For avid Breaking Bad fans that have been following the series since the beginning we sadly bid farewell to chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin last Sunday, as the series officially wrapped. When we first met Walter Hartwell White in those infamous tidy whities in season one, little did we as an audience realize the journey we would be willing to go on. For those unfamiliar with the show, my initial question for you is, “Have you been hiding under a rock?”

To ease into the series, the journey began five seasons back with a man named Walter White. He’s the embodiment of any typical father: a high school chemistry teacher, married, with a teenage son and baby on the way. You know, a family man. When he finds out on his 50th birthday he has been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, he pairs up with a former student and begins cooking crystal meth as a way to secure his family’s financial future before he dies. As he embarks on a career of drugs and significant amount of crime throughout each season, Walter White, turned “Heisenberg” proves to be extremely skillful in this new world learning to manufacture and sell the drug. Oh, did I mention his brother-in-law is a DEA agent?

While I understand people may abject to this type of debauchery as a form of “good television,” but let me just say, you have no idea how brilliant this character is. Besides the fact that Bryan Cranston plays a murderous meth manufacturer, Cranston speaks of Walter as “The greatest role of his career.” What made this show so impressive, in addition to Cranston’s role as Walter White, were fans feelings towards him. As an important ingredient to the enjoyment of suspense fans have watched the transformation of what creator Vince Gilligan calls, “Mr. Chips turned Scarface.”

Unlike other memorable anti-heroes who came before him, we couldn’t predict the crime, murder; scheming and other awful acts committed would have ever come from a besieged husband and father. Did Walt have “Heisenberg” in him the whole time? If we look at the overall situation, it’s not to say it’s excusable, just relatable. Life is survival of the fittest, and sometimes life’s demands of success aren’t always in range. Vince Gilligan’s ability to create a story of emotionally relatable elements: cancer, financial crisis, a physical disability, then shock us with a “solution,” is a roller coaster of emotion, but one you’re willing to ride over again.

Occupying a world between good and evil, Walter White is more then a man who sins. He is a man who’s sinning was so excusable that it got viewers to come to terms with two things: he wants to provide for his family and he is exactly like most people in America. Walter faced a problem that most people in the country are facing today, survive or don’t. So we as an audience continue to root for Walter White, because he does things on instinct, on emotion just like the rest of us.

When relatable characters cross the line, we as an audience are more accepting of it because we want to know what would happen in that situation. Yes, Walt was misguided, making fans angry. But, he became a character fans still wanted to see come out on top. Okay, yes he watched his partner’s girlfriend choke to death, he poisoned a kid, worked with Neo-Nazis, but, it was the motivations in his heart that fans were always willing to accept as redemption for his bad behavior.