As every other Breaking Bad fan gets ready for tonight’s final episode (of this year…with the final eight ever playing next summer), I thought I might share an observation I’ve noticed about the five seasons.
The main plot of the show: a mild-mannered, brilliant (and perpetually under appreciated) high school chemistry teacher gets cancer and begins cooking a purified form of crystal meth (to provide for his family once he’s gone, to pay for his medical bills, and also to get some kicks before he goes), gradually getting further up the drug ladder but deeper into moral ruin. Now I know that that’s telling all of the fans something they already know, but something else I noticed is how closely the five seasons mirror the five stages of grief or learning you are about to die (as a cancer patient would)…[Spoilers for those who have not been watching the show..and also you may not understand anything I’m writing about.]
1. Season One/Denial: Walter refuses to tell his family he has terminal cancer until a few episodes in and then only once his wife has grown incredibly suspicious of his long absences (while he’s away cooking meth). He also refuses to accept the reality of the drug business, thinking he can make an incredibly pure form of crystal meth and stay divorced from the violence of it. He repeatedly tells his young partner that he doesn’t want anyone to get hurt, but, later on, we discover just how little that’s true. We only meet “Heisenberg” (the more violent persona he uses in dealing with others in the drug trade) late into the season.
2. Season Two/Anger: This season is all about frustration as Walter repeatedly hits roadblocks with his “business,” his teaching, and his family. The first two episodes deal with Tuco, the ferocious meth gang leader they use to distribute their product, as he becomes more furious, violent, and unstable. But then, after his absence, Walter and Jesse begin to feel the frustration as they try to build their own drug network, constantly blocked by different setbacks at every turn. [Even getting into a violent fistfight in “Down,” with Jesse nearly strangling him.] Walter finally tells off his ex-girlfriend who’s become a millionaire off the work he did at her company, seeks out new drug territory by any means, and is gradually more threatening as the season progresses, reveling in his rage (telling another cook to stay out of his territory in “Over”). And then there’s Walter’s wife Skylar, who is increasingly suspicious of her husband and angry at his obvious lies to her. When she finally finds out he’s keeping a secret, she throws him out of the house, and a chain of events Walter set in motion (by choosing not to save Jesse’s troublesome, addict girlfriend Jane from dying) causes Jane’s air traffic controller dad to have a breakdown—-deliberately causing two planes to crash into each other in the ultimate act of wrath.
Season 3/Bargaining: This season is all about morally compromising dealmaking. Skylar makes a “deal” with herself not to inform on Walter’s drug dealing, and they eventually “negotiate” their family structure. Skylar also decides not to inform on Ted’s embezzlement, helping him, and eventually wanting to help Walter launder his money through a car wash. Walter begins working for meth lord Gus Fring (a phenomenal character), taking his deal, then eventually making his on-again, off-again partner Jesse a deal to join him at the lab to keep him from pressing charges against Hank. Gus also makes a deal with the cartel to leave Walter alone for a while, and eventually bargains Hank for Walter’s. Jesse begins to get bored working at the lab and wants to “deal” his product directly to addicts in recovery…a disastrous decision that eventually leads him to two dealers that killed his friend in season 2. Gus strikes a bargain with Jesse to avoid bloodshed between him and the two gangbangers (who work for Gus, another deal), a soon-broken deal that puts them all in danger. Even the excellent season finale is about bargaining, as Walter hopes to take Gail’s life to save his own, bargaining himself to Gus in the process. But it’s Jesse who winds up having to do it to spare his partner’s life…a deal for his own soul as he had never actually killed anyone before.
Season 4/Depression: Jesse begins the season in a deep depression after killing Gale, seeming to not care whether he lives or dies. Hank (recuperating from nearly being killed) is also in a funk, barely speaking to even his own wife, who—-to avoid her dreary situation—-begins shoplifting again. And Walter feels trapped in his current working environment with Gus, what basically amounts to a lab drone job as he tediously cooks meth while cut off from the action and power he so craves. It’s clear that he’s as desperate to get back into the action as he really fears for his safety…which is why, in a drunken speech to Hank, he encourages him not to give up on his Heisenberg investigation, something that eventually pits Hank and Gus against each other, and Walter frantically out maneuvering both. And you get the feeling he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Season 5/Acceptance: Walter has finally claimed his own large scale meth operation and territory, and fully embraced his Heisenberg alter ego. Of course, most of the people once close to him now want nothing to do with him, an “emotional” death before his actual one. [And, what I didn’t know yesterday when I wrote this was that Hank would finally find out Walter is Heisenberg, “accepting” the truth right before his eyes.]
And that’s the brilliance of this show. Even though it’s literally about cancer and the violence/danger of the drug trade, you could always see there was a spiritual death just beneath the surface. The longer Walter lives, the less anybody even recognizes him (not that different from the slow fade of a cancer patient). The higher up the drug ladder he goes, the deeper into the underworld he gets.