A cancer-ridden science teacher transforms himself into a sinister meth lord. That's the story of 'Breaking Bad.' But it's also the story of how Bryan Cranston became TV's greatest leading man. As the show enters its final stretch, GQ's Brett Martin discovers why Walter White will always live on.

In the first three seasons of the AMC series “Breaking Bad,” Aaron Paul — or rather, his meth-dealing character, Jesse Pinkman — has been slapped, mauled and beaten purple by, respectively, a hit man, a sociopath and a federal drug-enforcement agent. If he were a piñata, the candy would have poured out of this guy long ago. And apparently there is little mercy for Paul in the new season on the way. For there Paul was, one day in late May, standing on Tijeras Avenue in downtown Albuquerque, being tasered by a brawny man in sunglasses.