Keeping it a secret from his pregnant wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) and their teenage son Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte), he decides that he wants to spend his last years saving money for his family.

After going on a drug bust with his brother-in-law and DEA agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), Walt spots his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) and later blackmails him into helping him cook methamphetamine in an RV.

Walt is heavily dissatisfied with his life, feeling overqualified and underpaid as a high school teacher, struggling to make ends meet, resenting his humiliating part-time job at a car wash and failing to satisfy his wife.

The next day, Walt collapses at the car wash and is taken to the hospital, where he is told that he has developed inoperable lung cancer and has, at best, two years to live.

Walt synthesizes phosphine gas with red phosphorus, causing an explosion, and flees the RV, trapping Emilio and Krazy-8 inside and leaving them for dead in poisonous fumes.

Breaking Bad was created by television writer Vince Gilligan, with the crux of the series being the protagonist's journey into an antagonist.

[9] For his role, Cranston met frequently with a chemistry teacher to learn about the subject, gained fifteen pounds to reflect the character's personal decline, and had his hair dyed brown to mask his natural red highlights.

"[15][16] The script was originally set in Riverside, California, but at the suggestion of Sony, which was producing the pilot, Albuquerque was chosen for production due to the favorable financial conditions offered by the state of New Mexico.

[19][20] Barry Garron from The Hollywood Reporter praised the premiere for its suspense,[21] and Jonathan Storm from The Philadelphia Inquirer found it unpredictable.

Club journalist Donna Bowman wrote a positive review, giving the episode a grade rating of an "A−", and citing Cranston's "mesmerizing", "nihilistic", and "hulking yet impotent" performance along with lauding Vince Gilligan's screenplay.

[24] Furthermore, the Chicago Tribune television critic Maureen Ryan complimented Cranston's role, and noted the premiere as a "slam dunk" compared to the two following episodes.