Jesse Pinkman
Encyclopedia
Jesse Bruce Pinkman is a fictional character
of the American television drama series Breaking Bad
on AMC. He is portrayed by Aaron Paul
and was created by series creator Vince Gilligan
.
. At the time the series starts, he has long been estranged from his parents due to his constant drug abuse
and irresponsible lifestyle. After being forced to leave his parents' residence, Jesse moved in with his Aunt Jenny, whom he cared for until her death from lung cancer
; he subsequently inherited her home.
Jesse was a poor student in high school
, largely due to his inattention and apathy. Walter White
was Jesse's chemistry
teacher, and flunked him in his class; Jesse's mother later recalled that Walter tried to motivate Jesse and was "one of the few teachers who cared" about him. After high school, Jesse studied data systems management at DeVry University
.
dealer Hank has been investigating. Walter, having himself been diagnosed with lung cancer, tracks down Jesse and blackmail
s his former student into letting him enter the distribution side of the illegal drug trade. He plans to use his knowledge of chemistry to cook potent crystal meth that Jesse will distribute, giving him $7,000 to purchase an RV which will be used as a portable meth lab.
Jesse approaches the only dealer he knows higher-up in the distribution chain, Krazy-8, with a bag of the meth he and Walter have cooked. However, Krazy 8 and his cousin Emilio try to steal the meth and kill Walter and Jesse. Emilio ends up dead while Krazy 8 is kept captive in Jesse's basement for several days before Walt finally kills him. They then are forced to sell meth themselves.
Unsatisfied with the minuscule amount of money Jesse is collecting, Walter convinces him to find a high-end distributor for their meth. "Skinny Pete", one of Jesse's friends, puts him in contact with Tuco Salamanca, a powerful Mexican
drug kingpin operating in Albuquerque. However, at their first meeting, the psychotic
Tuco brutally beats Jesse and lands him in the hospital. After Walter strong-arms Tuco into a lucrative-albeit-unstable partnership, he and Jesse expand their operations by stealing a large drum of methylamine
. This enables them to produce large quantities of meth, which is eventually given the street name "blue sky".
The first season
ends with Walter and Jesse delivering a fresh batch of blue sky to Tuco, who senselessly assaults one of his henchmen, No Doze, as a shocked Walter and Jesse watch helplessly.
. However, the two escape after a struggle with Tuco in which Jesse manages to get Tuco's gun and shoot him with it. After the shooting Jesse and Walter move a wounded but not dead Tuco when they see a car approaching which they believe to be Tuco's cousins arriving to take them to the super meth lab in Mexico. It turns out to be Walter's brother in law Hank who is searching for Walter after his disappearance. Tuco is killed after a gunfight with Hank while Jesse and Walter escape through the desert. Unfortunately, Jesse's car and money are both seized by the DEA.
Realizing that the authorities will track him down, Jesse seeks help from his friend, Badger. They move the lab from Jesse's house back to the RV. The RV is subsequently towed away by Badger's cousin, Clovis, and stored on his lot for a $1,000 storage fee, which Jesse can only pay half of upfront. The next day, Jesse awakens to find his mother evicting him from his home, since his parents legally own the house and have discovered that he was cooking crystal meth in the basement. Unable to find a friend to stay with, he gets his remaining few belongings and his bike stolen as well, so he breaks into Clovis' lot and passes out in the RV ("Down").
Jesse eventually resolves to put himself back together. He buys an inconspicuous Toyota Tercel
and finds a new apartment. The landlord, Jane, is a part-time tattoo-artist and also, as Jesse later finds out, a recovering addict. Living right next to Jesse in the same two-family building, it's not long before she and Jesse becomes romantically involved. Jane, however, tries to hide this relationship from her father, Donald, who is the property owner of their building.
Jesse spirals into a drug-fueled depression when Combo is murdered by rival drug dealers. He is introduced to heroin by Jane, who relapses
back into addiction. Jesse becomes perpetually high and lethargic, nearly costing Walter his $1.3 million drug transaction with the powerful meth distributor Gus Fring; this leads Walter to withhold Jesse's half of the money until he enters rehab, causing a falling out between the two. When Jane learns of the money's existence, she blackmails Walter into giving Jesse his share, hoping to use the money to escape to New Zealand
. However, Jane overdoses and suffocates on her own vomit shortly afterward; Walter is present at the time of her death, but does not intervene and watches her die. Jesse blames himself for Jane's death and becomes self-destructively despondent. Walter rescues Jesse from a crack house
, and checks him in to a rehabilitation clinic.
, was so distraught over her death that he inadvertently caused a mid-air collision
. Jesse tells Walter that he has taken the counselor's advice and accepted himself as the "bad guy" because of his perceived role in these two incidents, unaware of Walter's culpability in both of them. Jesse leaves rehab clean and sober, and sets out to settle unfinished business. First, with help from Saul, Jesse dupes his parents into selling him his aunt's house.
Though he found himself lonely, Jesse had definitely attracted attention of a different sort. Hank, after a lead puts him on the prowl for R.V.'s, is convinced (and correct) that the RV belonging to Jesse is a roving meth lab. Upon tailing Jesse, he manages to finally find it, only to be outsmarted in the end by Jesse, Walt and a very law savvy salvage yard owner. Walt (with the help of Saul and Hanks' personal cellphone number) distracts Hank long enough for them to destroy all evidence of the RV, but in so doing, inadvertently directs Hanks frustration and rage toward Pinkman. Once again, we find Jesse in the hospital, this time recovering from wounds inflicted upon him by Hank after finally snapping from the stress of his job coupled with the lack of results. While in the hospital, Jesse is visited by Walt, who is terribly upset that his manipulation of Hank has resulted in the damage to Pinkman. Upon hearing of Jesse's future plans to purchase another RV and cook once more, and also as a way of re-cementing their friendship, Walt convinces Gus to replace Gale (his previous lab assistant) with Jesse. Now, Jesse and Walt are back together cooking as the team they once were, and making considerably more money.
Jesse becomes involved with a young mother, Andrea, whom he meets through his Narcotics Anonymous meetings. In doing so, he discovers the identity of Combo's assassin, who turns out to be Andrea's younger brother, acting on the orders of two gang bangers that happen to also be selling Walt and Jesse's product. Pinkman concocts a plan to poison the two, using the ricin
made earlier to kill Tuco and Wendy as his courier. Unbeknownst to Jesse, the two cohorts are protected employees of Gus, and after a tense meeting wherein Walt betrays Jesse to Gus, Jesse is forced to give up his assassination attempt. In return, the two rival dealers are supposed to quit using children in their line of work. Tomas, the 11 year old child-soldier, is unceremoniously terminated by Gus's two "trusted employees", most likely because of what he knows, but it is unknown exactly why the boy was killed. Upon hearing the news, Jesse sets out to finish what he had originally started. After breaking his sobriety by snorting some crystal in his car, he is strapped and ready for vengeance as he approaches the two gangsters on the street. Out of nowhere, Walt saves the day by horrifically running both dealers down with his car, and executing the surviving dealer by firing a round into his face.
After a very tense meeting with Gus, Walt agrees to return to work, telling Gus that Jesse is on the run and will "no longer be a problem." With Gale reinstated as his lab partner again, Walt discovers Gus's plan of having Gale master the "blue sky" formula, meaning Gus would no longer have any need for Walt. After meeting with Jesse, who was, in truth, hiding out in town at an abandoned laser tag facility owned by Saul, the two agree that Gale has to die. Walt asks Jesse to follow Gale and find out his address, telling Jesse that he will do the rest. Unfortunately, on his way to do the deed, Walt is stopped by one of Gus's henchmen, Victor. Victor escorts Walt to the superlab telling Walt that there was some sort of chemical spill. Upon seeing Mike waiting at the lab for him, Walt deduces that this encounter is to be his execution. With his life at stake, he offers up Jesse in exchange for his own life, saying that he can call Jesse and lure him out of hiding. Walt uses this opportunity to quickly relay the message that Jesse must kill Gale and he must do it immediately. The season ends with Jesse arriving at Gale's apartment, trembling with tears in his eyes as he levels his gun at a pleading Gale and pulls the trigger, though we don't learn if he has actually killed Gale at this point.
At this point, Jesse becomes completely indifferent to his own welfare, stealing meth from the lab for his party guests and not even reacting when he discovers his money has been stolen. Mike and Tyrus return the money to him along with the thief, bound and blindfolded, but Jesse reacts with arrogant indifference. Mike informs Gus of Jesse's recklessness, but instead of ordering his execution, Gus has Mike take Jesse on an errand to collect drop money. On the last pickup, Jesse sees a man approaching the car with a shotgun and attempts to run over the man and ultimately rams the mans car and drives away. It is revealed that the man with the shotgun was working for Mike and this was all just a test for Jesse, a test which he passed prompting Mike to call him a hero. A relieved Walt finds Jesse in the lab where Jesse tells him that he will be doing more work with Mike. When Walt informs Jesse of his suspicion that the alley incident was a setup, Jesse reacts hotly, while Walt declares his belief that Gus is trying to wedge their partnership. During Jesse's next assignment with Mike involving the retrieval of a stolen bag of product, Jesse shows some craftiness by getting one meth addict to dig a hole in the yard and disarms another wielding a shotgun, which at a later evening rendezvous draws praise from Gus. Shortly after this point Pinkman has resumed a relationship with Andrea and her son Brock, who Jesse treats as a son.
Walter, losing control of the situation, asks Jesse to take out Gus by the use of a vial of ricin, which Jesse hides in a cigarette. Later on, when Gus is having a sit-down with members of the drug-cartel, Jesse begins to put the ricin in the drug-lord's coffee, but then decides not to because he can't control who would drink from the pot. That night, he decides to attend a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, where he breaks down and reveals that he is only attending to sell everybody meth. Walt later pushes Jesse to try to set up a meeting when he learns that Hank is investigating Gus, but backs off when he sees a text message implying that Jesse has been lying about not meeting Gus since the diner. Walt uses a bug, the same model that Hank uses on Gus's car, and attaches it to Jesse's vehicle, learning that Jesse had dinner at Gus's house the night before (where Jesse also considered using the ricin but was deterred because Gus was making them a communal pot of stew) and after an ugly confrontation and fight, Jesse told Walt to "get the fuck out of here and never come back". Because Gus and Mike do not trust Walt, they bring Jesse with them to Mexico in order to fulfill the carte's demand to have their top chemist teach the cartel's scientists how to make the famous blue meth. Over the course of the series, Jesse's skill at producing meth has greatly increased, to the point where he can create meth that is 96.2% pure, on par with Gale Boetticher, who has admitted that his capability is 96%. Jesse cooks with great skill and Don Eladio informs him that he will be permanently on loan to the cartel, but Gus then uses a poisoned bottle of tequila to kill off Eladio and his men, and Jesse reacts quickly to kill a gunman at the cartel's compound before driving Gus and an injured Mike (who was shot and wounded) to a makeshift clinic for treatment. While Jesse now hates Walt, he does tell Gus he does not want Walt killed, and that Gus should simply fire Walt instead. Jesse then takes over as the sole cooker at the Super-Lab, and blows off an attempt by Walt to alternately make amends and beg for his safety; when Gus does fire Walt, he tells him he will have no further contact with Jesse, and if he tries and contact him, he will murder his entire family. Walt, scared for his family, asks Saul to contact the man who can make him "disappear", while Skyler informs the DEA for protection. Gus now believes that Walt is helping the DEA and informs Jesse of this, attempting to further the gap between the two. Walt still insists that Gus must be killed and goes to Jesse's house to beg for him to use the Ricin capsule to kill Gus. Jesse still hates Walt and throws him off his property.
Shortly afterwards, Andrea's son Brock falls mysteriously ill. The symptoms are that of Ricin which prompts Jesse to instruct Andrea to relay the possibility of it being ricin poisoning to the doctors. This is followed by an almost immediate increase in Brock's medical state, straining Pinkman and Andrea's relationship due to the latter's assumption of the former's involvement in her child's illness. Pinkman immediately assumes Walter is at fault due to Ricin being the weapon of choice for Gus and Walter being one of the few people aware of Brock's relationship with Pinkman. After a tense discussion at gunpoint, Walter convinces Jesse that Gus is at fault, after reminding Jesse that Gus has previously shown that he is willing to kill children to get what he wants.
After a series of tense exchanges between Pinkman and Gus, Pinkman finally breaks down and divulges to Walter that Gus often visits a secluded retirement home in order to taunt Hector, a member of Don Eladio's drug cartel directly responsible for killing a close friend of Gus's several decades prior. This leads to the events of the final episode of the season where Walter is finally successful in finally killing Gus with a pipe bomb. The one of last scenes of the episodes show Pinkman and Walter intentionally setting fire to their Meth lab and walking out of the building, triggering the fire alarm as they exit.
In the final scene with dialogue, Pinkman reveals to Walter's astonishment that Ricin actually wasn't the cause of Brock's illness, but is instead the result of a flowering plant called "Lily of the Valley" which is sweet leading small children to eat it. Pinkman, still reeling somewhat from the guilt of having killed Gale, and realizing now that Gus had nothing to do with Brock's illness, pushes Walt to reassure him that killing Gus was the only acceptable course of action, which Walt does. The final scene consists of outro music playing as the camera zooms in on a potted plant in Walter's backyard, which carries the label "Lily of the Valley."
originally intended for Jesse Pinkman's character to be killed at the end of Breaking Bad
' s first season
. Originally, Gilligan wanted Jesse to die in a botched drug deal as a plot device to plague the main protagonist Walter White with guilt. However, Gilligan said by the second episode of the season, he was so impressed with Jesse's character and Aaron Paul's performance that "it became pretty clear early on that would be a huge, colossal mistake, to kill off Jesse".
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
of the American television drama series Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...
on AMC. He is portrayed by Aaron Paul
Aaron Paul
Aaron Michael Paul is an American actor. After appearing in several roles in American television, including a recurring role on the HBO series Big Love, Paul came to prominence in the late 2000s for his critically acclaimed portrayal of Jesse Pinkman in the AMC series Breaking Bad, for which he...
and was created by series creator Vince Gilligan
Vince Gilligan
Vince Gilligan is an American writer, director and producer. He is the creator of the highly acclaimed television series Breaking Bad. Gilligan has also worked on the hit series The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen. He is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University...
.
Background
Jesse Bruce Pinkman was born into an upper middle-class family in Albuquerque, New MexicoAlbuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
. At the time the series starts, he has long been estranged from his parents due to his constant drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
and irresponsible lifestyle. After being forced to leave his parents' residence, Jesse moved in with his Aunt Jenny, whom he cared for until her death from lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
; he subsequently inherited her home.
Jesse was a poor student in high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, largely due to his inattention and apathy. Walter White
Walter White (Breaking Bad)
Walter Hartwell "Walt" White is a fictional character and the antihero of the American television drama series Breaking Bad on AMC. He is portrayed by Bryan Cranston and was created by series creator Vince Gilligan...
was Jesse's chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
teacher, and flunked him in his class; Jesse's mother later recalled that Walter tried to motivate Jesse and was "one of the few teachers who cared" about him. After high school, Jesse studied data systems management at DeVry University
DeVry University
DeVry University and DeVry Institute of Technology are divisions of DeVry Inc , a proprietary, for-profit higher education organization that is also the parent organization for Keller Graduate School of Management, Ross University, American University of the Caribbean, Apollo College, Western...
.
Season one
When Walter accompanies his brother-in-law, Hank Schrader, as a ride-a-long during a DEA drug bust, he spots Jesse running away from the scene; he subsequently realizes that Jesse is "Cap'n Cook", a methamphetamineMethamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...
dealer Hank has been investigating. Walter, having himself been diagnosed with lung cancer, tracks down Jesse and blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
s his former student into letting him enter the distribution side of the illegal drug trade. He plans to use his knowledge of chemistry to cook potent crystal meth that Jesse will distribute, giving him $7,000 to purchase an RV which will be used as a portable meth lab.
Jesse approaches the only dealer he knows higher-up in the distribution chain, Krazy-8, with a bag of the meth he and Walter have cooked. However, Krazy 8 and his cousin Emilio try to steal the meth and kill Walter and Jesse. Emilio ends up dead while Krazy 8 is kept captive in Jesse's basement for several days before Walt finally kills him. They then are forced to sell meth themselves.
Unsatisfied with the minuscule amount of money Jesse is collecting, Walter convinces him to find a high-end distributor for their meth. "Skinny Pete", one of Jesse's friends, puts him in contact with Tuco Salamanca, a powerful Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
drug kingpin operating in Albuquerque. However, at their first meeting, the psychotic
Psychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
Tuco brutally beats Jesse and lands him in the hospital. After Walter strong-arms Tuco into a lucrative-albeit-unstable partnership, he and Jesse expand their operations by stealing a large drum of methylamine
Methylamine
Methylamine is the organic compound with a formula of CH3NH2. This colourless gas is a derivative of ammonia, but with one H atom replaced by a methyl group. It is the simplest primary amine. It is sold as a solution in methanol, ethanol, THF, and water, or as the anhydrous gas in pressurized...
. This enables them to produce large quantities of meth, which is eventually given the street name "blue sky".
The first season
Breaking Bad (season 1)
The first season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad premiered on January 20, 2008 and concluded on March 9, 2008. It consisted of seven episodes, each running approximately 47 minutes in length, except the pilot episode which runs approximately 57 minutes. AMC broadcast the first...
ends with Walter and Jesse delivering a fresh batch of blue sky to Tuco, who senselessly assaults one of his henchmen, No Doze, as a shocked Walter and Jesse watch helplessly.
Season two
After the DEA conducts a raid on Tuco's Albuquerque operations, Tuco kidnaps Walter and Jesse, intending to take them to a superlab in MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. However, the two escape after a struggle with Tuco in which Jesse manages to get Tuco's gun and shoot him with it. After the shooting Jesse and Walter move a wounded but not dead Tuco when they see a car approaching which they believe to be Tuco's cousins arriving to take them to the super meth lab in Mexico. It turns out to be Walter's brother in law Hank who is searching for Walter after his disappearance. Tuco is killed after a gunfight with Hank while Jesse and Walter escape through the desert. Unfortunately, Jesse's car and money are both seized by the DEA.
Realizing that the authorities will track him down, Jesse seeks help from his friend, Badger. They move the lab from Jesse's house back to the RV. The RV is subsequently towed away by Badger's cousin, Clovis, and stored on his lot for a $1,000 storage fee, which Jesse can only pay half of upfront. The next day, Jesse awakens to find his mother evicting him from his home, since his parents legally own the house and have discovered that he was cooking crystal meth in the basement. Unable to find a friend to stay with, he gets his remaining few belongings and his bike stolen as well, so he breaks into Clovis' lot and passes out in the RV ("Down").
Jesse eventually resolves to put himself back together. He buys an inconspicuous Toyota Tercel
Toyota Tercel
The Tercel is a subcompact manufactured from 1978 to 2000 across five generations, in five body configurations — sized between the Corolla and the Starlet...
and finds a new apartment. The landlord, Jane, is a part-time tattoo-artist and also, as Jesse later finds out, a recovering addict. Living right next to Jesse in the same two-family building, it's not long before she and Jesse becomes romantically involved. Jane, however, tries to hide this relationship from her father, Donald, who is the property owner of their building.
Jesse spirals into a drug-fueled depression when Combo is murdered by rival drug dealers. He is introduced to heroin by Jane, who relapses
Relapse
Relapse, in relation to drug misuse, is resuming the use of a drug or a dependent substance after one or more periods of abstinence. The term is a landmark feature of both substance dependence and substance abuse, which are learned behaviors, and is maintained by neuronal adaptations that mediate...
back into addiction. Jesse becomes perpetually high and lethargic, nearly costing Walter his $1.3 million drug transaction with the powerful meth distributor Gus Fring; this leads Walter to withhold Jesse's half of the money until he enters rehab, causing a falling out between the two. When Jane learns of the money's existence, she blackmails Walter into giving Jesse his share, hoping to use the money to escape to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. However, Jane overdoses and suffocates on her own vomit shortly afterward; Walter is present at the time of her death, but does not intervene and watches her die. Jesse blames himself for Jane's death and becomes self-destructively despondent. Walter rescues Jesse from a crack house
Crack house
Crack house is a term mainly used in the United States used to describe an old, often abandoned or burnt-out building often in an inner-city neighborhood where drug dealers and drug users buy, sell, produce, and use illegal drugs, including, but not limited to, crack cocaine.In the 1980s, inner...
, and checks him in to a rehabilitation clinic.
Season three
While in rehab, Jesse is told by a counselor to accept himself for who he is. At this point, he has learned that Jane's father, an air traffic controllerAir traffic controller
Air traffic controllers are the people who expedite and maintain a safe and orderly flow of air traffic in the global air traffic control system. The position of the air traffic controller is one that requires highly specialized skills...
, was so distraught over her death that he inadvertently caused a mid-air collision
Mid-air collision
A mid-air collision is an aviation accident in which two or more aircraft come into contact during flight. Owing to the relatively high velocities involved and any subsequent impact on the ground or sea, very severe damage or the total destruction of at least one of the aircraft involved usually...
. Jesse tells Walter that he has taken the counselor's advice and accepted himself as the "bad guy" because of his perceived role in these two incidents, unaware of Walter's culpability in both of them. Jesse leaves rehab clean and sober, and sets out to settle unfinished business. First, with help from Saul, Jesse dupes his parents into selling him his aunt's house.
Though he found himself lonely, Jesse had definitely attracted attention of a different sort. Hank, after a lead puts him on the prowl for R.V.'s, is convinced (and correct) that the RV belonging to Jesse is a roving meth lab. Upon tailing Jesse, he manages to finally find it, only to be outsmarted in the end by Jesse, Walt and a very law savvy salvage yard owner. Walt (with the help of Saul and Hanks' personal cellphone number) distracts Hank long enough for them to destroy all evidence of the RV, but in so doing, inadvertently directs Hanks frustration and rage toward Pinkman. Once again, we find Jesse in the hospital, this time recovering from wounds inflicted upon him by Hank after finally snapping from the stress of his job coupled with the lack of results. While in the hospital, Jesse is visited by Walt, who is terribly upset that his manipulation of Hank has resulted in the damage to Pinkman. Upon hearing of Jesse's future plans to purchase another RV and cook once more, and also as a way of re-cementing their friendship, Walt convinces Gus to replace Gale (his previous lab assistant) with Jesse. Now, Jesse and Walt are back together cooking as the team they once were, and making considerably more money.
Jesse becomes involved with a young mother, Andrea, whom he meets through his Narcotics Anonymous meetings. In doing so, he discovers the identity of Combo's assassin, who turns out to be Andrea's younger brother, acting on the orders of two gang bangers that happen to also be selling Walt and Jesse's product. Pinkman concocts a plan to poison the two, using the ricin
Ricin
Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally occurring protein. A dose as small as a few grains of salt can kill an adult. The LD50 of ricin is around 22 micrograms per kilogram Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally...
made earlier to kill Tuco and Wendy as his courier. Unbeknownst to Jesse, the two cohorts are protected employees of Gus, and after a tense meeting wherein Walt betrays Jesse to Gus, Jesse is forced to give up his assassination attempt. In return, the two rival dealers are supposed to quit using children in their line of work. Tomas, the 11 year old child-soldier, is unceremoniously terminated by Gus's two "trusted employees", most likely because of what he knows, but it is unknown exactly why the boy was killed. Upon hearing the news, Jesse sets out to finish what he had originally started. After breaking his sobriety by snorting some crystal in his car, he is strapped and ready for vengeance as he approaches the two gangsters on the street. Out of nowhere, Walt saves the day by horrifically running both dealers down with his car, and executing the surviving dealer by firing a round into his face.
After a very tense meeting with Gus, Walt agrees to return to work, telling Gus that Jesse is on the run and will "no longer be a problem." With Gale reinstated as his lab partner again, Walt discovers Gus's plan of having Gale master the "blue sky" formula, meaning Gus would no longer have any need for Walt. After meeting with Jesse, who was, in truth, hiding out in town at an abandoned laser tag facility owned by Saul, the two agree that Gale has to die. Walt asks Jesse to follow Gale and find out his address, telling Jesse that he will do the rest. Unfortunately, on his way to do the deed, Walt is stopped by one of Gus's henchmen, Victor. Victor escorts Walt to the superlab telling Walt that there was some sort of chemical spill. Upon seeing Mike waiting at the lab for him, Walt deduces that this encounter is to be his execution. With his life at stake, he offers up Jesse in exchange for his own life, saying that he can call Jesse and lure him out of hiding. Walt uses this opportunity to quickly relay the message that Jesse must kill Gale and he must do it immediately. The season ends with Jesse arriving at Gale's apartment, trembling with tears in his eyes as he levels his gun at a pleading Gale and pulls the trigger, though we don't learn if he has actually killed Gale at this point.
Season four
Jesse has indeed shot Gale dead and he goes to his car in shock. Victor finds him and takes him to the lab, where he and Walt are let go following the bloody killing of Victor by Gus. Walt tells Jesse that they do not have much time left with Gus, but Jesse seems uncaring, thinking that it would take the drug-kingpin a while to find a replacement for the two of them. Jesse starts to fill his house with noise, buying huge speakers and starting crazy parties in order to forget his guilt. Andrea shows up at the party with Brock and Jesse talks with her. She reveals that Jesse left a large amount of money in her mailbox, and Jesse tells her that she can use it to buy drugs or get out of the neighborhood with Brock. Andrea says goodbye to him and he waves to Brock as her car pulls away. When the party disperses, Jesse is seen curled against the speaker, slowly breaking down as he turns the volume all the way up.At this point, Jesse becomes completely indifferent to his own welfare, stealing meth from the lab for his party guests and not even reacting when he discovers his money has been stolen. Mike and Tyrus return the money to him along with the thief, bound and blindfolded, but Jesse reacts with arrogant indifference. Mike informs Gus of Jesse's recklessness, but instead of ordering his execution, Gus has Mike take Jesse on an errand to collect drop money. On the last pickup, Jesse sees a man approaching the car with a shotgun and attempts to run over the man and ultimately rams the mans car and drives away. It is revealed that the man with the shotgun was working for Mike and this was all just a test for Jesse, a test which he passed prompting Mike to call him a hero. A relieved Walt finds Jesse in the lab where Jesse tells him that he will be doing more work with Mike. When Walt informs Jesse of his suspicion that the alley incident was a setup, Jesse reacts hotly, while Walt declares his belief that Gus is trying to wedge their partnership. During Jesse's next assignment with Mike involving the retrieval of a stolen bag of product, Jesse shows some craftiness by getting one meth addict to dig a hole in the yard and disarms another wielding a shotgun, which at a later evening rendezvous draws praise from Gus. Shortly after this point Pinkman has resumed a relationship with Andrea and her son Brock, who Jesse treats as a son.
Walter, losing control of the situation, asks Jesse to take out Gus by the use of a vial of ricin, which Jesse hides in a cigarette. Later on, when Gus is having a sit-down with members of the drug-cartel, Jesse begins to put the ricin in the drug-lord's coffee, but then decides not to because he can't control who would drink from the pot. That night, he decides to attend a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, where he breaks down and reveals that he is only attending to sell everybody meth. Walt later pushes Jesse to try to set up a meeting when he learns that Hank is investigating Gus, but backs off when he sees a text message implying that Jesse has been lying about not meeting Gus since the diner. Walt uses a bug, the same model that Hank uses on Gus's car, and attaches it to Jesse's vehicle, learning that Jesse had dinner at Gus's house the night before (where Jesse also considered using the ricin but was deterred because Gus was making them a communal pot of stew) and after an ugly confrontation and fight, Jesse told Walt to "get the fuck out of here and never come back". Because Gus and Mike do not trust Walt, they bring Jesse with them to Mexico in order to fulfill the carte's demand to have their top chemist teach the cartel's scientists how to make the famous blue meth. Over the course of the series, Jesse's skill at producing meth has greatly increased, to the point where he can create meth that is 96.2% pure, on par with Gale Boetticher, who has admitted that his capability is 96%. Jesse cooks with great skill and Don Eladio informs him that he will be permanently on loan to the cartel, but Gus then uses a poisoned bottle of tequila to kill off Eladio and his men, and Jesse reacts quickly to kill a gunman at the cartel's compound before driving Gus and an injured Mike (who was shot and wounded) to a makeshift clinic for treatment. While Jesse now hates Walt, he does tell Gus he does not want Walt killed, and that Gus should simply fire Walt instead. Jesse then takes over as the sole cooker at the Super-Lab, and blows off an attempt by Walt to alternately make amends and beg for his safety; when Gus does fire Walt, he tells him he will have no further contact with Jesse, and if he tries and contact him, he will murder his entire family. Walt, scared for his family, asks Saul to contact the man who can make him "disappear", while Skyler informs the DEA for protection. Gus now believes that Walt is helping the DEA and informs Jesse of this, attempting to further the gap between the two. Walt still insists that Gus must be killed and goes to Jesse's house to beg for him to use the Ricin capsule to kill Gus. Jesse still hates Walt and throws him off his property.
Shortly afterwards, Andrea's son Brock falls mysteriously ill. The symptoms are that of Ricin which prompts Jesse to instruct Andrea to relay the possibility of it being ricin poisoning to the doctors. This is followed by an almost immediate increase in Brock's medical state, straining Pinkman and Andrea's relationship due to the latter's assumption of the former's involvement in her child's illness. Pinkman immediately assumes Walter is at fault due to Ricin being the weapon of choice for Gus and Walter being one of the few people aware of Brock's relationship with Pinkman. After a tense discussion at gunpoint, Walter convinces Jesse that Gus is at fault, after reminding Jesse that Gus has previously shown that he is willing to kill children to get what he wants.
After a series of tense exchanges between Pinkman and Gus, Pinkman finally breaks down and divulges to Walter that Gus often visits a secluded retirement home in order to taunt Hector, a member of Don Eladio's drug cartel directly responsible for killing a close friend of Gus's several decades prior. This leads to the events of the final episode of the season where Walter is finally successful in finally killing Gus with a pipe bomb. The one of last scenes of the episodes show Pinkman and Walter intentionally setting fire to their Meth lab and walking out of the building, triggering the fire alarm as they exit.
In the final scene with dialogue, Pinkman reveals to Walter's astonishment that Ricin actually wasn't the cause of Brock's illness, but is instead the result of a flowering plant called "Lily of the Valley" which is sweet leading small children to eat it. Pinkman, still reeling somewhat from the guilt of having killed Gale, and realizing now that Gus had nothing to do with Brock's illness, pushes Walt to reassure him that killing Gus was the only acceptable course of action, which Walt does. The final scene consists of outro music playing as the camera zooms in on a potted plant in Walter's backyard, which carries the label "Lily of the Valley."
Development
Series creator Vince GilliganVince Gilligan
Vince Gilligan is an American writer, director and producer. He is the creator of the highly acclaimed television series Breaking Bad. Gilligan has also worked on the hit series The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen. He is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University...
originally intended for Jesse Pinkman's character to be killed at the end of Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...
Breaking Bad (season 1)
The first season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad premiered on January 20, 2008 and concluded on March 9, 2008. It consisted of seven episodes, each running approximately 47 minutes in length, except the pilot episode which runs approximately 57 minutes. AMC broadcast the first...
. Originally, Gilligan wanted Jesse to die in a botched drug deal as a plot device to plague the main protagonist Walter White with guilt. However, Gilligan said by the second episode of the season, he was so impressed with Jesse's character and Aaron Paul's performance that "it became pretty clear early on that would be a huge, colossal mistake, to kill off Jesse".
Awards
- 2009 Emmy AwardEmmy AwardAn Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series - Breaking BadBreaking BadBreaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...
(nominated) - 2010 Saturn AwardSaturn AwardThe Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
: Best Supporting Actor on Television - Breaking BadBreaking BadBreaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...
(won) - 2010 Emmy AwardEmmy AwardAn Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series - Breaking BadBreaking BadBreaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...
(won)
External links
- Jesse Pinkman at AMC.com