Aaron Paul’s Favorite Breaking Bad Episode & Scene Explained

Aaron Paul, who stars as Walter White’s druggie sidekick Jesse Pinkman in the heralded AMC series Breaking Bad, has a favorite episode and scene. The show tells the story of an underpaid and overqualified high school chemistry teacher who turns to methamphetamine production with the help of his former student, Jesse, after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Paul is featured in all 62 episodes, as well as the Netflix exclusive sequel film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Story.

The series, which aired from 2008 to 2013, garnered much critical acclaim at the time and has since gone down as one of the greatest television series of all time. Initially a supporting character, Jesse Pinkman grew to be a fan favorite and as important to the series as the protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston). Though the episodes of the later seasons are generally regarded by audiences to be the strongest of the series, Paul’s personal favorite episode aired relatively early in the life of the series.

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In 2019, Paul revealed his favorite episode (via The Independent) to be season 2, episode 9, “Four Days Out.” The episode features Walter and Jesse driving their iconic RV several hours into the remote New Mexican desert to spend four straight days cooking meth and exhausting the remainder of their precursor supply. Things go awry when they try to start the RV and realize the battery is dead. The episode zig-zags between heavy, dramatic scenes and comedic slapstick moments not dissimilar to an Abbott and Costello skit, as the two grapple with the situation. It has a little bit of everything; the small claustrophobic setting combined with the high stakes of this life-or-death situation really allows Paul and his co-star Bryan Cranston to feed off of each other, which ends up creating some of the most memorable moments of the series.

Though Breaking Bad is chiefly remembered as a tragic drama, the series is tinged with shades of comedy throughout, and Paul’s favorite scene is darkly comic. Season 5, episode 6, “Buyout,” features Walt struggling with Jesse’s decision to sell his share of their meth precursor to a competitor for 5 million dollars. Jesse implores Walt to sell his share too, but Walt remains adamantly opposed. Paul’s favorite scene begins when Jesse is talking to Walt at the White household and Skyler unexpectedly returns home from grocery shopping. Jesse tries to leave, but Walt insists that he stay—an incredibly awkward dinner ensuing with “Jesse using his water glass almost like a security blanket, hiding behind it…“, as Paul explains. Skyler’s resentment of Walt and anything related to his criminal enterprise naturally extends to Jesse, though he tries to make nice with little avail. Paul reveals that every time they cut the scene he, Bryan Cranston, and Anna Gunn would all immediately start laughing due to the palpable tension and discomfort of the situation.

After having such a major role in a long-running series such as Breaking Bad, it would be understandable for an actor such as Aaron Paul to shy away from talking at length about his favorite parts of his involvement. Luckily, he is a genuine fan of the show, and not just because he’s in it, as the actor has previously indicated. Audiences have expressed their intense adoration for the Breaking Bad universe, and with the final season of the prequel series Better Call Saul just around the corner, it could be time for a re-watch of the original to discover new favorite episodes and scenes.