“If you try to interfere, this becomes a much simpler matter. I will kill your wife. I will kill your son. I will kill your infant daughter.”
I’m the last person in America to watch “Breaking Bad” all the way through. I watched the first few episodes in 2015, but only finished the series yesterday (seasons 2-5 were watched in true “binge” mode, starting early last month). So here we are, four years after the show went off the air, and I’m just now joining the discussion.
And yes, it’s already been said thousands of times over, but what a show. The best. Here are my totally-late-to-the-party Top 10 “Breaking Bad” moments. Spoiler warning applies, if you somehow managed to put off watching for longer than I had.
10. Never dissolve a corpse in a bathtub (S1/E2 – Cat’s in the Bag). Jesse doesn’t find the specific bin he’s instructed to use, so he decides to dissolve Krazy-8’s body in the bathtub. It doesn’t end well.
9. ATM deposit (S2/E6 – Peekaboo). While being held hostage by a couple of meth addicts, Jesse watches the female addict drop a stolen ATM machine on her partner’s head.
8. Walt runs over drug dealers (S3/E12 – Half Measures). Just as Jesse’s about to be taken out by the drug dealers who killed 11-year-old Tomas, Walt drives up and mows them down.
7. Walt poisons a kid (S4/E13 – Face Off). In case there was any doubt of Walt’s developing evil, we learn at the end of the episode that Walt poisoned young Brock in order to turn Jesse against Gus.
6. Good news is awful news (S2/E9 – 4 Days Out). Only on this show could great news (cancer in remission!) be met with such rage and frustration.
5. Wait… he shot the kid? (S5/E5 – Dead Freight). How much of a scumbag is Todd? His jawdropping extreme measure from this episode says it all.
4. Worst double date ever (S5/E11 – Confession). The Mexican restaurant scene with Walt/Skyler and Hank/Marie is a slow burning, it’s-all-about-to-hit-the-fan masterpiece. And the subsequent moment when Hank and Marie watch Walt’s DVD “confession” stopped me dead in my tracks.
3. The plane crash (S2/E13 – ABQ). Because of course Jane’s dad was an air traffic controller. And yeah, he went back to work too soon after her death.
2. “I am the one who knocks” (S4/E6 – Cornered). Walt’s rageful speech to Skyler features the most memorable line in a series loaded with them.
1. OH MY GOD. (S4/E13 – Face Off). One of the most striking images and moments I’ve ever seen on TV. It actually looked like Gus survived the bomb blast there for a second. And then…
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Wendy the hooker delivering drugs to the song “Windy” (S3/E12 – Half Measures)
Cartel poisoning (S4/E10 – Salud)
Severed-head-on-a-tortoise (S2/E7 – The Tortoise Bomb)
Walt lets Jane overdose (S2/E12 – Phoenix)
The great train robbery (S5/E5 – Dead Freight)
Pretty much every scene Saul was in.
