The Breaking Bad movie has received mostly positive reviews from fans and why wouldn’t it? It’s a good flick and more importantly it closes the story of Jesse Pinkman. 

Originally introduced to the series as Walter White’s gateway drug on the road to building a drug empire to die at the end of first season and become the first casualty of his faltering morality, Pinkman instead became the show’s moral compass. 

Look, Breaking Bad was always about Heisenberg. If you were to start watching the show today, Jesse wouldn’t be the only you’d be rallying behind. He would just be there for the ride with Walt. 

But as the seasons progressed and the veil of civility Walter White lived behind was gradually lifted, it also shone a bright light towards Jesse Pinkman’s inherent humanity. 

But that didn’t make him a saint. He was responsible for the expansion of Heisenberg’s empire for most of the series. 

But as Walt continued a morally mutated journey towards becoming Heisenberg, Jesse’s character appeared to be lot more sympathetic. 

Jesse always had a soft spot for children – first with the malnourished kid and later with Andrea’s son, Brock.

But this was a weakness that regularly exploited by Walt. He poisoned Brock and pinned the blame on Gus Fring to keep Jesse with him in the foxhole. 

See, that there was the curse of Jesse Pinkman’s relationship with Walter White. Pinkman not only saw him as a mentor but as a father figure, someone whose authority he could trust. 

This curse also led point of no return. He killed Gale on Walt’s orders so that Gus would let them continue cooking meth. 

Walt could have killed Gale too. See, that there is the fragility of human conscience. While it would have been easy for Walt, Jesse was left with scars on his soul. 

Any of the many events Jesse experienced would have led to a torturous existence, let alone some kid, who still addressed Heisenberg as Mr White. 

But in hindsight, Jesse helped build Rome and was buried in it’s glorious debris, when it inevitably fell. 

So we knew that giving him the shovel to dig himself out was the only reason this film ever existed. 

Vanity Fair called the film a modern-day Western.  The two-hour extravaganza begins where it had left Jesse 6 years ago, on the wheels of an El Camino, tortured both in mind and body. 

He is a lone ranger on the streets of Alberquerque who rides into town with all the baggage of his past and no way to rid of it. 

The film is littered with flashbacks, with ghosts of  Mike, Jane, and Walt made flesh, as he continues to fight for his life. These flashbacks also help us see the kind of torture he received at Todd’s place. Although, just Pinkman’s face would have been enough to tell that story. 

See, of the men in the world of Breaking Bad, dealing drugs and murdering people, Jesse Pinkman was an anomaly. He was not meant to ever exist in that world. He wasn’t supposed to be the lone ranger riding into town. 

But I guess, Westerns don’t have to end tragically every time. It was about time, someone found light at the end of that tunnel.