Ok so when people say the greatest tv shows ever made I imagine most of them are gonna think of
Breaking Bad. This is a series that completely changed television and ushered in a new era of
pretige shows. You kids might not remember yeah but back before this came out a lot of
tv was thought of as being cheap and inferior to movies. Sure we had the odd thing like Lost,
The Sopranos and The Wire but a lot of the time TV was seen as lesser quality.
However Breaking Bad along with several others helped to change
the perception of how we view the medium. At it's core was the story
of Walter White who hooked in viewers with the story of his rise and fall.
Here was a man who became a drug kingpin and one of the most wanted
men in America. Now though Walter is played up like he's almost like a hero down to him
going out in a big blaze of glory. There is unfortunately a sad truth to him. Now when I
say hero have to be careful with that word cos yeah...guy is also someone who's the villain.
Ruined my video essay already!
What I mean though is that Breaking bad does something brilliant in that
it makes us root for the bad guy. However in doing so we miss out the sad truth and
real tragedy that there is to the character. Throughout this video I
want to go over that and discuss the most heartbreaking thing about him.
So come with me as we look back on Breaking Bad and discuss the tragedy that is Walter White.
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Now Walts life changes when hes diagnosed with Cancer and we see
that he simply doesnt have the money for medical. Using his knowledge of science he
creates a new kind of drug that makes it the purest meth on the market. Slowly he
makes more money than he'd ever dreamed but in doing so he also loses his soul.
Kid, women, his family and friends are killed and it's the cost of what
it takes to be the boss. However he stays strong in the notion that he's
doing it for his family and that the money will help to support them when hes gone.
This is something that makes us side with him as even in all the evil he's doing
for what many could see as justifiable. I cant imagine what it would be like getting
that diagnosis and even know myself I ovework because I want my kids to have a better life.
Deep down though sometimes I feel like Walter in that I'm actually doing it
for myself. I get a thrill off the attention and rush that I get from
going head to head with other channels. It's friendly competition but it keeps
the stakes interesting and I'm sure a lot of other youtubers know what im talking about.
Now why I bring this up is Walter also clearly gets a
thrill too which he admits during the finale.
Speaking with Skylar he says
I did it for me
Which at the heart of it is the sad truth. Walter wants a way that he can
justify his actions and thus he pins it on his wife and family. He's working because
it makes him feel important and gives him a power that he holds above others.
He's not really doing it for them because if he was then he'd end up stopping early
on. Walter is someone who makes the lives worse of everyone in the show
and at the end of it theyre all ruined because of it. Still though he's addicted
to the rush which is similar to the addicts that also buy his product.
Deep down I also think that he wants to be known and discovered so that he
can achieve some type of fame. Serial killers often also do this too and a
lot of them actually want to get caught. This has been diagnosed as them wanting
to be admired and we only have to look at real world examples to back this up.
BTk shares a similar look to Walter white but the similarities go much deeper. His killing
spree terrorised people for 20 years and he even left clues at the scene of the crime.
However Dennis Rader managed to stop himself and it got to the point it was considered a cold case.
For over a decade Rader stayed his desires but then he started communicating with the police.
He sent them packages of the victims belongings and
letters taunting them that they'd never catch him.
In the end this is what got him caught because he sent a floppy disk to the police filled with
evidence. Unbeknownst to him these disks contained meta data which was tracked to his church
computer. On this it had last modified by Dennis and thus it was an open and shut case. However
it's clear that Rader wanted to be caught and this is why he kept in communication with them.
If you asked him I doubt he'd admit it though which is also something similar to Walt. However
theres a key scene that cements this as a fact and it goes down at Hank's and Marie's.
During the party Hank seems relieved that he's finally caught heisenberg
and he starts discussing why he thinks it's Gale.
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Now at this point Walt then says.
i'm not sure I agree
It's this that makes Hank reopen the case even though Walt had already got away with it. The
fact is he was enjoying the chase and felt like he could taunt the authorities and get away with it.
This arrogance is seen earlier in the show when Walts been diagnosed as being in a fugue state.
Wandering around he's eventually put in front of a psychiatrist and it's
here that he reveals the truth. After learning the conversations completely
confidential he admits that the entire thing was one big act.
He says that he likes to live life on the edge and tip toes around telling the truth.
In reality he just wants to be noticed and at least have
some recognition for what it is he built.
Now this idea of recognition also ties into our next point which are involving
his friends from Gray Matter. As we learn through the show he was an integral part of
their success and someone who was the real brains behind most of it. However
he ended up walking away and took a job at a high school because of his pride.
However in Season 1 they offer him a way out and say that they'll give
him a job at their company. They'll also give him enough
to cover his treatments and help out his family however they can.
However its in this idea of a job his pride steps in and he turns them down.
He refuses to be a lacky and work for someone else because his pride has him have to be the
one in control. This is something that though subconscious also leads him into killing Gus.
With Gus he also had safety and security and a lab that would keep him out of harms
way. Let's be honest their operation was perfect but Walt ended up taking it down.
In order to do this he had to poison a kid but he didnt care because it's what made him win.
I won
He was willing to let those around him suffer because he cared more about what he wanted than
their lives. This is seen perfectly in the plane crash which he somewhat inadvertedly
caused. Letting Jane die because it gave him back Jessie this led to the Wayfarer 515 air disaster.
This killed 167 people but the fact it's out of mind symbolically shows his downfall. I
dont think its any conicidence that the bear in the pool also has a burn
on its face like what happens with Gus. This foreshadowing shows the
two are linked and that its Walters selfishes that causes both issues.
His pride is sadly what leads to his downfall and its also the need to be known. Walt was
pathetic and felt like he failed in life and had to ruin other people just to show he was the best.
Unfortunately it kind of speaks to the flaws in
all of us and what might happen if we stopped having empathy.
When speaking on the character Vince Gilligan summed this up
and said the following when discussing Walt.
"I think what 'Ikiru' & 'Breaking Bad' share in a sense is the idea that if we found out
the exact expiration date on our lives, if we found out when we were going to be checking out,
that would free us up to do bold & courageous things, good or bad."
Now what makes this sadder is that Walt was really f**ked either way.
Say he hadn't have taken this path we have a fair idea of what his life would look like.
The medical bills would bankrupt the family or probbaly not have been able to be paid.
During this he'd have to work two jobs, the both of which filled him with resentment. On
top of this they had a kid on the way which would likely grow up poor and without a dad.
No matter what choice he made his life was was f**ked and that's the
true tragedy at the heart of Walter White.
He could either do the good thing which could lead to a bad outcome
or do the bad thing that might lead to good. In the end though
both paths lead to misery with the latter ruining everyone around him.
Those final few episodes paint him out as a desperate man whos about to die
sad and alone. Just him offering to pay the vaccuum guy $10,000 just to
stay a little longer. Man it's absolutely devastating to watch.
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In the end though I think the saddest scene is him watching his son for the
very last time. He doesnt get to speak to him or let him know how
much he cares, theres just a sense of abandoment and him losing everything.
Though Walter dies in what seems like a smile, I actually think there's a deeper
layer too it. This is a man realising he got what he deserved and all of his choices led
to this moment. However he's proud of what he accomplished but in this pride also was his
downfall. It's the sad truth about Walter White and it's the reason he remains one of the most
fascinating characters ever. I think we can all see a bit of ourselves within him but its when
choices come into it that we start to disagree. I hope at least you guys wouldnt take the path
he did cos he seems like someone who wouldnt hit the thumbs up. However you might start
to question what you would do if you were him so there's at least that layer of doubt within you.
It's something that makes Breaking Bad one of the best shows ever and
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