{"id":4299,"date":"2026-07-05T07:07:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T07:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4299"},"modified":"2026-07-05T07:07:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T07:07:01","slug":"before-walter-white-was-a-killer-he-was-just-a-desperate-man-with-a-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4299","title":{"rendered":"Before Walter White was a killer, he was just a desperate man with a plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This week in Autopilot, a Globe series on great first television episodes:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBreaking Bad\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Episode: <\/b>\u201cPilot\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Pilot air date:<\/b> Jan. 20, 2008, AMC<\/span><\/p>\n

Stream it on:<\/b> Netflix; Prime Video<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve seen the end of a series, it\u2019s impossible to look at the beginning as you once did. Take \u201cBreaking Bad,\u201d which brought Bryan Cranston\u2019s Walter White, and us, to hell and back, continually reaching new levels of darkness that grew hard on my soul even as I kept watching to see what might happen next, and just how low Walter would descend. It can be hard to remember, until you circle back to the start, that he was once a dorky chemistry teacher with a terminal cancer diagnosis, trying to cook meth in his tighty whities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Jacob\u2019s Pillow is in full swing, and more local arts news<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the trick that \u201cBreaking Bad\u201d pulled, transforming Walter, as series creator Vince Gilligan put it, from Mr. Chips into Scarface, or from Walter White into Heisenberg. The thing is, you can already see hints of Dark Walter in the pilot episode. He\u2019s there in a clothing store, when, as an enraged dad, Walter attacks the bully making fun of Walter Jr. (RJ Mitre). He\u2019s definitely there in the RV, when the desperate meth chef uses a chemical reaction to kill the two dealers trying to move in on his turf (in the words of Aaron Paul\u2019s Jesse Pinkman, \u201cYeah, Mr. White! Yeah, science!\u201d). \u201cBreaking Bad\u201c was so disturbing because it suggested that we all have a Heisenberg lurking within, just waiting for the right occasion to break out.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Of course, we could only see hints of that back in 2008. At first we just saw a frustrated middle-aged New Mexico man dealt some bad cards trying to leave a nest egg for his family. His brash brother-in-law, Hank (Dean Norris), happens to be a DEA agent. Walter sees a report of a raid on the news, goes for a ride-along, spots his former student, Pinkman, and makes him a business proposal: Show me the ropes of the drug trade and I won\u2019t turn you in. Walter has a notion that he can use his chemistry knowledge to make a quality product. Boy, is he right. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Local bestsellers for the week ended June 28<\/a><\/p>\n

The future still holds plenty, little of it pretty: the lies, the betrayals, the body count, the corpse disposal. Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) and Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) aren\u2019t in the picture yet. \u201cBreaking Bad\u201d hasn\u2019t yet broken all the way bad. But it will soon, with a vengeance. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more The best movies, TV shows, specials, and more to watch this July Fourth weekend<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the first episode of Vince Gilligan’s “Breaking Bad,” we got glimpses of the man he’d become.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts"],"yoast_head":"\nBefore Walter White was a killer, he was just a desperate man with a plan - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4299\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Before Walter White was a killer, he was just a desperate man with a plan - Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the first episode of Vince Gilligan's "Breaking Bad," we got glimpses of the man he'd become.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4299\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-05T07:07:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4299#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4299\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e\"},\"headline\":\"Before Walter White was a killer, he was just a desperate man with a plan\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-05T07:07:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4299\"},\"wordCount\":473,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4299#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/5cb903bee7f675d1eabf8dfccc1a8004.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Arts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4299#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4299\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4299\",\"name\":\"Before Walter White was a killer, he was just a desperate man with a plan - 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