El Camino (Spoiler-Filled) Review

I should know by now to trust Vince Gilligan when he says he has an idea that will bring us all back into the Breaking Bad universe. But, as with the announcement of Better Call Saul six years ago, I approached El Camino with caution. After all, I was part of the camp of critics who loved how Breaking Bad ended. I firmly believe that a show can end without tying off all plotlines into neat, little bows and still be considered a successful show. I loved that Breaking Bad didn’t spell out what happened to Jesse after he crashed the El Camino through the gate of his prison and escaped. I never felt the need to have the rest of his story spelled out for me. Now, having watched El Camino, I feel largely the same – this was a film that never needed to be made for any reason beyond fan service – but I can say that the film is everything a fan could hope it to be, filled with strong performance, beautiful visuals, and a story that provides closure we never needed – but that many craved.

Breaking Bad was always meant to be the story of Walter White. Somewhere along the way, it became, for a few seasons, the story of Walt and Jesse. But, in the end, Walt’s story eclipsed Jesse’s and again became the focus of the series. That’s largely the reason the series’ final several episodes focused on Walt rather than his former student. El Camino rights that wrong (if you were among the many to consider this slight toward Jesse’s story a wrong – personally, Jesse was always the show’s #1 supporting character in my book, so I wasn’t crushed to see him moved to the side in favor of Walt in the end), giving Jesse the starring role in his own escape from Albuquerque. And while that’s all well and good from a story perspective, the best part of that is that it gave Aaron Paul a chance to carry the story from start to finish.

If Bryan Cranston’s performance was the fire that kept propelling Breaking Bad to its blood-soaked conclusion, Paul’s was the beating heart of the series, breaking the audience down alongside Jesse as he was made to pay for every mistake Walter White made with his own sanity and soul. It was a devastating performance that laid bare the destruction Walter White left in his wake (and made it utterly shocking that there was a subset of the audience actively rooting for Walt to survive and thrive). Spending two hours watching Paul channel Jesse’s deep-seeded PTSD only to see him fail in his attempt to escape would have been far too great an ask for both Paul and us, so it was fitting that Gilligan balanced the struggle to escape the shackles of Jesse’s past with actual scenes from that past. Namely, it was fitting that Todd was along for the ride.

Out of all the supporting characters in Breaking Bad, I would argue that none were more terrifying that Todd (played so brilliantly by Jesse Plemmons, who has spent the bulk of his career playing genuinely good guys stuck in difficult situations). There were many shades of gray among the characters of the series, but generally, you knew where each character stood in the ranks of good vs. evil. Todd was the wild card. A sociopath who appeared to be just your average man on the street, mild mannered, and happy to help when needed could turn on a dime and shoot a kid, just because the kid happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. If anyone was wondering just why Jesse was so messed up after escaping, well, watching his strange journey to bury Todd’s cleaning lady in the desert was as clear an explanation of just what was so fucked up about both Todd and the situation Jesse found himself in.

That relationship also served to provide us with another window into the psyche of Jesse Pinkman: Jesse is rarely the guy making decisions throughout the course of Breaking Bad. He’s initially happy to go along with Mr. White on his cooking scheme. He’s thrilled to be making cash. And he’s willing to follow his former teacher to hell and back. However, Jesse isn’t a leader. Whenever he attempts to get out of the game, he gets pulled back in, whether by his own insecurities or through the strong-armed tactics of those with more power than him. We almost never get to see him think for himself or provide for himself. Which is the thing that makes El Camino so interesting. After he’s set off on his own by Skinny Pete (yet another instance of Jesse not making the plan, just following it), Jesse has to actually do things for himself. And that’s where the best elements of the film lie.

Breaking Bad and its progeny are about a lot of things, but they are really character studies. The original series was taking Mr. Chips and turning him into Scarface. Better Call Saul is about how a man named Jimmy McGill went from a genuinely nice, personable guy with the dream of being a good lawyer to a scummy sleezeball attorney, and then ended up in a new identity in the middle of nowhere with nothing. El Camino is the story of how Jesse Pinkman finally decided to take the reins and live his life.

The Jesse of Breaking Bad wouldn’t have had the wherewithal to secure the money from Todd’s place and meet up with the vacuum salesman to escape (he needed Saul’s help to try to do it the first time, after all). He wouldn’t have had the fortitude to kill the welders and take what he wanted (whether that decision was morally acceptable is a whole other discussion). He would have numbed himself however he could and tried to hide from the realities of his situation. Jesse survived hell in the lab in the desert and emerged a new man – one who can do what needs to be done to survive rather than just continuing to survive and avoiding what needs to be done.

Now, it might sound like I’m saying that suffering at the hands of the Nazis made Jesse into a better, stronger person. But that’s not what I’m getting at. What I’m saying is that, devoid of all other people of power in his life (Walt, Mike, Gus, Todd, Saul – the people who used him to get what they wanted, for good and for ill), Jesse is finally forced to act on his own and in his own self-interest. And that is the thing that allows him to become a character who can carry a story, and gives Paul the chance to really dig deep into this character one final time.

So, did we need El Camino to wrap up Breaking Bad (or at least wrap up the parts that won’t be dealt with in Better Call Saul)? No, we didn’t. But I’m glad we got this final piece to Jesse’s story. For a character that was supposed to die back in season one, Jesse turned into the emotional center of the story, the walking embodiment of all Walt’s sins made flesh. Getting a chance to see him come into his own and escape his tragic past and move forward to a brighter future was the boost I think we all needed.

Final Thoughts:

— I remain a bit on the fence regarding the Cranston cameo in the film. Sure, it was nice to get one final moment between the duo, but I’m still not sure it added anything to the story that we didn’t already know. Walt always envied Jesse’s youth and ability to not get bogged down by the pressures that Walt felt. Having that spoken, especially when Jesse wasn’t at a place to really hear Walt or understand him, felt more like fan service than a crucial element of the story.

— What did hit hard was seeing Jesse’s parents again. If you recall, they had pretty much written him off as a lost cause early in the series, choosing to put all their attention toward their “non-screw-up” son and just cut Jesse loose. Jesse always talked a big game, but seeing how much it hurt to have them continue to go through the motions with him in the interview was hard to watch.

— What a lovely final TV appearance from Robert Forrester, who passed away the same day the film dropped on Netflix.