But Hank’s death is radically different from the various killings Walt has orchestrated during his rise to power. It’s one the anti-hero doesn’t actually want, that he sets in motion and then can’t prevent, and that ultimately undoes his empire, his family and his very self as thoroughly and devastatingly (I mean, really: I’ve never felt the pity-and-terror combination as acutely I did watching Sunday’s episode) as being arraigned in a courthouse would have done.

Throughout the run of the show, we’ve waited for Walt’s sins to be brought home to him, and viewers have reasonably assumed that this would involve a death within the family that he’s convinced himself justifies all his crimes. They were right: He was undone by such a death. But the fact that the family member wasn’t his wife or one of his children but rather his fraternal antagonist highlights rather than diminishes Hank’s importance in the schematics of “Breaking Bad.” What undoes Walter White is more dramatically elemental, in a way, than even the death of his infant daughter would have been. His world collapses, inevitably and absolutely, when he kills the hero of his own story.

The Hero of “Breaking Bad” I apologize for the spoiler. However, I haven’t even watched one episode. What intrigues me is the story telling. I am tempted to watch the show just so I can see and feel what Douthat describes here.