![]() In the same vein, Todd forces Jesse to aid him with “an errand.” He releases him from his cage and brings him to his apartment, where the body of his elderly cleaning lady is lying on the linoleum, a belt around her neck (a nice touch when you remember that Jesse was eventually able to strangle Todd with his own chains at the end of “Breaking Bad”). We’ve already established that Todd is basically a psychopath in “Breaking Bad” he shot an innocent child who stumbled upon the trio in the desert, and - unlike Jesse, who is seemingly haunted by all the deaths he’s caused - felt no remorse. The most chilling and telling is a thread involving Todd (Jesse Plemons), one of Jesse and Walt’s former associates and eventual captor. ![]() Much of this is accomplished through a series of flashbacks. Along the way, viewers slowly piece together Jesse’s time in captivity, much in the way Jesse is coming to terms with his own experienced trauma. By that I mean there are definite lulls, and then there are bursts of action, and memory. In a way, the film shows a lot, but moves forward very little. ![]() This is the first hint at how “El Camino” is going to flow. When he eventually steps into the shower stall, he brings his pistol. They feed him - American cheese slices, instant noodles, and Pringles - and encourage him to finally bathe after his imprisonment. He finds his way to the house belonging to his old friends Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) and Badger (Matt Jones), and stumbles in on their video game night. Jesse flees his captors, dodging the red and blue lights of law enforcement along the way. “El Camino” picks up where “Breaking Bad” left off. Entering the film, I wondered if Jesse would stay a sympathetic character.Įssentially, would viewers continue to root for him up until the end or, like his mentor, would he descend into villainy? The short answer is this: this film is about watching a man claw his way towards a fresh start while sticking to some semblance of a code of ethics - though both are informed by a dark history filled with death and illegalities. Meanwhile, “El Camino” is really all about Jesse and what became of him after he escaped the white supremacist compound where he was being held in captivity, speeding off in the titular car. It’s a point that is crystallized late in the series when it is revealed, or at least strongly suggested, that Walt poisoned Brock Cantillo (Ian Posada), the son of Jesse’s girlfriend, as a way to turn him against competing drug kingpin Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). Without Walt’s interference, he would have been a small-time drug peddler at best when he connected with his old chemistry teacher, that’s when his life truly began to spin out of control. He’d once been Walt’s student, and the power differential still had a very real hold. ![]() Throughout that transitionary period, it also became evident that meth-making partner/sidekick Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) had been manipulated by Walt for a very, very long time. “Breaking Bad” was a story of a man shifting between protagonist and antagonist and while there definitely was and is a strong contingent of people who viewed Walt as a worthy hero up until the end (a fact that Gilligan has confessed troubles him), as his body count and tally of lies mounted, it was pretty evident that he’d sloped soundly into - relatively unsympathetic, in my opinion - antihero territory. The next question was a little less cut and dry. “Yeah, I’m gonna give you that one, Rich, because I love you so much,” Gilligan conceded in the interview. Earlier this week, creator/writer/director Vince Gilligan appeared on “The Rich Eisen Show” ahead the release of “El Camino.” Turns out, I didn’t even have to watch the movie for that question to be answered. I had two pressing questions entering “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie." The first is simple: was Walter White actually dead? Since the conclusion of the groundbreaking series in 2013 - which left Walt (Bryan Cranston) on the floor, visibly wounded, but with a smile on his face - the character’s ultimate fate has been debated in many a message board and blog post. The following contains major spoilers for "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie," including the ending. ![]()
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