Breaking Bad’s Jesse is one of the most iconic characters in television history, known for his complicated and often ambiguous morality. As the sidekick-turned-rival of Walter White, Jesse’s journey throughout the series is one of the most fascinating and thought-provoking elements of Breaking Bad. However, was Jesse the bad guy all along? Let’s take a closer look at his character and background.
Breaking Bad Seasons: Everything You Need to Know
Season 1 (7 episodes)
In the first season, we meet Walter, who is a 50-year old chemistry teacher. He learns that he has stage three terminal cancer and has about 2 more years, so live. His wife, Skyler, is pregnant, and he decides to start dealing drugs. He gets in contact with his former student, Jesse, in order to make drugs (crystallized methamphetamine) in an RV.
Jesse has different connections, he starts dealing drugs efficiently. Later, we see how Emilio and his cousin Krazy-8 catch Walter and Jesse in a trap, and they ask them to show their secret lab. Walter causes an explosion. Emilio dies, and Jesse dissolves his body in hydrofluoric acid. Krazy-8 survives, but Walter eventually kills him.
Skyler starts to get worried when she sees Walter’s behavior. Hank is looking for a new drug kingpin, but there is only one in the city – Walter. Eventually, Walter tells everyone about his diagnosis, and they try to convince him to start chemo. He agrees.
Breaking Bad Jesse learns that his brother started using, but he takes the blame and then leaves the house.
Elliott Schwartz offers Walter a job, but he refuses and continues his work with Jesse. Tuco, another drug dealer from the town, wants to meet with Jesse, and when that happens, he steals all the drugs and beats him. Walter ruins Tuco’s office. As a result, he asks Walter to do business with him. Walter and Jesse try to meet Tuco’s deadlines, but they are missing some of the ingredients.
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Episodes
S1E1- Pilot
S1E2 – Cat’s in the Bag
S1E3 – And the Bag’s in the River
S1E4 – Cancer Man
S1E5 – Gray Matter
S1E6 – Crazy Handful of Nothing
S1E7 – A No-Rough-Stuff like Deal
Season 2 (13 episodes)
Season 2 starts where season 1 left off. Both Walter and Jesse are shocked by Tuco’s behavior, and they decide to kill him. But, in the meantime, Tuco kidnaps Jesse and Walter and takes them to his uncle’s house.
Meanwhile, Skyler is worried that her husband is missing, and Hank starts to look for him. He finds Tuco and kills him. In order to cover all of this, Walter fakes Amnesia and gets to the hospital, and Jesse has no place to live. He rents a duplex apartment and falls in love with his landlord Jane, who is a former drug addict.
Walter’s friend, Gretchen Schwartz, learns about Walter’s lie, but she decides not to tell Skyler. Instead, she tells her that they won’t be able to help him anymore. Because Walter tells her that Gretchen and her husband are broke.
Walter and Jesse start cooking drugs again, and they take Tuco’s role to distribute drugs to the sellers. Shortly, their rival gang gets killed by the DEA agent, and a friend of Jesse gets killed, as well. Breaking Bad Jesse and Walter hire a criminal attorney, called Saul Goodman. He puts them in contact with a new drug dealer, Gus Fring.
In the meantime, DEA agents learn about the existence of someone that’s smuggling blue meth in the market. Jane’s family hears about her situation, and her father asks her to clear her mind. Walter meets Jane’s father and realizes that Jesse is important to him and tries to sort out the things with him. He finds Jesse and Jane passed out from an overdose. Jane dies, and Jesse blames himself for her death.
We learn that Jane’s father, who is an air traffic controller, gets distracted while doing his job, and two planes collide.
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Episodes
S2E1 – Seven Thirty- Seven
S2E2 – Grilled
S2E3 – Bit by a Dead Bee
S2E4 – Down
S2E5 – Breakage
S2E6 – Peakaboo
S2E7 – Negro Y Azul
S2E8 – Better Call Saul
S2E9 – 4 Days Out
S2E10 – Over
S2E11 – Mandala
S2E12 – Phoenix
S2E13 – ABQ
Season 3 (13 episodes)
The third season begins where season 2 left off. Walter tries to convince his wife that all he did was for them, but Skyler wants to cut all ties. So, Walter decides not to cook meth anymore. Walter wants to get back home, but Skyler calls the cops.
Jesse completes his rehab and then asks Saul to help him buy his parents” house. Saul tries to make Walter cook meth again, but he refuses. Tuco’s cousins arrive in the city, and they want to avenge his death.
Walter leaves Skyler some money and asks her to use it. She is sleeping with her boss. Jesse starts to cook meth by himself and sell to Gus. However, he gets only half of the payment, and Walter accepts to cook meth again. Gus offers him a high-tech lab.
Walter and Jesse start cooking meth, and Jesse steals some in order to sell on his own. Walter is worried because they cannot produce the required amount of meth per day. Jesse is not happy with his independent business, so he makes a new mate, Andrea, and asks for his help.
Jesse finds out that the drug dealers that killed his friend are using the 11-year old brother of Andrea in order to peddle drugs. He decides he should kill them to save Andrea’s brother. However, Walter asks him not to do it because those are Gus’s men. Jesse ignores Walter and Attacks them. As a result, Walter kills the drug dealers.
Walter gets abducted by Gus’s men. Gus wants to kill Gale and asks Jesse to do so. Jesse reaches Gale’s house. He kills her.
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Episodes
S3E1 – No Mas
S3E2 – Caballo Sin Nombre
S3E3 – I.F.T
S3E4 – Green Light
S3E5 – Mas
S3E6 – Sunset
S3E7 – One Minute
S3E8 – I See You
S3E9 – Kafkaesque
S3E10 – Fly
S3E11 – Abiquiu
S3E12 – Half Measures
S3E13 – Full Measure
Season 4 – 13 episodes
Walter and Jesse start cooking meth again. Walter buys a revolver illegally, and Jesse feels guilty about Gale’s murder. Hank learns that Gale was cooking meth and that Gus is involved. Walter asks Jesse to poison Gus. But he chooses not to and proves that he’s been loyal to Mike.
Jesse, Mike, and Gus leave for Mexico to meet another drug kingpin called Don Eladio. The entire gang dies. Gus quickly finds another vendor and asks Jesse to cook meth by himself. Walter starts to have trust issues. Andrea’s son gets sick, and Jesse believes Walter is the reason the boy is in the hospital now.
Walter manages to convince Jesse that Gus was the one who did the poisoning, and Jesse agrees to kill Gus. Skyler asks Walter to move in with them. Gus tries to kill Hank and also threatens Walter that if he continues, his family would be killed.
As a result, DEA offers protection to the entire family. Walter puts a bomb in Gus’s car, but he survives. Gus’s men kidnap Jesse and Walter and ask Hector for his help.
Walter is aware of the fact that Hector hates Gus, and he asks him to kill Gus. So when Gus visits Hector, Hector detonates the bomb, and he kills himself and Gus. Breaking bad Jesse learns that Andre’s son got sick from berries, and not from ricin. Walter convinces him that Gus had to die, and calls Skyler, telling her that he won.
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Episodes
S4E1 – Box Cutter
S4E2 – Thirty-Eight Snub
S4E3 – Open House
S4E4 – Bullet Points
S4E5 – Shotgun
S4E6 – Cornered
S4E7 – Problem Dog
S4E8 – Hermanos
S4E9 – Bug
S4E10 – Salud
S4E11 – Crawl Space
S4E12 – End Times
S4E13 – Face Off
Season 5 (16 episodes)
The finale season starts with a flash-forward – Walter is hiding his identity, and he’s’s living in a mysterious place.
DEA agents investigate the deaths of Gus and Hector. Jesse, Walter, and Mike try to destroy all the pieces of evidence that can prove that they did it. In order to cover up everything, including cover-up for the financial losses, Walter starts cooking meth, this time with Mike, too. Lydia hires a shooter to kill everything that can show her tied to Gus – including Mike. However, Mike asks her to help Jesse and Walter to sell the meth.
They sell the meth to Declan in order to give Mike’s shares. Both Jesse and Mike want to get out of this business, so Walter makes Todd his new assistant.
DEA agents find Mike and Walter finds out that there are 10 people in jail – people who are associated with Gus and who might be able to give them relevant information in return for their freedom. Walter asks Mike to give their information, but he refuses. Walter kills Mike.
Lydia gives him the info he needed, and with Todd’s help, he killed all of those people.
Soon after, Hank learns that Heisenberg is actually Walter. As a result, he hides a tracking device in Walter’s car. Walter finds it fast, and he confronts Hank. But Skyler refuses to say anything. He also asks Jesse about it, but he also refuses to talk. Walter manages to make it look like Hank is the mind of the drug business – he puts it on tape, too.
Walter asks Jesse to leave town, and he agrees. He then learns that Walter killed Brock. Jesse is angry and throws gasoline on Walter’s home. Walter leaves Jesse a message in which he explains everything to him. Jesse accepts to work with Hank.
Walter gets in contact with Todd in order to hit on Jesse. His uncle asks him to cook meth for him, and that’s the only way to help him.
In order to find where Walter hides his money, Hank makes a false photo to make Walter believe that Jesse found his money, and he is about to burn it. Walter panics, and he asks Todd and his uncle to save him.
When Walter gets to the place where he keeps his money, Hank, Jesse, and Gomez are there, too. Walter asks them not to shoot, but they do it anyway, and Hank gets shot in the leg. Walter kills Hank and buries his corpse.
Afterward, they take Jesse as a hostage, and Walter confesses that he watched Jane die; Skyler learns that Walter killed Hank, and she fights him with a knife. He gets out of the apartment, and the police is already on its way.
Todd asks Jesse to teach him how to cook meth. Jesse is trying to escape, but he gets caught. Todd murders Andrea in front of him. Walter sees the interview in which Gretchen and Elliott say he’s being honest, and he gives them money to give Jr. Walter when he’s 18 years old.
He then meets with Lydia and Todd and poisons Lydia. In order to save Jesse, he meets with Jack and kills all of his men. Jesse kills Todd and Walter shoots Jack.
The series ends with Walter dying and Jesse escaping in Todd’s car.
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Episodes
S5E1 – Live Free or Die
S5E2 – Madrigal
S5E3 – Hazard Pay
S5E4 – Fifty – One
S5E5 – Dead Freight
S5E6 – Buyout
S5E7 – Say My Name
S5E8 – Gliding Over All
S5E9 – Blood Money
S5E10 – Buried
S5E11 – Confessions
S5E12 – Rabid Dog
S5E13 – To’hajiilee
S5E14 – Ozymandias
S5E15 – Granite State
S5E16 – Felina
Breaking Bad Jesse as the Bad Guy
Breaking Bad presents a complex moral universe where good and evil are not always clearly defined. However, some argue that Jesse Pinkman’s actions throughout the show position him as the bad guy. Jesse’s involvement in the drug trade is a central theme of the series and one of the most compelling pieces of evidence against him.
He produces and sells drugs and shows violence when dealing with his competitors. Jesse’s disregard for the consequences of his actions is also evident, as he often takes dangerous risks without considering the impact on himself or others. All these factors suggest that Jesse may have been the bad guy all along.
Breaking Bad Jesse as a Sympathetic Character
While some viewers may see Breaking Bad Jesse Pinkman as the bad guy, others see him as a complex and sympathetic character. But Jesse’s difficult upbringing and history of trauma are key elements in his character development.
Throughout the series, Jesse struggles with addiction, loss, and feelings of worthlessness, all of which contribute to his involvement in the drug trade. However, despite his past mistakes, Jesse continually attempts to redeem himself and make amends for his actions.
His moral conflict with Walter White is also evidence of his complexity, as Jesse grapples with his loyalty to a friend and his sense of morality. These factors paint Jesse as a complex and multidimensional character who is more than just a stereotypical “bad guy.”
Breaking Bad Creators
Breaking Bad was created by Vince Gilligan. Here is all you need to know about the series. Its IMDB rating is 9.5/10. You can watch it on Netflix and Amazon Prime. There are 62 episodes available.
What about the cast?
- Walter White – Bryan Cranston
- Skyler White – Anna Gunn
- Jesse Pinkman – Aaron Paul
- Hank Schrader – Dean Norris
- Marie Schrader – Betsy Brandt
- Steven Gomez – Steven Michael Quezada
- Krazy-8 Molina – Maximino Arciniega
- Tuco Salamanca – Raymond Cruz
- Gretchen Schwartz – Jessica Hecht
- Mrs. Pinkman – Tess Harper
- Badger – Matt L. Jones
- Combo – Rodney Rush
- Bogdan Wolynetz – Marius Stan
We all loved this series, and if you haven’t watched it yet, you should do it as soon as possible.
