'Fear The Walking Dead' Pays Tribute To 'Breaking Bad' With Clever Easter Egg

After taking the summer off Fear The Walking Dead returned to television for the back half of its third season. The two-part premiere episode did an excellent job of setting up momentum for the coming weeks and the runup to the return of The Walking Dead.

On top of being a great start to the season, 'The Diviner,' the second half of the episode duo, also featured a very interesting homage to another of AMC's featured series. The homage in question saw an infamous song from Breaking Bad included during a scene of FTWD featuring Madison and Walker. The scene depicted them walking through a bazaar, when the Breaking Bad song can be heard playing in the background. The song in question is called "Negro Y Azul: The Ballad of Heisenberg". It's first heard in Season 2, Episode 7 as part of a music video.

When the tune actually played, fans questioned whether or not they actually heard the song. No one believed FTWD would include a song from Breaking Bad, which lead one eager fan to call into Talking Dead after FTWD to ask Chris Hardwick directly. Hardwick confirmed that the song was in fact from Breaking Bad.

Additionally, confirmation from Dave Erickson solidifies that the Breaking Bad song was in fact on Fear The Walking Dead.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dave Erickson talked with the site on various aspects relating to last night's show. Erickson was asked whether or not the song fans heard was from Breaking Bad. Here's what he had to say in response:

That's absolutely right. (Laughs.) I tried to be subtle with it. That was probably the moment when I fell the most deeply in love with Breaking Bad, when they did that cold open music video. As we were looking for pieces to incorporate into this world, it had the right vibe to it. It's a gentle nod of admiration and adoration to Vince Gilligan.

So there you have it: Erickson wanted to provide a nod to Vince Gilligan's work by including a song from Breaking Bad in his show, which was awesome to see play out on screen.

AMC Likes Breaking Bad Easter Eggs A Whole Lot

We'll probably see more nods to Breaking Bad in the future, given the various AMC series that have already featured nods to the crime drama. Better Call Saul of course features callbacks to and characters from Breaking Bad, but those two shows are directly connected.

Two other AMC series, Preacher and The Walking Dead, included their own nods, too. The featured Easter Eggs weren't heavily emphasized on-screen, so you'd be have to be a real die-hard fan to catch them. There was a bag of blue meth on The Walking Dead, and a roadside line of stones from Breaking Bad being shown in Preacher.

The aforementioned scene from The Walking Dead took place during Season 2, where a bag of Merle's pharmaceuticals has a pile of blue methamphetamines sitting in the bottom of it. It looks just like the same meth cooked up by Walter White on Breaking Bad.

Preacher's nod to Breaking Bad was a deeper cut, seeming at first to be only a roadside image of stones seen on both AMC series. But it's actually an important spot. In Preacher, when DeBlanc and Fiore wait for a ride back to hell, they stand in front of the very same spot where both Jesse and Walter waited for Saul Goodman's contact to take them to a new identity – a weighty moment for both characters. (Preacher's season 1 showrunner, Sam Catlin, also worked on Breaking Bad.)

None of these Easter Eggs will lead to a crossover between these AMC series taking place, even thought lots of people want to see a crossover happen. But since they're each set in their own unique universes , it would be extremely difficult to merge any of these series into one narrative — regardless of how convincing some fan theories might be.

[Source: THR]