Why El Camino is the “Happily Ever After” to Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is one of those shows that never stops giving.
First a spin-off series: ‘Better Call Saul’ and now a movie: ‘El Camino’?
What’s next, a Broadway show, starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul?
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, picks off where the series finale of Breaking Bad “Felina” left us; heartbroken and alone, for six long years, in a 1978 Chevrolet El Camino, with a dishevelled Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), cry-laughing in relief. Breaking Bad’s finale saw the end of an iconic, yet twisted father-son [sometimes Batman-Robin] relationship that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse shared. While the American drama series focused on White for five seasons, capturing his beautifully haunting descent into the criminal world, El Camino takes a more reflective tone. It wobbles around Jesse Pinkman’s world and its inner turmoil.
The movie focuses on Jesse, who is broken and truly alone. His association with his high school teacher turned drug lord changed everything for him. Through the course of Breaking Bad he is blackmailed, controlled and manipulated.
In El Camino, viewers get an insight into his current state of mind. Jesse has changed completely and yet again, not at all.
“I like to think that he’s a carpenter somewhere — somewhere in Alaska.”
said Aaron Paul, in an interview with Radio Times.
Mike: “Only you can decide what’s best for you, Jesse,”
Jesse: “Where would you go, if you were me?”
Mike: “If I were your age, starting fresh,”
Mike: “Alaska. It’s the last frontier. Up there, you can be anything you want.”
The very first scene from the movie led fans to speculate that Jesse decided to move to Alaska to honor Mike.
With an IMDb rating of 9.9, Felina- the finale is said to be named after the song “El Paso”. Although, a Reddit thread has a slightly different take on it. Some Redditors believe that Fe-Li-Na stands for the elements Iron-Lithium-Sodium, that make up blood meth and tears, respectively. It is believed that the writers changed the name from ‘Feleena’ to ‘Felina’ for the word to be an anagram of Finale.
“This is probably not something I should be saying to you, but this movie, strictly speaking, does not need to exist.” said Vince Gilligan, the creator, over a phone interview with ‘Rolling Stone’.
It is, perhaps, Gilligan’s honesty and attention to detail that turned Breaking Bad into an overnight success. The writers manipulated colors to signify deeper themes of the show. Like in the very beginning, Walt is seen wearing pastel shades, but towards the end he is dressed in darker clothes to represent the sadist he has become. Similarly, Jesse is seen to wear a lot of white in the first few seasons. It is important to note that the movie ends with him dressed in white, again.
However, despite Gilligan’s assertion, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie drew audience rating of 6.5 million in the first three days of its release, and boasted 8.2 million U.S. viewers during its opening weekend alone. Although some might agree that the movie was unnecessary, fans of the show, fellow ‘Heisenbergers’ seemed to be happy.
The movie served as an aftermath of criminal calamity, a peek into the psyche of our favorite (surviving) character from ‘Breaking Bad’. Through the film, Vince Gilligan is able to give us back, a piece of a world that we fell in love with, without truly altering what remains a fond memory.
It really makes you wonder if you can-in fact- have your cake and eat it too.
