History BreakingBad / TropesAToB

** Season 5B: [[spoiler:Walt briefly exited upon finding out his cancer had returned, but Hank (serving as HeroAntagonist) discovering that he is Heisenberg forces him back into his criminal ways. He hides his drug money and creates a false confession tape implicating Hank as the true criminal mastermind, forcing him to back off. Things go downhill once Jesse realizes that Walt was the one who actually poisoned Brock, causing him to side with Hank. They manage to lure Walt into a trap, however Walt had called a hit out on Jesse, but failed to realize he was working with Hank. He ultimately loses the position to Jack and the Neo-Nazis after 'Ozymandias' when Hank is murdered, most of his money is stolen and he's outed to the public, forcing him to go on the run. Eventually he returns and wipes them out, destroying the last remnants of his empire.]]

** The third issue is that the guy running it is [[RuleOfThree Tuco Salamanca]], a well known criminal that is a prime target for the D.E.A since he is Albuquerque's known main distributor of crystal meth (a fact Tuco is very eager to remind everyone) [[BullyingADragon and his fortress is not only a giant middle finger to law enforcement]], [[BoisterousWeakling but is not match]] [[CurbStompBattle for an organised police raid]] and gets quickly shut down when they have an excuse to go after him.

** Season 5B: [[spoiler:Walt briefly exited upon finding out his cancer had returned, but Hank discovering that he is Heisenberg forces him back into his criminal ways. He hides his drug money and creates a false confession tape implicating Hank as the true criminal mastermind, forcing him to back off. Things go downhill once Jesse realizes that Walt was the one who actually poisoned Brock, causing him to side with Hank. They successfully outgambit and corner Walt. Unfortunately, Walt had called a hit out on Jesse and failed to realize he was working with Hank and ultimately loses the position to Jack and the Neo-Nazis after 'Ozymandias' when Hank is murdered, most of his money is stolen and he's outed to the public, forcing him to go on the run. Eventually he returns and wipes them out, destroying the last remnants of his empire.]]

** Season 5B: [[spoiler:Walt briefly exited upon finding out his cancer had returned, but Hank discovering that he is Heisenberg forces him back into his criminal ways. He hides his drug money and creates a false confession tape implicating Hank as the true criminal mastermind, forcing him to back off. Things go downhill once Jesse realizes that Walt was the one who actually poisoned Brock, causing him to side with Hank. They successfully outgambit and corner Walt. Unfortunately, Walt had called a hit out on Jesse and failed to realize he was working with Hank and ultimately loses the position to Jack and the Neo-Nazis after 'Ozymandias' when they murder Hank, most of his money is stolen and he's outed to the public, forcing him to go on the run. Eventually he returns and wipes them out, destroying the last remnants of his empire.]]

** Season 5B: [[spoiler:Walt briefly exited upon finding out his cancer had returned, but Hank discovering that he is Heisenberg forces him back into his criminal ways. He hides his drug money and creates a false confession tape implicating Hank as the true criminal mastermind, forcing him to back off. Things go downhill once Jesse realizes that Walt was the one who actually poisoned Brock, causing him to side with Hank. They successfully outgambit and corner Walt. Unfortunately, Walt had called a hit out on Jesse and failed to realize he was working with Hank and ultimately loses to Jack and the Neo-Nazis after 'Ozymandias' when they murder Hank, most of his money is stolen and he's outed to the public, forcing him to go on the run. Eventually he returns and wipes them out, destroying the last remnants of his empire.]]

** Season 5B: [[spoiler:Walt briefly exited upon finding out his cancer had returned, but Hank discovering that he is Heisenberg forces him back into his criminal ways. He hides his drug money and creates a false confession tape implicating Hank as the true criminal mastermind, forcing him to back off. Things go downhill once Jesse realizes that Walt was the one who actually poisoned Brock, causing him to side with Hank. They successfully outgambit and corner Walt. Unfortunately, called a hit out on Jesse and failed to realize he was working with Hank and ultimately loses to Jack and the Neo-Nazis after 'Ozymandias' when most of his money is stolen and he's outed to the public, forcing him to go on the run. Eventually he returns and wipes them out, destroying the last remnants of his empire.]]

** Season 5B: [[spoiler:Walt briefly exited upon finding out his cancer had returned, but Hank discovering that *he is* Heisenberg forces him back into his criminal ways. However, he loses the position to Jack and the Neo-Nazis after 'Ozymandias' while he has to go on the run. Eventually he returns and wipes them out, destroying the last remnants of his empire.]]

** Season 5B: [[spoiler:Jack Welker and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, Todd's uncle and Gus' former chemical supplier, respectively, are given the reins to Walt's empire when he tires of the business. Hank acts as a HeroAntagonist once he finally discovers Heisenberg's true identity only to get killed near the end of the season by Jack, while Todd enslaves Jesse to help their gang cook purer meth. Walt himself is forced to go on the run, but returns to Albuquerque in the finale to end his former associates before he dies.]]

** An addendum to the above mention where ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' tested the mercury fulminate explosion in "A Crazy Handful of Nothin'": According to their tests, Walter White being at the epicenter of an explosion of that size should have left him seriously injured if not killed him outright. In the series he walks away with a few superficial scrapes.

** 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.

** Walt himself as the series goes on. He becomes more narcissistic and convinced that only he knows best (in fairness, partly out of necessity to danger), which leads to him refusing to listen to others.

** In the season finale, [[spoiler: Walt himself, in a dark manner. He's clearly regretful of the role he played in the destruction of his family and Hank's death, but he doesn't back down from his initial stance and it's indicated that he'd still do it all again if he could.]]

** [[spoiler: '''Walt''' himself in his last moments. He dies knowing he has secured his family's future in the long run, and accepts his impending death, stating he deserved it. But, none of his family members will know it was him who secured their future and, excluding Skyler, that he tried to save Hank. He also saves Jesse from the nazis too after gunning them down, and even offers Jesse the chance to kill him, but he refuses. After that, Walt finally dies alone in a meth lab, surrounded by the things he liked to do]].

** 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. 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 to retire with his family. Unfortunately, Walt fatally shoots him in a drug dispute. His last moments are seen sitting near the lake and rudely telling Walt to let him die in peace]]

* AnachronismStew: A minor one, but Hank's replacement vehicle in Season 5A for his Jeep Commander is a 2011-present Dodge Durango. The events of the show conclude well before the vehicle started production in December 2010 so it would be impossible for him to own one in the season's timeframe.

* AscendedExtra:

** Season 2: Gus Fring is introduced near the end of the season as Walt's new distributor after Tuco is killed in the first two episodes. The next season reveals that members of his drug empire murdered one of Walt and Jesse's own dealers, which pushed them to go work for him in the first place.

** ''Film/ElCamino'': Neil Kandy, one of Todd's former colleagues, is Jesse's biggest obstacle in getting the money needed to flee to Alaska. Todd himself is the posthumous instigator for much of the conflict as the source of Jesse's trauma from being enslaved, as well as the owner of the money Jesse and Neil are fighting over.

* AssholeVictim: Oh so many. [[spoiler:Tuco, Todd, Lydia, the Cartel Dons, Gus, Uncle Jack, Krazy-8, Spooge, and ''perhaps'' even Walt,]] to name a few.

** 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 it 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.

** 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.

** In the season finale, [[spoiler: Walt himself, in a dark manner. He's clearly regretful of the role he played in the destruction of his family and Hank's death, but he doesn't back down from his initial stance.]]

** In one Season 2 episode, when Walt sneaks out of the hospital at night and later sneaks back in, he reinserts puts his PVC (peripheral vein catheter) to hide the fact that he's been missing. A PVC is actually designed so that it ''can't'' be reinserted after being removed from the body; the needle is removed after the initial insertion, and the rest of the catheter is soft plastic that can't penetrate the skin. Otherwise, [=PVCs=] would be dangerous to use, not to mention painful for the patient.

* AbsenceOfEvidence: When Hank plants a tracker on Gus's car, Gus is careful to only drive it between home and Pollos Hermanos. However, this raises Hanks suspicions even more; he finds it suspicious that not only did Gus not drive ''anywhere'' besides work and home, but he also drove exclusively to the same store every day when he's in charge of well over a dozen.

** In the episode Peekaboo, after Spooge repeats his claim that the ATM theft was a "victimless crime", the scene cuts away to show the actual crime scene, which includes a dead body, lots of blood, and a baggie of Jesse and Walt's signature blue meth. Nothing ever comes of this and it is not mentioned again.
* AbsenceOfEvidence: When Hank plants a tracker on Gus's car, Gus is careful to only drive it between home and Pollos Hermanos. However, this raises Hanks suspicions even more; he finds it suspicious that not only did Gus not drive ''anywhere'' besides work and home, he drove exclusively to the same store every day when he's in charge of well over a dozen.

** 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. His Heisenberg side creates much of the conflict.
** Season 5, second half: [[spoiler:Hank until "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E14Ozymandias Ozymandias]]", 'Uncle' Jack Welker, with Todd Alquist as TheDragon.]]

* BrutalBrawl: In the Season 3 episode "Bug," tensions boil over between Walt and Jesse and they engage in a furious fistfight, wrecking Jesse's living room. Surprisingly Walt, a 50-year-old cancer patient, gives as good as he gets, throwing Jesse around the room and giving him a vicious kick to the face. In the next episode, Jesse sports visible facial bruises and Walt is bedridden from being beaten.