Introduction

Jesse Pinkman at the beginning of Breaking Bad is a 24-year-old who was kicked out of high
school and pursued a life into the drug business, making a pretty good amount of money on
his own selling crystal while cooking and living in his deceased Aunt’s house. This
documentary is going to be focusing on Jesse, and his fall into insanity through the course of
5 seasons and 62 episodes of Breaking Bad. The story of Breaking Bad itself isn’t about Jesse
it’s the story of Walter White and how such a simple man can turn into a deadly one when
he is placed in a different environment. That being, the drug business. Walt is a very
intelligent man and when he cooks crystal he makes it to such a pure level that it is more
desired than any other being sold which he makes a living out of and secures Jesse as his
partner from the beginning.

Aaron Paul
Before we do anything let’s take a look at Aaron Paul, the actor for Jesse Pinkman. Before
Breaking Bad started in 2008 Aaron didn’t get too many roles in shows. Usually showing up
for a single episode or as a side character but he did show up in the ‘Thoughtless’ music
video by Korn in 2002 and playing Scott Quittman in ‘Big Love’ he showed up in 14 episodes.
Aaron’s main career came during and after Breaking Bad. People recognised his talent for
acting and so he was able to secure lots more roles after he started on Breaking Bad. Jesse
Pinkman was supposed to be killed off at the end of the first season of Breaking Bad but was
decidedly kept on due to Aaron’s phenomenal acting. From this, he went on to be in much
more shows and movies. The remake of ‘The Last House On The Left’ in 2009. ‘Need For
Speed’ In 2014. The Path from 2016 to 2018. Black Mirror in 2017. Adam in 2020. West
world from 2020 to 2022. And Central intelligence in 2016 where they actually made a
reference to Breaking Bad. Lastly, I want to say that Aaron actually won three Emmy’s for his
performance as Jesse Pinkman in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

The American Dream

‘The American Dream’ is a subject that effects all characters in Breaking Bad but, I want to
focus on how it effects Jesse and Walt the most. ‘The American Dream’ is the idea and the
desire to live a long life with a beautiful family being financially stable enough to provide to
your family when they are in need and after death, and both Jesse and Walt clearly show
that they both aspire for ‘The American Dream’. Yes, Jesse and Walt are both quite selfish
and want a lot of the money for themselves but they also both want to thrive and build a
family with their partners. Walt is the embodiment of striving ‘The American Dream’ since
he’s already built his family- he just needs the money. Jesse however is a character who is
always striving to be a good person which he somehow always messes up. No matter how
hard he tries he’ll always fall back into a bad place. Metaphorically and physically.

The Influence of Walter White

Now I get to actually start talking about Breaking Bad and the influence of Walter White. In
Breaking Bad our two main characters are Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, but, as I have
said previously, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman is just along for
the ride. Walter was Jesse’s chemistry teacher before he got kicked out and in the first
episode when they meet again you can see that Jesse can’t believe what Walt is trying to
pitch to him. Jesse always saw Walter as a quiet man and would never expect him to
approach him like this, in school Walt would always try and help Jesse, seeing his potential
but knowing that he would never try since he didn’t care enough about school or chemistry.
After Jesse agrees, Walt gives him some chemistry knowledge since Jesse clearly never
listened in Walt’s lessons and Jesse can already noticed how serious Walt is about this idea
and how much he has changed since he knew him in high school. They then make their first
cook and Jesse is very impressed and can see that Walt has great potential to make them
both a lot of money. They know that they have their work cut out for them, and from this
their relationship starts brewing. Jesse very much respects Walt and begins to treat him as a
sort of father figure as whilst Jesse has been doing this for ages, Walt does it once and is
already a fantastic cook. They both have a lot to learn from each other.
There are 62 episodes in Breaking Bad and both Jesse and Walt are in every single
one of them, so every episode has them either building or collapsing their relationship, but
usually for every step forward there are two steps back. Walt and Jesse have an awfully toxic
relationship and it’s shown in almost every episode, even the first conversation they have
together after high school is black mail! They argue in every conversation as if it’s always a
competition, they disagree with everything that each other says and they simply can’t stand
to be with each other for too long since they are both two completely contrasting dynamics
that cannot stand what each other say.

Jesse and Walter’s Relationship

As I said before Jesse and Walter have an awfully toxic relationship. There are a lot of parts
were Jesse sees Walter as a father figure and Walter sees Jesse as a surrogate son, but that is
usually corrupted into Walter thinking he is smarter and has more power than Jesse. Jesse is
very naive, and Walter is very intelligent, and I think that Jesse’s stupidity makes Walter want
to help him sometimes but mostly it just upsets and angers him. While occasionally Jesse
will look up to Walt because knows a lot more than him usually Jesse will just get annoyed
because he knows how hard he is trying. As for Walt, he is extremely manipulative, and their
relationship changes based on how he wants it to change. If Walter needs something done
or to have changed and Jesse is the middleman, then Walt can make that happen. Jesse
looks up to Walt a lot more than Walt looks up to him, as while Jesse has more street smarts
than Walt, Walt quickly picks up on street smarts and becomes more intelligent than Jesse.

The Rise and Fall of Jesse Pinkman

Here is where I get into the real bulk and grit of my documentary. I want to speak about all
the unfortunate mishaps that had affected Jesse Pinkman. Throughout the entire Breaking
Bad series and how it bleeds into El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. Of course, I’ll have to
shorten this down a lot due to there being way too much information to fit into a short
documentary, but I will do it as best as I can. Season one, episode one: Pilot. In this first
episode Walter sees Jesse during a drug bust, this is the first time he’s seen him since
teaching him at high school. Later on in the evening, Walt blackmails Jesse into cooking with
him. And this is where it all begins. We find out Jesse is an addict who already smokes the
crystal that they cooked. In Season one, episode five: Gray Matter; Jesse and his friend try to
cook a batch but Jesse can’t get it as good as Walter so keeps throwing it away which breaks
out into a fight between them. Later on, in episode six: Crazy Handful of Nothin’; Jesse tries
to make a deal with Tuco, a distributor, but when Tuco doesn’t accept the terms Jesse tries
to run and gets beaten up in the process. In season two, episode one: Seven Thirty-Seven;
Jesse and Walt manage to get kidnapped by Tuco because of their bad relationship with him
and later in episode two: Grilled; Jesse has a rifle pointed at his head after trying to poison
Tuco but then hits him in the head and shoots him. In episode four: Down; Jesse’s parents
want to sell his house making Jesse homeless, he can’t find a home after looking and ends
up having to break into the junk yard where his RV is kept. He falls into a porta-potty and
gets covered in chemicals which is where the infamous ‘Why are you blue?’ scene comes
from. Walt tells Jesse that his half doesn’t exist and that its all Walt’s. After Jesse and Walt
fight, Walt gives Jesse his half. Through the rest of season two we meet Jane who becomes
Jesse’s love interest and Saul Goodman who becomes Jesse and Walt’s lawyer and Gustavo
Fring who becomes their distributor. Despite Jane being in rehab Jane gets Jesse into doing
heroin and when Walt tries to make a deal with Gus he breaks into Jesse’s house while he is
high to pick up the crystal. Later Walt goes back to Jesse’s house and Jane throws up and
chokes on her own vomit. Walt could have saved her, but he didn’t. Season two, episode
thirteen: ABQ; Jesse wakes up, finds Jane tries to do CPR but it doesn’t work. Later Walt
visits Jesse in a crack house and they have a very emotional moment. Season three, episode
thirteen: ‘Full Measure’ Walt makes Jesse kill Gale in order to save his life, this really affects
Jesse and even gives him PTSD. Season three, episode six: Sunset; Hank spies on Jesse and
tracks the RV. While Hank is investigating, he gets a fake call from the hospital about his wife.
Season three, episode seven: One Minute; Hank shows up to Jesse’s house, thinking it was
him who made the fake call, beats Jesse up and gets him sent to hospital. This is where
another heart-breaking scene plays. In season four episode 2: ‘Thirty-Eight Snub’; Jesse
starts using again, he starts non-stop partying, and this is where the ‘speaker’ scene comes
from. In season four, episode twelve: End Times; Jesse’s girlfriend’s son is poisoned and Jesse
believes that it is Walter but Walt convinces him that it wasn’t. In season five, episode
eleven: confessions; Jesse finds out that it was Walt that had poisoned Brock all along and so
Jesse pours gasoline all in Walt’s home. Season five, episode twelve: Rapid Dog; Before Jesse
could light it, Hank shows up and stops him, at this point Hank knows Walter is Heisenberg.
He then asks Jesse to explain everything on film. Season Five, episode thirteen: To’hajiilee;
They come up with a plan to stop Walt by pretending they know where his money is buried
which brings him to right where they wanted him. Walt calls a gang of neo-Nazis’ that he has
been working with lead by Jack Welker. Episode fourteen: Ozymandias; Jack kills Hank and
his partner and then. Take Jesse and torture him, then use him to cook for them. Episode
fifteen: Granite State; Jesse tries to escape but fails, and then Todd who is in Jack’s gang kills
Andrea. Season five, final episode: Felina; In this episode we are shown a flashback of Jesse
at his highest making a small wooden chest looking the happiest we have ever seen in this
show, then an abrupt transition plays where it shows Jesse looking worse than ever in Jack’s
lab. Later on, Walt shows up with an offer looking unrecognisable to anyone and kills the
gang, excluding Todd with a make-shift gun turret. Jesse then uses his own chains to kill
Todd. After this, Walt and Jesse finally part ways and we see a very emotional scene with
fantastic acting by Aaron Paul. This final Jesse scene bleeds into El Camino really well as if it
was recorded in the same time. After this, Walter dies from a bullet wound and the five-year
series comes to a close. ‘The rise and fall of Jesse Pinkman’ is a bit of an overstatement to
say the least, because there was not much of a rise but there was a huge fall, below rock
bottom. Jesse’s rose happened occasionally over the series. When he stopped using for a
while and went to rehab, or when he was taken out to run errands with Mike and stopped
using then. Jesse’s true rise to peace happens in El Camino, but I’m not doing that now.
Evaluation
Jesse Pinkman is a poor character, a misjudged character, a kid who just wants to do good
but always seems to run into trouble. Throughout Breaking Bad it seems like Jesse never had
a choice, like people were moving him around without giving him his own decisions and he
doesn’t even get his good ending until after Breaking Bad in El Camino. I think the character
Jesse Pinkman is absolutely fantastic and works so well with the character for Walter White.
Of course, Aaron Paul’s acting affects this, and Jesse would not be the same character
without Aaron. Jesse Pinkman is one of my favourites characters in media he is made so well
to be who he is. And what he is, is tortured.