I’ll start with a brief disclaimer: if you aren’t caught up with Breaking Bad, or have yet to start watching the award-winning AMC drama, do not fret as I will attempt to keep this free of major spoilers.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
That’s a common adage about overcoming adversities and turning a bad situation into a positive one. Breaking Bad is sort of like that, except replace lemons with inoperable lung cancer and lemonade with crystal meth.
Walter White’s journey from a meek high school science teacher and part-time car wash attendant to the feared drug lord known as “Heisenberg” has turned into quite the compelling tale. Creator and head writer Vince Gillian has taken audiences on an incredible ride over the past five seasons.
While the plot of Breaking Bad might seem a tad unrealistic—at least for Canadian audiences who might not be able to relate with the looming threat of astronomically high hospital bills—the show ultimately focuses on an average family man who is pushed to his limits in an attempt to protect his family financially. But for Walt, an attempt to make a fast buck and cover medical expenses quickly turned into a full-time endeavor that has proven hard to walk away from.
During his transformation from Walter White to Heisenberg, Walt has stolen, lied, deceived, intimidated, and harmed so many people that it’s hard not to look at the sum of Walt’s actions and not come to the conclusion that he has turned into an evil man. But the most intriguing part of the show is how the audience has reacted to Walt’s turn to evil.
It’s a somewhat divisive issue amongst fans. There are some who continue to cheer for Walt, hoping he wins, which could end up meaning many different things but boils down to the show ending with Walt still alive and living as a free man. Walt is an anti-hero, and despite some of his more deplorable actions, he’s still the character that the audience has come to know best.
But others find Walt’s actions to be beyond redeemable, and therefore are actively cheering against him. Without going into details that might spoil some shocking moments, let’s just say that Walt has been a very bad man, and he’d better hope that his bad karma doesn’t catch up with him.
Personally, I think Walt’s character is still capable of redemption. Despite all the despicable acts that he’s responsible for, Gilligan and his writing team have eight more episodes left in the series to come to some sort of a conclusion and I’ve come to expect the completely unexpected from this show.
Whether Walter will continue to reign atop his drug empire or make an honest attempt to redeem himself will be revealed when the final eight episodes air next summer.
