Shows like Breaking Bad come along once every blue moon, incorporating a seemingly unrelated set of genres into a moving tapestry — it doesn't explain its story as much as has a conversation with the audience. The series combines neo-Western landscapes and tragicomedy with a significant dash of thriller.
As such, Breaking Bad contains a variety of moments for every emotion imaginable, from sorrow and joy to anxiety and fear. The latter two take up more space as the seasons go by, racking up nerve-wracking scenes at an alarming pace. The narrative doesn't even slow down to give its audience time to breathe, but that's exactly what makes its creepiest moments so creepy.
10 Todd Alquist Calmly Caps A Small Boy
Todd would have never been part of the crew if Gus had still been alive. As it stands, the man's delusions extend to the point of murdering Drew Sharp, a little boy who accidentally chances upon them stealing a trainload of methylamine.
Walter, Mike, and Jesse — each of who have been through hell and back — are horrified by Todd's action, which just goes to show how disturbing his character is. He doesn't show the slightest bit of contrition, either, justifying the murder as a part of the job.
9 Walter Bombs A Nursing Home Without Compunction
Walter struggles to find a way out of his real-life chess match with Gus Fring, only to be outmaneuvered at every turn. The meth cook isn't half as crafty as his business-minded boss, but that's before he finds the only potential weak point that Gus has. Walter travels to Hector Salamanca's nursing home, where he convinces the old man to sacrifice his life in order to kill their shared enemy.
Hector permits Walt to attach a DIY explosive to his wheelchair, later triggering it when Gus is in the room with him. The scene isn't any more horrific than other murders on the show, but the fact that it happens in a nursing home takes it to a whole new level.
8 A Slow Camera Zoom Reveals The Plant In Walter's Backyard
When little Brock Cantillo is rushed to the hospital, Jesse instantly suspects that Walter is involved — given that his vial of ricin had gone missing. However, his partner assures him that he would never commit such a heinous crime, instead redirecting Jesse's attention towards Gus, a man who clearly doesn't care about using children for his own gain.
Walter's trick works; he finally regains Jesse's trust, allowing him to effect the next stages of his plan. However, Brock's doctors claim that his sickness is a result of eating berries from the Lily of the Valley, later revealed to be one of the many potted plants in Walter's backyard.
7 Krazy-8's Charming Fiction Is Unraveled By A Single Shard Of Plate
Krazy-8 instantly deduces that Walter has never killed a human being before, and uses this to his advantage by presenting himself as an honest-to-goodness, morally upstanding citizen. Since Walter is already looking for a reason not to resort to murder, he falls for Krazy-8's charms and doesn't even question the veracity of the drug dealer's story.
Unfortunately, Walter notices that a broken plate from earlier is missing one of its pointiest shards, thereby coming to the uncomfortable conclusion that Krazy-8 intends to kill him with it.
6 Skyler Protects Her Family From The Man Who Claims To Be Their Savior
Skyler has always been aware of her husband's love for walking the metaphorical tightrope between death and imprisonment, which is why she doesn't fully believe his claims of "protecting the family."
Skyler's composure has completely eroded by the end of Season 5, and when Walt tells her about Hank's death, she automatically threatens him with a nearby knife. This moment is made so much more ominous when Flynn calls 911 to keep Skyler safe from his father, symbolizing the final fracture of the White family.
5 Walter Orders His Underage Son To Keep Drinking
After his doctor informs him that his cancer is in serious remission, Walter's family is beside themselves with joy, throwing him a celebratory bash soon after. On the contrary, Walter is disappointed at the turn of events, as he had made his peace with dying before this point.
In his bid to reassert dominance over his life, he forces his teenage son to drink tequila until Flynn ends up vomiting into the pool. This moment is especially unnerving because Walter has a self-satisfied grin on his face.
4 Tortuga's Decapitated Head Glued To His Namesake
The DEA's El Paso office seemingly cuts deals with Mexican drug informants, which doesn't sit well with Hank at all. Nevertheless, he patiently waits for the purported deal in the desert, but what the agents discover is gruesome beyond words.
Affixed to the back of a wandering turtle is Tortuga's decapitated head, along with a message greeting the DEA painted on the animal's shell. Creepy, sure, but not as chilling as the following scene — a surprise bomb that takes one life and severely maims three more.
3 Jesse Takes A Life For The First Time
Having learned that Gus Fring plans to make Gale Boetticher his only cook, Walter is naturally terrified for his life. He expresses as much to Jesse, warning his partner that they will never be safe until Gale is dead. Jesse obviously refuses to murder an innocent person, but Walter is stopped by Mike and Victor before he can do the deed himself.
In a last-minute effort to preserve the status quo, Walter rings his partner and orders him to finish the job. Jesse rushes to Gale's apartment and shoots him in the face, point-blank: a moment that is both saddening and unnerving.
2 Walter & Jack's Timed Prison Riot/Slaughter
Walter wants every witness to his identity gone, so he makes a deal with an unknown entity, Jack Welker, to kill them off in one fell swoop. Jack instructs his fellow neo-Nazis in three separate prisons to finish the job — all within the span of two minutes.
Nine witnesses are stabbed to death, and the remaining one is locked inside his cell and set on fire. Walter's utter lack of human compassion notwithstanding, the intercut murder scenes are almost gratuitously macabre.
1 Wayfarer 515 Meets JM21 In The Sky
Walter allows Jane Margolis to choke to death just so he can keep Jesse all to himself, a choice which comes back to haunt him when her father, distraught and disoriented, makes a tiny little rerouting error during his job as an Air Traffic Controller.
Donald Margolis' mistake causes two planes — Wayfarer 515 and JM21 — to crash into each other in the clear sky above Albuquerque, raining luggage and body parts down on the city. The nightmare fuel generated by this event is enough to disrupt people's lives on a massive scale.