AMC’s Breaking Bad was a compelling show in a number of ways: its writing was engaging, and its directing and camerawork were film-level quality. Most importantly, though, it had characters who managed to leave a lasting impression on viewers and keep them coming back week after week, season after season, for more.

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But it wasn’t just the main cast, like Walt, Jesse, Skyler, and Hank, who made big splashes on the series. Even minor roles on the show were able to stand out in their time on screen, with some of the best going completely unnamed.

Chad – 'Pilot'

Chad listens to Walt during a chemistry lesson in Breaking Bad

Chad is a student in Walt’s chemistry class who gets called out by Walt for being disruptive, then loudly drags his chair on the floor as he moves back to his seat. Later, Walt has to wash Chad’s car at the car wash, enduring jeers from Chad and his girlfriend.

Arguably the first villain of Breaking Bad, Chad is the embodiment of the disrespect that Walt endures in his daily life at the start of the series. As soon as viewers see what Walt has to go through thanks to Chad and people like him, the audience understands why Walt is angry with life even before his cancer diagnosis. That cancer may be the catalyst for him to start cooking crystal meth, but the simmering resentment that drives his lust for power was there long before it.

Emilio Koyama – 'Pilot'

Emilio in front of a green car in Breaking Bad

Jesse’s original meth partner, and cousin to Krazy-8, Emilio is arrested in the DEA raid that Walt attends with Hank, where Walt sees Jesse fleeing the scene. Later, Emilio and Krazy-8 force Jesse to bring them to Walt, where Walt subdues them with some slick chemistry, killing Emilio and nearly killing Krazy-8.

While he would be dispatched instantly if introduced in later seasons, Emilio is a fair match to the meek high school chemistry teacher that Walt is in the pilot episode. Emilio’s death is the first one Walt causes in the entire series, and he acts as a good primer for both Walt and the audience, the first glimpse into a world that will get much more dangerous as the show goes on.

Ken – 'Cancer Man'

Ken talking in line at the bank in Breaking Bad with Walt standing behind him

Ken, with the license plate “KEN WINS”, is a businessman who takes Walt’s intended parking spot at the local credit union, and who obnoxiously talks on his earpiece the entire time that he and Walt are in line. At the end of the episode, Walt encounters Ken again and takes action, placing a window wiper on Ken’s car battery, prompting the car to explode as Walt walks away.

Related: 10 Great Quotes in Breaking Bad That Nobody Talks About

Ken is in essence what Chad will be after high school. He is disrespectful not only to Walt, but to everyone else around him, including leering at a female teller. Ken is the loudmouth that everyone puts up with because they’re unwilling to confront him, and all of Walt’s pent-up anger leads him to take violent, non-fatal revenge. When Ken’s car blows up, it’s satisfying precisely because of his arrogant nature.

Jake Pinkman – 'Cancer Man'

Jesse's mom talks to him and Jake in Breaking Bad

Jake Pinkman is Jesse’s younger, high-achieving brother. Jesse believes that Jake is the favored son, a notion Jake refutes when he says that Jesse is all their parents talk about. Later, Jesse takes the blame for a joint belonging to Jake, and attempts to steer his brother away from weed.

Related: 10 Best Child Characters in Breaking Bad

On the surface, Jake acts as a perfect counter to Jesse, the son Jesse imagines his parents want him to be. However, Jake’s joint complicates this perfect image that their parents have of him, and Jesse’s willingness to take the blame shows that he values Jake’s role as the good son, as well. This split between appearance and reality is also a theme of the wider show, where a chemistry teacher and a drug user are in fact underground meth kingpins.

Hugo Archilleya – 'Crazy Handful of Nothin''

Hank questions Hugo Archilleya about the Chemistry lab thefts

Hugo Archilleya is the janitor at J.P. Wynne High School who helps Walt when the latter is vomiting in the school bathroom, offering Walt gum and cleaning up the vomit. When Hank looks at Hugo for possibly stealing the chemistry equipment from the school, a search of his car turns up marijuana, which results in him losing his job.

The amount of compassion that Hugo has for Walt in his most vulnerable state makes him a genuinely admirable character in a sea of morally conflicted ones, and it makes his job loss even more tragic when it comes about as a result of Walt’s actions, unforeseeable though it was. Throughout the series, nearly all the characters suffer in some way as a result of Walt and Jesse’s meth business; Hugo is the first of those who truly seem innocent.

Spooge’s son – 'Peekaboo'

Jesse covers Spooge's son with a blenket after finding him alone in the house in Breaking Bad

The child of two drug users who goes unnamed in the show, his parents stole meth off of Skinny Pete in the previous episode, which leads Jesse to come armed to their house. However, when Jesse arrives he’s the only one in the house, and over the course of the episode, Jesse becomes the best parent this kid has ever had.

Spooge’s son is an indirect victim of the drug trade that Jesse has been profiting off of since before the show started, his parents having prioritized their use over their own child. His neglected plight becomes obvious the moment that Jesse interacts with him. Jesse’s wholesome game of peekaboo with him is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and it can only be hoped that this child was able to find a better future after the authorities arrived and took him away.

Jimmy In-'N-Out – 'Better Call Saul'

Jimmy In N' Out being arrested by two men in Breaking Bad

Saul’s presence on the show was so noteworthy he got his own spinoff, and his debut episode is cemented by Jimmy In-'N-Out, the first of his underworld contacts in the show. A lifelong criminal, Jimmy takes the rap for others’ crimes in exchange for a hefty payment; in this case, he pretends to be Heisenberg.

Jimmy’s job may not seem like an ideal career path, or even entirely realistic, but in the world of Breaking Bad, he feels entirely possible, and even, in a twisted way, admirable. He’s an entrepreneur fulfilling a very unique service and getting well-paid for it, just like Walt, Jesse, and Saul. His quirky business not only makes him memorable and intriguing, but it also serves to show the audience that Saul has many interesting connections which can come into play in future episodes.

Max Arciniega – 'Hermanos'

Max and Gus at Don Eladio at his hacienda in Breaking Bad

Max is Gus’s original meth cook and the co-founder of Los Pollos Hermanos. Twenty years before the present, Gus and Max attempt to partner with the cartel to distribute crystal meth, but Don Eladio has Max killed, sparing Gus due to Gus’s unspecified past in Chile.

The revelation of Max’s death humanizes Gus’s tragedy, and makes his eventual revenge on the cartel even more satisfying for the audience. It is also Max’s death at the hands of Hector Salamanca that leads Gus to seek revenge by getting the Cousins killed, which in turn leads to Hector agreeing with Walt’s plan to enact his own revenge. Although Max and Gus’s relationship is hinted at being possibly romantic, Max states that he considers Gus a brother, and his loss always hangs over Gus.

Drew Sharp – 'Dead Freight'

Drew Sharp wearing a bike helmet in Breaking Bad

A boy intrigued by tarantulas and defined by his motorbike, Drew Sharp happens across Walt, Jesse, and Todd just after they’ve succeeded in robbing the train. Concerned that their crime might be reported, Todd doesn’t hesitate to shoot and kill Drew.

Drew is defined precisely because of his innocence, the fact that he is not involved in any criminal activity himself, yet is a victim of it nonetheless. Drew's death is a shocking end to one episode, while his dissolving in acid and the later news reports about his disappearance horrify not only Jesse, but the audience as well. If the reward still seemed worth the bloodshed before, it doesn’t anymore.

Ed – 'Granite State'

Ed drawing blood from Walt in Breaking Bad

Another character within Saul’s contacts is Ed, who can create a new identity and life for anyone, for a price, of course. He is alluded to in Season 4, and his van is seen when it comes to pick up Jesse, and when it picks up Walt, although Ed himself doesn’t appear until “Granite State,” where he gives Saul and Walt new lives.

Ed’s impressive abilities as a private criminal protection program are what initially make him stand out, but it is his relationship with Walt throughout the episode that makes him perhaps the most compelling of the characters on this list. He acts as a guide, a delivery service, and finally, someone Walt pays just to stay and provide companionship. He's providing a service which is in demand, and pursuing the exact same thing that everyone in the series pursues: money.

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