Bryan Cranston’s Favorite ‘Breaking Bad’ Moment Is Impossible To Watch

Breaking Bad features a litany of memorable scenes that are worth revisiting on their own. There are no bad choices for one’s go-to moment, whether it’s one of Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) various schemes to maneuver out of a sticky situation or an unexpected death. As the lead and producer of Vince Gilligan‘s crime drama on AMC, Bryan Cranston has been through it all and witnessed the impeccable craft of each iconic sequence in front of his own eyes. However, Cranston’s selection for his all-time favorite scene is, shall we say, quite a bummer, and not one anyone is planning on firing up on Netflix.

Of course, the fatal shooting of Drew Sharp at the end of Season 5’s “Dead Freight” is extremely upsetting, but the trauma of Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) should not overshadow its thematic and narrative importance to Walt and Jesse’s (Aaron Paul) arc. They were always going to pay for their sins, but no one thought it would be this drastic.

Walter White’s Ego Comes to a Head in “Dead Freight”

Image via AMC

By Season 5 of Breaking Bad, following the meth cook getting one step ahead of Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) in their tense stand-off to close Season 4, Walter White is in full Heisenberg mode. Rather than feigning moral innocence with the “doing it for my family” defense, he has embraced his status as a drug kingpin. His megalomania has alienated Skyler (Anna Gunn), now deathly afraid of her husband and the danger he attracts, as well as the stalwarts in the drug trade in Jesse and Mike (Jonathan Banks), who inadvertently transformed this mild-mannered chemistry teacher into a monster obsessed with leaving behind an empire rather than a nest egg for his family.

With their source of methylamine compromised due to the DEA planting tracking devices on barrels in Lydia Rodarte-Quayle’s (Laura Fraser) warehouse, Walt, Jesse, and Mike appear to be stuck at a dead end, but as Walt proclaimed, nothing stops this train. The only train being stopped is a freight locomotive carrying methylamine, which the crew pumps out of its tanker and replaces with water in an elaborate plan that is nearly derailed by a good Samaritan ruining the diversion. Like they always do, Walt and Jesse complete this MacGyver-esque task in the nick of time in one of the show’s most visceral set pieces. Director George Mastras keeps the pacing steady and heart-pounding, and accounts for all the obstacles in their way, from the train engineers spotting them to losing their chemicals once the train resumes movement.

After the plan miraculously succeeds, the viewer can finally breathe again. The team celebrates in the desert once the train departs, and Walt has never looked more human or humble. The energy takes a screeching halt when Walt, Jesse, and Todd turn around and see a young boy on a dirtbike, Drew Sharp, waving to the trio in confusion. Todd, who cements his status as the most evil character within a cast of irredeemable people, shoots and kills Drew, horrifying Walt and Jesse.

Bryan Cranston’s Favorite Scene in ‘Breaking Bad’ Underlines the Euphoria and Tragedy of Crime

“All these things had to go right — and everything went right! It was fantastic!” Bryan Cranston told Entertainment Weekly, explaining the contrasting emotions in his favorite scene in Breaking Bad. The show seamlessly balanced various tones within individual episodes or across a season, but this scene crystalizes the volatile ups and downs of Walter White and Company. “It was such a beautifully constructed narrative,” Cranston said, referring to the dichotomy between the euphoria of the train robbery and the trauma of watching an innocent child being murdered.

The Emmy-winning actor also identified that this moment is symbolic of Breaking Bad and its relationship to the audience. In one breath, the fans can rejoice in Walt and Jesse riding off into the sunset with the methylamine, but just a few moments later, the harsh repercussions of the criminal lifestyle arise when least expected after the murder. “Here’s what happens when you forget that there’s morality connected and consequences to every action,” Cranston continued.

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I guess you’ll get what you deserve.

Between the desert setting and the heist that evokes a Western movie, “Dead Freight” is the closest Walter White has ever resembled a classic outlaw. We think of these criminal figures from the Old West, glorified in early films like The Great Train Robbery, as honorable anti-heroes, as they are only robbing the rich who wouldn’t know what to do with their resources. After finding a route to avoid casualties, it seems like the train heist will be victimless, allowing the audience to feel comfortable cheering on Walt. As the show gradually demonstrated, unintended consequences, even kids being collateral damage, are inevitable in the criminal underworld. Abruptly upending Walt’s nobility was just as devastating as anything the character would succumb to later in the final season.

The Drew Sharp Killing Forces Walter White to Reckon With His Actions

Image via AMC

Although Walt did not pull the trigger, his unbridled ego and short-sightedness led to this tragedy. He had no reservations about getting in bed with someone like Todd, whose polite affectation and reverence of his seniors blinded Walt from the red flag of working with a Neo-Nazi. Understandably, this moment becomes a wake-up call for Walt, who eventually realizes this has gone too far and finally settles down. However, his deep personal reckoning in the following episode felt glib and perfunctory, as he was doing his best to justify his actions and take no blame.

On the flipside, Jesse, who is protective of children, is devastated, questioning his life and tossing his blood money through the streets of Albuquerque. Jesse, who gained Walt’s respect by thinking of the idea of replacing the methylamine with water to avoid detection at a weight check, recognizes his culpability in this tragedy. During heist preparation, he insisted to Todd that no one, under any circumstances, could ever see or know about the robbery, an order that Todd didn’t waver from.

Having formed such a massive criminal enterprise built on bloodshed, we knew that Walt had to pay for his crimes. However, getting handcuffs slapped on his wrists by Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) or facing his own demise would’ve been to clean an exit for Heisenberg. Walt’s blinding ego and posturing as a Vito Corleone-esque crime boss lead to foolish decisions, such as teaming up with Neo-Nazis and thinking he could steal methylamine from a train without anyone noticing or leaving behind blood. Mike, the lone voice of reason in Breaking Bad, wisely stated, “There are two kinds of heists: Those where the guys get away with it and those that leave witnesses.” Even in this world of reckless crime and violence, karma never takes a day off. There was no way Walt could walk away scot-free after Drew Sharp’s death. In this case, karma came in the form of a Walt Whitman book of poems being left in the bathroom.