Breaking Half: "Pilot"

Bryan Cranston

Are you tired of long, tedious accounts of Breaking Bad episode recaps? Then look no further than Breaking Half: a weekly column that takes the good and bad from each week's episode of Breaking Bad and dilutes it down to the core necessities. Each Monday, Breaking Half will attempt to take a few key moments from the episode and boil it down to one juicy paragraph.

Season 1, Episode 1

"Pilot"

"You know the business and I know the chemistry.

I was thinking that you and I could partner up."

-Walter White (Bryan Cranston)

This is where everything begun. With a chubby 50-year-old white man named Walter White (Bryan Cranston) driving a meth lab through the desert in New Mexico before pulling out a gun on an upcoming siren. This is the most aggressive move that any show could do, let alone a pilot. Flash back to three weeks ago, the entire story begins to unravel. Walter just turned 50 and is having a tough life not only as a chemistry teacher, but a car wash employee. He also has a wife named Skyler (Anna Gunn) that he is not attracted to and a physically disabled son named Walt Jr. (R.J. Mitte). Over the course of the episode, he discovers that he has lung cancer and that his days are numbered. Upon a news coverage of his brother-in-law and D.E.A. officer Hank (Dean Norris) busting a meth lab, Walter decides to look into the profession, as he feels that it could give his family a substantial wealth upon his passing. During a drive around with Hank, they bust a meth lab ran by Cap'n Cook who turns out to be Walter's former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Upon arresting his partner Emilio (John Koyama), Jesse slowly warms up to Walter's proposal to team up. They make a batch, buy an RV, cook in the desert, and the rest is history. However, when Jesse decides to sell to Krazy 8 (Max Arciniega), he comes to visit the RV and notices Walter from the drug bust. Walter's only move? Kill them with chemistry. Returning to Walter holding the gun in the desert, it turns out that the sirens were from firetrucks heading out to another event. The episode ends with Walter finally showing some passion towards Skyler in a round of sex.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Cranston

MVP: Walter

This is the pilot after all, and this is all about setting up who this character was and his slow evolution into the villain. It also helps that Bryan Cranston is fearless enough to allow his physical presence to be something of a comical use in the early going. The rest of the cast is impressively well established, but without Walter, the show couldn't begin. And besides, the opening scene alone may be one of the greatest openings to a series in the history of the modern drama.

Aaron Paul

Best scene: While it would be cliche to just say the opening, there is another moment that stands out even more-so. For a pilot episode, a lot of the scenes are amazingly influential and important to episodes many seasons on. However, none are probably more impressive than the evolution of the meth cooking scene. After driving into the desert, the first time that Walter and Jesse open up the supplies, magic was made and our story begins. It lacks the flair that the later montage sequences would have, but all of the elements were there.

Cannot wait to get through this entire series and get to the big finale on August 11. Please join me everyday between now and then as I recap Breaking Bad and all of its brilliance leading up to the ultimate demise. Come back tomorrow for a recap on the episode "The Cat's in the Bag"