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Name: Laura
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shichiloaf
E-Mail: l_con88@yahoo.com
IM:shichiloafs
Plurk: shichiloaf@plurk
Other Characters: Daryl Dixon
Character Name:Jesse Pinkman
Series: Breaking Bad
Timeline: Season 3 Episode 7, after accepting Walt's offer to work in Gus's lab
Canon Resource Link: Wiki
Character History:
Season 1:
The first time we're treated to the ridiculousness that is Jesse Pinkman, he's fleeing the scene of his meth lab as the DEA seizes it (and his partner) in a bust. And by fleeing, we mean hopping mostly naked out of the next door neighbor's window and falling off of the roof as he attempts to get his pants back on. If that's not an accurate portrayal of his character's ...humble beginnings, I don't know what is.
Jesse initially presents as a wannabe hoodrat, a low-level drug dealer and meth cooker content with making his money and messing around with his friends. He does his thing- and does it well enough to bring in the kind of money he needs to support his lifestyle- and that's that. A lot of crap goes on in the first season (and I do mean a lot of crap- the first draft of this app was about twenty pages long, aren't you guys glad I pruned it??) but for the most part, there are four major events that do the majority of the character-shaping, and so those are the ones I'm gonna elaborate on.
The first is Jesse's involvement with Walt, who he refers to almost exclusively as "Mr. White", hinting at the fact that he still views him as an authority figure, and as the series progresses, a father figure. Walt was Jesse's high school chemistry teacher, a man who from the jump and despite Jesse's mother's belief otherwise, "never thought he'd amount to much". His opinion of Jesse is coloured from the start, and is painfully obvious in most of their interactions, especially during the first season. Walt often serves up some pretty vicious verbal beatdowns, calling Jesse useless and a junkie, and yet Jesse keeps on coming back. He presents himself (or tries to present himself) as a badass, but when it comes down to it, the first season is a cycle of Jesse getting burned by Walt and coming back for more anyway; the kid has precious little self esteem to the point that watching the show can be an exercise in screaming at the tv.
Despite his reputation and "occupation" as a drug dealer, the only reason he agrees to cook with Walt in the first place is because he's blackmailed into doing so. He has no desire whatsoever to rock the boat or change the way he's been doing things, but he lets Walt talk him into it. This is the first of many instances that Jesse will, against his better judgment, listen to Walt and be led by him into things that he knows are dangerous, idiotic, or otherwise not things he needs to be involved in. Whether it's out of a desire to be hardcore, a real badass as opposed to a wannabe, or out of a complete lack of self-preservation skills brought on by a lack of support system, Jesse often throws caution to the wind, acting without thinking about the consequences. Even for age twenty-five it's obvious that he's a touch on the irresponsible side, and initially presents as very, very immature. Funnily enough, the thing he's most serious about is cooking meth- he takes pride in it, often referring to it as his art.
Still, Jesse agrees to work with Walt, using the money Walt gives him after their first meeting to purchase an RV like he said he would... After blowing nearly $6000 at a strip club with his friends, of course. They do their thing- cooking up a batch of meth good enough to impress Jesse into contacting the local distributor to try and get it out there. That doesn't go according to plan, unfortunately; forced at gunpoint to bring the distributor Krazy-8 and his former partner Emilio out to the RV, it goes as south as south can get, ending in the deaths of both men at Walt's hand while Jesse lies unconscious in the desert after tripping and landing face first on a rock while trying to escape. Yeah. Jesse's early history with Walt could best be described as A Series of Unfortunate Drug Deals, basically.
The most unfortunate of these being Jesse's decision to involve himself with Tuco Salamanca, an upper level drug dealer with ties to the Mexican cartel. With the old infrastructure dismantled (literally- Walt and Jesse melted the bodies of Krazy-8 and Emilio in acid in Jesse's house), there's no one left to sell to wholesale... Except for the new guy, of course. Jesse gives Walt a very long, very legitimate explanation as to why there's no way in hell he's talking to Tuco, which boils down to because that isn't how it works. It's dangerous, it's risky, it's an all-around bad idea... Walt, of course, doesn't want to hear that, and urges him to do it anyway and eventually, Jesse caves and agrees to have one of his boys set up the meeting. At this point, Jesse has been made aware of Walt's cancer and the fact that he's involved in this business to make money to leave for his family... And family is important to Jesse. Estranged from his own parents for at least the past year, what Walt is doing pulls at him enough to get him to talk to Tuco. Also- and there's no denying it- at this point he's still trying to look tough and make money. Poor decision making at its very finest.
And as expected, it goes horribly: Jesse gets his ass kicked hard enough that he winds up in the hospital with broken ribs among other things, and he loses their drugs. The important thing here is that he knew better- he knew how dangerous it was getting involved with these people, and he knew he should have just left well enough alone- again, this is a pattern for him. He has very, very little faith in his own abilities and gut feelings, and it's a huge contributor to the ease with which he's manipulated. He doesn't learn, he just continues to make the same mistakes again. Even if his heart is in the right place (and it nearly always is), he's mostly unable to keep himself out of trouble because he doesn't listen to his own instincts. Even when they're on fucking point: not only does Tuco beat the ever living shit out of him, he also proceeds to beat another man to death in front of both Jesse and Walt before kidnapping them and dragging them into the desert at gunpoint.
There's a scene with Walt, during the brief time they're working with Tuco, the first of Walt's "pep talks" that Jesse falls for every time, that's another major event of the first season. This one is related to the materials they need in order to cook enough meth to keep Tuco happy, a position Walt put the both of them in when he sold more meth than they could possibly cook in a week using their current methond. In order to be more self-sufficient in their cooking, Walt drafts up a list of ingredients Jesse needs to collect... Most of which he can barely pronounce. Jesse expresses this concern and is on the verge of leaving town when Walt grabs him and gives him a speech like he's trying to convince him to apply to college, complete with the "this is the first day of the rest of your life" cliche and shoulder-shaking. Jesse is... Completely taken aback (and clearly has no idea how to respond, hinting that he hasn't actually heard that before)but it seems to be effective: he does go and get the supplies, and on top of that he even pays for it with his share of the money, leaving him with roughly $2k out of the $15k he'd started with. It's obvious that at least part of the reason was to earn Walt's approval, conditional though it may be.
And there's a reason for that. The other big event in the first season is Jesse's return to his estranged parents' house for a few nights. Understandably, the whole melting-bodies-in-his-house thing doesn't go over very well, and he finds himself both unwilling and unable to stay there anymore. "Not good with dead bodies" is how he'd described himself; it's a bit of an understatement- he'd spent that afternoon smoking meth and talking to himself as he attempted to get rid of Emilio. After awkwardly catching him in their backyard, his parents allow him inside where he falls asleep in his old room for an entire day. His parents take this as him being on every drug under the sun, but the reality is that he's exhausted and more than a little traumatized by everything that's happened in his life. He needs support, clearly, and not just having his clothes watched which is the only offer his mother makes to him while he's there. For the time that he spends there, he makes a half-hearted attempt to be a "good son" (whatever that means), doing things like setting the table, trying to give his over-achieving little brother advice ("not all learning comes out of books")... Though at this point he can't quite leave his lifestyle behind him; he continues to make deals over the phone at this time- even with all the shit that'd gone on, he still isn't willing to make the necessary changes to get out of it. This is due, in part, to his immaturity... But also because he feels like it's all he's good for. It's a simple equation: his friends praise him and support him in what he's good at (cooking meth), his parents don't support him at all in anything. In fact, it's painfully obvious they think they're wise to him before he even has a chance to screw up: while he's trying to reconnect with his brother Jake, his mother comes in to "check up on them", leaving the door open when she leaves which Jesse takes to mean that she doesn't trust him, an implication he's extremely offended and hurt by.
During his stay at his parents' house, we get some pretty big hints as to what Jesse's childhood must have been like. While his younger brother's room is practically covered in awards and recognitions for everything from music to social awareness, (and the episode opens with the three, Mom, Dad, and little bro discussing his accomplishments over dinner), Jesse's walls are bare except for a few pieces of his own art, and completely lacking any kind of recognition. It's clear that for whatever reason, his skills were never really nurtured or valued, at least not in the way his brother's were. In fact, most of his art- the stuff that wasn't done when he was five- is found in a chest at the foot of his bed which he digs through when he's unable to sleep. There's even an on-point doodle of Mr. White on the back of a chemistry test. "Neglected" is probably too strong a word to describe Jesse's parents' child-rearing where he was concerned, but so is "supportive". They clearly care about their son's well-being, but at this point they're fed up with his lifestyle and the way that he refuses to grow up, and as a result all their "tough love" succeeds in doing is pushing him away and making him feel . Eventually, the housekeeper finds drugs in one of the rooms and, believing it to belong to Jesse, they kick him out once and for all. Jesse doesn't tell them that the drugs actually belong to his little brother; obvious jealousy aside, he isn't about to rat his kid brother out, not even to save his own ass. Loyalty, even to his own detriment, will continue to be a pattern in his later behavior.
Season 2:
In some ways Jesse's arc in the second season is more about stepping up and becoming (slightly) more responsible than it is being a low-level street thug. With Tuco gone (he's killed by Walt's brother in law after kidnapping Jesse and Walt), the pair no longer has a viable way to sell their product at a volume that's acceptable to Walt. Walt sees only two options- keep selling it slowly the way they've been doing, or "hop into bed with another Tuco"; Jesse sees a third: his suggestion is that they become Tuco, cut out the middleman by employing other dealers (starting with Jesse's friends Combo, Badger, and Skinny Pete) and getting their product out that way. Walt argues, but for the first time Jesse actually stands his ground, giving Walt an ultimatum: they either do it his way, or Jesse will walk. He even goes so far as to say that Walt needs him more than he needs Walt- and he does actually use "Walt" here, like a rebellious kid might use his father's first name for extra disrespect. That will go on to be a theme later as well- Jesse's relationship with Walt, while never particularly healthy, does get kicked up a notch during the second season. Reluctantly, Walt agrees, and shortly thereafter Jesse gathers his people to pitch the idea to them. The scene where he's talking to his boys is one of the first times we see him in a leadership role... And it looks surprisingly good on him. He's capable of being firm without being a complete asshole, and the idea he has is sound. He knows the streets, he knows the business, and he knows how to get his tweaker friends to work for him. It works out, too, until Skinny Pete gets robbed by a pair of junkies. Jesse is willing to let it go, and attempts to explain to Walt that it's just "breakage", and the more dealers they run on the street the more often it's going to happen. Walt, as usual, doesn't accept that answer, insisting that he do something and even going so far as to bring a gun to Jesse's house to get him to "handle it."
And handle it he does. Sort of? After smoking up (another pattern that becomes more and more apparent as the show goes on), he finds the junkies who'd ripped him off and breaks into their house... Where he finds not a pair of meth heads, but a tiny, malnourished little boy. His entire demeanor changes (while knocking on the door he'd been practicing "where's my money, bitch" in all its various forms to psych himself up to actually do it), and he makes sure he hides the gun in his sweatshirt so that the kid isn't afraid of him. He spends a little while watching tv with the boy, gently trying to coax his parents' whereabouts out of him, but when the kid does speak up all he has to say is "I'm hungry". Which Jesse responds to by bringing him into the kitchen, making him a sandwich, and playing peekaboo with him. He's clearly good with kids, it was obvious when he was talking to his younger brother and is even more obvious now- throughout this whole ordeal with the junkies he spends a good amount of time and energy protecing the kid and trying to shelter him from what's going on around him; he even chews his mother out for being a shitty parent, asking her why she can't just "give the kid a decent meal every once in a while". He seems more pissed off about the treatment of the kid than about the theft of his drugs. Eventually it's because he's so focused on this poor child that he becomes distracted enough that the woman gets the jump on him, knocking him out and holding him at gunpoint. Tl;dr: Jesse is a terrible thug. As with most things in the Breaking Bad universe, this situation ends horribly: the woman, pissed that her boyfriend keeps calling her a skank, kills him by crushing his head with an ATM machine while Jesse watches, unable to do a thing. She then proceeds to get high with the meth she grabs out of the dead man's pocket, at which point Jesse makes an attempt to wipe down his prints and then calls the police, leaving the phone off the hook before grabbing the little boy and taking him outside on the porch with a blanket. Before he leaves he squeezes the kid's shoulder and tells him to have a good rest of his life- it's clear that he means it.
As traumatizing as that event is (and it really, really is- Jesse spends the next few days ignoring everyone's calls in favour of blazing in his house to forget the sound of the guy's head being smashed), Walt manages to turn it around and use it to make more money! After picking up Jesse's slack and delivering the goods to his friends, Walt finds out that everyone on the outside apparently thinks that Jesse is the one who killed the junkie... And they're all scared shitless of him because of it. Jesse wants nothing to do with this, and is disgusted by the idea of people thinking he's a murderer- but Walt sees it as an opportunity and delivers yet another (ridiculous) pep talk in which he likens Jesse to a blowfish. "Who messes with the blowfish, Jesse?" The basic idea is that he needs to "puff up" and use this to his advantage to intimidate people into doing what he wants the way a blowfish uses its spines and size, because in actuality he isn't that tough. (It's completely accurate, honestly, but the whole thing is obviously insanely manipulative.) The very fact that Walt cares enough to try and motivate him is all Jesse's looking for, though, and so once again he goes along with it. Even after everything that's gone wrong, Walt still knows all of the right buttons to press to get Jesse to dance. Because all Jesse sees is getting the support he craves, and never the consequences of what he has to do to get that support.
And speaking of support... After being evicted from his aunt's house by his parents, who own the legal rights to the location, Jesse (after a terrible horrible no good very bad day) moves into a condo by the skin of his ass. Initially wary of him and his general shady ways, Jane, the landlord's daughter, lets him move in without any documentation and under a clearly fake name. There's an immediate connection there; the reason Jane lets him move in despite her "hardass" father owning the building is because Jesse confides in her that he's "a disappointment" to his family; Jane, as a recovering heroin addict, can relate. The two eventually develop a relationship and it's clear that Jesse cares for her very much. If his actions with the little boy are an indicator of his caregiving nature, his relationship with Jane demonstrates his urge to nest. He's extremely (and unashamedly) affectionate with her, in private and in public, he cooks her breakfast (it was supposed to be in bed but she woke up), he goes to a museum with her to make her happy... He's clearly smitten, and while he of course maintains his smartassery with her, their relationship adds yet another layer to a character who, in the beginning of the show, seemed to be mostly flat. He's genuinely happy with Jane- it's one of the few times in the series where that's the case. She's his first love, and it's obvious every time they interact on screen.
And it ends terribly, of course. Jesse's crew pushes too far into other groups' territories, and as a result his friend Combo is murdered in the street on another gang's orders. This is the start of a downward spiral that really... Keeps on going. As the person who'd sent Combo to that street corner in the first place, Jesse is overcome with guilt over the the loss of his friend. He turns to his preferred method of coping (the drugs) at the news of Combo's murder, telling Jane that she needs to leave because he's going to smoke. She tries to stop him by saying that it isn't going to help, to which he responds "Yeah, it will, and I don't need you to tell me that it won't." He leaves the room, but after hesitating, Jane follows. And things only get worse from here. Still extremely depressed, Jesse is introduced to heroin by Jane, who has now relapsed after smoking with him. He's clearly terrified of it when he first asks her what it feels like, but at her reassurance he goes through with it, and the two of them spend their days getting high and lying around the condo.
This proves disastrous for Walt- Jesse's foray into full-blown addiction almost costs them a massive deal with Gustavo Fring, the local drug lord who's essentially been running the entire New Mexico drug trade behind the scenes the entire time. When the deal is confirmed, Jesse is passed out in bed with Jane, necessitating Walt breaking into his house and tearing his kitchen to bits to find it; half-conscious, Jesse is just barely able to tell him where the drugs are. The deal is made, but Walt, occupied with the birth of his daughter and angry at Jesse for almost costing them something so important- doesn't mention it, leading Jesse to freak out when he realizes there's been a break in and that their product is gone. The first thing he does is call Walt, clearly very, very guilty about out to the point that he actually says "yell at me or something, come on!", at which point Walt hangs up on him and he's left to sweat. Jesse is quick to shoulder the blame... But he does lash out at Walt when he finds out what really happened from the messages on his phone and not even from Walt himself. High and angry, he recklessly confronts Walt in his classroom about letting him think he dropped the ball and lost their supply, to which Walt responds by attacking him, calling him useless and stupid (again), blaming him for the fact that he missed his daughter's birth, and refusing to give him his share of the money.
The scene in the school is the point at which it becomes painfully obvious that Jesse's really having a problem. Usually honest about his drug use, proud, even, he straight up lies, telling Walt that he didn't even like the heroin because it made him sick and that he could "take or leave" the meth. When Walt demands that he provide a urine sample before taking the money- and then refers to Jane as his "junkie girlfriend"- Jesse loses it, shattering the glass beaker on the wall being Walt and leaving. When he confides in Jane, she comes up with a plan: they'll blackmail Walt for the money and once they have it, run away to New Zealand. It works, and Walt brings the money to Jesse, urging him to reconsider, telling him he's making a mistake... Jesse is uncharacteristically quiet during the whole thing, with Jane doing most of the talking, and eventually Walt gives up and leaves. The kicker here is that for once, Walt actually is trying to help Jesse out (in his own way, the same kind of "tough love" that didn't work when his parents tried it), but it's too little too late. After discussing how they're going to toss the rest of their drugs and leave first thing in the morning, Jesse and Jane shoot it up anyway and fall asleep.
Meanwhileback at the ranch at a bar in town, Walt- genuinely worried about what Jesse will do with the money and that he's jsut "contributed to his overdose"- has a conversation with Jane's father, who tells him "never give up on family". He takes it to heart, rushing back over to Jesse's where he finds him asleep with Jane. While he's attempting to wake Jesse up, Walt bumps into Jane who rolls over onto her back, vomits, and chokes to death while Walt watches but chooses to do nothing. He then flees, leaving Jesse to wake up and find Jane.
And find her he does. After failing to resuscitate her, the first person Jesse calls is Walt... Because he has no one else to turn to, having been abandoned by family and friends alike throughout the season. They work up a story, calling in a favour from a colleague, and once he's sure his part is done, Jesse himself flees to a crack house to get high. Walt finds him there, finally offering him the support he craves (even calling him "son", though Jesse's too out of it to remember or be at all comforted by it) while Jesse breaks down, sobbing that he's never loved anyone so much in his life and insisting that he killed Jane, that it's his fault she died. After an intensely emotional few minutes of unrestrained physical affection, Walt gets Jesse out and takes him to rehab. The last glimpse we get of Jesse for the season is when he's at the clinic, telling Walt that he deserves what happens to him.
Season 3:
Season three is where things start to get a little hectic. Not that they weren't already, but Jane's death- and the resulting fatal plane collision caused by Jane's emotionally destroyed father- will continue to haunt Jesse from this point onward. There's a month long gap between the second and third seasons, and Jesse spends this time in the rehab facility that Walt had left him at following his rescue from the crack house. He has counseling, participates (in the loosest possible sense of the word) in group therapy sessions, and walks out of the center clean, sober...
And more miserable than ever. When Walt brings him back the the apartment he's renting, he wastes no time in talking about the collision, which he feels personally responsible for; Walt tries to tell him that it isn't his fault, to which he responds "you either face things, or you run from them, Mr. White. I've accepted who I am." And his response, when Walt asks him who he is? "I'm the bad guy."
Emotionally, this season is the lowest point we've seen Jesse reach. He is clean, and he is sober... But that doesn't seem to matter to anyone, least of all Jesse himself. When he stops by his aunt's house, he attempts to reconnect with his father, who's prepping the house for sale... But his father makes it clear that he- and the rest of the family- want nothing to do with Jesse. As an extra kick in the ass, he points out that Jesse looks "good and healthy", but turns him down anyway when Jesse asks to come by the house for dinner. After everything he's been through, and the progress he's made, he gets precisely zero support from his family.
And so he compensates by enlisting Saul to essentially blackmail them into selling him his aunt's house. If he can't have a family, he'll make damn sure to buy whatever comforts he can. The deal is $400k cash, less than half of the asking price... But the asking price (and the disclosure statement for the house) don't include the meth lab that used to be in the basement, a fact that Jesse has Saul exploit to net him the house. His parents don't find out it was him until they're getting their things and leaving, at which point Jesse drives up and, without a word to them, heads for the house. They try to stop him and it's only then that he pulls out the keys and tells them it's his house now. It's a hollow victory; Jesse is now "house-poor" and spends his days sitting on the floor and calling Jane's voicemail on his cell phone.
Of course, in true Jesse Pinkman form, it isn't long before he decides that despite his hard-won sobriety, he wants back into the meth business. After talking to Walt and showing him the product he'd cooked on his own (and having both his offer and his work laughed out of the proverbial classroom), he decides to go over his head and go straight to the man who'd hooked Walt up with the big time: Saul. And for a little while, Saul actually helps him. He successfully sells a pound of his own product to one of Gus Fring's men... Who gives him only half of what he's owed. The other half, of course, goes to Walt, who's the real reason Gus is working with Jesse in the first place. Two months may have passed, but Jesse still manages to fall right back into old patterns of being used as a pawn. He has Saul call Walt in for a meeting to discuss the money and a deal: 10% of what Jesse earns will go to Walt for his "contribution" (the formula) and that will be that. Walt forks over the other half of Jesse's money... And then tells him that it's the last money he'll make in the business, that he's out, because Walt has agreed to work for Gus and they're essentially cutting Jesse out of the deal entirely. Which is a problem, because Jesse's surface motivation for the majority of season three is money- money to buy the things he can, since he can't get any of the things he needs, like emotional support.
Jesse resolves to cook anyway, and enlists Badger and Skinny Pete to help him do it. They plan on using the RV and selling in small quantities again, and everything appears to be going well... Until the DEA- Walt's brother-in-law Hank, specifically- connects him to the RV thanks to some sloppy dealing at a gas station. Walt, knowing that if the RV is found he's completely screwed, tries to have it destroyed behind Jesse's back. When Jesse finds out, he rushes to the junkyard... With the DEA right behind him. Trapped inside the RV, he and Walt come up with a way to keep Hank from coming in to discover them by using legal loopholes to prove he needs a warrant. It works up until the point where it doesn't: Hank will sit right there, he says, and have the DEA bring a warrant to him. It's at this point that Walt makes the executive decision to have Saul's secretary call Hank and tell him that his wife has been in an accident, causing him to rush to the hospital to be with her, and leaving the he and Jesse free to dispose of the RV, which they do. Success! ...Right?
Kind of. Because Hank didn't know Walt was there, he's left to assume it was Jesse who'd come up with the idea, which he sees as a threat to his family. This leads to Hank cornering Jesse at his house and beating the shit out of him; he winds up in the hospital (yet again) where he refuses doctor-ordered pain medication to keep his sobriety. Remember how I said this was an emotional low point? The hospital stay is the lowest point, period. An enraged Jesse tells Walt and Saul that he will bury Hank, make his life a living hell for this. He's bluffing, of course, but it's the most vicious we've seen of Jesse thus far- he's hit rock bottom, and it shows. He also threatens to give Walt up to the DEA if he ever gets caught cooking- which he plans on picking right back up as soon as he's out of the hospital- thought Walt correctly pegs that as a bluff, too. Still, it isn't long before he decides that he wants Jesse to come work with him again; his "replacement" isn't working out, and he and Jesse have developed a rapport that can't be replicated. There's also some manipulation at play here, as well. He doesn't think Jesse will talk, or "bury" Hank, but just to be on the safe side... He offers Jesse what he'd wanted from the start: Fifty-fifty partners in Gus's shiny new lab.
Jesse refuses. Beaten, bloodied, and at the worst place he's ever been in his life, he refuses, telling Walt that he has nothing, no one, and that just to be clear, he's not saying no to the money, he's saying no to Walt. He's finally putting his foot down, finally acknowledging the wreck his life has become since he'd gotten involved with Walt. Rightly or wrongly, he blames Walt for the turn his life has taken and refuses the deal. He also asks Walt why he wants him anyway, since all he does is fuck up, make inferior meth... Walt sees this as the opening it is, and once again turns to manipulation to get his way. He offers Jesse something he craves, and that's praise for his meth. "Your meth is good, Jesse. It's just as good as mine."
And that's all it takes. In the very next scene Jesse's calling Walt up and agreeing to get back into work.
Abilities/Special Powers: Just an average dude. He has some chemistry knowledge (whatever applies to cooking) and some artistic skills, but other than that he's pretty much your standard twenty-five year old in decent health. He smokes and is shown to have pretty awful eating habits so he isn't gonna be bench pressing anyone any time soon. He can handle weapons but not with any kind of precision; in season four it takes him... Quite a few shots to take down a guy that's within twenty feet of him.
Third-Person Sample:
You know what really isn't actually awesome for someone in recovery that's just been through one hell of a trying situation?
Closets that cough up any and everything that you could possibly ask for.
The couch is set up, his dope speakers, though not completely functional just yet, are out of their boxes, surrounded by the packing peanuts he hasn't had the drive to clean up just yet. The flatscreen he'd asked for (and received, hallelujah, amen, and merry christmas, bitch) is leaned up unopened against the wall and he just cannot, for the life of him, find the energy to get it set up. For once, he's in no hurry to dispel the quiet.
...Though it's possible it has something to do with the fact that his back is sore and his face still fucking hurts, and that he really, really doesn't feel like hauling himself up right this minute. But hey, no one's here to climb up his ass about it, right? No harm, no foul... No tv or music to distract him from the other things he could get out of that closet...
It isn't even that he wants to do the drugs, not really. Let's just call it a morbid curiosity for the limits of a place called "Wonderland". The place was practically built on the back of the dude's fifty thousand acid trips, wasn't it? And so it stands to reason that if he opened the door, it'd, you know. Provide. He hasn't even tried asking it for cigarettes yet, because he isn't sure he wants to know... But as he pats the pack in his pocket, he frowns slightly; half-full, so it's likely he's gonna find out soon enough.
Not right now, though. Finally shoving himself up with a grunt, he feels around in his other pocket for a lighter and, finding none, heads to the very closet he's spent the past twenty-odd minutes pondering. With a sigh he reaches for the door, tugging it open to find a hooded sweatshirt hanging on the rack. After a brief pause, he reaches for it, slipping it off the hanger.
"Uh... Thanks. I guess," he says, nodding at the closet like it can actually hear him while he moves to push the door shut. What? Doesn't everyone thank them..? Casting one more somewhat skeptical glance at the closet, he moves to head out, slipping the jacket on and sliding his hand into one of the pockets... Where his fingers curl against something distinctly lighter shaped. His lips twitch into the tiniest of grins, and he nods again, pleased.
"Hey, right on."
First-Person Sample:
Oh my god!
[Brace yourselves, Wonderland, Jesse Pinkman has found the library, as evidenced by the loud and rather obnoxious exclamations of surprise and general enthusiasm. This is either gonna go over real well, or you're all in for one hell of a mess.]
This is like, serious shit. [Try not to die of surprise, but he's actually pretty stoked about all of this stuff at his disposal. In fact, the arm not occupied with his device is wrapped around a sizable stack of books, a collection with subjects ranging from chemistry to art to playboy. ...Which he absolutely picked up for the articles, get off his ass.] This place is awesome, yo, like, seriously awesome. What is this, like Wayne Manor or something? All these books around, there's gotta be a lever hiding around here somewhere... [He'll definitely be poking around with that later, but for now... Moving right along:] Dude- [And he hikes the books up a bit because they're starting to slide out of his grip. The last thing he wants is that "how to cartoon" manual hitting the floor. The movement jostles his shoulder in a way that's not particularly comfortable given the fact that his bruises have yet to heal, but he's got that childlike excitement adrenaline going for him, so...] I don't even know where to start. Anybody got any recommendations? 'Cause like... All we got here's time, right?
[And time's great and all, but too much of it leads to, like... Thinking. And he'd rather not do too much of that right now.]
DW username:
shichiloafE-Mail: l_con88@yahoo.com
IM:shichiloafs
Plurk: shichiloaf@plurk
Other Characters: Daryl Dixon
Character Name:Jesse Pinkman
Series: Breaking Bad
Timeline: Season 3 Episode 7, after accepting Walt's offer to work in Gus's lab
Canon Resource Link: Wiki
Character History:
Season 1:
The first time we're treated to the ridiculousness that is Jesse Pinkman, he's fleeing the scene of his meth lab as the DEA seizes it (and his partner) in a bust. And by fleeing, we mean hopping mostly naked out of the next door neighbor's window and falling off of the roof as he attempts to get his pants back on. If that's not an accurate portrayal of his character's ...humble beginnings, I don't know what is.
Jesse initially presents as a wannabe hoodrat, a low-level drug dealer and meth cooker content with making his money and messing around with his friends. He does his thing- and does it well enough to bring in the kind of money he needs to support his lifestyle- and that's that. A lot of crap goes on in the first season (and I do mean a lot of crap- the first draft of this app was about twenty pages long, aren't you guys glad I pruned it??) but for the most part, there are four major events that do the majority of the character-shaping, and so those are the ones I'm gonna elaborate on.
The first is Jesse's involvement with Walt, who he refers to almost exclusively as "Mr. White", hinting at the fact that he still views him as an authority figure, and as the series progresses, a father figure. Walt was Jesse's high school chemistry teacher, a man who from the jump and despite Jesse's mother's belief otherwise, "never thought he'd amount to much". His opinion of Jesse is coloured from the start, and is painfully obvious in most of their interactions, especially during the first season. Walt often serves up some pretty vicious verbal beatdowns, calling Jesse useless and a junkie, and yet Jesse keeps on coming back. He presents himself (or tries to present himself) as a badass, but when it comes down to it, the first season is a cycle of Jesse getting burned by Walt and coming back for more anyway; the kid has precious little self esteem to the point that watching the show can be an exercise in screaming at the tv.
Despite his reputation and "occupation" as a drug dealer, the only reason he agrees to cook with Walt in the first place is because he's blackmailed into doing so. He has no desire whatsoever to rock the boat or change the way he's been doing things, but he lets Walt talk him into it. This is the first of many instances that Jesse will, against his better judgment, listen to Walt and be led by him into things that he knows are dangerous, idiotic, or otherwise not things he needs to be involved in. Whether it's out of a desire to be hardcore, a real badass as opposed to a wannabe, or out of a complete lack of self-preservation skills brought on by a lack of support system, Jesse often throws caution to the wind, acting without thinking about the consequences. Even for age twenty-five it's obvious that he's a touch on the irresponsible side, and initially presents as very, very immature. Funnily enough, the thing he's most serious about is cooking meth- he takes pride in it, often referring to it as his art.
Still, Jesse agrees to work with Walt, using the money Walt gives him after their first meeting to purchase an RV like he said he would... After blowing nearly $6000 at a strip club with his friends, of course. They do their thing- cooking up a batch of meth good enough to impress Jesse into contacting the local distributor to try and get it out there. That doesn't go according to plan, unfortunately; forced at gunpoint to bring the distributor Krazy-8 and his former partner Emilio out to the RV, it goes as south as south can get, ending in the deaths of both men at Walt's hand while Jesse lies unconscious in the desert after tripping and landing face first on a rock while trying to escape. Yeah. Jesse's early history with Walt could best be described as A Series of Unfortunate Drug Deals, basically.
The most unfortunate of these being Jesse's decision to involve himself with Tuco Salamanca, an upper level drug dealer with ties to the Mexican cartel. With the old infrastructure dismantled (literally- Walt and Jesse melted the bodies of Krazy-8 and Emilio in acid in Jesse's house), there's no one left to sell to wholesale... Except for the new guy, of course. Jesse gives Walt a very long, very legitimate explanation as to why there's no way in hell he's talking to Tuco, which boils down to because that isn't how it works. It's dangerous, it's risky, it's an all-around bad idea... Walt, of course, doesn't want to hear that, and urges him to do it anyway and eventually, Jesse caves and agrees to have one of his boys set up the meeting. At this point, Jesse has been made aware of Walt's cancer and the fact that he's involved in this business to make money to leave for his family... And family is important to Jesse. Estranged from his own parents for at least the past year, what Walt is doing pulls at him enough to get him to talk to Tuco. Also- and there's no denying it- at this point he's still trying to look tough and make money. Poor decision making at its very finest.
And as expected, it goes horribly: Jesse gets his ass kicked hard enough that he winds up in the hospital with broken ribs among other things, and he loses their drugs. The important thing here is that he knew better- he knew how dangerous it was getting involved with these people, and he knew he should have just left well enough alone- again, this is a pattern for him. He has very, very little faith in his own abilities and gut feelings, and it's a huge contributor to the ease with which he's manipulated. He doesn't learn, he just continues to make the same mistakes again. Even if his heart is in the right place (and it nearly always is), he's mostly unable to keep himself out of trouble because he doesn't listen to his own instincts. Even when they're on fucking point: not only does Tuco beat the ever living shit out of him, he also proceeds to beat another man to death in front of both Jesse and Walt before kidnapping them and dragging them into the desert at gunpoint.
There's a scene with Walt, during the brief time they're working with Tuco, the first of Walt's "pep talks" that Jesse falls for every time, that's another major event of the first season. This one is related to the materials they need in order to cook enough meth to keep Tuco happy, a position Walt put the both of them in when he sold more meth than they could possibly cook in a week using their current methond. In order to be more self-sufficient in their cooking, Walt drafts up a list of ingredients Jesse needs to collect... Most of which he can barely pronounce. Jesse expresses this concern and is on the verge of leaving town when Walt grabs him and gives him a speech like he's trying to convince him to apply to college, complete with the "this is the first day of the rest of your life" cliche and shoulder-shaking. Jesse is... Completely taken aback (and clearly has no idea how to respond, hinting that he hasn't actually heard that before)but it seems to be effective: he does go and get the supplies, and on top of that he even pays for it with his share of the money, leaving him with roughly $2k out of the $15k he'd started with. It's obvious that at least part of the reason was to earn Walt's approval, conditional though it may be.
And there's a reason for that. The other big event in the first season is Jesse's return to his estranged parents' house for a few nights. Understandably, the whole melting-bodies-in-his-house thing doesn't go over very well, and he finds himself both unwilling and unable to stay there anymore. "Not good with dead bodies" is how he'd described himself; it's a bit of an understatement- he'd spent that afternoon smoking meth and talking to himself as he attempted to get rid of Emilio. After awkwardly catching him in their backyard, his parents allow him inside where he falls asleep in his old room for an entire day. His parents take this as him being on every drug under the sun, but the reality is that he's exhausted and more than a little traumatized by everything that's happened in his life. He needs support, clearly, and not just having his clothes watched which is the only offer his mother makes to him while he's there. For the time that he spends there, he makes a half-hearted attempt to be a "good son" (whatever that means), doing things like setting the table, trying to give his over-achieving little brother advice ("not all learning comes out of books")... Though at this point he can't quite leave his lifestyle behind him; he continues to make deals over the phone at this time- even with all the shit that'd gone on, he still isn't willing to make the necessary changes to get out of it. This is due, in part, to his immaturity... But also because he feels like it's all he's good for. It's a simple equation: his friends praise him and support him in what he's good at (cooking meth), his parents don't support him at all in anything. In fact, it's painfully obvious they think they're wise to him before he even has a chance to screw up: while he's trying to reconnect with his brother Jake, his mother comes in to "check up on them", leaving the door open when she leaves which Jesse takes to mean that she doesn't trust him, an implication he's extremely offended and hurt by.
During his stay at his parents' house, we get some pretty big hints as to what Jesse's childhood must have been like. While his younger brother's room is practically covered in awards and recognitions for everything from music to social awareness, (and the episode opens with the three, Mom, Dad, and little bro discussing his accomplishments over dinner), Jesse's walls are bare except for a few pieces of his own art, and completely lacking any kind of recognition. It's clear that for whatever reason, his skills were never really nurtured or valued, at least not in the way his brother's were. In fact, most of his art- the stuff that wasn't done when he was five- is found in a chest at the foot of his bed which he digs through when he's unable to sleep. There's even an on-point doodle of Mr. White on the back of a chemistry test. "Neglected" is probably too strong a word to describe Jesse's parents' child-rearing where he was concerned, but so is "supportive". They clearly care about their son's well-being, but at this point they're fed up with his lifestyle and the way that he refuses to grow up, and as a result all their "tough love" succeeds in doing is pushing him away and making him feel . Eventually, the housekeeper finds drugs in one of the rooms and, believing it to belong to Jesse, they kick him out once and for all. Jesse doesn't tell them that the drugs actually belong to his little brother; obvious jealousy aside, he isn't about to rat his kid brother out, not even to save his own ass. Loyalty, even to his own detriment, will continue to be a pattern in his later behavior.
Season 2:
In some ways Jesse's arc in the second season is more about stepping up and becoming (slightly) more responsible than it is being a low-level street thug. With Tuco gone (he's killed by Walt's brother in law after kidnapping Jesse and Walt), the pair no longer has a viable way to sell their product at a volume that's acceptable to Walt. Walt sees only two options- keep selling it slowly the way they've been doing, or "hop into bed with another Tuco"; Jesse sees a third: his suggestion is that they become Tuco, cut out the middleman by employing other dealers (starting with Jesse's friends Combo, Badger, and Skinny Pete) and getting their product out that way. Walt argues, but for the first time Jesse actually stands his ground, giving Walt an ultimatum: they either do it his way, or Jesse will walk. He even goes so far as to say that Walt needs him more than he needs Walt- and he does actually use "Walt" here, like a rebellious kid might use his father's first name for extra disrespect. That will go on to be a theme later as well- Jesse's relationship with Walt, while never particularly healthy, does get kicked up a notch during the second season. Reluctantly, Walt agrees, and shortly thereafter Jesse gathers his people to pitch the idea to them. The scene where he's talking to his boys is one of the first times we see him in a leadership role... And it looks surprisingly good on him. He's capable of being firm without being a complete asshole, and the idea he has is sound. He knows the streets, he knows the business, and he knows how to get his tweaker friends to work for him. It works out, too, until Skinny Pete gets robbed by a pair of junkies. Jesse is willing to let it go, and attempts to explain to Walt that it's just "breakage", and the more dealers they run on the street the more often it's going to happen. Walt, as usual, doesn't accept that answer, insisting that he do something and even going so far as to bring a gun to Jesse's house to get him to "handle it."
And handle it he does. Sort of? After smoking up (another pattern that becomes more and more apparent as the show goes on), he finds the junkies who'd ripped him off and breaks into their house... Where he finds not a pair of meth heads, but a tiny, malnourished little boy. His entire demeanor changes (while knocking on the door he'd been practicing "where's my money, bitch" in all its various forms to psych himself up to actually do it), and he makes sure he hides the gun in his sweatshirt so that the kid isn't afraid of him. He spends a little while watching tv with the boy, gently trying to coax his parents' whereabouts out of him, but when the kid does speak up all he has to say is "I'm hungry". Which Jesse responds to by bringing him into the kitchen, making him a sandwich, and playing peekaboo with him. He's clearly good with kids, it was obvious when he was talking to his younger brother and is even more obvious now- throughout this whole ordeal with the junkies he spends a good amount of time and energy protecing the kid and trying to shelter him from what's going on around him; he even chews his mother out for being a shitty parent, asking her why she can't just "give the kid a decent meal every once in a while". He seems more pissed off about the treatment of the kid than about the theft of his drugs. Eventually it's because he's so focused on this poor child that he becomes distracted enough that the woman gets the jump on him, knocking him out and holding him at gunpoint. Tl;dr: Jesse is a terrible thug. As with most things in the Breaking Bad universe, this situation ends horribly: the woman, pissed that her boyfriend keeps calling her a skank, kills him by crushing his head with an ATM machine while Jesse watches, unable to do a thing. She then proceeds to get high with the meth she grabs out of the dead man's pocket, at which point Jesse makes an attempt to wipe down his prints and then calls the police, leaving the phone off the hook before grabbing the little boy and taking him outside on the porch with a blanket. Before he leaves he squeezes the kid's shoulder and tells him to have a good rest of his life- it's clear that he means it.
As traumatizing as that event is (and it really, really is- Jesse spends the next few days ignoring everyone's calls in favour of blazing in his house to forget the sound of the guy's head being smashed), Walt manages to turn it around and use it to make more money! After picking up Jesse's slack and delivering the goods to his friends, Walt finds out that everyone on the outside apparently thinks that Jesse is the one who killed the junkie... And they're all scared shitless of him because of it. Jesse wants nothing to do with this, and is disgusted by the idea of people thinking he's a murderer- but Walt sees it as an opportunity and delivers yet another (ridiculous) pep talk in which he likens Jesse to a blowfish. "Who messes with the blowfish, Jesse?" The basic idea is that he needs to "puff up" and use this to his advantage to intimidate people into doing what he wants the way a blowfish uses its spines and size, because in actuality he isn't that tough. (It's completely accurate, honestly, but the whole thing is obviously insanely manipulative.) The very fact that Walt cares enough to try and motivate him is all Jesse's looking for, though, and so once again he goes along with it. Even after everything that's gone wrong, Walt still knows all of the right buttons to press to get Jesse to dance. Because all Jesse sees is getting the support he craves, and never the consequences of what he has to do to get that support.
And speaking of support... After being evicted from his aunt's house by his parents, who own the legal rights to the location, Jesse (after a terrible horrible no good very bad day) moves into a condo by the skin of his ass. Initially wary of him and his general shady ways, Jane, the landlord's daughter, lets him move in without any documentation and under a clearly fake name. There's an immediate connection there; the reason Jane lets him move in despite her "hardass" father owning the building is because Jesse confides in her that he's "a disappointment" to his family; Jane, as a recovering heroin addict, can relate. The two eventually develop a relationship and it's clear that Jesse cares for her very much. If his actions with the little boy are an indicator of his caregiving nature, his relationship with Jane demonstrates his urge to nest. He's extremely (and unashamedly) affectionate with her, in private and in public, he cooks her breakfast (it was supposed to be in bed but she woke up), he goes to a museum with her to make her happy... He's clearly smitten, and while he of course maintains his smartassery with her, their relationship adds yet another layer to a character who, in the beginning of the show, seemed to be mostly flat. He's genuinely happy with Jane- it's one of the few times in the series where that's the case. She's his first love, and it's obvious every time they interact on screen.
And it ends terribly, of course. Jesse's crew pushes too far into other groups' territories, and as a result his friend Combo is murdered in the street on another gang's orders. This is the start of a downward spiral that really... Keeps on going. As the person who'd sent Combo to that street corner in the first place, Jesse is overcome with guilt over the the loss of his friend. He turns to his preferred method of coping (the drugs) at the news of Combo's murder, telling Jane that she needs to leave because he's going to smoke. She tries to stop him by saying that it isn't going to help, to which he responds "Yeah, it will, and I don't need you to tell me that it won't." He leaves the room, but after hesitating, Jane follows. And things only get worse from here. Still extremely depressed, Jesse is introduced to heroin by Jane, who has now relapsed after smoking with him. He's clearly terrified of it when he first asks her what it feels like, but at her reassurance he goes through with it, and the two of them spend their days getting high and lying around the condo.
This proves disastrous for Walt- Jesse's foray into full-blown addiction almost costs them a massive deal with Gustavo Fring, the local drug lord who's essentially been running the entire New Mexico drug trade behind the scenes the entire time. When the deal is confirmed, Jesse is passed out in bed with Jane, necessitating Walt breaking into his house and tearing his kitchen to bits to find it; half-conscious, Jesse is just barely able to tell him where the drugs are. The deal is made, but Walt, occupied with the birth of his daughter and angry at Jesse for almost costing them something so important- doesn't mention it, leading Jesse to freak out when he realizes there's been a break in and that their product is gone. The first thing he does is call Walt, clearly very, very guilty about out to the point that he actually says "yell at me or something, come on!", at which point Walt hangs up on him and he's left to sweat. Jesse is quick to shoulder the blame... But he does lash out at Walt when he finds out what really happened from the messages on his phone and not even from Walt himself. High and angry, he recklessly confronts Walt in his classroom about letting him think he dropped the ball and lost their supply, to which Walt responds by attacking him, calling him useless and stupid (again), blaming him for the fact that he missed his daughter's birth, and refusing to give him his share of the money.
The scene in the school is the point at which it becomes painfully obvious that Jesse's really having a problem. Usually honest about his drug use, proud, even, he straight up lies, telling Walt that he didn't even like the heroin because it made him sick and that he could "take or leave" the meth. When Walt demands that he provide a urine sample before taking the money- and then refers to Jane as his "junkie girlfriend"- Jesse loses it, shattering the glass beaker on the wall being Walt and leaving. When he confides in Jane, she comes up with a plan: they'll blackmail Walt for the money and once they have it, run away to New Zealand. It works, and Walt brings the money to Jesse, urging him to reconsider, telling him he's making a mistake... Jesse is uncharacteristically quiet during the whole thing, with Jane doing most of the talking, and eventually Walt gives up and leaves. The kicker here is that for once, Walt actually is trying to help Jesse out (in his own way, the same kind of "tough love" that didn't work when his parents tried it), but it's too little too late. After discussing how they're going to toss the rest of their drugs and leave first thing in the morning, Jesse and Jane shoot it up anyway and fall asleep.
Meanwhile
And find her he does. After failing to resuscitate her, the first person Jesse calls is Walt... Because he has no one else to turn to, having been abandoned by family and friends alike throughout the season. They work up a story, calling in a favour from a colleague, and once he's sure his part is done, Jesse himself flees to a crack house to get high. Walt finds him there, finally offering him the support he craves (even calling him "son", though Jesse's too out of it to remember or be at all comforted by it) while Jesse breaks down, sobbing that he's never loved anyone so much in his life and insisting that he killed Jane, that it's his fault she died. After an intensely emotional few minutes of unrestrained physical affection, Walt gets Jesse out and takes him to rehab. The last glimpse we get of Jesse for the season is when he's at the clinic, telling Walt that he deserves what happens to him.
Season 3:
Season three is where things start to get a little hectic. Not that they weren't already, but Jane's death- and the resulting fatal plane collision caused by Jane's emotionally destroyed father- will continue to haunt Jesse from this point onward. There's a month long gap between the second and third seasons, and Jesse spends this time in the rehab facility that Walt had left him at following his rescue from the crack house. He has counseling, participates (in the loosest possible sense of the word) in group therapy sessions, and walks out of the center clean, sober...
And more miserable than ever. When Walt brings him back the the apartment he's renting, he wastes no time in talking about the collision, which he feels personally responsible for; Walt tries to tell him that it isn't his fault, to which he responds "you either face things, or you run from them, Mr. White. I've accepted who I am." And his response, when Walt asks him who he is? "I'm the bad guy."
Emotionally, this season is the lowest point we've seen Jesse reach. He is clean, and he is sober... But that doesn't seem to matter to anyone, least of all Jesse himself. When he stops by his aunt's house, he attempts to reconnect with his father, who's prepping the house for sale... But his father makes it clear that he- and the rest of the family- want nothing to do with Jesse. As an extra kick in the ass, he points out that Jesse looks "good and healthy", but turns him down anyway when Jesse asks to come by the house for dinner. After everything he's been through, and the progress he's made, he gets precisely zero support from his family.
And so he compensates by enlisting Saul to essentially blackmail them into selling him his aunt's house. If he can't have a family, he'll make damn sure to buy whatever comforts he can. The deal is $400k cash, less than half of the asking price... But the asking price (and the disclosure statement for the house) don't include the meth lab that used to be in the basement, a fact that Jesse has Saul exploit to net him the house. His parents don't find out it was him until they're getting their things and leaving, at which point Jesse drives up and, without a word to them, heads for the house. They try to stop him and it's only then that he pulls out the keys and tells them it's his house now. It's a hollow victory; Jesse is now "house-poor" and spends his days sitting on the floor and calling Jane's voicemail on his cell phone.
Of course, in true Jesse Pinkman form, it isn't long before he decides that despite his hard-won sobriety, he wants back into the meth business. After talking to Walt and showing him the product he'd cooked on his own (and having both his offer and his work laughed out of the proverbial classroom), he decides to go over his head and go straight to the man who'd hooked Walt up with the big time: Saul. And for a little while, Saul actually helps him. He successfully sells a pound of his own product to one of Gus Fring's men... Who gives him only half of what he's owed. The other half, of course, goes to Walt, who's the real reason Gus is working with Jesse in the first place. Two months may have passed, but Jesse still manages to fall right back into old patterns of being used as a pawn. He has Saul call Walt in for a meeting to discuss the money and a deal: 10% of what Jesse earns will go to Walt for his "contribution" (the formula) and that will be that. Walt forks over the other half of Jesse's money... And then tells him that it's the last money he'll make in the business, that he's out, because Walt has agreed to work for Gus and they're essentially cutting Jesse out of the deal entirely. Which is a problem, because Jesse's surface motivation for the majority of season three is money- money to buy the things he can, since he can't get any of the things he needs, like emotional support.
Jesse resolves to cook anyway, and enlists Badger and Skinny Pete to help him do it. They plan on using the RV and selling in small quantities again, and everything appears to be going well... Until the DEA- Walt's brother-in-law Hank, specifically- connects him to the RV thanks to some sloppy dealing at a gas station. Walt, knowing that if the RV is found he's completely screwed, tries to have it destroyed behind Jesse's back. When Jesse finds out, he rushes to the junkyard... With the DEA right behind him. Trapped inside the RV, he and Walt come up with a way to keep Hank from coming in to discover them by using legal loopholes to prove he needs a warrant. It works up until the point where it doesn't: Hank will sit right there, he says, and have the DEA bring a warrant to him. It's at this point that Walt makes the executive decision to have Saul's secretary call Hank and tell him that his wife has been in an accident, causing him to rush to the hospital to be with her, and leaving the he and Jesse free to dispose of the RV, which they do. Success! ...Right?
Kind of. Because Hank didn't know Walt was there, he's left to assume it was Jesse who'd come up with the idea, which he sees as a threat to his family. This leads to Hank cornering Jesse at his house and beating the shit out of him; he winds up in the hospital (yet again) where he refuses doctor-ordered pain medication to keep his sobriety. Remember how I said this was an emotional low point? The hospital stay is the lowest point, period. An enraged Jesse tells Walt and Saul that he will bury Hank, make his life a living hell for this. He's bluffing, of course, but it's the most vicious we've seen of Jesse thus far- he's hit rock bottom, and it shows. He also threatens to give Walt up to the DEA if he ever gets caught cooking- which he plans on picking right back up as soon as he's out of the hospital- thought Walt correctly pegs that as a bluff, too. Still, it isn't long before he decides that he wants Jesse to come work with him again; his "replacement" isn't working out, and he and Jesse have developed a rapport that can't be replicated. There's also some manipulation at play here, as well. He doesn't think Jesse will talk, or "bury" Hank, but just to be on the safe side... He offers Jesse what he'd wanted from the start: Fifty-fifty partners in Gus's shiny new lab.
Jesse refuses. Beaten, bloodied, and at the worst place he's ever been in his life, he refuses, telling Walt that he has nothing, no one, and that just to be clear, he's not saying no to the money, he's saying no to Walt. He's finally putting his foot down, finally acknowledging the wreck his life has become since he'd gotten involved with Walt. Rightly or wrongly, he blames Walt for the turn his life has taken and refuses the deal. He also asks Walt why he wants him anyway, since all he does is fuck up, make inferior meth... Walt sees this as the opening it is, and once again turns to manipulation to get his way. He offers Jesse something he craves, and that's praise for his meth. "Your meth is good, Jesse. It's just as good as mine."
And that's all it takes. In the very next scene Jesse's calling Walt up and agreeing to get back into work.
Abilities/Special Powers: Just an average dude. He has some chemistry knowledge (whatever applies to cooking) and some artistic skills, but other than that he's pretty much your standard twenty-five year old in decent health. He smokes and is shown to have pretty awful eating habits so he isn't gonna be bench pressing anyone any time soon. He can handle weapons but not with any kind of precision; in season four it takes him... Quite a few shots to take down a guy that's within twenty feet of him.
Third-Person Sample:
You know what really isn't actually awesome for someone in recovery that's just been through one hell of a trying situation?
Closets that cough up any and everything that you could possibly ask for.
The couch is set up, his dope speakers, though not completely functional just yet, are out of their boxes, surrounded by the packing peanuts he hasn't had the drive to clean up just yet. The flatscreen he'd asked for (and received, hallelujah, amen, and merry christmas, bitch) is leaned up unopened against the wall and he just cannot, for the life of him, find the energy to get it set up. For once, he's in no hurry to dispel the quiet.
...Though it's possible it has something to do with the fact that his back is sore and his face still fucking hurts, and that he really, really doesn't feel like hauling himself up right this minute. But hey, no one's here to climb up his ass about it, right? No harm, no foul... No tv or music to distract him from the other things he could get out of that closet...
It isn't even that he wants to do the drugs, not really. Let's just call it a morbid curiosity for the limits of a place called "Wonderland". The place was practically built on the back of the dude's fifty thousand acid trips, wasn't it? And so it stands to reason that if he opened the door, it'd, you know. Provide. He hasn't even tried asking it for cigarettes yet, because he isn't sure he wants to know... But as he pats the pack in his pocket, he frowns slightly; half-full, so it's likely he's gonna find out soon enough.
Not right now, though. Finally shoving himself up with a grunt, he feels around in his other pocket for a lighter and, finding none, heads to the very closet he's spent the past twenty-odd minutes pondering. With a sigh he reaches for the door, tugging it open to find a hooded sweatshirt hanging on the rack. After a brief pause, he reaches for it, slipping it off the hanger.
"Uh... Thanks. I guess," he says, nodding at the closet like it can actually hear him while he moves to push the door shut. What? Doesn't everyone thank them..? Casting one more somewhat skeptical glance at the closet, he moves to head out, slipping the jacket on and sliding his hand into one of the pockets... Where his fingers curl against something distinctly lighter shaped. His lips twitch into the tiniest of grins, and he nods again, pleased.
"Hey, right on."
First-Person Sample:
Oh my god!
[Brace yourselves, Wonderland, Jesse Pinkman has found the library, as evidenced by the loud and rather obnoxious exclamations of surprise and general enthusiasm. This is either gonna go over real well, or you're all in for one hell of a mess.]
This is like, serious shit. [Try not to die of surprise, but he's actually pretty stoked about all of this stuff at his disposal. In fact, the arm not occupied with his device is wrapped around a sizable stack of books, a collection with subjects ranging from chemistry to art to playboy. ...Which he absolutely picked up for the articles, get off his ass.] This place is awesome, yo, like, seriously awesome. What is this, like Wayne Manor or something? All these books around, there's gotta be a lever hiding around here somewhere... [He'll definitely be poking around with that later, but for now... Moving right along:] Dude- [And he hikes the books up a bit because they're starting to slide out of his grip. The last thing he wants is that "how to cartoon" manual hitting the floor. The movement jostles his shoulder in a way that's not particularly comfortable given the fact that his bruises have yet to heal, but he's got that childlike excitement adrenaline going for him, so...] I don't even know where to start. Anybody got any recommendations? 'Cause like... All we got here's time, right?
[And time's great and all, but too much of it leads to, like... Thinking. And he'd rather not do too much of that right now.]