Analyzing the fly in Breaking Bad

We see "the fly" on three occasions: once, of course, a full episode is centered on it. The other two times both come from the first half of Season 5 -- once we see a real live fly, briefly, and once it's just a picture of a fly.

But what does the fly mean?

No matter what it means, you gotta love this shot.

There are many theories. Surface level, at least in "Fly" (3.09), it conveys how stressed out Walt is. He can only focus on one little thing at a time and he chooses to obsess over the fly. He's trying to feel some control over his life, and he can't even kill one little fly. That would be frustrating.

However, in "Fly" we are constantly reminded of Jane's death, and the night she died. The episode's cold open has the audio of Skyler singing the lullaby to Holly that night. Walt talks at length about it... hearing Skyler sing to their baby, the strange cosmic coincidence of meeting Jane's dad in a bar, his overwhelming guilt, his desire that he never would have left home, and finally his conclusion that that was the night he should have died. "That would have been perfect."

This isn't random. Jane died almost a full season ago. The audience has pretty much moved on. Jesse hasn't, of course, never will -- but Walt's lingering guilt is sort of surprising. And that's where we get the fly. Walt's killed a couple people before Jane, but those were sort of necessary. Self-defense. Jane's the first one that, while he may have not directly killed her, he could have saved her -- and he could have spared Jesse a lot of pain. And let's be honest, Jesse is, like, the only person Walt cares about. So he feels guilty. And he'll feel guilt for as long as Jesse feels pain.

(And there's the plane crash and all that nonsense, but I sort of feel that that plot point was more metaphorical -- it really happened, but I don't think we're meant to take it super literally.)

So the fly is Walt's guilt. Pesky. Impossible to kill.

Interestingly, though, in "Fly," Jesse is the one to ultimately kill it. But notice how his physical action of killing the fly mirrors the words he says to Walt. When Walt apologizes to Jesse about Jane, clearly aching to get this off his chest, Jesse tells him, "It's not your fault. It's not mine either. It's nobody's, not even hers." This is exactly what Walt needs to hear (even if it's not true) and it allows the fly to finally be killed -- but not until after Walt gives up his obsessive quest to kill it, telling Jesse to come down from the ladder.

But the fly returns, hours later, when Walt is trying to fall asleep at home. We see his guilt keep him up at night. There's no permanent solution, really -- it'll be a constant companion.

However only in "Fly" does Walt allow himself to become consumed with guilt. The next death I'd argue he feels really guilty about, though like Jane's, is not directly at fault for, is that of the dirt-bike kid in "Dead Freight." Also like Jane's, this is the death of an innocent and one completely unnecessary.

In "Fifty-One," we don't see a real, live fly, but notice the picture of the fly on the wall behind him. This is prior to the death of the dirt-bike kid, so in this instance the fly hangs over him, foreshadowing what's going to happen -- as he speaks of methylamine and uses the word "train": clear links to the upcoming episode "Dead Freight" and the guilt his determination will bring him.

The third time we see the fly is at the beginning of "Gliding Over All," the episode after Walt kills Mike. While Mike may not have been innocent, per se, there's a common thread. His death was completely, utterly, ridiculously unnecessary. (I'm a Mike Ehrmantraut fan, can you tell? Hence my knowing how to spell his last name.) And Walt realizes how unnecessary killing him was, before he's even dead.

This is called a rack-focus, ooh, yay, fun with film!

This time it's a live fly, sitting on a computer monitor. Walt doesn't make any attempt to kill it, just stares it down. At this point, he's compartmentalized his guilt, knows how to live with it, but doesn't really feel it.

So that's my take on the symbol of the fly in Breaking Bad. I think my theory is most congruous with the show and the separate appearances of the fly, but there are other interesting theories out there and you should definitely look them up! And you should watch "Fly" if you haven't seen it, because it's a fantastic episode, hilarious, heartbreaking, all that good stuff -- and it's like a freaking study in act structure. It's great.