context) from:
** As the series progresses, we see flashes of just how much pent-up anger, bitterness, malice, and wounded pride had always lain beneath Walt's harmless veneer. Viewers are invited to wonder: what sort of man had Walter quietly, secretly become even ''before'' his 50th birthday? How much of his gradual "transformation" amounts to the surfacing of personality traits that were always there? How many of us remain good people on the surface, but end up becoming ripe for the sort of trigger events that launched Walt's career?
to:
** As the series progresses, we see flashes of just how much pent-up anger, bitterness, malice, and wounded pride had always lain beneath Walt's harmless veneer. Viewers are invited to wonder: what sort of man had Walter quietly, secretly become even ''before'' his 50th birthday? How much of his gradual "transformation" into Heisenberg amounts to the surfacing of personality traits that were always there? How many of us remain good people on the surface, but end up becoming ripe for the sort of trigger events that launched Walt's career?
Changed line(s) 128 (click to see context) from:
** Walt is incredibly defensive of his son in the first season. Jesse, on the other hand, gets protective of anyone's children, like Spooge's son.
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** Walt is incredibly defensive of his son in the first season. Jesse, on the other hand, gets protective of anyone's children, like Spooge's son.son, or Brock, or Tomas Cantillo, or Drew Sharp.
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** Season 5, first half: Walter himself is the BigBad by way of VillainProtagonist. He creates much of the conflict.
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** Season 5, first half: Walter himself is the BigBad by way of VillainProtagonist. He His Heisenberg side creates much of the conflict.
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** Also, the head getting crushed by the ATM in "Peekaboo."
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** Also, the Spooge's head getting crushed by the ATM in "Peekaboo."
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* BookEnds: In series finale "Felina," Walt arrives at the Neo-Nazi compound wearing the same outfit he wore in the first episode, "Pilot": pastel jacket, green button-up shirt, white undershirt and beige slacks.
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* BookEnds: In BookEnds:
**In series finale "Felina," Walt arrives at the Neo-Nazi compound wearing the same outfit he wore in the first episode, "Pilot": pastel jacket, green button-up shirt, white undershirt and beige slacks.
**In series finale "Felina," Walt arrives at the Neo-Nazi compound wearing the same outfit he wore in the first episode, "Pilot": pastel jacket, green button-up shirt, white undershirt and beige slacks.
**Both Hank’s introduction scene and death scene feature him making backhanded compliments about Walt’s intelligence and attending slight lack of social craft. Both are clearly made out of love but in very different situations.
Changed line(s) 176,177 (click to see context) from:
** [[spoiler:Hank himself is killed by one, delivered by Uncle Jack.]]
** [[spoiler:Todd kills Andrea in this fashion to punish Jesse for trying to escape Jack's compound.]]
** [[spoiler:Todd kills Andrea in this fashion to punish Jesse for trying to escape Jack's compound.]]
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** [[spoiler:Hank himself is killed by one, delivered by [[spoiler:What Uncle Jack.Jack gives to Declan and Hank.]]
** [[spoiler:Todd kills Andrea in this fashion topunish penalize Jesse for trying to escape Jack's compound.]]
** [[spoiler:Todd kills Andrea in this fashion to
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* BoredomMontage: Used in the episode "Shotgun" when Jesse begins working for Mike. In another episode, he kills time in the lab waiting for Walt to arrive.
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* BoredomMontage: Used in the episode "Shotgun" when Jesse begins working for Mike. In another episode, "I See You," he kills time in the lab waiting for Walt to arrive.
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* ArcWords: "Apply yourself" seems to be heard a lot. This was written by Walt on Jesse's chemistry test when he gave it a bad grade. Jesse would later say this to his friends after inviting Skinny Pete, Combo, and Badger to his new home. And Walt said this to Jesse's successor Todd as they prepared to make their first batch of methamphetamine.
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* ArcWords: "Apply yourself" seems to be heard a lot. yourself."
** This was written by Walt on Jesse's chemistry test when he gave it a badgrade. grade.
** Jesse would later say this to his friends after inviting Skinny Pete, Combo, and Badger to his newhome. And home.
** Walt says this to a student after rejecting their pleas to let their failed test "slide".
** Walt said this to Jesse's successor Todd as they prepared to make their first batch of methamphetamine.
** This was written by Walt on Jesse's chemistry test when he gave it a bad
** Jesse would later say this to his friends after inviting Skinny Pete, Combo, and Badger to his new
** Walt says this to a student after rejecting their pleas to let their failed test "slide".
** Walt said this to Jesse's successor Todd as they prepared to make their first batch of methamphetamine.
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** The first season was especially reliant on it, although the comedy became [[CerebusSyndrome more subdued in later seasons as the series took a grimmer turn]].
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* BringMeMyBrownPants: One of Mike's first victims (that we know of) soiled himself after the former roughed him up and threatened to kill him should he hurt his wife again.
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* BringMeMyBrownPants: BringMyBrownPants: One of Mike's first victims (that we know of) soiled himself after the former roughed him up and threatened to kill him should he hurt his wife again.
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Changed line(s) 118 (click to see context) from:
* BeingEvilSucks: Walt makes lots of money manufacturing crystal meth, but his activities end up destroying his relationship with his family, to the point where they all despise him. Almost all of the individuals he deals with in the drugs trade have a violent, premature end.
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* BeingEvilSucks: Walt makes lots of money manufacturing crystal meth, but his activities end up destroying his relationship with his family, to the point where they all despise him. him and openly want him to die. Jesse, for his part, is nearly killed on a few occasions and sees one girlfriend [[spoiler:die of a drug overdose and another murdered]]. Almost all of the individuals he deals they deal with in the drugs trade have a violent, premature end.
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** Hank makes references to ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' that seem to ignore the fact that Rocky actually lost in the first film.
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** Inverted in season one, when Walt refuses Elliott and Gretchen's offer to pay for his treatment.
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* BeingEvilSucks: Walt makes lots of money manufacturing crystal meth, but his activities end up destroying his relationship with his family, to the point where they all despise him. Almost all of the individuals he deals with in the drugs trade have a violent, premature end.
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Rocky didn\'t lose in the first film. The fight was a draw.
Changed line(s) 47 (click to see context) from:
** Hank also makes references to ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' that seem to ignore the fact that Rocky actually loses in the first film.
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Deleted line(s) 90 (click to see context) :
** Walt Jr. [[spoiler:breaking up a knife fight between his parents and calling the cops on his father]]
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'''Tropes A-B''' | [[BreakingBad/TropesCToD Tropes C-D]] | [[BreakingBad/TropesEToL Tropes E-L]] | [[BreakingBad/TropesMToR Tropes M-R]] | [[BreakingBad/TropesSToZ Tropes S-Z]]
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'''Tropes A-B''' | [[BreakingBad/TropesCToD Tropes C-D]] | [[BreakingBad/TropesEToL Tropes E-L]] | [[BreakingBad/TropesMToR Tropes M-R]] | [[BreakingBad/TropesSToZ Tropes S-Z]]S-Z]] | [[Series/BreakingBad Main Page]]
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Changed line(s) 39 (click to see context) from:
* AmbiguouslyBrown: The ethnicity of the character, Victor, Gus's personal assistant and partner to Mike is never revealed. He hardly ever speaks, but when does, he doesn't have a Mexican accent or ever speak Spanish. Being that the actor portraying the character, Jeremiah Bitsui is a full-blooded American Indian (1/2 Navajo, 1/2 Omaha), and the city of Albuquerque is home to a big American Indian population, particularly Navajo Indians, it wouldn't be much of a stress to assume that Victor is possibly Native American.
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* AmbiguouslyBrown: The ethnicity of the character, Victor, Gus's personal assistant and partner right hand man to Mike is never revealed. He hardly ever speaks, but when does, he doesn't have a Mexican accent or nor does he ever speak Spanish. Being that the actor portraying the character, Jeremiah Bitsui is a full-blooded American Indian (1/2 Navajo, 1/2 Omaha), and the city of Albuquerque is home to a big American Indian population, particularly Navajo Indians, it wouldn't be much of a stress stretch to assume that Victor is possibly Native American. American (Navajo.)
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'''Tropes A-B''' | [[BreakingBad/TropesCToD Tropes C-D]] | [[BreakingBad/TropesEToL Tropes E-L]] | [[BreakingBad/TropesMToR Tropes M-R]] | [[BreakingBad/TropesSToZ Tropes S-Z]]
----
!!These ''are'' the tropes that knock:
* AbandonedArea: [[spoiler:The White family residence at the very end]].
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The Cousins' axe falls out of his hands and [[TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn cuts into the asphalt]] far enough to stay upright. It wasn't even swung downwards -- it just fell about 7 feet and landed on the blade.
* AbusiveParents:
** In Season 2, Jesse encounters a couple of drug addicts who do nothing but rob people and get high living together in a filthy, dilapidated house -- along with their [[TearJerker horribly neglected]] [[TheWoobie young son]]. He is suitably [[FamilyValuesVillain disgusted]].
** A flashback shows how Tio Salamanca [[FreudianExcuse raised]] the two terrifying hit men we see in season three. When one of them yells in the midst of a sibling squabble that he wishes his brother were dead, Tio [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor takes him at his word]] and proceeds to ''hold his brother's head under ice water'' until he fights his uncle off to save his brother. The treatment did, however, seem to instill an undying family loyalty in the brothers.
** Jesse's parents might be considered an example because of the excessively high expectations they hold Jesse's younger brother Jake to (and presumably held Jesse to as well). They also throw Jesse out on the street, although it's clear they have a long history of giving him breaks only to be disappointed. Additionally, one could assume that they're overcompensating with his younger brother to make sure they raise this one right - or that Jesse was under similar pressure before he gave up and turned to drugs, as Jake is apparently also doing.
** Walter to his surrogate son, Jesse, in later seasons.
** Walt to his ''actual'' son Walt Jr. at least once, when he basically forces Junior to drink until he pukes.
* AdultFear: Oh, let us count the ways...
** Dying of a terminal illness, and being unable to pay for treatment.
** Having a loved one die of a drug overdose while being too drugged-out yourself to do anything about it--or ''notice''.
** Being caught in a plane crash. If you don't find plane crashes scary, you ''will'' after you see the Season 2 finale.
** In "Dead Freight": [[spoiler:A child being murdered, and the evidence being hidden so thoroughly as to make the crime unsolvable.]]
** In "Ozymandias":
*** [[spoiler:A domestic fight happening while the whole family is present, forcing a child to call the police on his own father, resulting in said father kidnapping his baby daughter and running away.]]
*** [[spoiler: Being kidnapped and forced into slavery, and being tortured so badly that you lose your will to fight back.]]
* AffablyEvil:
** Saul Goodman, the cheerfully corrupt lawyer.
** Mike Ehrmantraut is gruff but personable and loyal, as well as a loving grandfather, but he'll straight-up murder you if it needs to be done.
** Jack has an easy-going, down-homey demeanor, but he's a cold-blooded killer and Neo-Nazi.
** Todd has a very mild and friendly personality, but is also a cold-blooded criminal who kills without hesitation or regret. The dichotomy is best seen when he apologizes to his murder victim immediately before shooting her in the head, and brings [[spoiler:an enslaved Jesse two flavors of ice cream (since he didn't know which Jesse prefers) as a reward for good work]].
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: Jack gives Todd an affectionate noogie ([[JugglingLoadedGuns still holding a gun]]) during the TensionCuttingLaughter after [[spoiler:he asks Jack not to kill Jesse because he's still trying to impress Lydia with their cooking.]]
* AintTooProudToBeg:
** Both Walt and Gale plead for their lives.
** In "Ozymandias," Walt [[spoiler:begs for Hank's life. Hank refuses to, at least in part because he's resigned to the fact that Jack has already decided to kill him]].
** And then in the finale, Walt [[spoiler: begs Jesse to MercyKill him. Jesse refuses.]]
* AlasPoorVillain:
** In the episode "Face Off," [[spoiler:the extremely moving music as Gus walks to his death reminds you that he was once a similar guy to Walt, and he'll die failing to get his final revenge on the people who killed his "brother"]].
** Similarly, the sheer amount of anger and sadness in [[spoiler:Hector]]'s face as he looks at [[spoiler:his target, Gus]] before [[spoiler:setting off the bomb that will [[TakingYouWithMe kill both of them]]]] makes you almost feel sorry for him.
** Debatable as to how much of a villain he was, but [[spoiler:Mike's death]]. Granted, [[spoiler: Mike's a stone cold murderer and by no means a good guy but the writers manage to avoid making this a case of KickTheSonOfABitch by having Mike become a guy who just wants out of the game... and then Walt goes and kills him over some petty ego bullshit.]]
* AllJustADream: In the [[http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/videos/breaking-bad-alternate-ending-reveals-it-was-just-a-dream-20131117 alternate ending from the complete series DVD]]. Turns out [[Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle Hal]] just ate deep-fried twinkies before bed.
* TheAllegedCar: Walter's beige 2004 Pontiac Aztek was a deliberate choice on behalf of Vince Gilligan due to the Aztek being considered one of the worst cars ever made (see [[TheAllegedCar/RealLife the main trope article]] for the reasons why) yet has notoriously protective owners, to make Walt seem more pathetic. In "Fifty-One", Walt sells it to his mechanic for ''50 dollars''.
* AlliterativeName: Both father and son are named Walter White. The name was deliberately chosen for its blandness. Lampshaded by Hank at one point:
-->'''Hank:''' W.W., [[Creator/WaltWhitman who do you think that is]], huh? UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson? [[Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory Willy Wonka]]? ... Walter White?
* AlliterativeTitle: "'''''B'''''''reaking'' '''''B'''''''ad''".
* AmbiguouslyBrown: The ethnicity of the character, Victor, Gus's personal assistant and partner to Mike is never revealed. He hardly ever speaks, but when does, he doesn't have a Mexican accent or ever speak Spanish. Being that the actor portraying the character, Jeremiah Bitsui is a full-blooded American Indian (1/2 Navajo, 1/2 Omaha), and the city of Albuquerque is home to a big American Indian population, particularly Navajo Indians, it wouldn't be much of a stress to assume that Victor is possibly Native American.
* AmbiguouslyGay:
** Gus, whose unusually strong attachment to his initial meth-distributing partner (even ''twenty years'' after his death) has provoked audience speculation as to his sexuality. WordOfGod even states that this is a legitimate interpretation of their relationship. He references a wife and kids, but they never show up onscreen.
** Gale worships Walt and gives him a copy of ''Leaves of Grass'', by the famously AmbiguouslyGay Walt Whitman, that he signs "To my other favorite W.W." The rest of his tastes and personality, especially in his home, brush against some gay stereotypes, although there is never any confirmation either way.
* AmoralAttorney: Saul Goodman, Walt and Jesse's assistant in the business side of the meth trade. Has so many clients in organized crime he can't even keep them straight, and hires a fall guy to get arrested in Heisenberg's place. He even shamelessly milks the midair collision from the season 2 finale to increase his firm's business. ZigZagged in that, while he facilitates several illegal and immoral enterprises, he is unfailingly loyal to his clients, refuses bribes, and passes up several golden opportunities to double-cross them.
-->'''Jesse:''' Going gets tough, you don't want a criminal lawyer. You want a ''criminal'' lawyer, [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre know what I mean]]?
* AnalogyBackfire:
** Hank talks about how he wanted to bring Heisenberg in himself, like Popeye Doyle. Walt points out that in ''Film/TheFrenchConnection'', Doyle never successfully arrested anyone.
** Hank also makes references to ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' that seem to ignore the fact that Rocky actually loses in the first film.
** Mike explains his StartOfDarkness to try to talk Walt out of a half measure attempt to save Jesse. Walt references it again after killing the two men Jesse wanted dead, and Mike is less than pleased.
* AndSomeOtherStuff: Mostly done quite subtly, we're never shown entire recipes for anything particularly dangerous. Any time Walt and Jesse are shown cooking meth, there's a montage of them manipulating lab equipment, adding ingredients, pouring out results and occasional CGI shots of reactions at the molecular level, but nothing practical to follow. [[WordOfGod According to the producers]], the recipes for making meth, methods for disposing of bodies and such are deliberately either incomplete or incorrect, because the writers didn't want to educate viewers who might be... let's say, criminally motivated.
* AnimalMotifs: Tortuga is commonly associated with tortoises. His name is Spanish for tortoise and the cousins kill him by severing his head and placing it on a tortoise.
* AntiHero: Walter and Jesse are deeply involved in the methamphetamine industry, and are often forced to commit gruesome acts to survive. At the same time, Walt is motivated to provide for his family should his cancer claim him, and Jesse is really just in the business because it's what he does best. By the time season five starts, [[spoiler:Walter is motivated only by greed and power, while Jesse is more conflicted than ever. The intention of the showrunners is for the character to "start as Mr. Chips and end up as Scarface."]]
* AnyoneCanDie: Any character that dies on the show stays dead. Throughout the entire show, the list includes: [[spoiler:Emilio, Krazy-8, Tuco, Tortuga, Combo, Jane, the Cousins, Gale Boetticher, Victor, the Cartel bosses, Héctor Salamanca, Tyrus, Gus, Drew Sharp, Mike, Declan and his crew, Gomez, Hank, Andrea, the Nazis, Todd, Jack, and ''WALT.'']][[spoiler:Lydia]] ends the series with, at most, a few days to live. Needless to say if you took on this show you should have kept your resume current.
* ArcWords: "Apply yourself" seems to be heard a lot. This was written by Walt on Jesse's chemistry test when he gave it a bad grade. Jesse would later say this to his friends after inviting Skinny Pete, Combo, and Badger to his new home. And Walt said this to Jesse's successor Todd as they prepared to make their first batch of methamphetamine.
* ArmsDealer: Two Gangland Gun Runners have been seen so far:
** A genial yokel with a van full of serious hardware who sells a couple of {{Bulletproof Vest}}s, handguns and some hollow-point bullets to the Salamanca Twins. They [[BallisticDiscount test his own vest out]] before paying up, but luckily for him he sells good merchandise.
** An even more genial vendor (Mr. Ellsworth from ''Series/{{Deadwood}}'', no less) who meets Walt in a motel room and gives him a brief lesson in GunSafety and proper use. He's later seen in a [[HowWeGotHere flash-forward]] selling [[spoiler:a now on-the-run Walt a stolen car with an [[{{BFG}} M60]] in the trunk.]]
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: In "Ozymandias", [[spoiler:Skyler realises that something is terribly wrong when Walt grows increasingly irate when she asks him, "Where is Hank?"]]
* ArtisticLicenseChemistry:
** In RealLife, it's unlikely that a meth product as pure as the stuff that Walt manufactures would appear blue, because methamphetamine itself is colorless. The color would inherently be from an impurity (presumably the <1% that isn't meth). It is {{handwave}}d in-story as a byproduct of Walt's particular chemical synthesis, but it's really just a convenient way for the writers to make Walt's meth stand out. It also gives Hank a convenient way to track "Heisenberg", since he can identify his meth by its unique color.
** [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/08/23/methylamine_how_to_make_the_substance_so_elusive_on_breaking_bad_.html An article]] on ''Slate'' points out that a chemist of Walt's calibre could synthesize methylamine pretty easily, but their attempts to source a rare raw material are a convenient source of drama.
** Phenylacetic acid is a red flag to the DEA, but they can't use that as {{Unobtainium}} because the guy in charge of the Mexican lab already spilled the beans that any college sophomore could make it. Methylamine is, if anything, ''easier'' to make from stuff that the DEA isn't terribly interested in than phenylacetic acid is.
** Several uses of chemistry in the series were investigated in ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' in a [[http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2013/08/mythbusters-breaking-bad-methbusters-prove-and-disprove-2-iconic-season-1-moments.html special episode]] about ''Breaking Bad''. The scenes where the hydrofluoric acid ate through the tub in "Cat's in the Bag" and where mercury fulminate was used to blow up a room in "Crazy Handful of Nothin'" each wound up being busted. In response, Vince Gilligan cited ArtisticLicense as justification. He also suggested a potential HandWave when the [=MythBusters=] couldn't set off the Hg fulminate with an impact: Walt used more volatile silver fulminate as a primary explosive.
** It's extremely unlikely that a high school chemistry lab would have hydrofluoric acid sitting around to begin with. HF is highly dangerous (in deceptive, not-necessarily-immediately-apparent ways) and not actually all that ''useful'' in the sorts of experiments that are commonly done in high school or even in college (at the masters/doctoral level, ''maybe'').
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Saul Goodman asks Walt and Jesse to give him a dollar each, claiming that it's a retainer and he's therefore forbidden from revealing anything they discuss because of attorney-client privilege. Privilege doesn't apply when the lawyer is himself part of an ongoing criminal conspiracy. However, he might have been twisting the truth so they would stop threatening him and start trusting him.
* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Ricin poisoning doesn't cause flu-like symptoms when it's ingested -- it causes severe digestive distress, including but not limited to vomiting and defecating blood.
* AscendedExtra:
** Mike who starts out as a OneSceneWonder in the season two finale, becomes a regular in season three and is one of the show's most central characters by season five.
** Todd worked his way up this ladder in Season five, starting out as just an underling in Vamonos Pest. Two episodes later he [[spoiler:helps the guys in their train heist]] and two episodes after that [[spoiler:he becomes Walt's new lab assistant]]. In the second part of the season, [[spoiler:he becomes Lydia's new primary cook when his uncle's crew massacres Declan's]].
** Hector Salamanca starts off as a seemingly minor character in two episodes towards the beginning of season two but returns in season three and four in arcs that gradually reveal him to be not only an important player in the Mexican cartel but in the {{backstory}} of one of the main characters.
* AssholeVictim: Oh so many. [[spoiler:Todd, Lydia, the Cartel Dons, Uncle Jack, Krazy-8, Spooge, and perhaps even Walt,]] to name a few.
* ATeamFiring: In season five, [[spoiler:the episode "To'hajiilee" ends with a shootout where none of the involved seem to hit anything.]] This is cleared up in the next episode.
* AuditThreat: The risk of the IRS discovering the shady bookkeeping practices of Beneke Fabricators is attention that Skyler is determined to avoid in season 3.
* AxCrazy:
** Tuco Salamanca is a drug dealer with a methamphetamine addiction who is always just a few moments from flying off the handle. He will take any and every excuse he can get to beat someone up, especially when he's high on meth. As Walt tells him in season 2:
-->'''Walt:''' We tried to poison you because you are an insane, degenerate piece of filth and you deserve to die.
** The Salamanca Cousins. One of them carries around a chromed fire-axe with which they kill several people. When they ambush Hank, Marco refuses to shoot Hank in the face when he had the chance, [[DeathTrap choosing instead to go back to the car to get the axe.]] That decision works out about as well as it usually does, as Hank manages to get the drop with Leonel's gun before Marco gets a chance to axe him.
* BackForTheFinale: Gretchen, Elliot, Badger, and Skinny Pete all pop up in the finale after not being seen for a long time.
* BadassBoast:
** '''Walt:''' Let me clue you in. I am not ''in'' danger, Skyler. [[IAmTheNoun I am the danger.]] A guy opens his door and gets shot, you think that of me? No! I am the one who ''knocks!''
** [[spoiler:Gus, after poisoning the cartel, makes one to the remaining people in the Don's mansion, who promptly flee.]]
** In "Crawl Space", [[spoiler:Gus delivers one to Héctor Salamanca at the retirement home, saying that he killed off all members of the cartel and Jesse killed his grandson, making him the last of the Salamanca line.]]
** Walt gets a one line BadassBoast in the season 4 finale after [[spoiler:pulling off a double BatmanGambit and defeating Gus: "I won."]]
* {{Badass}}: A number of characters get their time to shine.
** Walt walking straight into Tuco's office and blowing it up with homemade explosives.
** Walt confronting some local meth pushers and kicking them out of his turf.
** Gus walking into a hail of sniper fire, daring the assassins to shoot him.
** Gus [[spoiler:poisoning himself in order to assassinate the entire cartel leadership.]]
** Jesse bending a cartel meth lab to his will.
** Hank taking on Tuco and then the Salamanca twins.
** Walt Jr. [[spoiler:breaking up a knife fight between his parents and calling the cops on his father]]
** While not action moments, Skyler gets a couple when she stalls the IRS and tricks Bogdan into selling the car wash for a substantially lower price. She also has the guts to tell Walt what she thinks of him after he's gone over to the dark side.
** Mike. In every single scene he is in.
** Hank has a memorable one in his [[spoiler:death scene. He not only accepts his death, but he insults the man pointing the gun at him.]]
* BadassFamily: The Salamanca family.
* BadassGrandpa: Mike is one of the most dangerous characters on the show, as he has an entire career's worth of experience and is exceptionally well trained. One of the main reasons he saves up money is to set it aside for his granddaughter.
* BadBoss:
** Tuco. Shortly after we're introduced to him, we get to see him beat one of his henchmen to death for reminding Walt that he works for Tuco.
** Gus is a cold-blooded, FauxAffablyEvil Bad Boss. Kind of. He slits a mook's throat just to make a point (and incidentally to punish him for carelessness in being seen at the scene of a crime). On the other hand, he seems to be grooming Jesse for a more responsible position and the show implies that Jesse makes the wrong choice when he picks Walt over Gus. Creator/GiancarloEsposito has an interesting take on this [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGnk0JuZs1w here]]: Gus treated [[spoiler:Victor]] as a member of his "family", but had to kill him because he jeopardized it.
* BaitAndSwitch: In "Confessions", [[spoiler:Walt is seen sitting down with a video camera in what he states was his confession before the show cut to a commercial. Hank and Marie receive the confession after meeting with Walt and, to their surprise, it's not a confession of Walt fessing up to the sins he committed while in the drug trade, but a carefully constructed lie meant to frame Hank.]]
* BaldOfAwesome: Quite a few characters. Hank, Mike and Tio Salamanca are naturally bald. Walt shaves his head early in the show, but that's due to the chemo drugs he is taking. The Salamanca brothers also sport shaved heads. Jesse also crops his hair down after a traumatic event in an apparent effort to toughen himself up. The trope is even exploited in the Season 5 episode "Rabid Dog," in which a paranoid Jesse is spooked by the sight of a tough-looking bald man near where he is supposed to meet Heisenberg. Jesse, believing that the other man is a hitman, flees the scene in fear; right afterward, it's shown that [[spoiler:the bald man is just an ordinary man waiting to meet up with his wife and child]].
* BallisticDiscount: Subverted. The Salamanca brothers meet with a gun dealer and test out the [[BulletproofVest Bulletproof Vests]] he's selling by shooting the one the dealer is already wearing. After checking to see that the bullet in fact did not penetrate through the vest, they actually pay the dealer and leave him groaning on the floor.
* BattleTrophy: Hank receives Tuco's grill as a gift.
* BatmanGambit:
** Two of epic proportions in the last two episodes of season 4 [[spoiler:by Walt. First, he gives Brock a poison with ricin-like symptoms and steals Jesse's ricin cigarette; Jesse storms his house wanting to kill him, since only the two of them knew about the ricin, but Walt convinces him at gunpoint that he would have nothing to gain and that it's a ploy by Gus to gain Jesse's compliance in killing Walt. When his initial attempt to kill Gus fails, he acquires Hector Salamanca as an ally, convinces him to talk to the DEA so Gus will think he's snitching, then booby-traps his wheelchair. This plan hinges on the hopes that a) Héctor hates Gus more than he hates Walt, b) Gus will insist on killing Héctor in person and c) Héctor is willing to kill himself to take Gus down with him. Amazingly, it all works.]]
** In Season 5, [[spoiler: Jesse smokes pot in Saul's office to determine if Huell is a professional pick-pocket.]]
** Also Season 5, [[spoiler:Jesse and Hank manage to scare Walt into driving to exactly where his money is hidden with a falsified picture, and Jesse egging Walt on so he won't stop and try to reason out whether or not Jesse actually has the money. It works so well that Walt ends up driving so recklessly he probably broke every New Mexico motor vehicle law on the books.]] All it took was knowing what Walter really cared about, even more than his family.
** The series finale is one long BatmanGambit as Walt executes several complicated plans in order to get revenge on Elliot and Gretchen, Lydia, and the Nazis.
* BavarianFireDrill: In "Cornered", Jesse wants to entice some meth heads, who have stolen some Blue Sky, out of their home. How does he do this? [[spoiler:He grabs a shovel and starts digging outside. One of the meth heads comes outside and asks what he's doing. Jesse tells him he's digging and asks him to take over, leaving the house open and unguarded.]]
* BeardOfEvil: Walter, Declan, and Gaff are all antagonistic characters with beards. Walter's beard is particularly distinctive, as it grows between seasons.
* BecauseImGoodAtIt:
** What ultimately keeps Walt cooking, his pride and ego from realizing that he has a unique skill that has created an empire that would rival that of Steve Jobs both in its value and impact on the meth industry. He's not a failure anymore and has become "the one who knocks." In the series finale Walt admits this, saying "I was good at it."
** In Season 4, Jesse says he wants to continue working with Mike and Gus because he feels useful for once. Mr. White was a constant reminder of Jesse's failures. Positive reinforcement from Gus goes a long way toward winning over Jesse.
* BecomingTheMask:
** Jesse has his two drug-dealing cronies, Skinny Pete & Badger, pose as recovering addicts and join a 12-step program to sell meth to the other members. They can't bring themselves to do it and end up going sober instead.
*** They "unmasked," though, in "Thirty-Eight Snub."
** Season one: weak Walter White pretends to be the ruthless Heisenberg. Season four: ruthless Heisenberg pretends to be the weak Walter White. In season five, he doesn't even bother pretending anymore, and willfully scares the shit out of everyone around him.
* BeneathTheMask:
** As the series progresses, we see flashes of just how much pent-up anger, bitterness, malice, and wounded pride had always lain beneath Walt's harmless veneer. Viewers are invited to wonder: what sort of man had Walter quietly, secretly become even ''before'' his 50th birthday? How much of his gradual "transformation" amounts to the surfacing of personality traits that were always there? How many of us remain good people on the surface, but end up becoming ripe for the sort of trigger events that launched Walt's career?
** Hank is introduced as a wisecracking, blustering oaf. However, as the stress and danger of his job increases we see that he is a SadClown, riddled with self-doubt, but also has more grit, integrity, bravery and intelligence than he seems to give himself credit for.
** Gus Fring. A mild restaurateur who supports the DEA and the community, who uses his restaurants as a front for his crystal meth trafficking ring.
* BerserkButton:
** Walt is incredibly defensive of his son in the first season. Jesse, on the other hand, gets protective of anyone's children, like Spooge's son.
** Eventually, Walt's biggest BerserkButton has nothing to do with his family, but with his {{Pride}}. Attacking his massive ego becomes the absolute most dangerous thing you can do, as [[spoiler:Mike]] discovered.
* BestServedCold: Gus once saw his friend and partner murdered in front of him by the cartel. He then proceeds to bide his time and establish trust for ''twenty years''. Then, when Tio, the man who pulled the trigger is finally in his power, he ''still'' doesn't kill him, but visits him again and again, each time telling him that another one of his relatives has been killed, until he's the last member of his family alive.
* {{BFG}}:
** In season 5, Walt [[spoiler:gets his hands on an M60 machine gun, a weapon so huge it was nicknamed "The Pig" during the Vietnam War]].
** One of Jack's gunmen uses an [=AA12=] automatic shotgun.
* BigBad:
** Season 1: Tuco is set up to be this at the end of Season 1, but dies within the first few episodes of Season 2.
** Season 3: The Cousins initially, but they become a DiscOneFinalBoss. Gus Fring and his empire take up the slack for the rest of season 3.
** Season 4: Gus Fring.
** Season 5, first half: Walter himself is the BigBad by way of VillainProtagonist. He creates much of the conflict.
** Season 5, second half: [[spoiler:'Uncle' Jack Welker, with Todd Alquist as TheDragon.]]
* BigNo: Jesse before [[spoiler:Todd shoots the kid at the end of "Dead Freight"]].
** Also, Jesse after [[spoiler:Todd shoots Andrea.]]
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Where to begin? The drug-cooking school teacher, his attempted StepfordSmiler wife, the gung-ho DEA agent brother-in-law, the kooky kleptomaniac sister... No wonder "Flynn" wants to change his name.
* BigShutUp: A truly epic one [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UosZ4mXL8EI from Skyler to Marie]] that verges on a mental breakdown.
* BilingualBonus:
** The Milanese song Gale is [[http://vimeo.com/12563032 singing along to]] in the final episode of Season 3 is called "Crapa Pelada", which translates as "Bald Head", and the lyrics are based on an old folk rhyme about a greedy cook, the lyrics loosely translate as "Bald Head who makes dumplings, but he does not give them to his brothers, his brothers make an [[YouCantMakeAnOmelette omelette]] but they do not give it to Bald Head", foreshadowing the cartel/Gus situation much later in the series.
** Tio Salamanca tries to warn his nephew about the poisoned food by ringing his bell three times quickly, three times slowly and three times quickly again. This is Morse Code for "SOS."
* BingeMontage: A flashback showing how Jesse lost the money he was meant to buy the RV with.
* BittersweetEnding:
** The finale of [[spoiler:Season 4, Walt has killed Gus, protected his family and come out on top through a superb double BatmanGambit but to do so he had to make more compromises and put more innocents in danger than ever before, even poisoning a small child.]]
** The GrandFinale as well. [[spoiler: Walt is dead, his family has completely disowned him, and the world knows that he's Heisenberg... But he died on his own terms, effectively eradicated Blue Sky, he's managed to rescue Jesse from the Aryans, Jesse passes up a chance to kill him, and he manages to get his money, over 9 million, to his children via Gretchen and Elliot. He gives Skyler the coordinates to Hank and Steve's bodies ensuring that they'll have a proper burial, and Skyler may be able to get the feds off her back in exchange for the information. Jesse is free from slavery and all ties to the meth business, and might actually make the most out of his life having had aspirations of being a carpenter during his enslavement. And Todd, Jack, Lydia and the Aryans have all gotten their just comeuppance.]]
* BlackAndGreyMorality:
** "Heisenberg" vs the Cartel. Season 4 gives us Walt vs Gus. Though this became EvilVersusEvil by the end.
** From Season 5B, [[spoiler:Hank]] versus Heisenberg quickly became this, as [[spoiler:Hank]]'s pursuit of Heisenberg proves to be not without its own compromises.
** Uncle Jack's crew of Neo-Nazis versus Heisenberg.
* BlackComedy: Comedy so black, ''no light can escape it.''
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Look at the list of names under AnyoneCanDie - the deaths in the series overwhelming happen to Hispanic men and women. Among the main characters, [[spoiler:Gus is the first]] to die. All of the main characters to survive the series are white.
* TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn: Marco Salamanca's axe when Hank shoots him before he can deliver a CoupDeGrace.
* BleedEmAndWeep:
** [[spoiler:Walt killing Krazy-8.]]
** [[spoiler:Jesse killing Gale.]] Well, it's more of a "weep and bleed 'em" scenario.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The neo-Nazis. They are a particularly despicable lot who have no qualms about [[spoiler:murdering children]] and are even crueler than Gus, but they find the state of the U.S. utterly dreadful:
-->'''Kenny:''' Nanny state. I see a kid with a bicycle helmet on, I want to smack the shit out of him—like for his own good.
* BlofeldPloy: In the season 4 premiere "Box Cutter", Gus seems about to discipline Walt, but instead kills an underling and departs without a word. His motivation is left ambiguous. [[spoiler:However, the underling, Victor, was seen at the scene of a crime and could have led authorities back to Gus. Walt, on the other hand, suspects that Gus killed Victor for cooking a batch of meth, taking on more authority than Gus had given him.]]
* BloodFromTheMouth: Subverted. Walt starts coughing up blood in "4 Days Out", but the end of the episode confirms that he's in remission.
* BloodyHilarious:
** In the first season, Jesse tries to dispose of a body using hydrofluoric acid. In a bathtub. It doesn't work out well for the body, the bathtub or the floor underneath. By the time the floor's weakened enough for the remains of the body to fall through, it's no longer recognizable as human. As long as you don't vomit, you'll bust a gut laughing.
** Also, the head getting crushed by the ATM in "Peekaboo."
* BoardingSchool: Skyler brings up sending Walter, Jr. to one, if only as a way of getting him away from Walt.
* BookDumb: Jesse, who's occasionally shown to be pretty smart (if irresponsible and naive) but under-educated. Contrasts with Walt's ScienceHero, and often fills the role of TheWatson regarding Walt's chemical wizardry.
* BookEnds: In series finale "Felina," Walt arrives at the Neo-Nazi compound wearing the same outfit he wore in the first episode, "Pilot": pastel jacket, green button-up shirt, white undershirt and beige slacks.
** [[spoiler:For most of the series, Walt is in remission and shaves his head. However, in the final season, his cancer comes back and he lets his hair grow back out, mirroring his state in the first season, albeit ''a lot'' more disheveled.]]
* BoomHeadshot:
** Hank kills one of the Salamanca twins with a hollow-point bullet to the head.
** Gus's companion in founding Los Pollos Hermanos, Max, gets offed in this fashion by Tio right before his eyes.
** [[spoiler:Hank himself is killed by one, delivered by Uncle Jack.]]
** [[spoiler:Todd kills Andrea in this fashion to punish Jesse for trying to escape Jack's compound.]]
** [[spoiler:Walt delivers the final blow to Uncle Jack this way.]]
* BoredomMontage: Used in the episode "Shotgun" when Jesse begins working for Mike. In another episode, he kills time in the lab waiting for Walt to arrive.
* BottleEpisode: "And the Bag's in the River" and especially "Fly", which features only Jesse and Walter, and only one location (the basement lab), and only one story--Walter and Jesse trying to kill a fly. For the whole episode.
** "Four Days Out" was supposed to be this with the majority of time spent in the RV with Jeese and Walter. However, more scenes required shooting out in the desert or in completely different locations to make the episode work, so it ended up being one of the more expensive episodes of the series.
* BottomlessMagazines: Tuco and Hank ZigZag this trope in their shoot out. Both of them reload after exchanging shots, but both of them fired more shots than their weapons should've been able to before so.
** Again in Hank's shootout with the Twins, Marco fires 11 bullets from what appears to be a .45 1911 before the slide locks open. Leonel fires 9 times at Hank from his own 1911, Hank then picks up Leonel's gun and fires 5 more times at Marco.
* BreakTheCutie:
** Jesse, over the course of the show.
** Skyler in the third season. It got much worse throughout Season 5.
* BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: Walt's call to Skyler in "Ozymandias" has shades of this. On the surface, he appears to be ruthlessly and cruelly raging at her, but a closer reading shows that he's taking the blame for all the crimes, for the benefit of the police listening in. It also has the effect of emotionally severing himself from Skyler, Walter Jr. and Marie, allowing them all to see him as the villain and themselves as fellow victims, so they can salvage their relationships when he's gone.
* BreakTheHaughty:
** Hank and Jesse both experience extreme pressure that cracks their arrogant facades.
** Walt goes through this in "Ozymandias": [[spoiler:Hank's death at the hands of Jack's crew, Jack's crew taking his money, his family abandoning him and even his baby daughter wanting her mother over him, finally makes him realize what he's become]].
** Walt's crushing continues in the following episode "Granite State": [[spoiler: Saul's new-identity man sets him up in a remote shack where the cancer eats at his strength. He keeps starting the eight-mile walk to the nearest town but even the Heisenberg hat can't give him the power to do it. He can't get any of the money - all that remains of the legacy that justifies any of this business - to his family without suspicion, and when he tries to send them some through a friend of Walt Jr., his son angrily rejects him.]]
* BreakoutCharacter: Jesse Pinkman (people keep asking Aaron Paul to call them a bitch) and Saul Goodman (focus of SpinOff show ''Better Call Saul'').
* BribeBackfire: Walt and Jesse's first meeting with Saul.
* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Lots of characters, though usually not in an actual briefcase; it's more likely to be a backpack or duffel bag and in one scene there's a ''shipping pallet'' full of money.
* BringMeMyBrownPants: One of Mike's first victims (that we know of) soiled himself after the former roughed him up and threatened to kill him should he hurt his wife again.
* BulletproofVest:
** The Cousins purchase a pair from an illegal arms dealer. Played realistically: one of them shoots the dealer in the chest to test the vests -- he survives, but one of his ribs is broken and he's left moaning in pain as the Cousins walk away.
** [[spoiler:Saul wears one under his suit after Huell suddenly goes AWOL in "To'hajiilee."]]
** Jack's crew wear them when tooled in "To'hajiilee."
* BurnerPhones: Several phones are snapped in half and otherwise disposed of to cover up criminal activity over the course of the series. Saul has a whole drawer full of different cell phones. In Season 2, Walter manages to deflect Skyler's suspicions about him having a second cell phone. That is, until Walter is being sedated for cancer surgery in the finale, Skyler asks him about his cell phone, and Walter says, "Which one?" This leads to Skyler finding the burner phone and unspooling Walter's entire web of lies.
* ButHeSoundsHandsome: Walt's vanity is so bad that he won't let Hank believe that Heisenberg was someone as prosaic as Gale, asserting that Heisenberg's "genius might still be out there."
* ButtMonkey: Jesse's first scene is him falling out a window with no pants on. His humiliation grows with his success. One consistent element through the first few seasons of the show was Jesse taking a severe beating when someone was pissed at Walt. It almost grew to RunningGag status.
** Walt has been the ButtMonkey his whole life, but the events of the show make him more assertive and aggressive. Which is not really a good thing, it turns out.
* ButtonMashing: Jesse light-heartedly accuses Brock of this as they play a ''Sonic'' game with the wonderful line, "You're just pressing buttons and it makes you do magical stuff."
----
----
!!These ''are'' the tropes that knock:
* AbandonedArea: [[spoiler:The White family residence at the very end]].
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The Cousins' axe falls out of his hands and [[TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn cuts into the asphalt]] far enough to stay upright. It wasn't even swung downwards -- it just fell about 7 feet and landed on the blade.
* AbusiveParents:
** In Season 2, Jesse encounters a couple of drug addicts who do nothing but rob people and get high living together in a filthy, dilapidated house -- along with their [[TearJerker horribly neglected]] [[TheWoobie young son]]. He is suitably [[FamilyValuesVillain disgusted]].
** A flashback shows how Tio Salamanca [[FreudianExcuse raised]] the two terrifying hit men we see in season three. When one of them yells in the midst of a sibling squabble that he wishes his brother were dead, Tio [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor takes him at his word]] and proceeds to ''hold his brother's head under ice water'' until he fights his uncle off to save his brother. The treatment did, however, seem to instill an undying family loyalty in the brothers.
** Jesse's parents might be considered an example because of the excessively high expectations they hold Jesse's younger brother Jake to (and presumably held Jesse to as well). They also throw Jesse out on the street, although it's clear they have a long history of giving him breaks only to be disappointed. Additionally, one could assume that they're overcompensating with his younger brother to make sure they raise this one right - or that Jesse was under similar pressure before he gave up and turned to drugs, as Jake is apparently also doing.
** Walter to his surrogate son, Jesse, in later seasons.
** Walt to his ''actual'' son Walt Jr. at least once, when he basically forces Junior to drink until he pukes.
* AdultFear: Oh, let us count the ways...
** Dying of a terminal illness, and being unable to pay for treatment.
** Having a loved one die of a drug overdose while being too drugged-out yourself to do anything about it--or ''notice''.
** Being caught in a plane crash. If you don't find plane crashes scary, you ''will'' after you see the Season 2 finale.
** In "Dead Freight": [[spoiler:A child being murdered, and the evidence being hidden so thoroughly as to make the crime unsolvable.]]
** In "Ozymandias":
*** [[spoiler:A domestic fight happening while the whole family is present, forcing a child to call the police on his own father, resulting in said father kidnapping his baby daughter and running away.]]
*** [[spoiler: Being kidnapped and forced into slavery, and being tortured so badly that you lose your will to fight back.]]
* AffablyEvil:
** Saul Goodman, the cheerfully corrupt lawyer.
** Mike Ehrmantraut is gruff but personable and loyal, as well as a loving grandfather, but he'll straight-up murder you if it needs to be done.
** Jack has an easy-going, down-homey demeanor, but he's a cold-blooded killer and Neo-Nazi.
** Todd has a very mild and friendly personality, but is also a cold-blooded criminal who kills without hesitation or regret. The dichotomy is best seen when he apologizes to his murder victim immediately before shooting her in the head, and brings [[spoiler:an enslaved Jesse two flavors of ice cream (since he didn't know which Jesse prefers) as a reward for good work]].
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: Jack gives Todd an affectionate noogie ([[JugglingLoadedGuns still holding a gun]]) during the TensionCuttingLaughter after [[spoiler:he asks Jack not to kill Jesse because he's still trying to impress Lydia with their cooking.]]
* AintTooProudToBeg:
** Both Walt and Gale plead for their lives.
** In "Ozymandias," Walt [[spoiler:begs for Hank's life. Hank refuses to, at least in part because he's resigned to the fact that Jack has already decided to kill him]].
** And then in the finale, Walt [[spoiler: begs Jesse to MercyKill him. Jesse refuses.]]
* AlasPoorVillain:
** In the episode "Face Off," [[spoiler:the extremely moving music as Gus walks to his death reminds you that he was once a similar guy to Walt, and he'll die failing to get his final revenge on the people who killed his "brother"]].
** Similarly, the sheer amount of anger and sadness in [[spoiler:Hector]]'s face as he looks at [[spoiler:his target, Gus]] before [[spoiler:setting off the bomb that will [[TakingYouWithMe kill both of them]]]] makes you almost feel sorry for him.
** Debatable as to how much of a villain he was, but [[spoiler:Mike's death]]. Granted, [[spoiler: Mike's a stone cold murderer and by no means a good guy but the writers manage to avoid making this a case of KickTheSonOfABitch by having Mike become a guy who just wants out of the game... and then Walt goes and kills him over some petty ego bullshit.]]
* AllJustADream: In the [[http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/videos/breaking-bad-alternate-ending-reveals-it-was-just-a-dream-20131117 alternate ending from the complete series DVD]]. Turns out [[Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle Hal]] just ate deep-fried twinkies before bed.
* TheAllegedCar: Walter's beige 2004 Pontiac Aztek was a deliberate choice on behalf of Vince Gilligan due to the Aztek being considered one of the worst cars ever made (see [[TheAllegedCar/RealLife the main trope article]] for the reasons why) yet has notoriously protective owners, to make Walt seem more pathetic. In "Fifty-One", Walt sells it to his mechanic for ''50 dollars''.
* AlliterativeName: Both father and son are named Walter White. The name was deliberately chosen for its blandness. Lampshaded by Hank at one point:
-->'''Hank:''' W.W., [[Creator/WaltWhitman who do you think that is]], huh? UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson? [[Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory Willy Wonka]]? ... Walter White?
* AlliterativeTitle: "'''''B'''''''reaking'' '''''B'''''''ad''".
* AmbiguouslyBrown: The ethnicity of the character, Victor, Gus's personal assistant and partner to Mike is never revealed. He hardly ever speaks, but when does, he doesn't have a Mexican accent or ever speak Spanish. Being that the actor portraying the character, Jeremiah Bitsui is a full-blooded American Indian (1/2 Navajo, 1/2 Omaha), and the city of Albuquerque is home to a big American Indian population, particularly Navajo Indians, it wouldn't be much of a stress to assume that Victor is possibly Native American.
* AmbiguouslyGay:
** Gus, whose unusually strong attachment to his initial meth-distributing partner (even ''twenty years'' after his death) has provoked audience speculation as to his sexuality. WordOfGod even states that this is a legitimate interpretation of their relationship. He references a wife and kids, but they never show up onscreen.
** Gale worships Walt and gives him a copy of ''Leaves of Grass'', by the famously AmbiguouslyGay Walt Whitman, that he signs "To my other favorite W.W." The rest of his tastes and personality, especially in his home, brush against some gay stereotypes, although there is never any confirmation either way.
* AmoralAttorney: Saul Goodman, Walt and Jesse's assistant in the business side of the meth trade. Has so many clients in organized crime he can't even keep them straight, and hires a fall guy to get arrested in Heisenberg's place. He even shamelessly milks the midair collision from the season 2 finale to increase his firm's business. ZigZagged in that, while he facilitates several illegal and immoral enterprises, he is unfailingly loyal to his clients, refuses bribes, and passes up several golden opportunities to double-cross them.
-->'''Jesse:''' Going gets tough, you don't want a criminal lawyer. You want a ''criminal'' lawyer, [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre know what I mean]]?
* AnalogyBackfire:
** Hank talks about how he wanted to bring Heisenberg in himself, like Popeye Doyle. Walt points out that in ''Film/TheFrenchConnection'', Doyle never successfully arrested anyone.
** Hank also makes references to ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' that seem to ignore the fact that Rocky actually loses in the first film.
** Mike explains his StartOfDarkness to try to talk Walt out of a half measure attempt to save Jesse. Walt references it again after killing the two men Jesse wanted dead, and Mike is less than pleased.
* AndSomeOtherStuff: Mostly done quite subtly, we're never shown entire recipes for anything particularly dangerous. Any time Walt and Jesse are shown cooking meth, there's a montage of them manipulating lab equipment, adding ingredients, pouring out results and occasional CGI shots of reactions at the molecular level, but nothing practical to follow. [[WordOfGod According to the producers]], the recipes for making meth, methods for disposing of bodies and such are deliberately either incomplete or incorrect, because the writers didn't want to educate viewers who might be... let's say, criminally motivated.
* AnimalMotifs: Tortuga is commonly associated with tortoises. His name is Spanish for tortoise and the cousins kill him by severing his head and placing it on a tortoise.
* AntiHero: Walter and Jesse are deeply involved in the methamphetamine industry, and are often forced to commit gruesome acts to survive. At the same time, Walt is motivated to provide for his family should his cancer claim him, and Jesse is really just in the business because it's what he does best. By the time season five starts, [[spoiler:Walter is motivated only by greed and power, while Jesse is more conflicted than ever. The intention of the showrunners is for the character to "start as Mr. Chips and end up as Scarface."]]
* AnyoneCanDie: Any character that dies on the show stays dead. Throughout the entire show, the list includes: [[spoiler:Emilio, Krazy-8, Tuco, Tortuga, Combo, Jane, the Cousins, Gale Boetticher, Victor, the Cartel bosses, Héctor Salamanca, Tyrus, Gus, Drew Sharp, Mike, Declan and his crew, Gomez, Hank, Andrea, the Nazis, Todd, Jack, and ''WALT.'']][[spoiler:Lydia]] ends the series with, at most, a few days to live. Needless to say if you took on this show you should have kept your resume current.
* ArcWords: "Apply yourself" seems to be heard a lot. This was written by Walt on Jesse's chemistry test when he gave it a bad grade. Jesse would later say this to his friends after inviting Skinny Pete, Combo, and Badger to his new home. And Walt said this to Jesse's successor Todd as they prepared to make their first batch of methamphetamine.
* ArmsDealer: Two Gangland Gun Runners have been seen so far:
** A genial yokel with a van full of serious hardware who sells a couple of {{Bulletproof Vest}}s, handguns and some hollow-point bullets to the Salamanca Twins. They [[BallisticDiscount test his own vest out]] before paying up, but luckily for him he sells good merchandise.
** An even more genial vendor (Mr. Ellsworth from ''Series/{{Deadwood}}'', no less) who meets Walt in a motel room and gives him a brief lesson in GunSafety and proper use. He's later seen in a [[HowWeGotHere flash-forward]] selling [[spoiler:a now on-the-run Walt a stolen car with an [[{{BFG}} M60]] in the trunk.]]
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: In "Ozymandias", [[spoiler:Skyler realises that something is terribly wrong when Walt grows increasingly irate when she asks him, "Where is Hank?"]]
* ArtisticLicenseChemistry:
** In RealLife, it's unlikely that a meth product as pure as the stuff that Walt manufactures would appear blue, because methamphetamine itself is colorless. The color would inherently be from an impurity (presumably the <1% that isn't meth). It is {{handwave}}d in-story as a byproduct of Walt's particular chemical synthesis, but it's really just a convenient way for the writers to make Walt's meth stand out. It also gives Hank a convenient way to track "Heisenberg", since he can identify his meth by its unique color.
** [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/08/23/methylamine_how_to_make_the_substance_so_elusive_on_breaking_bad_.html An article]] on ''Slate'' points out that a chemist of Walt's calibre could synthesize methylamine pretty easily, but their attempts to source a rare raw material are a convenient source of drama.
** Phenylacetic acid is a red flag to the DEA, but they can't use that as {{Unobtainium}} because the guy in charge of the Mexican lab already spilled the beans that any college sophomore could make it. Methylamine is, if anything, ''easier'' to make from stuff that the DEA isn't terribly interested in than phenylacetic acid is.
** Several uses of chemistry in the series were investigated in ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' in a [[http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2013/08/mythbusters-breaking-bad-methbusters-prove-and-disprove-2-iconic-season-1-moments.html special episode]] about ''Breaking Bad''. The scenes where the hydrofluoric acid ate through the tub in "Cat's in the Bag" and where mercury fulminate was used to blow up a room in "Crazy Handful of Nothin'" each wound up being busted. In response, Vince Gilligan cited ArtisticLicense as justification. He also suggested a potential HandWave when the [=MythBusters=] couldn't set off the Hg fulminate with an impact: Walt used more volatile silver fulminate as a primary explosive.
** It's extremely unlikely that a high school chemistry lab would have hydrofluoric acid sitting around to begin with. HF is highly dangerous (in deceptive, not-necessarily-immediately-apparent ways) and not actually all that ''useful'' in the sorts of experiments that are commonly done in high school or even in college (at the masters/doctoral level, ''maybe'').
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Saul Goodman asks Walt and Jesse to give him a dollar each, claiming that it's a retainer and he's therefore forbidden from revealing anything they discuss because of attorney-client privilege. Privilege doesn't apply when the lawyer is himself part of an ongoing criminal conspiracy. However, he might have been twisting the truth so they would stop threatening him and start trusting him.
* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Ricin poisoning doesn't cause flu-like symptoms when it's ingested -- it causes severe digestive distress, including but not limited to vomiting and defecating blood.
* AscendedExtra:
** Mike who starts out as a OneSceneWonder in the season two finale, becomes a regular in season three and is one of the show's most central characters by season five.
** Todd worked his way up this ladder in Season five, starting out as just an underling in Vamonos Pest. Two episodes later he [[spoiler:helps the guys in their train heist]] and two episodes after that [[spoiler:he becomes Walt's new lab assistant]]. In the second part of the season, [[spoiler:he becomes Lydia's new primary cook when his uncle's crew massacres Declan's]].
** Hector Salamanca starts off as a seemingly minor character in two episodes towards the beginning of season two but returns in season three and four in arcs that gradually reveal him to be not only an important player in the Mexican cartel but in the {{backstory}} of one of the main characters.
* AssholeVictim: Oh so many. [[spoiler:Todd, Lydia, the Cartel Dons, Uncle Jack, Krazy-8, Spooge, and perhaps even Walt,]] to name a few.
* ATeamFiring: In season five, [[spoiler:the episode "To'hajiilee" ends with a shootout where none of the involved seem to hit anything.]] This is cleared up in the next episode.
* AuditThreat: The risk of the IRS discovering the shady bookkeeping practices of Beneke Fabricators is attention that Skyler is determined to avoid in season 3.
* AxCrazy:
** Tuco Salamanca is a drug dealer with a methamphetamine addiction who is always just a few moments from flying off the handle. He will take any and every excuse he can get to beat someone up, especially when he's high on meth. As Walt tells him in season 2:
-->'''Walt:''' We tried to poison you because you are an insane, degenerate piece of filth and you deserve to die.
** The Salamanca Cousins. One of them carries around a chromed fire-axe with which they kill several people. When they ambush Hank, Marco refuses to shoot Hank in the face when he had the chance, [[DeathTrap choosing instead to go back to the car to get the axe.]] That decision works out about as well as it usually does, as Hank manages to get the drop with Leonel's gun before Marco gets a chance to axe him.
* BackForTheFinale: Gretchen, Elliot, Badger, and Skinny Pete all pop up in the finale after not being seen for a long time.
* BadassBoast:
** '''Walt:''' Let me clue you in. I am not ''in'' danger, Skyler. [[IAmTheNoun I am the danger.]] A guy opens his door and gets shot, you think that of me? No! I am the one who ''knocks!''
** [[spoiler:Gus, after poisoning the cartel, makes one to the remaining people in the Don's mansion, who promptly flee.]]
** In "Crawl Space", [[spoiler:Gus delivers one to Héctor Salamanca at the retirement home, saying that he killed off all members of the cartel and Jesse killed his grandson, making him the last of the Salamanca line.]]
** Walt gets a one line BadassBoast in the season 4 finale after [[spoiler:pulling off a double BatmanGambit and defeating Gus: "I won."]]
* {{Badass}}: A number of characters get their time to shine.
** Walt walking straight into Tuco's office and blowing it up with homemade explosives.
** Walt confronting some local meth pushers and kicking them out of his turf.
** Gus walking into a hail of sniper fire, daring the assassins to shoot him.
** Gus [[spoiler:poisoning himself in order to assassinate the entire cartel leadership.]]
** Jesse bending a cartel meth lab to his will.
** Hank taking on Tuco and then the Salamanca twins.
** Walt Jr. [[spoiler:breaking up a knife fight between his parents and calling the cops on his father]]
** While not action moments, Skyler gets a couple when she stalls the IRS and tricks Bogdan into selling the car wash for a substantially lower price. She also has the guts to tell Walt what she thinks of him after he's gone over to the dark side.
** Mike. In every single scene he is in.
** Hank has a memorable one in his [[spoiler:death scene. He not only accepts his death, but he insults the man pointing the gun at him.]]
* BadassFamily: The Salamanca family.
* BadassGrandpa: Mike is one of the most dangerous characters on the show, as he has an entire career's worth of experience and is exceptionally well trained. One of the main reasons he saves up money is to set it aside for his granddaughter.
* BadBoss:
** Tuco. Shortly after we're introduced to him, we get to see him beat one of his henchmen to death for reminding Walt that he works for Tuco.
** Gus is a cold-blooded, FauxAffablyEvil Bad Boss. Kind of. He slits a mook's throat just to make a point (and incidentally to punish him for carelessness in being seen at the scene of a crime). On the other hand, he seems to be grooming Jesse for a more responsible position and the show implies that Jesse makes the wrong choice when he picks Walt over Gus. Creator/GiancarloEsposito has an interesting take on this [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGnk0JuZs1w here]]: Gus treated [[spoiler:Victor]] as a member of his "family", but had to kill him because he jeopardized it.
* BaitAndSwitch: In "Confessions", [[spoiler:Walt is seen sitting down with a video camera in what he states was his confession before the show cut to a commercial. Hank and Marie receive the confession after meeting with Walt and, to their surprise, it's not a confession of Walt fessing up to the sins he committed while in the drug trade, but a carefully constructed lie meant to frame Hank.]]
* BaldOfAwesome: Quite a few characters. Hank, Mike and Tio Salamanca are naturally bald. Walt shaves his head early in the show, but that's due to the chemo drugs he is taking. The Salamanca brothers also sport shaved heads. Jesse also crops his hair down after a traumatic event in an apparent effort to toughen himself up. The trope is even exploited in the Season 5 episode "Rabid Dog," in which a paranoid Jesse is spooked by the sight of a tough-looking bald man near where he is supposed to meet Heisenberg. Jesse, believing that the other man is a hitman, flees the scene in fear; right afterward, it's shown that [[spoiler:the bald man is just an ordinary man waiting to meet up with his wife and child]].
* BallisticDiscount: Subverted. The Salamanca brothers meet with a gun dealer and test out the [[BulletproofVest Bulletproof Vests]] he's selling by shooting the one the dealer is already wearing. After checking to see that the bullet in fact did not penetrate through the vest, they actually pay the dealer and leave him groaning on the floor.
* BattleTrophy: Hank receives Tuco's grill as a gift.
* BatmanGambit:
** Two of epic proportions in the last two episodes of season 4 [[spoiler:by Walt. First, he gives Brock a poison with ricin-like symptoms and steals Jesse's ricin cigarette; Jesse storms his house wanting to kill him, since only the two of them knew about the ricin, but Walt convinces him at gunpoint that he would have nothing to gain and that it's a ploy by Gus to gain Jesse's compliance in killing Walt. When his initial attempt to kill Gus fails, he acquires Hector Salamanca as an ally, convinces him to talk to the DEA so Gus will think he's snitching, then booby-traps his wheelchair. This plan hinges on the hopes that a) Héctor hates Gus more than he hates Walt, b) Gus will insist on killing Héctor in person and c) Héctor is willing to kill himself to take Gus down with him. Amazingly, it all works.]]
** In Season 5, [[spoiler: Jesse smokes pot in Saul's office to determine if Huell is a professional pick-pocket.]]
** Also Season 5, [[spoiler:Jesse and Hank manage to scare Walt into driving to exactly where his money is hidden with a falsified picture, and Jesse egging Walt on so he won't stop and try to reason out whether or not Jesse actually has the money. It works so well that Walt ends up driving so recklessly he probably broke every New Mexico motor vehicle law on the books.]] All it took was knowing what Walter really cared about, even more than his family.
** The series finale is one long BatmanGambit as Walt executes several complicated plans in order to get revenge on Elliot and Gretchen, Lydia, and the Nazis.
* BavarianFireDrill: In "Cornered", Jesse wants to entice some meth heads, who have stolen some Blue Sky, out of their home. How does he do this? [[spoiler:He grabs a shovel and starts digging outside. One of the meth heads comes outside and asks what he's doing. Jesse tells him he's digging and asks him to take over, leaving the house open and unguarded.]]
* BeardOfEvil: Walter, Declan, and Gaff are all antagonistic characters with beards. Walter's beard is particularly distinctive, as it grows between seasons.
* BecauseImGoodAtIt:
** What ultimately keeps Walt cooking, his pride and ego from realizing that he has a unique skill that has created an empire that would rival that of Steve Jobs both in its value and impact on the meth industry. He's not a failure anymore and has become "the one who knocks." In the series finale Walt admits this, saying "I was good at it."
** In Season 4, Jesse says he wants to continue working with Mike and Gus because he feels useful for once. Mr. White was a constant reminder of Jesse's failures. Positive reinforcement from Gus goes a long way toward winning over Jesse.
* BecomingTheMask:
** Jesse has his two drug-dealing cronies, Skinny Pete & Badger, pose as recovering addicts and join a 12-step program to sell meth to the other members. They can't bring themselves to do it and end up going sober instead.
*** They "unmasked," though, in "Thirty-Eight Snub."
** Season one: weak Walter White pretends to be the ruthless Heisenberg. Season four: ruthless Heisenberg pretends to be the weak Walter White. In season five, he doesn't even bother pretending anymore, and willfully scares the shit out of everyone around him.
* BeneathTheMask:
** As the series progresses, we see flashes of just how much pent-up anger, bitterness, malice, and wounded pride had always lain beneath Walt's harmless veneer. Viewers are invited to wonder: what sort of man had Walter quietly, secretly become even ''before'' his 50th birthday? How much of his gradual "transformation" amounts to the surfacing of personality traits that were always there? How many of us remain good people on the surface, but end up becoming ripe for the sort of trigger events that launched Walt's career?
** Hank is introduced as a wisecracking, blustering oaf. However, as the stress and danger of his job increases we see that he is a SadClown, riddled with self-doubt, but also has more grit, integrity, bravery and intelligence than he seems to give himself credit for.
** Gus Fring. A mild restaurateur who supports the DEA and the community, who uses his restaurants as a front for his crystal meth trafficking ring.
* BerserkButton:
** Walt is incredibly defensive of his son in the first season. Jesse, on the other hand, gets protective of anyone's children, like Spooge's son.
** Eventually, Walt's biggest BerserkButton has nothing to do with his family, but with his {{Pride}}. Attacking his massive ego becomes the absolute most dangerous thing you can do, as [[spoiler:Mike]] discovered.
* BestServedCold: Gus once saw his friend and partner murdered in front of him by the cartel. He then proceeds to bide his time and establish trust for ''twenty years''. Then, when Tio, the man who pulled the trigger is finally in his power, he ''still'' doesn't kill him, but visits him again and again, each time telling him that another one of his relatives has been killed, until he's the last member of his family alive.
* {{BFG}}:
** In season 5, Walt [[spoiler:gets his hands on an M60 machine gun, a weapon so huge it was nicknamed "The Pig" during the Vietnam War]].
** One of Jack's gunmen uses an [=AA12=] automatic shotgun.
* BigBad:
** Season 1: Tuco is set up to be this at the end of Season 1, but dies within the first few episodes of Season 2.
** Season 3: The Cousins initially, but they become a DiscOneFinalBoss. Gus Fring and his empire take up the slack for the rest of season 3.
** Season 4: Gus Fring.
** Season 5, first half: Walter himself is the BigBad by way of VillainProtagonist. He creates much of the conflict.
** Season 5, second half: [[spoiler:'Uncle' Jack Welker, with Todd Alquist as TheDragon.]]
* BigNo: Jesse before [[spoiler:Todd shoots the kid at the end of "Dead Freight"]].
** Also, Jesse after [[spoiler:Todd shoots Andrea.]]
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Where to begin? The drug-cooking school teacher, his attempted StepfordSmiler wife, the gung-ho DEA agent brother-in-law, the kooky kleptomaniac sister... No wonder "Flynn" wants to change his name.
* BigShutUp: A truly epic one [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UosZ4mXL8EI from Skyler to Marie]] that verges on a mental breakdown.
* BilingualBonus:
** The Milanese song Gale is [[http://vimeo.com/12563032 singing along to]] in the final episode of Season 3 is called "Crapa Pelada", which translates as "Bald Head", and the lyrics are based on an old folk rhyme about a greedy cook, the lyrics loosely translate as "Bald Head who makes dumplings, but he does not give them to his brothers, his brothers make an [[YouCantMakeAnOmelette omelette]] but they do not give it to Bald Head", foreshadowing the cartel/Gus situation much later in the series.
** Tio Salamanca tries to warn his nephew about the poisoned food by ringing his bell three times quickly, three times slowly and three times quickly again. This is Morse Code for "SOS."
* BingeMontage: A flashback showing how Jesse lost the money he was meant to buy the RV with.
* BittersweetEnding:
** The finale of [[spoiler:Season 4, Walt has killed Gus, protected his family and come out on top through a superb double BatmanGambit but to do so he had to make more compromises and put more innocents in danger than ever before, even poisoning a small child.]]
** The GrandFinale as well. [[spoiler: Walt is dead, his family has completely disowned him, and the world knows that he's Heisenberg... But he died on his own terms, effectively eradicated Blue Sky, he's managed to rescue Jesse from the Aryans, Jesse passes up a chance to kill him, and he manages to get his money, over 9 million, to his children via Gretchen and Elliot. He gives Skyler the coordinates to Hank and Steve's bodies ensuring that they'll have a proper burial, and Skyler may be able to get the feds off her back in exchange for the information. Jesse is free from slavery and all ties to the meth business, and might actually make the most out of his life having had aspirations of being a carpenter during his enslavement. And Todd, Jack, Lydia and the Aryans have all gotten their just comeuppance.]]
* BlackAndGreyMorality:
** "Heisenberg" vs the Cartel. Season 4 gives us Walt vs Gus. Though this became EvilVersusEvil by the end.
** From Season 5B, [[spoiler:Hank]] versus Heisenberg quickly became this, as [[spoiler:Hank]]'s pursuit of Heisenberg proves to be not without its own compromises.
** Uncle Jack's crew of Neo-Nazis versus Heisenberg.
* BlackComedy: Comedy so black, ''no light can escape it.''
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Look at the list of names under AnyoneCanDie - the deaths in the series overwhelming happen to Hispanic men and women. Among the main characters, [[spoiler:Gus is the first]] to die. All of the main characters to survive the series are white.
* TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn: Marco Salamanca's axe when Hank shoots him before he can deliver a CoupDeGrace.
* BleedEmAndWeep:
** [[spoiler:Walt killing Krazy-8.]]
** [[spoiler:Jesse killing Gale.]] Well, it's more of a "weep and bleed 'em" scenario.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The neo-Nazis. They are a particularly despicable lot who have no qualms about [[spoiler:murdering children]] and are even crueler than Gus, but they find the state of the U.S. utterly dreadful:
-->'''Kenny:''' Nanny state. I see a kid with a bicycle helmet on, I want to smack the shit out of him—like for his own good.
* BlofeldPloy: In the season 4 premiere "Box Cutter", Gus seems about to discipline Walt, but instead kills an underling and departs without a word. His motivation is left ambiguous. [[spoiler:However, the underling, Victor, was seen at the scene of a crime and could have led authorities back to Gus. Walt, on the other hand, suspects that Gus killed Victor for cooking a batch of meth, taking on more authority than Gus had given him.]]
* BloodFromTheMouth: Subverted. Walt starts coughing up blood in "4 Days Out", but the end of the episode confirms that he's in remission.
* BloodyHilarious:
** In the first season, Jesse tries to dispose of a body using hydrofluoric acid. In a bathtub. It doesn't work out well for the body, the bathtub or the floor underneath. By the time the floor's weakened enough for the remains of the body to fall through, it's no longer recognizable as human. As long as you don't vomit, you'll bust a gut laughing.
** Also, the head getting crushed by the ATM in "Peekaboo."
* BoardingSchool: Skyler brings up sending Walter, Jr. to one, if only as a way of getting him away from Walt.
* BookDumb: Jesse, who's occasionally shown to be pretty smart (if irresponsible and naive) but under-educated. Contrasts with Walt's ScienceHero, and often fills the role of TheWatson regarding Walt's chemical wizardry.
* BookEnds: In series finale "Felina," Walt arrives at the Neo-Nazi compound wearing the same outfit he wore in the first episode, "Pilot": pastel jacket, green button-up shirt, white undershirt and beige slacks.
** [[spoiler:For most of the series, Walt is in remission and shaves his head. However, in the final season, his cancer comes back and he lets his hair grow back out, mirroring his state in the first season, albeit ''a lot'' more disheveled.]]
* BoomHeadshot:
** Hank kills one of the Salamanca twins with a hollow-point bullet to the head.
** Gus's companion in founding Los Pollos Hermanos, Max, gets offed in this fashion by Tio right before his eyes.
** [[spoiler:Hank himself is killed by one, delivered by Uncle Jack.]]
** [[spoiler:Todd kills Andrea in this fashion to punish Jesse for trying to escape Jack's compound.]]
** [[spoiler:Walt delivers the final blow to Uncle Jack this way.]]
* BoredomMontage: Used in the episode "Shotgun" when Jesse begins working for Mike. In another episode, he kills time in the lab waiting for Walt to arrive.
* BottleEpisode: "And the Bag's in the River" and especially "Fly", which features only Jesse and Walter, and only one location (the basement lab), and only one story--Walter and Jesse trying to kill a fly. For the whole episode.
** "Four Days Out" was supposed to be this with the majority of time spent in the RV with Jeese and Walter. However, more scenes required shooting out in the desert or in completely different locations to make the episode work, so it ended up being one of the more expensive episodes of the series.
* BottomlessMagazines: Tuco and Hank ZigZag this trope in their shoot out. Both of them reload after exchanging shots, but both of them fired more shots than their weapons should've been able to before so.
** Again in Hank's shootout with the Twins, Marco fires 11 bullets from what appears to be a .45 1911 before the slide locks open. Leonel fires 9 times at Hank from his own 1911, Hank then picks up Leonel's gun and fires 5 more times at Marco.
* BreakTheCutie:
** Jesse, over the course of the show.
** Skyler in the third season. It got much worse throughout Season 5.
* BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: Walt's call to Skyler in "Ozymandias" has shades of this. On the surface, he appears to be ruthlessly and cruelly raging at her, but a closer reading shows that he's taking the blame for all the crimes, for the benefit of the police listening in. It also has the effect of emotionally severing himself from Skyler, Walter Jr. and Marie, allowing them all to see him as the villain and themselves as fellow victims, so they can salvage their relationships when he's gone.
* BreakTheHaughty:
** Hank and Jesse both experience extreme pressure that cracks their arrogant facades.
** Walt goes through this in "Ozymandias": [[spoiler:Hank's death at the hands of Jack's crew, Jack's crew taking his money, his family abandoning him and even his baby daughter wanting her mother over him, finally makes him realize what he's become]].
** Walt's crushing continues in the following episode "Granite State": [[spoiler: Saul's new-identity man sets him up in a remote shack where the cancer eats at his strength. He keeps starting the eight-mile walk to the nearest town but even the Heisenberg hat can't give him the power to do it. He can't get any of the money - all that remains of the legacy that justifies any of this business - to his family without suspicion, and when he tries to send them some through a friend of Walt Jr., his son angrily rejects him.]]
* BreakoutCharacter: Jesse Pinkman (people keep asking Aaron Paul to call them a bitch) and Saul Goodman (focus of SpinOff show ''Better Call Saul'').
* BribeBackfire: Walt and Jesse's first meeting with Saul.
* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Lots of characters, though usually not in an actual briefcase; it's more likely to be a backpack or duffel bag and in one scene there's a ''shipping pallet'' full of money.
* BringMeMyBrownPants: One of Mike's first victims (that we know of) soiled himself after the former roughed him up and threatened to kill him should he hurt his wife again.
* BulletproofVest:
** The Cousins purchase a pair from an illegal arms dealer. Played realistically: one of them shoots the dealer in the chest to test the vests -- he survives, but one of his ribs is broken and he's left moaning in pain as the Cousins walk away.
** [[spoiler:Saul wears one under his suit after Huell suddenly goes AWOL in "To'hajiilee."]]
** Jack's crew wear them when tooled in "To'hajiilee."
* BurnerPhones: Several phones are snapped in half and otherwise disposed of to cover up criminal activity over the course of the series. Saul has a whole drawer full of different cell phones. In Season 2, Walter manages to deflect Skyler's suspicions about him having a second cell phone. That is, until Walter is being sedated for cancer surgery in the finale, Skyler asks him about his cell phone, and Walter says, "Which one?" This leads to Skyler finding the burner phone and unspooling Walter's entire web of lies.
* ButHeSoundsHandsome: Walt's vanity is so bad that he won't let Hank believe that Heisenberg was someone as prosaic as Gale, asserting that Heisenberg's "genius might still be out there."
* ButtMonkey: Jesse's first scene is him falling out a window with no pants on. His humiliation grows with his success. One consistent element through the first few seasons of the show was Jesse taking a severe beating when someone was pissed at Walt. It almost grew to RunningGag status.
** Walt has been the ButtMonkey his whole life, but the events of the show make him more assertive and aggressive. Which is not really a good thing, it turns out.
* ButtonMashing: Jesse light-heartedly accuses Brock of this as they play a ''Sonic'' game with the wonderful line, "You're just pressing buttons and it makes you do magical stuff."
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