“You know the business, and I know the chemistry.”

If someone asked me to describe Breaking Bad in a few words, I would probably, after much deliberation, settle for ‘modern-day Greek tragedy’. But, watching “Pilot” again, I was surprised at just how tonally different the show was at its outset; originally more darkly comic than darkly tragic (a metamorphosis towards the latter began at the end of its second season), I have read many pieces which describe Breaking Bad‘s earlier episodes as so-called ‘humble beginnings’. Looking back on it retrospectively, however, reveals that show creator Vince Gilligan knew exactly where the series was heading (as evidenced by the now-infamous foreshadowing sprinkled throughout) from its inception. It is for this reason, amongst a plethora of others, that I consider Breaking Bad the pinnacle of the televisual format, and believe it to be the greatest television show of all time.

Breaking Bad‘s opening scene, while undoubtably memorable, is unlike many of the other ‘great’ TV shows’, insofar as it doesn’t serve to set out the series’ themes going forward – there’s no Don Draper talking to a black waiter as a symbol for man’s inability to willingly change of his own accord, there’s no Jimmy McNulty talking to a low-level gangster about the harsh opportunistic reality of modern-day America. Instead, here’s a man crashing an RV wearing only his tighty-whiteys, recording a brief confessional to his wife and kids, and, finally, preparing himself to commit suicide by cop. It’s an in medias res opening – the likes of which Breaking Bad would eventually become famous for – which, when juxtaposed starkly against the suburban monotony of the post-credits flashback to three weeks prior, led me to believe on my initial viewing that at least an entire season would be spent building to that scene. Imagine my surprise, then, when “Pilot” not only reached this point by episode’s end, but had done so in a way that felt entirely unrushed.

At the centre of Breaking Bad is Walter White, a chemistry teacher who, due to the financial strain of an unplanned pregnancy and having a son with cerebral palsy, is also working a demeaning second job at a car wash. On the surface, Walt is very much a sympathetic character, and much of “Pilot” is spent garnering that sympathy – somewhat at the expense of developing any of the show’s other characters. Hank, Walt’s boorish jock of a brother-in-law, is pretty much a one-note character here. Similarly, Marie, Skyler’s narcissistic sister, is strangely at odds with the character she eventually became. Both of these can be attributed to the growing pains of a TV pilot, and considering the almost entire year of a gap between the filming of “Pilot” and the show’s second episode, it’s unsurprising that those characters evolved in the interim.

After collapsing unconscious in the car wash, Walt (in one of the show’s first striking shots, as he looks up into the camera while having an MRI) is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, effectively the catalyst for the entire series. Having been emasculated enough already (the scene where he realises he’s washing the car of an obnoxious student being a particularly humiliating experience), he quits his second job after verbally assaulting his boss; coupled with the fact that he cannot bear to inform anyone of his diagnosis, this adds exponentially more financial pressure on him. He takes DEA agent Hank up on his offer to bring him on a ride-along as they take down a meth lab, whereon he sees former student Jesse Pinkman, now a meth cook, narrowly escape the sting.

Almost invigorated by his cancer diagnosis, Walt tracks down Pinkman and blackmails him (in one of the episode’s many, many iconic scenes) into partnering up, with the intention of producing methamphetamine to ease the financial burden of his cancer. As expected, almost everything is a point of contention between the two, but upon buying a (now-famous) RV, and travelling far into the desert of New Mexico, we get our first fleeting glimpse of the potential success of their operation; the meth Walt makes is the purest Jesse has ever seen (“this is art”), and it looks as though the two are about to make a lot of money.

But, this being Breaking Bad, things go awry very quickly. Jesse, looking for a buyer, visits Krazy 8, his ex-partner Emilio’s cousin, who is skeptical that Jesse cooked the drugs he lets him sample. Compounding the problem is the fact that Jesse, offended by accusations of snitching thrown his way, starts shit-talking about Emilio, who turns out to have been bailed out by Krazy 8. Jesse brings them out to the desert, under pressure to both disprove their accusations, and to show them the source of his high-quality meth.

The situation further escalates when Emilio recognises Walt from the DEA operation. Jesse tries to run, trips on a rock and is knocked unconscious, while Walt bargains with them, telling them that he will show them his winning recipe. Instead, he mixes red phosphorus with water (a nice callback to earlier in the episode, when Hank was talking about the dangers of meth labs), creating a deadly mustard gas. He and Jesse are not entirely in the clear, however, due to a fire (caused by a cigarette flicked out the window by Emilio; the episode – and entire show – is obsessed with the theme of catalysts and reactions, chemical or otherwise) which begins to flare around the RV. Putting a gas mask on the still-unconscious Jesse, Walt loads him into the vehicle, and goes about driving it as far away as possible.

Which leads us back to that opening.

Walt’s initial conviction wavers about the same as his aim does, and he puts the gun in his mouth. Predictably, it isn’t cocked, and when he manages to tinker with it enough to make it work, he can’t bring himself to put it back in his mouth and pull the trigger. It’s a darkly hilarious sequence, topped off sublimely by the reveal that it is not, in fact, the police arriving on the scene, but the fire brigade, who are thoroughly bemused upon seeing a middle-aged man in his underpants standing at the side of the road.

What impresses me most about “Pilot” is how it simultaneously establishes the series’ main conflict and reaches its own self-contained climax, and still the episode finds room to further delve into the psyche of Walter White. There are various scenes throughout the episode that give us a brief flavour of Walt’s deep-set existential frustration, and, more importantly, once he gets his cancer diagnosis, scenes which insinuate that he has found an outlet for that frustration.

Shopping with Walter Jr., his disabled son, he sees a few bullies making fun of the boy. Leaving the shop, and coming back in the other entrance, Walt viciously attacks the leader of the group with barely-restrained fury. His wife, Skyler, is absolutely shocked at the display, having grown accustomed to her husband being a meek, milquetoast teacher-cum-car-wash employee. Furthermore, the final scene, wherein Walt displays an obviously atypical sexual dominance obviously unlike him, is our first real glimpse at a Walter White who has found a new lease on life.

As triumphant as this sounds, it’s also important to take into account the definition of chemistry Walt gives his students, that it is the study of change: it’s “growth, then decay, then transformation”. Walt is changing, no doubt. “I am awake”, he says to Jesse. Considering the name of this show is Breaking Bad, maybe it would have been for the better if Walter White had never woken up.

Grade: A

Some other thoughts:

Welcome to my coverage of Breaking Bad, which, as I mentioned above, is my favourite TV show ever. I’ll be taking a brief break in between seasons, but, for the most part, this will be a continuous weekly feature.

I love the moment where Hank simultaneously takes Walt’s drink and leaves him awkwardly holding his gun.

Also, Hank’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ was another great moment. As much as I love the development the writers give Hank in later seasons, his stereotypical jock persona is still immensely funny.

I forgot how graphic “Pilot” is in comparison to the show’s other episodes: I counted 3 ‘fucks’ – the episode was made before AMC had picked it up, so after that happened they were limited to one per season (although they got two in the second half of Season 5).

“Cowhouse?” “Yeah, where they live… The cows.”

The Music of Breaking Bad:

By far one of my favourite pieces the show ever used was incidentally featured in the pilot. Rodrigo y Gabriela’s brilliant “Tamacun” plays as Jesse escapes from the DEA raid and Walt gets a glimpse of his new partner.

The first of Breaking Bad‘s signature cook montages is set to ‘Working for a Nuclear Free City”s “Dead Fingers Talking“.

Spoiler Section:

(Warning: this section contains spoilers up to and including Breaking Bad‘s final episode.)

Seeing Walt and Jesse at To’hajiilee made me feel almost queasy, considering the dreadful things which eventually happen there.

I have always been confused at the appearance of that mysterious woman at the car wash before Walt collapses. Maybe it’s supposed to be Gretchen?

I was thoroughly impressed when I saw the consistency of the set of the car wash, which became an iconic location in the show’s later seasons.

Next time on Breaking Bad: In “Cat’s in the Bag…”, Walt and Jesse discover that, to their dismay, Krazy 8 has survived his gassing from the previous episode. Also, things get spectacularly messy when Jesse doesn’t follow Walt’s instructions when disposing of Emilio’s remains.