Anyone who knows me knows that I love AMC’s Breaking Bad. I almost didn’t watch this show, but now the thought of missing it makes me shudder with the horror. As the last season is about to begin, I will talk about some of the characters, where they have been, where they are now, and where I think they are going in those final episodes I’ve nicknamed The Sweet Sixteen.
Though the show wasn’t originally conceived as a “buddy show,” I’m glad they decided not to kill off Jesse in season one. Aaron Paul is such a ridiculously talented actor that placing him opposite equally brilliant Bryan Cranston makes for a really compelling scene. It wouldn’t be Breaking Bad without Jesse.
Jesse is the show’s punching bag. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a character get more beatings than he does. But he’s so much more. He is a kind of counterbalance to the descent of Walter, who Jesse still calls Mr. White, exposing his inner child. As much as he tries to assert himself Walt’s equal partner, he knows he’s the one taking orders and not giving them. Last season, we saw Jesse break away from Walt and even become something of a threat to him. When he cooked batches of meth on his own that were nearly as pure as Walt’s product, he in a sense grew up and become his own person. But Walt couldn’t let that happen. When all hell broke loose, Walt got Jesse back to his side, but at an incredible price. And he was the one that needed Jesse, a tough thing for his ever-growing ego to admit.
Jesse probably would have been a lot better off had he never met Walt. Throughout the series, there have been several times when one or the other decided to cut ties and walk away, but they reluctantly rejoined forces for the sake of money, control, or saving someone’s life. Jesse is vulnerable because he’s been effectively orphaned by his choices (1 being to take the fall for his little brother), so he has no family. He has people he can lean on because they recognize the good in him, but they are all part of the drug culture that’s nearly killed him many times over. He tries to be something of a guardian to them, but he knows that he leaves destruction in his wake. Jesse doesn’t really see how he has a way out of the life he’s chosen, though you can see him struggling with it. Walt, by comparison, is drunk on the power it gives him and has no interest in leaving it behind.
Though Jesse will say he’s the bad guy, he is a really useful contrast to the real baddy of the show. Jesse knows there are lines you don’t cross. And when he has crossed them, he has been tormented by it, by his own personal demon he sees in himself. His agony over killing Gale was about reconciling who he is with what he’s done. He may say he’s a bad guy, but you know even as he says it that he is really looking for a way to fix it. His real downfall is that he thinks being a man means standing by those bad decisions you’ve made.
The end of season 4 saw Jesse asking Walt if they’d done the right thing. And in that handshake (not a hug – all is not forgiven yet), I had a lot of questions.
At that point in the story, Jesse knew that it wasn’t Gus who poisoned Brock. And while he wants to believe that the poisoning was accidental, he has seen enough to know that there is more to it. So, does he know it was Walt? Will he choose to ignore it because Brock lived? Will he decide that even though he didn’t bring the right man to justice, at least Gus had to go anyway for some reason, right? Will he be keeping close to Walt in a keep-your-enemies-closer maneuver? Or does he want to believe that Walt goes through the same morality anxiety that he does? Maybe he thinks he owes Walt something and wants to try to help him stay on the right side of that invisible line. I’m not counting on it. I predict Jesse won’t be so lucky this season.
In the meantime, watch this video of Aaron. (You can follow him on Twitter @aaronpaul_8)
