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The story of Walter White from Breaking Bad, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, and Better Call Saul.
Backstory[]
Walter White was born on September 7, 1958. When he was 6 years old, his father died of Huntington's disease - something that's left scars on him ever since. While not much is known about his mother, it's implied they most likely didn't have a good relationship given he never stays in touch with her. Walt grew up to be a talented chemist who, as a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology, contributed with the research that helped a team win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. After graduating school, Walter founded the firm Gray Matter Technologies with Elliott Schwartz, his former classmate and close friend. Around this time, Walter dated his lab assistant, Gretchen. However, he abruptly left both Gretchen and Gray Matter Technologies due to feeling inferior to her wealthy family, retaining a financial interest in the company. Gretchen and Elliott later married and made a fortune using Walt's research; Walt remains friendly with them, but secretly harbours a great deal of resentment against them.
By the start of Breaking Bad, Walt has been forced to work as a high school chemistry teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico, providing instruction to uninterested and disrespectful students. The job pays so poorly that he is forced to take a second job at a car wash, which proves particularly humiliating when he must clean the cars of his own students. Walter is married to Skyler White; they have a teenage son named Walter Jr., who has cerebral palsy. Skyler is also pregnant with their second child, Holly. His other family includes Skyler's sister, Marie Schrader, and her husband, Hank, who is an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Entering the Game[]
Walter as he first appears in the show.
The day after his 50th birthday, Walt passes out while working at the car wash. He is then rushed to the hospital via ambulance where he is eventually diagnosed with stage-three terminal lung cancer and given less than 2 years to live. Walt decides he must take extreme measures to provide for his family's long-term financial security. Feeling empowered by the diagnosis to express his true self, he unleashes long-suppressed anger on his boss Bogdan at the car wash after the latter requests he clean a car. He then quits the job, insulting the man and putting on a display of machismo as he leaves. After being invited by his DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank, to accompany him to a raid on a methamphetamine lab, Walt has a circumstantial encounter with one of his former students, Jesse Pinkman, whom he discovers is a meth dealer and manufacturer — also referred to as "cook" — who goes by the name "Captain Cook". With this information, Walt blackmails Jesse into helping him to enter the illegal drug trade on the production side, using his chemistry knowledge to cook remarkably potent and chemically pure "crystal" meth, with Jesse to help him distribute it.
Operating out of an RV in the desert, the two must defend themselves against two dealers, Emilio Koyama and Krazy-8, formerly Jesse's distributors, who accuse Walter of being a DEA agent. Walt stalls for time by offering them his recipe, and then create phosphine gas and attacks the dealers with it, killing Emilio and gravely injuring Krazy-8. He then drives away with an injured Jesse in tow. Walter and Jesse soon discover that Krazy-8 is still alive, and restrain him in Jesse's basement. After a coin flip, Jesse is tasked with disposing of Emilio's corpse, and Walt with killing the other, a prospect that sickens him. Ignoring Walt's instructions on using a specific plastic container, Jesse dissolves the dead body in a bathtub of hydrofluoric acid, but the acid eats through the tub and the floor beneath it, spilling dissolved entrails in the hall.
Meanwhile, Walt has begun providing food and a latrine to Krazy-8, whom he also confides in, attempting to find any excuse to spare his life. Due to his illness, Walter passes out briefly while delivering food in one such instance, breaking a plate. Awakening later, Walter picks up the broken plate and goes to get the key to set Krazy-8 free. However, while upstairs, Walt has a sudden realization that there is a large sharp piece of the plate missing, which Krazy-8 picked up and hid on his person while Walt was passed out. Realizing that Krazy-8 intends to kill him the second he sets him free, Walt decides that he has no choice but to kill the dealer, which he does by pulling back on the bike lock around his neck holding him in place until he chokes to death. Following the disposal of the body, Walt severs ties with Jesse.
At a dinner party with his family, Walt finally reveals his cancer, having first told Skyler about his condition sometime before. Walt's behavior soon becomes more violent and unpredictable once he blows up an obnoxious stock broker's, Ken's, car for previously taking his parking spot. His family later implore Walt to visit specialist doctors and undergo chemotherapy. At first adamant to decide his own fate, to die honorably instead of suffering the indignities of chemotherapy side-effects, Walt finally agrees to treatment after his family pleads with him. He pretends to accept financial assistance from his wealthy friends Elliott and Gretchen as a cover story to explain the source of payment for his chemotherapy. In reality, he approaches Jesse to rebuild their business arrangement and so pay for the treatments himself as a matter of pride. Jesse, unable to replicate Walt's recipe, accepts his partnership and agrees to their clearly defined roles: Jesse the salesman and Walt the cook. Jesse learns that Walt has lung cancer and, realizing his goals of helping his family after his death, develops a newfound respect for him.
Business with Tuco[]
Walt sends Jesse to negotiate with Tuco Salamanca, a violent psychopath with links to the Mexican cartels who have taken over local drug distribution after the death and disappearance of Krazy-8. During their first meeting, Tuco refuses to pay upfront for the product and savagely beats Jesse when he attempts to end the deal. With Jesse in the hospital, Walt confronts Tuco with the demand for up-front payment, using the pseudonym "Heisenberg." As Tuco prepares to assault him, Walt detonates a concealed explosive (Mercury(II) fulminate), blowing out the top floor of the hideout and intimidating Tuco into surrendering payment with a promise for future business. Jesse recovers from his wounds and the two resume cooking meth, this time circumventing the restrictions on over-the-counter drug pseudoephedrine products by stealing a large drum of methylamine from a chemical warehouse and using an alternate method of synthesis. Now able to produce four times as much crystal meth as before, and of higher quality, the two begin a steady business with Tuco. However, they become increasingly wary of him once he beats one of his men, No-Doze, to death for inadvertently insulting him-as well as being high on Walt's meth at the present moment.
After his eventful meeting with Tuco, Walt returns home, attempting to force himself onto an unwilling Skyler, but stops once she objects further. Fearing for their lives, Walt and Jesse devise a plan to kill Tuco. White creates a batch of ricin, a potent poison they hope will kill Tuco after they trick him into ingesting it under the pretense that it is a new batch of meth. As they devise a scheme to deliver the poison to Tuco, one of his men, Gonzo, dies in an accident and they immediately suspect Tuco - due to the fact that Gonzo, along with themselves, witnessed him murdering No-Doze. A DEA raid then shuts down Tuco's operation in Albuquerque.
Tuco kidnaps Walt and Jesse, planning to take them to a "superlab" in Mexico. He first takes them to a hideout, a shack in the desert just outside the Mexican border where he keeps the two captives-as well as his uncle, Hector Salamanca, hose paralyzed from a stroke. As it turns out, Tuco is unaware of Gonzo's death and tells them he suspects the man is currently betraying him, and he wants to make sure they don't have the same intention. He also tells them that he and his cousins plan on taking White to cook more meth in a Mexican lab. Tuco insinuates that he will kill Jesse, but White manages to convince Tuco that he needs his partner in order to cook.
Time is running out and fearing that the cousins will kill Jesse as soon as they arrive, the two discuss ways of killing Tuco. They realize that they have the ricin poison with them, and they tempt Tuco into taking a hit. Jesse convinces Tuco to snort a line but during the conversation, Tuco grows suspicious about the product. Jesse goes in to tell Tuco that it has a special ingredient, Pinkman's old trademark signature of adding chilli pepper to his meth. Tuco, upon hearing this, says he hates chilli powder and doesn't take the drug. After they try unsuccessfully to poison Tuco's food due to Hector catching them in the act, he figures out that they are trying to harm him, so he takes Jesse out back to kill him. Angry and desperate, Walt and Jesse manage to incapacitate Tuco and hide when they see a vehicle approaching the house. To their surprise, Hank emerges from the vehicle, having tracked them from the lowjack in Jesse's car. A shootout ensues, and Hank is forced to kill Tuco in self-defense. Walt and Jesse run off into the desert. Walt later goes to a supermarket naked to explain that his disappearance was a result of some mental breakdown from his chemotherapy. Things begin to strain more between him and Skyler when he lies about not having a second cell phone.
Expanding Territory[]
With Tuco out of the picture, Walt decides that it's time that he becomes the new meth kingpin, expanding into Tuco's old territory. Things seem to be on track until one of their dealers, Skinny Pete, is mugged by two junkies. Walt then orders Jesse to confront the perpetrators. One of the junkies is killed when his wife drops a stolen ATM on his head, but Walt convinced Jesse to take credit for the killing, earning him a fearsome reputation and further solidifying "Heisenberg" in the area.
Meanwhile, Gretchen Schwartz discovers Walt has been lying to his family about her and Elliott paying for his cancer treatment. She is saddened when an angry and bitter Walt accuses them of getting rich off his research, but she continues to keep secret Walt's refusal of their financial assistance, for his family's sake. Skyler goes back to work for Ted Beneke, her former boss, who apparently once groped her while drunk. She increasingly relies on Ted for emotional support due to Walter's constant absence and strange behavior.
One of Jesse's dealers, Badger, is arrested by the DEA during a sting operation, forcing Walt to deal with a crooked lawyer named Saul Goodman who can offer only an expensive solution to keep Badger from snitching while also keeping him alive. They do so through kidnapping him, taking him to a desert right next to a mock grave, and intimidate him into doing his job with the false threat of death. Saul agrees, and after entering the RV and looking at their equipment, realises he's dealing with the legendary Heisenberg, the maker of the "blue stuff" he's heard about. After taking care of Badger through framing a different man as Heisenberg, Saul hires a man to find out Heisenberg's true identity. Entering the school Walt works in, Saul demands a cut of the meth profit in return for being his and Jesse's legal counsel and advisor in their drug operation, further eroding their income.
After Walt notices a large blotch on a scan of his chest, he believes cancer has spread. Having only $16,000 remaining of the meth money after the numerous setbacks, he and Jesse spend several days in the desert cooking 38 pounds of meth to sell off before Walt dies-an event that nearly gets them killed once Jesse leaves the key in the ignition, causing the RV to die. They spend days in the dessert, without water and trying unsuccessfully to jump start the battery before Walt builds his own, and they drive out to safety. Following this, they check into a hotel and eat at a salad bar. Walt seems worried as to whether or not his family will receive the amount of payment from the 38 pounds of meth, but Jesse assures him they'll get his share. Walt tries to talk Jesse into going to college after he's received his share. When he asks him what he would study, Jesse says "sports medicine". Walt tries to convince him to go into business, though the conversation falls short once Jesse is offended that Walt thinks he needs a GED to go into college, given he graduated from high school. Walt gazes upon the RV in the parking lot and tells Jesse how "lucky" he is because he didn't have to wait his entire life to do something "special", much to Jesse's confusion.
After consulting his doctor, Walt learns that the blotch is only a treatable side effect of the radiation and that his tumour has in fact shrunk 80%. He plans to quit his meth partnership once the 38 pounds are sold off, but he finds himself bored with the return to his mundane life, missing the thrill and power of being a drug dealer.
Business with Gus[]
When one of Walt and Jesse's dealers, Combo, is killed by two rival dealers, Jesse is sent spiralling into heroin addiction, joined and enabled by his girlfriend Jane Margolis, a recovering addict. With their remaining dealers backing out, Saul uses his connections to introduce Walt and Jesse to a new meth distributor, Gustavo Fring, the owner of a fast-food franchise called Los Pollos Hermanos, which he uses as to launder his drug money. Gus reluctantly offers to buy Walter's products for $1.2 million, but offers him only a one-hour time frame to deliver. Walt attempts to contact Jesse to complete the exchange, but he and Jane are too stoned to help. As he tries to rush to the deal, Walt receives a text message from Skyler that she is giving birth. Walter is forced to complete the trade by himself just as Skyler goes into labour. He narrowly manages to complete the transaction, but he misses the birth of his daughter, Holly.
Walter loses trust in Jesse and promises to give him his share of the payout only if he agrees to quit using. Jane threatens to blackmail Walt, prompting him to turn over Jesse's share of the money. Jane's father, Donald, catches Jesse and Jane using. He demands she return to rehab immediately, but Jane manages to convince him that she will go first thing the next morning. Jesse and Walt agree to go their separate ways, but Walt feels obligated to help Jesse. Walter gives Jesse his money and Jesse and Jane plan on running away before her father can take her to rehab. With almost a half-million dollars, they decide to go to New Zealand and get clean. They plan to destroy their remaining supply of drugs, but they decide to use one last time.
After a coincidental meeting with Donald, Walt returns to Jesse, only to discover that he and Jane have taken heroin again. Walter attempts to wake Jesse by shaking him, knocking Jane from her side to her back. When Jane begins to cough and vomit, Walt does nothing to help her and watches as she dies. Jesse wakes up and realizes Jane is dead. Gus' right-hand man and Saul's private investigator Mike Ehrmantraut (the same one who helped Saul track down Walt) arrives to help him deal with the police and Jane's body. Later, Walt is confronted by Skyler, who has finally discovered his numerous lies. She leaves him, even when Walt offers to tell her everything, saying, "I'm too scared to know."
The next day, two airplanes collide in the sky right above Walt's house. Walt watches in horror, unaware that he is indirectly responsible for the tragedy; the crash occurred because Donald, an air traffic controller, had been too overcome with grief to pay attention to his job. Before any of the other wreckage reigns down, a pink teddy bear splashes directly into his swimming pool.
A week after the Wayfarer Flight 515 collision, Walt finally moves out of the house and into his own apartment. The next day, Skyler comes to visit him and hands over divorce papers and revealing her deduction that Walt is a drug dealer, and this is how he has paid for his treatment. Walt concedes and specifies that he is a crystal meth manufacturer, not a dealer, but Skyler still wants a divorce, saying she won't tell the police as long as he stays away from the family. After visiting and consoling Jesse about the plane crash, Walt meets with Gus, who makes Walt an offer of $3 million for three months of his time, but Walt turns him down as he wants to get his family back.
Walt confides in Saul that Skyler knows about his double life, leading Saul to ask Mike to bug the White House. Walter Jr. sides with Walt during the marital spat, even packing a bag and going to Walt's new apartment in an effort to live with him, which Walt puts a stop to. However, Walt does eventually break back into his house after Skyler changes the locks to forcibly move back in with the family-knowing that Syler won't tell the police out of fear of hurting Walt Jr. and uses this against her. Skyler responds by beginning an affair with Ted Beneke and informing Walt right away.
Walt reacts with furious anger at the realization that his wife is having an affair, and goes to Beneke Fabricators to talk to Ted. While waiting outside his office, Walt notices Ted peeking through the blinds and attempts to force his way into the office by throwing a large potted plant at the window. Security escorts him out and Mike picks him up and takes him straight to Saul's office, revealing they both knew about the affair because of the bugs.
Walt fires Saul for bugging his house and cancels the website money laundering. Walt tries to get back at Skyler by making a pass at his supervisor, Carmen, who suspends him indefinitely. Walt refuses to leave the house despite Skyler's affair. Gus eventually pulls him back into the meth-cooking business with a ploy pitting Jesse and Walt against one another and showing him the state-of-the-art super-lab he has just installed in one of his buildings. Once he has decided to go back in, he moves back out of the house and signs Skyler's divorce papers.
Hank informs Walt of his impending investigation into Jesse and the RV, prompting Walt to get involved in the destruction of the RV, barely managing to not be discovered by Hank after Walt had Saul fake an emergency phone call to Hank for Marie. After realising he's been tricked, Hank immediately suspects Jesse of this and beats him at his house, but calls the paramedics after realizing the errors of his ways. After Jesse lands in the hospital due to Hank's beating, Walt manipulates Gus into making Jesse his partner, replacing Gus' employee Gale Boetticher. At the same time, Gus has given Marco and Leonel Salamanca, two cartel assassins, the permission to kill Hank as a way to avenge their cousin Tuco. However, they only succeed in gravely injuring him, Hank killing Marco while Mike finishes off Leonel in the hospital. Skyler forces Walt to pay for Hank's medical care and tells Marie that he earned the money counting cards and gambling in backrooms.
When Hank recovers, he lets the family know he received a warning call one minute before the ambush informing him of it. Walt concludes that Gus has orchestrated this entire series of events: steering the assassins away from him and onto Hank while also saving Hank's life, creating a firefight that would put heat on the Cartel and allow him to corner the meth market in the Southwest. Walt meets with Gus at the Pollos Hermanos industrial plant, letting him know he has come to this conclusion and is grateful. Gus in return extends Walt's contract to $15 million for a year's work, along with a guarantee of safety for his family.
Conflict with Gus[]
As Walt begins to write checks for Hank's medical bills, Skyler decides to become involved in the money laundering side of things, meeting with Walt and Saul and asserting her own demands. Walt also becomes friendlier with Gus, eating dinner with him on occasion. However, when Jesse discovers the truth about Combo's death - that he was killed by a preteen called Tomas, on orders from the rival dealers who work for Gus - he demands retribution. Gus agrees to stop using children in his organization, but Tomas then turns up dead in a playground. When Jesse seeks vengeance against the two dealers who murdered him, Walt intervenes and kills them both by running them over with his car and shooting the one that survived. He then tells Jesse to run, fearing Gus's wrath.
Walt meets with Gus and Mike in the desert, asserting that what he did was necessary and Jesse is in hiding, not to be given up by Walt. Gus rehires Gale as Walt's lab assistant, secretly planning to replace Walt with Gale as his skills at running the lab increase. Walt begins to suspect this and has Jesse give him Gale's address so he can kill him-ignoring Jesse's suggestion that he go to the DEA. However on the night Walt plans to go to Gail's apartment to kill him, Mike and Victor kidnap Walt, planning to kill him. He promises to give up Jesse but instead orders him to kill Gale, saving both their lives and keeping their jobs safe. Jesse goes to Gale's apartment and reluctantly shoots him dead.
After Jesse kills Gale, he and Walt are brought to the lab and held together until Gus arrives and slits his henchman Victor's throat for being seen at the murder scene. Walt fears he will be next, and begins plotting to get rid of Gus in order to ensure his safety and that of his family. He tries to persuade Mike, but all Mike does is beat him. Walt buys a .38 Snub Nose Revolver from a guns dealer and starts practicing his draw. He also tries getting Mike to help him get an audience with Gus so he can assassinate the drug lord.
Walt worries that Gus is trying to set Jesse against him. Lately, Jesse has been tasked with helping Mike and has met with Gus, so Walt creates some ricin and gives it to Jesse hoping that he'll be able to get close enough to poison Gus. After giving him the ricin, Walt places a GPS tracker on Jesse's car, confirming that Jesse went to Gus's house yet didn't poison him. When Jesse seeks Walt's help regarding how to teach the cartel how to make meth, Walt confronts him about the ricin and they get into a fistfight.
While Jesse is in Mexico, Walt continues cooking meth in the super-lab under the supervision of Gus' lieutenant Tyrus Kitt. He also drives Hank out to Gus' farm and to the industrial laundry as part of Hank's investigation. Tyrus tasers Walt and brings him before Gus, who says that he's going to be taking care of Hank and that, if Walt interferes, he'll kill Walt's family. Immediately Walt goes to Saul to get the phone number of an associate who makes people disappear and instructs Saul to tip-off law enforcement about the threat against Hank. At home, Walt is horrified to discover that he doesn't actually have enough cash to pay the guy to make his family disappear.
After Saul make an anonymous tip to the DEA, saying that the Cartel was seeking to kill Hank in retaliation for killing Tuco and Marco, the DEA sends agents to Hank's house to guard him and Marie. Walt sends Skyler, Walter Jr., and Holly with them until he can figure out how to kill Gus. Finally, he reminds himself of Jesse's girlfriend Andrea and her son Brock. Coming up with a plan, Walt poisons Brock with Lily of the Valley, a poisonous flowering plant that has symptoms similar to ricin poisoning, as a way to convince Jesse that Gus is the culprit and trying to kill off his loved ones as a way to make him work for him.
Together, they plan to have Jesse refuse to cook and lure Gus to the hospital so Walt can use a radio-activated pipe-bomb to blow up his vehicle and kill him. The attempt fails, however, when Gus senses something is wrong and refuses to get into his car. Jesse is immediately taken in for questioning by federal agents for suspicion of possessing ricin.
Walt has Saul visit Jesse while he's under arrest and he tells Saul about Gus' archrival, Cartel patriarch Hector Salamanca (Tuco's uncle), who now lives in a retirement home. When Saul tells this to Walt, he goes to the home and suggests that while Hector might hate Walt for what happened to Tuco, Marco and Leonel, there has to be someone that he hates even more - that person being Gus. Walt convinces Hector to let him strap the pipe bomb under his wheelchair once he returns from a meeting with Hank, which succeeds in luring Gus to the retirement home. Hector later detonates the bomb Walt strapped to his wheelchair, killing himself, Gus and Tyrus.
Later that same day, Walt kidnaps one of Gus' henchman and forces him to escort them down the elevator to the meth lab under the laundry where Jesse has been taken a hostage and forced to cook the meth. Walt guns down both men and then rescues Jesse, who assists him in dumping all the chemicals and starting a huge fire before they evacuate all the immigrants working in the laundry.
Back on the rooftop of the hospital, Jesse reveals to Walt that Brock wasn't poisoned with ricin, but a plant called Lily of the Valley. Walt fakes relief at the fact Brock is okay and tells an uncertain and oblivious Jesse that, even though Gus did not poison Brock, he still "had to go". After Jesse leaves, Walt calls Skyler, who is curious about what happened to Gus. Walt simply tells her that he won and then drives off, pausing for a moment to gaze at Gus's Volvo, still in the parking garage.
Loose Ends[]
After Gus' death, Walt returns home and disposes of all evidence from the pipe bomb and Lily of the Valley poison. Walt Jr. and Skyler return home and while Jr. is excited about Hank's return, Skyler tells Walt that she is afraid of him, especially after Saul's henchmen, Patrick Kuby and Huell Babineaux, have supposedly badly injured Ted. Walt enjoyed a glass of scotch in celebration when he suddenly remembered Gus' cameras in the superlab.
Walt and Jesse stop Mike in the desert and, after a heated argument, the three work to devise a plan to destroy Gus' laptop, which is being held in the local police evidence locker. They manage to destroy the laptop by powering up a giant magnet inside a moving truck outside the police station. They escape but have to leave the truck.
Walt visits Saul at his office, and Saul tries to fire him as his client. Unmoved, Walt tells him "we're done when I say we're done." Returning home, Walt tells Skyler he knows what happened to Ted, hugs her, and says "I forgive you".
Before helping Jesse search for the missing ricin cigarette, Walt hides the poison in his bedroom's electrical outlet and placed a dummy cigarette in Jesse's Roomba. Jesse is now convinced that Brock's poisoning was his fault, and bursts into tears of guilt over having wanted to kill Walt (having first believed it was Walt who did it, before being tricked into thinking it was Gus). Walt "forgives" him, and they go back into business together. Walt and Jesse extend an offer to Mike to form a new meth operation, which Mike reluctantly accepts after the DEA takes the money he had stashed away over the years.
The Heisenberg Empire[]
Walt, Jesse, and Mike work with Saul to sort out a new front for the meth manufacturing. They agree on a mobile lab inside houses that are being bug bombed by their front company, Vamonos Pest. The mobile lab yields less meth per cook than they were making for Gus, but they each receive a larger cut. However, Mike takes "Legacy Funds" from each cook to recoup the cost savings of Gus' former employees. Walt doesn't take to this decision kindly but reluctantly accepts it.
Walt sells his Aztek to his mechanic for $50 and buys himself a new Chrysler 300 and Jr. another Dodge Challenger. He tells Skyler to launder another $20,000 and she tells him that she wants the children out of the house. He refuses. The next morning, Skyler reluctantly makes a "51" with bacon on Walt's eggs to celebrate his birthday and throws him a small party. As Walt gives a speech thanking his family for their support over the last year, Skyler walks into the pool and sinks to the bottom. However, Walt dives in to save her. Hank and Marie offer, on behalf of Skyler, to take Walter Jr. and Holly for a few days. Walt deduces that Skyler's "suicide attempt" was, in fact, a ruse designed to get the children away from him, and tells his frightened wife that he will have her committed to a mental hospital if she tries it again. Skyler replies that she will simply wait for Walt's cancer to return.
Walt finds a GPS tracker his car and suspects Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, the liaison between Pollos Hermanos' corporate office and Walt's meth operation. He has Mike kidnap her and plans to kill her, but she convinces him that she had nothing to do with the GPS tracker, and suggests they steal methylamine from a train that runs through New Mexico to increase their supply and profits tenfold. Jesse comes up with a plan to siphon off 1,000 gallons of methylamine from the train and replace it with water. With help from Todd Alquist, they narrowly pull off the heist. However, a young boy, Drew Sharp, witnesses the theft, and Todd kills him as a horrified Jesse tries to stop him.
After disposing of the boy's bike and body, Walt, Jesse and Mike debate what to do with Todd. They vote to keep him close so he won't do anything rash. Walt tries to tell Jesse that their operation is now "smooth sailing", but the next day Jesse and Mike inform him they are selling their share of methylamine for $5 million each and bowing out of the meth trade. Walt refuses to join them, even when Mike's contact refuses to buy unless he gets all 1,000 gallons. Walt invites Jesse to dine with him and Skyler; when Skyler sullenly leaves the table, he tells Jesse that his family no longer loves him, and his drug empire is all he has left. Walt then heads to the Vamonos HQ where he is tied up by Mike so the methylamine can be sold without Walt's interruption. Walt escapes and hides the methylamine, promising — at gunpoint — that he has a solution where "everybody wins".
At a meeting with rival meth dealer Declan, Walt offers to sell Mike's 35% stake in the crew and responsibility for distribution for $5 million. After the deal is sealed, Walt and Jesse retrieve he methylamine from the car wash. Jesse reminds Walt that he is done with the meth trade too, but Walt tries to convince him that throwing his talent away is a mistake. Jesse willingly leaves Vamonos without a penny. Walt then begins training Todd on cooking meth. Walt removes the bugs from Hank's office and overhears that the DEA is going to arrest Mike. Walt tips off Mike and later meets him to hand off a "burn bag" of cash, a gun, and a passport. After handing over the bag, Walt demands Mike give him the names of the ten men in prison who would likely flip on Walt since their legacy funds stopped flowing. Mike refuses and points out how Walt killing Gus is the reason why they're in this mess right now. In a fit of rage, Walt shoots and mortally wounds him. Horrified by his actions, Walt drops the gun and staggers to Mike. He attempts to apologize, but shuts up on Mike's dying request.
Walt and Todd dispose of Mike's car and body. Walt makes an arrangement with Lydia to sell Blue Sky to the Czech Republic in exchange for the names of Gus' former ten henchmen. Walt pays Todd's uncle Jack Welker and his Neo-Nazi gang to murder the witnesses. The plan is executed perfectly and no one is able to squeal to the DEA. Walt and Todd continue to cook meth flawlessly and effortlessly for three months until Skyler shows Walt a giant pile of cash in a storage unit and asks him to get out of the meth business. After a visit to the doctor, Walt visits Jesse a visit and gives him two duffle bags of cash. He then tells Skyler "I'm out".
During a family cookout, Hank enters the bathroom in Walt's house to take a dump, and decides to read something as entertainment. He finds a copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass right next to the toilet and discovers that it is dedicated to W.W. by G.B. As Hank recalls a conversation with Walt regarding the initials from his earlier investigation, surmising that "G.B." is Gale Boetticher, he realizes that Walt is Heisenberg.
Walter vs. Hank[]
Hank begins to secretly investigate Walt. Walt discovers a tracking device on his car and realizes Hank knows he is Heisenberg. He confronts Walt, who reveals that his cancer is back and he will likely be dead in six months, making an arrest pointless. Hank offers to negotiate if Walt gives him and Marie custody of the children, but Walt refuses and tells him to "tread lightly".
Hank meets with Skyler and asks her to go on record with a confession, but she refuses. Marie learns the extent of Skyler's involvement with Walt's operation. With Skyler's approval, Walt records a "confession" in which he says that the meth operation was all Hank's idea, to use as insurance should Hank keep up the investigation. Walt buries his money in the desert. Jesse, overwhelmed with remorse over the blood on his hands, attempts to dispose of his money by throwing it in people's front lawns. Police bring him in for questioning, but Jesse refuses to inform on Walt.
Declan supplies methamphetamine for Lydia's Czech connections, but she is dissatisfied with the product's quality. Walt rebuffs her attempts to lure him out of retirement. She orders Jack and his gang to kill Declan and his associates killed in an ambush and reinstates Todd as a cook. She remains dissatisfied with Todd's product, but he promises to improve.
Walt meets Jesse and Saul in the desert and offers Jesse money to leave town and assume a new identity. Jesse agrees, but then realizes Walt poisoned Brock and framed Gus. Enraged at this, Jesse almost burns down Walt's house, but is stopped by Hank, causing the two to partner up against Heisenberg. Walt contracts with Todd's uncle Jack to order a hit on Jesse. The "price" is one more cook, to teach Todd how to improve his product. He later goes to Andrea for info on Jesse, letting their relationship to Jack and his gang be known to their advantage.
Jesse calls Walt to tell him he will get him "where [Walt] really lives". Walt receives a picture on his phone, staged by Jesse and Hank, showing an opened barrel of money, identical to the ones Walt buried in To'hajilee. Jesse calls Walt and offers him an ultimatum: meet Jesse at the site of the buried money, or Jesse will burn every barrel. Walt frantically drives to the reservation. Realizing he has been set up, Walt hides, calls Jack and tells him to bring his men as soon as possible. However, when Hank, his DEA partner Steven Gomez and Jesse arrive at the scene, Walt realises the danger they are in, and tells Jack not to come. Instead, he surrenders to Hank, choosing to spend his remaining months on Earth rather than risk the death of a family member. As Hank calls Marie and gloats to the phone about how he caught his target, a now-handcuffed Walt, sitting inside a SUV, sees a few cars pull up...
A Crumbling Empire[]
Despite Walt's instructions, Jack and his crew pull up to the site, where they have a standoff with Hank and Gomez. Despite Walt's protests that it's off and that Jack should leave, the Neo-Nazi doesn't move. Signalling his right hand man Kenny to attack, the crew opens fire at Hank and Gomez while Walt and Jesse hide. Once the dust settles, Gomez lies dead from a gunshot wound, but Hank remains alive. Walt steps out of the car and uses anything he can to convince Jack not to kill Hank; Even claiming he will give him all of his $80 million, buried right next to them, but Hank resigns himself to his fate. Jack kills him with a shot to the head before his gang steals almost all of Walt's money, leaving him with only one barrel that contains $9 million dollars inside. A spiteful Walt reveals Jesse's location to the Neo-Nazis, and Todd convinces Jack to let Jesse live so they could torture him and find out what did he tell the feds. Just before he's taken away, Walt reveals to Jesse he watched Jane die, and then spends several hours trying to return to Albuquerque.
Marie confronts Skyler and tells her Walt is in custody. She offers her and Hank's support, provided Skyler turns over all of Walt's false confession tapes implicating Hank and tells Walt Jr. the truth about his father. Skyler agrees and tells Walt Jr. everything about him, much to his rage, claiming that she is no better than his father if she was helping him. They return home to find Walt hastily packing their bags, claiming they need to free. Skyler realizes Hank has been killed, assumes Walt did it, and pulls a kitchen knife on him. They fight over the weapon, with Walt Jr. defending his mother and eventually calling the police on his father. Walt escapes, but takes Holly with him. The following night, Walt fakes a heated phone call to Skyler, which he knows is monitored by the police, and pretends that he forced her into everything so she won't be charged with any of his crimes, revealing Hank is dead along the way. He then leaves Holly at a fire station and calls Ed Galbraith, the man who could make him disappear. He's soon followed by Saul.
Walt and Saul spend the next few days hiding in Ed's bunker as the man prepares to give them new identities. Saul moves to Nebraska under the new alias of "Gene Takavic", while Walt moves to New Hampshire under the alias of "Mr. Lambert". While Saul still got to have a somewhat-normal life, Walt's status as America's most wanted man means he has to live in a small cabin in the wilderness with no access to a telephone, cable TV or the internet. Ed would come in once a month for groceries and updates on what's happening in Albuquerque, while warning him he would end up behind bars the second he leaves the cabin due to the manhunt on him.
Six months later, Walt goes to a local bar and calls Walt Jr., who changed his name to Flynn White. He tells him that he must pick up a package containing $100,000 so that the two years he spend dealing meth won't go to waste. Walt Jr. angrily rejects the gesture, points out he killed Hank, tells him to die, and hangs up. Feeling hopeless, Walt calls the Albuquerque DEA office in order to surrender, but moments later sees Elliott and Gretchen Schwartz on Charlie Rose, in which they both deny Walt made any major contribution to Gray Matter besides the name. With renewed purpose and a shattered ego, Walt leaves the bar, steals a car, and heads back to Albuquerque.
Last Stand[]
Back in Albuquerque, Walt uses Badger and Skinny Pete, claiming they are "two of the best hitmen west of the Mississippi" to coerce Elliott and Gretchen into giving his remaining 9 million dollars in drug money to Walt Jr. on his 18th birthday as a trust fund. On his 52th birthday, he proceeds to purchase an M60 machine gun and recover the vial of ricin from his now-abandoned and vandalized house, which has been left in ruins, with the name HEISENBERG spray-painted on his living room wall. Following this, he would construct a remote-activated machine that allows the M60 to fire unmanned.
He then visits Skyler and gives her the location of Hank and Gomez's bodies so she can get out of trouble with the police and give them proper burials. Admitting he did everything he did for himself and not for his family, Walt gets to see Holly and Walt Jr. one last time (the latter unaware of it, being spied on) and leaves.
He then meets Lydia and Todd at a coffee shop under the pretense of wishing to discuss a new business proposition. Lydia dismisses Walt and orders Todd to kill him once he leaves the scene, unaware he laced the only packet of stevia sweetener in the container on her table with ricin, causing her to add it to her tea.
Walt's death.
Walt confronts Jack and his gang at the compound. They bring out a shackled Jesse, whom they have forced to cook meth for them by killing Andrea and threatening to kill Brock. Walt, feigning anger, tackles Jesse to the floor as he triggers the M60 mounted in the trunk of his car. The hail of gunfire rips through the wall, killing all of the gang members except Todd and Jack. When the gunfire stops, Jesse strangles Todd with the chain of his handcuffs, finally breaking Todd's neck. Jack tries to bargain for his life with Walt's remaining stolen money, but Walt shoots him dead as he already left more than enough for his family.
He asks Jesse to kill him, but Jesse refuses. Walt then sees that he has been mortally wounded by a ricocheting round from the machine gun and accepts his fate, as even if the bullets don't take his life, the cancer will. Moments later, Lydia calls from Todd's cell phone, which Walt answers. Walt coldly informs Lydia that he has poisoned her with ricin, and hangs up. As Jesse drives away from the compound, crying with relief, Walt walks to the lab and smiles nostalgically as he takes a final look around. As the police arrive, he collapses to the floor and dies, with a satisfied smile on his face.
Legacy[]
| “ | Walter White was the most notorious meth kingpin this country's ever seen. He destroyed lives and terrorized the Southwest. | „ |
| ~ Suzanne Ericsen about Walt. |
Walter White is remembered as the biggest drug lord in American history, with the empire being the biggest meth operation the country has ever seen. That said, his death only made things worse for the survivors of his empire; anyone that had ties to him is either dead, on the run, or having barely managed to live a semi-normal life. Jesse manages to escape to Alaska while tricking the public into thinking he ran off to Mexico, Skyler took a plea deal with the feds, all of Saul's assests were seized while he himself is stuck living a depressing life as a Cinnabon manager, Lydia was heavily implied to have died off-screen, Saul's secretary Francesca is a somewhat-free woman that spends her life being spied on by cops, Huell went to New Orleans to start living a normal life, Skinny Pete was briefly arrested for helping Jesse (although presumably was released afterwards), while Patrick Kuby's fate remains unknown. That said, despite his infamous reputation, it's been agreed that, without Saul, he wouldn't get as far as he did.
Around a month or two after Walt's death, Saul aka "Gene" is recognized by a cab driver named Jeff. Realising the man wants to enter "the game" and do something exciting with his life, Gene trains him into a criminal to rob the mall that he works at. Alongside this, he mentions Walt several times, saying that a high-school chemistry teacher cooking meth became a millionaire within a year thanks to his hear, or asking if people with cancer aren't allowed to be bad people. Eventually, Gene/Saul is caught and sentenced to 86 years in prison, effectively wiping out any reminders of the Heisenberg Empire.