After all, Aaron Paul's critically-acclaimed character started out like this, in the pilot episode......and wound up looking like this in the series finale.Yup, meth-apprentice Jesse had himself quite a journey. But his fate, purposefully, was left up to the imagination of the viewers. Last seen driving an El Camino, pedal to the metal, hauling ass away from his now-dead captors, we could only assume he was off to a better life. After all, he'd just gone through pure hell. Things could only get better, right? Well, El Camino, the movie, is going to show us exactly what Jesse's next steps are. And that while he might be destined for a happier existence, he isn't quite out of the fire yet.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
After high school, Jesse Pinkman falls into a burnout life of selling third-rate meth using the street name Cap'n Cook.In Breaking Bad's first episode, he's blackmailed by his former chemistry teacher, Walter White, into helping Walter navigate Albuquerque's drug market. Walter, diagnosed with terminal cancer, wants to sell pure meth, that he'll make himself, at a high price to earn enough money for his family to survive after he's gone. It all quickly turns into a s**tstorm of epic proportions.
Walter and Jesse bumble their way through tight scrapes and close calls, and while nominally successful, they find themselves working for the unhinged Tuco Salamanca. Season 1 ends (somewhat abruptly, due to the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike) with them fearful for their well-being.
For Jesse Pinkman though, it means the character gets to live into the second season. Yes, the original plan was for Jesse to die in the first run, but the season got cut from nine episodes to seven. Creator Vince Gilligan then, when crafting Season 2, decided Jesse should stay on board as a full character.
JANE'S ADDICTION
Season 2 sees Walter and Jesse survive the crucible of Tuco's paranoia... and then split up. Walter decides he's out of the game while Jesse's parents kick him out of his house. Jesse grabs himself an apartment and quickly finds himself in a romance with his landlord Jane (played by Krysten Ritter). The upside here is that Jesse is in love. The downside is that Jane, a drug addict herself, gets Jesse hooked on heroin.When Walt decides to supply a powerful drug lord named Gustavo Fring, he brings Jesse back into the fold. Unfortunately, Jesse's a total f**k up due to his drugged-out state. Walter decides to cut Jesse out, and withhold Jesse's share of the profits until Jesse gets cleaned up. Jane doesn't take kindly to this and blackmails Walter for the loot. Walter stops by to talk to Jesse and sees Jane choking to death on her own vomit while sleeping. Though Walter could save Jane, he chooses not to -- allowing her to die in order to get rid of the blackmail problem. Walter then checks Jesse into a rehab clinic.
If you're looking to catch up on some quality Jesse episodes, then check out Season 2's "Peekaboo,” where Jesse finds himself trapped in the house of a couple of lowlifes while trying to collect on a debt, and "4 Days Out," where Jesse and Walter found themselves, and their RV, stranded in the desert after a marathon cook session.
CRASH AND BURN
Season 3 opens with a Jesse living clean. He and Walter are done (yeah sure), but Jesse's still torn up over Jane's death. On top of this, Walter's brother-in-law, DEA Hank Schrader, knows that Jesse has ties to the new blue meth that's riddled the streets of Albuquerque. After coming very close to catching Walter and Jesse inside their meth RV, and failing, Hank finds Jesse later and beats him so badly he winds up in the hospital. When Walter visits, Jesse lets him know how much his life has gone to s**t since they started their meth misadventures. "I want nothing to do with you," Jesse says. "Ever since I met you, everything I ever cared about is gone."It's a powerful moment for Jesse, though if you're looking for another powerful speech from Aaron Paul then Season 4's "Problem Dog" is a winner.
Regardless, Walter, who's now cooking meth for Gus(tavo), gets Jesse a gig as his lab assistant (in a very impressive, hidden super-lab). Jesse starts dating Andrea, who he meets at one of his Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Through her, he discovers that her younger brother was forced by older drug dealers to kill one of Jesse's friends. This all leads to a mini-war between Jesse and Gus, who controls the dealers. Walter sides with Jesse, killing the dealers himself. Jesse is then asked by Walter, who's now about to be offed by Gus, to kill chemist Gale Boetticher, the only other person who could replicate Walter's meth formula. Jesse, tears in his eyes, shoots Gale dead.
THE PAWN
In Season 4, Jesse finds himself caught up in a psychological war -- and then eventual war-war -- between Walter and Gus. Walter, convinced it's only a matter of time before Gus has him killed off, needs Jesse on his side. He also sees Jesse as, possibly, the perfect stealth mechanism for killing Gus, via poison.Gus also views Jesse as a crucial pawn and pairs Jesse with his fixer, Mike Ehrmantraut, in order to splinter Jesse away from Walter and give him a new mentor. He also flies Jesse to Mexico, where Jesse gets to show off all the meth-cooking knowledge he's learned under Walter, boosting his confidence and creating more of a rift between him and his megalomaniac mentor.
Finally, to save his life, Walter has to trick Jesse into thinking that Gus poisoned Andrea's son, Brock (when, in fact, Walter did it to get Jesse on his side). Walter winds up killing Gus, using a bomb placed in a very specific place (on a very specific person), and Jesse now thinks he and Walter are a winning team.
THE GREAT HEISENBERG
Walter's triumph over Gus Fring leaves him more confident, and dangerous, than ever. Walter, now acting as the drug kingpin, and partnering with Jesse and Mike, works out a system to cook meth inside people's homes while they're being tented for pest extermination. Walter's ambition turns deadly when he brings on a sociopath with ties to a local white supremacist syndicate, named Todd Alquist. Jesse is horrified when Todd shoots and kills a little boy who sees them stealing methylamine from a train and it creates a permanent divide between him and Walter.Jesse, also fearing that Walter killed Mike (after Mike vanishes), wants out for good. After being questioned by Hank, who now knows Walter is the drug lord known as "Heisenberg," Walter tells Jesse he should leave town with a new identity provided by their lawyer, Saul Goodman. Right as Jesse's about to skip though, he pieces together that Walter had fooled him into thinking Gus had hurt Andrea's son, when it was, in fact, Walter himself.Jesse begins cooperating with Hank in a plan to catch and arrest Walter. Everything goes to hell though when, out in the desert, Todd's uncle Jack and Jack's neo-Nazi pals arrive to protect Walter. They kill Hank and take Jesse prisoner, beating him and forcing him to cook the blue meth for them after Walter escapes with a new identity. After trying to free himself, the Nazis kill Andrea in front of Jesse. He's then held captive for six months until Walter arrives at Jack's compound, bent on revenge.
Once Walter realizes that Jesse is their prisoner and not partner, he saves Jesse from a lethal trap he has set for the Nazis (though Walter himself is fatally wounded). Jesse strangles and kills Todd and then refuses Walter's request that he kill him. Jesse gets into an El Camino and speeds out of the compound to freedom!And...that's it. We never knew anything about where Jesse landed. Did he try and find Brock, Andrea's son? Was he able to get away to a new state and start over with a new life? What was his life like post-Heisenberg? El Camino is about to answer all that. Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.