The final eight episodes of Breaking Bad began last night. Its been a brilliant show throughout, mastering tension, continuity, and the ultimate character arc to create something special. Its the attention to detail that makes the show great. And that attention to detail extends as far as the colors worn by the various characters. Ive tried to illustrate it with an infographic showing every color worn by the characters most affected by Walter Whites decisions, along with Walter himself.
Its presented chronologically, and there are individual character timelines for noteworthy events.
There are a lot of patterns that emerge, so much so that each character has an identifying color.
After Walts cancer diagnosis, his colors become stronger, and eventually go black. When the cancer returns or when hes defeated, the drab khaki returns. The closer he gets to Gus, and the stronger his ties to blue meth, the more blue shows up in his barcode.
Skyler starts out blue, but turns dark once she starts to figure out Walts secret. Her timeline turns deep blue, almost purple, as her flirtation with Ted grows, and then it turns green once she discovers Walts stash of money. The more complicit she becomes in Walts criminal activity, the blacker her timeline gets to the point that its pitch black in Season 4.
Hank begins orange, with tints of yellow and peach. But when he suffers through the turtle bomb, his colors turn brownoften deep brown. Then after fighting off the cousins (and the subsequent drab/pastel colors of recovery and depression), he slowly gains his color back after he re-involves himself with the Heisenberg case.
Jesses angry (and occasionally deadly) color is red, while his drug recovery tones are more drab and subdued. Just like Skyler, the more Jesse is affected by Walts influence, the darker and more black his timeline becomes. He also wears a lot of mixed clothingprimarily black, gray, or white, with wild red or yellow patterns, suggesting moral conflict.
Walter, Jr. is very much a supporting character whose color choices often reflect whichever parent he relates to most at the time. When Marie is in the hospital coping with Hanks injuries, Walter, Jr. wears purple, seemingly in support. When he helps Hank or is around Hank, his colors are complementary. Its unfortunately not reflected in the timeline, but Junior wears a lot striped or multi-colored shirts, often bearing both Walter and Skylers colors. Its a sign of Walter, Jr. being stuck in the middle between the two as they hash out their differences.
What makes Marie noteworthy isnt that she wears all purple, all the time. Rather, its the very rare occasions when shes not wearing purple that practically scream at the viewer. For instance, she wears black when her kleptomania flares up. She wears black again when shes in protective custody of the DEA after the threat on Hanks life at the end of Season 4. And then finally, she turns yellow just before Hank makes his massive discovery at the end of the first half of Season 5.
Its fascinating stuff, and its clearly the result of a fierce attention to detail by Vince Gilligan and all of the incredible crew that make this show. Enjoy the final eight episodes, everyone. And keep an eye on those colors.
