How Breaking Bad is like the Little League World Series

I’m not insane, and this isn’t the dumbest comparison you’ll ever hear, but it’s close.  I realize comparing a show about a man’s slow descent from Edward James Olmos in “Stand and Deliver” to Denzel Washington in “Training Day” with the August rite of passage for 10-12 year olds in the baseball playing world is patently ridiculous on its face.  I want to assure you that this is not about Danny Almonte and the oldest twelve year old you’ve ever met.  No, this is about the general structure of the Little League World Series, and its similarities to Walter White’s rise to power.  A note about spoilers: They are prevalent after the jump.

To give a brief overview, the Little League World Series is the last of the truly pure forms of sports in the world.  While I’m sure that there are scandals galore (I’ve already referenced one) and plenty of baseball coach/dads who push their children onto the diamond at the expense of more talented and jealous children, there is very little chance that the kids are doping, that they have concerns about their own stats, or that they care about anything other than hoisting that trophy in Williamsport.  Without getting into the nitty-gritty details of how the tournament is structured, the easiest way is to explain that there is always an international team facing a team from the United States.

The brackets are structured so that the United States teams face off against one another until the U.S. champion is crowned.  The international teams all face off against one another as well, until an international champion is crowned.  Then, the two finalists from their respective geographic brackets play in the championship game against one another, crowning the overall Little League World Champion. 

Every year, the American public is presented with a news story about the Little League World Series championship game, and how the United States plays the Chinese Taipei or the Dominican Republic team.  What is unfortunate is that the United States team is presented as they were the only team to represent the entire U.S., while the Chinese Taipei team actually is the only team to represent Chinese Taipei.  The balance is shifted heavily in the United States’ favor to win, as any team from the US bracket is presented as a representative of the United States, as opposed to a team from Iran or Mexico, who play Japan and South Korea and Curaçao to reach the championship game.

How does this structure relate to Walter White’s rise to power?  Walter has risen to the top like an international team battling their way through all the other non-US teams, fighting for the chance to play the team from Mission Viejo, California, or Tom’s River, New Jersey for the right to be World Champion.  Walter kills Krazy-8, and Jesse shoots Tuco, both roadblocks to the middle. Finally, Gus Fring brings them in, and gives them a cushy position making meth with little chance of exposure.  Of course, as Walter’s mania pushes him further in to the Meth trade, he pushes as Gus takes out the Mexican drug cartels, and then he finally takes out Gus.  As he moves into international waters, and begins dealing overseas, he has conquered the world from his home in New Mexico.

The problem for Mr. White is that, from the beginning, Hank Schrader has been waiting for Walter, with a dogged determination to discover the true identity of Heisenberg.  He has faced internal threats, including almost losing his life from the cartel assassins, The Cousins, and battling his own mental demons as he struggled to regain himself in the aftermath of the shooting, but Hank has never not been the looming threat to Walter.  He wasn’t a low level beat cop who slowly rose through the ranks, or some bank security guard who put the pieces together.  From season one, when Hank introduced Walter to the meth trade via a ride-along, it was clear that these two forces would come back together after doing battle on their own for several seasons.

It is this divergence of their paths, the struggles they’ve faced, and the fact that they are the two remaining that creates the parallel with the Little League World Series.  Walter, with his trips to Mexico/international drug trade, and Hank with his rebuilding of himself from the inside out as a better person, less filled with rage, more focused on his pursuit of “Heisenberg,” embody the two sides of the brackets of the Little League World Series – the “United States” battling itself, and the world battling each other.  This is the same basic storytelling method that exists at "Medieval Times," unless they've updated their story.  I never understood why, in the face of certain doom, the king would have all of the knights, who are otherwise friendly toward one another, and loyal to him, weaken each other for the purpose of finding the strongest knight to do battle with the coming threat, but, at least I get to eat chicken with my hands without being judged.

For Walt and Hank, this hasn't felt like an inane battle to find the most evil, and the most good to do battle, which is what all tournaments, ultimately, are (and have their problems actually proving who is the "best," especially in sports, but I digress.)  It has felt like a proving ground to show that they actually should do battle.  Hank had his panic attacks, his failure in El Paso, and his injury from which he slowly returns to become the man who will catch "Heisenberg."  Walt had to prove he really is as evil as he needs to be to do battle with Hank, the LeFors of Breaking Bad.  Unfortunately for Walt, Butch never surreptitiously betrayed Sundance the way Walt betrays Jesse with the lily of the valley at the end of season 4.  I don't believe Jesse will be there with Walt at the end, riddled with bullet holes, cracking jokes, and waiting to charge out to meet his doom, Walt by his side, a freeze-frame on their last moment alive (I'm not sorry about spoiling Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  It's been 44 years.) I just hope Jesse doesn't wind up with a dissatisfying end, like Christopher on the Sopranos.