Jack Bauer vs Walter White: Who's The Most Badass Character?

5. Family Values

Jack: Work-life balance has always been a problem for Jack, and it in part is what resulted in his own wife, Teri, being murdered at the end of 24's first season by evil double agent Nina Myers. For an extra kick in the Jack Sack, she was carrying Jack's baby, too. Still, Jack's jailbait daughter Kim survived kidnapping in season 1 to become lame damsel in distress in season 2 (facing off against a crazy man she babysat for, a cougar, and a survivalist played by Johnny Drama), implausible CTU employee in season 3, and eventually becoming estranged from Jack, the only thread holding them together being Kim's daughter, Teri. Still, Kim has enough love for Daddy Bauer to donate some of her stem cells to him at the end of season 7, implicitly saving his life. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Jack's own brother Graem is the villain of season 6 (the season everyone pretends never happened), as well as Jack's father Phillip Bauer (incredulously played by James Cromwell rather than Donald Sutherland). Jack ends up torturing his brother and killing his dad. Then there's his great loves post-Teri - Audrey Raines was left in a vegetative state the last time we saw her (though is reportedly returning for Live Another Day), and Renee Walker ended up dead. As for being one of Jack's friends, it's nothing short of a death sentence - just ask Michelle Dessler and ex-President David Palmer. Basically, do so much as serve the guy a skinny latte and you're on borrowed time. Walt: When Breaking Bad begins, Walt is a dedicated family man, married to Skyler, and once the meth business kicks off, he lies to her about it, until she finds out and is embroiled in his scheme by running the car wash as a fiscal front. They have a teenage son, Walter Jr., a total innocent who finds out the extent of Walter's antics at the very end of the show. Walt also has a young daughter, Holly, who is born at the end of season two, and who he ends up "kidnapping" at the end of the show, essentially helping to paint himself as a monster that ultimately allows Skyler to be let off the hook. He also misses Holly's birth in order to cook meth. Walt's other family includes Skyler's sister, Marie, who he essentially bereaves in accidentally causing her husband, DEA Agent Hank Schrader, to catch a bullet from Uncle Jack. It can be said that Jesse is something of a surrogate son to Walt as well, and though it seems touch and go as to whether Walt will wipe him out for his own benefit, in the end he saves him with the help of a mounted machine gun. WINNER: Walt does at least cast suspicion away from Skyler and incriminate himself in that climactic phone call, and ensures his family's future by blackmailing former partners Gretchen and Elliot into giving $9.72 million to Walt Jr. Jack has just left various family members in the ground, so reprehensible though Walt's method was, he has to win this one.