It's been over a year since I (admittedly) bawled as my TV faded to black with the image of Walter White lying with his one true love, a meth lab, and the song “Baby Blue" summarized the television empire that was Breaking Bad. But still, I find myself way too often looking at YouTube videos of my favorite scenes, scrolling through countless articles titled "75 Things You Didn't Know About Breaking Bad" and even brushing up on the online theories about what happened to all of the characters. That last one I'm a little embarrassed about.
But what made this show so supreme? To me, the answer is simple. Chemistry. Not the chemistry that made up the blue crystals that propelled Walt into a new realm of dominance and danger. Not the elements that make up the last episode, Felina, which defined the entirety of the series: the blood (Iron – Fe), meth components (Lithium – Li), and tears (Sodium – NA). But the chemistry between the teacher and the student, the brains and the brawn, the unlikely duo that was Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Most of the time they were about to kill one another, literally, but the relationship between these two characters is one of the many reasons this show stands above so many others.
The essence of the two characters changes drastically in the five season Vince Gilligan blessed us with. Walter White begins as sympathetic family man with a terminal diagnosis and transforms into a power-hungry meth kingpin who you would never want knocking on your door. Jesse Pinkman starts as the stoner, punch line side-kick and grows into a tarnished soul driving fervently towards 'something better.' Their relationship changes with their personalities. Which, as Walt teaches us in the pilot episode, is all chemistry is—the study of change.
They had every reason to hate each other. Jesse led Walt's brother-in-law to incarcerate Walt. Walt essentially permitted the overdose and, therefore, death of Jesse's girlfriend and handed Jesse over to a crew of meth-producing Neo Nazis. So clearly, this relationship is about as healthy as doing meth. But when push came to shove, they were family. Walt dove on top of Jesse and sacrificed his own life to protect him from his self-made spinning, automatic gunfire machine. And although Jesse had the gun and the bullet, he couldn't bring himself to shoot Walt.
It's hard to verbalize the genius, creativity and artwork that made Breaking Bad such a colossal hit, an instant classic. Thankfully, all of the seasons are on Netflix so I can always visit Heisenberg and Hoodie. Because the chemistry between those two can only be described as 99.1 percent pure.
