Breaking Bad: Hank Is Not The Hero

thank you it's pretty much universally accepted that Walter White is a bad guy the story of Breaking Bad as pitched by Vince Gilligan was the transformation of Walt from Mr Chips to Scarface you might get some contrarians here and there to defend Walt's actions but it's clear that he's meant to be a villain in the series this characterization of Walt though has led to some people considering Hank to be the hero of Breaking Bad and to an extent that makes sense Hank as a DEA agent stands in opposition to Walt's drug Empire trying to catch Heisenberg and bring him to Justice so if Walt is a bad guy then Hank must be the good guy for trying to stop him however I think that's an oversimplification of Hank's character while I agree he's nowhere near as bad as Walt and does have some redeeming qualities in no way would I say that he's a good guy like his adversary Hank is motivated by his own selfish desires which ends up destroying him the same way it destroyed Walt and to me that makes him a much more interesting character as a result so in this video Let's examine Hank and see what's really going on underneath the surface [Music] wow that sucked Hank Schroeder is the brother-in-law of Walt being married to Skyler's sister Marie Hank is basically the total opposite of Walt where Walt struggles for money as a school teacher Hank and his wife both have high paying jobs Hank is also a hyper masculine confident guy compared to Walt's Meek nature at the beginning of the series people respect and listen to Hank more including Walt's own son this contrast is a point of humiliation for Walt it's not gonna bite you all right looks like Keith Richards with a glass of warm milk Hank is also a high-ranking agent in the Albuquerque DEA going after drug operations in the area he's the one who actually introduces Walt to meth when he takes him on a ride along which sets off the events of the series when Walt adopts the Heisenberg Persona and begins cooking the purest meth ever seen Hank becomes fixated on tracking down the mysterious figure not realizing that it's his own brother-in-law he's chasing at the start of the series Hank is pretty much a jerk he's loud abrasive and obnoxiously Macho however I want to clear up something that I see people misinterpreting them Hank is not a racist yes he makes jokes and uses slurs to his partner Steve Gomez but it's clear that this is just banter between the two Hank obviously deeply cares about and respects his partner it's just that in the law enforcement World everyone has to put on a tough front to each other my own father is in law enforcement and Casual racism is literally how you show that you care about each other we'll be talking more about Hank's fault soon but him being a racist isn't one of them uh you exuberant Mexicans uh-uh Captain Cook that's a white boy's name don't be as hell too however Hank's abrasive attitude at the start of the series is a problem his overconfidence and arrogance makes him a worse Detective take the scene where he uses Wendy to teach while Junior a lesson about drugs thinking she's nothing but an addict and a prostitute he humiliates her for his own Amusement don't think so hard it's gonna hurt your brain this comes back to bite him when he has her in the interrogation room he's about to get her to break and confess Jesse's lies but when she recognizes him and what he did to her before she finds her resolve and refuses to cooperate Hank's investigation would have gone a lot differently if he had treated her with a little respect before however the most obvious problem is the fact that Hank can't recognize that Walt is Heisenberg even when all the information is right in front of him he finds a gas mask from Walt's school at a crime scene and later finds chemistry equipment missing from his lab he knows that Jesse Pinkman a former student of Walt that he's still involved with is connected to the blue math he finds a note in a meth cookbook dedicated to a man with the initials WWE all the while knowing that his brother-in-law is a master chemist whose cancer diagnosis and money issues coincide with the rise of a new meth Kingpin named after a famous scientist are you I don't know how to rule about being constructive so I can't ask any questions right now because all of the questions that I have right now are rhetorical and they end with the word idiot do you know what a rhetorical no of course you know what that is you're an idiot Hank has the classic detective's curse the answer is staring him in the face but he just can't see it this is caused in part by his Judgment of Walt as weak and incapable of doing something like Heisenberg this is highlighted perfectly in the poker scene in season one Hank arrogantly tells Walt that he would never recognize a criminal in front of him not realizing that he himself is sitting right in front of one Walt wins the hand as well bluffing to Hank who can't see past his perception of Walt however Hank does go through a transformation on the show when searching for Walt after he goes missing Hank accidentally runs into tuko he ends up killing him during a shootout though he acts like it doesn't bother him the incident leaves him with PTSD this is only exacerbated when he's promoted to the El Paso DEA Hank ends up witnessing a bomb kill or maim several agents which fills him with even more fear however Hank's Macho attitude won't let him admit to the problem the Heisenberg investigation becomes an obsession for him diving further into it in order to avoid dealing with his problems he becomes even more aggressive getting into fights and withdrawing from the people around him I mean after what happened last time it would make perfect sense for you to not want to go back I'm on to some important stuff right here right now and Mexico doesn't have a damn thing to do with it anyone who doubts that this downward spiral culminates with him viciously attacking Jesse after being tricked with a phone call about his wife Hank is suspended from the DEA as a result and he's finally forced to confront his lingering emotional trauma by the way the scene where he talks to Marie before his hearing is one of the only moments in the series that made me cry I'm just not the man I thought I was though Hank manages to admit his problems his problems only get worse the Salamanca twins being spurred on by Gus Target Hank as revenge for killing their cousin tuko Hank is given a warning call by Gus it manages to take both cousins out though he's critically wounded in a process Hank survives the ordeal but is left unable to walk and faces months of tough physical therapy to recover the loss of his Mobility is deeply frustrating to hang before he was a strong independent person now he needs his wife to help him go to the bathroom hanky becomes very ornery during this time snapping at Marie for the littlest things and developing an obsession with collecting rocks I mean minerals sorry Hank please don't hurt me though Hank is upset that he's in a wheelchair the change actually does have a positive effect on his investigation with nothing else to do Hank begins a serious look into the Heisenberg case and perhaps because he has a New Perspective from his weaker position he comes to a realization that he previously missed he begins to suspect Gustavo Fring as he has several connections to the blue math though initially doubted Hank is confirmed right when Gus is later killed by Hector Salamanca as a result of his good work Hank is promoted the head of his local office he makes several more deductions realizing that Lydia Mike and his lawyer are all involved in the operation however his investigation eventually stalls out thanks to Walt's sabotage Hank is left with no further leads and is almost ready to give up when he accidentally stumbles across Walt's Leaves of Grass book signed by Gail the realization that his brother-in-law is Heisenberg hits him like a ton of bricks he begins piecing everything together realizing that Walt has been behind all the events of the series Walt eventually figures out that Hank knows and goes to confront him Hank angrily lashes out at him not only for all the evil things he's done but the way that he's lied and manipulated him for almost a year he clearly feels betrayed as despite their differences Hank genuinely cared about Walt but here's where we start to see some ugliness from Hank now he had always wanted to take down Heisenberg himself considering it a point of Pride to slap the handcuffs on him in person I want to be the one to slap the handcuffs on him that kind of [ __ ] Popeye Doyle waving the frog one in fact his comparison of himself to detective Popeye Doyle from The French Connection film is interesting one as Walt points out Popeye doesn't actually catch frog one in the movie foreshadowing the fact that Hank doesn't end up catching Waltz and two Popeye Doyle isn't really a hero in the film he becomes so obsessed with catching frog one he ends up shooting a fellow law enforcement agent by accident but doesn't care because he's so focused on getting his Target the comparison of Hank to Popeye Doyle is intentional as Hank also becomes personally obsessed with getting Heisenberg not out of a desire to get Justice for his victims but to redeem himself for his failure to recognize Walt he refuses to tell the DEA the truth even though it would lead to Walt's arrest as he knows it would prevent him from being a part of the investigation the day I go in with this it's the last day of my career this pudding of his own needs above the needs of the investigation is selfish and it ends up hurting his chances when he tries to convince Skyler to cooperate she freaks out when she realizes that Hank only cares about getting Walt she ends up refusing to help him as she knows that he doesn't care what happens to her as long as he gets what he wants what do you want to get walked at all costs and this is absolutely true when Hank later catches Jesse at Walt's house and convinces him to help him he comes up with a plan for Jesse to talk to Walt while wearing a wire though Jesse is concerned that he'll be killed by Walt Hank doesn't care as even if Jesse is killed he'll be able to use it as evidence against Walt Pigman gets killed let me get it all on tape now maybe you can justify this by saying that Hank considers Jesse Expendable because he's a confessed murderer but it's still not the attitude of a hero not the kind that some people make hang out to be Hank isn't the good guy standing against Walt's evil Ambitions he's motivated by the same thing Walt is pride he wants to get Walt to defend his reputation and is willing to sacrifice anything or anyone to do it and just like Walt this is what leads to his downfall when he's ambushed by Jack's men in a desert he and Gomez are killed and buried in Walt's Money Pit they were out there without backup because Hank wanted to be the hero the detective waving goodbye to the bad guy but in the end his pride and ego destroyed him the same way it destroyed Walt again I'm not trying to say that Hank was a villain or had no redeeming qualities but it was his negative traits that made him such an interesting character and a perfect foil to Walt let me know your thoughts about Hank in the comments and stay tuned for more Breaking Bad videos coming soon Jesus Christ Kino Ops racing media dad's J kit Sam cedarland Celery Man Jenner Marie Johnson Brad Smith Studios Uncle Mike Matt Joyce Countess Von zerovic and Luke p foreign [Music]

Channel: Pure Kino

Views: 774,522

Keywords: pure kino, kino

Id: _GnJijhQkpk

Length: 13min 0sec (780 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 02 2023