El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie covered a lot of ground when they picked up where we had left Jesse in the Breaking Bad series finale. With the movie focusing on the aftermath of Jesse’s criminal life and subsequent captivity, there was still a lot to unpack from the past for Jesse Pinkman and his troubled life.
The flashback scenes added a lot of depth and helped in telling the latest tale in Jesse’s ongoing journey. Some were more nostalgic and gave us Breaking Bad fans the closure we needed. But others helped add context and crucial details that were left up in the air prior to this new film.
We’re going to be ranking these important flashback scenes in El Camino from the least favorable to the most right…now.
The Hosing Scene
At the very beginning of the film, Jesse finds himself back at his old friend Skinny Pete’s house where he and Badger are hiding Jesse from the feds. They also were working to help him through the difficult times he had after being kidnapped by the neo-Nazis.
The next morning, they suggest he takes a shower to clean up, and while doing so he begins to flashback to some of the torture he endured by the neo-Nazis’ hands. They would use a high-powered firehose to inflict pain on him as well as humiliate him.
It was only a brief glimpse into what he had gone through but it was hard to watch, nonetheless.
A Weather Talk With Todd
The first time we see the infamous Todd again in flashbacks, he is talking to Jesse through the cage that his Uncle keeps him in. At first, he’s acting as if it’s no big deal that he’s talking to him in a “friendly” manner. In fact, he mostly discusses the weather with Jesse.
Of course, Jesse is wary but knows he has no choice but to do what Todd says regardless. Even with it being a discussion mostly about the weather, we can sense the tension and the fact that Todd wants something from Jesse. Sure enough, he’s asking him for a favor not long after.
Running For The Neo-Nazis
In another flashback scene, we have to see more of what Jesse went through during those months he was in captivity thanks to Todd’s Uncle Jack and his crew.
While a member of said crew is discussing the mechanics of Jesse’s meth lab he was forced to work in with a welder, he decides to degrade Jesse and prove they need to upgrade the mechanism that Jesse is chained to so it won’t break.
He forces Jesse to run back and forth at full speed while chained to this mechanism, resulting in not only causing Jesse pain but proving that Uncle Jack’s crew has the upper-hand over him.
Todd’s Soup Lunch
Originally, when Todd snuck Jesse out and brought him to his apartment complex, Jesse was surprised to see Todd wanted him to help put a cab on his car. Quickly, he learned that that was not all Todd wanted Jesse’s help with.
Upon entering his apartment, Jesse sees a deceased woman on Todd’s kitchen floor. Turns out it’s his housekeeper and Todd had killed her to keep her quiet about his money stash. This clearly disturbed Jesse and he had to sit there with Todd as he ate soup and his housekeeper was still lying on the floor.
Burying Todd’s Housekeeper
In the last flashback scene was saw Jesse share with Todd, Jesse was forced to not only ride in the trunk with Todd’s deceased housekeeper as they drove out to the desert but then he had to bury his housekeeper with no help from Todd.
The worst part was afterward, when Todd asked Jesse to grab cigarettes out of the glove compartment, Jesse finds a gun. He grabs it, seemingly with the intent to use it on Todd and escape. Sadly, he couldn’t bring himself to do it which meant he would have ot suffer for longer at the hands of Todd and his Uncle’s crew. It was a heartbreaking moment.
A Conversation With Mike
Before the events start to unfold in El Camino, the first scene is a flashback of Jesse and a meaningful conversation he had with Mike back in the Breaking Bad days.
This was before things went south for him again, when he was planning his way out and had every intention of starting over somewhere new. While Mike told him he wouldn’t be able to escape what he had done in the past, he could start over new somewhere and be someone else. That place he should go? Alaska.
It was a great way to wrap up their friendship.
Car Ride With Jane
Though Jesse and Jane’s love story was a self-destructive one for them both, there’s no doubt that Jesse loved her completely and was irrevocably changed by her death. So when we got to see her again in a flashback scene at the end of the film, it was one that packed a lot of meaning into one exchange.
They’re on a road trip to an undisclosed location when Jesse shares with Jane what he loves about her, which is the fact that she believes in the universe’s “grand plan” and that she isn’t afraid to follow it. But Jane tells him that he actually has it all wrong.
She says, “I was being metaphorical. It’s a terrible philosophy. I’ve gone where the universe takes me my whole life. It’s better to make those decisions for yourself.” This is the best way to describe what Jesse must do now that he has the freedom and ability to make his own decisions in life.
The Return Of Heisenberg
We were all waiting with bated breath to see if Bryan Cranston would return as Walter White in some capacity for this highly-anticipated film. Lucky for us, he did – in flashback form.
It took us back to their meth-cooking binge weekend back in season 2. We see them sharing breakfast after this trip to the desert where Jesse assures Walt, who is currently suffering from his cancer, that the $1.3 million worth of meth they sell would get to his family, no matter what.
Walt even suggests Jesse uses his portion of the cash to go to college. It’s a sweet moment that ends up turning into their back-and-forth banter that we’ve always loved. It was classic Jesse and Walt and just what us Breaking Bad fans needed for closure.
