Breaking Bad/Awesome

Season 1

• In the first episode, Walter, upon seeing three men, stronger than him, teasing his son in a store, left the store, walked around it, reentered it, and kicked one of them in the back of the leg. He then proceeded to face the three down, and get them to back off.
• Blows up an asshole lawyer's car with a squeegee across the battery.
• Blows up Tuco's den with a few crystals of fulminated mercury, aka mercury (II) fulminate, aka the stuff that makes some types of gunpowder in a cartridge go "boom!"

This... is not meth.

• The Pilot made me fall in love with Out of Time Man
• Raymond Cruz gets a real life one for stubbing out a cigarette on his tongue. The commentary on the episode confirms that he did it for real, and it was entirely his idea which no one knew was coming.
• And who could forget episode 3, where Walter has to decide whether or not to kill Crazee 8 and realizes that Crazee 8 is planning to kill him with a broken shard of plate. Rather than use gunfire, a knife or simply letting him starve, he chokes him to death by pulling on the bike lock holding him by the neck to the pole. Everytime I watch that scene with someone, there are audible gasps as soon as they realize exactly what is going to happen.
• "Helicopter, bitch!"

Season 2

• It's a pretty grim moment of awesome, but the season two finale, when the tragic ending that's been foreshadowed all season turns out to be a brilliant piece of misdirection by the writers. Also Skylar's exit speech. Wow.
• Walt's badass stroll out into the parking lot in Over as TV on the Radio's "DLZ" plays in the background, culminating in the coldly delivered line, "Stay out of my territory".
• "What's the matter Schrader? You act like you've never seen a severed human head on a tortoise before!"
• Jesse vs Tuco and later Hank vs Tuco.

Season 3

• The Cousins walking away from an exploding truck without flinching. One of them even starts smoking a cigarette.
• In the season 3 finale Mike storming that warehouse and killing those guys with the silenced pistol.
• Hank's little "bet" with Marie late in Season 3. The faces as they walk out cements it as one of the funniest things in the known universe.
• The pizza toss. Made more awesome by the fact that Bryan Cranston nailed it on the first take.
• "Restrain this!"
• Gus pushing exactly the right buttons to get Walt back to cooking, talking about how a man provides for his family no matter how little they appreciate it.
• Hank vs. The Cousins. Hank kills two characters shown to be axe-wielding mass-murderers with only one minute's warning. And he's unarmed to begin. And he manages to survive multiple gunshots to his torso. And he kills the 2nd cousin after being shot to hell. Holy Shit.
• Jesse buying his house back at less than half market value by blackmailing his parents about his own meth lab.
  • His "The Reason You Suck" Speech after Walt tries to hire him back as a partner, about how his life has been systematically destroyed ever since Walt came into it. A fantastic acting moment and something Walt really had coming.
• Gus' Xanatos Gambit to take out his Mexican opposite number and take over the whole operation. Especially impressive in how fast he was able to put such a complex plan together, and have it work perfectly.
• Skylar coming up with a complex cover story on the spot about how she and Walt are in a position to pay Hank's medical bills, even integrating Walt's "fugue state" ploy.
• "Everyone knows it's Windy!"
• In the final scene of "Half Measure", Walt runs over two gang members before they could kill Jesse. He then takes the gun from the survivor and shoots him in the head. He tells Jesse to "Run!" OH MY GOD!
• In "Full Measure", just when it looks like Walt is selling out Jesse, it turns out to be a very nicely played gambit, and that's putting it mildly. YEAH...
• Fly. Bottle Episode or not, don't you dare say that the titular fly falling dead at Jesse's feet isn't awesome.

Season 4

• Gus' first non-flashback appearance in the premiere. Every. Single. Second. Of it.
  • Jesse also has to be recognized here: As Walt is struggling not to vomit, Jesse, who's been catatonic for the whole episode after killing Gale, looks at Gus with an unflinching "bring it on" gaze. Badass.
• Mike calmly listening to Walt's case that they should team up to kill Gus, and then walloping him right in the middle of the bar without a word.
• Skylar swindling away the car wash Walt used to work at to use to launder their drug money, for less money than she originally offered and telling the owner straight out it's because she doesn't like him.
• Mike killing two Cartel gunmen who attack a shipment, followed by simply acting slightly annoyed when he realizes part of his ear was shot off.
  • The Cartel gets theirs back when they try again; this time the hitmen pump the truck's exhaust into the trailer and wait for the guards to die, munching on sandwiches.
• Walt demands his old boss leave behind the first dollar the car wash earned ("As is"). He cracks open the frame, takes the dollar and uses it to buy a Coke.
• Hank figuring out Gus' role in things by following a seemingly ridiculous hunch and tricking Gus into pretty much giving him his fingerprints.
• "I AM THE ONE WHO KNOCKS!"
• Gus' Unflinching Walk through a hail of bullets, and daring the Cartel sniper to kill him.
  • Preceded by Mike pushing Jesse away from a bullet at the last instant.
• Gus killing Don Eladio and all his capos with poisoned Tequila. To get them to drink it, he first has to drink a shot himself, then lets slip nothing for a while afterwards, until he finally asks to use the bathroom shortly before the poison will take effect so he can throw it up. And even when he's alone, he still goes through the process as calmly and methodically as possible. Afterwards he starts feeling some of the effects, but still manages to shout to the survivors that their boss is dead, so they should just grab some stuff from the corpses and leave. He's pretty much becoming a bigger Magnificent Bastard with every new scene by now.
  • The scene also includes Mike garroting the Cartel's sniper, and Jesse gunning down the one Cartel member left before driving away with the seriously wounded Mike and poisoned Gus.
  • After Gus recovers, he makes sure to visit Don Salamanca's nursing home to make sure he knows what happened, and who it was who did it. He tells him that Jesse killed the only blood he had left on earth, and the cartel he worked his whole life for is exterminated. An incredible example of Best Served Cold I've seen, especially since Don Salamanca is the one who killed Gus' best friend and surrogate brother.
• Jesse talking down to a Cartel cook who could very well kill him at any moment, lambasting him for having a filthy lab and inadequate preparation for Walt's and his meth. While Gus and Mike allow themselves the slightest of grins.
• Walt's Kansas City Shuffle over the season's final two episodes, getting Jesse back on his side by first incriminating himself and then "proving" himself innocent, then working with Tio to take care of all possible loose ends. Followed up by brutally gunning down the man holding Jesse hostage, and the two of them burning down the Superlab, the source of all their problems. It's not often that crossing the Moral Event Horizon intersects with a CMOA, but there it is.
  • Even more awesome with elaboration: Walt finally kills Gus by convincing Hector 'Tio' Salamanca to act as a suicide bomber. When Walt declare "I won", he frigging means it.
    • When Tio is about to trigger the bomb it first looks like he's trying to smile and then he gives a look of pure rage to Gus seconds before the bomb detonates and Gus gets half of his face blown off.
• Walt talking to another man about being diagnosed with cancer:
  • Walt: To hell with your cancer. I've been living with cancer for the better part of a year. Right from the start, it's a death sentence. That's what they keep telling me. Well, guess what? Every life comes with a death sentence, so every few months I come in here for my regular scan, knowing full well that one of these times - hell, maybe even today - I'm gonna hear some bad news. But until then, who's in charge? Me. That's how I live my life.
    • YMMV. Walt is trying to convince the guy as much as he tries to convince himself. At the point in his life he says that, NOTHING is in his control.