When Bad Guys... Stay Bad

This blog post comes somewhat close to the conclusion of the Breaking Bad marathon. And that got me thinking ...did 2 of TV's most recent bad guys try to redeem themselves? And at what cost?

I'm talking about Walter White and Nicholas Brody.

White:
He, a chemistry teacher, did what he did to support his family. He's dying of cancer, and he's worried about what will happen after his death.  But he uses his skills in a bad way: he makes meth. He's untruthful to his family, and when he finally does come clean, his wife Skylar gets involved as well. Walt continues in the process, and he's responsible for more than one death, to say the least.

If you watch the series, there's a sort of an interesting "opposite" parallel concerning White and Jesse, his "assistant." While Walt goes deeper into this problem, Jesse, because of circumstances, grows tired of this lifestyle and tries to come clean at one point. He doesn't want to do it anymore.  Things go from bad to worse for Walt. And, his family isn't doing good either.  Also for Jesse, while we're at it.

Lastly, in the final episode, Walt is at a pretty low point.  He's sick again, and alienated from his family.  His one act for a last chance of redemption is saving Jesse, who's being held prisoner by worse "bad guys." And he succeeds.  Jesse and Walt part on *somewhat* (by that I mean "barely") good terms.  Walt accomplishes this at the cost of his life.

Nicholas Brody.  One must concede, that he does have a harder time on his show than Walt. Captured by terrorists, held for eight years, and "turned" into a terrorist, for all intents and purposes.  Brody has to keep this secret from his family, alienating himself from them.  Long story short.

Carrie Matheson tries to see the good in him, with mixed results. But her plans for him don't go so great. She ends up having him work for the CIA. It's that or go to prison.  Brody picks option A.  At the end of season 2, he will need to prove to basically all of America that he didn't do... a certain thing. Carrie tries to do it for him, as he's MIA.

I remembered Brody saying to Carrie near the end of season 2, "I just want to be a good person again." We see this with Jesse, but not with Walt.

Finally he does this one thing. And it ends badly for him. Brody's family doesn't know.  At least not yet.

Walt's image is tarnished, too.  So, neither of their families know.

So... Just because you do something for a good reason, doesn't mean it's good itself.


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