Breaking Bad, which holds the Guinness World Record for the most lauded television series of all time, did not give Jesse Pinkman the closure he needed in its final season, which aired in 2013. Since then, fans have urged the show’s creators to produce a sequel. The 2019 film sequel to the cult neo-western crime drama continues Jessi Pinkman’s unfinished tale. With its ending, the BFCA award for critics’ choice recipient left several viewers with unanswered questions. So, what really happened to Jesse Pinkman? Did he get the ending he really deserved? Stick till the end to find out!
El Camino was nominated for many awards after its debut on October 11, 2019. Once more, taking the director’s chair, Vince Gilligan pledged to give fans a breath-taking ending. The storyline unfolds after Breaking Bad: Season 5, Episode 16: Felina, which aired in 2013. After breaking free from captivity in El Camino, Jesse Pinkman must now confront his past in order to build a future for himself.
Revisiting Breaking Bad S5: Felina
We witness Walter visiting his old college friend, intimidating him, and demanding him to give Skyler the last $9,000,000. He also paid one final visit to his family. When Walter discovered that Todd and Jack were genuinely plotting revenge against Jesse, he came up with a plan to release him. White offered to demonstrate a better way to make meth during a meeting with Lydia Quayle and Todd. They put on a convincing act of interest and wait for him to remain there before killing him. But Walt had a machine gun in his trunk, which he eventually used and kills all the gang members. Walt shot Jack as well.
Then Jesse killed Todd and was about to shoot Walt in retribution for everything the opposing drug dealers and Walt had done to him, including physically abusing him and killing his girlfriend. When he noticed that Walt had already been hit by one of the bullets, he quickly altered his mind. He told Walt that if he wanted it all to end, he had to kill himself. Walt had been shot and was badly hurt, and he spent his last minutes surrounded by the meth lab machinery. Jesse is seen running away as the DEA enters the shooting spot.
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El Camino Ending Explained
In the film’s ending scene, Jesse and his now-dead girlfriend Jane are having a chat in which he expresses an interest in following whatever the universe leads. He is once more steering a vehicle as he did in the S5 finale. But this time, he’s going to Alaska, where he plans to start a new life and get a new last name.
So is it really a good ending for Pinkman, or does a more dangerous act await him in Alaska? The film is actually open for interpretations. Is it going to have a sequel? We sure want it, but it’s doubtful. Although it’s simple to assume that Jesse is now, at last, free, the movie itself provides grounds for questions. He was guided by other men to where he is today.
As the flashbacks in the film’s finale of him and his girlfriend suggest that Jesse should be making decisions for himself and then go with anything that life throws at him, isn’t overlap with what Jesse is doing. Jesse has made repeated allusions about wanting to relocate to Alaska yes, but what led him to actually relocate to the place wasn’t purely his efforts.
Jesse stole everything he needed to leave Albuquerque from other men. He stole Todd’s money and traded Pete’s Thunderbird. Jesse stole the.22-caliber pistol from his own father before confronting Neil and Casey. We can see that he was not acting on his own. Others are choosing his new name, his new Social Security number. Jesse’s realization that he had no choice but to travel to Alaska can be seen as he drives off. You realize that, like with Walt and Saul, the idea that he can “make decisions for himself” isn’t really there. Walt had everything going against him after ‘breaking bad’, and the same seems to unfold for Jesse as well.
You could interpret that final moment as a birth of new life, as the point at which he must leave his old self behind in order to survive. He’s a new man but will this be a fresh start? That is still debatable. For now, Jesse looks happy and content, thinking everything bad is now behind him.
El Camino is currently streaming on Netflix.
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