We’re finally here — just days away from Sunday night’s series finale of “Breaking Bad.”
Walt, Jesse, Hank, Saul, Gus Fring — and let’s not forget good old Tuco — have taken us on an exhilarating, depressing journey into the heart of human darkness since “BB” premiered as a little cable drama with a largely unknown cast and an iffy future (AMC ordered only seven episodes). Now, five years and multiple Emmys later — including three for star Bryan Cranston — it’s is about to air one of the most talked-about series finales in recent memory.
To note the event, we’ve chosen key moments from the show’s five seasons. As William Carlos Williams wrote in his intro to Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl”:
“Hold back the edge of your gown, Ladies, we are going through hell.”
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1. Season 1
Cathy Kanavy/AMC The first appearance of Walt’s meth kingpin criminal alter-ego, Heisenberg, as he and Jesse (Aaron Paul) prepare for a showdown with violent drug lord Tuco Salamanca. It ended badly for all involved.
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2. Season 2
Lewis Jacobs/AMC Walt, who’s already killed, abets another death by passively watching Jesse’s drugged-out girlfriend, Jane, choke to death on her own vomit (she knew too much). A zonked Jesse has no idea Walt was there — a secret Walt will keep almost to the end.
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3. Season 3
Ursula Coyote/AMC Enter Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), fastidious owner of local fast-food chicken joint Los Pollos Hermanos and civic-minded beacon of virtue. Yeah, right. He’s also the region’s biggest, most ruthless drug lord — paying Walt and Jesse millions to cook for him in a high-tech underground meth lab/bunker.
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4. Season 4
Ursula Coyote/AMC Gus encounters his hated drug-cartel enemy from years back — mute, bell-ringing stroke victim Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis). Walt, convinced Gus will kill him, approaches Hector with an explosive deal that ends in Gus being blown to bits and Walt’s declaration: “I won.” Guess again.
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5. Season 5
Ursula Coyote/AMC DEA Agent Schrader has been chasing “Heisenberg” for a year — and, in an unforgettable scene, realizes while perched on Walt’s toilet that Walt is Heisenberg — eventually forcing Walt to go off the grid and hide out in a remote New Hampshire cabin. Oh, and it didn’t end well for Hank, either.