Summary

• The Breaking Bad franchise is more than a drama series as it's heavily nuanced with foreshadowing.
• One of the best examples of this is a brief scene that nods to Jesse's fate at the end of the series.
• The El Camino may be a car but it's a much larger metaphor to Jesse's own ideals and hopes.

Despite so much of the series not being planned out in advance, the early seasons Breaking Bad are filled with foreshadowing that pay off across its final seasons, Better Call Saul, and El Camino. The show calls attention to many of these callbacks, but others, while just as important, are left more subtle.

In Season 2, Episode 5, "Breakage," Jesse Pinkman purchases a heavily used Toyota Tercel. Prior to making this purchase, however, he inquired about a Chevy El Camino that was also for sale. In the Series Finale, after being freed from Jack's compound, Jesse steals Todd's El Camino and drives away in it, leading into the sequel film named after it. While Jesse's purchasing of a new car is a brief, incidental scene, it foreshadows the end of the series, Jesse's ultimate fate, and the themes of his story.

What Happens to Jesse at the End of Breaking Bad and in El Camino?

• Jesse spends the final episodes of Breaking Bad being tortured by Todd before killing him and stealing his El Camino.
• El Camino follows Jesse after the series as he flees to Alaska.

In the final stretch of Breaking Bad, Jesse teams up with Hank and Gomez to take down Walt once and for all. While they are able to successfully set a trap for Walt and arrest him, everything goes wrong when Jack and his crew of Neo-Nazis arrive on the scene. They kill Hank and Gomez and kidnap Jesse, trapping him in their compound and forcing him to cook meth for them to sell.

Jesse spends the final episodes of the series suffering more than ever, as he's made to work in horrible conditions and psychologically tortured by Jack's nephew, Todd. Even Jesse's attempt to escape only results in Todd murdering the woman he loves, Andrea. In the series finale, "Felina," Walt arrives to save Jesse and kill the Neo-Nazis, granting Jesse the opportunity to kill Todd himself. Walt gives Jesse the opportunity to kill him, but Jesse declines, instead stealing Todd's El Camino and driving off in tears and laughter.

El Camino is set directly after the events of the series, with Jesse aiming to flee to Alaska. He leaves his newly acquired El Camino with his best friends, Skinny Pete and Badger, to hide it from the authorities, while Jesse departs in Badger's Pontiac Fiero. Jesse embarks on a mission to get the money he needs to reach his destination, ultimately succeeding, leaving a letter for Andrea's son, Brock, and driving through Alaska, ready to start his new life.

An Innocuous Scene From Season 2 Foreshadowed Jesse's Ending

• Jesse goes to buy a new car in Season 2, Episode 5 of Breaking Bad, "Breakage."
• Jesse thinks about purchasing an El Camino before buying a Tercel.

At the start of Breaking Bad, Jesse drives a bold, red, tricked-out Chevy Monte Carlo, which acts as an extension of the tough and cool persona he attempts to present himself with. After this car is destroyed in a shootout with Tuco Salamanca, he's forced to purchase a replacement. This leads into the events of the fifth episode of Season 2, "Breakage."

Jesse goes to a repair yard, where he makes a deal with the owner, Clovis, to hide his and Walt's RV there. Looking for a new car, a Chevy El Camino in Clovis' possession catches Jesse's attention. Not knowing that this is soon the model of car he'll steal to begin his new life, Jesse thinks about buying it. Despite it being what his heart wants, Jesse is attempting to keep a low profile, so he instead buys a beaten-up Toyota Tercel. The El Camino is clearly more in line with Jesse's tastes, but he rejects his own desires for Walt's plans. Despite the importance this scene goes on to have, it's easy to ignore, as, like much of the show's early seasons, it's played for laughs.

The El Camino Symbolizes Jesse's Freedom

• Jesse is forced to endure a great deal of pain before achieving his happy ending at the end of El Camino.
• The various cars Jesse drives throughout Breaking Bad and "El Camino" represent different aspects of his character.

The Trials and Tribulations of Jesse Pinkman

Breaking Bad is a series with a villain protagonist and a cast filled with terrible people. While he's deeply flawed and makes countless mistakes, Jesse is the closest thing the show has to a hero. Failed by everyone around him growing up and used, manipulated, and hurt by those around him as an adult, viewers are endeared to Jesse like few other characters in the series and want to see him receive a happy ending.

Jesse suffers more than arguably any other character in Breaking Bad, and with how bleak the series is, that's no small feat. Season 5 is especially cruel to Jesse, as he loses everything and is subsequently enslaved. This makes his ending, killing Todd and escaping in the El Camino, a cathartic one, and Jesse's actor, Aaron Paul, perfectly captures all of his intense, conflicted emotions at this moment. While the ending is ambiguous about what will happen to him next, in isolation, the English translation of El Camino being "the road" indicates that Jesse is starting down a new path. With the added context of the repair yard scene from "Breakage", however, additional meaning is added to the scene.

When Jesse chooses not to buy the El Camino, it's because Walt wants him to keep a low profile. He's doing what Walt wants, despite the fact that Jesse has to buy a new car in the first place, which is because Walt got them into the shootout with Tuco, which caused his Monte Carlo to be wrecked. Throughout Breaking Bad, the most oppressive force in Jesse's life isn't Gus, Todd, or any of the other truly evil villains he encounters, but his controlling partner-in-crime, Walt, something Jesse doesn't fully realize until Season 5.

How Jesse Pinkman's Cars Represent His Life

Jesse begins the series driving his personalized and beloved Monte Carlo. Like the El Camino he eventually winds up with, the Monte Carlo is a Chevrolet. This tie between the two cars is important, as both suit Jesse's tastes better than any other vehicles he drives throughout the series, and both represent different parts of him. Jesse's Monte Carlo represents the wannabee aspect of his character and his desire to be seen as cool and tough. His El Camino, meanwhile, represents his longing to be free and to live his life as he sees fit, away from anyone else's judgment and control.

In contrast, Jesse's Toyota Tercel represents his struggle. Like him, it's beaten up and has weathered the significant hardships that life has thrown at it. Jesse purchases this car, despite it not being his style at all, for the same reason he performs many of his actions throughout the series: because Walt says so. Jesse has immense potential, but it's constantly suppressed by Walt's manipulations and overbearing ego. Walt refuses to allow Jesse to stand out and continually finds ways to convince him that this is for his own good. The Tercel isn't just a way to lie low; it's a way to keep Jesse down.

While Jesse's El Camino is what brings him to freedom, it isn't the car he ends up with. He briefly drives Badger's Pontiac Fiero. Despite all the ways he's grown and changed, Jesse still has his oldest and only real friends to count on. They are the people in the series most like him, and driving Badger's car represents Jesse getting back in touch with his true self. Finally, the Toyota Land Cruiser Jesse winds up with once in Alaska represents the new life he has chosen and the possibilities now in store for him. Breaking Bad is among the most popular and critically acclaimed TV series of all time, and what makes it so rewatchable is how much additional depth can be found by those carefully paying attention to everything. Even if the meaning they'd go on to have was thought up retroactively, it doesn't change that this is a show where a joke as simple as Jesse wanting to buy a certain car can foreshadow his ending and open the door to a new way of analyzing his character.