Walter White (Breaking Bad): Difference between revisions
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Walter soon learns his cancer is in [[Cure#Remission|remission]] and the tumor has shrunk by 80 percent.<ref>{{cite news |last=Goodman |first=Tim |title='Breaking Bad' Spoiled Bastard. Ep. 9: '4 Days Out.' |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |date=May 6, 2009 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/tgoodman/detail?entry_id=39736 |accessdate=July 23, 2011 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/60PEywR3w |archivedate=July 23, 2011}}</ref> In light of this news, Walter insists to Jesse that he will be getting out of the drug trade after unloading the last of the meth. However, there are signs he is embracing the criminal activity, such as when he threateningly warns a prospective competitor to "stay out of my territory".<ref>{{cite news |last=Sepinwall |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Sepinwall |title=Breaking Bad, 'Over': Walt takes a break |work=[[The Star-Ledger]] |date=May 10, 2009 |url=http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2009/05/breaking_bad_over_walt_takes_a.html |accessdate=July 23, 2011 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/60PFLYSlw |archivedate=July 23, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Halle |first=Howard |title=TV Recap: Don't dream Breaking Bad is over |work=[[Time Out (company)|Time Out New York]] |date=May 11, 2009 |url=http://newyork.timeout.com/things-to-do/own-this-city-blog/93725/tv-recap-dont-dream-breaking-bad-is-over |accessdate=July 23, 2011 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/60PFKr5SL |archivedate=July 23, 2011}}</ref> When another of Walter's dealers, [[List of Breaking Bad characters#Combo Ortega|Combo Ortega]] (Rodney Rush), is shot to death during a deal, Saul arranges for Walter to meet [[Gustavo Fring]] ([[Giancarlo Esposito]]), a powerful drug kingpin who also runs a chain of fast food restaurants as a front. Walter seeks to sell his entire supply in bulk to Gustavo, but the extremely cautious and low-profile man expresses concerns about working with Walter, particularly due to the unpredictability of Jesse, whose addiction to meth has worsened. Nevertheless, Gustavo agrees to buy Walter's entire stock of meth for $1.2 million. The deal is nearly blown by Jesse's drug problems, but Walter makes the transaction, even though it makes him miss the birth of his daughter Holly.<ref>{{cite web |last=VanDerWerff |first=Todd |title=Breaking Bad Mondays: Season 2, Ep. 11, 'Mandala' |publisher=[[Slant Magazine]] |date=May 17, 2009 |url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2009/05/breaking-bad-mondays-season-2-ep-11-mandala/ |accessdate=July 23, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Bowman |first=Donna |title=Breaking Bad: 'Mandala' |work=[[The A.V. Club]] |date=May 18, 2009 |url=http://www.avclub.com/articles/mandala,28106/ |accessdate=July 23, 2011}}</ref> |
Walter soon learns his cancer is in [[Cure#Remission|remission]] and the tumor has shrunk by 80 percent.<ref>{{cite news |last=Goodman |first=Tim |title='Breaking Bad' Spoiled Bastard. Ep. 9: '4 Days Out.' |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |date=May 6, 2009 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/tgoodman/detail?entry_id=39736 |accessdate=July 23, 2011 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/60PEywR3w |archivedate=July 23, 2011}}</ref> In light of this news, Walter insists to Jesse that he will be getting out of the drug trade after unloading the last of the meth. However, there are signs he is embracing the criminal activity, such as when he threateningly warns a prospective competitor to "stay out of my territory".<ref>{{cite news |last=Sepinwall |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Sepinwall |title=Breaking Bad, 'Over': Walt takes a break |work=[[The Star-Ledger]] |date=May 10, 2009 |url=http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2009/05/breaking_bad_over_walt_takes_a.html |accessdate=July 23, 2011 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/60PFLYSlw |archivedate=July 23, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Halle |first=Howard |title=TV Recap: Don't dream Breaking Bad is over |work=[[Time Out (company)|Time Out New York]] |date=May 11, 2009 |url=http://newyork.timeout.com/things-to-do/own-this-city-blog/93725/tv-recap-dont-dream-breaking-bad-is-over |accessdate=July 23, 2011 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/60PFKr5SL |archivedate=July 23, 2011}}</ref> When another of Walter's dealers, [[List of Breaking Bad characters#Combo Ortega|Combo Ortega]] (Rodney Rush), is shot to death during a deal, Saul arranges for Walter to meet [[Gustavo Fring]] ([[Giancarlo Esposito]]), a powerful drug kingpin who also runs a chain of fast food restaurants as a front. Walter seeks to sell his entire supply in bulk to Gustavo, but the extremely cautious and low-profile man expresses concerns about working with Walter, particularly due to the unpredictability of Jesse, whose addiction to meth has worsened. Nevertheless, Gustavo agrees to buy Walter's entire stock of meth for $1.2 million. The deal is nearly blown by Jesse's drug problems, but Walter makes the transaction, even though it makes him miss the birth of his daughter Holly.<ref>{{cite web |last=VanDerWerff |first=Todd |title=Breaking Bad Mondays: Season 2, Ep. 11, 'Mandala' |publisher=[[Slant Magazine]] |date=May 17, 2009 |url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2009/05/breaking-bad-mondays-season-2-ep-11-mandala/ |accessdate=July 23, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Bowman |first=Donna |title=Breaking Bad: 'Mandala' |work=[[The A.V. Club]] |date=May 18, 2009 |url=http://www.avclub.com/articles/mandala,28106/ |accessdate=July 23, 2011}}</ref> |
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Jesse demands his cut of the money, but Walter refuses to turn it over until Jesse gets clean. Later, however, Jesse's drug addict girlfriend [[List of Breaking Bad characters#Jane Margolis|Jane Margolis]] ([[Krysten Ritter]]) [[blackmail]]s Walter, threatening to make his drug activities public unless he gives Jesse his money. Walter agrees to the demand and, later that same night, goes to a bar and meets [[List of Breaking Bad characters#Donald Margolis|Donald Margolis]] ([[John de Lancie]]), |
Jesse demands his cut of the money, but Walter refuses to turn it over until Jesse gets clean. Later, however, Jesse's drug addict girlfriend [[List of Breaking Bad characters#Jane Margolis|Jane Margolis]] ([[Krysten Ritter]]) [[blackmail]]s Walter, threatening to make his drug activities public unless he gives Jesse his money. Walter agrees to the demand and, later that same night, goes to a bar and meets [[List of Breaking Bad characters#Donald Margolis|Donald Margolis]] ([[John de Lancie]]), who he does not realize is Jane's father. When Donald tells Walter one must never give up on family, Walter realizes he has paternal feelings toward Jesse and decides to help him. He breaks into Jesse's house, where Jesse and Jane lie passed out after a drug fix and Jane starts choking on her own vomit. Seeing Jane as his personal enemy, Walter chooses not to help her and allows her to die.<ref>{{cite web |last=Stephenson |first=Hunter |title=Breaking Bad: Episode "Phoenix," Flynn’s Ugly Website, and Season 2 Finale Predictions |publisher=[[/Film]] |date=May 26, 2009 |url=http://www.slashfilm.com/breaking-bad-episode-phoenix-flynns-ugly-website-and-season-2-finale-predictions/ |accessdate=July 23, 2011}}</ref> Later, Jesse is distraught over Jane's death, unaware of Walter's role in it, and Walter checks him in to an expensive rehabilitation clinic. Meanwhile, Walter undergoes an aggressive, risky surgery to treat his lung cancer, which appears to be a success. However, incriminating statements Walter unwittingly makes while under [[anesthesia]] lead Skyler to discover the extent of many of Walter's lies, and she leaves him. The [[Breaking Bad (season 2)|second season]] ends with Donald, an [[air traffic controller]], making a mistake at his job due to his despair over Jane's death. From his home, Walter watches two commercial airplanes crash into each other, unaware that he is indirectly responsible for it.<ref>{{cite web |last=Stephenson |first=Hunter |title=Breaking Bad’s Season Finale 'ABQ' Gives Ridiculous New Meaning to the Words 'Left Behind.' Body Bags, Secret Codes, and the Teddy Bear Discussed. |publisher=[[/Film]] |date=June 4, 2009 |url=http://www.slashfilm.com/breaking-bads-season-finale-abq-gives-ridiculous-new-meaning-to-the-words-left-behind-body-bags-secret-codes-and-the-teddy-bear-discussed/ |accessdate=July 23, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Sepinwall |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Sepinwall |work=[[The Star-Ledger]] |date=May 31, 2009 |title=Breaking Bad, 'ABQ': Reviewing the season finale |url=http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2009/05/breaking_bad_abq_reviewing_the.html |accessdate=July 23, 2011}}</ref> |
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===Season three=== |
===Season three=== |
Revision as of 20:30, 21 October 2013
Walter White | |
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Breaking Bad character | |
File:Walter White2.jpg Walter White | |
First appearance | "Pilot" |
Last appearance | "Felina" |
Created by | Vince Gilligan |
Portrayed by | Bryan Cranston |
In-universe information | |
Alias | Heisenberg Mr. Lambert |
Occupation | Meth manufacturer Drug kingpin Chemist at Sandia National Laboratories Co-founder of Gray Matter Technologies High school chemistry teacher Car wash cashier, proprietor, and manager |
Children | Walter White Jr. (son) Holly White (daughter) |
Relatives | Hank Schrader (brother-in-law) Marie Schrader (sister-in-law) |
Walter Hartwell "Walt" White Sr. (also known by his clandestine alias, Heisenberg) is a fictional character in the American television drama series Breaking Bad on AMC. He was portrayed by Bryan Cranston and was created by series creator Vince Gilligan. Once a promising chemist who was one of the founding members of the multi-billion dollar company Gray Matter Technologies, Walter left the company for personal reasons and became an unhappy and disillusioned high school chemistry teacher. After being diagnosed with Stage IIIA lung cancer, he resorts to manufacturing methamphetamine to ensure his family's financial security when he dies. As the series progresses, Walter gradually becomes darker and takes on a more villainous role.
Although AMC officials hesitated to cast Cranston due to his previous comedic role on Malcolm in the Middle, Gilligan cast him based on the actor's past performance in the X-Files episode "Drive". Cranston has contributed much of his character, including Walter's back story, physical appearance, and personality traits. Gilligan had described his goal with Walter White as turning Mr. Chips into Scarface, and has deliberately made the character less and less sympathetic.
Both the Walter White character and Bryan Cranston's performance have received critical acclaim. Cranston won three consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, becoming the second actor to do so since Bill Cosby for I Spy in the 1960s.[1][2]
In the Spanish-language remake Metástasis, his character is renamed Walter Blanco and is portrayed by es .[3]
Character biography
Background and personality
Walter White was a talented chemist who graduated with a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. He, along with colleague Vivek "Vodka" Kumar, contributed to research on proton radiography that helped a team win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[4][5] After graduate school, Walter founded the firm Gray Matter Technologies with Elliott Schwartz, his former classmate and close friend.[6] Around this time, Walter dated his lab assistant, Gretchen. However, he abruptly left both Gretchen and Gray Matter Technologies, selling his financial interest in the company for $5,000.[5][7] Gretchen and Elliott later married and made a fortune, much of it from Walter's research.[7][8] Walter secretly harbors great animosity about this.[8][9]
At the age of 50, Walt works as a high school chemistry teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico, providing instruction to uninterested and disrespectful students.[4][10] Since the job doesn't pay enough, he must work a second job at a car wash, which proves particularly humiliating when he has to clean the cars of his own students.[11] Walter is married to Skyler White; they have a teenage son named Walter Jr., who has cerebral palsy. Skyler is also pregnant with their second child, Holly, who is born at the end of season two.[12] Walt's other family includes Skyler's sister, Marie Schrader; her husband, Hank, who is a DEA agent; and Skyler and Marie's mother, whom are never seen.[13]
Season one
The pilot episode of Breaking Bad begins on Walter's 50th birthday, when he watches a local news report about a methamphetamine drug bust and is impressed by the amount of money recovered from the dealers. The following day, Walter is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and is told that he likely has only two years to live. Knowing that his family is in serious financial straits, Walter considers secretly cooking meth as a way to ensure his family has money and security after he dies.[14][15] He accompanies Hank as a ride-along during a DEA drug bust against a local dealer named "Cap'n Cook". During the bust, Walt sees a former student, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), fleeing from the scene, and realizes that Jesse is the dealer Hank is investigating. Using the school's records, Walt tracks down Jesse and blackmails him into letting him enter the drug trade.[16] The two form a partnership in which Walt will manufacture meth and Jesse will sell it, producing the product in an RV that Jesse purchases with Walt's life savings.[11][17] Because of Walt's expertise in chemistry, the meth he produces is of exceptionally high quality.[12][14]
Walt is nearly killed when Jesse brings meth distributors Krazy-8 Molina (Max Arciniega) and Emilio Koyama (John Koyamaa) to the RV, and Emilio recognizes Walt from Hank's bust. He survives only by mixing red phosphorus and hot water to produce phosphine gas and suffocating Emilio and Krazy-8 in self-defense. When he hears sirens, Walt falsely believes his arrest to be imminent and attempts suicide, but survives after he forgets to remove the safety on his handgun.[18] He then realizes that the sirens were from firetrucks, responding to a fire that was started by Emilio's cigarette at their cook site. Emilio was suffocated to death in the RV, but Krazy-8 barely survives the encounter and is held captive in Jesse's house. Walt wishes not to kill Krazy-8 and, after getting to know the man, plans to release him. Just as Walt is about to turn Krazy-8 loose, Walt realizes Krazy-8 has fashioned a makeshift weapon and plans to kill him. Walt strangles him to death with a bicycle lock.[19]
Walt keeps his activities secret from his family, but when Skyler learns about Jesse and confronts Walter about him, Walter claims Jesse is his marijuana dealer.[20][21] Walter eventually tells his family about the cancer and, although he initially insists he does not want treatment due to the medical costs and concerns over loss of dignity, he ultimately agrees to seek treatment.[6][22]
Elliott and Gretchen Schwartz, former business partners, offer to give Walt a job and to pay for all of his treatment, but he refuses to accept the offer, apparently due to pride and animosity over their past. Instead, he resumes cooking meth with Jesse, despite his initial plans to abandon the partnership following the incidents with Krazy-8 and Emilio.[6] Walt insists he wants no part in the drug dealing end of the business and that he wants no more bloodshed, but also expresses impatience at the rate at which Jesse is selling and demands that he find a distributor. Jesse makes contact with Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz), a local drug kingpin. Jesse shows up with a bag of meth, which Tuco agrees to buy. When Jesse asks to be paid, Tuco becomes enraged, steals the meth, and beats Jesse so badly that he is hospitalized. In response, Walt, using his adopted alias "Heisenberg", borrowed from Werner Heisenberg, the author of the Uncertainty principle, and a teacher like Walt who was diagnosed with cancer,[23] confronts Tuco and demands $50,000 in compensation for the stolen methamphetamine and Jesse's pain and suffering. Tuco becomes incredulous, and Walter throws an explosive crystal of fulminated mercury that nearly destroys Tuco's office. Tuco admires Walt's aggressiveness and agrees to Walt's request. They form a lucrative, albeit unstable, partnership.[24][25]
Walt starts producing meth more quickly and, to circumvent legal restrictions on the sale of the organic pseudoephedrine compound, opts to use phenylacetone reacted with methylamine to produce racemic meth. He purifies this compound to the same high quality dextrorotatory form as before, except it has a blue color that becomes a signature of Walter's product.[26] The first season ends when Walter and Jesse deliver a fresh batch of meth to Tuco. When No Doze (Cesar Garcia), one of Tuco's cronies, says something relatively benign to Walt and Jesse, a shocked Walter and Jesse watch as Tuco viciously beats him to death.[27][28]
Season two
When No Doze dies as a result of Tuco's beating, Walt fears Tuco's unstable personality. Tuco becomes increasingly paranoid and kidnaps Walter and Jesse out of fear they will turn him in.[29][30] They are kept hostage for several days in a trailer (belonging to Hector Salamanca) in the middle of the desert, but after a struggle, Jesse shoots Tuco and escapes with Walter. Shortly afterward, Tuco is shot to death in a gunfight with Hank, who tracked Jesse's car to Tuco while searching for Walter.[31][32] To explain his absence, Walter wanders naked into a grocery store, feigning confusion, and later claims he has no recollection of the past several days. Although Hank knows nothing about Walter's role in the drug trade, he starts investigating the recent upsurge in blue meth and the mysterious manufacturer known as "Heisenberg", unaware it is his own brother-in-law.[33][34] Walter's constant lies start straining his marriage, as Skyler seems to sense his dishonesty and grows weary of his coldness.[35][36] Meanwhile, Walter grows more and more aggressive in his role as a drug manufacturer; when Jesse tells him they are short of money because one of their dealers was robbed, Walter demands that he "handle it" by whatever means necessary.[37]
When Walter's medical bills start mounting, he promises Skyler he will seek assistance from Elliott and Gretchen after all, but continues to pay with his drug money. When Skyler calls Gretchen to thank her for their help, Gretchen confronts Walter and asks how he is paying the bills. Walter becomes angry, insisting it is none of her business and condemning her and Elliott for making millions of dollars on his research.[7][9] Meanwhile, one of their dealers, Brandon "Badger" Mayhew (Matt L. Jones), is arrested and, fearful it could lead the police back to them, Walter and Jesse seek advice from the sleazy and unscrupulous criminal attorney Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk). Saul arranges for a career criminal, who willingly goes to prison for crimes he does not commit, to pose as Heisenberg and be arrested. Although Hank remains suspicious that the real Heisenberg is still loose, the arrest takes some heat off of Walter, and Saul uses the experience to become Walter's consigliere-like advisor.[38][39]
Walter soon learns his cancer is in remission and the tumor has shrunk by 80 percent.[40] In light of this news, Walter insists to Jesse that he will be getting out of the drug trade after unloading the last of the meth. However, there are signs he is embracing the criminal activity, such as when he threateningly warns a prospective competitor to "stay out of my territory".[41][42] When another of Walter's dealers, Combo Ortega (Rodney Rush), is shot to death during a deal, Saul arranges for Walter to meet Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), a powerful drug kingpin who also runs a chain of fast food restaurants as a front. Walter seeks to sell his entire supply in bulk to Gustavo, but the extremely cautious and low-profile man expresses concerns about working with Walter, particularly due to the unpredictability of Jesse, whose addiction to meth has worsened. Nevertheless, Gustavo agrees to buy Walter's entire stock of meth for $1.2 million. The deal is nearly blown by Jesse's drug problems, but Walter makes the transaction, even though it makes him miss the birth of his daughter Holly.[43][44]
Jesse demands his cut of the money, but Walter refuses to turn it over until Jesse gets clean. Later, however, Jesse's drug addict girlfriend Jane Margolis (Krysten Ritter) blackmails Walter, threatening to make his drug activities public unless he gives Jesse his money. Walter agrees to the demand and, later that same night, goes to a bar and meets Donald Margolis (John de Lancie), who he does not realize is Jane's father. When Donald tells Walter one must never give up on family, Walter realizes he has paternal feelings toward Jesse and decides to help him. He breaks into Jesse's house, where Jesse and Jane lie passed out after a drug fix and Jane starts choking on her own vomit. Seeing Jane as his personal enemy, Walter chooses not to help her and allows her to die.[45] Later, Jesse is distraught over Jane's death, unaware of Walter's role in it, and Walter checks him in to an expensive rehabilitation clinic. Meanwhile, Walter undergoes an aggressive, risky surgery to treat his lung cancer, which appears to be a success. However, incriminating statements Walter unwittingly makes while under anesthesia lead Skyler to discover the extent of many of Walter's lies, and she leaves him. The second season ends with Donald, an air traffic controller, making a mistake at his job due to his despair over Jane's death. From his home, Walter watches two commercial airplanes crash into each other, unaware that he is indirectly responsible for it.[46][47]
Season three
At the start of the season, Walt is wracked with guilt after learning about the role Jane's death played in the plane crash. He has also moved out of the house. During a discussion about a possible divorce, Skyler accuses Walt of dealing marijuana with Jesse, believing it to be the only way he could have paid his medical bills. When Walt admits to manufacturing methamphetamine, a stunned Skyler says she will not tell anybody if he grants her a divorce, but he refuses. Meanwhile, Gus offers Walt $3 million to cook meth for three months. Walt declines, still despairing over the loss of his family.[48][49] Walter breaks in to his house and stays there despite Skyler's insistence he stay away.[50][51] Shortly afterward, while Walter is showering, the Mexican drug cartel hitmen Leonel and Marco Salamanca (Daniel and Luis Moncada) break into the house and wait with an axe to kill Walter to avenge their cousin Tuco's death. Walt is only saved by the last-minute assistance of Gus, who insists he needs Walter's help producing meth.[50][52] Skyler threatens to turn Walter in to the police when she realizes he is home, but she fails to go through with it. Later, Skyler reveals to Walter she has had sex with her boss, Ted Beneke (Christopher Cousins).[53]
Walter becomes an emotional mess and, at one point, tries to kiss assistant principal Carmen Molina (Carmen Serano), who places him on indefinite suspension as a result.[54][55] Gus offers Walter a state-of-the-art meth lab concealed beneath an industrial laundry facility. Although Walter initially continues to resist, he eventually accepts Gus's offer, then reluctantly signs Skyler's divorce papers.[56] By this point, Walter and Jesse have had a falling out, and Walter is working with a new lab assistant, Gale Boetticher (David Costabile). When Hank asks Walter if he remembers whether his former student Jesse used a recreational vehicle, Walter realizes Hank is closing in on Jesse and tries to have the RV destroyed. Hank follows Jesse to the repair yard where the RV is kept, which results in Hank's finding the RV and pounding on the door while Walter and Jesse are inside. They escape the situation only after Walter arranges for Hank to receive a phone call that his wife, Marie, has been hurt in an accident, prompting Hank to leave the RV to rush to the hospital. Walter and Jesse subsequently have the RV destroyed.[57][58]
Later, a furious Hank beats Jesse to the point that he is hospitalized. Walter convinces Jesse not to press charges and the two make amends after Walter makes Jesse his full partner, resulting in Jesse's replacing Gale as his lab assistant.[59] When Hank is shot by Leonel and Marco Salamanca, Skyler insists that she and Walter will pay for Hank's medical bills, and she claims to Marie that Walter made his money by gambling.[60] Skyler gradually starts to become more involved in the dark side of Walter's life and proposes they buy the car wash where he previously worked for a front business to launder his drug money. She also reveals she never filed the divorce papers Walter had signed.[61] Eventually, Jesse learns the drug dealers who killed his friend Combo work for Gus, and that the dealers forced Tomas (Angelo Martinez), the 11-year-old brother of Jesse's girlfriend Andrea (Emily Rios), to commit the murder. Jesse starts making plans to kill them, and Walter seeks to stop this by informing Gus of Jesse's plans. This leads to a meeting of Walter, Gus, Jesse and the drug dealers, during which Gus warns Jesse not to harm the dealers and tells them to stop using children during their deals.[62][63]
Shortly afterward, however, Tomas is murdered by unknown gunmen, prompting an angry Jesse to seek revenge. Upon hearing local news broadcasts about Tomas' death, Walter realizes how Jesse will respond and seeks to find him. Just before Jesse is about to confront the dealers, Walter arrives and runs them down with his car. One is killed instantly and Walter executes the other by a gunshot to the head.[62][63] Walter places Jesse into hiding, then later tells Gus that he has fled the state. Although Walter insists he wishes to continue cooking meth for Gus, he quickly realizes Gus is grooming his former lab assistant, Gale, to eventually replace Walter. He correctly predicts Gus will try to kill Walter once Gale is ready, so Walter tells Jesse they must kill Gale to prevent this. Jesse does not want to do it and suggests Walter turn himself in to the DEA, but Walter refuses and says he will kill Gale himself. However, before he can do so, Walter is abducted by Gus's henchmen, Mike (Jonathan Banks) and Victor (Jeremiah Bitsui), who plan to kill him.[64][65] Walter claims he will arrange to turn Jesse over to them, but when they allow him to call Jesse, Walter quickly informs Jesse he must now kill Gale himself, or else Mike and Victor will kill him. The third season ends with Jesse's shooting Gale.[64][66]
Season four
After Gale's murder, enforcers working for Gus kidnap Jesse and take him to the meth lab where Walter is being held hostage. Gus arrives and slits Victor's throat with a box cutter in a gruesome show of force. Walter is unnerved by Gus's actions and, fearing he will kill him at the next opportunity, plots to preemptively kill Gus with an illegally purchased snubnosed revolver. However, Walter soon discovers that Gus has eschewed all contact with him and has sent a new enforcer, Tyrus Kitt, to supervise Walter's activities. Despite this, Walter attempts to kill Gus at his home but is unsuccessful when he is interrupted via cell phone by Mike, who is surveilling the house. He later approaches Mike at a bar and asks for his help in killing Gus; however, Mike beats Walter and leaves.
With help from Saul, the Whites force Bogdan into selling his car wash. Walter begins recklessly spending his money on other items, buying a Dodge Challenger for Walt, Jr.; when Skyler refuses to let Walt, Jr. accept the conspicuous gift, an angered Walter destroys the car in an empty parking lot. Walter's demeanor becomes increasingly sinister, frightening Skyler to the point where she contemplates leaving New Mexico. She stays, however, but tells Walter that she intends to "protect this family from the man who protects this family".
The relationship between Walter and Gus continues to deteriorate when Gus installs a surveillance camera in the lab to track Walter's movements. He also shows concern when Jesse becomes depressed and begins to show erratic and harmful behavior. Having found evidence linking Gus to Gale's murder, Hank begins an unofficial investigation and asks Walter to place a tracking device on Gus's car outside of his restaurant. A harried Walter informs Gus of the tracking device, but installs it anyway after Gus instructs him to. Walter later acknowledges to Gus they have a mutual problem with the investigation, but pleads that Gus not kill Hank.
Walter manufactures a small amount of ricin in the meth lab and gives it to Jesse, telling him to covertly poison Gus as soon as possible. Walter avoids Hank, but eventually fails and Hank has Walter drive him to retrieve the tracking device. This proves unsuccessful in gathering any credible information however, due to Gus's knowledge of the bug.
Jesse fails to follow through with the hit on Gus out of fear for his own life. Upon learning this, Walter confronts Jesse and the two engage in a brawl, signifying an end to their partnership. Jesse subsequently joins Gus's organization as an apprentice to Mike. Unconvinced that Gus is innocent, Hank continues his investigation and discovers Gus's laundromat where the meth lab is located. Despite Walter's attempts to thwart his investigation, Hank convinces Walter to drive him to the laundry to investigate, but before they arrive Walter deliberately causes a car accident. A few days later, Walter visits Jesse to seek help, but Jesse refuses. Upon leaving, Walter is ambushed and tasered by enforcers who were surveilling Jesse's house on Gus's orders.
Walter wakes up in the middle of the desert to Gus telling him he is "fired" and that if he tries to contact Jesse or interfere with his murdering Hank, Gus will kill Walt's entire family. (Gus couldn't kill Walter outright due to Jesse's adamant opposition, despite their falling out.) Jesse continues his relationship with Andrea and her son, Brock, who is hospitalized from poison, which Jesse believes to be from the ricin. Walter later regains Jesse's trust by pleading ignorance of Brock's poisoning and suggesting Gus was responsible, as Gus approved of violent measures against children in the past. Jesse and Walter attempt to kill Gus by rigging his station wagon with a remote-controlled pipe bomb, but Gus senses something is awry and Walt's plan is thwarted. Jesse later tells Walt of Gus's visits to Hector Salamanca at the rest home; Walt, in collusion with Hector (who weighs the many family members of his whom Gus has killed versus Walt's role in the death of only Tuco), rigs the pipe bomb to his wheelchair so that Hector may trigger it with his bell. When Gus visits him next, he is killed in the blast, along with Tyrus and Hector.
With Gus dead, Walter storms the superlab and kills two of Gus's henchmen to free Jesse, who had been kidnapped and forced to cook at gunpoint. The two proceed to set fire to the superlab, destroying the entire laundry facility. Afterward, Jesse tells Walter that Brock will live, as he was poisoned not by ricin, but by berries from a Lily of the Valley plant; because of this, Jesse realizes that Gus couldn't have been responsible for Brock's condition. Walter assures Jesse, however, that Gus's murder was necessary. The duo shake hands and part ways. Walter then calls Skyler to assure her that they are safe and he has "won", with the next and final scene showing a potted Lily of the Valley in Walter's back yard, signifying that Walter had intentionally poisoned Brock in order to forward his plan into killing Gus.
Season five
Part 1
Walt's defeat of Gus leads him to develop a sense of arrogance and invulnerability. He and Jesse join forces with Mike to establish their own meth operation. While searching for new locations to cook, Walt devises a plan to periodically set up his lab in residential houses tented by a pest control business. Trouble with their supplier leaves Walter, Jesse and Mike without any methylamine precursor. Mike suggests ramping down production, but Walt insists they stay on course. Their new supplier, Lydia, is an executive for Madrigal Electromotive GmbH, the parent company of Los Pollos Hermanos and the supplier of Gus's methylamine. Skyler attempts to send the kids away from home, afraid of what Walt's meth business might bring upon them. During a dinner with Hank and Marie, she stages a suicide attempt in an effort to convince the Schraders to temporarily take custody of Walt Jr. and Holly. With the children gone, she tells Walt that she'll keep fighting him until he finally dies of cancer.
Lydia assists Walt, Mike, and Jesse to steal a thousand gallons of Madrigal's methylamine from a train traveling through New Mexico. A fourth member of their gang, Todd, kills a young boy who witnesses the heist. After disposing of both the boy and his dirt bike with hydrofluoric acid, Mike and Jesse move to end the partnership and sell the methylamine to a Phoenix-based competitor named Declan. Even though Declan initially wants Walt's meth pulled off the drug market, Walt persuades him to sell his superior product. Walt argues with Jesse over his leaving their meth operation, and learns that the DEA is poised to arrest Mike after flipping his lawyer. During an angry confrontation with Mike, Walt impulsively kills him. He then conspires with Todd's uncle, Jack, to have the witnesses and their lawyer killed during a mass assassination. Walt also makes a deal with Lydia to begin distributing his product overseas in the Czech Republic. After a few months, he amasses so much money that Skyler cannot even count it all. Walt reluctantly decides to end his involvement in the meth business, and his family is reunited.
During a family gathering at the White residence, Hank goes to the bathroom and discovers Walt's copy of Leaves of Grass given to him by Gale, which contains a handwritten note addressing Walt as "my other favorite W.W." Remembering a conversation he previously had with Walt regarding those initials in Gale's lab notebook, Hank realizes that Walt has been Heisenberg all along.
Part 2
In the wake of the discovery, Hank has an anxiety attack on the drive home and crashes his car into a fence, after which he is briefly hospitalized. Shocked and distraught, Hank begins investigating Walt and puts a GPS tracker on his car. Walt eventually realizes what Hank knows and confronts him, which leads to a physical altercation. After Hank remarks that he no longer knows who Walt is, Walt calmly urges him to "tread lightly".
With help from Saul and his henchmen, Kuby and Huell, Walt transports his money to the Tohajiilee Indian Reservation, where he buries it. After Walt collapses at home, Skyler tends to him and tells him to take no action for the time being, as Hank has no case. Walt records a videotaped "confession" in which he frames Hank for masterminding the meth operation, and hands over a DVD of the confession to the Schraders as a threat. Meanwhile, he persuades Jesse to skip town with a new identity. When Jesse discovers that he was pickpocketed by Huell, he realizes the truth about the ricin cigarette in Brock's poisoning, beats Saul into confessing, and rushes to Walt's house to douse it with gasoline. Saul promptly informs Walt, who arrives at the house armed only to find that Jesse is not there.
Saul and Skyler urge Walt to call in a hit on Jesse, but he is reluctant to do so. Unbeknownst to Walt, Jesse was talked out of burning his house by Hank, and has agreed to cooperate with his investigation. Walt arranges a public meeting with Jesse in Downtown Albuquerque, not knowing it is monitored by Hank and Gomez. However, as Jesse is approaching the rendezvous point, he sees a suspicious-looking man whom he mistakenly assumes was put there by Walt. Instead of meeting him, Jesse calls Walt on a pay phone and threatens him. Walt finally contacts Jack to have Jesse killed, but Jack only agrees to the deal if Walt teaches Todd how to cook "blue sky", which has been declining in quality since Walt left the drug trade. Walt agrees to do so, but only after the hit is over.
Jesse sends Walt a photo of what appears to be one of his barrels, threatening to burn the money. Walt frantically drives to To'hajiilee, only to realize that the photo was a decoy. Believing that Jesse is about to kill him, Walt contacts Jack and his Neo-Nazi gang for backup. However, he tries to call off the hit once Jesse shows up with Hank and Gomez. Jack's gang shows up anyway and, after Walt has been arrested by Hank, open fire and kill Gomez. Despite Walt's desperate pleas, Jack executes Hank. He then digs up Walt's money and takes most of it for himself, advising that Walt leave town. Walt finds Jesse hiding under his car and gives away his situation. As he is being taken into captivity by the gang, Walt spitefully tells Jesse about his role in Jane's death.
Walt returns home and is confronted by Skyler and Walt Jr., the latter having been told the truth about his father's criminal activities. After revealing that Hank is dead, he gets into a violent struggle with Skyler and flees with Holly. However, after Holly calls for her mother, Walt feels a pang of conscience and leaves her at a fire station. Before doing so, he makes an abusive phone call to Skyler, intending to cast suspicion away from her. With a single barrel of money left, Walt leaves Albuquerque and lives in seclusion in New Hampshire. After several months alone, Walt travels to a nearby town and calls his son, offering to send him money; Walt Jr. angrily rejects the gesture. Dejected, Walt then contacts the Albuquerque DEA, intending for the authorities to trace the call and arrest him.
While waiting for the police, Walt sees a TV interview in which Gretchen and Elliot dismiss his involvement with Gray Matter. Walt returns to Albuquerque – coincidentally on his 52nd birthday – and coerces them into giving his remaining $9.72 million to Walt Jr. He also makes amends with Skyler, who allows him to look at his children one last time. After purchasing an M60 machine gun and retrieving the ricin from his abandoned house, Walt drives to Jack's compound and has Jesse brought before him. Tackling Jesse to the ground, Walt activates the machine gun and sprays Jack's hideout with bullets, killing most of his gang (except for Todd, who gets strangled by Jesse). After killing Jack, Walt takes a phone call from Lydia and reveals that he spiked her tea with ricin during an earlier encounter at a cafe. Finally, after a tense confrontation, he lets Jesse go free.
Having sustained a fatal wound to the abdomen during the shootout, Walt walks through Jack's drug lab and examines the equipment one last time. Eventually, he collapses onto the floor and dies. The police are shown entering the lab and finding his body.[67]
Development
"You're going to see that underlying humanity, even when he's making the most devious, terrible decisions, and you need someone who has that humanity – deep down, bedrock humanity – so you say, watching this show, 'All right, I'll go for this ride. I don't like what he's doing, but I understand, and I'll go with it for as far as it goes.' If you don't have a guy who gives you that, despite the greatest acting chops in the world, the show is not going to succeed."
—Vince Gilligan, about Bryan Cranston[68]
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan cast Bryan Cranston for the role of Walter White based on having worked with him in a sixth season episode of the science fiction television series The X-Files, where Gilligan worked as a writer. Cranston played an anti-Semite with a terminal illness who took series co-protagonist Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) hostage. Gilligan said the character had to be simultaneously loathsome and sympathetic, and that "Bryan alone was the only actor who could do that, who could pull off that trick. And it is a trick. I have no idea how he does it."[2][68] AMC officials were initially reluctant with the casting choice, having known Cranston only as the over-the-top character Hal on the comedy series Malcolm in the Middle and approached actors John Cusack and Matthew Broderick about the role.[69] When both actors declined, the executives were persuaded to cast Cranston after seeing his X-Files episode.[70]
Cranston contributed a great deal to the character's persona. When Gilligan left much of Walter's past unexplained during the development of the series, the actor wrote his own back story for the character. At the start of the show, Cranston gained 10 pounds to reflect the character's personal decline. He had the natural red highlights of his hair dyed a regular brown. He collaborated with costume designer Kathleen Detoro on a wardrobe of mostly neutral green and brown colors to make the character bland and unremarkable, and worked with makeup artist Frieda Valenzuela to create a mustache he described as "impotent" and like a "dead caterpillar". Cranston has also repeatedly identified elements in scripts where he disagreed with how the character was handled, and has gone so far as to call Gilligan directly when he could not work out disagreements with the episode screenwriters. Cranston has said he was inspired partially by his elderly father for how Walter carries himself physically, which he described as "a little hunched over, never erect, [as if] the weight of the world is on this man's shoulders". In contrast to his character, Cranston has been described as extremely playful on set, with Aaron Paul describing him as "a kid trapped in a man's body".[2]
Gilligan has said it has been difficult to write for Walter White because the character is so dark and morally questionable: "I'm going to miss the show when it's over, but on some level, it'll be a relief to not have Walt in my head anymore."[2] As the series has progressed, Gilligan and the writing staff of Breaking Bad have made Walter more and more unsympathetic. Gilligan said: "He's going from being a protagonist to an antagonist. We want to make people question who they're pulling for, and why."[71] Cranston said by the fourth season: "I think Walt's figured out it's better to be a pursuer than the pursued. He's well on his way to badass."[72] Regarding White's fate in the series ending, Cranston foresaw it as "ugly[, with no] redemption,"[73] although earlier, Gilligan divulged his plans to "end on a high note, in a way that will satisfy everyone."[74]
Reception
The character development of Walter White as well as Bryan Cranston's performance have received overwhelming critical acclaim.
Reviews
The web magazine Grantland quotes Andy Greenwald as analyzing Walter White differently from some others, including Vince Gilligan. The reviewer states:[75]
Since watching [the "Confessions" episode of Breaking Bad], I've been thinking a lot about Walter White, the 'shadow' on his recent CAT scan, and the black cloud that has long since overtaken his heart. The closer we get to the end, the more Walt scrabbles around and lashes out like a rat when it's surrounded, the less I'm buying Vince Gilligan's whole 'Mr. Chips to Scarface' quote as an analogy for Walt's transformation. That's the route the character has taken these five seasons, sure, in terms of his changing context. But I think the most horrifying part of Breaking Bad may be that Walt, at his core, didn't really transform at all. It wasn't greed or generosity or cancer or fear that fueled this reign of death and destruction. It was resentment. Seething, burning resentment, the kind that forms not due to poor treatment but due to an innate knowledge that you, the aggrieved, are better than said treatment, better than everyone who has somehow gotten the better of you over the years. ... Every moment Walt spent in front of a classroom he was thinking about how beneath him it all was. He was a genius; he was meant to be a millionaire, not this castrated cross between stepping stone and doormat. When you got down to it, Walt desperately wanted to teach every one ... a lesson, and I don't mean in the style of Mr. Chips.
New York magazine writer Emma Rosenblum said Bryan Cranston "pulls off the unassuming White with flawless subtlety: a waxy pallor, a slump of the shoulders, and a sense of doom that is palpable".[70] The Hollywood Reporter writer Tim Goodman praised as courageous Vince Gilligan's decision to transform Walter White into an unsympathetic character: "You don't take your main character and make him unlikable. You just don't. Nobody does that. Nobody has ever really done that to this extent."[76] Robert Bianco of USA Today called Walt "one of the greatest dramatic creations ever to grace our TV screens."[77] Following the show's conclusion, Academy Award-winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins wrote a fan letter to Bryan Cranston, wherein he praised the show and called Cranston's performance as Walter White the best acting he had ever seen.[78]
Awards
Bryan Cranston won three consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, the first actor to do so since Bill Cosby for the 1960s secret-agent adventure series I Spy.[2] Cranston was nominated a fourth and fifth non-consecutive year but lost to Damian Lewis for Homeland and Jeff Daniels for The Newsroom. Cranston has also been nominated thrice for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series. He has won two Satellite Awards for Best Actor in a Series Drama, and been nominated twice. He has won one and been nominated for three (one as part of an ensemble) Screen Actors Guild Awards. Cranston received a Television Critics Association Awards and was nominated three more times. He has also won two Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series.[1][2]
Obituary and funeral
A "Breaking Bad" fan group placed a paid obituary for Walter White in the Albuquerque Journal, October 4, 2013.
It's headlined "White, Walter" and includes a photo of Bryan Cranston, the actor who played the chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin on the popular AMC drama filmed in Albuquerque. The text reads:
- White, Walter AKA "Heisenberg," 52, of Albuquerque, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, and a gunshot wound. A co-founder of Gray Matter, White was a research chemist who taught high school chemistry, and later founded a meth manufacturing empire. He is survived by his wife Skyler Lambert; son Walter "Flynn" Jr.; and daughter Holly. A private memorial was held by his family. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to a drug abuse prevention charity of your choice. He will be greatly missed.[79]
On October 19, 2013, a mock funeral procession (including a hearse and a replica of White's meth lab RV) and service for the character was held at Albuquerque's Sunset Memorial Park cemetery. A headstone placed with a photo of Cranston as White read "Beloved Husband, Father, Teacher & Entrepreneur: R.I.P. Walter White (September 7, 1959 — September 7, 2011)". While some residents were unhappy with the fan's makeshift gravesite for closure to the show, tickets for the event raised nearly $17,000 for a local charity called Healthcare for the Homeless.[3]
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{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Greenwald, Andy (August 26, 2013). "Breaking Bad Season 5, Episode 11 Recap: Cigs, Lies, and Videotape in 'Confessions'". Grantland. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
- ^ Goodman, Tim (July 13, 2011). "'Breaking Bad': Dark Side of the Dream". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 10, 2013.
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- ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/14/anthony-hopkins-breaking-bad-letter_n_4098441.html
- ^ http://www.abqjournal.com/275038/news/abq-news/it-provides-closure.html>
Further reading
- Egner, Jeremy (March 19, 2010). "On Character: Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad". New York Times. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
External links
- Walter White at AMC.com
- Template:IMDb character
- Borderline personality disorder in fiction
- Breaking Bad characters
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- Fictional characters from California
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- Fictional chemists
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