What happened to Jesse Pinkman?
When Breaking Bad came to an end with the 2013 series finale “Felina,” it cemented the AMC series as possibly the greatest television show ever made. The ending was darn near perfect, from the ways it wrapped up various characters’ stories to the tension and drama it maintained right up through the final shots. But that doesn’t mean it completely tied up every loose end on the show.
Sure, the spin-off series Better Call Saul has expanded on the story in some ways. But what we’re really looking forward to is the actual, honest-to-goodness Breaking Bad sequel movie incoming from Netflix: El Camino.
With the first trailer for the Breaking Bad movie dropping this morning, we thought it would be a good time to revisit the series’ finale and start wondering again about the questions it left us with back then. Here’s everything from the main Breaking Bad series we hope El Camino might address.
1. Where’s the rest of Walt’s money?
Todd’s neo-nazi uncle, Jack, addressed this in the series’ finale: He and his gang of a-holes stole a whole bunch of Walt’s cash and stashed it somewhere. Walt domed Jack before he could reveal where, but it’s possible that Jesse knows, and he might return to dig that cash up in El Camino.
2. What happened to Jesse?
Breaking Bad may have ended with Jesse hysterically driving away from the compound where he’d been a captive, but it’s safe to guess that he probably didn’t return to anything resembling a normal life. After all, he’s still a wanted man–as we saw in the El Camino trailer. And the DEA probably has the video confession Hank had Jesse record still in their possession somewhere. Wherever Jesse is, he must be on the run still.
3. What about Brock, Jesse’s girlfriend’s kid?
Jesse’s on again, off again girlfriend Andrea was killed by Todd during Season 5, leaving her son, with whom Jesse had a cute relationship, in the wind. We can speculate that he went to live with another family member (like his grandmother), but either way, it would be nice to get an update in the movie.
4. Did Gretchen and Elliott hold up their end of the deal with Walt?
In the show’s final episode, Walt confronted his former colleagues, Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz, and intimidated them into agreeing to transfer Walt’s money to his son, Walt Jr. (going by “Flynn”), via something called an “irrevocable trust.” Gretchen and Elliott believed Walt had hired a pair of assassins to ensure they would follow through after he was gone, although it was really just Badger and Skinny Pete with a pair of high-powered laser pointers. In El Camino, we’ll likely find out whether they held up their end of the deal.
5. Speaking of Badger and Skinny Pete…
These two knuckleheads made a brief appearance in Breaking Bad’s finale to help Walt intimidate the Schwartzes and indirectly communicate to him that Jesse was likely still alive. They also appeared in the El Camino trailer, so we can be sure that the movie will update us on their post-Breaking Bad story.
6. Did Lydia die?
By the end of the series, it’s assumed that Lydia, formerly Gus’s (and later Walt’s) main source of the methylamine needed to cook meth, is dead. Walt poisoned her using ricin, which is pretty much guaranteed to be fatal. However, she likely died after the show’s actual final shot–Walt lying on the ground in the meth lab–which took place moments after Walt told Lydia he’d poisoned her. Ricin can apparently take quite a while to actually kill its victim, so she might have lived for some time after these events. El Camino might reveal more about her final living moments, such as whether she recorded any kind of confession or accusation before expiring. (Lydia has also appeared in Better Call Saul, AMC’s Breaking Bad prequel spin-off.)
7. Is blue meth still a thing?
Walt’s signature product, the blue-colored meth, had a tendency to keep cropping up during Breaking Bad’s story, even after Walt stopped cooking it himself. At the end of the series, the meth lab in which Jack’s white supremacist gang had been forcing Jesse to cook was still standing–although, granted, it was also swarming with cops. If blue meth continues to circulate even after Walt’s death, Jesse will be a prime suspect.
8. Was Skyler able to avoid prosecution?
In the finale, Walt gave Skyler some information–the location of Hank and Steve’s bodies–that he hoped she can leverage to avoid prosecution. The scene in which Walt tells his wife that he did all those crimes for himself–because he liked it and it made him feel alive–is the last we saw of her. However, Skyler could definitely return in El Camino.
9. What happened to Marie?
Marie’s final scene in the series is a phone call warning Skyler that Walt was back in town. What she didn’t know was that Walt was already in Skyler’s kitchen. If Skyler uses the information that Walt provided her to avoid prosecution, Marie will likely deduce that the two were in contact, and given Walt’s role in Hank’s death, she probably won’t be too happy about it. Hopefully we’ll learn more about the status of the sisters’ relationship in the movie.
10. Could Walt still be alive?
The series’ final shot seemed pretty clear regarding the fate of Bryan Cranston’s iconic hero-turned-villain Walter White: His lifeless eyes and pooling blood clearly suggested the character was dead. However, El Camino could plausibly retcon that fate by suggesting that Walt might have been resuscitated by paramedics after collapsing in the lab. Imagine a Breaking Bad follow-up where Walt is in prison, probably doing fun Bill Nye-style science experiments in his metal toilet bowl. Who knows? We’ll likely find out for sure in El Camino.
11. What happened to that Volvo?
In the show’s final episode, Walt hotwires a super sick early 1990s era Volvo 240 for his trip back to New Mexico. Later in the episode, we learn via the conversation between Marie and Skyler that Walt abandoned the car in a Denny’s parking lot. What happened to this killer ride after the events of the show? Hopefully we see that dank ‘Vo again in El Camino–although our fingers are crossed that she isn’t being crushed in that scrapyard glimpsed in the movie’s trailer.
