Admittedly, it’s more common to find an episode ofBreaking Badthat shakes things up narratively to a pretty alarming extent than it is to find an episode of the show that doesn’t. It’s a show that continually moves forward throughout its five seasons and rarely slows down as it charts the progression of a man as he goes from a high school teacher to a ruthless drug manufacturer and eventual crime lord, coming about because of a terminal illness diagnosis.
As such, picking the episodes that are most important or eventful for a show likeBreaking Badproves difficult, but that’s what the ranking below intends to do regardless. These episodes are laid out chronologically and, unsurprisingly, most are found in the later seasons ofBreaking Bad,as the show gets more dramatic and willing to surprisewith what happens narratively.
The following article contains spoilers for all five seasons of Breaking Bad.
Breaking Bad
1"…And the Bag’s in the River" (2008)
Season 1, Episode 3
Sure,the first episode ofBreaking Badis a vital one for obvious reasons. It sets the stage, shows how Walter White takes the first steps towards making money from making meth, and introduces plenty of important characters. It gets the ball rolling, naturally, but the third episode of the first season, “…And the Bag’s in the River,” is significant for upping the stakes and presenting a tense moral dilemma.
Moral dilemmas became common throughout the show, of course, asso much of the drama revolved around how far Walt would go in his new “career.”He kills a man in a rather shocking, physically confronting, and calculating way here (compared to the death he caused in the pilot episode), though does admittedly have his reasons and seems to feel torn up about what he does. It gets Walt off sliding down a slippery slope, and there was arguably no turning back from such an act.
2"Phoenix" (2009)
Season 2, Episode 12
Speaking of Walt causing death, “Phoenix” sees him essentially letting a significant character die, andcertainly not for the last time. Walt finds his protégé, Jesse, lying in bed with his girlfriend, Jane. Both are under the influence of heroin. Jane starts choking on her own vomit while asleep, and Walt, though he knows he can help her, does nothing, and she dies.
All Walt can really do to justify it to himself is tell himself that he didn’t directly cause her death; he “only” prevented himself from saving her. She was also trying to get money off him, and was spending increasing amounts of time with Jesse, andWalt seized the opportunity to let her die to rid himself of such problems. It’s a choice that has serious consequences going forward, seen most explicitly in the season 2 finale, “ABQ.”
3"Full Measure" (2010)
Season 3, Episode 13
Walt doesn’t slow down on the whole ruining Jesse’s life thing duringBreaking Bad’s third season, either. Walt and Jesse are essentially fighting for their lives against Gus and Mike, the whole situation messy, with Walt believing that the only thing keeping them alive is the fact they know how to cook the meth Gus wants them to. There’s also Gale, who’s knowledgeable about the whole enterprise, and Walt sees eradicating Gale as something that’ll keep him alive.
But Walt can’t carry it out, and so he makes Jesse do it, with “Full Measure” concluding with the latter gunning Gale down.This sets in motion an exceedingly dramatic fourth season, with the whole Walt vs. Gus thing ramping up in intensity throughoutseason 4’s 13 (generally nail-biting) episodes.
4"Crawl Space" (2011)
Season 4, Episode 11
Best known for being the episode thatends with Walt pretty much losing his mind, “Crawl Space” takes things to new heights when it comes to suspense and drama. Things become understandably hectic when Gus threatens not only Walt, but Walt’s family, too, saying that if he’s wronged by Walt, he’ll kill Walt’s son, wife, and infant daughter. Cold.
So Walt goes into panic mode, also scrambling to try and save his brother-in-law, Hank, from being killed by Gus, calling the DEA and then trying to find the money he needs to effectively disappear alongside his family. But,regrettably, Skyler’s given the money away, and Walt breaks, screaming and laughing in despair as his psyche breaksand things rush toward an inevitably climactic – and ultimately explosive – season finale.
5"Face Off" (2011)
Season 4, Episode 13
That season finale is appropriately called “Face Off,” and it’s considered one of the very best episodes ofBreaking Bad’s entire run for good reason. Walt tries to pull off an ambitious chain of events thatcould well rid him of Gus for good, and he succeeds, but the lengths he went to in order to make everything come to fruition are alarming (especially the part where he willingly poisoned a child).
Walt does indeed win, as he brags about at the episode’s conclusion, but with Gus gone, Walt effectively becomes the main antagonist of his own show, because there aren’t many other people who can touch him or keep him in line. He reaches new levels of cruelty and viciousness in season 5, andthe progression toward being that kind of person wouldn’t have been possible without the events of “Face Off.”
6"Say My Name" (2012)
Season 5, Episode 7
No one’s safe in season 5 ofBreaking Bad, and it’s the death of Mike that really drives that home. He’s killed by Walt in “Say My Name” in a rather sudden and perhaps even anti-climactic way. Unlike most of the other people Walt’s killed, there’s no practical reason to kill Mike outside his pride being hurt. Even letting Jane die, while horrible, was something that Walt chose to do to clear an obstacle in his life.
But Mike offends Walt, and Walt snaps, gunning him down in a senseless and ultimately heartbreaking way, becauseMike was gruff, tough, and flawed, but he also had endearing qualities and was arguably a saint compared to Walt. Walt even realizes how pointless it was to kill Mike right as the latter’s dying in a bleak and impactful final scene that drives home even furtherhow far Walt’s fallen morally.
7"Gliding Over All" (2012)
Season 5, Episode 8
Things feel a little like business as usual for much of the mid-season finale ofBreaking Bad’s final season (it was split into seasons 5A and 5B, with eight episodes airing in 2012 and the other eight airing in 2013),at least as far as crime shows go. It sees Walt tying up various loose ends following the death of Mike, and he kind of just gets everything he wants, ordering a bunch of deaths because that’s business as usual for him at this point.
But “Gliding Over All” shakes things up dramatically at the very end of the episode, whichhas a scene where Walt’s brother-in-law, Hank, finally realizes Walt’s been the infamous Heisenberg all this time. Pretty much all bets were already off, in some ways, but now they all were, without a doubt, asBreaking Badneared its final eight episodes.
8"Ozymandias" (2013)
Season 5, Episode 14
“Ozymandias” isBreaking Badat its bestand most dramatic, but you knew that already. This is the episode where everything implodes, as two significant characters are killed off, Walt permanently damages any chances he might’ve had with staying close to his family, and Jesse is now essentially a slave, forced to work for a group of vile Neo-Nazis.
It is, by all means, about as heavy as an episode of television can get, with all five seasons of chaos and consequence building up to this one. It’s toBreaking Bad’s credit that the two episodes that follow “Ozymandias” are also hugely impactful and effectively dramatic,though it should be noted that they can’t quite exceed “Ozymandias” in those regards. They couldn’t. It would be greatly unfair to even expect them to.
9"Granite State" (2013)
Season 5, Episode 15
A quieter but still important episode forBreaking Badthat follows “Ozymandias,” “Granite State” feels arguably even bleaker, just because things slow down and you kind of soak in the misery of the story at this point.Walt’s on the run, and Jesse’s still a slave (and an even more traumatized one than ever before, because another girlfriend of his – Andrea – gets killed in this episode because Jesse tried to escape his enslavement).
“Granite State” is also an important episode for Saul Goodman, as it’s the last time he appears onBreaking Bad, with some episodes of the spin-off show,Better Call Saul, taking place after “Granite State.” So this penultimate episode of the show is important in laying the groundwork for a dramatic series finale, and for sowing seeds that would later be harvested inan acclaimed future spin-off.
10"Felina" (2013)
Season 5, Episode 16
While it doesn’t go in the direction of surprising or alarming viewersthe way some series finales have, “Felina” satisfies as a conclusion toBreaking Badbecause it’s very neat and efficient in tying up loose ends. Sure, some ofBetter Call Saultakes place after “Felina,” andthere was alsoEl Camino, but Walt’s story definitively ends here, as he goes out on his own terms, admits to Skyler he’s been selfish and power-hungry, and maybe – just slightly – goes some way to redeeming himself for all the hurt he’s done. Certainly not all, and not even most, but some.
“Felina” goes pretty big for a finale, and intends to deliver catharsis, succeeding in that sense.Breaking Badwas always a pretty linear show with certain inevitabilities built into the premise, and so “Felina” proves to be an essential piece of the overall show, and – given it’s a dramatic finale – one ofBreaking Bad’s most important hours.
