C.C.C. Issue #8: Top Ten Breaking Bad Episodes

C.C.C. Issue #8: Top Ten Breaking Bad Episodes 

Top 10 Breaking Bad Episodes

Even if you don’t watch TV, you’ve heard of Breaking Bad and how awesome it is. It greatly increased its number of viewers each season, has received overwhelming critical praise, and just won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series—Drama. Does it deserve all the success? There is no doubt in my mind, that this is one of the best TV shows of all time. From beginning to end, this series was, simply put, amazing. For those of you who haven’t seen the show or have missed episodes, MAJOR SPOILERS lie ahead as I recount my ten favourite episodes and all the greatest moments of this excellent TV drama.

10. “Box Cutter” Season 4, Episode 1

Kicking this list off is the season four premiere, which set the tension fuelled relationship between meth cooks Walt and Jesse and their frighteningly calm employer, Gus Fring, for the rest of the season. This tense and shocking episode picks up where the season three cliff hanger left Jesse having just shot a gun at Gale, the chemist who had been set to replace Walt, but it was never revealed if he actually shot the gun at Gale’s head or not. It becomes immediately clear Jesse killed him. Walt and Jesse end up waiting in the meth lab for Gus’ reaction to this unexpected act. The suspense is tremendous the entire time. How is Gus going to react to this risky and violent act? Gus shows up, and completely out of nowhere kills one of his own men with a box cutter in a grisly display. It’s at that moment they understand how cold and calculated Gus is, and that to mess with him again will spell their doom. 

9. “Felina” Season 5, Episode 16

Like the commercial said, “All bad things must come to an end.” The final episode of the series was one fans eagerly crowded around their television sets to see—trust me I know, I was one of them—and watch they did, as the series finale premiered to the tune of 10.3 million viewers. The episode finally concludes the epic story of Walter White A.K.A. Heisenberg, and in true Breaking Bad fashion. At this point, the man Walter White is dead, and only his alter ego, Heisenberg, remains. He devises a remote control machine gun trunk turret, and blows away the neo-Nazi gang holding Jesse captive. Jesse gets some revenge on Todd by choking him to death, Jesse and Walt have one last encounter, and neither of them bothers to kill the other, even after all the shit they went through together. Jesse escapes to freedom, and Heisenberg dies. It’s not a heroic death, nor is it tragic. He simply got hit with a bullet, bled out, and fell over dead, just as the police showed up to take him away. Heisenberg simply left meth land as subtly as he entered it. The episode may not have pulled out any huge surprises, but it did wrap things up nicely and the last ten minutes were beyond captivating. Breaking Bad ended on its own terms, and though I was sad to see it go, was left completely satisfied. 

8. “Gliding Over All” Season 5, Episode 8

This episode came at the end of the first half of season 5, premiering in September 2012. Luckily I watched the first half of the final season on DVD, only a couple months before the second batch premiered in August 2013. Fans who saw this episode on TV and had to wait nearly a year to see what was next must have been going insane. The episode basically wraps up lots of things, including Walt’s official involvement with the meth cooking world. Jesse and he part ways, they get their money, and Walt and his family sit down for a nice family barbeque. Just when everything seems to be perhaps as back to normal as it can be, DEA agent and brother-in-law Hank goes to the washroom while at the White family’s home for dinner, and has the ultimate oh shit moment. Hank discovers who Heisenberg really is: his own brother in law, Walt. Queue the cliff hanger to end all cliff hangers. If only Hank hadn’t taken that dump, things would have ended fine. 

7. “Pilot” Season 1, Episode 1

The one that started it all. Even from the very start, Breaking Bad was brilliant. I had heard good things about this show, and so purchased the first season on a whim in January of last year. Right from the get go Breaking Bad had me in its grip. It was bold, original, and extremely well acted (Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston completely deserved those Emmy’s). I had to watch at least the first episode just because of how it opened. I wanted to know how a man, wearing nothing but a gas mask and his tighty whities, ends up driving a Winnebago through the desert with a dead guy in the back. The way it opened with the eventual climax of the episode was yet another stroke of genius. A great opening episode to a great series indeed. 

6. “Fly” Season 3, Episode 10

This episode is essentially about nothing. It takes a break from the usual drama of the main plot to focus on Walt and Jesse just cooking a batch of meth in the lab. Walt is trying to eliminate a fly from the lab to avoid contamination, something Jesse could care less about. Walt begins to fixate on this fly, and we get a perfect showcase of the acting talent in this show. Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston carry the entire episode—not easy when you’re pretty much the only two actors on screen for over forty five minutes. The episode is brilliantly directed by Rian Johnson, who directed a couple other key episodes. It’s neat to see the character dynamics at play here, and the reason the episode stands out is it’s unlike any other from the whole series.

5. “The Cat’s in the bag...” Season 1, Episode 2

This is the episode that solidified Breaking Bad’s status as a must watch show for me, and it’s only the second one. Jesse has to dispose of a dead body, but does so incorrectly by placing it in hydrofluoric acid in his bathtub, resulting in the bathtub melting through the floor in the first truly shocking and hilarious scene of the show. It’s absolutely disgusting as a soup of blood and guts and acid and melted tub splatter everywhere, but it’s also so funny to see the characters’ reaction. Plus, it’s just so over the top, you can’t forget it. Too bad Mythbusters proved the gag wouldn’t have happened like that in real life during their Mythbusters Breaking Bad special. It was still cool anyway. 

4. “One Minute” Season 3, Episode 7

Somehow there aren’t any episodes from season two in this list. Every season was great, and I considered putting the second season finale in fourth place, but it just couldn’t compare with the nail biting suspense of this unforgettable season three episode. At this point in the show, Tuco, the drug lord Walt and Jesse first worked for, has been killed. But, Tuco’s two twin cousins are on the trail of the elusive Heisenberg, and they end up trying to take out Hank in one of the most thrilling action scenes from the entire series. In Breaking Bad, it is never certain who might live and who might not from episode to episode (like much of the best TV shows these days, bringing Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead to mind). I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, never certain if Hank was going to bite the dust or bite the bullet and kill the brothers. This one event affected Hank greatly, and it was where I truly started to care about him as a character more than ever. 

3. “Dead Freight” Season 5, Episode 5

This episode got a well deserved Emmy nomination for its writing. It entails Walt and Jesse’s elaborate and epic train heist to get a huge supply of methylamine. They enlist the help of some other guys including Todd, a young guy who appears low key at first, but turns out to be way more mentally unstable than expected. The whole heist is nerve wracking and the odds are stacked against them, but by the skin of their teeth they manage to pull it off. Everyone is jumping up and down in celebration. Then, in a shocking cliff hanger ending, a kid on his dirt bike shows up and sees them celebrating. Todd doesn’t hesitate to shoot the kid in the head, thus setting up Todd as one sick puppy for the rest of the series, as well as adding to the mayhem that plagues New Mexico resulting from Walt’s rise to power. This episode masterfully piles on the suspense and builds to an explosive, cliff hanging conclusion. 

2. “Face Off” Season 4, Episode 13

This is the exhilarating fourth season finale, where Gus is finally killed in an unforgettable scene. All season, Walt and Jesse have been plotting to eliminate their all-too powerful employer, whom they are certain plans to kill them when he is done with their services. Tuco’s Uncle Hector, known as the old man in the wheelchair by most, gets his overdue revenge on Gus and ticket out of the old folk’s home all in one explosive package. Walt devises a bomb which is attached and triggered by the old man’s wheelchair. After much uncertainty about whether it would work or not and just as Gus discovers he’s been hoodwinked by his own meth cooks, the bomb goes off. Gus walks out of the room, at first appearing uninjured, but turn the camera, and oh my god...half his face is gone! A truly shocking and brilliant moment. Honestly, if the series had ended here, I wouldn’t have been completely disappointed. It was a very cool and somehow very satisfying ending to season four, but all in all, I’m glad Vince Gilligan brought the series to a more conclusive ending than this.

1. “Ozymandias” Season 5, Episode 14

For me, this was the climax and official ending of Breaking Bad. The subsequent two final episodes were wrapping up and epilogue; this was where it really ended for Walt and everyone connected to him. So much happened that the entire episode was a nonstop thrill ride, loaded with tension and multiple jaw dropping events. First off, the death of Hank was a purely stunning, heart stopping scene. Then, Walt’s extreme betrayal of Jesse literally had me at the edge of my seat; anything could happen at any second, Hank just got shot in the face, his partner Gomez is dead too, Jesse could be next, the tension is through the roof. Then, after more unnerving dread, the episode reaches the scene in which the White household ultimately disintegrates, and Walt loses what he fought all these seasons for: his family. All of this made for what I think was the most overpowering and emotional episode of all. Rian Johnson directed the tension fuelled scenes flawlessly, and made this the defining Breaking Bad episode.