Hank Schrader

Hank was a special agent with the DEA, where he rose through the ranks to become the supervisor of all investigations handled by his Albuquerque office, under the watchful eye of ASAC George Merkert (Michael Shamus Wiles) and SAC Ramey. He is married to Marie (Betsy Brandt), with whom he has no children. He is close to his family-by-marriage, the Whites: Walt, his wife (and Marie's sister) Skyler (Anna Gunn), and their son Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte). In contrast with the mild-mannered Walt, Hank is extroverted, ambitious, and apparently fearless, eager to take on dangerous investigations to further his career. Beneath his tough, unflappable exterior, however, he struggles with some of his own vulnerabilities: he had cold feet when it came to marrying Marie, and despite his ambition, he is afraid to move outside his comfort zone at work, primarily due to the effects of PTSD since killing Tuco Salamanca and subsequent bloody encounters during drug busts in El Paso.

As a hobby, Hank home brews his own beer, which he bottles under the name "Schraderbräu". After he gets shot by the Salamanca cousins, he spends part of season 4 taking up mineral collecting, much to Marie's chagrin.

When Domingo Molina (later to be known as "Krazy-8") is arrested on drug possession, he spends two days in jail and then announces he is willing to inform to the DEA to make a deal with prosecutors. Hank and his partner Steven Gomez arrive to interrogate him. Just as Domingo is prepared to give out a list of dead drops that belong to Gus Fring's drug operation, Saul Goodman interrupts the meeting acting as Domingo's lawyer. Hank immediately is suspicious of this and believes there are no dead drops, but Saul's fast-talking leads to Hank accepting to release Domingo into his protection as a personal CI after getting and confirming Domingo's information on the dead drops. Hank and Steven leave, unaware this was a ruse by Saul, at Lalo Salamanca's command, not only to get Domingo out of jail before he could talk about the Salamanca drug operation but to expose their competitors to the DEA. Though Nacho Varga warns Gus Fring about this, he is unable to act without alerting Lalo to the mole in his organization.

During Walt's fiftieth birthday party, Hank shows off a news report covering a meth bust that he had led. Later, Walt takes up Hank's offer to go on a ride-along. Based on a tip from Krazy-8, Hank's team raids a meth lab while Walt stays in the car, where he witnesses his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) escaping the bust but does not say anything to Hank. Secretly, Walt engages with Jesse to start to produce their own meth using chemistry equipment from the school Walt teaches at. Due to the precursors they used, the product gains a unique blue tint and has extremely high purity. Walt takes the name "Heisenberg" as he and Jesse sell the blue meth to the local drug trade. The blue meth and "Heisenberg" quickly draw the attention of Hank and the DEA. Hank's initial lead traces back to Walt's school, but Hank wrongly arrests the school janitor.

Hank generally teases Walt through this period. However, when Walt tells the family that he is suffering from inoperable lung cancer, Hank promises to be there for him, and to take care of Walter Jr. and Walt's unborn daughter should he die. He also takes Walter Jr. under his wing, trying to "scare him straight" when he believes Walter Jr. is smoking marijuana. Walt explains his association with Jesse to Skyler by falsely confessing to buying marijuana from Jesse. This information soon makes its way to Marie, and then to Hank.

After a drug deal goes bad, Walt and Jesse are kidnapped by the unstable Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz) and taken to a remote abode with his uncle, retired drug cartel boss Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis). Hank helps with efforts to find Walt, and traces him via Jesse to Tuco's abode. Just before Hank arrives, Walt and Jesse manage to escape, wounding Tuco in the process. Hank kills Tuco in a shootout and arrests Hector. Meanwhile, Walt and Jesse flee back to Albuquerque, where Walt explains his disappearance to Skyler as the result of a fugue state. Hank questions Hector about the blue meth and Heisenberg, but Hector refuses to answer. Hank also questions Jesse, but Jesse provides no conclusive statements to provide leads to Heisenberg.

Hank is promoted and transferred to the El Paso, Texas DEA office for killing Tuco. Though initially happy, Hank quickly realizes he doesn't fit in with his Spanish-speaking colleagues and also starts having panic attacks. During a joint DEA/Mexican police operation, an informant, Tortuga (Danny Trejo), is beheaded and his head used to hide an explosive, killing several DEA agents and officers; Hank escapes unharmed as he had fled on having a panic attack upon seeing the head of the informant. Hank develops symptoms of PTSD and transfers back to the Albuquerque office to continue his investigation into the blue meth.

Meanwhile, Walt and Jesse, having lost the Salamancas for selling meth, have engaged with Jesse's friends. One, Badger (Matt L. Jones), gets caught in a police sting, and Hank presses hard on Badger to reveal Heisenberg's identity. Walt gets help from the fast-talking lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) to get a fall guy to act as Heisenberg, but Badger fingers the wrong person while Hank and his team look on. Walt and Jesse rush in to obstruct Hank's view to correct Badger in time. While Saul's hired Heisenberg is arrested, Hank suspects the real Heisenberg remains at large.

Hank remains committed to finding the identity of Heisenberg, but his superiors start to believe the case is unsolvable and want him to move on to other investigations. He picks up a lead on the case after Jesse uses some of the blue meth to pay for gas for the recreational vehicle he and Walt use to cook the product. Hank investigates all RVs in Albuquerque through the DMV and finds an RV without a renewed registration. Hank tracks the RV down to the mother of Jesse's deceased friend Christian "Combo" Ortega, who had been killed while selling blue meth on a rival gang's territory. As he surveils Jesse, Hank calls Walt for information on his former student, giving Walt the opportunity to get the RV to a junkyard before he can find it. Hank follows Jesse to the junkyard, where Jesse and Walt hide in the RV. Walt gives instructions to Jesse to prevent Hank from entering the RV legally and gets Saul to lure Hank away from the junkyard by phoning him with a fake claim about Marie being hospitalized. He abruptly leaves, allowing them to crush the RV in the meantime, destroying the evidence. After learning that the accident was a hoax, an infuriated Hank goes to Jesse's home and assaults him. Jesse is hospitalized and threatens to sue, while Hank is suspended from the DEA without pay.

As Hank is leaving his disciplinary meeting, he receives an anonymous call from Gus Fring, warning him that he is about to be killed by Leonel and Marco Salamanca (Daniel and Luis Moncada) in revenge for killing Tuco; though Gus has told the brothers to target Hank instead of Walt, Gus's intention is the destruction of the Salamancas and their cartel. Hank is able to kill one brother and mortally wound the other, but he himself becomes temporarily paralyzed from the waist down after the gunfight, with the doctors fearing he may become paraplegic without physical therapy. Marie finds their insurance will not cover this, and Walt and Skyler agree to help cover the costs, unbeknownst to Hank.

Hank struggles through his recovery due to his helplessness, harshly lashing out at Marie, and tries to collect minerals to pass the time. His interest is piqued when the Albuquerque Police Department asks him to help with looking over evidence from the murder of Gale Boetticher (David Costabile), who had been Walt's lab assistant at Gus's meth superlab under an industrial laundry. Among the evidence is a lab notebook with Gale's notes on the construction of the lab, the synthesis of meth, and other details that lead Hank to believe Gale was Heisenberg. During a shared dinner, Hank talks about Gale's notebook, and Walt drunkenly suggests Gale was merely copying the real Heisenberg's work.

Hank is curious at this comment, and reviewing the evidence again, makes a connection between Gale and Gus. Hank, only just starting to physically recover, leans on Walt to help him investigate Gus's activities, the Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant chain and its parent company, Madrigal Electromotive, and properties they own in Albuquerque, including the industrial laundry. Walt panics knowing that this not only may lead Hank to discover that he is Heisenberg but may lead to Gus taking deadly action to end Hank's investigation, as his relationship with Gus was already strained over Gale's murder. Walt has Saul fake a threat on Hank's life, and the DEA arranges for around-the-clock protection for Hank's and Walt's families, temporarily halting Hank's investigation. This also allows Walt to operate without interference to take out Gus by working with Hector after learning he and Gus are nemeses. Hector claims to want to talk to the DEA, and Hank is brought under protection to help with the interview, but Hector then refuses to cooperate and is returned to the nursing home. This was part of Walt's plan as Gus, learning of Hector's interview, goes to see Hector, upon which Hector triggers a pipe bomb Walt had planted on his wheelchair, killing them both. Walt and Jesse subsequently destroy the superlab.

The destruction of the superlab leads to evidence directly tying to Gus and the drug trade, and Hank is heralded as a hero. They secure a laptop from Gus's office and put it into police evidence. On learning of this, Walt and Jesse with help from Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) use a giant electromagnet to try to wipe the laptop, making a mess of the evidence room. The police find nothing on the laptop but from a picture frame broken in the destruction, the numbers to several accounts of Gus's that point to Mike's informants that have been helping to keep the drug trade secret. By this point, Hank's superiors have concluded that Gus was Heisenberg and tell Hank to drop the case, but Hank still believes there is more and wants to pursue the informants tied to the accounts. Walt is forced to kill Mike to get the informants' names and arrange for their murders before they can be questioned, without worrying about retaliation from Mike afterwards.

Several months pass, in which Walt has accumulated over $70 million and has left the drug trade. With no blue meth on the streets and no leads, Hank has given up his investigation and moved on. At dinner at the Whites, Hank goes to the bathroom and while there, pages through a copy of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman that Gale had given Walter. He recognizes the handwriting from Gale's notebook, and from Gale's dedication to Walt, referring to him as his "other favorite W.W.". Hank is shocked to conclude that Walt is Heisenberg.

Hank feigns a stomach bug to leave early, taking the copy of Leaves of Grass with him and suffers another panic attack. Later, he sneaks a GPS onto Walt's car. Walt discovers the copy of the book missing and the GPS device, similar to the one used to track Gus, and confronts Hank. Hank asserts Walt is Heisenberg, but Walt neither confirms nor denies, only that his cancer has returned and by the time Hank can prove anything, he will be dead. Hank demands Walt to tell Skyler and the children to stay with him, but Walt refuses. Hank tries to talk to Skyler, but she stays silent about what she knows. Marie learns some details through Skyler, but Hank still has insufficient evidence to go forward against Walt.

Jesse is arrested and Hank tries to convince Jesse to speak out against Walt, but Jesse refuses, still angered over Hank's prior assault. Walt crafts a DVD that appears to be a self-confession from Hank that he is Heisenberg, threatening to release it if Hank does not stop trying to interfere with his family. Hank also realizes that his post-shooting physical therapy was paid for with Walt's drug money, making him an accessory after the fact. After a falling out between Walt and Jesse, Hank approaches Jesse and convinces him they should work together to take down Walt. Hank initially tries to have Jesse meet with Walt while wearing a wire tap, but Jesse backs out at the last minute, fearing Walt will kill him. Instead, Jesse suggests they target Walt's money, which they know has been hidden as cash somewhere locally. After trying to locate it on their own, Hank has Jesse call Walt pretending to have found the money and preparing to destroy it. Walt takes off to the money, buried on the Tohajiilee Indian Reservation, and when he finds it intact, realizes Jesse has fooled him, and orders a hit on Jesse through Jack Welker (Michael Bowen). Jesse soon arrives with Hank and Gomez, and Walt tries to call off the hit, preparing to surrender himself to Hank. However, Jack's Neo-Nazi gang arrive before then, and a firefight breaks out, which kills Gomez and critically wounds Hank. Walt pleads to Jack to spare Hank's life, offering his entire fortune to Jack. Hank refuses to beg for his life and asks Walt how such an intelligent man could be too naive to see that Jack had already made his decision. Hank then tells Jack to do what he has to do and Jack kills him with a shot to the head. Jack's men bury Hank and Gomez's bodies in the hole Walt had stored his money, stealing most of it but leaving one barrel totaling approximately $10M for Walt.

During the final episodes of Better Call Saul, taking place in 2010, it is learned that Skyler used the lottery ticket that identified the location of Hank and Gomez's bodies to negotiate a deal with authorities. In the final episode, Marie accuses Saul of enabling Walter and the events that led to Hank's murder. During his trial a repentant Saul forgoes the deal and confesses the full extent of his involvement in Walt's drug empire and acknowledges the role he played in causing the deaths associated with Walt including Hank and Gomez, shocking both Marie and Gomez's widow Blanca but giving them final closure.