Symbolism
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Pink teddy bear
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A motif within the second season is the image of a damaged teddy bear and its missing eye. The teddy bear first appears at the end of the music video "Fallacies" for Jesse's band "TwaüghtHammër", which was released as a webisode in February 2009 leading to the second season.[91] The teddy bear can also be spotted on the mural on Jane's bedroom wall during the final episode of the second season, further connecting the crash to Jane. It is seen in flashforwards during four episodes, the titles of which, when put together in order, form the sentence "Seven Thirty-Seven Down Over ABQ".[92][93][94] The flashforwards are shot in black and white (a practice that is continued in Better Call Saul), with the sole exception of the pink teddy bear, which is an homage to the film Schindler's List, where the color red is used to distinguish the coat of a very young girl.[95] At the end of the season, Walt indirectly causes the midair collision of two airplanes via Jane's father, a grieving air traffic controller;[96][97] the pink teddy bear is then revealed to have fallen out of one of the planes and into the Whites' backyard swimming pool. Vince Gilligan called the plane accident an attempt to visualize "all the terrible grief that Walt has wrought upon his loved ones" and "the judgment of God".[98]
In the first episode of the third season, Walt finds the teddy bear's missing eye in the pool skimmer. Television critic Myles McNutt has called it "a symbol of the damage [Walter] feels responsible for",[99] and The A.V. Club commented that "the pink teddy bear continues to accuse".[100] Fans and critics have compared the appearance of the teddy bear's face to an image of Gus Fring's face in the fourth-season finale.[101]
The teddy bear prop was auctioned off, among other memorabilia, on September 29, 2013, the air date of the show finale.[102][103]