History Recap / BreakingBadS1E1Pilot

The first scene we see is several landscape shots of desert in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Suddenly, a pair of khakis falls from the sky and is quickly run over by a speeding RV, driven by the owner of the khakis, Walter Hartwell White. He's driving the RV in his white underpants and wearing a gas mask. A young man in the passenger seat has a gas mask as well, but appears to be unconscious. In the back, broken glass, liquids, and two more un-moving bodies are careening around. Walter's mask becomes foggy, and he goes off the road and crashes. He emerges, flinging the gas mask from him in frustration, before donning his shirt and re-entering the RV to retrieve a videocamera and a handgun. He records a tearful message saying goodbye to his family and then stands on the road pointing the pistol toward the sound of oncoming sirens. Cue title sequence!

After the credits, we flash back to three weeks earlier. Walter is exercising and staring at a plaque commemorating his contributions to Nobel Prize-winning research. At breakfast, his wife Skyler makes him a plate of eggs with veggie bacon spelling out "50". It is Walter's 50th birthday today. His son, Walter Jr., who has cerebral palsy, mocks the veggie bacon and his mother's healthy food crusade. Walter and his son then drive to the JP Wynne High School, where Walt Jr. is a student and Walt Sr. is a chemistry teacher. Walter is also shown working as a carwash cashier, his second job to make ends meet. One of his students happens to spot him wiping down car tires and takes a picture. Humiliated, Walter returns home late to find a surprise birthday party for him, with many guests. His brother-in-law, Hank Schrader, a DEA agent married to Skyler's sister Marie, is making an unsafe demonstration of his Glock pistol, and hands it around to Walt, who has his drink taken from him as the party toasts him, [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments leaving him holding the firearm instead]]. Hank also features on the television busting a local meth lab. Walt is astounded at how much money the criminals have made.

Next day at the carwash, Walt collapses outside by the cars, and is rushed to the hospital, where a doctor tells him he's been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Walt takes the news well, hides it from Skyler, but explodes at his carwash supervisor, Bogdan, and angrily quits his job there. He then calls Hank to take him up on an offer to ride along with him for a drug bust. The DEA busts Emilio Koyama's meth lab, while Walter sits in the car and witnesses Emilio's partner, Jesse Pinkman, escaping from a next door house while a naked woman throws his clothes out of the window. Walt recognizes Jesse as a former student of his at the High School. Later that evening, Walt stops by Jesse's house to make him an offer: they go into business making meth together, Jesse handling the business and Walter handing the chemistry. He subsequently threatens to turn Jesse in if he doesn't agree.

Their partnership settled, Walt steals a box full of chemistry equipment from his own classroom at the high school, while Jesse purchases an RV for them to use as a lab. They drive into the desert and cook, with Walt in his underwear to keep the smell out of the clothes. Jesse declares Walter "an artist", and is clearly impressed with his technical abilities. Jesse takes a sample to his acquaintance Krazy-8, cousin of Emilio. Emilio then walks out of the bathroom, out of jail on bail. The two threaten Jesse for turning them in and ask where he obtained the excellent sample. The three drive out to the RV where Walt is, and when Emilio recognizes Walter from the bust, the two pull their guns on Jesse and Walt. Jesse tries to run away, but falls on a rock and is knocked out, as Emilio and Krazy threatens to kill them both, but Walter, picking on Krazy's admiration of his craft, talks them into sparing him and Jesse, if he teaches them his recipe. He begins cooking, but deliberately mixes the wrong chemicals to cause an explosive cloud of gas and runs out of the RV, holding the door shut as the two inside are poisoned. Walter suddenly notices that the prairie is on fire from Emilio's stray cigarette butt, and frantically puts gas masks on himself and Jesse and drives off.

* PapaWolf: Don't make fun of Walter Jr. Just don't.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: The punk that Walt attacks had no idea how right he would turn out to be when he called Walt a “psycho” for attacking him.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Hank is the one who originally offered to take Walter on a ride-along to a meth lab, claiming he should get a little excitement in his life. If he hadn't, Walter probably wouldn't have asked to go on one, he wouldn't have been reunited with Jesse and begun to cook meth.

* FanDisservice: Creator/BryanCranston makes the first of many appearances in his tighty whiteys, and it is not pleasant...

** Walt is told by the doctor when he got cancer in his birthday, that in the best case scenario, he has only two years to live. Walt dies exactly two years later, just not by cancer.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Hank is the one who originally offered to take Walter on a ride-along to a meth lab, claiming he should get a little excitement in his life. If he hadn't, Walter probably wouldn't have asked to go on one, he wouldn't have been reunited with Jesse and a lot of death and destruction wouldn't have happened. Perhaps Walt would have settled for grudgingly working for Elliot to pay his cancer bills. This includes both of Hank's fatal shootings. Poor Hank's own BoisterousBruiser tendencies helped pave the way for Heisenberg.

* StressVomit: Walter ends up throwing up when he realizes that he’s killed Krazy-8 ([[Recap/BreakingBadS1E2TheCatsInTheBag citation needed]]) and Emilio.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Hank is the one who originally offered to take Walter on a ride-along to a meth lab, claiming he should get a little excitement in his life. If he hadn't, Walter probably wouldn't have asked to go on one, he wouldn't have been reunited with Jesse and a lot of death and destruction wouldn't have happened. This includes both of Hank's fatal shootings. Poor Hank's own BoisterousBruiser tendencies helped pave the way for Heisenberg.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Walt is told by the doctor when he got cancer in his birthday, that in the best case scenario, he has only two years to live. Walt dies exactly two years later, just not by cancer.

* StressVomit: Walter ends up throwing up when he realizes that he’s killed Krazy-8 and Emilio.

%%* VomitDiscretionShot

* SuicideByCop: Walter initially wants to do this, until he decides that he is {{Driven to Suicide}} instead. Neither one works.

* BilingualBonus: As we first see Walter as a car wash worker, there's a guy in the background speaking angrily on the phone. He speaks Romanian and it means, "What I said, you idiot, is you have to be here at eight in the morning. You make me sick! Go to hell!

Their partnership settled, Walt steals a box full of chemistry equipment from his own classroom at the high school, while Jesse purchases an RV for them to use as a lab. They drive into the desert and cook, with Walt in his underwear to keep the smell out of the clothes. Jesse declares Walter "an artist", and is clearly impressed with his technical abilities. Jesse takes a sample to his acquaintance Krazy-8, cousin of Emilio. Emilio then walks out of the bathroom, out of jail on bail. The two threaten Jesse for turning them in and ask where he obtained the excellent sample. The three drive out to the RV where Walt is, and when Emilio recognizes Walter from the bust, the two pull their guns on Jesse and Walt. Jesse tries to run away, but falls on a rock and is knocked out, as Emilio and Krazy threatens to kill them both, but Walter, picking on Krazy's admiration of his craft, talks them into sparing him and Jesse, if he teaches them his recipe. He begins cooking, but deliberately mixes the wrong chemicals to cause an explosive cloud of gas and runs out of the RV, holding the door shut as the two inside are poisoned. Walter suddenly notices that the prairie is on fire from a stray cigarette butt, and frantically puts gas masks on himself and Jesse and drives off.

** Walter's chemistry lecture to his students about how life is about growth, decay, and transformation is equally establishing, [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain summing up both the series and especially Walter perfectly.]]* FanDisservice: Creator/BryanCranston makes the first of many appearances in his tighty whiteys, and it is not pleasant...

* UnwillingInstigatorOfDoom: Hank is the one who originally offered to take Walter on a ride-along to a meth lab, claiming he should get a little excitement in his life. If he hadn't, Walter probably wouldn't have asked to go on one, he wouldn't have been reunited with Jesse and a lot of death and destruction wouldn't have happened. This includes both of Hank's fatal shootings. Poor Hank's own BoisterousBruiser tendencies helped pave the way for Heisenberg.

** As if his cheesy TV commercial wasn't enough, the first time Saul appears in the flesh, he wipes the floor with a gawky cop that was interrogating Badger.
** In his first couple of scenes, Todd appears to be a competent, unfailingly polite henchman. [[spoiler:Then he unhesitatingly kills a child in cold blood.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The very first scene is of Walter White recording a video confession to his family when he thinks that he's about to be busted for cooking meth. Though seemingly innocuous on first watch, Walt's argument in his own defense--that he only had the best intentions, and wanted to provide for his family--gives valuable insight into how he rationalizes his criminal acts; [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain the series that follows]] is essentially one long dismantling of that claim, as we gradually find out that it's not nearly as true as Walt wants it to be. As several people have pointed out, [[ExactWords the specific phrasing of Walt's claim]] ("I only had you in my heart!") is particularly telling, as it can be understood both as "I only wanted to help you!" and "I don't care what happens to anyone but you!"
* EstablishingSeriesMoment: Walter White lecturing his students on the nature of chemistry, how it is about growth, decay and transformation. [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain An utterly perfect beginning metaphor for the series and especially Walter White]].
* FanDisservice: Creator/BryanCranston makes the first of many appearances in his tighty whiteys, and it is not pleasant...

* FanService: ...contrasted with the topless woman kicking Jesse out of her house. According to [[WordOfGod Vince Gilligan]] on the DVD commentary, that scene was a very popular one for the crew to watch the filming of. Apparently the script had been passed around.

* ForWantOfANail: A very dark example. Walt's bungled suicide attempt at the end (he tries to shoot himself with the safety on) may draw a breath of relief from the viewer in the moment, but in retrospect it would have prevented a vast amount of death and suffering down the road.

After the credits, we flash back to three weeks earlier. Walter is exercising and staring at a plaque commemorating his contributions to Nobel Prize-winning research. At breakfast, his wife Skyler makes him a plate of eggs with veggie bacon spelling out "50". It is Walter's 50th birthday today. His son, Walter Jr., who has cerebral palsy, mocks the veggie bacon and his mother's healthy food crusade. Walter and his son then drive to the JP Wynne High School, where Walt Jr. is a student and Walt Sr. is a chemistry teacher. Walter is also shown working as a carwash cashier, his second job to make ends meet. One of his students happens to spot him wiping down car tires and takes a picture. Humiliated, Walter returns home late to find a surprise birthday party for him, with many guests. His brother-in-law, Hank Schrader, a DEA agent married to Skyler's sister Marie, is making an unsafe demonstration of his Glock pistol, and hands it around to Walt, who has his drink taken from him as the party toasts him, [[FunnyMoments leaving him holding the firearm instead]]. Hank also features on the television busting a local meth lab. Walt is astounded at how much money the criminals have made.

* FanDisservice: Bryan Cranston makes the first of many appearances in his tighty whiteys, and it is not pleasant...