Top 10 Breaking Bad Episodes Ranked
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Breaking Bad is simply one of the greatest TV shows of all time. Created by Vince Gilligan for AMC, the crime drama achieved near-unanimous praise since premiering January 20, 2008.
It stars Bryan Cranston as Walter White, a high-school chemistry teacher who, after being diagnosed with lung cancer, teams up with small-time drug dealer Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) to start making and selling meth so he can take care of his family.
Breaking Bad produced five award-winning seasons and 62 episodes. We’ve picked out ten of the best below. And don’t miss the Game of Thrones 10 best episodes ranked.
Top 10 Breaking Bad Episodes
AMC
It’s not so much the entire episode that’s memorable about Madrigal but its shocking opening. The setting is a test kitchen in Hannover, Germany, where glum executive Peter Schuler taste-tests a line-up of dipping sauces. When he’s informed cops are on the way, he calmly walks into a nearby bathroom and electrocutes himself with a defibrillator. The opening showcases how Breaking Bad’s masterful storytelling works even in short, standalone scenes.
AMC
After killing Gale Boetticher at the climax of season three, this episode sees Walter and his partner in crime Jesse face repercussions from the big bad drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). At the time of airing, Box Cutter was the most watched Breaking Bad episode in the series' history, with 2.58 million households tuning in.
AMC
This is the episode Walter shaves his hair and transforms into Heisenberg, the almost mythical alias feared by drug dealers everywhere. That’s proven beyond a shadow of a doubt when Walter strolls into the hideout of psychotic meth distributor Tuco Salamanca and blows his henchmen sky-high up with explosives before demanding $50,000.
AMC
Walter crosses the line in Phoenix. During the standout scene, he enters the bedroom of Jesse and his girlfriend Jane to find them passed out in their bed, high on drugs. When Janes starts to choke on her own vomit, Walter stands by and lets it happen, knowing that Jesse needs no distractions if he’s to focus on meth production. It sees Walter transitioning from a teacher trying to do right by his family to a master manipulator prioritizing his hunger for power above all else.
AMC
This episode is best known for introducing Bob Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman, the shady but brilliant lawyer who offered the frequently heavy show some much needed comic relief. Saul Goodman became one of the best characters in Breaking Bad, even getting a spinoff in 2015’s Better Call Saul that lasted six seasons.
In Grilled, Walter and Jesse face a lifetime of servitude cooking meth for a crazed Tuco Salamanca. They’re whisked off to a desert compound and told they’ll soon be transported across the border to Mexico. In response, Walter poisons Tuco's food with ricin, but Tuco finds out. The pitched ensuing battle is the closest Walter and Jesse come to death by that point.
AMC
This episode gave birth to the iconic line, “say my name,” which is one of the most famous quotes from the show and second only to “I’m the one who knocks.” During his confrontation with meth distributor Declan, Walter demands he call him by his alias, Heisenberg. But there’s a second famous line in this episode, uttered by a dying Mike Ehrmantraut when he tells Walter, “Shut up and let me die in peace.”
Possibly the goriest moment in Breaking Bad history goes down in Face Off, an episode taking its name quite literally. After failing to kill Gus earlier, Walt hatches a desperate plan to eliminate him before his vicious reprisal by enlisting the help of Tio Salamanca, whose wheelchair he rigs with explosives. Tio triggers it and the hospital room explodes, but Gus survives, emerging from the room and straightening his tie. That is, until the camera pans and we see half his head is missing.
There are plenty of memorable moments in Crawl Space. Skylar’s affair with local bigwig Ted Beneke reaches an unexpected conclusion when he trips over a rug and smashes his head on a counter, dying instantly, while the sheer scale of Gus’ operation is revealed in chilling fashion. But it’s the final scene that sticks in the mind: Walter lying on his back in the crawl space under his house, howling like an animal after Skylar gave away their fortune.
The only episode to have an aggregate 10/10 rating on IMDb. Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson helms Ozymandias and pays off everything that’s been building over five seasons. It starts with a nostalgic flashback as Walter and Jesse cook meth in their battered RV, then reverts to present day where the pair are in way over their head. Hank dies, Walter flees, and in a rare act of redemption, leaves a voicemail getting his wife Skylar off the hook for her involvement. Not just the best episode of Breaking Bad, but widely considered to be one of the best episodes in TV history.
