 Throughout Breaking Bad, we are constantly shown reflections. Oftentimes, these reflections will show up in the conversation, making the audience look back at where the characters are. Most reflections are obvious, like Walt shaving his head when he first becomes Heisenberg, or the last shot of him that we see when he is still alive. In fact, every major event in the transition from Walter White to Heisenberg has Walt coming face to face with himself, and at each one of these stages he has the choice to stop, but at each stage, he continues to go on. However, these reflections don't stop at a literal level. In fact, who Walt is and what he becomes is ultimately a reflection of the supporting cast of characters that surround him. But before we go any further, I want to take a step back and rewind to Season 1 Episode 1 and take a look at worldbuilding. In particular, I want to narrow in on the characters because although the emphasis of the show is on Walt, from the very first episode he is shaped by the people around him. He is always surrounded by a developed cast of characters who each have their own problems to contend with and resolve. Oftentimes, Walt is the center and the cause of these problems, and he is almost always affected by them in one way or another, but through these problems the people around them feel like real people, and help shape him into Heisenberg. For example, his relationship with his brother-in-law Hank. Both men are great at what they do. Walt is a chemist and Hank as a law enforcement officer, however, there is a power imbalance. Hank respects Walt's intelligence, but doesn't respect him as a man. This power imbalance is in part what Walt seeks. For the majority of his adult life, he has been without power and without control. Once Walt realizes that he has power, he falls in love with it and continues to want more of it. However, what the show did so well was make this process slow and developed. Well into season 2, when Walt is already a successful kingpin, he still doesn't have the respect from Hank. In episode 10, he forces Walt Jr. to drink, making him sick. This is his way of trying to show Hank that he has power and that he does deserve respect, but in doing so made Hank lose some more respect from him. Ironically, it is this lack of respect that keeps Hank from realizing who Walt was, even when it was staring him in the face the whole time. Hank is just one of the many pieces of the puzzle that forms Heisenberg, and one of the biggest influences are the people that he is in business with. We see the results of this throughout the entire series, but at first manifests itself in season 1. As we watch Walt and Jesse go into business with a local group of crystal meth distributors, Crazy8 and Emilio. This is Walt's first look into the criminal underworld, and it shapes the rest of his interactions he has with the underworld. Crazy8 and Emilio are both harsh and rough thugs more than they are professional businessmen, and this rubs off on Walt. For the rest of the series, he adopts a no-nonsense attitude. Even in the final season when he tries to be a businessman, he still follows some of the same mannerisms that he picked up from Crazy8 and Emilio. After he is kidnapped, we learn that Crazy8 prefers to have his sandwiches with the crust cut off. And from this point forward, this is the same way that Walt has his sandwiches. Although this is by all means a tiny and seemingly irrelevant detail, these details form the substance that make Breaking Bad so great. It shows that Walt's professional life slowly starts to seep into his personal one until he is consumed by the crystal meth business. But the person who has the biggest impact on Walt is Gus. Here is part of their first conversation. I was told that the man I would be meeting with is very careful. I believe we're alike in that way. I don't think we're alike at all, Mr. White. Even before they get to know one another, Walt clearly wants to emulate Gus in for obvious reasons. Gus is successful, wealthy, and manages to draw a very fine line in which he separates his personal and business self. We, as the audience, never learn too much about Gus and for good reason, too. We are seeing the story unfold from the perspective of Walt, and Walt only knows so much. The only times we do learn anything concrete about who he is as a person still don't tell us too much about him. He invites Walt to his house for dinner, but the conversation stays almost entirely on business discussions or on Walt. The only time in which we see the true Gustavo Fring is in season 4's eighth episode, Hermanus, in which we learn about his introduction to the world of crystal meth distribution in his partner Max. Throughout the series, he only shows us one side of him. Even when half of his face is blown off, bear in mind he first shows us his clean side, a perfect metaphor for his entire character. The manifestation of Gus into Walt really becomes apparent following Gus's death once Walt takes over the international drug trade. After planning the assassination of Gus, Walt becomes addicted to the accumulation of power. He has all the money in the world and now only wants to control those around him, the same as Gus did. However, as we are constantly reminded, too much control leads to chaos. Walt wants control over Hank, Skyler, Jesse, the drug empire, the Nazi biker gang. But in looking for this control, his world slowly falls into chaos. Part of what made Breaking Bad so great is how gradual it is. There is no specific moment when Walter White becomes Heisenberg and there is no moment when Heisenberg loses everything. Instead, they are gradual processes of growth and decay that transform him into someone completely different. These processes are caused by the people around him. However, I have so far neglected to mention the most important piece of the puzzle who shaped Walt's downfall. In addition to characters being reflections of Walt, some exist as hypotheticals of what Walt could be. Gale Bettecker, for example, is the embodiment of what Walter would be without his drive and lust for power. Someone who is very talented but never thought to use it to benefit himself. Jesse is in the same position. He embodies some of the same traits as Walt, but ultimately serves as an example of what Walt could be. Even when Jesse was in high school, Walt saw himself as Jesse. He recognized the potential he had but saw that he wasn't using it. This is of course the same position that Walt had with Grey Matter, too much potential that went underutilized. They suffer similar problems in different contexts like family abandonment and they both started cooking crystal meth because of a financial necessity, where they differ however is with morality. As Jesse is brought further and further into the violent and cruel world of the drug trade, he develops a hatred for violence. Comparatively, Walt likes it or at least he likes the power associated with it. Especially as Jesse is personally affected by the violence, he becomes trapped by the violence and trapped by the world that not only approves of this violence but glamorizes it. And it isn't until Walt brings this world crashing down is Jesse finally free. Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed, obviously the show offers so much discussion and in order to truly break it down would require hours of discussion. But I intended this video to be a broad overview of the series thematically, I'd love for more specifics to be discussed in the comments so be sure to get your thoughts out there. Over the past couple of months I've been rewatching all of Breaking Bad in preparation for this video. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it is the greatest television drama ever. The structure, pacing, character development, the actors playing the characters, the writing, the direction, you know you can take any element of the show and it is up there with some of the best cinematic works ever. If you somehow haven't seen the show yet and you're still watching this video, I insist that you stop, leave a like and start watching the show. It would also be great if you were to hit that subscribe button and check out my last video in which we explored the generation gap that is found within the graduate. Thanks for watching and I will see you next week.