Live Free or Die (Breaking Bad)

"Live Free or Die"

Breaking Bad episode

Episode no.

Season 5
Episode 1

Directed by

Michael Slovis

Written by

Vince Gilligan

Produced by

Bryan Cranston, Diane Mercer

Featured music

Dave Porter

Cinematography by

Marshall Adams

Editing by

Skip MacDonald

Original air date

July 15, 2012

Running time

43 minutes

Guest appearance(s)

Christopher Cousins as Ted Beneke
Steven Michael Quezada as Steven Gomez
Jim Beaver as Lawson
Larry Hankin as Old Joe
J. B. Blanc as Dr. Barry Goodman
Monique Candelaria as Lucy (Waitress)

Episode chronology

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"Face Off"

Next →
"Madrigal"

Breaking Bad (season 5)
List of Breaking Bad episodes

"Live Free or Die" is the fifth season premiere episode of the American television drama series Breaking Bad, the first episode of the first part of the season and the 47th overall episode of the series. Written by series creator Vince Gilligan and directed by Michael Slovis, it originally aired on AMC in the United States on July 15, 2012.

This episode is titled after the official motto of the U.S. state of New Hampshire: Live Free or Die.

The episode starts with a flashforward to Walter White (Bryan Cranston) in a Denny's restaurant, on his 52nd birthday. Walt, sporting regrown hair and a beard, is using a New Hampshire driver's license and an alias. As he chats with the waitress and arranges his bacon in the shape of the number 52 (a callback to the first episode, where his family presents him with breakfast topped with a '50' to celebrate his 50th birthday), he seems despondent. He meets with Lawson (Jim Beaver) in the restroom, where he is given the keys to a car that has an M60 machine gun and ammunition in the trunk.

In the present, Walt disposes of the pipe bomb materials and the Lily of the Valley plant involved in his successful plot against Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). Soon afterward, Skyler (Anna Gunn) arrives home with Walt, Jr. (RJ Mitte) and Holly. Walt, Jr. explains that Gus's illicit activities are the subject of a media frenzy and that the DEA believes the danger against Hank (Dean Norris) and Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt) has abated. Skyler tries not to speak to Walt, explaining that she is now "scared" of him. Walt suddenly remembers the surveillance cameras that Gus installed in the superlab, realizing that the footage Gus may have collected could incriminate him.

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Wikipedia