Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad (2008)

22 corrected entries

(26 votes)

End Times - S4-E12

Corrected entry: The ricin poison that was originally intended to kill Gus, and which was 'apparently' intended for use on Brock, doesn't make sense. Brock was fine in the morning, but fell ill at night, seems legit. However, Jesse exclaims to Walt that he had the cigarette containing the poison the same morning. Earlier in the series, Walt had explained that after indigestion, it would take 36 hours for any effects to have taken place, so, in this instance, Brock could not be hospitalized within 12 hours.

Callum Lloyd Edwards

Correction: Brock isn't poisoned with ricin. He is poisoned by the berries of a Lily of the Valley plant.

Phaneron

Down - S2-E4

Corrected entry: The pink bear is missing his eye on different sides. For example in episode Seven Thirty-Seven he is missing his left eye, but in this episode he is missing his right. Both scenes are right at the beginning of the episodes. (00:01:10)

Murron

Correction: It's a reflection.

Full Measure - S3-E13

Corrected entry: The story goes back 16 years. Walt and Skyler are visiting the house they would later buy and the realtor decides to leave them to go to the car and "make some phone calls." But there would be no cellphones back then.

Correction: Carphones have existed for many years, certainly around the time period referenced here. They were prevalent by the 80s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_phone.

Correction: Breaking Bad takes place between 2008 and 2010, so if we go back 16 years, that would place the flashback around 1992. Aside from the other correction mentioning car phones, cell phones did indeed exist in 1992.

Phaneron

Especially among high-flying executives such as estate agents.

Ssiscool

Seven Thirty-Seven - S2-E1

Corrected entry: When WW makes the calculation on how much he needs for his family, he gets to $737,000. He explains to his partner they both together make $70,000 a week and tells his partner they have to cook for eleven weeks. But that means his partner will only get $33,000. So they need to cook meth for 22 weeks (double) to get his partner paid as well. (00:05:20)

Gert-Jan Vermeire

Correction: He says "you and I both clear about 70 grand a week", meaning both of them each make about $70K a week. He's not saying combined they only make $70K.

Bishop73

Which 70k a week is 11 weeks with 33k to spare. Making his maths correct.

Ssiscool

The maths is correct, after 11 weeks Walter would have an additional $33k. However, the mistake suggests that the $70k per week is shared between them. They actually earn around $140k per week, which they then divide equally.

Ozymandias - S5-E14

Corrected entry: When Walt calls his wife at the beginning (the flashback), he tells her Bogdan is keeping him late. His wife also says she likes the name Holly for the baby. But if you watch the beginning episodes, Walt quits the car wash right away. And also finds out he's having a baby girl fairly quickly (episode 2 or 3 I think) Nowhere in that time frame did Walt and Jessie go cook. They had only cooked once so far, and then had to deal with Crazy 8 and the other dude. So Walt was never working for Bogdan except for maybe when they first cooked, but even then he would not yet have known he was having a girl. There is no way the timeline can work with that phone call flashback.

Correction: Walt quits his job at the car wash in episode 1, but he does not tell Skylar. He continues to lie to her about the job for weeks, until she calls the car wash and discovers that he actually quit weeks ago. So him lying to her about Bogdan keeping him late fits with the story. He and Jesse had multiple cooks before Skylar finds out the truth about the car wash.

Show generally

Corrected entry: In the famous mugshot of Walter against a height chart, the chart goes up in nice 2 inch increments until 5'8." It then jumps to 6'0", completely skipping 5'10". Did they forget there are 12 inches in a foot, not 10?

tbh524

Correction: This picture was never used in the show. This looks to be fan-made. Regardless, this picture was never seen in any episode of Breaking Bad, so it is not a valid mistake.

jshy7979

If the picture was used as a promo shot by the production team then it could be considered a mistake. If it's fan-made then the correction seems to be valid. Does anyone know the source of the image?

Ssiscool

I can't find a source, but I don't recall ever seeing it in the show or in any ads, and in all honesty, it's pretty low-quality, so I seriously doubt it's a real production or promotional image. (The masking around his ears is quite bad, the "bruises" are digitally painted on - and poorly so at that, etc.) I would be willing to bet money on it being fan-made.

TedStixon

It's not in the episodes as the corrector says. But I never watched the show when it was 1st airing, so I'm unsure if it was used as a promotional shot and as such can't say if the correction is valid (though, as you say, the quality is low) so I would lean to the correction being valid.

Ssiscool

Cat's in the Bag... - S1-E2

Corrected entry: Just as the camera shows Jessie lighting his crack pipe, there is a TV playing and the screen shows a man with a razor to his hairline. Camera does an instant cut and now said razor is by his cheek. (00:37:20)

Ssiscool

Correction: This isn't a mistake for "Breaking Bad." That's how the scene cuts in The Three Stooges short film "Hokus Pokus" (1949). What we see in "Breaking Bad" is a continuous showing of the actual shaving scene.

Bishop73

Grilled - S2-E2

Corrected entry: The White family has missing posters made up for Walt. However, they fail to include a phone number for tips or information to be passed on to the family. (00:12:30)

Ssiscool

Correction: There's fine print that you might not have been able to read. There's a line that says "please contact the police immediately at 505-145-4331 or call 911."

Bishop73

Using zoom, I agree that's it's there.

Ssiscool

Granite State - S5-E15

Corrected entry: When Walter Jr. gets called out for a phone call, Carmen says it's his aunt Marie. When she hands him the phone she says "Here he his." (00:43:50)

Correction: She's saying that to Marie, not Walter Jr.

Season 1 generally

Corrected entry: Walt steals 2 masks from the school lab. When they go cook and Crazy8 and Emilio show up, he kills them with the gas. Because of the fire he puts one of the masks on himself and the other one on Jesse and they drive away with both masks, but the DEA find one of the masks at the cook site.

Hmhmh

Correction: The mask was found by a little girl. Her mother gave it to the investigators while they were at the cook site, but that's not where it was found. Walt discarded it where the RV ran off the road.

djm

Gray Matter - S1-E5

Corrected entry: When Badger is demonstrating the "Helicopter" to Jesse, he spins the sign in such a way that he would be holding on to something in the middle of the arrow on his side. However, when he brings the arrow down, you can see that there is nothing he could have been holding on to. (00:03:00)

Ssiscool

Correction: He doesn't "hold" onto anything, he puts his finger in the hole and spins it around his finger. You can see his finger sticking out as he raises the arrow up, in the middle of the "O" in TO.

Bishop73

Season 1 generally

Corrected entry: Walter White correctly starts to lose his hair at the beginning of the chemotherapy. The errors occur afterwards (I know this from my own experience): 1. The mustache would fall out as well, 2. Walt has hair stubble throughout the treatment (and even has to shave his head!), while in reality a "chemo-head" is simply bald as a baby face since the hair is gone.

Correction: Every person's hair loss is different. My friend is going through chemo and basically has a whole head of baby hair...thin, wispy, but still there. Not everyone's hair reacts to chemo the same way.

Correction: A lot of cars in New Mexico are inspected in Texas before being imported there.

4 Days Out - S2-E9

Corrected entry: Near the start of the episode, Walt sees his PET/CT scan, the tissue mass is in the left lung. But later in the episode, the scan is reversed when the doctor is showing it to Walt. (00:03:00 - 00:44:20)

djm

Correction: When Walt first sees his PET/CT, he is looking at a reflection of the monitor, not the actual monitor. So, it would be normal for the image to be reversed.

djm

Rabid Dog - S5-E12

Corrected entry: How does Walt know Jesse has the Hello Kitty phone that Saul gave Jesse? He calls and leaves Jesse a message on that phone, but there's no way he could know the number, or that Jesse had the phone.

Correction: Saul could have told him.

Cancer Man - S1-E4

Corrected entry: Jesse takes a hit from his pipe, at which point, you can see a vaporizer device in his hand. This is used in production to create the white vapor smoke that they exhale while smoking. It has a metal mouthpiece and what looks like a small LCD on it. It is not a glass meth pipe. (00:14:10)

Correction: That is not a handheld vaporizer with a metal mouthpiece it is just his torch that he used to light the meth pipe with. You can see he lights it with his left hand and then in the next shot his left hand slightly moves and shows the tip of the torch.

I See You - S3-E8

Corrected entry: During the scene in which Gus is talking on the phone with a "colleague" of his, the boss of the two assassins who shot Hank, it is night time and the surroundings outside of Los Pollos are dark. However, when gunshots are being heard in the background and Gus snaps his cell phone in half it is daytime. The sky is blue behind him and the sun is shining off of his head. (00:43:10 - 00:45:00)

TheLongCon

Correction: The "sky" in the background of Fring's head is the lights of the restaurant. The "sun" which is shining off his head is the light post under which he is standing. The scene is and remains completely in the night.

Negro Y Azul - S2-E7

Corrected entry: In the desert, after Hank witnesses the head on the turtle, he runs off to his pick-up truck and catches his breath on the driver's side (left). The next shot is from behind the other cops grouped around the turtle. The vehicles can be seen in the background with Hank standing casually on the right hand side of the pick-up with the left door still open but no-one behind it. The shot then returns to Hank on the driver's side.

Correction: In the shot showing the vehicles, the driver's door is open and there is definitely someone standing behind it, you can see a black sleeve through the window and legs underneath the door. The man "casually" standing on the right must be another agent, not Hank.

4 Days Out - S2-E9

Corrected entry: When Walt is building the battery and explains how it works to Jesse, he says that the cathode is the positive terminal. The cathode is always the negative electrode and the anode is always the positive electrode. Walt is a chemistry teacher who would know the difference. (00:37:15 - 00:38:30)

Correction: "Cathode" can be negative or positive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode).

Correction: Cathode polarity with respect to the anode can be positive or negative depending on how the device is being operated. The battery is operated as a provider, so + = anode / - = cathode.

Correction: For a battery (Voltaic cell), the cathode is positive, while for an electrolysis cell the cathode is negative. That is the way I have been teaching it in both universities where I have been teaching at since 1978.

Noman

Box Cutter - S4-E1

Corrected entry: Jessie is shorter than Gail, so when he shoots Gail in the eye his gun must be angled up. However in the scene the bullet continues through Gail to hit the kettle, which is about waist height for Gail.

Correction: The bullet could easily have changed trajectory after entering Gail, if it hit a rib, for example.

THGhost

Seven Thirty-Seven - S2-E1

Revealing mistake: At the end of the episode when Tuco shows up at Walter's house in the backseat of Jesse's car, he tells Walter to get in. As they drive off, the shot pans out to show the street sign across from Walter's house. The sign says Piermont, which is the real name of the street. In the show, the Whites live on Negra Arroyo Lane. (00:48:00)

More mistakes in Breaking BadMore quotes from Breaking Bad
More trivia for Breaking Bad

Caballo sin Nombre - S3-E2

Question: When Saul buys Jesse's house from his parents, he said that he showed their lawyer, Mr. Gardner, "all the pertinent financials", meaning $875,000 in cash available to buy the house. Jesse only had $450,000 and that money was not in any account. How did Saul show Mr. Gardner that he had $875,000 in cash?

dweezel7

Answer: Saul is a criminal himself. It's not past his capabilities to forge some documents to show the 857k is available.

Ssiscool

Forged documents by Saul is most likely the correct answer.

The_Iceman

Answer: Saul has a stash of cash himself, hidden in his office. It's possible he used some of that instead as part of the scheme instead of having to go through the effort of falsifying documents.

Phaneron

Answer: In all likelihood, he sold some more meth.

Captain Defenestrator

At the time, they were not producing enough Meth to get that much money in the time frame of the events.

Ssiscool

More questions & answers from Breaking Bad

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.