Breaking Bad: Every Major Death Ranked
11. 167 Passengers On The Wayfarer 515 And JM 21 Flights
Season Two’s ending is one of the wildest moments in the show’s history. After scheming his way out of trouble and finally getting caught out in his lies by Skyler, Walt ruminates on his actions by his pool, before two planes collide in mid-air, sending shrapnel and gore raining down on the suburbs of Albuquerque.
Breaking Bad is of course a show heavily based around science, but in this moment it feels as though divine retribution has finally caught up with Walter. Had he not started this chain of events, had he not allowed Jane Margolis to die, her air traffic controller father Donald wouldn’t have been asleep at the wheel, and 167 lives would have been spared.
It’s an incredible scene, paying off a season-long tease - we knew something dreadful was coming, but couldn’t have predicted this. On a grand scale, it’s the show’s biggest tragedy, the largest single loss of life.
This could be a teachable moment for Walt, but, as he does throughout the show, he compartmentalises the incident, researching air crashes of greater impact. He lets himself off the hook, learns nothing, and we proceed from there.