Our No. 1 moment in 'Breaking Bad' history? Skyler White (Anna Gunn) and Walter White (Bryan Cranston) are 'Gliding Over All' in episode 8 of the show's fifth season.
Picking the greatest scenes in "Breaking Bad" is like trying to pick the greatest flavors of ice cream. You may personally think coconut fudge beats black raspberry, but in the end, that's all it is: what you think. There are no scientific measurements.
With that warning, here are five "Breaking Bad" scenes that deserve to be on most any list:
1. The pile of money, Season 5, Episode 8. This isn't just a case where the most recent great moment seems like the best. This moment captures the essence of "Breaking Bad."
Skyler leads Walt to a storage area. Corrugated metal walls, sterile as a meth lab.
There's a pallet stacked between knee-high and waist-high with piles of cash. The cash that has, obviously, flowed in from Walt's position as the lord of meth.
The money their A1 car wash is laundering.
They both stand and stare at it. Skyler says she started to count it and the numbers got too big. She got lost.
How much money do you have to make, she asks Walt. "We've got more money than we could spend in 10 lifetimes."
How big, she says, does this pile have to get?
The answer to her is pretty obvious, just as it's obvious to most viewers.
To Walt, it's less obvious. He feels like he lost out on a billion-dollar deal once. He's not about to blow that chance again. He feels like he's taken orders all his life and as Heisenberg, he gives them.
Still, he knows he doesn't hold all the cards. He's had cancer, and Skyler hasn't blindly admired all of his professional achievements.
Specifically, she recently told him she had decided to stay with him and "wait until the cancer comes back."
That's harsh. But he's a guy who puts family first. So he thinks it over and tells Skyler she's right. He's getting out of the meth business and henceforth will be a full-time car wash cashier.
Do we believe him? Does Skyler believe him? Does he believe himself?
If "Breaking Bad" had the budget to license Bruce Springsteen songs, this was the moment for "Badlands:" "Poor man wanna be rich / Rich man wanna be king / And the king ain't satisfied / 'Til he rules everything."
Ursula Coyote
(L-R) Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), Mike (Jonathan Banks) and Gustavo ‘Gus’ Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) swear off tequila in Season 4’s Episode 10.
2. Gus Fring and the poison tequila, Season 4, Episode 10. For what he was hired to do, there has been no better actor on "Breaking Bad," not even Bryan Cranston, than Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring.
When Gus walked into a room, the temperature fell 10 degrees.
So there came a point when Gus sensed tension between himself and fellow druglord Don Eladio. Following protocol, Gus got himself invited to Eladio's place and brought a host gift: a bottle of good tequila.
Gus poured himself a glass and drank it along with his host and all his host's bodyguards, as a gesture of respect and friendship.
Then Gus excused himself to go into the house and induce vomiting, because the tequila contained a fast-acting poison. By the time he returned poolside, the other guys were all pitching forward dead.
Salud.
AMC
Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring in Breaking Bad’s immortal Season 4, Episode 13, when his character is blown up.
3. Walt and Hector and Gus and the Walking Dead moment, Season 4, Episode 13. This may be the other episode that would appear on anyone's list: the night Walt wired a bomb to Hector's wheelchair so Hector could blow up Gus before Gus gave Hector a fatal injection.
The scene had existential resonance, in that it forced viewers to consider who among these three extremely bad guys deserved what fate.
Let's be honest, though: What made this scene indelible was the camerawork. We heard the bomb go off and then we saw Gus walk out of Hector's room, letting us think for a moment that the bomb had somehow missed the guy standing next to it.
Then Gus turned his head slightly, and it turned out that while the left side of his head was intact, the right side was gone.
Ursula Coyote
Todd (Jesse Plemons) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) in Season 5’s ‘Dead Freight’ episode.
4. Killing the Kid, Season 5, Episode 5. We'd become pretty numb to violence by this point in the series, and frankly, this wasn't a scene where we expected it.
Walt and Jesse masterminded a plan to stall a train long enough for them to pump out 1,000 gallons of methylamine. As plots go, this one was a stretch, unlikely enough so it seemed more funny than lethal.
Then across the scruffy desert comes a kid on a moped or dirt bike. Just some local kid, having local-kid fun.
He sees Walt, Jesse and their helper Todd (Jesse Plemons, the klutz-turned-hero from "Friday Night Lights"), who up to this point has just been a good soldier, a not-too-bright guy who'll do whatever Walt asks because he dreams of being Walt someday.
There's no indication the kid on the bike has seen anything he understands. He's seen three guys in the desert with a big pump attached to a train car.
Todd pulls out a gun and drops the kid with a single shot. They stash his body.
Jesse's been back and forth the whole series about the things he and Walt have done. This scene might turn out to be his tipping point.
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Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) explains why Marie won’t rat out Walt.
5. Saul explains why Marie won't be a snitch, Season 3, Episode 2.
This is the obscure entry here, but it wouldn't be "Breaking Bad" without Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) and this scene captured the essence of Saul.
Specifically, it showed how he's not a buffoon, some kind of rag doll tossed around randomly by his scary lowlife clients.
In fact, he's a smart guy, the same way lawyers who defend billion-dollar corporations against multibillion-dollar pollution suits have to be smart. They know how things work. They do their job and let someone else worry about the morality.
In this scene, a panicked Walt fears Hank's wife Marie knows what he's up to and is about to drop a dime on him.
Saul says no. Here's how he says it:
"It's not a disaster, alright? She's not going to the cops, she's not telling a living soul. You wanna know why? One word: blowback. If she blabs, it'll be a disaster - for her. That DEA brother-in-law? Screwed! You were right under his nose. He'll be lucky if they let him bust glue sniffers at the hobby shop.
"The kids? Paging Dr. Phil! "My daddy's a drug dealer and my mommy turned him in!" And the house? Gone! The feds will come in and RICO her and the kids out on the street. Good luck arguing with them on that, noooo. It's not gonna happen. She's bluffing. And she knows it."
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