Breaking Bad: Nature of Sin and Its Consequences
“Chemistry is… well, technically it’s the study of matter, but I prefer to see it as the study of change.” So says Walter Hartwell White, played by Bryan Cranston, to a classroom of bored high school chemistry students, kicking off Vince Gilligan’s famed television series Breaking Bad. Sandwiched between a dozen instances of exposition and character introductions-- not to mention an absolutely bizarre opening sequence of Walter frantically driving his decrepit Bounder RV through the desert in nothing but his underwear and a gas mask-- this quote is at first glance just a forgettable, even pathetic attempt to capture his students’ attention. In reality, it is the furthest thing from a throwaway line; it is a concise disclosure of the show’s overarching theme of change. Soon after this lesson, Walter discovers that he has terminal lung cancer, and requires treatment that he couldn’t possibly afford. After a conversation with his DEA agent brother-in-law Hank Schrader, Walt decides to begin manufacturing and selling methamphetamine to pay for his treatment, which can only prolong his life by a few months, and leave behind enough money to provide for his wife and kids. He teams up with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, a chronic underachiever and drug addict who teaches him the business and is himself taught Walt’s chemistry methods. Over the course of a year and a half, Walt transforms from a beaten down, tormented chemistry teacher into a ruthless kingpin hellbent on establishing an empire and asserting his control over a world that cast him aside.
Walter White’s greatest sin is his pridefulness. In “Mere Christianity”, C.S. Lewis wrote that pride “has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began… it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice.” Walter demonstrates his extreme pride at every opportunity. Early in the series, he rejects financial help from his wealthy friends and former coworkers, offering no explanation to his family other than that he is above charity. When his son, Walter Jr., creates a crowd-funding campaign to raise money for his father, Walt visibly hides his anger and humiliation as he struggles to thank his son. He views help of any kind as an insult and generally ignores good advice from those he sees as beneath him.
Walt’s pride begins to manifest itself explosively after his diagnosis, perhaps as a reaction to his humiliating circumstances. The Walter White presented to the audience in the pilot episode is very much a man emasculated. He is unmistakably a genius with incredible potential, but his career was snuffed out practically before it began. For reasons unknown to the audience, he left a promising startup and became a public school teacher. Underpaid, overworked, and unacknowledged, he regrets this decision forever, and he stands in stark contrast to his enormously wealthy former colleagues. At his own birthday party in the first episode, Walt seems almost frail and ghostly compared to the loud presence of his brother-in-law. He becomes a spectator in his own home, forced to watch the performance of another man-- and Hank’s constant macho bluster is nothing if not performance-- with absolutely no control of his own domain. Ignoring Walt’s protestations, Hank takes out his pistol and brandishes it to the rest of the party before handing it to Walter Jr. to look at. Time and time again, Hank steals the role of father figure from Walt, teaching his son the lessons he is rarely present to teach. Highlighting Walt’s sexual impotency in that same episode is what might be the most uncomfortable handjob ever filmed, as his wife discusses weekend plans and stares blankly at her laptop while doing the deed.
More important than any of these examples is Walt’s cancer diagnosis and how his family approaches the treatment. When he is told he has months to live, he loses all control over his life. All his decisions are essentially made for him, and he is given no choice in the matter whatsoever. Surprisingly, Walt decides not to go through with treatment. He wishes to go out on his own terms, in his own house, without subjecting himself to countless rounds of radiation and chemotherapy. When he expresses his last wish to his family, they gang up on him and convince him to go through with the treatment anyways. A season or so later, he and his family learn that the treatment worked and he is in remission. After celebrating with them briefly, Walt excuses himself to use the restroom, where he flies into a rage at the sight of his own reflection, almost breaking his hand as he punches the mirror. After so much emasculation, so many decisions overruled, Walt has had the ultimate freedom stripped from him: the freedom to die.
Having lost control of every area of his life, Walt seeks to build himself up again in the drug trade. Walt is, by all accounts, the best meth cook there is. Even Gale Boetticher, working in Gus Fring’s superlab with unlimited resources, can’t hope to match the product Walt and Jesse cook up in an RV with high school lab equipment. A meth lab is a place for Walt to prove his excellence, to reclaim his lost potential. When asked why he cooked, he responds, “I did it. I was good at it. And I was really… I was alive.” Walt admits that it was never about the money or his family; by the end of the series, he has amassed more money than could possibly be spent in a lifetime, while his family is completely torn apart. He did it for the thrill, to find some semblance of control and respect in a world that otherwise trampled over him. He was powerless, but his ego could never allow that for long. He chases after power compulsively, motivated by his own pride, clawing after every inch of territory in pursuit of his empire.
Walt commits a number of unspeakable crimes over the series, thefts and murders of every kind. His first two victims are former associates of Jesse’s, Emilio and his cousin Krazy 8, who try to steal Walt’s recipe. Walt kills Emilio in self-defence, something he can be excused for, but Krazy 8 is different. Walt captures him, keeps him locked in a basement for a week, and agonizes the whole time about how he can justify killing this man he knows must die. He tells himself that his intentions are pure: he has to protect his family, and Krazy 8 is a threat. But this self-defence is different from the hot-blooded, reactionary struggle a few days before; it is calculated, premeditated, proactive. In the end, he kills Krazy 8 with no regrets. This self-justification of murder for the sake of his family is a constant throughout the series, and many fans wrongly see it as Walt’s most redeeming quality. In reality, his attempts to rationalize murder reflect worse on him than if he simply owned his actions. Soren Kierkegaard wrote that “When a person turns his back on someone and walks away, it is easy to see which way he is going. That is that! But when a person finds a way of turning his face towards him who he is walking away from, and in so doing walks backwards while appearing to greet the person, giving assurances again and again that he is coming, or incessantly saying “Here I am”—though he gets farther and farther away by walking backwards— then it is not so easy to become aware. And so it is with the one who, rich in good intentions and quick to promise, retreats backwards farther and farther from the good.” Through countless situations, Walt finds ways to explain away his moral failures even as it becomes clear to the audience that he has no real morals.
This kind of calculated sin, repeated over and over again, desensitizes Walt to the dignity of human life. Each successive kill is just a means to an end: Jane’s overdose helps secure Jesse under Walt’s control, Gale’s murder protects his job in Gus’ lab, Brock’s poisoning turns Jesse against Gus, and the bombing frees Walt from Gus’ wrath. Each time he becomes more meticulous, more extreme in his methods; he has no qualms with using children and the elderly to get what he wants, and he lies more often than he tells the truth. In a way, the title Breaking Bad is a misnomer in that there is no break in Walt’s progression into a villain. His story is less a character development and more a gradual character revelation, slowly building in intensity until we see Walt for the monster he is.
For all his excuses, Walt is never guilt-free in his own mind. Rather than saying it outright, Gilligan uses a number of powerful symbols to remind the audience and Walt himself of his sins. In the episode “The Fly”, Jesse arrives at the lab to find Walt stalking around, frantically trying to catch a fly that wandered in through the ventilation. Jesse tries to ignore it, but Walt insists the fly is a potential contaminant and has to be killed before they can begin cooking. Walt is more than simply concerned, he’s obsessed; he pursues the fly with animalistic desperation. The fly, and insects in general, are used frequently in Breaking Bad to symbolize either murder or guilt. Walt is consumed with guilt after letting Jane die, something Jesse will never know but would surely kill him for. Even though Jesse kills the fly, Walt can still hear it buzzing around when he returns home. The final shot of the episode is of Walt staring up at the smoke detector above his bed, the red light slowly blinking down at him as a fly buzzes past. This red light is reminiscent of the sanctuary lamp beside the Tabernacle, signifying the presence of God during a mass. Walt, a man focused purely on the material world, feels God’s judgement bearing down on him in that moment.
For such a long and detailed series, Breaking Bad contains virtually no explicit references to God or religion past some casual exclamations. This may lead viewers to assume that Breaking Bad is, in a sense, areligious, not dealing with the topics of God or theology. In reality, it uses its incredible narrative to address the nature of sin and its consequences. Walter, in his pride and his insecurity, is a reflection of all humanity and its shortcomings. While he seems to get away with his crimes up until the end, he is never truly free; although the consequences of his actions may not catch up with him, his guilt surely does. Breaking Bad reminds us that even the worst monsters imaginable can never truly escape punishment, even if that punishment comes in ways we don’t foresee.
