Breaking Bad, the Fly episode

[ThePowerofTower]

S3 E10 was all about Walt trying to kill a fly. A druglord. Killing a fly. Did they just have time to burn, or is this episode significant of something? Walt's humanity? His angry demeanor? Zuh?

[Miss_Kat]

The episode is definitely significant, one of my favorites. What Jessie says about his aunt and the raccoon, I think, is very important, as well as the final shot (if I'm remembering it correctly.)

It was also just really funny, at least to me. But then again, I love bottle episodes.

[EpicAaron]

The fly itself has a lot of metaphorical meanings in literature, but to discuss its relation to Walter might reveal spoilers.

All deep meanings aside, I really enjoyed this episode's placement in the season as a kind of calm before the storm ;)
It marked a very important transition in Walter's relationship with Jesse and gave me some time to reflect on the series itself up to that point.

I watched the episode post-airing however, so it may have been disappointing for people who watched the series while it was new and airing on a weekly basis.

[ThePowerofTower]

The fly itself has a lot of metaphorical meanings in literature, but to discuss its relation to Walter might reveal spoilers.

Ooh, go ahead! Just put a spoiler box on it. I'm watching the show for a second time, I'm just analyzing it a bit more this time.

[DerAlex]

There are multiple interpretations about what the episode "The Fly", and also the random flies that appear throuout the series, mean.

Here are some random interpretations, pick the one you like the most :D

Some of them are conflicting, and that is intentional on my part, there isn't one true meaning. Spoilers for the whole series below

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None of this is my text, just as an disclamer, these are all quotes by other people, mostly on reddit

About the fly (not "The Fly", the episode, the fly as a motif in Breaking Bad):

Vince Gilligan: "I'm not 100% sure what the fly means, in my mind, it represents disorder/chaos, and Walt's fear of loss of control."
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I think that in a sense, the fly represents that 0.9% impurity. No matter how much perfection in controlling things you think you have, there's still that slight chance that they'll go wrong. Heisenberg is all about convincing himself he has 100% control over everything, but this is a lie.
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"Walt is now terminal as his cancer has metastasized and spread to his brain. I believe this is foreshadowed by the recurrence of the fly motif first seen in the episode 'Fly' and further reinforced by the story Jesse tells about his Aunt in that same episode. The pills Walt is seen taking at the Denny's on his 52nd birthday also seems to indicate that his cancer has come back. Much to the delight of Skylar, I'm sure, as this is what she's been waiting for all along. The fly itself seems to be a recurring theme, in relation to Walt. We're shown in an episode of Season 5, Walt is staring at a fly buzzing around the pest control office before landing on his porkpie hat. Walt stares at it for a moment before being interrupted by Jesse. Now go back to the story Jesse tells about his Aunt who's cancer metastasized to her brain (Season 3 'Fly'). In her final days she started hearing animals under the floorboards that weren't there. You can make the case that the same thing has started happening to Walt. At the end of the episode 'Fly', after Jesse finally gets rid of the "contaminant" and before a drugged Walt can reveal that he let Jane die, we are shown Walt back at his house about to fall asleep before a buzzing can be heard and the blinking red light of a smoke detector is briefly obscured by a fly that has landed on it. Furthermore, back in Season 5 when Walt gives his "The methylamine keeps flowing. Nothing stops this train" speech, you can see a large poster directly behind Walt's head which depicts the anatomy of a fly. This fly motif represents the decay of Walt's mentality and his morality."

About "The Fly", the episode:

The fly represents all the contamination in the relationship between Walt and Jesse, in the first case: what really happened to Jane. Throughout the whole episode Walt was struggling to get the fly (confess to Jesse what happened) while Jesse was confused why someone would make such a big deal over something so small (he was convinced Jane died by accident) in the end Walt almost spills the beans but falls asleep before doing so (failing to kill the fly) and Jesse is the one to kill the fly, remaining oblivious to it all still. When Walt gets home he still can see the fly, the contamination in their relationship is still there. In season 5 the fly comes back right after walt kills mike, another thing that would destroy everything between Jesse and Walt, almost taunting him.
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For me it was simply showing the decline of Walters' mental state. He is so consumed by his work that he is letting a little fly (which honestly wouldn't do a damn thing to harm their operation) stop the whole process. His obsession becomes his downfall.
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Basically, the Fly is symbolic of Walt's conscience. Only he knows about what he did to Jane back in season 2, and he's tried to move on with his life. But no matter what he succeeds with Gus, and no matter how 'fine' his life may seem externally, there's still that little sting of guilt/remorse/a recognition of responsibility. He sees this fly, and suddenly it's a problem that he can control. There's a fly in the lab, and it is within his power to stop it and keep it from 'contaminating' the product. So he tries, over and over, relentlessly, but keeps on failing. When Jesse arrives, after a while their conversation shifts towards Jane and her father. Walt discusses things with Jesse that he had simply not told anyone about at all. The conversation he had with Donald, the perfect moment in which he could have died (right before he went to Jesse's place and killed Jane). Eventually, before Jesse himself actually kills the fly, a drugged Walt finally proclaims that "It's already contaminated." Just like his mind. Because as that final shot of the fly in his room shows us, it's that he can try as hard as he wants to squash this from his life, but the mark has been made and it will never go away.
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Yeah, as demonstrated by the "It's all contaminated" sentence, Walt's definitely regretting the effect of the drug trade on his and his family's life, and even on that of Jesse's. It's a really intimate episode of Walt confronting his demons and nearly telling Jesse everything, and while the beginning is just a little repetitive before Jesse comes back inside, it was actually kind of necessary before things fell to absolute pieces later on and Walt's ego began to carry him forward from that point on. Vince Gilligan definitely acknowledges that Walt is lying to himself about his reasons for entering the meth trade in the first place, though in his moments of clarity Walt definitely regrets what he's done.
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The scene with the ladder is one of my favourite in the whole series. "It's not your fault, it's no one fault. Not even hers." Jesse forgiving Walt without knowing the extent of his involvement in Jane's death.
Walt tries to tell him about Jane - "Just hold onto it!" interrupts Jesse, meaning the ladder, but it might as well be about the secret that Walt was trying to tell him. (Walt's failure to hold on to 'it' could kill Jesse. When Walt finally does let it go in Ozymandias - it kind of does.
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The lab represents Walt's mind - his personal hell, full of guilty contaminant. He tells Jesse his perfect moment to die was the night that Jane died and that he should have never gone to Jesse's house - we know he means the second time, Jesse can't.
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It feels a lot like 'Waiting for Godot' which could be intentional and was probably an inspiration for the style and the way that they talk and reminisce. Nothing much actually happens - Two characters wait around for Godot who may or may not exist while they talk about absurd and serious stuff. There is no night or day in the underground lab, and barely any background music is used which makes it feel even more strange and isolated. To me a filler episode is something that fails to advance the story - and also fails to advance character development. Because this episode gives new insights into characters and their relationships, I consider it extremely significant and can't think of it as filler.

Personally, I think the episode "The Fly" is one of the most enjoyable episodes in an awesome series. For me, it was all about tone and feel and social and even parasocial interaction between the characters, and less about meanings and interpretations, even thou some of them do make sense. If I would have to choose, I would go with Obsession/Guilt/Perfectionism/Control. So... all of them, to some extent :D

Fact is, this was a so called "bottle episode", for the purpose of bringing down the average budget per episode of season 3, and in my opinion, the writers did a fantastic job with it, nothing less, but propably nothing more, too.

[Mason11987]

There are multiple interpretations about what the episode "The Fly", and also the random flies that appear throuout the series, mean.

Here are some random interpretations, pick the one you like the most :D

Some of them are conflicting, and that is intentional on my part, there isn't one true meaning. Spoilers for the whole series below

...

This was probably one of the most memorable episodes to me. I saw it mostly as the mental decline of Walt.

[ThePowerofTower]

Ooh!

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So I really like the explanation that the fly is Walt's guilt over killing Jane, and the dialogue between Walt and Jesse really reinforces that; Jesse can't understand why Walt makes a big deal about it. I also had a sneaking suspicion that the final shot, with the fly over the light on the fire detector, didn't necessarily have to be real; it could have been Walt's imagination, because it represented something bigger to him. This makes sense.
It seems like the episode was a lot about Walt's relationship to Jesse, too, especially with the Ladder scene. Jesse, having gone through a lot for Walt (the frustration, getting locked out, yelled at, and in some cases, somewhat lied to) had finally decided that he would try and kill the fly. Putting a ladder ontop of the two filing cabinets was clearly not a safe thing to do, evidenced by all the movement. He had to step further and further up the ladder to reach the fly. When he asked a sleepy Walt to help him hold the ladder, the analogy was complete: Jesse was doing something dangerous, that Walt wanted him to do, and while Jesse thought that Walt was helping him, and Walt thought he was helping Jesse, Walt's leaning on the filing cabinet and the ladder was clearly doing more harm than good.

This episode definitely had a lot more to it than I expected.