Analysis of deaths in Breaking Bad
Disclaimer: there may be contain an overthinking, as well an oversight of something. The order of deaths is random and not conditioned by anything, I may decide to include someone else later.
1. The death of the Salamanca twins.
Although the twins are not the key characters, nor they are not necessarily deeply well written, but they are extremely colorful characters and complement the whole Salamanca family very well, perfectly revealing the spirit of their kin.
Their only goal was to avenge their brother's death, if not to Walter, then at least to Hank. Which, fortunately, they cannot manage to do and are sent to the hospital. And although it was not their decision to die, I like it how adamant their goal of "failed = died" becomes. The death of one of the twins was not shown to us, only marking it as a fact, but the second one is shown with severed legs! As if he had lost his brother, he had lost a whole half of himself. They didn't show us that they loved each other dearly, but throughout the series they performed exclusively together and never clashed. And although it was not the wounds from the torn off legs that caused the death of one of the Salamanca duo, but the fact that Mike poisoned him later, there is absolutely no emphasis on this detail. The last scene in which the remaining twin is seen is the moment where he desperately tries to crawl to Walter with bloody stumps, ignoring blood, IVs and everything else. But his brother was cut off from him and now he is desperate, even if he still has his goal.
Also, this scene is a clear parallel to the the twins' first appearance, when they, along with other residents of their village, crawled to the religious altar in honor of the Mexican holiday – St. Jude's Day. It was an annual ritual of worship to their deity, to which believers come to ask for help, luck, survival and protection (Salamanca belong to the cult of Santa Muerte). At the altar, the twins honored the memory of the deceased Tuco and hung an image of Heisenberg, because they obviously asked the deity for help in their revenge for their brother. Well, in the end, the survived twin, or rather his half (half of the half, in nutshell, haha), is crawling in the same way to the living and very real Heisenberg in the flesh.
In general, the twins are thoroughly imbued with a sense of duty and culture of their kin!
By the way, although his legs were amputated due to the fact that they were crushed by the wheels of a car, but the cut wound itself matches with the twins' signature weapon - an axe.
And the main rival of the Salamancas, we can say that he fulfilled his duty, although also at the cost of his own life, and was able to die side by side with the last of the Salamancas, AKA his greatest enemy - Hector.
Gustavo dies from the explosion of a bomb that Walter secretly slipped by his side, so to speak. The explosion is obviously something sudden, abrupt and very, very epic, as well as the manifestation of rage and power in Gustavo, just like, in instance, when he cuts the throat of his innocent guard with his bare hands, just to indicate his dominant status in the amphetamine empire. The bomb is exactly how Walter sees Gustavo: something motionless, ticking softly, but ready to explode at the most inopportune moment. Interestingly, in the future, Mike himself will compare Walter with a bomb in exactly the same context. So, even after the explosion destroyed the whole room, Gustavo casually leaves and adjusts his tie, emphasizing his perfectionism, dominance and absolute equanimity. We also see that the explosion blew off half of his face clearly in the middle, leaving one side clean and untouched, and the other ugly and frightening. This once again emphasizes his perfection, as well as a clear division of his personality into a respectable and quite normal one, the one that he represents to all people around him, and his hidden - vindictive, domineering and slightly psychopathic half, which scared poor Walter.
An interesting fact! In exactly the same way, his face was previously also divided in half in one important scene, but with the help of light (BrBa generally enjoys using this technique, but with Gustavo it is used very clearly brightly, it attracts attention). In that case, this hidden nature of his was still hidden, remaining in the dark. Immediately, it revealed herself, as if he had been hiding it all this time solely in order to be able to quietly get to the last of the Salamanca family.
The relationship between Hank and Walter is parallel to the relationship between Agent Schrader and Heisenberg. Like Walt, Hank draws a very clear line between family and work, and for him, the confrontation with Heisenberg cannot be interrupted just because his brother-in-law turned out to be Heisenberg. Neither did Walter stop fighting when his secret identity was revealed. And this confrontation became as important for them as for L and Light from the Death Note, nothing would make them stop, they both knew that at all costs one must lose and the other must win. That is why they find themselves, firstly, in a remote desert, where there is no connection with their wives and children, whom this struggle should not involve, and secondly, exactly where it all began! It was there where Heisenberg first revealed his chemical talent in all its glory. Despite the fact that Hank and Walt are not alone, Gomi, Jesse, and especially the crowd of Nazis were just extras and an inseparable part of the work at that moment, especially since all these people are one enemy caste for Hank, even if among them there was also the one he trusted. In fact, Heisenberg and Agent Schrader were one-on-one and met face to face for the first time on their battlefield, where the very first amphetamine cooking and a good part of the investigations took place. Despite the fact that they were both disarmed and in the sights of the Nazis, they were still focused on each other, the situation gave them time to realize, and, roughly speaking, to say goodbye, and for Hank to accept defeat. At that moment, Hank's value as a family member outweighed their criminal struggle for Walter, when a Nazi with a gun in his hands addressed Hank as "federal", Walt desperately shouted "his name is Hank!", but it was too late. Hank was lying on the ground in front of Walt, showing his defeat. He simply admits and accepts his loss as a fighter on the side of the DEA, feeling even prideful about it, because he did not change his priorities at the last moment, unlike Walt. Despite the long dialogue between them and the Nazis, Hank himself says that the person who is holding him at gunpoint made the decision to shoot him ten minutes ago. At last, Hank admits that Walter is the smartest man he knew and demands to shoot. And they're shooting. Hank dies painlessly and instantly from being shot in the head. He would not have needed a painful death, because, like I said, he himself accepted defeat when he realized that there was no other way out. The bullet came into his head as quickly as the realization that Heisenberg was spinning right under his nose this whole time.
Here I want to bring up not only the moment of Mike's death itself, but also what preceded it scenes earlier. Mike devotes all his free time to his beloved granddaughter, for whom he earns money in such a dirty way and lives for. The moment he finds out that the police have found out about his crimes and are already on their way to arrest him, he is also with her and peacefully guards her while she swings on the playground. In this scene, for the first time in the whole entire series, his face reflects not severity, sullenness or calmness, but sincere fear and uncertainty about what to do. At this moment, Mike is behind his granddaughter's back, which once again emphasizes that she does not know and does not see a drop of all his sins and crimes, all of this is a secret to her. At the same time, a police car appears in the frame with her, which shows how the hidden criminal part of Mike's life will inevitably collide with his peaceful human daily life, no matter how hard he tried to distinguish between family and work, and the fact that his granddaughter is about to find out everything, because the car is almost in her sight.
Mike has to leave his granddaughter alone and run away without even saying goodbye or explaining himself :( Then all sorts of fussy events occur, during which he intends to run away and hide, but all this obviously hardly makes sense to him, not only because he will never see his granddaughter ever again, but also because he did not keep all the money for her in a hiding place, but put it in the bank, and It was on the transfer of money there that one of his seemingly trusted people got busted. Mike meets with Walter, who was supposed to give him an important bag with money and weapons, and say goodbye forever, because even despite what happened in the scene earlier, Mike was going to step away from working with Walt and Jesse anyway. Finally, Walter wants to ask Mike for the names of some trusted people from prison, unfortunately, I don't remember why exactly, and says that the least Mike should do to thank for their alliance. Mike sums up the thoughts that he never really hid anyway – that Walt is a terrible egoist, consumed by pride, and that he destroyed a perfectly organized system in which he originally had his place and the opportunity to earn the right amount of money. And on emotions, outrage and paranoia so typical of him, Walter commits the most unnecessary and senseless murder in the entire series, shooting Mike with a pistol a moment before he managed to leave. Moreover, the gun was stolen from the same bag he brought to Mike. The car drives off about ten meters and crashes into rocks, and Mike gets out of it and goes into the thicket, to the shore of the lake. There, Mike sits down devastated on a rock, staring into the distance. Walt resorts to him and even at this moment he is still paranoid, he points a gun at Mike and takes the weapon from him, which he does not oppose at all. Walt even apologizes and says that he remembered where else he could find out the names, that all this could really be avoided. Mike asks him, quote, to shut the fuck up and let him die in peace.
There is no complicated symbolism, vivid images, but it was his death that prompted me to write this whole analysis, it is as simple and direct, but terribly touching as Mike himself. It also seems important to me that this scene is much less filled with details than the scene of his last moments with his granddaughter, which shows how low self-worth is without a family and that she is all what was important to him. Despite the fact that he was practically the most adequate, honest and loyal character, the criminal world ruined him too, because all these qualities did not save him from the world into which he voluntarily immersed himself. He was able to tell Walter everything he thinks about him, but that didn't change the fact that he died at his hands, died of absolute stupidity and will spend the last moments of his life next to the man he hates. Mike dies slowly, calmly and without any action, watching the serene forest, as he watched everything that was happening, somewhat detached from the outside, both in the criminal and in the ordinary world during his lifetime. With his life gone, the setting sun sets. As soon as the screen goes out and the credits begin, quiet sad music begins to play and we hear the steady creak of the swing on which his granddaughter swung when he saw her last time.
Here everything is actually very simple and clear. Having dealt with all the unfinished business, redeemed all his possible sins and at the same time satisfied all the needs of his self-realization, Walt remains on his own. The last person he sees or talks to is Jesse, who was faithful to him basically to the very end. And Walter literally releases him from slavery, the responsibility for which, although he is not fully responsible for, still takes place under the legendary name of Heisenberg. You can't fix what you've done before, but as far as possible, Walt atones for all his sins and puts a gun in his hands, for the first time putting Jesse truly above himself and trusting him to make the decision whether to shoot Walt or not. Quite predictably, Jesse did not do this and simply savors the long-awaited, absolutely deserved freedom, for which this time he did not have to fight alone and fight with Walter. Walter remains completely alone and the only thing he has in the last moments of his life is his dear meth lab. And he is genuinely happy. This is not a situation in which he is content with the little that he has left, because for him it is absolutely not small, it was the real meaning of his life. The laboratory will always remain faithful to him, not only because it is literally a material inanimate object without an opinion, but also because Walter has never sinned against it, he has always cooked meth perfectly, observing all the rules of the chemical business from the very first season, even the most meticulous. He lies down serenely on the floor of the laboratory, ready to die with a clear conscience and a happy heart, and the song Baby Blue - Badfinger begins to play.
This song very clearly confirms how I describe his love for chemistry, because according to the original idea of the song, it is about a great love for a girl, but it is obvious that in the context of the series, the song is dedicated neither to Jesse nor to Skyler...) The opening line of the song "Guess I got what I deserve" fits the BrBa context especially well, which many interpret as something negative, because Walter was left all alone, but above I have already thoroughly described why everything is not so unambiguous and it is very difficult to call Walter's ending bad. The main thing is that everything is fair and right and he really got everything he deserved.
Also, the affectionate nickname "Baby Blue" refers to Walter's trademark blue meth.
Guess I got what I deserve
Kept you waiting there, too long my love
All that time, without a word
Didn't know you'd think, that I'd forget, or I'd regret
The special love I have for you, my Baby Blue
I also want to compare how the moods of Mike's and Walt's deaths differ. They are very similar people in everyday life: quiet, staying somewhere in the background, calm and peaceful, and justify their secret criminal career by doing it for their family. But Mike actually pursues that exact goal, while Walter only started with such a motive, and then only justifies himself with it. Left alone, Walt finally finds real happiness and satisfaction, and the song playing at the end of his story is bright, loud and cheerful, it is generally a proper song with lyrics, verses and chorus. In Mike's case, it's just a quiet and dreary melody, accompanied by memories of his granddaughter – a squeaking swing. Left alone, he is practically empty and has nothing but longing for his family.
