Breaking Bad Final Thoughts: What Happens To Jesse?

No, last night’s Breaking Bad finale wasn’t as important as the moon landing, JFK’s assassination, or even the Seinfeld finale, if we’re being honest here. But for those that tuned in, and we’re talking a lot of people here, it was a cathartic and emotionally resonant experience that won’t soon be forgotten. You know who else won’t be forgetting anything that happened?

One Jesse Pinkman. What happened to Jesse after the events of the finale? I've got some bold, totally unverifiable but definitely 100% accurate ideas.

After looking in his rearview mirror just once after driving away, he realizes that he’ll probably never see Walt again. And while considering this, he runs his car off of the road and into a moose, which is obvious, since there was a restaurant named Antlers in the background of a shot in season 3. After spending a few hours wriggling his way out of the mangled wreckage, he has to limp for three miles until he finds someone with a phone. And after fifteen more minutes of trying to get a signal, he’s able to call a cab.

Unsure of whether or not his taped confession will ever be found, Jesse decides to stay on the lam, fearful of the legal ramifications of his past actions, especially now that he thinks Walt is dying or dead. He picks up the money that he had stashed away (since there is no way he actually brought it all to his ghetto charity toss) and calls Robert Forster’s vacuum company/dissapearium.

Now living in Branson, Missouri under an assumed name, Jesse attempts to start up a series of Narcotics Anonymous meetings, but that fell apart whenever the building was condemned. He then tries getting a drug rehab clinic set up, but that building caught fire.

Since he refuses to date anymore, he starts to get lonely and uses what few resources he has left and discovers that Brock was put into a foster home after Andrea was killed, and is now living with Mike and Lily Valley. Using a former connection now living in Ohio (formerly New Mexico and Nebraska), whose name is Lyle “Better Dial Lyle” Okman, Jesse goes through the motions of adopting Brock to be his legal son. But because all of Jesse’s paperwork was faked and he didn’t have any real character witnesses, his requests were denied.

Depressed and unable to freely call people a bitch as he pleases, Jesse gets in touch with Badger and Skinny Pete, who drive up to visit him. He unloads the entire story to them, from beginning to end. Badger takes notes, asks Jesse if he can write a screenplay about it. Jesse agrees, but will obviously have nothing to do with the project officially.

Badger sells the screenplay almost immediately, and it causes a bidding war the likes of which nobody, not even Skinny Pete, has ever seen. He moves to Hollywood and uses his newfound connections to arrange a meeting between Jesse and Nick “Ron Swanson” Offerman, and the two of them spend a few hours in Offerman’s woodworking shop. It is the happiest day of Jesse’s life.

His funds dwindling, Jesse decides to look for a real job and applies to Gray Matter Technologies. He is currently awaiting a response.

Do you guys think any of this might have happened to Jesse after Breaking Bad ended? Tell us in the comments!

Nick Venable
Assistant Managing Editor

Nick is a Cajun Country native and an Assistant Managing Editor with a focus on TV and features. His humble origin story with CinemaBlend began all the way back in the pre-streaming era, circa 2009, as a freelancing DVD reviewer and TV recapper.  Nick leapfrogged over to the small screen to cover more and more television news and interviews, eventually taking over the section for the current era and covering topics like Yellowstone, The Walking Dead and horror. Born in Louisiana and currently living in Texas — Who Dat Nation over America’s Team all day, all night — Nick spent several years in the hospitality industry, and also worked as a 911 operator. If you ever happened to hear his music or read his comics/short stories, you have his sympathy.