On AMC’s brilliant television show Breaking Bad, now in its third season, Walter White (played to a T by Bryan Cranston) is a scientist who, because of circumstances mostly beyond his control, has lost his way. In an interview on AMC’s Website, Cranston explained, “The term ‘breaking bad’ is a southern colloquialism and it means when someone who has taken a turn off the path of the straight and narrow, when they’ve gone wrong. And that could be for that day or for a lifetime.”

The irony of Walt’s situation is that he thought he was breaking bad for a “day,” but it turns out that he is probably going to be doing so for the rest of his life. He made what truly can be described as an existential decision when, thinking he had only months to live with terminal cancer, he made the choice to “cook” crystal meth in partnership with an immature, yet street savvy, drug dealer named Jesse Pinkman (played by TV’s iconic slacker, Aaron Paul).

An existentialist who makes a free choice knows that he also assumes the heavy burden of responsibility that accompanies that choice.

Before being diagnosed with the fatal disease, Walt had been a straight-arrow. A follow-the-rules kind of guy. A high school chemistry teacher, a middle-aged nerd. As his initial wrong turn spiraled into a descent into the maelstrom, Walt found himself doing horrible deeds. Rationalizing that he was doing what was necessary to provide for his family’s financial security after his demise, Walt thought he could tough it out for the little time he had left with his beautiful wife and his loyal son. But what happens to existential man? He lives. His cancer goes into remission, and the life ahead of him suddenly becomes unlivable.

So what does he do? He dives into the chemistry! After all, to him and also to Gale, his new assistant at the spanking new state-of-the-art lab set up for them by a drug kingpin, chemistry is nothing less than magic. In the recent episode “Sunset,” Walt realizes he has found in Gale an existential other self, with whom he can ruminate on the poetry of science. In a rather amazing TV moment, Gale recites from memory Walt Whitman’s great poem, “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” to illustrate the ambiguities of scientific pursuit.

Ambiguity is what existentialists are all about. Walt has entered a temporary euphoric place that is fraught with emotional and deadly pitfalls. Both the beauty and the horror of Breaking Bad is following good guy Walt on his exceptional journey to becoming a bad man. He wants to untie himself from the lawless ropes of circumstance, but like a child with a Chinese finger trap, the more he struggles, the tighter he is bound.

Socrates said that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Walt is examining his life on a daily basis, hoping he can find a way to salvage what he has left and make it worth living.