Breaking Bad’s Most Intense Scene Could’ve Been So Very Different

Summary:

• Breaking Bad ’s Ozymandias featured one of the most gut-wrenching scenes in television history.
• There are two possible scenarios for how it could have gone.

If you ask a Breaking Bad fan what’s the most dramatic and intense scene of the show, they will likely tell you about Ozymandias, a Season 5 Episode 14 moment that had us hold our breath and squirm at the edge of our seats.

Masterfully crafted, beautifully shot, and fantastically acted, that scene was a defining moment for Walter White—a moment when he realized he’d lost his family, and nothing would ever be the same. But could it have gone differently?

In that scene, Skyler, played by Anna Gunn, had a physical altercation with Walter (Bryan Cranston ) when she accused him of murdering Hank. Walter tried to get his son and his wife to leave with him, hoping to one-up the consequences of his own actions (Hank did die indirectly because of Walter), but Skyler was not on board with the idea.

The viewers then got a shot of a moral dilemma, exactly the one that Skyler experienced in the moment. She walked into the kitchen, looking for something, for a way out of the situation, and saw what she was looking for—it was either a phone or a knife.

We, as the audience, wondered for a brief second—was she going to call the police? pull a knife on Walter? kill herself? That was actually a very good example of good directing.

It could’ve gone either way. Had she called the police, like Walt Jr. did, the cops would’ve arrived earlier, and Walter might’ve failed to escape before they did, especially if Skyler had made a call quietly.

The show would’ve ended quicker, although not that much quicker, as it was well on its way towards the finale. The only difference would’ve been no tied ends and probably Walt Jr.’s and Skyler’s better mental health.

Some fans thought, as she grabbed the knife, that Skyler was going to kill herself. It might’ve seemed that way for a second or two, the desperation she felt could’ve driven her there, but the narration didn’t call for a suicide, and neither did the situation.

But it probably wouldn’t have been surprising at that point: she was desperate, and she was afraid, and she didn’t really know what to do with that strange man who called himself her “husband”.

Whatever road the scene might’ve gone, one thing stays the same: the acting choices and the intensity of that scene were insane. We watched Skyler falling to her knees in pure horror on that road, sobbing, saying “please” in a broken voice over and over again, and that was unbelievably heartbreaking, uncomfortable, and brutal.