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Season 1 Episode 7: “Bingo”
Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) is one of the most beloved characters in the Breaking Bad universe. This crafty shot of him sitting underneath a list of wanted felons might be missed by some fans, but those who enjoy irony should get a kick out of it. Mike has probably done more illegal things than everyone above him, but he always finds a way to turn criminal life into something he views as mundane. It catches up to him eventually, but here he brilliantly stands out and blends in with all of the other convicts.
Season 2 Episode 5: “Rebecca”
This awesome overview shot of HHM’s banner towering over Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) after she gets Mesa Verda as a client is a grave reminder of how she needs to get out from under Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) and grow her own wings. It’s amazing to see how much she’s done just that in the ensuing seasons of the show, for better and for much worse.
Season 2 Episode 9: “Nailed”
This clever reference to the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover is a great way to analogize how Jimmy views his plucky band of film student misfits. Jimmy loves a bit (or a bunch) of theatrics, becoming the rock star in every room he enters. He isn’t quite to his Saul Goodman persona yet at this point, but he’s always had the face and the attitude to take over whatever streets he walks on.
Season 3 Episode 3: “Sunk Costs”
Jimmy and Kim love to smoke together. To the audience, this is their unique way of being intimate. It replaces scenes in other shows in which sex might happen. This iconic shot is of the couple’s most important cigarette session in the show, in which Kim chalks up her connection to Jimmy as the fallacy of sunk costs after brainstorming how to get him out from under Chuck’s shadow in court.
Season 3 Episode 5: “Chicanery”
“Chicanery” might be the show’s best episode, and it ends with Chuck staring up at the electrical exit sign on the wall. After embarrassing himself in front of the judges who are supposed to end Jimmy’s legal career, the older McGill brother comes to grips with the fact that there is no exit from his younger kin’s methods of practicing the law. It simultaneously serves as a symbol that there is no escape from his electromagnetic sensitivity disorder, and the audience understands that these two issues may be one in the same for Chuck.
Season 3 Episode 8: “Slip”
Mike is ubiquitous. It feels like there isn’t a problem he can’t solve, except for the one inside his own head. Oftentimes Mike is trying to discover why he gets involved with the criminals and lowlifes that he mingles with, and unfortunately he feels deep regret at times for innocent deaths that he indirectly causes. In this frame we see Mike trying to frantically find the dead body of a man who died in the desert as collateral for one of Mike’s schemes to screw over the Salamanca’s in the previous season. His immense guilt is splattered all over the New Mexico wastelands.
Source: Den of Geek
