Jesse Pinkman’s epilogue is a stellar outing, but it didn’t need to happen.
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Online Editor
“El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie”
Now Streaming On Netflix
Premiered: 10/11/2019
***SPOILERS BELOW***
The new “Breaking Bad” movie is enjoyable, satisfying and brings back great memories, but it didn’t need to happen.
I think that it’s pretty much agreed upon that “Breaking Bad” is one of the best shows ever made. From a storytelling standpoint, from a visual standpoint and from an acting standpoint, it’s nearly untouchable. At only five seasons, the show did not overstay its welcome and the show ended perfectly. Walter White (Bryan Cranston), the high school chemistry teacher turned legendary meth kingpin, died at a Neo-Nazi compound after massacring an entire gang, and his underling Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) was freed from captivity at the compound and seemingly free from the life he had chosen for himself.
Or so we thought. “El Camino” picks up right after the last shot we saw of Jesse in “Breaking Bad,” and it reveals that pretty much every law enforcement agency in the country is searching for him. It’s confirmed that Walter White is officially dead (some fans were holding out hope that he had somehow survived), and that Jesse is a person of interest in everything that went down. The movie details Jesse’s PTSD in incredible detail, and he is constantly flashing back to his past while he attempts to escape New Mexico. Multiple people from his past, both dead and alive, return in both flashbacks and the present to help Jesse move on.
In particular, Jesse’s drug-addled friend Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) does more than anyone else to help Jesse, taking the El Camino (which apparently had a tracker placed on it) off his hands to buy him time to evade law enforcement. With further help from Ed the Dissapearer (the late Robert Forester, who died on the day the movie premiered on Netflix), he manages to get smuggled away to Alaska, finally free to start a new life as Mr. Driscoll.
I’m not really sure that a “Breaking Bad” follow-up was necessary. Things could have been left as they were in the series finale, and I don’t think anyone would’ve been displeased. But this movie does manage to give closure to Jesse Pinkman, and the series as a whole. I don’t think we need to see another “Breaking Bad” movie, and I don’t think that we need to see anything more of Jesse Pinkman other than possible flashbacks in “Better Call Saul.” Jesse got a good ending, and the long suffering character got a new lease on life. This is his movie, and that’s the note that I’d like to see his character end on.
