El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie retroactively added new shades to moments from the original series, especially making the death of Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) in the Breaking Bad series finale even more poetic. Though coming six years after that climactic episode, the feature-length epilogue picked up mere moments after Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) was liberated from the Neo-Nazi gang that’d been holding him captive. The rest of the runtime was subsequently dedicated to Jesse’s attempts to outmaneuver forces from both sides of the law and forge a new destiny for himself. There were, however, numerous jaunts to the past that would inform a lot of Jesse’s decisions and provoke his desperate actions.
A number of such flashbacks featured Plemons as Todd, shedding further light on Jesse’s harrowing time captivity. Despite often having a childlike demeanor, Todd was never what fans would call a loveable character. In Breaking Bad alone, he assisted in the murder of Hank Schrader and the theft of Walter White’s multi-million empire. He murdered Drew Sharp, a child who may or may not have witnessed the crew’s train heist, in cold blood. And, in service as Jesse’s primary jailer, Todd also murdered Jesse’s former love, Andrea, in consequence for Jesse’s escape attempt. El Camino, however, took Todd’s psychopathy to even greater depths.
With the rest of the gang away, Todd was left in charge of Jesse. The former immediately took advantage of recruiting the latter into helping him dispose of a body. Over the course of the disposal, Todd revealed that the victim had been his cleaning lady and that he’d killed her after she discovered the hiding place for his money. After rolling the body up in a rug, Todd made sure to remove his belt from around her neck - conveying the method he had used to commit the crime. Though the biggest takeaway will be Todd’s unnatural obliviousness, given that he immediately puts the belt back on without a thought, it also adds a level of justice to Jesse’s eventual killing of Todd. After all, the method Jesse will ultimately use is to catch Todd similarly off-guard and strangle him to death. Though Jesse uses a chain rather than a belt, the sense of catharsis is no doubt increased.
It was always one of the most crowd-pleasing moments - with Jesse avenging Andrea and eliminating the final threat to the life of her son, Brock Cantillo. El Camino, however, retcons the moment to also be the perfect, poetic justice for the unnamed cleaning lady said to be an impeccable housekeeper and described as “George Washington honest”. The ever empathetic Jesse Pinkman has always been a reluctant killer - even of bad guys. His killing of Todd, however, was one that neither he nor the audience ever had any qualms with. It’s easy to envision that Todd’s murder of his cleaning lady was most definitely a component of that and at the forefront of Jesse’s mind as he pulled on the chain. Equally, it will no doubt be in every viewer’s mind when they rewatch that particular scene in the future.
This isn’t the first time that the world of Breaking Bad has been slightly reconfigured to add new layers to its overall, combined narrative. Better Call Saul has taken on the lion’s share in that regard, with the fleshed-out backstories adding even richer textures to numerous characters. Not to mention their dynamics with others, as seen by how Mike’s full backstory on the Saul Goodman-centric prequel plays directly into his relationship with Jesse on Breaking Bad. The latest, aforementioned example just merely solidifies Vince Gilligan as a storytelling artist and that El Camino: A Breaking Bad is simply another integral piece in the overall mosaic he has created.
More: El Camino Teases A Sad Ending To Better Call Saul
