Simply put, Breaking
Bad was a show about character development, with an emphasis on one character's development, Walter
White. Unlike most protagonists Walter slowly turns from a mild-mannered dorky
chemistry teacher to a ruthless murderous drug lord. While Walt’s cancer may
have been the catalyst that began his transformation from good man to cold
blooded killer there was something else that had been inside Walt for much
longer that gave him the potential to become such a monster. Walt’s massive ego, which was a driving force behind everything Walt
did from the start, fueled his pride and his greed.
Walt always maintained that he did the terrible things he
did for his family. That was his excuse for letting a girl choke to death,
poisoning a child and arranging for the deaths of dozens of people, killing
many himself. It wasn’t until the final episode that he admitted to his wife
that in reality he did all it for himself. Walt enjoyed being “Heisenberg” the cruel
alter ego he created to deal with the criminals, but it wasn't really a
persona, it was his ego finally coming through. Now he had an excuse to let that
darkness within him out. Walt always had a choice, but he refused to swallow
his pride, he decided to do the wrong things on his own rather than take help
from anyone.
One recurring reminder of Walt’s pride manifested itself in
the form of the Schwartzes. Way back in season one they offered to pay for
Walt’s cancer treatment, however Walt turned them down. He had the chance to
escape from the world of meth before he had fallen too deep in, but he would
not accept help from those who he believed had wronged him. Gretchen Schwartz,
who once upon a time was his girlfriend, betrayed him, stole his research, and
ran off with Eliot Schwartz, then the two made billions off his ideas. At least
that’s how Walt remembered it.
He told Jessie about how he “sold his children’s
birthright” AKA his third of the company that he and the Schwartzes formed
together. He thinks he had been cheated out of millions and wanted to get back
what he should have had and build his own empire. Walt liked being the kingpin,
he wanted everyone to recognize how talented he was and to know his (fake) name,
even as it caused him and the ones he loves to be in more and more danger.
Early on, in the first episode of season two, Walt
calculated the amount of money he needed to make before he could get out of the
meth business. He came up with a rough estimate of $737,000 or eleven more
drug deals. Walt implied that once he made this money he could escape from this
awful life of making drugs, yet he didn't stop until he'd made roughly $80
million dollars. Walt continued cooking meth because of his greed,; it was never
enough money. He had to be the king. The ad’s for the final season even referenced
this showing him sitting in front of piles of money and the
catchphrase “All hail the king.”
This isn’t the only time that Breaking Bad makes a reference to Walt being a king. The third to final episode of the show was
titled Ozymandias, a reference to a
famous poem by Percy Bysshe Shelly. The poem tells the story of a worn statue
in the sand of Egypt of a long dead pharaoh, who declared himself, “The king of
kings.” Of course Ozymandias’ kingdom and his power faded away long ago, and
that no matter how great, all kings must fall. Just as the egomaniacal king Ozymandias’
kingdom is merely ruins in the Egyptian desert, the egomaniacal Heisenburg’s
empire crumbled too in the harsh New Mexican desert. Here’s a promo featuring Bryan Cranston
reading the poem:
The desert is where Walter White met his ultimate downfall;
where his money was stolen, his true identity exposed to the world, and where
the one line that he swore he would never cross was crossed for him. Because of
Walt’s actions his brother in law was murdered by Nazis. His decision try and have Jessie, who was “like family,” killed caused Walt's fall from grace. Walt always wanted
more; he schemed, murdered and manipulated to get his way. In the end it caught
up with him.
Mike, perhaps the wisest character on the show, described
Walter as a ticking time bomb and warned Jessie to get away from him. Mike saw
Walt’s ego and the destruction it left better than anyone. Mike famously told Walt; “We had a good
thing, you stupid son of a bitch! We had Fring, we had a lab, we had everything
we needed, and it all ran like clockwork! You could have shut your mouth,
cooked, and made as much money as you ever needed! It was perfect! But no! You
just had to blow it up! You, and your pride and your ego!” Then Walt shot and
killed him.
Of course Walt was not the only character on the show who’s
ego got the better of him; plenty of characters displaed a lack of hubris. Some
of these examples were obvious, Saul Goodman plastered his name and face on every
bus bench and late night commercial he could, and his punishment was to
disappear into anonymity. Skyler was a character who talked about morals but
seemed to have none herself. She constantly did things of questionable ethics
to keep her lifestyle intact. Even small egotistical transgressions had
consequences. When Walt told Jessie how to dispose of a body Jessie took a few
liberties thinking he knew how to handle it as well as Walt did, but because of
his arrogance he destroyed his second floor bathroom, leaving a gaping hole in
his ceiling and a mess of blood and guts on his floor.
Perhaps the longest and bloodiest feud in Breaking Bad was the rivalry between
Hector Salamanca and Gustavo Fring, and it was a rivalry driven by both men’s egos.
When Gustavo was young he and his partner, Max, arranged a meeting with the
Mexican cartel. A young Hector didn’t trust him, and the cartel found them
arrogant, so Hector murdered Max in front of Gus to show him his place. Hector
and the cartel killed Max to show their superiority in the face of any
perceived arrogance. This began a long revenge plot by Gus to destroy the cartel
and Hector Salamanca’s along entire family, just as the man Gus considered a
brother was killed. When Walt set a trap to kill Gus using Hector as a suicide
bomber, Gus fell for the trap and died because of his pride. He could have sent any of his cronies to do it, but his ego
drove him to do it himself. Their need to best each other, to get revenge and
prove who was on top, caused their downfalls and they died together.
Of course people may not realize that even heroism can be egoistic,
if done for the wrong reasons, and no one exemplified that more than Hank. Hank
failed to see what was right in front of him, that his brother in law was a
druglord. He knew how embarrassing it would be for him when the rest of the DEA
discovered how completely he was fooled. Hank’s pride would not allow him to go
to the DEA for help, instead Hank believed he could bring Walt to justice
himself, wanting one last chance to redeem himself. He only told his faithful
right hand man Gomez, and because of Hank’s need to be the hero they both ended
up dead. The show’s final antagonist, Todd, summed up the greed of everyone on
the show best when he said “Not matter how much you got how can you turn your
back on more.”
No one, however, not Skyler or Gus or even Todd had the ego
of Walter White. Walt managed to escape ever repercussion that came his way for
four and a half seasons, but Walt got sloppy, and after his retirement his sins
caught up with him. His DEA brother in law found a book he should have
destroyed long ago, and prior to that he even tells Hank that Heisenberg may still be out there when Hank suspects that Gale was the true mastermind. His pride causes Hank to reopen the case he once thought solved. After everything went south Walt still kept trying to escape his fate and
even Saul told him to turn himself in to protect his family, his supposed
reason for doing it all along. Walt refused and tried to come up with a scheme
to get revenge on the Nazis that stole his money. He attempted to intimidate Saul
but sucumed to a coughing fit while Saul told him “It’s over.”
Only once Walt admited that he had his own selfish reasons
did he gain some redemption. He almost died on his own terms, he left his
family some money, and he got his revenge. Of course he could never be fully redeemed;
he had done far too much to get a real happy ending, or what he really wanted.
At least he got a heroic death, more or less, and the way he did so was to save
Jessie Pinkman and free him, not only from the Nazis, but from Walt’s own
control. Jessie was held down by Walt for five seasons, who had convinced
himself that Jessie needed him, even when he did things like letting the woman
Jessie loved die. In Walt’s mind it was all for Jessie’s best interest. Once he
saved Jessie and admitted that he was asking Jessie to do something for Walt’s
own benefit he could die somewhat nobly.
So the overall message of Breaking Bad is clear; do not let your ego get the best of you, no
good can come of it. Of course if you should falter you can always make amends,
and while it is not possible to completely undo you mistakes you must try to
fix what you have broken. After all, while Walt had the biggest ego of anyone, he was the only one who attempted to right his wrongs, to admit his mistakes and
take the punishment he deserved. The show ended much like this post, on a
bittersweet, and (hopefully) satisfying note.
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