‘Breaking Bad” enters its final lap July 15 on the heels of last season’s explosive finale — in which Walter White (Bryan Cranston) completed his transformation from “Mr. Chips to Scarface” by murdering arch-enemy Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), and then phoned his wife.

“I won,” he told her chillingly.

But with the victor comes the spoils — and that’s a complicated dynamic in the dark world of “Breaking Bad” which, over the past four seasons, has charted Walt’s journey from a milquetoast chemistry teacher to a ruthless drug kingpin.

“I think the thematic arc this season is all about what it is to win, which is a strange place in which Walt finds himself,” says series creator Vince Gilligan. “He’s been under-the-gun and up against it for four seasons . . . and faced an existential threat with his season-long chess match with Gus Fring,” Gilligan says. “Now he finds himself...