(Spoiler alert: Do not read this post if you have not watched “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.”)
“El Camino” ends with Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) taking care of one final piece of business. Or at least, he enlists fixer Ed to finish the job.
When the vacuum-shop owner drops Jesse off in Alaska to start anew, the free former meth cook hands Ed a “goodbye” letter. Though not privy to its contents, the audience catches a glimpse of the name on the envelope: Brock Cantillo.
In case that name doesn’t jump out at you, allow us to refresh your memory. Brock Cantillo (played by Ian Posada) is the young child of Jesse’s girlfriend from “Breaking Bad” Seasons 3-5, Andrea (Emily Rios).
When we — and Jesse — first met Andrea and her son, Brock was 6 years old. He should be about 8 now by the time Ed makes it to the Mexico City post office.
Our math: The events of “El Camino” take place in the days following the “Breaking Bad” series finale. “Breaking Bad” spanned just two years or so, with the majority of the time passing in the later seasons. For example, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) turns 50 in the series debut, he turns 52 in a Season 5 premiere flash forward. That flash forward is to events toward the end of the series. Walt would actually turn 51 four episodes later.
Two seasons earlier, Jesse meets recovering addict Andrea at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting where he originally planned to push his meth. When Jesse learns about Brock, however, his plans change and he actually ends up supporting Andrea and her son financially. Using Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) as a middle man, Jesse funds Andrea and Brock’s move out of their violent neighborhood. That doesn’t mean they completely escape danger.
In Season 4, Brock is poisoned and hospitalized. Jesse is led to believe that Brock ingested the ricin he and Walt intended for rival Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). He begins to suspect Walt, but Walt convinces Jesse that it was actually Gus.
Though he was not guilty of this particular crime, Gus pays for his many sins when he is killed. Soon after, Jesse learns that Brock wasn’t poisoned by ricin, but rather by poisonous berries. Viewers later find out that it was Walt who poisoned Brock, but Jesse doesn’t know that — yet.
Brock makes a full recovery in Season 5, which is around the time that Walt manipulates Jesse into breaking things off with Andrea.
When Jesse finally learns that it was his own business partner who poisoned Brock, he flips on the drug kingpin and decides to work with the cops to take Walt down. Things continue to get worse for Jesse though when he is kidnapped and forced to cook meth for Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) and his Uncle Jack’s (Michael Bowen) gang of Nazis.
When Jesse tries to escape, Todd kills Andrea as punishment. He tells Jesse that Brock will be next if he ever tries to run away again. Eventually, Jesse kills Todd after Walt murders all of Jack’s gang and there is no longer a threat to Brock. That’s when Jesse gets in the El Camino and drives away, and that’s what brings us to “El Camino.”