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Breaking Bad: Going from Bad to Worse East of Eden

Breaking Bad: Going from Bad to Worse East of Eden

Last updated on: February 27, 2023 at 12:06 pm by Paul Louis Metzger

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Breaking Bad: Going from Bad to Worse East of Eden 2023-02-27T12:06:13-08:00 Paul Louis Metzger

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The Temptation of Adam & Eve by the Devil. Pedestal of the statue of Madonna with Child, western portal (of the Virgin), of Notre-Dame de Paris, France. Date: 13 March 2011; Jebulon. Creative Commons.

The famed series Breaking Bad is so good at describing how life can go from bad to worse. Something similar preceded it. I’m not talking about the series prequel, Better Call Saul. Rather, I am referring to what transpired with the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), along with its resulting aftermath east of Eden (Genesis 4:16). This post reflects briefly upon the television series and biblical story.

As in the show Breaking Bad, sin in the Garden of Eden resulted from what appeared to be a little white lie. That sneaky serpent deceived our ancestors into thinking that knowledge of good and evil would liberate them and create infinite possibilities for them and their posterity. The serpent asserted: “You will not certainly die,… For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5; NIV). And so, Adam and Eve reasoned to themselves that nothing bad would really happen if they disobeyed God just this one time. In fact, a whole lot of good could result. After all, knowledge is salvation. All they needed to do was eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Liberation was theirs for the taking.

Who wouldn’t find the serpent’s appeal persuasive? After all, “the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom” (Genesis 3:6; NIV). Most faulty forms of consumption result from such pleasurable appeals.

The first primal couple, Adam and Eve, decided to take a bite of that luscious fruit that supposedly would be the key to unlocking the doors of perception to universal mind. But as a result, contrary to what Jim Morrison of The Doors sang, they weren’t “feeling fine doing time” there in “universal mind;” rather than “turning keys and setting people free,” the door to Eden slammed shut on them. The rest is history (See Genesis 3, 4, ad infinitum).

Of course, the series Breaking Bad does not focus on eating garden fruit but producing crystal meth. One might wonder how producing crystal meth could be so alluring to a good family man like Walter White. For those of you who haven’t watched the series, you may not wish to read further. I would hate to spoil the show for you.

Sure, there are vast differences between what transpired in a garden near the headwaters for the Tigris and Euphrates in Genesis, and what played out innumerable years later in the desert near Albuquerque, New Mexico, as in the television series. Among other distinctive traits, there’s no talking snake in the sprawling southwest, that is, unless we are talking about some of the shady characters in the show!

Regardless of all the differences, I find in both accounts a very important lesson. What is so striking to me about Breaking Bad is that the main character, Walter White, deceived himself into thinking that everything he did in producing crystal meth was for the benefit of his family. I think Adam and Eve might have thought the same. They simply wanted to be like God knowing good and evil. They were investing in their future. What’s wrong with that?

For those who are not familiar with the series, Walt was diagnosed with terminal cancer early in the show and realized he would not have much to leave behind for his wife Skyler and their two children. As a result, he decided to take matters into his own hands, making use of his acumen as a high school chemistry teacher, as well as cunning, to produce and distribute a state-of-the-art meth product, to care for his family. At least, that is how he justified his decision to start the production. But as with drugs, making drugs became an obsession for him, an addiction. Just like Walt’s blue crystal, the same goes with producing and distributing little white lies of self-justification. Faulty patterns of consumption lead to death and destruction.

The final scene involving Walt and Skyler has him finally confessing that he did everything for himself. In the past, he had justified his actions as simply being about protecting and caring for his wife and children. In this final scene, Walt opens up and tells Skyler that he was good at making the blue crystal, and it made him feel so alive. Whether he made this confession to exonerate Skyler of all wrongdoing in case their house was bugged, who ultimately knows? As with most sins, there is a bit of good and bad in everything. Even so, sin has a way of crouching at the door, as with Cain (Genesis 4:7), and consuming us, somewhere east of Eden.

What little white lies are we toying with today? How might we be in danger of justifying our actions, “breaking bad,” and going from bad to worse? Our faulty patterns of consumption, if allowed to fester and ferment, will consume us in the end.

About Paul Louis Metzger

Paul Louis Metzger, Ph.D., is Professor of Theology & Culture, Multnomah University & Seminary; Director of The Institute for Cultural Engagement: New Wine, New Wineskins; and Author and Editor of numerous works, including The Word of Christ and the World of Culture: Sacred and Secular through the Theology of Karl Barth (Eerdmans, 2003) and The Gospel of John: When Love Comes to Town (InterVarsity Press, 2010). You can read more about the author here.

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