Here’s a brief refresher in case you haven’t revisited Breaking Bad since its series finale in the fall of 2013: with the help of Badger, Skinny Pete, and perchance a higher power, Walter White escaped the wrath of a deadly winter, exacted vengeance (however deserved it may have been) upon his former friends and colleagues Gretchen and Elliott, and killed an entire campground’s worth of neo-Nazi drug dealers, rescuing an erstwhile imprisoned Jesse Pinkman in the process. The last we saw of the latter, he was zooming down the road in his El Camino, ecstatic to be alive and free of the dastardly white supremacists’ clutches. But… then what happened?
Such is the question looming large over the first trailer for, and the very premise of, El Camino. The movie will show us the aftermath of aforesaid events as they befall a newly liberated, but perhaps not altogether free after all, Jesse Pinkman.
Given that the El Camino trailer opens with a radio broadcast covering the events of the campgrounds slayings, it seems to be that the film will take place in the immediate wake of the Breaking Bad finale “Felina,” which broadcast just about six years ago. And the consequences of his connection to the deaths of the dealers, likewise to his years of work with the likes of Walter White and Gustavo Fring, threaten to catch up with Jesse in the forthcoming film; his harried facial expression in the El Camino trailer prove that he hasn’t taken for granted that things are going to be peachy from here on out.
Even without Walt steering him down every worst imaginable path he can manage, Jesse is, at best, adjacent to trouble. How he’ll evade the law, and perhaps the wrath of some folks on the opposite side of it, remains to be seen in El Camino, though we’re also wondering whom he’ll wrangle to help him out of this pickle. As far as we know, Jesse’s pals Badger and Skinny Pete are alive and well (rest in peace, Combo), and may well still be available in a pinch.
On the other hand, the legal expertise of one James McGill, also known as Saul Goodman (also known as Slippin’ Jimmy (also known as Gene from Cinnabon)), is unfortunately out of reach indefinitely. In case your interest in the imagination of Vince Gilligan didn’t extend over to Better Call Saul, Albuquerque’s preeminent criminal attorney has, since the events of Breaking Bad, been relocated to Omaha, Nebraska, by way of the same would-be Witness Protection Program that temporarily housed Walt in the tundra of New Hampshire.
So what will become of Jesse Pinkman, who has already lost so much (namely lovers Jane and Andrea, and the affection of his well-to-do family) but has managed to cling to life throughout the chaos? Vince Gilligan has a knack for putting his characters through the wringer, but has nevertheless shown a soft heart on occasion. Let’s hope Jesse gets treated to the latter.
El Camino will hit Netflix and select theaters on Oct. 11.
Featured Image: Netflix