The Heisenberg Easter Egg You Never Noticed In Breaking Bad Season 2
Breaking Bad was a transformative TV show in many ways. The series helped Bryan Cranston shake off his reputation as a sitcom dad and demonstrate serious dramatic skills. Breaking Bad, alongside Mad Men and The Walking Dead, shifted viewers' perception of AMC as a channel for classic films to a home of high-caliber scripted television. The series can even be credited as helping to usher in an era of television where creators, such as Breaking Bad's showrunner Vince Gilligan, were almost as well known as their shows' stars.
Of course, the essential transformation on Breaking Bad is the one that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) undergoes as he becomes Heisenberg over the show's five seasons. The mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher becomes a capable methamphetamine cook who manages to navigate a ruthless underworld while drifting further away from his morals.
One of the most satisfying elements of Walter White's metamorphosis from a man trying to make the best of some bad situations into an unforgiving criminal is the show's measured pace. Viewers have a chance to empathize with Walter, which helps make the man that he becomes even more shocking. While Breaking Bad takes seasons to get to that place, Vince Gilligan had a clear roadmap from the beginning of how Walter White would become Heisenberg. As a result, there are some hints along the way — such as one Heisenberg Easter egg tucked into a scene late in season 2.
The real Heisenberg is mentioned at the National Atomic Museum in Breaking Bad season 2
While Walter White first calls himself Heisenberg in Breaking Bad's first season when dealing with the show's first major antagonist, Tuco, he hasn't yet embraced his alter ego during the second. As a result, many viewers never noticed when the real Heisenberg is mentioned in the background of a scene set at the National Atomic Museum during the seventh episode of the second season, "Negro Y Azul."
After being coerced out of his apartment by Walt, Jesse meets up with his dealers at the museum to give them details about claiming new territory. As the scene begins, Redditor Pfinnn notes that an educational video in the background is discussing a pioneer of quantum physics, Werner Heisenberg. The audio fades out as the scene begins, making it an easy-to-miss Easter egg, but it remains a clever nod to the man who likely inspired Walter's alias.
While Walter never explicitly explains his choice to refer to himself as Heisenberg, one fan theory on Reddit links Walt's unpredictable behavior to Werner Heisenberg's famous uncertainty principle. While that seems like a reasonable assumption, another Redditor notes that the real Heisenberg was also a teacher diagnosed with cancer, so the connection may be a little simpler in the end.