The 25 best episodes of 'Breaking Bad,' ranked

“Box Cutter” opens the fourth season. For much of the episode, it’s perfectly solid and tense. Then, Gus Fring arrives at his lab and commits a brutal act of violence that sucks all the air out of the room — in the show and for the viewer. This moment alone is searing enough to get “Box Cutter” a spot on this list.

From the fourth-season premiere to the third-season premiere, “No Mas” was actually directed by Walter White himself, Bryan Cranston. He won a few Emmys for his acting work on Breaking Bad, but episodes like this proved him to be a talented director.

What’s this? Another season premiere? That’s right. This episode opened the show's fifth (and technically final) season. “Live Free or Die” grabs you from the get-go with a flash-forward that changes the whole landscape. If the rest of the episode could live up to that beginning, we’d have this episode much higher on this list. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

This is the earliest episode on this list — the show's third episode. Breaking Bad was still trying to find its footing, but they had a lot of good pieces in place here. Walt does some of his first breaking bad in this episode, as he kills Krazy-8. Oh, and there’s the whole thing with the melted body. Ugh.

What makes Gustavo Fring tick? For much of the show's run, he’s an impeccable, unflappable businessman who balances his fast-food chain with his drug empire. In “Hermanos,” we get his story fleshed out a bit. Gus may be calm on the surface, but inside, he is fueled by revenge. We find out why in a flashback to the early days in the business when the Salamancas and Don Eladio heinously kill Gus’ business partner Max.

One more episode from the abbreviated first season. There were only seven episodes due to the writer’s strike — a strike that also ended up saving the life of Jesse Pinkman, thereby changing Aaron Paul’s career. “Crazy Handful of Nothin’” brings us Tuco Salamanca, the reckless, violent drug dealer. Walt uses his chemistry knowledge to get the upper hand on him, which is a cool moment.

Walt and Jesse take a huge step forward in the drug game in this episode. After Combo, one of their dealers, is killed, they decide they need to up their game. Enter Gus Fring. Walt is able to get in Gus’ good graces, but in the process, he has to prioritize the meth business over the birth of his daughter.

“Grilled” is so intense. Tuco kidnaps Walt and Jesse and plans to go with them to Mexico, where they will expand their drug empire. Walt and Jesse are trying to poison Tuco, but they are also trying not to get killed. In the end, the duo is able to get the best of Tuco, who is then killed by Hank. It’s gripping chaos.

“Full Measure” is about Walt and Jesse trying to get themselves out of their decisions in “Half Measures.” It doesn’t have as many incidents as that episode, which you will see later, but a lot does happen. The ending is particularly brutal, as Walt has Jesse play the ace up his sleeve, bidding adieu to Gale.

Mike Ehrmantraut was always a professional. He was also loyal. Mike’s loyalty to his crew leads to him paying the ultimate price, as Walt ends up killing him because Mike won’t give up some names. Even in death, Mike can put Walt in his place, which is how it should be.

“ABQ” ends the season with a huge event: two planes colliding in the sky. That episode was basically the 26th on our list. “Phoenix” is the episode beforehand, and it made the list. Ultimately, the ending to “Phoenix” hits home harder. The random meeting between Walt and Jane’s dad in the bar is a nice lead-in to the devastating ending where Walt lets Jane die because it benefits him.

You can probably figure out which character this episode debuted. That’s right — Saul Goodman himself. The criminal lawyer comes out with guns blazing. Bob Odenkirk is great in the role, and he fits right in from the beginning in this episode that goes all-in on Saul.

The final moments of “Dead Freight” are pretty brutal. So much so that it knocked this episode down a few notches. However, that train heist is just amazing. In terms of gripping action set pieces, the heist might be top of the list in all of Breaking Bad history.

Everything is falling apart for Walt in “Crawl Space.” Jesse is cooking without him. Gus has threatened him with death. Oh, and he can’t escape because the family doesn’t have enough money. Walt’s realization of this comes while he’s scouring the crawl space for the cash he had hidden. Cash that went to pay off Ted, Skyler’s former boss. The image of Walt in the crawl space is one of the indelible ones from the show.

This is the beginning of the four-episode end game of Breaking Bad. All the pieces start to fall into place. For a second, it seems like Hank has bested Walt. Then, Walt’s new cronies, who happen to be Neo-Nazis, show up with their guns, looking for a fight. Thus begins a truly bleak stretch of events for the show.

Breaking Bad could be unbearably intense sometimes. Credit the acting, the directing, and the editing. That’s definitely the case in “Sunset,” which sees Jesse and Walt trapped in their old RV with Hank outside. How will they ever get out of this one? Fortunately, the junkyard proprietor and everybody’s favorite sleazy lawyer both have tricks up their sleeves.

Call it the finale of the “first half” of the fifth season or the fifth-season finale if you feel like the final eight episodes of the fifth season are really the sixth season under a different name. Whatever you call it, “Gliding Over All” ends with a massive moment. The episode is good up to that point, but then Hank has a revelation in the bathroom that changes everything. Finally, he realizes Heisenberg has been under his nose the whole time.

With his cancer and his treatments really getting to him, Walt feels like he’s at the end of the line. As such, he wants to spend an entire weekend cooking meth so that there is plenty of cash left for his family. The problem? The battery on the RV is dead, and Walt and Jesse are in the middle of nowhere. It isn’t violent like other episodes, but it still feels precarious.

We told you that we’d get to “Half Measures.” This episode features a great speech from Mike to Walt and an ending that truly felt surprising. Walt is so willing to support Jesse that he will go as far as to kill two of Gus’ dealers to effectively save Jesse’s life. Of course, Walt immediately asks him to return the favor in “Full Measure.”

Remember Gus’ quest for revenge? He gets a heaping helping of it in “Salud.” Gus brings Mike and Jesse down to Mexico, where he meets with the kingpin Don Eladio. The whole trip is a ruse for Gus to finally get his revenge. He’s even willing to poison himself to ensure that Eladio and all his men suffer the same fate. It truly feels like something out of a great action movie.

“Fly” is idiosyncratic. It’s not like any other episode of Breaking Bad. This bottle episode is directed by Rian Johnson, of The Last Jedi and Knives Out fame. Some people don’t love it, while others think it’s great. It’s in our top five, so you can probably guess which side we land on.

Everything involving Jesse in the penultimate episode of the series is brutal. However, everything with Walt is just so great it still makes it this high up the list. Ed — played with gusto by the late Robert Forster — gets Walt relocated to New Hampshire. He grows a beard and lives in isolation as he gets sicker again. Watching Walt live a life of exile is fascinating and wonderfully done. Plus, it sets up the finale perfectly.

Want to talk about images that stick with you? Look no further than “Face Off.” The entire episode is a battle of wits between Walt and Gus, two equally matched men of intellect and ruthlessness. As you probably can guess, Walt wins, but Gus gets to be the focal point of perhaps the defining image of Breaking Bad.

Series finales must feel daunting. That’s especially true for a serialized drama like Breaking Bad. What if the show hadn’t stuck the landing? Fortunately, it did. “Felina” is a great episode. It’s exciting, violent, funny, gripping, and emotionally evocative. Walter White’s journey reaches a fitting ending. It’s a series finale that delivers the goods.

Only one episode could beat “Felina,” and that’s “One Minute.” It just drops in the middle of the third season, but it makes a massive impact. There’s so much positive to say about it, but you know what we want to talk about. The climax is amazing! It’s a thriller in miniature. “One Minute” is an example of everything that made Breaking Bad great.