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,[1] 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.
Realizing how much pain he has caused for money leads him to attempt to give bundles of cash from his final payoff to people he knows and then throw them from his car window onto random lawns and porches.
Always being "late to the game" (as defined by Mitte on an episode of Talking Bad), Walter Jr. remains oblivious to his father's drug trade life until "Ozymandias", when Marie, confident that Walt is in Hank's custody, forces Skyler to reveal the whole truth to her son.
Emigrating to the United States, Gus appeared acquiescent but secretly plotted to exact revenge and eliminate his dependence on the cartel by producing his own meth via a "super lab" hidden beneath an industrial laundry.
Saul Goodman (played by Bob Odenkirk), real name James Morgan McGill, is a sleazy and unscrupulous lawyer who acts as Walter and Jesse's attorney and provides some of the series' comic relief.
Todd's explanation, plus his claims that his uncle (Jack Welker) runs a gang with connections that could be valuable to the meth operation, convince Walt and Mike to keep him alive, although Jesse is reluctant.
Finding herself drawn in by Jimmy's schemes, Kim later decides to quit Schweikart & Cokely and representing Mesa Verde while continuing to handle pro bono criminal defense cases.
His privileged background, unflappability, sun-kissed good looks that appear unchanged over time, and ample charm prove to be a constant source of frustration for Jimmy, as is his positive relationship with HHM's other name partner, Chuck McGill.
[18] He reappears in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie in which he gives a press conference watched by Skinny Pete and Badger on the massacre of Jack Welker's gang by Walter White and the status of Jesse Pinkman.
During the events of Better Call Saul, Gale is a post-graduate student and researcher at the University of New Mexico, and discreetly tests meth samples Gus provides as part of a plan to end his need for Mexican cartel cocaine.
He is in constant contact with Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, who tells him which containers she has taken off the manifests, which he sends to Golden Moth Chemical Company in Albuquerque, which in turn forwards them on to Lavanderia Brilliante and Gus's lab.
[31] Dan Wachsberger (played by Chris Freihofer) is an attorney hired by Mike Ehrmantraut to represent Ron Forenall, Dennis Markowski, and the other seven surviving members of Gus Fring's operation running out of the Lavanderia Brilliante in Albuquerque.
After Jesse cooks a batch, Eladio invites them to a party at his villa attended by his capos, who toast their new business venture with a bottle of Zafiro Añejo premium tequila supplied by Gus.
En route to being smuggled into the US, they hide with other undocumented immigrants in the back of a hay truck, and shoot and kill the entire group when one recognizes them by their silver skull boot tips.
[35] Ximenez Lecerda (played by Manuel Uriza) drives a truck that delivers supplies for Hector Salamanca's ice cream store, in which he smuggles cocaine from Mexico and carries cash back to the cartel.
[38] Following the discovery of his car in the desert, it is revealed by Hank Schrader and Steven Gomez that Krazy-8 is actually the informant who had led them to Emilio and Jesse's lab in the first place during the ride along that had triggered Walt's interest in the drug trade.
[53] Jane's death leads to significant repercussions throughout the rest of the series, and is largely responsible for Jesse's downward spiral in the first half of the third season, as well as her father Donald's deep depression which affects him to the point that he fails in his duties as an air-traffic controller and causes a midair collision between a 737 and a King Air 350 ("ABQ").
Badger later attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings with Skinny Pete, where they intend to find new buyers by informing a group of recovering drug addicts that "Blue Sky" (Walt and Jesse's product) is again available.
Though it was not used in the film, several critics speculated after the premiere that the scene likely occurred after Jesse left Pete and Badger's house, which would make the trailer his final chronological appearance.
Hired more for his size, strength, and pickpocketing skills than his intelligence, he has a condition approximating narcolepsy (e.g., he falls asleep at odd times, such as when standing up or while on security detail), and has digestive problems that keep him from being as stoic as Saul would like.
Marshall Joseph "Joey" Dixon (played by Josh Fadem), aka Camera Guy, is the cameraman of the college filmmaking crew Jimmy McGill occasionally uses to shoot TV ads and other events.
[75] Lenny (played by John Ennis) is a grocery store employee and amateur actor hired by Jimmy and Kim to impersonate judge Rand Casimiro in still photos, as part of their ploy to discredit Howard Hamlin and force a settlement on the Sandpiper Crossing class-action lawsuit.
[95] Ted tells Skyler he lied to medical personnel and police, claiming his broken neck resulted from an accidental fall, and that because he fears for the safety of his family, he will never mention how the injury occurred.
Jimmy subsequently attempts to bribe the Kettlemans to keep quiet about their role in smearing Howard, but when they refuse the cash Kim coerces them by threatening to report their tax preparation scam to the IRS.
During an outdoor session at a campfire, he reveals to Jesse and other recovering addicts that in July 1992, while drunk on vodka and high on cocaine, he killed his six-year-old daughter by accidentally running her over with his car.
Later on, in the episode "Fly", Walter recalls that unlikely sequence of events, telling Jesse about the encounter at the bar (he only realized that this man was Jane's father after he saw him on the news following the disaster), and wonders about the possible meaning of the coincidence.
At Gretchen and Elliott's home, Walt claims to have snipers aiming rifles with laser sights at them, which he uses to coerce them into agreeing to use his remaining money to establish a trust for Walter Jr. while masking the source as a contribution from their charitable foundation.
[120] After Jimmy begins practicing law as Saul Goodman, and word of his representation of the Salamancas gets out, his office is flooded with potential criminal defense clients, causing an obviously annoyed Mrs. Nguyen to evict him.
Jimmy creates delays in Mesa Verde's eviction through several tricks, including changing Acker's street number and claiming the eviction notices are for the wrong address, creating fake Native American artifacts to be found by researchers, planting low-level radioactive material to have authorities test the site for hazardous waste, and passing off a spray-painted image of Jesus on Acker's home as a miracle that causes the religious faithful to consider it a shrine.