Agents of SHIELD referenced Breaking Bad during season 2, but the moment was improvised. The series launched on ABC in 2013 as the network's first push into Marvel content, in the wake of The Avengers' success dramatically increasing the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There have been six seasons of Agents of SHIELD so far with a seventh on the way, which will also be its last.
Throughout the show's existence, it has not been shy at making references to other TV shows or movies. With Agents of SHIELD's loose ties to the MCU, most of these have come in conjunction with new films. They've included tie-ins to movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Captain America: Civil War. Agents of SHIELD even name-dropped Thanos in the build-up to Avengers: Infinity War, but that reference only hurt the show in the long run.
Outside of referencing other MCU events, Agents of SHIELD has included plenty of other pop culture references over the years. One of their most famous ones, though, came in season 2 when the ABC property referenced AMC's Breaking Bad, with the season 2 finale quickly referencing Jesse Pinkman's famous catchphrase. The reference is fairly obvious, but viewers may be surprised to know that it was a moment of improv and not written into the script. For more improvised scenes in TV shows, check out the latest Screen Rant video at the top of this article.
In the season 2 finale of Agents of SHIELD, Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), Mack (Henry Simmons), and Coulson (Clark Gregg) were trapped in a room with an Inhuman named Gordon, who had the power to teleport. To defeat him, the three SHIELD agents trapped Gordon in a room using hi-tech gear that limits his teleportation ability. When they ultimately defeat him, Gordon wonders how they were able to do it. This is where Fitz puts his own spin on Jesse Pinkman's Breaking Bad phrase and says, "Science biatch." The line was improvised on the spot by De Caestecker.
Beyond their enthusiasm for science, though, there aren't that many other similarities between Jesse and Fitz. However, both of them will continue to be explored in their respective properties. Fitz's story will continue in some capacity for Agents of SHIELD season 7, even though he is not with the team in the past. As for the future of Jesse, it was recently confirmed that more of his life would be put to the screen, too. Netflix dropped the first trailer for El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie to tease Aaron Paul's return as the character. While Fitz has helped invent time travel tech in Agents of SHIELD, we'll have to wait and see if Jesse still finds some joy from science.