I am the one who knocks.
This iconic line uttered by Walter White in episode six of Breaking Bad’s fourth season
is a cultural phenomenon and one of the most quoted lines of television ever by this point.
It’s extremely badass, with the way Walt reframes Skyler’s fears of someone knocking
on their door and shooting him to clue her in to the amount of influence and power he
now has being immensely impressive in its execution.
And as a result, it’s incredibly iconic and commanding, but the thing is.. it’s
at best an embellishment from Walt, and at worst.. a downright lie.
Sure, there may be a time in the show - essentially during the first act of Season 5, where Walt
did indeed have that sort of threat and power and influence, where the name of Heisenberg
caused others to back down in fear and look on in complete awe.
But that had not happened yet.
At this point in the story, while Walt had indeed killed people, grown in stature, become
far more cutthroat and pragmatic and done some insane things, the truth of the matter
is that he was in the midst of losing his only partner, he was under Gus’ thumb and
he had only not been disposed of because he was the only man who could cook for him.
He was pinned down at this point, with seemingly nowhere to go and nothing to do except keep
quiet and do his job.. or else.
And the title of the episode where this line is uttered tells the whole story about Walt
in this moment of time - Cornered.
The aura of badassery and power surrounding this line is incredibly ironic because at
this point in the story, Walt is a far cry from the one who knocks when he tells Skyler
this.
So if it’s not a genuine show of power, what actually is it?
Well.. it’s the same thing that Walter White has been doing thing entire time.
It’s a method of massaging his ego and making himself feel bigger.
“That’s not the truth.”
The retort here is so childish and in denial that it’s almost unbelievable that it’s
being uttered by a fifty year old man.
Now of course, Walt ultimately ended up getting out of this through some malevolent yet brilliant
planning and manipulation, but at this point, Skyler was very much in the right.
He was in danger, he was in over his head, and this had indeed gotten too big for him.
The only reason he wasn’t killed was because he was able to put together some intricate
plans to escape by the absolute skin of his teeth, but he was millimeters from biting
the bullet.
Him saying this is not a genuine display of power and influence, it’s the desperate
front put on by a man who is close to denial and pissed off at his wife for framing him
as vulnerable.
Of course, while he does talk about his importance in response to that as well, he’s absolutely
correct when he says that if he were to stop going into work, a superpower of a business
would go belly up and implode.
He is absolutely essential to Gus’ operation, without a doubt.
But.. where exactly is the correlation between his job being so important, and him being
this hardened, terrifying man who knocks?
He had never done anything like that, and the flashes where we see glimpses of this
sort of thing from Walt are so far removed in context from what he’s talking about.
The brilliance of this scene is not that it establishes an aura of control around Walt,
but that it is so clearly a very feeble attempt to establish that aura of control and a resultant
kick up his own ass, with the spark being him getting angry for seemingly being looked
down upon, just like always.
Many things about Walter change throughout the series, but the core of who he is, the
catalyst to his dark progression, has never wavered.
That pride.
He completely changed as a person, but that was only because he abandoned his fear and
responded to that side of himself in a manner completely different than he had been doing
for the previous fifty years.
He had awoken, but rather than that core changing, it was more like how he decided to gather
the conviction to actually do something about it thanks to his diagnosis, which lead to
this transformation.
However, I don’t mean to say that these words are insignificant for Walter’s progress,
because they do indicate a huge turning point.
While Heisenberg had been growing and growing in prominence, Walt had never really said
anything this outwardly threatening and scary before, and had previously expressed sadness
at having reached too many points of no return - particularly in Fly.
This line is the first time where he properly jumps into everything that that persona means,
and as such this may very well be where Walter fully embraces the Heisenberg personality
and dismisses his reservations completely in the wake of just having had enough of being
told he wasn’t in control.
But it rings much more hollow when you realize that there isn’t really much substance behind
the words, and that is key to where his character goes from here.
In spite of this gradual yet definitive evolution, after all this time, he’s that same small
man with an inferiority complex trying to prove himself after feeling emasculated by
his wife.
And I think that deep down, he knows this better than anyone.
As such, rather than being the truth, these words are much more of a rallying cry for
Walter to get himself up and take that final step to become the person he says he is, to
become the One Who Knocks.
Rather than an accurate summation of who he was in that moment, this was a something of
a self-fulfilling prophecy and a preview of where he would be at the peak of his powers..
before everything came crashing down and he ultimately realized that this all just got
a bit too big for him.
It’s a brilliant subversion and one of the very best lines in the series, though not
for the reasons you’d initially assume.
Here Walter issues challenge of sorts to himself, with the end goal being becoming the one who
knocks.
But the tricky thing about goals like this so dependent on grabbing hold of this sort
of influence is that once you achieve them, where do you go from there?
Is it really possible to have your powerlust satiated once you get there?
And if not, what becomes of a man with this black hole in his heart that consumes everything?
As subtextually genius as it is iconic and striking, I am the one who knocks deserves
every bit of acclaim it has earned for how sublimely it paints a picture of Walter White.
Many thanks for watching.