The Most Evil Things Walter White Ever Did

In "Breaking Bad," Walter White's descent from mild-mannered family man to murderous meth kingpin is one of, if not the, greatest character arcs in television history. Every step of the way is meticulously plotted, flawlessly executed, and believable. Nothing feels forced or rushed, and the consequences of the events depicted are fully and satisfyingly explored. But that doesn't make it comfortable to watch. Walt commits some heinous atrocities, ranging from outright felonies like murder to more subtle cruelties inflicted on those he supposedly loves. We decided to do a deep dive into the show to rank the most downright evil things one of TV history's greatest antiheroes-turned-villains has ever done.

We won't include the big, defining sins, like lying to his family or dealing drugs, because those took place over the course of the entire show and also, duh. But there's plenty of other, arguably unnecessary acts of violence and manipulation dealt out by Heisenberg over the course of the show's five epic, award-winning seasons. That means competition for the somewhat unenviable title of "most evil thing ever" is stiff. So what lies, crimes, and acts of selfishness are in the running? What's on top (or maybe bottom)? We've taken the liberty of assembling them here. Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD.

In Season 4, Walt grows bitter and suspicious when Jesse begins spending more and more time with Mike Ehrmantraut, believing Gus Fring is only giving the kid, whom he'd once written off as a worthless junkie, more responsibility simply to drive a wedge between them. He's not entirely wrong, although that's a selfish oversimplification. In "Cornered," the season's 6th episode, Jesse is pulled away on a security job before he can help Walt clean the lab. Furious that he's once again stuck doing a two-man job alone, Walt rebels against Fring by going upstairs to the laundromat above the secret lab and paying three immigrant women there to help him scrub down the equipment. It's yet another act of defiance that convinces Gus, and his subordinates, that Walter must be dealt with. First and foremost, though, those women need to be deported back to Honduras because they've seen too much.

In his defense, Walt does feel guilty after learning about their deportation, and does have a point that he was being unfairly undermined by Jesse's absences. But he knowingly puts the lives of those women in danger by showing them the lab after they initially expressed hesitation about going downstairs. After all, Gus is not the type of man to let people who know too much live. Walt should have assumed they would be killed. Their deportation is relatively merciful, but still tragic, and a very foreseeable outcome of Walt's selfishness.

To hide his clandestine activities, Walt spins a web of lies that ultimately tear his family apart. Skyler becomes increasingly suspicious of his late nights and weird alibis. She quickly rules out an affair and deduces that he's selling drugs. In one of Season 3's most underrated moments, Walt, caught red-handed and realizing his lies have carried him as far as they could, confesses: He's cooking and selling methamphetamine. He then tries to buy her loyalty back by showing her several duffle bags of cash, saying this is their children's college tuition and a future for her after he passes from cancer. Admirably, she stands her ground and demands they separate.

But Walt's having none of it. He spends some time on his own. But after quitting the drug game and realizing she still isn't softening her position towards him, he decides to muscle and manipulate his way back into the house, daring her to call the cops and playing dumb when she does. Then he goes back to work for Fring anyway. Although Skyler does eventually agree to launder his money and participate in his lies, Walt brazenly exploits her reluctance to expose his sins and thus destroy their family. By the end of the show, she feels so overwhelmed and trapped that she attempts suicide. But he couldn't care less.

The most lucrative chapter of Walt's career comes after Gus Fring's death, when he teams up with Jesse and Mike for a Season 5A cook-and-distribute operation that, though considerably smaller than Fring's, means the three can be full owners. But nobody gets along. Jesse's caught in between Mike and Walt, who hate each other and fight constantly. A particular pain point for Walt is the fact that much of his profits are going to buy the silence of Mike's "guys," holdover enforcers and distributors from the Fring era who'd been arrested after the chicken man's death, and who are under serious pressure from Hank Schrader to rat out Mike. Walt doesn't like it, but he knows that if Mike goes down, he won't be far behind. He agrees to keep them silent for now.

But when Jesse and Mike retire and Schrader's DEA probe closes in, Walt decides to go it alone, with no intention of continuing to pay off Fring's people. He then murders Mike (an event which almost made this list) and teams up with a Neo-Nazi meth gang run by Todd Alquist's uncle, Jack, to have Mike's henchmen all simultaneously murdered in prison. It works. Hank's investigation hits a wall, and the whole affair is arguably Heisenberg at the peak of his power. But man, is it a selfish, evil thing to do. And he has to team up with Nazis to get it done.

We all knew Hank would eventually discover that Walt was Heisenberg, but the show still manages to blow our minds and have us on the edge of our seats when it actually happens. One night, Walt sees a tracking device on his car and goes to Hank's house the next morning to ask about it. Unable to hold back his anger any longer, and despite not yet having the smoking gun he needs to put his brother-in-law in prison, Hank punches Walt and confronts him about his crimes. Walt pleads ignorant, but it's clear Hank knows the truth and isn't relenting. Walt's next idea to deter Hank is to "confess" via a tape in which he admits to being Heisenberg, but frames all his crimes and misadventures as being organized by Hank himself, who he claims had enslaved him as a cook and sold his drugs using connections he made in the DEA.

Admirably and not surprisingly, Hank assumes Walt and Skyler, who helped him make the tape, are only bluffing and would never go public with it. He thus refuses to let it hinder his pursuit of the elusive evidence he needs to bring the case home. He eventually captures Walt (but dies immediately after), meaning the tape is little more than a brief hurdle on the path to Walt's arrest.

But still, the fact that Walt and Skyler make it in the first place reflects a complete collapse of their moral sensibilities.

To say Jesse is furious when he discovers that Walt poisoned Brock and used that to manipulate him would be a massive understatement. He abandons his plans to flee Albuquerque as Hank's Heisenberg probe closes in. Instead, he goes on a rampage that sends Walt and his family into hiding. Realizing Jesse can't be talked down, Walt calls up Jack's Neo-Nazis and puts a hit out on his former partner and friend. But Jesse, who gets caught by Hank attempting to burn down Walt's home, decides to partner with his former enemy to take down Heisenberg. Together, they and Steve Gomez lure Walt into the open by threatening to burn his hidden money. By the time Walt realizes they don't actually know where the money is and won't until he leads them to it, it's too late. Hank arrests him on the spot.

And then the Nazis show up, even after Walt sees his brother-in-law and tells them not to come. A shootout ensues that leads to Steve's and Hank's deaths, despite Walter's pleas for mercy on their behalf. When it's over, Walt reminds Jack that he agreed to kill Jesse, whom he sees as a traitorous snitch. Todd intervenes, saving Jesse's life by arranging to have him cook meth for them as a slave. Walt makes no attempt to stop this, instead cruelly telling a captured Jesse that he watched Jane die (more on that below), just to dig the knife in a little deeper.