Breaking Bad's Most Shocking Moment Homages The Godfather & Most Fans Missed It

While the oranges in "The Godfather" mean more than you think since they're a symbol of tragic things to come, the fruit is also ripe for the picking in a clever "Godfather" homage in the "Breaking Bad" Season 4 episode "Crawl Space." 

"The Godfather" connection that you missed in the "Breaking Bad" episode involves Skyler White's (Anna Gunn) former boss and lover, Ted Beneke (Christopher Cousins). Ted rejects the idea of paying an IRS tax penalty of more than $617,000 because he believes it's dirty money that Skyler's husband, Walter (Bryan Cranston), won gambling, and that he can get a better deal with the IRS. Knowing her husband's methamphetamine operation would be in jeopardy because she's cooked Ted's books and laundered Walter's money, Skyler turns to their lawyer, Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) for a solution.

As such, Saul sends bodyguard Huell (Lavell Crawford) and a hired hand, Kuby (Bill Burr) to visit Ted at his home to intimidate him into writing the IRS the check. While running from the scene, Ted trips over a rug and slides head first into a cabinet — the impact of which jars a bowl of oranges sitting atop of it, with some landing by Ted on the floor.

"Everybody likes to find these things that mean, 'Oh, a character is going to die,'" producer Thomas Schnauz told the "Breaking Bad Insider Podcast." "The oranges are from 'The Godfather.' We did that with Ted Beneke in 'Breaking Bad.' He runs and trips and knocks over a bowl of oranges and basically breaks his neck and he's put out of commission."

Scenes with oranges in "The Godfather" are a huge part of "The Godfather" lore. There are oranges present in the scene where defiant Hollywood studio boss Jack Woltz (John Marley) rejects Tom Hagen's (Robert Duvall) offer through Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) to cast singer Johnny Fontane (Al Martino) in his next film for a favor in return. As payback, Woltz finds the decapitated head of his prize horse, Khartomb, in his bed. 

In another scene, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is buying oranges from a street vendor in New York City, which is followed by an assassination attempt. Perhaps most notably, Vito is eating oranges in his garden before suffering a fatal heart attack in front of his young grandson, Anthony (Anthony Gounaris).

While Ted Beneke didn't suffer the tragic fate Khartomb or Vito did, his accident was fairly severe and life changing. In the Season 5 premiere episode "Live Free or Die," Skyler visits Ted in the hospital after he wakes from a coma to find her former lover disheveled. Apparently looking to avert any future tragedies, Ted promises Skyler in the scene that he will never reveal the truth of the events leading up the accident.

Whether it was by pure happenstance or deliberate, "The Godfather" scene with Woltz contains another startling similarity to Ted's "Breaking Bad" storyline. Ted owed the IRS over $600,000 — roughly the same amount Woltz told Hagen that he paid for paid for Khartomb.