<P> After returning to work at the car wash, Walt suddenly lashes out at his boss and walks off the job . Having earlier seen a news report showing a large amount of money recovered from one of Hank's drug busts, Walt takes up a previous offer to go on a ride - along as Hank and his partner Steven Gomez raid a known meth lab . As the DEA agents clear out the house, Walt observes his former student Jesse Pinkman sneaking out a back window . Later, Walt tracks down Jesse's address and blackmails him into helping him produce crystal meth without revealing why . Walt turns over his life savings to allow Jesse to purchase a Fleetwood Bounder RV to use as a mobile lab . Walt then steals supplies from the high school chemistry lab needed for the process . </P> <P> Walt and Jesse drive the RV into the desert and begin to cook . Walt's expertise in chemistry enables them to create crystal meth that Jesse claims is the purest he's ever seen . Jesse drives back into town to show a sample to his distributor, Krazy - 8 Molina . He realizes too late that Krazy - 8 is a cousin of Emilio Koyama, his partner that was busted on the earlier raid and now free on bail . Emilio believes Jesse abandoned him, but Jesse promises to prove his loyalty by driving them to the RV . When they meet Walt, Emilio recognizes him from the raid and thinks that he is an informant, leading him and Krazy - 8 to hold the two at gunpoint . Jesse tries to run but trips and falls and hits his head on rock, knocking himself out . Walt barters for his life by offering to show them how he produced the meth . As they watch Walt inside the RV, Emilio flicks away a cigarette outside, which causes a brush fire to ignite . Walt surprises Emilio and Krazy - 8 by synthesizing deadly phosphine gas, flees the RV, holds the door shut which causes Emilio and Krazy - 8 to pass out . </P> <P> Hearing sirens in the distance, Walt quickly dons a gas mask and puts one on Jesse before pulling him into the RV's passenger seat, still filled with phosphine fumes . Walt frantically drives the RV away from the spreading brush fire . As shown in medias res at the start of the episode, Walt drives the RV into a ditch and stumbles out of the vehicle, discarding his gas mask . Believing that he is about to be captured by the police, Walt records a video message to his family before trying to shoot himself with a pistol, unaware the safety is still on . As the sirens near, Walt is relieved to find they are only fire engines responding to the fire, and quickly hides his weapon . Jesse wakes up and joins Walt as they watch the fire engines race by . The two have the RV extracted from the ditch by a Native American man with a front - end loader and then drive back into town, making sure Emilio and Krazy - 8 are secured in the RV before leaving it at Jesse's home . Later that night, Walt returns home and meets his wife's troubled queries with a new sexual vigor, which leaves her asking, "Walt, is that you?" </P> <P> Breaking Bad was created by television writer Vince Gilligan, with the crux of the series being the protagonist's journey into an antagonist . He stated "Television is historically good at keeping its characters in a self - imposed stasis so that shows can go on for years or even decades," he said . "When I realized this, the logical next step was to think, how can I do a show in which the fundamental drive is toward change?" He added that his goal with Walter White is to turn him from Mr. Chips into Scarface . The concept of Walt as a meth dealer came to fruition when Gilligan was talking with fellow writer Thomas Schnauz, and they joked regarding their unemployment that the solution was "putting a meth lab in the back of an RV and driving around the country cooking meth and making money ." The script was originally set in Riverside, California, but at the suggestion of Sony, Albuquerque was chosen for production due to the favorable financial conditions offered by the state of New Mexico, and the setting was moved there too because otherwise "we'd always have to be avoiding the Sandia Mountains" in shots toward the East, according to Gilligan . </P>

What happens in the first episode of breaking bad