Among the characters who died at the hands of Walter White in Breaking Bad, Jane Margolis' death may have had the greatest impact on him. Jane's actor, Krysten Ritter, reflected on what it was like to see her character die brutally.
Ritter reflected both on hers and the public's initial reaction to Margolis overdosing on heroin and choking to death on her vomit while Walt watched the life force drain out of her. She admitted she had no idea it would heavily impact viewers, but she was happy to be part of something like Breaking Bad.
In an interview on Inside of You, Ritter reflected on her initial reaction to Jane's death and the public's. First, Ritter admitted that she had "no f***ing idea" it would become as big as it was. "That was the big episode that I was in. My character had a lot to do. The network started to sort of talk about the performance. People were getting excited about it, so we were invited to watch it in a room. It was me, my managers, my agent at the time...I'll never forget it, and we watched it, and all of us were on our feet, like, hands over mouths, f***ing energy. We were shocked. We were just shocked and so moved by it, and that was the coolest f***ing thing I had ever done." Ritter also admitted that she was proud to be in something cool because "it doesn't f***ing happen."
It was always Vince Gilligan's intention to kill off Jane. However, the original idea was for Walt to intentionally push Jane on her back while asleep to kickstart the overdose. However, they changed it so that her death came off more like an accident because had they gone with the original plan, it would have been out of character for Walt to intentionally kill someone who wasn't threatening his life at that point. All the kills he committed directly or by proxy beforehand were purely self-defense. Jane's death was the first one that Walt let happen out of pure self-interest. She was a loose end who was blackmailing him on top of being a heroin addict who would likely ruin his partner's, Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman, life.
Jane's death was impactful because it was Walt's first calculated death. He may not have murdered her directly, but if it hadn't been for him, she would have lived, giving viewers a peek into how ruthless he would later become. That wasn't just because he chose to watch her die, but because he hid from Jesse that he could have saved her until their falling out in the show's final season. At that moment, he truly was breaking bad as he embraced the criminal underworld. He may not have wanted to kill Jane, but he grabbed the first opportunity to eliminate someone who could have ruined everything he was trying to accomplish.
Of course, Walt would go on to commit much worse deeds as the show continued, but it was Jane's death that started his true descent into his evil persona Heisenberg. Years later, Jane's death also influenced other shows starring hardened criminals, like Bill Hader's Barry, whose lead character also killed people for self-preservation despite not wanting to be an assassin. It's times like those that depict criminals who don't kill out of thirst for blood but also to keep themselves out of trouble.
Breaking Bad can be streamed on Netflix.
Source: Inside of You Clips/YouTube