In a beautiful moment of symmetry, Walt’s pants that went missing in Breaking Bad‘s pilot made a cameo in season 5, episode 14.
The appearance of Walt’s pants occurred when the lead character was rolling his barrel of money after his car had sprung a leak in the gas tank. The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment happened during the montage as Walt and his barrel made their way to a nearby home.
Below is a screen capture of when Walt’s pants appear in the frame:
Click the image for full size.
The director of last night’s episode, Rian Johnson, confirmed that the pants were indeed the season 1 pants:
@andy_cahill @liamtburke Good eyes. :-)
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) September 16, 2013
Below on the left you can see the moment during the pilot when the pants flew off the methlab RV. On the right, the pants in the most recent episode:
Walt and Jesse had their first meth cook in the same place where the shootout between Hank and Jack occurred. Walt purposely buried his money in this area for old times sake, to aid his memory, and for television symbolism purposes. This is why the pants could feasibly make a cameo.
The pilot episode aired January 20, 2008 on AMC. Walt’s pants-less appearance became an iconic look for the show over the years:
There are many fantastic aspects to this show, but one we appreciate most is the amount of detail Vince Gilligan and his team put in to making sure all plot points are wrapped. Even silly ones like Walt’s pants. These types of moments reward longtime viewers, and naturally they make the internet go crazy.
Breaking Bad season 5, episode 14 “Ozymandias” was easily one of the best events for the series, and arguably one of the highest-reaching television story lines ever. You can read our full recap in our previous article.
The next episode – the penultimate before the series finale – airs Sunday, September 22 at 9 p.m. eastern/pacific on AMC.