Breaking Badis a villain origin story of sorts, depicting how Bryan Cranston’s Walter White’s quest for power and wealth through building a meth empire comes at the cost of his home life. Interestingly, one major supporting character mostly achieved what Walt failed to when it came to family. InBreaking Bad’s sometimes overlooked pilot, Walt sets out to become a meth cook after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, purportedly to secure his family’s finances before his death. After reconnecting with former slacker student Jesse (Aaron Paul), Walt’s descent into the violent drug trade kicks off.
YetBreaking Badonly gets better, and several of the series' most iconic faces aren’t even in the first season. Its cast expands as Walt procures the services of opportunist criminal lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) and then enters a tumultuous business relationship with kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito).Through Gus' business, Walt also comes to know security detail Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks)and distributor Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Laura Fraser). And, through one (arguably multiple) of these characters, we see the family situation Walt naively hoped to have.
Mike Was Able To Keep His Family Separate From His Criminal Work, While Walt Couldn’t
Mike Has Good Relationships With Stacey & Kaylee While Being A Career Criminal
ThroughoutBreaking Bad, Walt desperately acts like he has everything under control and can keep his family safe and separate from his work.He regularly tells Skyler (Anna Gunn) that what he is doing will not affect her and the children— right before he makes conspicuous purchases, or they are threatened with physical harm. No matter what Walt does, the poison from his other life seeps into his home, often symbolized byBreaking Bad’s swimming pools. Yet while this was all Walt’s own idea, the people he later meets actually have families of their own.
Lydia has a daughter but seemingly no partner, so she only has to hide the truth from a young child.Gus allegedly has children we never see inBreaking Bad, and he presumably has as much control over their lives as he does his business. The most notable figure who has what Walt wants with his family is former cop Mike, who works security for Gus and has a stable relationship with his granddaughter and her mother.We see Mike visiting them throughoutBreaking BadandBetter Call Saul, in a peaceful, happy spacecompletely separate from his work.
For Better Or For Worse, Stacey Trusted Mike
Lydia and Gus presumably have no partner whose cooperation is needed for this separation to work. Walt keeps the truth from Skyler for as long as he can, denies it when she does find out, and then fights with her about how much danger he has put them in. On the other hand,Better Call Sauldepicts an entirely different starting point between Mike and his daughter-in-law Stacey (Kerry Condon).Mike all but confesses to killing the police who killed his sonand Stacey’s husband; he also informs her that he was taking money that was not his while he was a cop.
The supposedly ideal dynamic is founded upon at least one person turning a blind eye to unethical actions.
And Stacey accepts this, believing that whatever mistakes Mike has made, they were for the right reasons. She also seems to have certain beliefs about how love works with an imperfect person, saying that it wouldn’t change her feelings about her late husband if he were corrupt. It is after this confession that Stacey starts reaching out to Mike, and he regularly sees her and Kaylee. He also moves them into a new house when concerns about the safety of their neighborhood come up, and is giving Stacey money during both shows to help with bills.
Stacey knows the truth about what Mike is capable of; she has reason to believe that his unending cash flow is not coming from entirely legal work. But in addition to having a more flexible worldview on this matter, she trusts Mike, and so she looks the other way.Walt and Skyler never have this understanding when Walt never regains Skyler’s trustafter she finds him out. The supposedly ideal dynamic is founded upon at least one person turning a blind eye to unethical actions, but the franchise generally depicts Stacey and Mike’s relationship as positive.
Mike Is Clear On What Could Be Asked Of Him In This Job & Doesn’t Try To Justify/Get Around It Like Walt
Mike Isn’t Harboring Any Delusions – He’s Just Doing A Job
When Stacey believes that Mike is doing everything for good reasons and so allows him to continue seeing Kaylee, she is also possibly a darker character than we realize, willing to accept this trade-off for her daughter’s financial security. She is much like Mike in that way, which is another reason he is able to have a good family life while being a criminal.Mike isn’t kidding himself about what he is doing; he knows that he could be ordered to kill someone on any given dayand is prepared to carry that order out.
Mike also knows that Gus is doing a lot of terrible things to keep his business operational, and makes no move to prevent it. It may not make Mike the most morally admirable person, but this is the reality he accepts in order to make good money for his family.Walt, however, constantly insists to Jesse, Skyler, and himself that it was just one unfortunate mishap that led to someone getting killed,and he can regain control. He also challenges Gus' authority and methods, usually because of Jesse.
It may not make Mike the most morally admirable person, but this is the reality he accepts in order to make good money for his family.
Mike does draw a line in the sand after Todd (Jesse Plemons) kills a child who is a witness to their robbery. Mike realizes at this point that Walt is too dangerous to be working with and criticizes Walt for disrupting things with Gus because this was a status quo that Mike could live with. Mike never starts the chain reaction of events that destroys lives due to a flawed personal code. He might not have righteousness, but he is honest with himself while Walt spends the whole series lying.
Mike Ultimately Did Do It All For His Family – Walt Did It For Himself
Mike Never Needed To Showcase That He Was Making Money
Perhaps the biggest lie Walt tells is that he became a meth cook to provide for his family, up until his moment of confession in the series finale where he tells Skyler that he did do it for himself. Mike, on the other hand, really did do it all for his family. He had no other reason to; this just happened to be a job he was good at and the most effective way for him to provide for them.Mike doesn’t spend his fortune on ostentatious gifts to illustrate his own power and masculinity,because he has nothing to prove.
While he is giving Stacey money, it is just to keep them modestly comfortable; the true fortune he is making is being stashed away in a bank account for Kaylee when she is an adult. However, the government claims all this money after Mike’s death when his involvement in Walt and Gus' activities is discovered. This aspect of the end ofBreaking Badshows that this wasn’t a truly sustainable way to provide for Mike’s family either. However, Mike might have gotten away with it forever, were it not for Walt’s more destructive, denialistic approach.
