The opening scene of Breaking Bad shows a car speeding through the desert as though being chased by several police cars with sirens blaring. The car eventually loses control and crashes off the side of the road. Two passengers step out: Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Walter records himself with a camcorder, delivering a final message to his family at home. Afterward, he grabs a gun and points it toward the direction of the approaching sirens. The scene then transitions to a flashback from three weeks earlier, where Walter is shown unable to sleep, constantly thinking about his difficult situation due to financial struggles.
The next morning, Walter has breakfast with his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) and his son, Walter Junior (RJ Mitte), who has cerebral palsy. Afterward, Walter heads to work as a high school chemistry teacher, where his son is also a student. During class, Walter scolds a troublemaking student named Chad (Evan Bobrick) for chatting instead of paying attention. After teaching, Walter works his second job as a cashier at a car wash. When a car wash employee doesn’t show up, Walter’s boss, Bogdan Wolynetz (Marius Stan), asks him to wash a car—which turns out to belong to Chad. Chad, with his girlfriend present, takes a photo of Walter with his phone, seemingly to humiliate him as payback.
After finishing work at the car wash, Walter goes straight home, where he is surprised by his family and friends with a small celebration for his 50th birthday. Days later, Walter returns to the car wash after teaching, just like the day before. However, he suddenly collapses at work and loses consciousness, resulting in a hospital visit. There, the doctor diagnoses him with stage-three lung cancer, explaining that he cannot handle heavy labor and likely doesn’t have much time left to live. From that day on, Walter begins to change, driven by the immense psychological pressure he faces. Already burdened by financial struggles, he now must contend with the cost of expensive medical treatments.
The next day, Bogdan once again ordered Walter to wipe down all the cars at the car wash. Under immense stress, Walter snapped and berated Bogdan for treating him unfairly. He firmly decided to quit his job. To relieve his stress, Walter met with Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), the husband of Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt), Skyler’s sister. Walter asked Hank, who worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), if he could tag along during a drug raid. During the raid, Walter saw a suspect escape, who turned out to be Jesse Pinkman, one of his former high school students. Later that evening, Walter, still remembering Jesse’s address from his school days, decided to visit him.
Jesse, thinking Walter had come to arrest him, tried to flee. However, Walter revealed that he wanted to partner with Jesse as a drug dealer to earn money for his family after his death. Walter explained that they would make a good team—he had the chemical knowledge, and Jesse knew the drug trade. Walter essentially forced Jesse to agree by threatening to report him to the police if he refused. With no other choice, Jesse reluctantly agreed. The following day, after finishing his teaching duties, Walter secretly sneaked into the school laboratory and took the equipment needed to produce drugs.
The two also bought an RV to serve as their mobile meth lab in the desert. After ensuring the location was safe, Walter began cooking meth, carefully crafting the product using precise chemical formulas he had studied for decades. Once the cooking was complete, Jesse was stunned to see their meth had a purity level of 99.1%. Jesse took a sample to drug dealer Domingo Gallardo Molina, also known as Krazy-8 (Maximino Arciniega), who declared it the best meth he had ever tried. Curious about the cook, Krazy-8 and his associate Emilio Koyama (John Koyama), recently released from police custody, accompanied Jesse to the desert to meet Walter.
Krazy-8 offered Walter a job as a meth cook for him, but Walter refused, choosing to remain independent. Emilio recognized Walter as the man who had been in the DEA car during the raid a few days earlier. Krazy-8 and Emilio pointed their guns at Walter, who, terrified, promised to teach them his meth formula in exchange for his life. Inside the RV, instead of teaching them, Walter concocted a toxic gas to kill them. As Walter tried to free Jesse, he was alarmed to see the gas causing sparks near the RV. Panicking, the two started the RV and fled, leaving Krazy-8 and Emilio inside.
This scene ties back to the opening sequence. After the RV crashed, Walter, holding a gun, attempted to end his life, but the gun jammed. Believing he was about to be arrested, Walter surrendered to his fate. However, the siren-blaring vehicles turned out to be a fire truck convoy. Walter and Jesse returned the RV to Jesse’s house. The next morning, during breakfast, Walter received a call from Jesse, who said that Emilio and Krazy-8, whom they thought were dead, might still be alive. Walter told Jesse to stay calm and promised to come after finishing his school classes. After teaching, Walter went to the school science lab and took two bottles of hydrofluoric acid (HF).
On his way to Jesse’s house, Walter saw Krazy-8 wandering aimlessly in the street. He tried to catch him, but Krazy-8 ran and crashed into a tree, knocking himself unconscious. Walter brought Krazy-8 back to Jesse’s house and tied him to a pole in the basement. Jesse told Walter that Emilio was dead and asked what to do with the body. Walter had a solution: dissolve Emilio’s corpse with hydrofluoric acid. The two divided the tasks—Jesse would handle Emilio’s remains, while Walter was tasked with killing Krazy-8. Walter practiced killing him, trying tools like a knife and a hammer, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Walter decided he would kill Krazy-8 the next day, so before leaving, he gave him some food and water. Meanwhile, as Jesse attempted to move Emilio’s body from the RV into his house, Skyler suddenly arrived. She threatened Jesse, demanding that he stop selling marijuana to her husband or she would report him to her DEA agent brother-in-law. After Skyler left, Jesse placed Emilio’s body in the bathtub to dissolve it with hydrofluoric acid. When Walter arrived, Jesse angrily confronted him upon learning that Walter’s brother-in-law was a DEA agent. Jesse also informed Walter that he had already dissolved Emilio’s body in the bathtub. Suspicious, Walter went to check. Suddenly, the bathtub collapsed, and blood spilled everywhere, leaving a huge mess for them to clean up.
While Walter was in the basement, Krazy-8 began manipulating him with mind games. He asked if Emilio was dead and then revealed he knew all about Walter, including that he was a high school teacher and had a son with a disability. Krazy-8 claimed he had learned this from Jesse. Upset, Walter went upstairs and angrily confronted Jesse for sharing personal information. Later that night, Krazy-8, shouting in hunger, pushed Walter to make him a sandwich. As Walter brought it downstairs, his illness flared up, causing him to faint. After regaining consciousness, Walter made another sandwich for Krazy-8.
After receiving the sandwich, Krazy-8 continued manipulating Walter with warm and friendly conversation, pretending to be reasonable. Walter softened and started considering untying Krazy-8’s neck restraint. Upstairs, while retrieving the key, Walter threw away a soda can and noticed something odd in the trash. Curious, he reassembled the shards of the broken plate from earlier and realized a knife-shaped piece was missing. Krazy-8 had kept the shard to use as a weapon. Walter now understood Krazy-8 had been manipulating him all along.
Now certain of Krazy-8’s intentions, Walter resolved to kill him before falling victim to further manipulation. Walter returned to the basement, pretending he was going to free Krazy-8 as they had previously discussed. As Walter approached to loosen the neck restraint, Krazy-8, realizing that Walter had discovered his plan, tried to attack him with the plate shard. Acting quickly, Walter tightened the restraint, choking Krazy-8 to death. The next day, Walter didn’t go to work, still shaken by the trauma of committing his first intentional murder. Although Emilio had died earlier from toxic gas, his death was indirect. Krazy-8, however, was Walter’s first victim killed directly by his own hands.
Hank and his DEA team investigated the desert location where Jesse and Walter had been cooking meth. They were also searching for Krazy-8, who, unbeknownst to them, had been acting as a DEA informant. They found evidence of meth in the car Krazy-8 had abandoned. Hank held a meeting at the DEA to prepare his team for the search for Krazy-8. During the meeting, Hank revealed that the meth they found in Krazy-8’s car was the highest quality they had ever encountered. Meanwhile, at Jesse’s house, two of his friends, Christian Ortega, also known as Combo (Rodney Rush), and Skinny Pete (Charles Baker), came over. Jesse offered them some of the meth he had produced with Walter and asked them to promote the meth to other people.
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The next day, Jesse visited his parents, Adam (Michael Bofshever) and Diane Pinkman (Tess Harper). When he arrived, he noticed his younger brother, Jacob (Ben Petry), had won numerous awards. During the visit, Jesse received a call from Combo, who said his cousin was impressed with the meth Walter had produced and wanted to buy more. Combo added that his cousin would purchase all the meth they could produce. Jesse went to Walter’s house to share the news, but a misunderstanding led to an argument. Jesse explained that a client wanted a large order of meth, but Walter, in a bad mood, rejected the offer and kicked him out.
Back at Jesse’s parents’ house, their housekeeper found a joint in a flowerpot, which Jesse’s parents assumed was his. Losing their patience, Jesse’s parents kicked him out of the house. While waiting for a taxi, Jacob approached Jesse and admitted the marijuana belonged to him. Jesse, angry, threw the joint away and warned Jacob not to use it again. A few days later, Jesse applied for a job at a marketing company. During the interview, the manager informed him that they were not hiring for marketing positions. The only available position was as a mascot handing out promotional flyers, which Jesse declined. As Jesse was leaving, one of the mascots approached him—it turned out to be his friend, Brandon Mayhew, also known as Badger (Matt Jones).
Jesse and Badger talked about Jesse’s meth production with Walter, which had been quite successful. Badger was confused as to why Jesse wasn’t cooking anymore and instead applying for a marketing job. Jesse explained that Walter no longer wanted to produce meth, and he was struggling to find the necessary raw materials on his own. Hearing this, Badger offered to help by supplying the ingredients for meth production. A few days later, Badger brought all the required materials, and the two used the same RV to head out to the desert to cook. However, when the meth was finished, Jesse was dissatisfied with the results due to the lower purity compared to Walter’s product.
Frustrated, Jesse threw away the meth they had made. After attempting another batch with similarly poor results, Jesse tried to discard the meth again, angering Badger and sparking a physical fight between them. Jesse ultimately left Badger stranded in the desert. Meanwhile, Walter was with his family discussing his lung cancer treatment. The next day, he visited a specialist clinic with his family and underwent chemotherapy. After completing his treatment, Walter, realizing he would need a lot of money, went to Jesse’s house. Jesse was shocked when Walter arrived and proposed they resume meth production.
Walter brought his equipment back to their RV lab, where he found it in complete disarray from Jesse and Badger’s earlier attempts at production. Walter expressed his desire to work more systematically this time, assigning Jesse the role of selling the product while instructing him not to assist with cooking. He also stressed the importance of keeping Walter’s identity as the meth cook strictly confidential. The next day, after teaching, Walter and Jesse returned to their usual spot in the desert to cook meth. During production, Walter experienced shortness of breath and stepped outside to rest. Jesse noticed Walter’s chest was red, a side effect of his chemotherapy.
At that moment, Walter confessed his health condition to Jesse, admitting he was exhausted and asking Jesse to take over the cooking—contradicting his earlier stance. Elsewhere, Steven Gomez (Steven Michael Quezada), Hank’s colleague, informed him that the gas mask found at the previous crime scene had been traced back to the school where Walter worked. After the meth was finished, Jesse began distributing it on the streets. The next morning, Jesse returned to Walter at the desert lab to hand over the proceeds from sales. Walter was disappointed with the revenue and instructed Jesse to stop selling meth in small amounts, instead focusing on larger deals.
The next morning, after finishing his classes, Hank unexpectedly showed up at Walter’s school. He asked Walter if the gas mask he brought belonged to him. Walter denied ownership. Hank also noted that two masks and some glass bottles were missing. After Hank left, Walter received a call from Jesse, who told him he had found a potential buyer—a major distributor named Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz), a former cellmate of Skinny Pete. Walter instructed Jesse to offer their meth to Tuco. When Jesse met with Tuco, he presented the meth for him to try. Tuco was amazed by its quality and asked who had made it. Jesse explained that the meth was made by him and his partner.
Tuco offered to buy it at a very high price per pound, but Jesse demanded upfront payment to cover production costs. This angered Tuco, a known psychopath, who viciously beat Jesse until he was severely injured. After the assault, Tuco warned Jesse that no one controlled the South Valley drug trade except him. When Jesse failed to contact him, Walter called and spoke to Skinny Pete, who informed him that Jesse was in the hospital. Walter went to the hospital and found Jesse unconscious. The next day, Walter noticed his hair falling out from chemotherapy and decided to shave his head completely. With his new look, Walter went to meet Tuco alone.
After getting through Tuco’s security, Walter met with him. Tuco noticed the meth Walter brought looked slightly different from the previous batch. Unfamiliar with Walter, Tuco asked who he was, and Walter introduced himself as “Heisenberg.” Walter demanded payment for the meth Tuco had taken from Jesse and money to cover Jesse’s medical bills. Amused by the stranger’s audacity, Tuco mocked Walter, calling him a fool for bringing more meth after the first batch had already been seized. Walter calmly replied that what he brought wasn’t meth and threw it to the ground, triggering an explosion. The substance, resembling meth, was actually mercury fulminate, a highly explosive compound.
Impressed by Walter’s boldness, Tuco agreed to all his demands. He mentioned that the meth he had seized from Jesse sold quickly in Tijuana, Mexico. Tuco then requested another pound of meth, promising to pay Walter directly the following week. After finalizing the deal, Walter left with the money he had requested. Walter then went to Jesse’s house to hand over the money. Jesse was shocked by Walter’s courage in confronting Tuco alone at his base. Walter also informed Jesse that he had made a new deal with Tuco. The next day, Walter accompanied his wife to the doctor, who informed them that Walter’s condition had worsened and required urgent treatment if he wanted to recover.
In short, the day arrived when Walter and Jesse had to deliver the one pound of meth Tuco had ordered. They arranged the transaction at a junkyard. Tuco arrived with his two henchmen, Gonzo (Jesus Payan) and No-Doze (Cesar Garcia). Walter handed over the meth, but it was slightly less than one pound. Walter explained that they had encountered production issues and couldn’t fulfill the full order. Tuco paid for the meth—just over half a pound—at half the agreed price. Walter then proposed a new deal with a higher price, which Tuco accepted. Back at home, Walter and Jesse created a shopping list for meth ingredients, this time in larger quantities, as their production target was now four times greater than before.
Walter instructed Jesse to buy all the materials as soon as possible so they could start production right away. The next day, Walter visited Jesse’s house to check if everything on the list had been purchased. However, Walter noticed that methylamine was missing from Jesse’s list of supplies. Methylamine was a new ingredient meant to replace pseudoephedrine after Walter decided to scale up their meth production. Jesse explained that his usual supplier couldn’t obtain methylamine due to strict regulations. Walter devised a plan to steal methylamine directly from a storage facility. He prepared an explosive to break open the facility’s door. During the heist, they locked the facility’s security guard in the bathroom after giving him a laxative.
In the end, Walter and Jesse successfully stole a drum of methylamine. The following morning, they planned to head to the desert to cook meth immediately. Unfortunately, their trusty RV wouldn’t start despite multiple attempts. Left with no choice, they decided to cook the meth in Jesse’s basement to avoid further delays in production. Their bad luck didn’t stop there—on the same day, Jesse’s house was scheduled for an open house event for potential buyers, as advertised by his real estate agency. In the middle of cooking, Jesse had to go upstairs to chase away the visitors by claiming the house had already been sold. After overcoming various challenges, Walter and Jesse managed to complete Tuco’s order.
Walter and Jesse delivered the meth to the same transaction spot as before. The meth produced by Walter this time had a slightly bluish hue due to the switch from pseudoephedrine to methylamine as the primary ingredient. Tuco was initially skeptical of the blue meth, which would later become known as Blue Sky. After trying it, Tuco was highly impressed with the quality of Walter’s blue meth. After paying Walter, No-Doze warned Walter and Jesse not to mess around in their business relationship. Tuco took offense to No-Doze’s words, believing it was his place to deliver such a message. The season finale of Breaking Bad Season 1 ended with Tuco brutally beating No-Doze while Walter and Jesse watched in horror.
