TV URBAN LEGEND: Walter White was originally going to actively murder Jane in Breaking Bad Season 2.
In the world of televison, there is often a good deal of pliabiity at play on any given moment, and shows quickly have to adjust to all sorts of crazy circumstances thrown there way. I've dealt with a number of these sorts of things over the years in past TV legends, like how David E. Kelley had to change an episode of Ally McBeal that he wrote for two characters getting married to instead be about one of those characters leaving the show for good, or even worse, how a TV western never ceased production despite one of its two leads tragically dying by suicide at his home while the show was in the middle of shooting an episode.
That was certainly the case for the classic TV crime drama, Breaking Bad, as well, which went through a lot of changes based on circumstances over its iconic five-season run. In an old TV Legend, I discussed how one of the show's most famous characters, Mike Ehrmantraut, was only created because another supporting cast member, Saul Goodman, wasn't available to shoot an episode because his actor (Bob Odenkirk) was busy shooting an episode of a sitcom.
WHY WAS MIKE INTRODUCED ON BREAKING BAD?
Interestingly enough, the episode that Mike was created to serve as a fill-in for Saul was Season 2's "ABQ," which followed the tragic events of the previous episode, "Phoenix." A recurring plot throughout Season 2 was that Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) had gained a new girlfriend, Jane (played by future Jessica Jones star, Krysten Ritter). Jane convinced Jesse to basically blackmail Jesse's meth-making partner, Walter White (Bryan Cranston), into giving them Jesse's entire cut of their drug-dealing endeavor (half a million dollars) while the two sat home and did a lot of drugs together. Walter eventually came to see them, planning on finally dealing with them once and for all (and, perhaps, depending on what you think of Walter's ability to feel true empathy, because he was afraid that Jane was leading Jesse down a path to death from heroin overdose). When he arrived at their apartment, he saw them passed out in Jesse’s bed. He then saw Jane begin to vomit in her mouth. She was on her back, so she was choking. All Walter had to do was turn her over on her side to save her life, but he instead decided to just let her die, thus solving his blackmail situation (Mike was then introduced in the next issue to help Jesse clean the scene to avoid being arrested in Jane's death).
Jane's death was one of the most tragic moments in a series FILLED with tragic moments. It haunted Cranston for years, because he couldn't help but envision his own daughter dying in the situation. It was the first major moment where fans realized that Walter White was not someone that you should be rooting for, and is rightly looked back on as one of the biggest turning points in the series. Amusingly, though, Ritter herself continued to root for White, explaining (in an excellent essay that you should really read. Her detail about how the scene made her contemplate her own mortality is excellent):
I watch Breaking Bad on Sunday nights like everyone else and feel pretty strongly that every episode should be served with about a pound of Xanax. Sometimes it’s hard to enjoy watching something I was a part of because I’m all too familiar with the behind-the-scenes action, and it’s impossible to turn off the running commentary in my head … but in this case, it’s as if I’ve forgotten I’m the actress who played Jane. You’d think I’d bear Walt some serious ill will considering he sat there and watched Jane die, but I’m still rooting for everything to work out for the guy. Every week that goes by, a few more “Team Walter White” members drop off — still addicted to the show, but no longer on his side … But I’m still holding tight and I’m not ready to get off the roller coaster. Like everyone else, I will miss my Breaking Bad–induced stress and emotional turmoil, and I’ll feel sad when the final scene fades out.
However, for as dark as the moment was, originally, it was going to be even DARKER!
HOW MUCH DARKER WAS THE SCENE ORIGINALLY?
In a discussion with Charlie Brooker at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Breaking Bad creator and showrunner, Vince Gilligan, spoke about the scene and explained how it was definitely the most controversial scene that they had done on the show to that point.
He explained that that scene was the first time that both Sony (the studio who produced the show) and AMC (the network that aired the show) called him to express their concerns with just HOW dark the scene was, but he was able to convince them of the virtues of the scene (Gilligan noted that he was very impressed that he had made it to the end of Season 2 before either the studio or the network had actually given him any sort of strong pushback on anything he had come up with on the show).
However, upon explaining that, he also revealed that his original plan for the episode was for Walter to actually inject Jane with an extra dose of heroin to CAUSE her to overdose and die. The other writers on Gilligan's staff all objected to the idea, feeling it was TOO drastically evil for Walter to go that far, so Gilligan changed it (I believe he briefly toyed with the idea of Jane initially being on her side when she began to vomit, and then it was Walter who actively pushed her on to her back). Basically, the writers felt and Gilligan ultimately agreed that, for this point, at least, Walter should only PASSIVELY allow Jane to die.
The legend is...
STATUS: True
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