Breaking Bad's iconic Gus Fring death scene broke the show's rules, but it still became one of television's greatest moments

Gus Fring's borderline cartoonish death scene in Breaking bad Should not work, because it is a far cry from the rough realism of the rest of the series - but somehow, it still became an iconic moment. Gus was fast Breaking bads biggest villain after being introduced as a chicken chain manager-turned-drug lord in season 2, episode 11, "Mandala." He is an evil inversion of Walter White himself. Walt was climbing the ranks of the criminal underworld by outsmarting his peers. But then he met Gus, who is just as smart as Walt and even more ruthless.

Walt and Gus' rivalry finally came to a head in season 4, episode 13, "Face Off." Gus threatened to kill Walt's wife and children, so he had to come up with a plan to get rid of Gus once and for all. Walt ends up using Gus' long-standing feud with the Salamanca Cartel against him, and teams up with Hector to take him out. Walt carried Gus to Hector's nursing home, where Gus harassed Hector again and detonated a bomb attached to Hector's wheelchair. Gus' ensuing death was kind of absurd, but it still worked.

Gus Fring's death has a completely different tone from the rest of Breaking Bad

Outside of Gus' death, Breaking Bad was a mostly realistic TV drama

After the bomb on Hector's wheelchair goes off, Gus comes out of the room with half his face missing. He calmly adjusted his tie before collapsing, dead. until now, Breaking bad was a most realistic television drama. There were certain aspects of the show that weren't 100% realistic. There didn't seem to be much of an investigation into the car that Walt blew up, and the cousins ​​feel more like pulpy archetypes than the kind of nuanced, three-dimensional figures found in the rest of Breaking bads figure.

But The show has never done anything as flagrantly unrealistic as Gus' death. It cartoonishly grumbles that after the skin is seared off half his face down to the skull at point-blank range from a massive explosion, Gus would still be collected enough to leave the room and straighten his tie without flinching. This is easily the most ridiculous, fictionalized thing that happened in the series. in retrospect, This should be considered at the moment Breaking bad Jumped the shark and the show lost viewers. But somehow, it still worked.

Breaking Bad allowed himself to be stupid for Gus' death (and it worked)

The tonal shift made it stand out more

If anything, Gus' death isn't memorable despite its stupidity; It is memorable only because of its stupidity. That was the one time that Breaking bad allowed himself to be ridiculous. If it did wild things like this in every episode, then it wouldn't have the impact it did. The series has conditioned audiences to expect realistic outcomes. After Hank has a near-death experience, he needs to rest for the rest of the season to recover. After Walt, Jr. Finding out that his father is a drug kingpin, he immediately turns on him.

When Gus is killed in an explosion, The last thing Breaking bad Viewers would have expected to see Gass come out with half a face, but that's exactly what made it stand out. The audience was supposed to be disturbed by Gus' death and the producers certainly succeeded in creating this effect. It was straight out of a horror movie. This image was etched in the minds of the viewersAnd Giancarlo Esposito's hauntingly casual performance only added to how unsettling it was.

Gus' death in Breaking Bad is one of television's greatest moments

People will always talk about this scene

It's been more than a decade since "Face Off" came out and Gus' death is still one of the most talked-about television moments of all time. In the decades since television was invented, there have been many memorable moments that rank among the greatest of all time: The shooting of JR in DallasGeorge's golf-ball-in-the-blowhole monologue in SeinfeldRadar's sad announcement that Colonel Blake's plane was shot down M*A*S*H. Gus' death is another unforgettable entry on the list.

Not only is Gus' death one of Breaking bads most shocking moments; There is also a great bit of symbolism. Gus' disguised face makes him look like the Batman villain Two-Face (especially as he is portrayed by Aaron Eckhart in The Dark Knight), and the parallel accurately captures his character. Gus led a double life as a friendly local businessman who had a good relationship with law enforcement and a ruthless crime lord who shamelessly broke every law he could - and in his last moments his closed face reflected that.