Breaking Bad is a crime drama franchise created by American filmmaker Vince Gilligan. It started with the television series Breaking Bad (2008–13), and was followed by a prequel/sequel series, Better Call Saul (2015–22), and a sequel film, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019). The following is an abridged list of characters appearing across the productions.
Main characters
Cast table
Introduced in Breaking Bad
Walter White
Walter Hartwell White (also known by his alias Heisenberg) (played by Bryan Cranston) is an overqualified high school chemistry teacher from Albuquerque, New Mexico. After being diagnosed with lung cancer, he starts manufacturing methamphetamine to provide for his family upon his death. Knowing nothing about the drug trade, he enlists the aid of his former student, Jesse Pinkman, to sell the meth he produces. Walter's scientific knowledge and dedication to quality leads him to produce crystal meth that is purer and more potent than any competitors'. To avoid the tedious collection of pseudoephedrine required for production, Walter devises an alternative chemical process utilizing methylamine, giving his product a distinctive blue color. His methamphetamine, which is given the street name "Blue Sky", dominates the market, leading to confrontations with established drug makers and dealers. Walter is initially opposed to the use of violence, but gradually comes to see it as a necessity. He also comes to find his new status as a drug lord psychologically rewarding, leading him to become increasingly willing to resort to criminal acts such as theft, extortion, money laundering, depraved indifference, and murder. Walter's descent, Macbeth-like, into the criminal underworld unearths immense levels of deeply repressed ambition, rage, resentment, vanity, and an increasing ruthlessness which alienates him from his family and colleagues.
Skyler White
Skyler White (née Lambert) (played by Anna Gunn) is Walter's wife. She has had several meager sources of income: writing short stories, selling items on eBay, working as a bookkeeper, and ultimately helping her husband launder money. Skyler and Walter have a son, Walter Jr., and an infant daughter, Holly. Skyler and Walt's marriage becomes increasingly strained due to his unexplained absences and bizarre behavior, ultimately leading to their separation. In season 3, she deduces that Walter is a drug dealer, resolving to divorce him and keep him away from their children. Yet, when Walter implores her to understand his reasons for manufacturing meth, Skyler relents in her opposition to his presence within their home. She also begins getting involved in Walter's criminal life, using his money to pay for her brother-in-law Hank's medical bills following an attack on his life. After meeting Saul Goodman, Skyler concocts a plan to feasibly launder Walter's money through a car wash where he had recently worked part time. The plan is successful, and in seasons 4 and 5, Skyler launders Walter's money through the car wash, though she remains deeply unhappy about their situation. In the final 2 seasons, she becomes increasingly fearful of Walter given that he is slowly becoming more of a hardened criminal. After Walter kills Gus Fring, Skyler's fears are fully realized, and she attempts to distance their children from her and Walter, staging a suicide attempt so that Hank and her sister Marie will temporarily take their children in. She tells Walter that she will be a complicit partner in whatever capacity so long as their children are not living with them. When Walter quits the drug business, he and Skyler begin rebuilding their relationship and their family life until Hank discovers Walt is Heisenberg. When in the episode "Buried", Skyler's DEA brother-in-law Hank tells her he is on to Walt but needs her help to provide sufficient evidence to build a successful case, Skyler replies that she needs a lawyer and later tells Walt they should remain quiet. When Hank is killed, she and Walter fight, and he abducts Holly. Walter uses this as a chance to exonerate Skyler in the eyes of the law, absolving her of any complicity during his drug operations. She is permitted to keep their children; however, she is told that she must find valuable information for the authorities to use against Walter. In the series finale, Walter visits Skyler a final time, admitting to her that his meth business was for him rather than the family; he provides her with the coordinates of Hank and Steve Gomez's whereabouts, imploring her to use them as her escape from his ordeal. In the episode "Breaking Bad" of Better Call Saul, Skyler is mentioned to have gotten a successful plea deal with the prosecutors.
Jesse Pinkman
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
