Breaking Bad: 10 Hidden Easter Eggs & References You Probably Missed

4. The Chess Metaphor & Percy Bysshe Shelley

Breakingchess Toward the end of season 5, in the episode "Ozymandias", Walt goes on the run after Todd, Jack and his Nazi gang murder Hank and Gomie, while the police attempt to tap into Walt's home phone so they can trace his location when he calls it. Things are fairly desperate for Walt at this stage. All his drug money, his "legacy" has been stolen by Jack, Hank is dead, and Skyler and son Walt Jnr. want nothing to do with him. Desperate, he kidnaps his own daughter, Holly, and flees with her, before leaving her in the front of a firetruck at a fire station. There, a shot of a chessboard appears, with the 'white king' chess piece looking poorly guarded, out in the open and vulnerable. This isn't the only vulnerability theme in "Ozymandias" - the episode shares the same name as the 1818 poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which tells of the inevitable decline of all leaders and of the empires they build. Walt frequently spoke of being in the "empire business".
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Contributor

Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.