Breaking Bad and Morality: "it's all contaminated"

Or, "What's a moral center anyway?"

(I really need to publish something so here, have a meta that I wrote and posted on tumblr a while ago.)

In a show as brutally realistic as Breaking Bad, it makes sense that each character’s morality will be muddled, making it difficult to identify one single moral center. Because there isn’t one single moral center. Morality is relative and no one is infallible. However there are many candidates for relative moral center at certain times during the show.

The role of the viewer is most important in this discussion, because different people will relate to different characters’ morality. A handful of characters* have just as a legitimate claim to moral center as any other.

*Must be major characters who are involved in the main plot of the show to be eligible. (They must know something about what’s going on in the drug world.) In this meta/opinion piece I’ll go through both major and minor moral centers as well as major characters who are definitely not moral centers.

Major Moral Centers:

Jesse Pinkman is the most popular choice for moral center. His sense of morality is very nuanced and appeals to many viewers. He is also closely involved in the drug world, and given second-most in screen time and development, which doesn’t hurt.

Strengths: His long-lasting and deeply-felt guilt is one of the qualities that makes him an appealing moral center. He is able to see both the good and bad in others, and in himself. It’s great to see characters who accept their own flaws, even though Jesse may be too harsh a judge sometimes. Which is also endearing. He has a “hurting children is never okay” policy, which is surprisingly not universal among Breaking Bad characters.

Weaknesses: Jesse is a fairly passive person by nature. He’s along for the ride throughout most of the series, and a lot of viewers’ completely legitimate criticism of Jesse is due to this. He can cry all he wants, but he keeps diving back into the business, never reports anyone to the police, never takes serious action to stop the events happening around him even though he full-well knows the consequences.

Skyler White is the moral center who is most constant throughout the series. Her morality is nuanced and relatable.

Strengths: Skyler has the difficult balancing act of looking out for the best interests of her children, her husband and herself. At times, she can’t manage, but not for lack of trying. She is willing to sacrifice the image her family has of her in order to keep them safe from Walt. She is, in that regard, more capable of acting selflessly than any other character.

Weaknesses: Like Jesse, she has an inability to take action. However, this is more excusable since Skyler is not directly involved in the drug world and for most of the series, doesn’t know the full extent of Walt’s activities. Once she knows, she does allow things to go too far. Her “affair” with Ted is not a moral issue. She tried to get a divorce first. She did get too involved in Ted’s legal issues, but Skyler always ends up trapped in bad situations, and she tries to make the best of them.

Hank Schrader exhibits the most “lawful” sense of morality and sees things as very black and white. This may appeal to some viewers.

Strengths: He’s one of the few people who seems to really understand that drugs are bad, and that drug dealers actually ruin people’s lives with the product they sell. He is very dedicated to his idea of right and wrong, which to be fair is the same as the U.S. Government’s idea of right and wrong, so he’s not being unreasonable. He doesn’t compromise. He is able to recognize and take responsibility for his mistakes, such as when he beats up Jesse in season 3.

Weaknesses: Hank doesn’t see shades of gray in people. All drug dealers are worthless in his view. This is obviously not true, neither in the show nor real life. His determination to put Walt in jail is clearly more about his ego than any wrong Walt has done. He is also more than willing to sacrifice Jesse in order to achieve his goal. He is also frequently racist, sexist and unnecessarily rude to Marie.

Minor/Temporary Moral Centers:

Mike Ehrmantraut, despite having killed more people than arguably any other character, is a moral center as well, particularly in the first half of season 5. His “Half Measures” speech establishes him as a character who thinks about right and wrong a lot, and the blame he places on himself for the woman’s death is endearing, as well as the way he rolls his eyes at his past self's idealism: “Just trying to do the right thing. Two weeks later he killed her. Of course.” He does tend to see himself as the ultimate judge of who’s good and who’s bad, but his decisions on that front seem fairly reasonable. Plus - does Mike keep any of the money for himself? He lives a very modest lifestyle, which makes him more trustworthy and relatable.

Marie Schrader doesn’t get a chance to become a moral center until the final season, but she certainly takes the opportunity to become one. As much as she hates Walt, rightfully, she would never hurt him, or anybody, which makes her a bit higher on the spectrum than her husband - too bad she wasn’t privy to this information until sooner. After the initial shock passes, she is able to remember that Skyler is a victim in all this as well. She sees the complexity of the situation. She truly wants to support Skyler, unlike Hank who mostly wants to use her for evidence. Going beyond the moral issues of the drug world, her kleptomania is a bit problematic, but it’s a mental issue and she’s working on it. Her willingness to lie about it, however, is more damning. Marie proves herself to be incredibly selfless, however, especially in her dealings with Hank after he is shot.

Walter Jr. doesn't qualify for ‘moral center’ until “Ozymandias”, but he shines in that episode and in “Granite State”, displaying unflinching morality. He takes a serious risk engaging in the fight between his parents, and his quick decision to take his mother’s side shows an ability to see right and wrong clearly. In “Granite State” he displays selflessness once again, refusing money from his father. And this kid is like, sixteen or seventeen.

Walter White -- here me out. I know that Walt’s deteriorating morality is the entire premise of the show, but he was able to rebuild himself in “Granite State” and “Felina”, choosing to do right by his family and Jesse, slaughter a bunch of Nazis, and all around make some selfless and morally sound decisions. Plus, self-acceptance is an appealing trait and Walt finally got to that stage in the last episode. But, all around, too little, too late. Walt can’t be seen as a moral center for more than one, maybe two, episodes.

Not Moral Centers:

Gus Fring is never really seen grappling with moral dilemmas, and either way, he doesn’t seem to have made the best decisions, considering he’s a meth kingpin who allows his employees to use children in their drug dealing operations. And, you know, he slits people’s throats when he’s angry.

Saul Goodman is an amazing character and I love him to death, but he has a pretty weak and self-serving sense of morality. But that’s the point of his character. He thinks “a trip to Belize” is the answer to a lot of problems, and his entire livelihood is based on helping criminals avoid their comeuppance. In this show, we can’t see him as being nearly as bad as many others. I think Saul has never and would never hurt anybody himself. But he has very little problem with other people doing it, especially if it will keep him out of dodge. Saul’s moral weakness is important to consider, because it’s of a type that is common in the real world, where most of us don’t know drug dealers or hitmen - but we know people who will look the other way in order to make some money or keep themselves safe.

In conclusion... it's up to you

Don’t let anyone tell you you’re wrong for seeing Jesse or Hank or another reasonably qualified character as the moral center. You’re not saying that their morals are infallible, or that they always did the right thing for the right reason. This show, in all honesty, probably was not intended to have one single moral center. It’s more complicated than that.

And this isn’t a comprehensive list -- there are more characters that could be considered moral centers at different points during the show. I think Gale, for instance, represents a fascinating moral perspective. (“Consenting adults” and all that.)

The most interesting thing about watching Breaking Bad is that you honestly can’t decide who to root for, or who’s in the right. When Hank beats up Jesse in “One Minute” -- you feel bad for both of them. Neither’s completely in the wrong, or completely in the right.

And Jesse killing Gale in order to save Walt (and himself) -- it’s impossible to make a certain judgment on whether that was the right or wrong thing to do. It’s real like that.

So we should definitely be discussing morality in relation to Breaking Bad, because that’s one of the most important issues in the show, but we should stop arguing about which character is the single “moral center” -- that’s a fruitless argument. Everyone can and should have a different opinion.

I personally relate most to Jesse, Mike and Skyler. Other people with different experiences and opinions will relate to other characters. Breaking Bad is beautifully complex. Let’s not simplify it.