Albuquerque, New Mexico's desert landscape is shown in multiple shots in the opening scene.

A pair of khakis
plummets from the sky and is swiftly trampled by a speeding recreational vehicle driven by Walter Hartwell
White, the khakis' owner. In addition to donning a gas mask, he is driving the RV while wearing white
underwear. Additionally, there is a young man in the passenger seat who is wearing a gas mask; however, he
seems to be unconscious. There are two additional motionless bodies whirling around in the rear, along with
shattered glass and liquids. As Walter's mask gets foggy, he loses control of his vehicle and crashes. He gets out
of the RV, gets frustrated, and throws the gas mask off. Then he puts on his shirt and goes back inside to get a
camera and a gun. Standing on the road, he points the pistol towards the sound of approaching sirens, recording
a heartbreaking message saying goodbye to his family. Enter the title scene!

Immediately following the credits, a scene from three weeks prior is shown. While working out, Walter looks at
a plaque that recognises his work on research that won a Nobel Prise. Skyler, his wife, prepares breakfast for
him in the shape of a "50" using eggs and veggie bacon. Today marks Walter's half-century birthday. Walter Jr.,
his cerebral palsy sufferer son, makes fun of his mother's healthy food movement and veggie bacon in
particular. The next stop for Walter and his son is JP Wynne High School, where Walt Sr. teaches chemistry and
Walt Jr. is a student. As a second source of income, Walter is depicted working as a cashier at a car wash. As
fate would have it, one of his pupils sees him cleaning the tyres of a car and snaps a photo. Arriving home late,
Walter is humiliated to discover a surprise birthday party thrown in his honour, complete with a plethora of
guests. While the rest of the party raises a glass to Hank Schrader—a DEA agent who is married to Marie,
Skyler's sister—he casually shows Walt his pistol, takes his drink, and then hands it back to Walt. The news also
features Hank when he busts a meth lab in his hometown. The amount of money that the criminals have made is
shocking to Walt.

Walt has a coughing fit the following day while at the car wash; he collapses outside the cars and is taken to the
hospital in an ambulance, despite Walt's protests. The results of the scan confirmed his worst fears: he has
terminal lung cancer. Although Walt keeps quiet about the news with Skyler, he has a violent outburst with
Bogdan, the supervisor of the car wash, and subsequently resigns from his position. As the sun rises over his
poolside, he decides to call Hank and accept his offer to go on a drug bust with him. As Emilio Koyama's meth
lab is raided by the DEA, Walter observes from the car how Jesse Pinkman, Emilio's partner, flees from the
neighbouring house as a nude woman flings his clothes out the window. Walt remembers Jesse from their time
together in high school. Walt makes an offer to Jesse later that night when he drops by his house: the two of
them start a meth production company, with Jesse in charge of business and Walter of chemistry. Then, if Jesse
doesn't comply, he says he'll turn him in.

After Walt and Jesse made their deal, Walt stole a container of chemistry supplies from his high school
classroom and put them in their RV, which they used as a makeshift lab. Walt cooks in his underwear to avoid
odorizing his clothes as they drive into the desert. Evidently impressed by Walter's technical abilities, Jesse calls
him "an artist." Jesse delivers a sample to Krazy-8, who is Emilio's cousin and his distributor. Suddenly, Emilio
appears, having gotten out on bond, and makes a baseless accusation against Jesse, saying that she betrayed him
to the authorities. They confront Jesse and demand to know where he obtained his sample. Walt is still cooking
in the RV when the three of them arrive, but Jesse and Walt are attacked by Emilio and another man who
mistakenly believes Walter is a DEA informant after seeing him in the bust. Attempting to flee, Jesse stumbles
over a rock, knocking him out, while Emilio and Krazy-8 exchange death threats. Taking advantage of Krazy-
8's adoration of his meth, Walter convinces them to spare him and Jesse in exchange for the disclosure of his
recipe. He starts to cook, but he intentionally uses the wrong chemicals, resulting in an explosive gas cloud. He
then rushes out of the RV, clutching the door shut as he watches the two people inside become poisoned. As
soon as Walter sees that Emilio's stray cigarette butt has caught fire in the desert grass, he quickly puts gas
masks on Jesse and himself before rushing off in the RV that has been poisoned.

Returning to the opening teaser, Walter once again fixes his threatening gaze on the road ahead. Just as he's
about to pull the trigger on the gun—which he had previously intended to use in Suicide by Cop—he realises
that the safety is actually on. When he tries to open it, it goes off and hits the floor. The vehicles with the sirens
come into view, and it turns out they're fire trucks—not police cars, as Walt had assumed—hurrying past to put
out the brushfire they started. As Walter throws up in the road, Jesse gets out of the RV with a black eye. Walt
gets into bed with Skyler, who is worried about his whereabouts, and proceeds to dry all of the money from the
failed drug deal in the family dryer. Walt responds by enticing her and then turning her around for some intense
Glad-to-Be-Alive sex. As the credits roll, Skyler asks, "Is that you?" indicating her obvious shock.