Breaking Bad fans are so used to seeing Walter White as the meth-cooking, boss-shooting, wife-bullying “one who knocks” that it’s easy to lose sight of who he was when we first met him: a meek, brilliant yet underachieving high-school science teacher with a terminal cancer diagnosis. It didn’t take long for him to “break bad,” but his transformation into the brutal narcissist of Season 5 was gradual, albeit with occasional shocks along the way. It’s this devolution that is the show’s greatest obsession, and the fan-edited video below is the best showcase we’ve seen of both Vince Gilligan’s forward-looking character development and Bryan Cranston’s masterful embodiment of Walter. It also reminded us of an early monologue that might be the best clue as to where Breaking Bad is heading: “[C]hange: That’s all of life. It’s the constant, it’s the cycle. It’s grown, then decay, then transformation.” Click through to watch the entire Walter White character arc take shape in just eight minutes.
[via Warming Glow]