History BreakingBad / TropesEToL

** Bryan Cranston's BaldHeadOfToughness and BeardOfEvil are now iconic for the show, so people might be a little startled to see him with a full head of hair and a particularly bad mustache in the first few episodes.

** [[spoiler:Walt poisoned Brock with a not-quite lethal poison and stole the ricin cigarette from Jesse, hoping that Jesse would realize he was poisoned, assume Walt did it and come after him. Then he had to convince Jesse that Gus had planned to the whole thing, right up to Jesse holding a gun to his head. It worked (almost) perfectly, but relied on a lot of luck.]]
** Gus' [[spoiler:wholesale poisoning of the cartel]] in "Salud" also depended on a lot of luck (see OneDoseFitsAll under tropes M-R).
** The way Walt takes out [[spoiler:the Aryan Brotherhood depended on them a.) allowing him to position the car where he wanted, b.) not searching the trunk, c.) putting his keychain somewhere he could get a hold of it, d.) all gathering in the same room at the same time.]] Jesse wasn't kidding when he {{lampshade}}s that Walt is "luckier than you."

* HarsherinHindsight: while the series doesn’t gloss over the fact that dealing in the illegal drug trade is fraught with life-threatening and life-changing risks, that can and WILL affect those around someone it also doesn’t hide the fact that those who participate in it can make more money than even the President of the United States! One could even say that the show is truthful about the “rewards outweigh the risks” as if one could avoid being enslaved and exploited or offed by rivals or arrested by the FBI, the IRS, and even the Secret Service (their original and primary job is protecting the nation’s currency, protecting people like the President is their secondary job) a person could easily end their days as rich as Elon Musk or Oprah Winfry! Hence why so many people who normally don’t gamble buy lottery tickets when the jackpot is so large: they want to be financially set for life in a quick and more over assured manner.

** Walter White just wanted to make some cash to play his medical bills and leave some left over for his family. [[spoiler:By "Gliding Over All," he made more than enough.]]

** Gus wanted to severely antagonize Hector as a poor cripple stuck in a FateWorseThanDeath. [[spoiler: His efforts literally [[{{Pun}} blew up in the face]].]]

* TheHerosBirthday: The show starts on Walt's 50th birthday (when he gets the news that he has cancer) and ends on his 52nd birthday, [[spoiler: with his death.]]

* FunWithAcronyms: Unconfirmed but a nice coincidence: "Felina" can be broken down into '''Fe''' (Iron) '''Li''' (Lithium) and '''Na''' (Sodium) -- or as the internet interpreted it, [[JustForPun "blood, meth, and tears"]].[[note]]Lithium metal is the most commonly used reactive metal in the clandestine manufacture of methamphetamine using the anhydrous ammonia method of production. The others, of course, refer to haemoglobin and sodium chloride.[[/note]]

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: [[spoiler:Gus realizes Hector's plan about a half-second before it [[IncrediblyLamePun blows up in his face.]]]]

* GilliganCut (Or perhaps a [[IncrediblyLamePun Vince Gilligan Cut)]]:

** Gus wanted to severely antagonize Hector as a poor cripple stuck in a FateWorseThanDeath. [[spoiler: His efforts literally [[IncrediblyLamePun blew up in the face]].]]

** After Walt forces Bogdan to sell him the car wash in Season 4, he refuses to let Bogdan take anything with him as he leaves--not even the first dollar that he ever made, which he keeps framed on the wall of his office. As soon as Bogdan leaves, Walt shatters the glass frame, takes the dollar out, and spends it on the nearest soda machine. Although Bogdan's behavior puts some KickTheSonOfABitch into the scene, this act of petty cruelty speaks volumes about how far Walt has fallen since the show's beginning.

* EvilIsPetty: After Walter and Skyler conspire to force Bogdan to sell them his carwash at a loss (implied to be all that he has), Walter then refuses to let Bogdan leave with the first dollar he'd earned (which he had framed on the wall). To cap it all off, as soon as Bogdan is gone, Walt smashes the frame and spends the dollar on a drink from the vending machine. While Bogdan [[KickTheSonOfABitch earned some of this]] by having humiliated Walt in the past, it still comes across as unnecessarily cruel.

** For Hank, Jesse and Gomez and perhaps even Walt himself in the events of "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E13Tohajiilee To'hajiilee]]" and "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E14Ozymandias Ozymandias]]". After [[spoiler: successfully baiting Walt to get to his money, the trio corner him and arrest him, and Hank even personally calls Marie to inform they got Walt. 5 minutes later, Walt's 'backup' arrives, armed to the teeth, and corner Hank and Gomez. The resulting shootout leaves [[KilledOffscreen Gomez dead]], Hank seriously injured, and Jesse hiding below Walt's car. Walt negotiates in vain to save Hank, [[BoomHeadshot who is killed by Jack soon after]], and Jesse is captured beneath Walt's car and MadeASlave to Jack's gang. Oh, and it is at this point, Walt, livid with Jesse's role in snitching against him, which led to the shootout in the first place, [[KickTheSonOfABitch decides to break the truth about Jane's death]]. The trio went [[MoodWhiplash from utterly victorious to dead and ruined]].]] ''And after that...''

** When Gustavo Fring is first introduced in Season 2, he puts on a higher-pitched voice when he's talking to customers at Los Pollos Hermanos, and speaks in his regular BadassBaritone when in private. His later appearances have him speaking in his normal voice at all times.

* InterruptedIntimacy: In [[spoiler:In Season 4, Episode 5, Skyler and Walt have sex to celebrate their signing of the papers which finalize their purchase of [=A1A=] carwash from [[FunnyForeigner Bogdan Wolynetz]] and abruptly end their sexual intercourse when Walter Jr enters the house - Walt Sr was ''THIS CLOSE'' to being caught naked by his son. Walt Jr. does realize what is going on though, and leaves the scene in disgust.]]

** Subverted in the season 2 premiere, Walt returns home from a traumatic ordeal and needs some sexual healing from his wife. His abrupt and unwelcome advances escalate into a NearRapeExperience.

* ExceededTheGoal: At the beginning of the second season, Walter estimates that he would need to earn $737,000 from selling meth in order to pay his medical bills and provide for his family. By the time he finally retires from the business, he's made an estimated $80 million!

* ForeignRemake: ''Metastasis'', set in Colombia, will follow the misadventures of Walter Blanco, his wife Cielo, assistant Jose Rosas, and narcotics agent brother-in-law Henry Navarro, but without the iconic motor home (a refurbished [[RuleOfSymbolism white and blue]] school bus is used instead) because "motor homes aren't common in Colombia".

** Walter himself becomes this trope in Season 5, fully embracing the ruthless drug lord persona and only showing kindness when it benefits him in some way.

** Tuco Salamanca has a tendency to snort meth he also deals. Which is a very bad thing when his default state already is a [[HairTriggerTemper Hair-Trigger Tempered]] violent paranoid.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Gus wears the mask of a mild-mannered and impeccably polite businessman, but in reality he's a ruthless drug lord with a serious sadistic streak. He only rarely breaks his facade. By the final season, Walter has become this himself.

** Gus wanted to severely antagonize Hector as a poor cripple stuck in FateWorseThanDeath. [[spoiler: His efforts literally [[IncrediblyLamePun blew up in the face]].]]

** Hank is this to Walt. They each rise in power on opposite sides of the law and often tackle the same enemies, such as Tuco and Fring. On the surface Hank is crude and loud, but insecure underneath. Hank is timid and polite on the surface, but prideful and deeply frustrated underneath. Terrible experiences change both men, but while Walt becomes even more consumed by pride and turns into a ruthless criminal, Hank manages to subdue his Jerkass tendencies, becoming more humble and an even better cop.

** [[VillainProtagonist Walter]], rapidly losing any moral high ground he might have started with, and his meth production motivated more by greed and pride than anything else, still loves his family, and he does care for Jesse too. [[spoiler:Though by the end of Season 5, he has alienated everyone he loved, but still not deterred to provide and secretly care for them, and in one case, even avenge them.]]

* EmperorScientist: Walt becomes one of these to the criminal underworld utilizing his chemistry skills to try his hand at building a meth empire.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: [[spoiler: Gus won't spend even a second trying to understand why Walter would ever want to save the life of a despicable junkie like Jesse, at the cost, no less, of putting his drug-dealing operation at risk. From that moment on, he will consider Walter an unreliable liability and conspire to replace and then kill him, or at very least, to outrageously fire him]].

*** Jack later is shown to have contempt upon snitches and traitors, [[spoiler: the reason why the Neo-Nazis enslaved Jesse rather than work with him equally. It also proves to be their undoing.]]

* EnemyCivilWar: Much of the plot is driven by the cold war between [[spoiler: the Salamancas family and Gus' empire, which are both parts of the Juarez cartel. Walt winds up working for both of them at different points and later contributes their mutual destruction.]]

* GettingHighOnTheirOwnSupply: A lot of problems in the show are caused by Jesse getting high, though not solely on the meth he cooks personally.

** Hank is this to Walt. They each rise in power on opposite sides of the law and often tackle the same enemies, such as Tuco and Fring. Terrible experiences change both men, but while Walt becomes even more consumed by pride and turns into a ruthless criminal, Hank manages to subdue his Jerkass tendencies, becoming more humble and an even better cop.

* ElSpanish"-o": The series basically ''is'' this trope - it is full of mutilated Spanish, such as ''Los Pollos Hermanos'' and ''Vamonos Pest''.

* El Spanish "-o": The series basically ''is'' this trope - it is full of mutilated Spanish, such as ''Los Pollos Hermanos'' and ''Vamonos Pest''.