How the 'El Camino’ Diner Scene Fits Into The 'Breaking Bad' Timeline
This article contains spoilers for El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie on Netflix.
Aside from whether poor Jesse Pinkman was going to get the closure he deserved, the biggest question hovering over El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie was whether Bryan Cranston’s Walter White would make an appearance. Though the series finale ended in Walt’s death – after he’d earned a sliver of redemption by saving Jesse – it was hard to imagine Vince Gilligan wouldn’t find a way to bring back his iconic antihero for at least a cameo. And sure enough, in the movie’s final act there’s a lengthy flashback to a pivotal conversation between Jesse and his onetime mentor, which takes place at a very specific point in the Breaking Bad timeline.
The scene begins with Jesse and Walt meeting up in the hallway of a hotel where they’re both staying, and eating lunch at a diner with what appears to be an all-you-can-eat salad buffet. Any true fan – if they’re not too distracted by seeing Bryan Cranston back in this role, not to mention seeing Aaron Paul back in the light-hearted, “bitch”-saying incarnation of Jesse – will be able to tell roughly when this scene falls. It’s clear from Walt’s grooming situation that we’re somewhere during season two (post-head shave, pre-goatee) and it’s also pretty easy to pinpoint the exact episode this scene follows on from.
In season two, episode nine, “4 Days Out,” Walt mistakenly believes that his cancer has returned and that he has only months to live. Now on an accelerated ticking clock, he resolves to make as much meth as he possibly can in a single marathon session in the desert, to try and secure enough money to leave his family by the time he dies. Jesse reluctantly agrees to this working getaway, which turns into a near-death experience when the RV’s battery dies, stranding Walt and Jesse out in the desert with a dwindling supply of water. Thanks to some classic scientific jerry-rigging on Walt’s part, they’re finally able to jump-start the battery and drive back to town with their mammoth quantity of fresh product in tow.
There’s a gap in the episode, between when they get the RV working and when Jesse drops Walt back at ABQ airport to maintain the ruse to Skyler that he’s been on an out-of-state family visit, and it’s during this period that the El Camino scene takes place. The biggest tell is that Jesse bribes the waiter to leave an entire pitcher of water on the table, since he and Walt are still recovering from dehydration, plus their discussion of how they’re going to sell the huge batch of meth they just cooked.
It’s a fun scene – possibly the funniest in El Camino, not that there’s a ton of competition. It’s also tragic, because it exemplifies the easy banter and warmth that once existed between Walt and Jesse, in contrast to the toxic trap their relationship became. Jesse’s openly concerned for Walt’s fragile health, repeatedly trying to get him to hydrate and eat something, while Walt encourages Jesse to consider going to college after all this is over. Because there was a time, before Walt got into the empire business and started saying shit like “I am the one who knocks,” when he actually had Jesse’s best interests at heart and wanted more for him than a future in the drug business! I’m actually mad at Vince Gilligan for forcing me to remember this fact, because now I’m very sad!
But in fact, offering up one last happy memory of Walt and Jesse being bros is a gift right from Gilligan’s heart to ours. Sure, they were cooking meth together at this point and therefore contributing to a horrifying drug crisis that has ruined thousands of lives nationwide, but in comparison to what came later it all seems so wholesome?
Another little bonus for fans is the implicit reference to Gus Fring, though he’s not mentioned by name. Having speed-cooked such a vast quantity of meth, Walt asks Jesse how long he think it’ll take to sell it all, and six months is the disappointing answer. When Walt asks if anyone might be able to buy the entire batch, Jesse replies “Do I know someone with a spare $1.3 million lying around? No, can’t say that I do.” But you know who does know someone? Saul Goodman, who introduces Walt to Gus in the very next episode.
The fact that this new Walt/Jesse scene takes place right after “4 Days Out” and right before Gus’s introduction is significant. It’s essentially the last gasp of calm before the storm, the dividing line between Breaking Bad episodes you can mostly rewatch any time, and Breaking Bad episodes you need to emotionally fortify yourself for. In two episodes’ time, Walt will stand by and watch as Jesse’s girlfriend chokes to death on her own vomit, and things will only get darker from there.
But for now, things are comparatively peachy. “Your family is gonna get every dime they got coming to them, Mr. White, no matter how long it takes,” Jesse promises, like the earnest and pure-hearted soul he was at this stage. Walt nods in silent gratitude, because at this point he still had the capacity for human emotion. If anyone needs me for the rest of the day, I’ll just be over here staring blankly into space like Huell, having a lot of feelings. And maybe eating some pineapple, because you know it has bromide.
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