Breaking Bad: Every Season Finale Ranked Worst To Best

Breaking Bad came to an end in 2013, and though it was far from a ratings success during the vast majority of its run, it's come to be widely regarded as one of the best TV shows of all time.

For five seasons, fans watched in both eager anticipation and unrelenting fear as Walter White went from quiet, bitter suburban dad to a feared New Mexico drug lord, destroying and manipulating everything and everyone in his path in a desperate bid to hold onto his life and his power.

Along the way, he met countless great characters who helped boost the show to further greatness, the best of them lovable loser Jesse Pinkman and the intimidating drug kingpin Gus Fring.

During its run, Breaking Bad featured no poor episodes, no forgettable characters, and few lingering plotholes, but it was perhaps at its absolute best at the end of each season, when every story of that chapter came to a head in often violent and always harrowing ways.

With that in mind, here is every Breaking Bad season finale ranked from worst to best, with major spoilers throughout.

Throughout Breaking Bad's sophomore season, there were clues sprinkled around teasing some horrid disaster at the White household. In the finale, ABQ, the mystery of what's happened is finally revealed, and the results help hammer home just how despicable and ruinous Walt has become.

Though it barely holds a candle to the previous episode, Phoenix, in which Walt let Jane die in a bid to keep Jesse in his corner, ABQ features some very compelling twists, chief amongst them the sudden reveal that Walt's actions have kicked off a chain reaction that leads to a mid-air plane crash that kills hundreds.

Other than that, though, there is a clear sense that this episode is all about tying things up. Fixer Mike Ehrmantraut is introduced, and cleans up Jane's death; Jesse gets sent to rehab; and Skyler's suspicions about her husband's extracurricular activities cause her to move out.

It's a finale of many small threads being tied up, setting up another season that promises Walt is only going to become more and more morally corrupt, though it's not quite able to surpass or even match the other finales around it.