Gray Matter (Breaking Bad)
episode of Breaking Bad (S1 E5)
"Gray Matter" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American television crime drama series Breaking Bad. Written by Patty Lin and directed by Tricia Brock, it aired on AMC in the United States on February 24, 2008. The episode revolves around Walter White (Bryan Cranston) attending the birthday of his old co-worker Elliott Schwartz (Adam Godley) and facing the possibility of undergoing chemotherapy for his cancer, while Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) turns back to dealing drugs.
The episode received positive reviews from critics. Series creator Vince Gilligan later identified the episode as a turning point for the series, as the episode in which Walter "breaks bad" as per the series' title by turning back to making meth despite having a more ethical alternative.
Plot
Walter and Skyler White attend a birthday party for their wealthy acquaintance, Elliott Schwartz. When Elliott offers him a job and tells him that his company Gray Matter Technologies has excellent health insurance, Walt realizes that Skyler told Elliott about his cancer and declines the offer, getting upset with her.
After a failed job interview, Jesse Pinkman shows his friend Badger the RV Walt and Jesse use as a meth lab. In the desert, Jesse is frustrated that the quality of his meth is inferior to that of Walt's and throws his own product away, much to Badger's dismay. Jesse cooks a couple more batches, which he also discards.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gray Matter (Breaking Bad)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.