History Characters / BreakingBadJessePinkman

[[WMG:[[center:[-'''[[Characters/BreakingBad Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/BetterCallSaul Better Call Saul]]'''\\
[[Characters/BreakingBadWaltsFamily Walt's Family]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadWalterWhite Walter White]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadHeisenbergsEmpire Heisenberg's Empire]] ('''Jesse Pinkman''', [[Characters/BreakingBadSaulGoodman Saul Goodman]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadDEAAndPolice DEA and Police]], [[Characters/BreakingBadJuarezCartel Juarez Cartel]], [[Characters/BreakingBadSalamancaFamily Salamanca Family]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadHectorSalamanca Hector Salamanca]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadLosPollosHermanos Los Pollos Hermanos]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadGustavoFring Gustavo Fring]], [[Characters/BreakingBadMikeEhrmantraut Mike Ehrmantraut]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadMadrigalElectromotive Madrigal Electromotive]], [[Characters/BreakingBadAryanBrotherhood Aryan Brotherhood]], [[Characters/BreakingBadOtherCriminals Other Criminals]], [[Characters/BreakingBadOtherCivilians Other Civilians]]-]]]]]

!!Jesse Bruce Pinkman

!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/AaronPaul
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/BreakingBad'' | ''Film/ElCamino'' | ''Series/BetterCallSaul''[[note]]Flashbacks only[[/note]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pinkman_jesse_4738.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"This is my own private domicile and I will not be harassed... [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch!"]]'']][[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:As he appears in ''El Camino'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/des5jpg.jpg ''"And whatever happened with me, it's on me. Okay? Nobody else."'' [[/labelnote]]]]

->''"For what it's worth, getting the shit kicked out of you... not to say you get used to it, but... you do kinda get used to it."''

The {{deuteragonist}} of ''Series/BreakingBad'', and the main protagonist of the sequel film ''Film/ElCamino''. He's a small-time methamphetamine user, manufacturer, and dealer. In high school, he was an inattentive student in Walter White's chemistry class. Now in his mid-20s, Jesse is Walt's business partner in the meth trade. Jesse is impulsive, hedonistic, and uneducated, but personable and possesses street smarts as well.
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* ActionSurvivor: Despite not exactly being an "InnocentBystander", Jesse, who is a small-time amateur crook (with emphasis on ''small-time'') at most, is very much out of his depth in many of the violent and downright insane situations that his involvement with Walt and his budding meth-empire constantly conspires to place him in. And though he somehow always manages to make it through whatever is thrown at him, it is pretty much only by the skin of his teeth, and as the series progresses, his traumas just keep piling up. [[spoiler:By the time of ''El Camino'', Jesse has, amongst other things, experienced the death of two girlfriends, been forced to kill an innocent man, having to help cover up the murder of a child, having been on the receiving end of several severe beatings, and gone through six months of living hell as the slave of Jack's gang.]]
* AddictionDisplacement: Once he starts going to rehab in season 3, he actually leaves drugs behind but doubles down on regular cigarettes. He was already a smoker before the rehab, but his nicotine consumption grows noticeably afterward.
* AffablyEvil: Despite his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold loud, abrasive, and sometimes obnoxious personality]], Jesse actually tends to be rather amiable towards his friends and most (non-criminal) people he interacts with, with a [[FriendToAllChildren big soft spot for children]]. And furthermore, despite being a drug-dealing gangster who has killed a few men ([[MyGodWhatHaveIDone though not without the first murder taking a heavy toll on his conscience]]), he's overall a much more compassionate person than his partner-in-crime, [[FauxAffablyEvil Walter]] [[{{Jerkass}} White]].
* TheAggressiveDrugDealer:
** Played straight at one point. Jesse turns on the charm to pressure a hesitant gas station attendant (who has previously never done anything harder than pot) to accept meth in lieu of payment. Then he plans on selling Blue Sky to the addicts at his rehab group.
** Otherwise {{subverted}}. Jesse will not sell meth to a mother who has a responsibility to look after a child.
* AllForNothing: In the end, he comes out with literally nothing gained from the drug business (largely due to his impulsiveness). His remaining money (stolen from Todd's apartment) is given to Ed to give him a brand new start in life.
* AnimalMotifs: Associated with dogs due to his loyalty and desire for approval and affection. In "Cancer Man", the sound of a snarling dog is played while he's running from a hallucination of biker hitmen. In "Problem Dog", he tells the recovery group about how he put down a dog and while he's referring to Gale it's clear the bad dog in question is him, and in "Rabid Dog" [[spoiler:Saul outright compares him to Old Yeller -- the most kind and loyal dog in the world who nonetheless had to be put down when he went mad.]] And it gets uncomfortably literal when [[spoiler:Todd beats him, then chains him to a dog run in the Aryan gang's warehouse to force him to cook meth, starting in "Ozymandias".]]
* ApatheticStudent: At ''best''. He was a lazy troublemaker in class, especially Walter's. [[spoiler:In a flashback in ''El Camino'', Walt is shocked to learn he actually ''graduated.'']]
* TheAtoner: Becomes this after "Blood Money." He's become so fed up with all the bloodshed and suffering caused by the business, to the point where he doesn't even care about getting his millions' worth of share anymore.
* BaldOfEvil: In 2009, after Victor's death and essentially replacing him, Jesse shaves his head. Much later after escaping Jack's compound, he shaves his head again after being a disheveled wreck for half a year. Though the second time, it qualifies more as a BaldHeadOfToughness, as Jesse by this point has been thoroughly hardened through by all the trauma he has been going through.
* BeardnessProtectionProgram: Defied. Despite Skinny Pete's suggestion to keep his beard to prevent himself from being recognized, Jesse shaves it off regardless, wanting to disassociate from his trauma.
* BeardOfSorrow: He grows one in the second half of season 5, in part due to his captivity by the Nazis. He loses it at the beginning of ''Film/ElCamino'' after [[spoiler:getting back to Skinny Pete's]].
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Jesse was a career criminal before he ever met Walt. At several points, he boasts about he'll make it big, stick it to the man, and live the life of a true outlaw. [[spoiler:Cue his gradual breakdown when the toll of the life of a "successful" criminal is too much for his soul to handle. He can't even enjoy the millions he's earned, and everyone he loves suffers or has suffered because of his choices.]]
* BeingEvilSucks: Even more so than Walt, Jesse gets ''very'' burdened by his intense guilt from the frequently negative consequences of their traumatizing misadventures in organized crime.
* BeneathTheMask: He projects the image of a fully-intentioned, devil-may-care, hedonistic rebel without a cause using the drug, slacker, and street lifestyles as a fuck you to polite society in general. And, it's not ''entirely'' an act. Underneath all that, however, is a very conflicted, frustrated, self-loathing, escapist, highly sensitive, loving, and intelligent guy with major trust and rejection issues who really don't know if anything he wants he should let himself deserve having. BrokenBird and SadClown don't really do him justice, but they're certainly aspects of this.
* BerserkButton: He doesn't take kindly to being called "stupid", once getting into a fist fight with Walt over it.
* BerserkerTears: [[spoiler:When he assaults Saul and starts pouring gasoline in the Whites' house after realizing that Walter poisoned Brock. Then later when he kills Todd.]]
* BigBrotherInstinct: Seems to bring this out in people. Both Walt and Mike are very protective of their younger partner, even though Walt isn't above using and manipulating him for his own ends. He also has this for kids in general, most notably Spooge's unnamed son and Brock.
* BigBrotherMentor: He tries (and fails) to be this to his younger brother Jake. Though he does take the rap for Jake's joint (and steps on the joint afterward).
* BleedEmAndWeep: When he [[spoiler:kills Gale, he's weeping and shaking the whole time, and apparently suffers from PTSD afterward.]]
* BookDumb: Jesse did poorly in Walt's chemistry class, and doesn't always know the scientific name for the chemicals and processes used in meth cooking (as when he can only identify a certain chemical by the honeybee label on the barrels he and Walt use), and in a flashback during ''Film/ElCamino'', Walt is legitimately surprised to discover Jesse had actually managed to get his high school diploma [[note]](much to Jesse's annoyance, Walt was actually on the stage during Jesse's commencement ceremony, but he completely forgot about it)[[/note]]. Yet he's [[BrilliantButLazy highly intelligent]] and seems to have a genuine talent for the knack-driven, practical side of chemistry. Notably, he's the only person other than Walt and Gale who can consistently produce meth at 90% or higher purity, even under very trying conditions, and he's the only other person who seems to ''understand'' Walt's cooking methods instead of just following the recipe by rote.
* BreakoutCharacter: Initially, Jesse was slated to be a SacrificialLion for Season 1. However, Vince Gilligan was so impressed with the character and Aaron Paul's performance that he eventually promoted Jesse to the {{Deuteragonist}} of the series. He even stars in his own movie taking place after the series ends.
* BreakTheCutie: Granted, Jesse was already a meth dealer at the start of the show and was never the most innocent person, but he wasn't anything more than a low-level street dealer whose rap sheet likely only extended to a few arrests. Ever since partnering up with Walt, however, his life has undeniably taken a turn for the worst.
* BrilliantButLazy: Jesse is a skilled carpenter, but he'd rather cook crystal meth than put those skills to use as a tradesman. He also has a knack for chemistry, since he becomes able to recreate Walt's formula perfectly (something nobody else could do), but he failed at chemistry in high school, because he didn't apply himself. [[spoiler: After becoming Mr. Driscoll, he's finally able to put his carpentry skills to good use by starting a woodworking shop.]]
* BuffySpeak: Despite having been a high school washout, much of what he says would sound fairly intelligent if it weren't for his particular style of vernacular, yo.
* ButtMonkey: The first time we see Jesse, he falls out a window. At this point, it's safe to say that ''that'' particular misfortune has been among the least terrible things that have happened to him during the course of the show.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: In "Ozymandias", [[spoiler:Todd talks the Nazis out of killing Jesse, so he can teach him how to cook Walt's formula]].
* TheCaretaker: He was this to his aunt before she died of cancer.
* CartwrightCurse: In the worst possible way. [[spoiler:Both Andrea and Jane are dead because of their relationships with Jesse. As if that wasn't bad enough, they're also two of only three recurring female characters who die during the show's run (the third being Lydia Rodarte-Quayle)]].
* ChaoticStupid: Prone to impulsive and self-destructive actions out of hurt or spite, though he becomes more responsible as time goes on.
* CharacterDevelopment: Becomes much more mature and intelligent over the course of the series.
* TheChewToy: Initially, some of Jesse's misfortune is PlayedForLaughs, such as his falling out a window or his high mishaps. As this goes along, [[TraumaCongaLine this stops being so funny.]]
* ChildrenAreInnocent: A firmly held belief of his. This leads to him plotting the deaths of two drug dealers who are the bosses of Tomás, an 11-year-old who murdered Jesse's friend Combo. This situation ultimately leads to the collapse of Walt and Gus' business relationship. Later, when his and Walt's actions lead to [[spoiler:a child being murdered]], he decides to quit the meth business.
* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler:By the Neo-Nazis]] in "Ozymandias". We don't see much in detail, but he's left with plenty of scars and bruises after and is clearly traumatized by the experience.
* CombatPragmatist: In ''El Camino'', [[spoiler:he uses his second gun as a HiddenWeapon to attack Neil before the latter draws his gun]].
* CoveredWithScars: [[spoiler: After being tortured and enslaved by the Aryan Brotherhood. Best shown in ''Film/ElCamino'' when he's taking a shower we can see he's got several scars all over his back, and then plenty more on his face after he's done shaving.]]
* CradleOfLoneliness: Does this after Jane's death, and again after killing Gale.
* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: He has this mindset at the beginning of the series, intending to carry on with his petty criminal lifestyle to party around, do drugs and make money through illicit activities. But after he gets involved with Walt, this idea starts being [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] to the point of Jesse completely swearing off of being a criminal due to the amount of pain and suffering he's experienced.
* DeadpanSnarker: He has his moments.
** When Walt makes a naive assessment about what Tuco is planning, Jesse has this to say:
--->'''Jesse:''' Are you basing that on he's got like a normal, healthy brain or something?! Did you not see him beat a dude to death for, like, nothing?!
** Later he says:
--->'''Jesse:''' Uh huh. Tell me, you wouldn't happen to have been... sampling... our product, would you?
** Even at his lowest point, he's still got it. In ''El Camino'', when Todd asks him where to store his money, Jesse responds by saying:
--->'''Jesse:''' They've got this thing called banks.
* DespairEventHorizon: Has ''four''.
** First and foremost, when Jane dies in her sleep. It affected him so much that Walt personally saved him from the crack den he went to be wasted, and sent him to rehab. [[spoiler:Makes Walt confessing to Jesse in "Ozymandias" even more heart-wrenching.]]
** Second, when he kills Gale personally. Walt did try to kill Gale, but he was captured by Mike and Victor, necessitating Jesse to kill Gale. As with Walt and Krazy-8, Gale's death left Jesse a sobbing mess, as he really went into depression, [[spoiler:and left the rehab in a very cruel KickTheDog moment.]]
** Third, after [[spoiler:Drew Sharp is killed by Todd at the end of the methylamine heist]], which ends up being the point where he loses any remaining enthusiasm for staying in the meth business.
** Fourth and finally, when [[spoiler:Todd kills Andrea right in front of him. Jesse totally became Todd's underling after that, and went into such a deep HeroicBSOD that even Walt saving him and his killing of Todd didn't give him his peace.]]
* DeathSeeker: Implied throughout the first half of Season 4; with his and Walt's lives at stake due to Gus's wrath and Jesse still remorseful for killing Gale, Jesse goes down an intense downwards spiral of drugs, booze, and turns his house into an open party for random addicts. He shows absolutely no regard for his safety or possessions, letting people walk out with appliances and his money. Walt interprets all of this as Jesse having given up on life.
* DesperatelyCravesAffection:
** As a result of his strained relationship with his parents, Jesse has a tendency to remain incredibly attached to anyone who shows him the slightest amount of care or respect. As a result of this, Walt and later Gus are able to manipulate him into saving their lives on two different counts, and earlier than that, Jane is able to convince him to blackmail Walt for his share of the money.
** A darker version occurs, in ''El Camino'', [[spoiler:when Todd takes Jesse into the desert to help bury a body. Jesse gets his hand on a gun, and clearly has the advantage against Todd; he has every chance to swiftly kill him and steal his vehicle, and due to the fact that they are alone, it would take hours for any word to get back to Jack's gang, leaving him with plenty of time to escape. Todd, true to form, never really notices that Jesse is considering all these factors as he offers him some pizza and a beer for helping him out. But Jesse is so utterly mentally broken at that point (and worried about Brock), that the prospect of a simple reward of some decent food and drink is enough to get him to back down from killing the man who murdered his girlfriend]].
* {{Deuteragonist}}: Serves this role to Walt's protagonist. The argument could be made that Jesse's arc throughout the story is just as important as Walt's is, at this point. See {{Foil}} below.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Over and over and over again, Jesse has a clever idea, but it backfires on him about halfway through the execution.
** Spelled out when he tells Walt that he should just shoot Tuco the next time they meet, requiring Walt to remind him that Tuco always has back-up and that Jesse's revolver has a limited number of bullets. Jesse is then unable to open his revolver to check how much ammo he has.
** [[spoiler:Jesse's attempted escape from Jack's gang falls under this. Despite knowing that Andrea and Brock are at risk if he doesn't cooperate, he still attempts to escape his prison. However, it's implied that Jesse's mental state has degraded to the point that he's trying to escape with the knowledge that he'll either get out in order to warn Andrea and Brock or be put out of his misery by the Nazis (hence his daring them to shoot him). The biggest miscalculation that Jesse makes is his assumption that he's disposable to Todd.]]
** He dumps the RV's water supply to put out a fire while stranded in the desert.
** Another time he impulsively goes after the RV to hide it, and inadvertently leads Hank to it.
* DirtyBusiness: Killing Gale. It was the only way to save himself and Walt from being killed by Gus.
* DitzyGenius: By Season 4, his meth-making skills rival Walt's and he contributes a lot of good ideas throughout the show, but he's often sabotaged by his idealism, ChaoticStupid tendencies, and impulsiveness.
* DistressedDude: Often needs saving by Walt throughout the series. Specifically from Krazy-8 and Emilio in the {{Pilot}}, from Gus' henchmen at the end of Season 4, and [[spoiler:after being captured by Uncle Jack's Nazi gang]].
* TheDogBitesBack:
** After being kicked out of his house and disowned by his parents in season 2, he blackmails them with his own methlab in the basement (which they did not disclose existed when attempting to sell) to buy it back at less than half the price, including the 400k they just spent renovating it for said sale.
** He does it again in the second half of season 5, this time to [[spoiler:Walt]]. In the finale, he does this to [[spoiler:Todd]].
* TheDragon: Is this to Walt. It is only due to him that Walt expanded his cookery from the ordinary streets to men like Tuco and Gus. Also, he murdered Gale, thus securing Walt and himself. His usefulness to Walt has gotten to the point where he is a ''crucial'' part of his meth operation, such as when he comes up with an idea on how to erase the security footage of them burning down the lab with a magnet or when he figures out a way to rob the methylamine train without anyone knowing. He's unfortunately still under Walt's thumb most of the time, to the point where even when they become equal partners Walt remains the brains of the operation, keeping Jesse loyal through his manipulations. [[spoiler:This ends in "Confessions" for good, once Jesse realizes he poisoned Brock.]]
* DramaticIrony: He left the meth business earlier than Walt and aids in his temporary capture. [[spoiler:He technically ''becomes Heisenberg'' when he is the only person who can successfully cook Blue Sky, and he played a major role in the meth business after Walt was outed as Heisenberg.]]
* TheDreaded: Double Subverted. When Spooge gets his head crushed by an ATM machine, everyone in the local area becomes scared of Jesse when a rumor spreads that he did it. After people figure it wasn't him, this is no longer the case. [[spoiler: However, in El Camino, Jesse successfully threatens three criminals into silence and has become one of the most wanted criminals in America.]]
* DrivenToVillainy: He was a low-level street dealer at first, but he was only involved with Walt because Walt blackmailed him into working together.
* DumbassNoMore: At the beginning of the series, Jesse comes across as a man who is both poorly educated and prone to making really bad decisions, with Walt often considering him TheLoad. By the time of Season 5A, he's evolved enough that he operates as an equal partner to both Walt and Mike, offering two different clever plans that (at least on paper) provided solutions to pressing problems they were facing.
* DumbMuscle: Often fulfills this role for Walt at the start of the series. He's far from a good fighter, but he's the more experienced of the two and is still in decent shape. As Walt gains access to better criminal muscle and Jesse gets better at cooking, he's promoted to being Walt's assistant instead.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:After all the crap he goes through, the series ends with him finally free from the meth business. WordOfGod states that after he left the compound, he managed to escape to Alaska, get clean, and open a wood shop. ''El Camino'' depicts his journey in getting there.]]
* EnemyMine: With [[spoiler:Hank]] as of "Rabid Dog". The two clearly struggle to get along, but their mutual hatred of [[spoiler:Walter White]] manages to keep them working together.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: {{Invoked|trope}}, although "evil" is a bit of a stretch. Jesse refuses to kill his longtime friend Badger who got caught selling his meth. Even though killing him would be the simplest solution, which Saul points out at first out of confusion, Jesse clearly protests and instead has him and Walt pays Saul to set up an expensive scheme to get Badger out of prison.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: At least compared to Walt, Jesse has a far stronger moral compass. He has a [[NeverHurtAnInnocent strong distaste for attacking regular law-abiding people]] and feels [[WouldntHurtAChild especially protective towards young children]].
** While Jesse has sold meth to plenty of people without much thought, he is appalled when he realizes that children may be negatively impacted by it. He's disturbed when he sees how much Spooge and his wife neglect their little boy, and he refuses to sell meth to Andrea after finding out that she too has a young son.
** While Jesse ends up doing it anyway, it's made very clear that [[spoiler:he ''really did not'' want to murder [[NiceGuy Gale]], who had been nothing but cheerful and friendly towards him. Jesse visibly hesitated with anxious shaking and shed some tears even before he pulled the trigger, and was [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone overwhelmed with intense remorse after doing the deed]].]]
** [[spoiler:After Todd murders a teenage boy in Season 5, Jesse decides that he can't live with all the bodies he and Walt have left in their wake and desperately wants out of the business, eventually deciding that he doesn't even care if Walt gives him his fair share of the money.]]
* EveryoneHasStandards: Although Jesse is established as being BookDumb, even he is disappointed to see that Skinny Pete can't spell 'street' correctly.
* {{Expy}}: Much of his character could be described as a GoodCounterpart, {{Foil}} and {{Deconstruction}} of [[Characters/TheSopranosChristopherMoltisanti Chris Moltisanti]] from ''Series/TheSopranos''. Like Chris, Jesse is a novice criminal and {{hedonist}} venturing into the world of organized crime with a mentor and father figure by his side who commonly causes him trouble (Walt for Jesse; Tony for Chris), only to ultimately see their lives considerably deteriorate, with those same mentors pushing them towards further self-destruction. However, unlike Chris, who became an incredibly pathetic and egocentric scumbag who couldn't care less about anything he does, Jesse underwent much more CharacterDevelopment and never lost his humanity. Eventually, Jesse found a [[EarnYourHappyEnding happy ending]]; unlike Chris, who eventually [[spoiler:dies murdered by his own mentor]] and, as revealed in ''Film/TheManySaintsOfNewark'', [[spoiler:ended up in hell]].
* ExtremeDoormat:
** Despite the machismo Jesse attempts to project, this is ultimately his dynamic with Walt. Despite his life spiraling out of control throughout the series (manily due to Walt's actions), Jesse always finds a way to justify working under Walt, if only because he DesperatelyCravesAffection and Walt, no matter how callous he is, gives him just enough of it to get hooked. Mike eventually tells Jesse that, should he stick around, Walt will eventually drag the two of them down.
** Taken to an extreme and disturbingly literal level when he was [[spoiler:imprisoned and enslaved by the Neo-Nazi gang. His prison was a cage underground covered by a taff. [[VisualPun They were literally walking all over him.]]]] Though, being imprisoned, he didn't have much choice.
* FaceRealization: It pretty much speaks for itself that Jesse isn't the "bad guy" he thought he was because he breaks down over killing Gale, yet he is still being emotionally exploited into doing it.
* FatalFlaw: His impulsiveness is the most prominent one earlier on, and it leads to a lot of trouble for Walt and him. Although Jesse is smart in a logistical sense he doesn't fully comprehend the possible consequences of ideas until they play out. As he gains emotional maturity this trait fades away but it never totally vanishes. In later seasons, that quality was downplayed and replaced with his desire for approval and his perpetual self-loathing, which Walt fully exploits.
** [[spoiler:His impulsiveness comes back with a vengeance in "Granite State" when he tries to escape from Todd and the Aryans despite knowing what the consequences might be for Andrea and Brock. Granted, his situation was pretty dire and probably was taking a toll on his ability to reason.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:At the end of "Ozymandias", he was sold into slavery by his former partner, with the knowledge that said partner let Jesse's girlfriend die, tortured and made to cook meth, with his current girlfriend and her son's lives hanging in the balance, depending on his cooperation, and his life may already be forfeit, even if he cooperates.]] In fact, Aaron Paul explicitly calls this trope name in the episode's behind-the-scenes interview.
* FinalGirl: Despite not being in a horror movie or a girl, with a critical lens, Jesse serves a very similar function as this character type by the end of the series. Let's look at the general parameters:
** SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler: He's the sole survivor of Walt's and Gus's drug empires (and Saul, but he's OutOfFocus in "Felina"). Like the Final Girl, he's the only one left who can tell the story of Heisenberg's rise and Hank's death.]]
** The most morally "pure" of the group: The trait that's most emphasized about him is that he's much more naïve and innocent than other characters in the meth business. Where Walt's character arc sees him SlowlySlippingIntoEvil and [[ItGetsEasier becoming increasingly desensitized and able to shrug off and accept the transgressions he commits]], Jesse's repeated attempts at suppressing the revulsion he feels by taking part in Walt's increasingly serious crimes [[ItNeverGetsAnyEasier never really sticks in the long term]].
** Confronts the monster at the end: In two ways - [[spoiler: first he strangles Todd, freeing himself from his horror, and then also confronts [[VillainProtagonist Walt]] by telling [[ArcVillain him]] he won't listen to his orders anymore.]]
** Usually a combination of TheHero, TheCutie, and the DamselInDistress? To a T.
** Becomes an ActionSurvivor, and is forever changed by the horror of the experience? Check.
** The masculine cannot suffer abject terror: Some feminist critics discuss why the FinalGirl even exists in the first place is that the largely male audience of slasher films would've rejected watching a male hero suffer "abject terror" and see it as emasculating. In many ways, Jesse serves a similar purpose as the traditional final girl in an updated version of this trope, being the youngest male main character and the least traditionally masculine. In his [[spoiler:captivity]], the show uses Jesse to explore [[spoiler:the horror that Walt wrought on others]], without having to emasculate one of the other more traditionally masculine male characters. Characters like Walt, Hank, or Mike being as emasculated as Jesse was during his [[spoiler:captivity]] would break the masculine convention they represent, and unlike Jesse, [[spoiler:all three of these characters meet their end through senseless gun violence]]. Additionally, [[spoiler:whereas Walt constantly reasserts his masculinity through violence, including the end of "Felina", Jesse is the DistressedDude that the audience can pity and empathize with, who Walt saves and protects, and who goes on to live, forever changed by experience]].
* {{Foil}}:
** To Walt. Their emotional arcs over the course of the series have run pretty much parallel, with Jesse starting out as a seemingly callous criminal to Walt's kindhearted milquetoast everyman. As Walt has sunk lower and lower into moral decay, Jesse has become more and more troubled by his criminal dealings and how they can affect those around him. Examine how Jesse [[spoiler: breaks things off with Andrea instead of letting her know more about what he does for a living to protect her, right around the time Skyler becomes basically Walt's prisoner and the subject of many a KickTheDog moment because he refuses to believe he is a danger to her or the kids.]]
** In the last season of the show, they introduce Todd, who can basically be seen as the "Anti-Jesse." Whereas Jesse first looks like a hardened, back-stabbing thug, it's revealed slowly he has a soft heart and isn't as bad as anyone thought he was (including himself). Todd at first glance is a perfectly normal, boring guy [[spoiler:but is quickly revealed to be a sociopath who in spite of his friendly, casual demeanor sees nothing wrong with murdering the people around him. Jesse gets really angry over kids being hurt or killed, but Todd's EstablishingCharacterMoment was when he casually shot a little boy in the chest.]]
** His ultimate fate is contrasted with Saul's [[spoiler:as the last survivors of Heisenberg's criminal empire.]] [[spoiler:Both of them were forced to leave their old lives in New Mexico behind and assume new identities (Jesse as Mr. Driscoll, Saul as Gene Taković), but whereas Jesse is hopeful and finally free to pursue the life he so desperately craved, Saul was stuck in a boring and repetitive loop of existence that ground him down, was finally caught, and then confessed all of his crimes and got what was effectively a life sentence in federal prison.]]
* FriendToAllChildren: Jesse adores children, and harming one is a very good way to send him into a [[UnstoppableRage murderous rage]].
* ForcedToWatch: [[spoiler:While tied up in a car by Jack's men, he watches Todd murder Andrea on her doorstep.]]
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: In ''Film/ElCamino'', he [[spoiler:admits that, despite his contentious relationship with his parents, his crimes are ultimately no one's fault but his own.]]
* FunctionalAddict: Complete with a downward spiral into heroin addiction, rehab, and then later getting back on the meth. He stops using again once he starts working with Mike, in part because Gus wants him to stay clean. [[spoiler:However, he does snort meth in order to psyche himself up into trying to burn down Walt's house.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G-R]]
* GainingTheWillToKill: Jesse learns firsthand how difficult it is to plan and execute a murder. He becomes very reckless in attempting to kill the two drug dealers who murdered Tomas at the expense of the partnership with Gus and his own safety. Once he has to shoot Gale, for his and Walt's benefit, he has an emotional breakdown and spends much of the next season in a HeroicBSOD.
* GettingHighOnTheirOwnSupply: Starting off, Jesse is shown to be just as fond of smoking meth as he is of making money off of it. He eventually stops and gets himself clean around the end of Season 2 and the beginning of Season 3 [[spoiler:after Jane's overdose on heroin]].
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: [[spoiler:Jesse completely loses his shit when he realizes Walt really did poison Brock, beating a confession out of Saul and coming within a hair's-breadth of burning Walter's house to the ground.]]
* GoneHorriblyRight: As Walt soon recognizes, he taught Jesse so well that he can replace Walt. Considering that Jesse is [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe astonishingly]] a more reliable worker for Gus (as he sobers up and is utterly loyal to Gus and Mike) Walt has trained his replacement.
* {{Greed}}: Usually averted, but played straight in one instance, where he attempted to sell meth to recovering addicts with Badger and Skinny Pete because he felt like he wasn't making enough money, even though he was a millionaire.
* GuiltComplex: Granted, a good amount of things are his fault, but Jesse has a self-destructive tendency to blame himself for practically everything, even if he isn't the one who deserves the majority of the blame. This tendency manifests itself in a big way on three separate occasions: He believes that Jane's death, along with the Wayfarer plane crash, is entirely his fault, and doesn't quite get over his guilt until meeting Brock. Later on, [[spoiler:he breaks down in tears and berates himself over the fact that he nearly killed Walt after correctly suspecting him of poisoning Brock.]] And finally [[spoiler:his reaction to the deaths of Drew Sharp and Mike is so extreme that he makes a naive attempt at giving away his money in order to gain a sense of absolution.]]
** In a series littered with people willing to pull NeverMyFault, Jesse's default is "Always[=/=]Likely My Fault" which is a notable inversion. However, if he can find instances where it wasn't his fault and can clearly see where else the fault lies... cue RoaringRampageOfRevenge as he turns that churning, well-oiled guilt complex into explosive anger instead.
* TheHeart: Becomes this in [[spoiler:Season 5's Walt/Mike/Jesse partnership]]. He's there to keep both of them together and in check, making sure they don't do anything unnecessarily drastic and is the most morally conscious of the three at this point. Driven home in the episode "Say My Name". The one time [[spoiler:Mike]] has a disagreement with Walt when Jesse isn't present ends with [[spoiler:Walt shooting Mike fatally.]]
* HeelFaceTurn: His redemption over the course of the series is a direct contrast to Walt's gradual turn to the dark side.
* HeelRealization: He has this in the season 3 premiere. While it fades by the end of the season, it comes back in full force [[spoiler:in season 5's "Say My Name".]]
-->'''Jesse:''' I'm the bad guy.
* HeroicBSOD: Poor Jesse. He's hit more than a few low points in his life:
** He can barely talk in "ABQ" after waking up next to Jane's dead body.
** In the season 4 premiere, he has one after killing Gale; he's so shocked at what he's done that he can't even seem to drive away from the apartment complex. Afterward, he sits in stunned silence for most of the episode. This particular BSOD is so bad that Jesse essentially stops caring about what happens to himself, and Gus has to employ him in order to snap him out of it.
** [[spoiler:The opening of "Buried". After tossing money that he and Walt earned cooking meth to a poor neighborhood, Jesse crashes into a swingset, gets out of the car, and just rests on the merry-go-round. He doesn't say a word for the entire episode.]]
** In "Felina", Jesse's practically a walking BSOD until [[spoiler:Walt]] shows up.
* HiddenDepths: Is surprisingly kindhearted and smarter than most people give him credit for. He sounds like an idiot when he talks, but that's just vocabulary.
* HonorBeforeReason:
** A recurring problem, especially in later episodes, is that Jesse attempts to do the right thing without fully thinking it through. [[spoiler:In "Blood Money", for example, he plans to leave half his five million to Mike's granddaughter, but Saul points out that with Mike being investigated, that much money would raise suspicion no matter how he tries to get it to her, and if Jesse just leaves a sack of millions on a doorstep, it will be even more suspicious.]]
** Jesse also personally puts a high value on personal honor and assumes others do as well. He repeatedly seals verbal agreements with "[[ArcWords Your word is your bond?]]" and during ''El Camino'' [[NoHonorAmongThieves asks Neil for $1,800, out of a million dollars,]] "as a favor." Neil instead [[ComicallySmallDemand challenges him to a duel to the death over it.]]
* HopeSpot:
** In "Confessions", [[spoiler:it looks like he's finally going to get a new life with a whole new identity... then he realizes that Walt was the one who poisoned Brock.]]
** In "To'hajiilee", [[spoiler:Jesse becomes increasingly elated when it seems Walt is about to be arrested and his ordeal is about to end.]] By the end of the next episode, "Ozymandias", [[spoiler:Jesse is betrayed to Jack's crew by Walt, is told point blank by Walt about how he let Jane die, is chucked into a pit and tortured by Todd, and is MadeASlave in a superlab that looks like it came out of an Creator/EliRoth movie.]]
* IAmAMonster: After coming out of rehabilitation, he accepts his role of a bad guy as a way to cope up with the death of Jane.
-->'''Jesse''': You either run from things, or you face them, Mr. White.\\
'''Walter''': Well, what exactly does that mean?\\
'''Jesse''': I learned it in rehab. Its all about accepting who you really are. I accept who I am.\\
'''Walter''': Well, who are you?\\
'''Jesse''': I'm the bad guy.
* IdiotBall: While Jesse demonstrates enough competence and has some genuinely good plans to avoid being TheLoad, he is prone to making foolish, often hasty decisions, that have disastrous consequences. These include not listening to Walt about how to dispose of Emilio's body, stranding the RV in the desert by leaving the keys in the ignition, and protesting Gus' other dealers using kids to conduct business, almost causing his own death, then Walt's, with the fallout. [[spoiler:In Season 5, his taunting phone call to Walt pushes Walt to finally order Jack to kill Jesse.]]
* IgnoredEpiphany: A few times Jesse recognizes just how dangerous and bloodthirsty Walt is (sometimes more than Walt himself realizes). Unfortunately, Jesse decides to still associate with Walt in spite of this.
* TheIgor: Lab assistant, general errand-runner... and, ButtMonkey. Yup: he's an Igor without a hunchback. [[TheMovieBuff Saul]] outright nicknames him Igor in a flashback scene in ''Series/BetterCallSaul''.
* IHaveNoSon:
** His parents all but disowned him after he gets into drugs, evicting him from his aunt's house in Season 2.
** [[spoiler:Walt's icily cruel rejection/condemnation of him in "Ozymandias"]] definitely has shades of this trope. It's mutual.
* ILetGwenStacyDie: How he feels about Jane's death. It takes him the better part of season 3 to get over his guilt.
* ImagineSpot: A heart-wrenching one near the end of season 5:[[spoiler: Jesse imagined making and polishing a wooden box while being chained to a dog run and forced to cook Blue Sky. As making the box was his most precious memory in ''primary school'', this showed how much he had regressed mentally and also provided a cruel YankTheDogChain when he was literally yanked back to reality.]]
* ImportantHaircut: Crops his hair early on during season 4 after killing Gale. He sticks to this haircut even after his months-long enslavement by the Neo-Nazis made his hair grow out.
* InformedAttribute: Described as 180cm in "Crawl Space." Aaron Paul is around 172cm.
* InnocentBlueEyes: Jesse would definitely qualify as this, with his large, expressive, and puppy-like blue eyes. Given his woobie characteristics, they're often front and center too.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Obviously he and Walt. Develops a bit of one with Mike in season 4, after Gus partners them up. Possibly him and Brock, too.
* IOweYouMyLife: Got his life saved at least a few times by Walt, who doesn't hesitate to use that fact to blackmail Jesse emotionally.
* IShallTauntYou: [[spoiler:To Walt in "To'hajiilee" in order to uncover the location of his money.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Loud, abrasive, obnoxious at times, a drug dealer and also one of the most loyal and warm-hearted people in the series, although it takes time to be shown.
* KarmaHoudini:
** Downplayed: [[spoiler: On one hand, he gets off lightly compared to the rest of Walt's partners (and rivals too, for that matter), keeping his life and his freedom and getting away with a good $200,000 to start over in Alaska. On the other hand, he still suffers from trauma over the things he went through both as Walt's accomplice and as a slave to Jack's gang, and he can no longer have any contact with his family or his old friends.]]
** Despite tax evasion being a major plot point in the show for Ted Beneke and Walt's family, not once does Jesse ever face any problem from the IRS, not even after buying a $400,000 house from his parents without any official source of income. Saul even tries to get him to start laundering his money, but Jesse just walks out on him and the whole thing is never mentioned again.
* KickTheDog: Not as frequently as Walt does, but he does more than his fair share of morally reprehensible things over the show's five seasons, the most notable being his attempt to peddle meth to a support group of recovering addicts. Granted, he doesn't get far in his attempt before he gives up on it, but the fact that he even attempted it qualifies as nothing less than this.
** The first canonical instance of this is after Walt gave him his entire life savings to buy an R.V. in the pilot, he nearly blew it all off that night by going to the strip club with his friends, even bragging about it. He was only able to get one after giving the rest to Combo and having him steal his mom's.
** Jesse is generally nice to children. However, after being kicked out of the house due to his brother's action, Jesse mockingly destroys his weed in front of him. [[SubvertedTrope That being said]], he did this so his brother wouldn't go down the same path as him.
** Instead of cutting his loss and selling inferior meth to recoup Badger's investment, Jesse condescendingly insists on selling only high-quality products. This leads to Badger attacking him in a fit of rage and him abandoning his friend in the middle of nowhere.
* LargeHam: If his catchphrase is anything to go by, "BITCH!". Jesse is very dramatic in general.
* LastNameBasis: Even though they go through a lot together, Jesse still calls Walt "Mr. White", as if Walt was still his teacher. [[spoiler:[[UnstoppableRage Until he discovers his role in poisoning Brock, anyway.]]]]
* LethallyStupid: For all his clever ideas, he also has big moments of this, ''in spades''. Gosh, what a brilliant idea to dispose of bodies with hydrofluoric acid in a cast iron bathtub... and extinguish a burning generator with the last supplies of potable water!
* LikesOlderWomen: One of his interests is "milfs", and Vince confirmed himself that Jesse was trying to flirt with Kim in "Waterworks".
* LoveInterests: Jane and Andrea (after the former's death.)
* MadeASlave: [[spoiler:Jesse is taken by Jack's crew to cook meth for their operation because of Todd after Hank is killed.]]
* ManChild: Jesse is a twenty-something [[LazyBum slacker]] who still acts like a stereotypical [[{{Delinquent}} teenage rebel]]; what with his irreverent attitude, [[BookDumb poor history of educational performance]], [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy fondness for hip-hop culture]], and the fact that he chooses to both sell and use drugs all day long (instead of getting a real job); all despite his background as being part of a suburban white upper-middle-class family. Jesse's immaturity was especially apparent early on in the show, though he matures significantly over the course of the series, ironically because he's forced to [[BeingEvilSucks realize what becoming a criminal thug has done to his life]]. At any rate, despite being the younger one and less intelligent of the two, Jesse eventually ends up acting ''less'' immature than [[PsychopathicManchild Walt]] does.
* TheMillstone: He was often this in the first three seasons, but he grows out of it in seasons 4 and 5.
** He ignored Walt's advice about buying a plastic tub to dissolve Emilio's body in.
** When trying to kill Tuco with the poisoned meth, he advertises it as having chili powder. Tuco hates chili powder, and because of Jesse, doesn't take the meth.
** He leaves the keys in the ignition in [[Recap/BreakingBadS2E9FourDaysOut 4 Days Out]] and unknowingly leads Hank to the RV in [[Recap/BreakingBadS3E6Sunset Sunset.]]
* MinionWithAnFInEvil: To Walt's VillainProtagonist. He's far less ruthless than him, and he has far more of a conscience and empathy for other people. He's shown many times to be too soft and innocent for the criminal world.
* MirthlessLaughter: [[spoiler:Starts laughing hysterically and joyously out of relief, while also crying tears of joy, as he drives away at top speed out of the Neo-Nazi compound after Walt kills them all.]]
* MoralityPet: To Walt. For all the abuse and belittlement that Walt directs at Jesse, he does truly care for him, as evidenced by the fact that Walt has saved Jesse's life on multiple occasions, sometimes against his own best interests. [[spoiler:It gets to the point that he refuses to even consider killing him until Pinkman outright declares himself to be his enemy.]]
* MrFanservice: It's pretty undeniable, actually. This is especially telling since AMC and Vince himself were, at first, reluctant to hire Aaron Paul for the part since they found him too attractive. He uses this to his advantage when getting out of paying for gas in season three, exchanging meth with the help of his pretty face.
* MustMakeAmends: In "Blood Money", he tries to give his money to the parents of Drew Sharp, [[spoiler:the boy Todd killed, and to Mike's granddaughter]]. His attempts get shot down.
* NeverHurtAnInnocent: Jesse is all about this trope more so than any other criminal character is concerned. [[spoiler:He decides to quit the meth business when a random boy named Drew Sharp is murdered by Todd during an operation for having seen too much, having had enough of the bloodshed.]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:He goes against Hank's plan to meet Walt whilst wearing a wire and under DEA surveillance and instead opts to lure Walt by tricking him into believing that he found the money and is burning it. While Jesse's plan indeed works, it gives Walt enough time to call the Aryans to arrive and "save" the day -- this ends up with Hank and Gomez dead, and Jesse as a prisoner.]]
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: To [[spoiler:Saul]] in "Confessions", once he [[spoiler:finds out that Walt poisoned Brock]] and that [[spoiler:Saul and Huell were complicit in the plot]].
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished:[[spoiler:During the first half of Season 5, Jesse is the only person to stick up for Lydia Rodarte-Quayle when both Mike and Heisenberg are insistent (or at least ambivalent) on killing her to prevent her paranoia from screwing up their operations. In return, Lydia goes on to work with the Aryan Brotherhood, and ultimately allows Jesse to be made their prisoner so that he can continue cooking Blue Sky meth for her.]]
* OddFriendship: With Mike. Especially since Mike was the one pushing Walter to kill him in "Half Measures".
* PaperTiger: Jesse talks a tough game, but he's really quite a pushover, being knocked over like a bowling pin in practically any physical encounter and easily verbally cowed by anyone willing to assert themselves over him. At least at first.
* ParentalSubstitute: To Brock. Even after he [[spoiler:breaks things off with Andrea, he still provides for them financially.]]
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Justified when he [[spoiler:strangles Todd after the gunfire from Walt's M60 stops.]]
* PermaStubble: From season 4 onward. By Season 5B, it's grown into [[BeardOfSorrow a full beard.]]
* PetTheDog:
** His soft spot for children is shown early on when he takes the heat after his parents find a joint that belonged to his kid brother. He then gets rid of the brother's joint, encouraging him not to follow in his footsteps.
** In "4 Days Out" Jesse tries to comfort Walter (who is having a rare moment of self reflection and regret) by assuring him that everything he did was for his family and promises at the end of the episode to make sure Walter's family get his share.
* PlotDevice: He has shades of being one during the early seasons when his oftentimes moronic actions get him and Walter into completely unnecessary trouble, thus creating drama that keeps the plot going. Walt most definitely was in over his head at least as much as Jesse was when they started out together, but most of Walt's plans would've gone much smoother, possibly to the point of removing all suspense, if Jesse hadn't been around to screw it up one way or another.
* PluckyComicRelief: He provides a good deal of comic relief early on... [[FromBadToWorse it]] [[TraumaCongaLine doesn't]] [[HeroicBSOD last]].
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: In an early scene, he jokes about Walt dressing up like a "faggot." Granted, [[DeliberateValuesDissonance he was a delinquent teenager from 2008 at the time.]]
* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: Most prevalent during the first two seasons, after that point his vernacular becomes more erudite, though he still makes liberal use of "yo" and "bitch".
* ProneToTears: Jesse is very emotional and spends a lot of time on screen crying, and is cruelly mocked by the Neo-Nazis for crying in his taped DEA interview. The effect of this is to humanize him, especially as it stands him in stark contrast with the unemotional and sociopathic Walter White.
* ARealManIsAKiller: A SubvertedTrope. There are plenty of people that Jesse wants to kill throughout the first three seasons, and his reasons are at least noble in a macho, street honor sense. Nevertheless, he doesn't actually get to end life until the very end of Season 3, when he kills Gale. Jesse does not issue a PreMortemOneLiner and obviously doesn't want to pull the trigger, weeping uncontrollably right before he does. Not to mention that the event appears to completely shatter him, and for the entire episode afterward, [[HeroicBSOD Jesse barely speaks because he's still in shock.]]
* RealMenWearPink: One wouldn't describe Jesse as being particularly feminine, but underneath his loud and tough exterior lie his two biggest passions: caring, familial relationships... and arts-and-crafts. Neither of which are typically considered "manly". In his childhood room, he has lots of failed homework assignments ''covered'' in amazing drawings and doodles. Incidentally, he is also considered decidedly the unfavorite of the family; meanwhile, to throw this into relief, his younger brother is beloved by their parents for his interests in sports and academia. In Granite State, the neo-Nazis laugh and mock him for crying while recounting all the horrible things he's witnessed. Both of Jesse's love interests in the show allowed him to channel his artistic or domestic side, which Walt repeatedly tries to stamp out to prevent him from wanting to leave the drug life.
* RedemptionEarnsLife: [[spoiler:He has his HeelRealization earlier than Walter, and has since wanted to get out of the meth business. He's the one who makes it out alive at the end of the series.]]
* RedOniBlueOni: He can be either depending on the relationship, as he acts as the blue to Badger and Skinny Pete's red and the red to Walt's blue.
* RevengeBeforeReason: When involving children.
** When he [[spoiler: finds out Gus' henchmen forced Tomas to kill Combo and then killed Tomas himself, he disobeys Gus and Walt's warnings and almost gets himself killed trying to take them both down]].
** After he [[spoiler: learns Walt poisoned Brock, he abandons skipping town for a safer life and tries to burn Walt's house down. Later his insistence to ''directly'' hurt Walt results in him being captured, Walt telling him he let Jane die so that she couldn't hurt his operations, and being ForcedToWatch Todd kill Andrea]].
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler:After he realizes that Walt actually did poison Brock, he completely loses it.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:S-Y]]
* SadClown: Becomes especially apparent in later seasons as he endures more and more trauma, making his jokiness feel forced and out of character to signify his deteriorating mental health.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: [[spoiler:He decides to leave the meth business despite Walter persistently trying to persuade him otherwise and refusing to give him his share of the money nearing 5 million dollars. Later, after Walter gave Jesse his money, Jesse decides he doesn't want his "blood money". He first tries to have it sent to Mike's granddaughter and Drew Sharp's parents, but Saul tells him that the DEA would most likely intercept it, so Jesse starts driving down a poor neighborhood and tossing his money away.]]
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Sensitive Guy to Walt's Manly Man. While Jesse isn't effeminate, he possesses significantly more compassion and empathy than the cold and calculating Walt and has no problem showing his emotions and crying openly.
* SirSwearsALot: All together now: [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch Bitch]]!
* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:After Walt's death, he becomes the only living person who knows how to cook blue meth, and one of the 2 survivors of Gus' empire, the other being Dr. Barry Goodman.]]
* SophisticatedAsHell:
** "It's messed up, yo. It's Kafkaesque."
** "This is my own private domicile and I will not be harassed ... [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch]]!"
* SpitefulSpit: He gives a big one to Walt's face while Walt is [[spoiler:being arrested by Hank and was just accused of being a coward. Walt pays him back, in a much worse way.]]
* SpottingTheThread: Jesse might often ''want'' to blot the world out, but that doesn't mean he completely manages to. As he deliberately points out to Mike, once.
-->'''Jesse:''' You ain't gonna smoke that dude in there. You know how I know? 'cause you went to the trouble of putting a blindfold on him.
* StarterVillainStays: A variation. [[VillainProtagonist Rather than be portrayed]] as an antagonist, Jesse is the first villain Walter meets where the latter is introduced into the meth business.
* StupidCrooks: He fell into this mindset during early seasons. He has his street alias plastered all over his website ''and'' on his car's license plate to the point that one could wonder how the DEA could possibly mistake Emilio for "Cap'n Cook". He also blows most of the money Walt gave him to buy an RV on an expensive night at the strip club even after Walt threatened to turn him in, dissolves Emilio's body in a bath tub (along with the bath tub itself), drives a rolling meth lab into an airport, steals meth from Gus, a man who could kill him if he finds out, to sell on his own (and does a terrible job of hiding it, too), and refuses to launder his money under the reasoning that "criminals don't pay taxes". By season 4, he's grown out of this, and even shows that he knows Walt well enough now that he can expertly fool him.
* SurroundedByIdiots: Jesse's friends are dumb. ''Really'' dumb. Much of it seems to stem from their constant drug abuse, but that doesn't change the fact he has to explain even the simplest things to them, and even then they have a tendency to screw up big-time. That Jesse himself isn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier when it comes to making useful plans doesn't exactly help.
* SympatheticMurderer: His TearsOfRemorse and HeroicBSOD afterward make him just as tragic and sympathetic as Gale.
* TearsOfJoy: [[spoiler:Sheds them once he finally escapes Jack's white supremacist gang's compound, and by extension, the meth business itself.]]
* TenderTears: Jesse probably cries more than any character in the series. Most of the time it's after a traumatic event, or out of self-loathing.
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: After he kills Gale, he spends his time alone in his car.
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: As [[WebVideo/HonestTrailers a Juggalo without the makeup who prefers the formal term for female dog]], Jesse likes to add "bitch" to the end of every insult.
-->'''Jesse:''' This is my own private domicile and I will not be harassed... bitch!
* TookALevelInBadass:
** Played straight and subverted. He started as a common, immature street thug. Now he's a top-notch meth cook, who's killed two people. Neither of these things brings him anything but misery.
** Played straight in that he seems to have become a lot smarter since the start of the show. During the earlier seasons, his impulsiveness made him a liability to Walt. By Season 5, however, he's become a vital part of Walt's operation, and [[spoiler:even comes up with plans on how to cover their tracks and to steal methylamine. Later, he comes up with a plan to help Hank arrest Walt by finding his money.]]
** He's also more confident in confrontations with nastier criminals as ''El Camino'' demonstrates in the showdown with Neil.
* ToxicFriendInfluence:
** Skyler initially confuses him as being an influence for Walter, with quite some cause. And, ordinarily, you'd agree that an impulsive drug dealer who constantly needs his bacon saved by "more reasonable" adults would count in most people's books. But it's [[PlayingWithATrope not that simple]]: predominantly, it's the other way around. Jesse may enable Walt, but Walt outright manipulates and uses him and his relationships with others in return. Repeatedly.
** It's played rather straighter (if unintentionally) with others, like Jane: he did influence her rather... negatively during one of his downward spirals and got her off the wagon she'd been successfully on (although Walt's insistence on expanding to foreign territory lead Jesse into depression, and by extension, drug use). Badger and Skinny Pete also found bumps put in their paths thanks to the same basic issue. Jesse doesn't go out to be a negative influence on others. It just kind of happens, thanks to his problems, lapses of concentration, and inability to fully think things through biting him and those around him in every way imaginable.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Funyuns. He's usually got some in the RV to eat after cooking. Walt comments on his reliance on junk food.
-->'''Walt:''' "How are you alive?.."
* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: While the prospect of being enslaved by wacky Nazis would make anyone go crazy, Todd made it very clear to Jesse they had Andrea and Brock's lives as leverage for his compliance. Jesse does not [[TooDumbToLive wholly]] consider what would happen if an escape attempt went wrong and pays for it with their lives.
* TragicVillain: He's been forced to do things that have convinced him he'll never be able to leave the drug trade. Made worse by the fact that Walt blackmailed him into the heavier stuff.
* TraumaCongaLine: Hoo Boy. Practically every character goes through their fair share of trauma, but since Jesse partnered up with Walt, his life seems to have been one misfortune after the other. Let's recap, shall we?
##Gets kidnapped, and held at gunpoint by Emilio and Krazy-8, and also sustains a pretty serious black eye in the process, courtesy of Emilio.
##After attempting to negotiate a deal with Tuco, at the behest of Walt, he's beaten severely.
##Not much later, Tuco kidnaps him and Walt and makes them sit in the trunk of a small car for at least a few hours. Then he beats up Jesse again and very nearly shoots him in the head.
##After Tuco is killed by Hank, the D.E.A seizes Jesse's money.
##His family essentially disowns him and cuts off all communication with him. They also kick him out of his house after discovering a meth lab in the basement, leaving him temporarily homeless.
##He's later left at the mercy of two drug addicts after he attempted to reclaim the money that was stolen from his friend and distributor. During this time, he witnesses Spooge's wife crush her husband's head with an ATM. That had given him nightmares for a while.
##Enters a hard drug bender after his friend Combo is killed. This leads Jesse to eventually become a heroin addict, and he ends up getting Jane to relapse as well.
##Falls into a state of total despair after Jane dies.
##Is screwed over by Walt when the latter steals his position as Gus' presumptive cook, simply because Walt's ego didn't like the fact that Jesse was able to reproduce his formula.
##When Walt and Jesse have Saul's secretary make a phone call to distract Hank while they get rid of the RV, Hank is so enraged that he beats Jesse senseless.
##Learns that his new girlfriend, Andrea, has a very young brother, Tomas, who killed Combo on orders, and concocts a scheme to kill the masterminds behind the shooting, only to have Tomas get killed.
##Goes through a period of completely shutting down after killing Gale, that he only gets out of once Gus starts trying to groom him into Walt's replacement. During this period, he also has a fairly major falling out with Walt.
##His girlfriend's son, Brock is poisoned, leading him to correctly suspect Walt of the crime, and comes incredibly close to killing him. After the fact, he feels completely torn up by guilt over doing so (since Walt tricked him into thinking his suspicions were wrong).
##Is forced to break up with his girlfriend, because he feels that he's a danger to her.
##Sees Drew Sharp get [[spoiler:killed by Todd.]]
##Gets shot down by Saul and Walt when he tries to [[spoiler:make amends to Drew Sharp's parents and Kaylee Ehrmentraut because it would raise more questions than help them]].
##Just when he's about to [[spoiler:assume a new identity and start a new life, he finds out that it was Walt who poisoned Brock]].
##Right before [[spoiler:Jack's crew take him away, Walter delivers one final KickTheDog by telling him that he saw and let Jane die.]]
##[[spoiler:Kidnapped, tortured, and imprisoned by Todd so he can teach him to cook Walt's formula and tell him everything he told Hank]], and it's probable that [[spoiler:they'll shoot him after he's no longer needed. There's also the implicit threat that Andrea and Brock will be shot if he tries to resist]].
##[[spoiler:After his attempted escape from captivity fails, he is tied up and forced to watch as Andrea is shot. And Jack reminds him that they will shoot Brock if he escapes or disobeys the gang again.]]
##And as a result [[spoiler:he proceeds to spend the next 5 months or so as their meth cooking slave with his hair grown out and his spirit, once again, broken]].
* TroubledButCute: He's had his fair share of problems and is rather attractive; he makes at least two girlfriends during the show who seem to have this opinion of him.
* UndiscriminatingAddict: Over the course of the series, he dips into his own meth supply, heroin speedball, [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking and marijuana]], it's heavily implied he did cocaine during the HookersAndBlow parties, and one of the mini-episodes states he did whippets in the past. This is in contrast to Walt, who never gets more extreme than alcohol and a one-time taste of marijuana.
* UndyingLoyalty: Deconstructed and [[spoiler:subverted by the end]]. Walt vouches for Jesse that he has this early in the show. Mike even lampshades this when he describes this as Jesse's best quality. As the series continues, Jesse's relationship with Walt evolves from a strained -- having been forced to work with him -- to a trusting one, believing they have survived by having each other's safety in mind while forming a cooperative business. In the 5th season, Jesse gives Walter a watch for his birthday and he shares personal feelings with him at that time. [[spoiler:By the end of the first half of Season 5, it's finally subverted when Jesse becomes terrified of him learning he killed 10 witnesses in prison and most certainly, Mike. And when he figures out that Walt poisoned Brock, [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge well... it's not pleasant, to say the least.]] Jesse is taken in by Hank to help arrest Walt, and Jesse cooperates fully. After Walt saves Jesse from Jack and hands him a gun, Jesse isn't willing to do what he desires anymore and leaves.]]
* TheUnfavorite: His drug abuse and failing grades in high school have greatly strained the relationship between himself and his parents. As a result, Jesse believes that they love his younger brother more than they love him.
* UnlockingTheTalent: In Season 4 Gus starts giving Jesse's more jobs and opportunity to prove himself, even staging some heroics to give Jesse self-esteem. While this was a ploy to spirit him away from Walt and bring Jesse to the Cartel it did help Jesse grow out of his self-loathing and immaturity to become a bright chemist and criminal. By Season 5 he is an equal to Walt and Mike and is the better mediator of the three.
* UnstoppableRage: [[spoiler:After he discovers Walt poisoned Brock, he goes on a rampage, assaulting Saul and trying to burn down Walt's house in a blind rage. He calms down after Hank reasons with him in the nick of time.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom:
** In Season 3, Jesse protests that some of Gus' dealers are using kids as fronts to conduct business safely, and demands that they stop. This begins a chain of events that directly and ultimately leads to [[spoiler:Walt and Gus turning on each other, Walt killing Gus, the destruction of Gus' drug empire, and the rise of Heisenberg's empire in the power vacuum]]. In ways he couldn't possibly have foreseen, Jesse's well-intentioned complaint about children being endangered causes the entire second half of the series.
** ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' reveals he's this to Saul thanks to the events of ''Film/ElCamino''. [[spoiler:Because Jesse successfully eluded the Feds and escaped to Alaska (with them mistakenly thinking he's in Mexico thanks to Skinny Pete's plan), Saul has become the Feds' number one target in their investigation into Heisenberg's empire as he's the only major figure who is still alive and unaccounted for, which ultimately led to his arrest.]]
* UnwittingPawn: As season 4 goes on, it's clear that Jesse's loyalty is the most important thing to earn for both Walt and Gus. Gus has Jesse accompany Mike on runs and sets up a BigDamnHeroes moment for Jesse in order to win his trust, the ultimate plan being for Jesse to help him take down the cartel and then take over the lab from Walt. Walt attempts to manipulate Jesse to murder Gus as Jesse gains more acceptance within Gus' organization. In the end, Walt is the one who is able to turn him against Gus by convincing him Gus poisoned Brock in an attempt to have Jesse murder Walter. When in fact Walter orchestrated everything in his plan to kill Gus. Jesse continued as an UnwittingPawn in the next season, [[spoiler:until he learns Walter actually poisoned Brock.]]
* VanityLicensePlate: [[AC:The Capn]]. Jesse, ironically, spends much of the series being driven around by others with a hangdog look on his face. [[spoiler:Until the end.]]
* VerbalTic: He tends to say "yo" and "bitch" a lot.
* [[VillainProtagonist Villain]] {{Deuteragonist}}: He is Walter White's right-hand man, even though he is far less ruthless than him.
* VocalEvolution: Despite taking place mere moments after the end of "Felina", Jesse's voice is noticeably much lower and huskier in ''Film/ElCamino'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul'', due to Creator/AaronPaul being well over a decade older than when he first played the part in ''Breaking Bad''. That said, the penultimate episode of BCS does have Jesse sound a bit closer to how he sounded in BB, though still with some noticeable huskiness.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Throughout the series, it's clear that Jesse desperately wants Walt's approval:
** Even after Walt's actions lead to Jesse getting hospitalized by Hank and even after Jesse emphatically tells Walt that his life has been ruined since partnering up with him, Walt is able to get Jesse to work with him again by simply complimenting his meth.
** It's so bad that Walt is able to play him like a fiddle with simple words of approval in season 5.
** Walt is able to win him over briefly yet again [[spoiler:after Mike's murder]] by giving him a CooldownHug... [[spoiler:but just for the brief period until he finally figures out exactly what happened to Brock, destroying whatever was left of their father-son relationship forever.]]
* WhyAreYouNotMySon: Downplayed in that Jesse is clearly a waster in a lot of areas in his life, and he's not Flynn's friend, but a few incidents make it clear that Walt prefers Jesse and is closer to him. Especially when Walt calls Flynn "Jesse" in [[Recap/BreakingBadS4E10Salud Salud]], breaking his heart.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Jesse has always had a general-purpose chip on his shoulder since the beginning of the show. So, it's no surprise that when he feels like it, he can pull this number, even if he doesn't have the grandest of worlds to destroy. It'd be a case of TheDogBitesBack, but... you really need to put him in the woobiest spot imaginable before he ''does'' attack. But, dear Lord... when he snaps, he snaps hard (and, a lot of it is inwards, just causing more pain to snap with, later)! And, it rarely bodes well for him or those around him, let alone the target of his rage. Anger him enough, and you can see his common sense and sense of self-preservation vacate the building as he goes berserker.
* WrongGenreSavvy: He incorrectly assumes [[TroubledAbuser Walt]] is a totally merciless kingpin who won't hesitate to kill him if he ever becomes a threat in Season 5, which causes him to blow Hank's wire plan after he psyches himself into thinking a random bystander is a hitman. {{Justified}} since Jesse has basically only ever seen Walt's condescending {{Jerkass}} side, at best, and by that point had ''numerous'' reasons to hate him regardless.
* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious:
** The first time Jesse calls Walt by his first name is in [[Recap/BreakingBadS2E5Breakage Breakage]] (till then he'd always been "Mr. White") when he's telling Walt that Walt needs him more than he needs Walt. It's a clear message that the balance of power has shifted in their relationship.
** He does it again [[spoiler:in [[Recap/BreakingBadS5E13Tohajiilee Tohajiilee]], showing that he has absolutely no respect for Walt anymore.]]
* YouKeepTellingYourselfThat: When Walt says that after Drew Sharp's death, "no one else gets hurt", Jesse correctly responds with, "you keep saying that and it's ''bullshit'' every time!".
* YouRemindMeOfX: In ''Series/BetterCallSaul'', he gets a downplayed version of this from both [[spoiler:Jimmy and Kim, as the former is made uneasy by Jesse/Walt's fighting, reminding him of his fights with Chuck, and Kim sees him as a sad kid on the same bad choice road she went on.]]
[[/folder]]
----
->''"Going where the universe takes you? Right on. I think it's a cool philosophy."''

* ActionSurvivor: Despite not exactly being an "InnocentBystander", Jesse, who is a small-time amateur crook (with emphasis on ''small-time'') at most, is very much out of his depth in many of the violent and downright insane situations that his involvement with Walt and his budding meth-empire constantly conspires to place him in. And though he somehow always manages to make it through whatever is thrown at him, it is pretty much only by the skin of his teeth, and as the series progresses, his traumas just keep piling up. [[spoiler:By the time of ''El Carmino'', Jesse has, amongst other things, experienced the death of two girlfriends, been forced to kill an innocent man, having to help cover up the murder of a child, having been on the receiving end of several severe beatings, and gone through six months of living hell as the slave of Jack's gang.]]

** A darker version occurs, in ''El Carmino'', [[spoiler:when Todd takes Jesse into the desert to help bury a body. Jesse gets his hand on a gun, and clearly has the advantage against Todd; he has every chance to swiftly kill him and steal his vehicle, and due to the fact that they are alone, it would take hours for any word to get back to Jack's gang, leaving him with plenty of time to escape. Todd, true to form, never really notices that Jesse is considering all these factors as he offers him some pizza and a beer for helping him out. But Jesse is so utterly mentally broken at that point (and worried about Brock), that the prospect of a simple reward of some decent food and drink is enough to get him to back down from killing the man who murdered his girlfriend]].

* EnemyMine: With [[spoiler:Hank]] as of ''Rabid Dog''. The two clearly struggle to get along, but their mutual hatred of [[spoiler:Walter White]] manages to keep them working together.

** While Jesse ends up doing it anyways, it's made very clear that [[spoiler:he ''really did not'' want to murder [[NiceGuy Gale]], who had been nothing but cheerful and friendly towards him. Jesse visibly hesitated with anxious shaking and shed some tears even before he pulled the trigger, and was [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone overwhelmed with intense remorse after doing the deed]].]]

* TheHeart: Becomes this in [[spoiler:Season 5's Walt/Mike/Jesse partnership]]. He's there to keep both of them together and in check, making sure they don't do anything unnecessarily drastic and is the most morally conscious of the three at this point. Driven home in the episode ''Say My Name''. The one time [[spoiler:Mike]] has a disagreement with Walt when Jesse isn't present ends with [[spoiler:Walt shooting Mike fatally.]]

** In ''Felina'', Jesse's practically a walking BSOD until [[spoiler:Walt]] shows up.

** A recurring problem, especially in later episodes, is that Jesse attempts to do the right thing without fully thinking it through. [[spoiler:In ''Blood Money'', for example, he plans to leave half his five million to Mike's granddaughter, but Saul points out that with Mike being investigated, that much money would raise suspicion no matter how he tries to get it to her, and if Jesse just leaves a sack of millions on a doorstep, it will be even more suspicious.]]

-->'''Jesse''': You either run from things, or you face them, Mr. White.''\\
'''Walter''': Well, what exactly does that mean?''\\
'''Jesse''': I learned it in rehab. Its all about accepting who you really are. I accept who I am.''\\
'''Walter''': Well, who are you?''\\
'''Jesse''': I'm the bad guy.''

** After he [[spoiler: learns Walt poisoned Brock, he abandons skipping town for a safer life and tries to burn Walt's house down. Later his insistence to ''directly'' hurt Walt results in him being captured, Walt told him he let Jane die so that she can't hurt his operations, and ForcedToWatch Todd to kill Andrea]].

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Loud, abrasive, obnoxious at times, and also one of the most loyal and warm-hearted people in the series, although it takes time to be shown.

** [[spoiler:His impulsiveness comes back with a vengeance in ''Granite State'' when he tries to escape from Todd and the Aryans despite knowing what the consequences might be for Andrea and Brock. Granted, his situation was pretty dire and probably was taking a toll on his ability to reason.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:As of ''Ozymandias,'' he was sold into slavery by his former partner, with the knowledge that said partner let Jesse's girlfriend die, tortured and made to cook meth, with his current girlfriend and her son's lives hanging in the balance, depending on his cooperation, and his life may already be forfeit, even if he cooperates.]] In fact, Aaron Paul explicitly calls this trope name behind the scenes of [[spoiler:"Ozymandias".]]
* FinalGirl: Despite not being in a horror movie or a girl, with a critical lens, Jesse serves a very similar function as the FinalGirl by the [[spoiler:end]]. Let's look at the general parameters:
** SoleSurvivor? [[spoiler: He's the sole survivor of Walt's and Gus's drug empires (and Saul, but he’s OutOfFocus in Felina). Like the Final Girl, he's the only one left who can tell the story of Heisenberg's rise and Hank's death.]]
** The most morally "pure" of the group? The trait that's most emphasized about him is that he's much more naïve and innocent than other characters in the meth business. Where Walt's character arc sees him SlowlySlippingIntoEvil and [[ItGetsEasier becoming increasingly desensitized and able to shrug off and accept the transgressions he commits]], Jesse's repeated attempts at suppressing the revulsion he feels by taking part in Walt's increasingly serious crimes [[ItNeverGetsAnyEasier never really sticks in the long term]].
** Confronts the monster at the end? [[spoiler:In two ways. Strangles Todd, freeing himself from his horror. But also confronts [[VillainProtagonist Walt]] telling [[ArcVillain him]] he won't listen to his orders anymore.]]

** The masculine cannot suffer abject terror: Some feminist critics discuss why the FinalGirl even exists in the first place is that the largely male audience of slasher films would've rejected watching a male hero suffer "abject terror," seeing it as emasculating. In many ways, Jesse serves a similar purpose as the traditional final girl in an updated version of this trope, being the youngest male MC and least traditionally masculine. In his [[spoiler:captivity]], the show uses Jesse to explore [[spoiler:the horror that Walt wrought on others]], without having to emasculate one of the other more traditionally male main characters. Characters like Walt, Hank or Mike being as emasculated as Jesse was during his [[spoiler:captivity]] would break the masculine convention they represent, and unlike Jesse, [[spoiler:all three of these characters meet their end through senseless gun violence]]. Additionally, [[spoiler:whereas Walt constantly reasserts his masculinity in through violence, including the end of ''Felina'', Jesse is the DistressedDude that the audience can pity and empathize with, who Walt saves and protects, and who goes on to live, forever changed by experience]].

* GettingHighOnTheirOwnSupply: Starting off, Jesse is shown is just as fond of smoking meth as he is of making money off of it. He eventually stops and gets himself clean around the end of Season 2 and the beginning of Season 3 [[spoiler:after Jane's overdose on heroin]].

-->'''Jesse Pinkman''': You either run from things, or you face them, Mr. White.''\\
'''Walter White''': Well, what exactly does that mean?''\\
'''Jesse Pinkman''': I learned it in rehab. Its all about accepting who you really are. I accept who I am.''\\
'''Walter White''': Well, who are you?''\\
'''Jesse Pinkman''': I'm the bad guy.''

* VocalEvolution: Despite taking place mere moments after the end of "Felina", Jesse's voice is noticably much lower and huskier in ''Film/ElCamino'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul'', due to Creator/AaronPaul being well over a decade older than when he first played the part in ''Breaking Bad''. That said, the penultimate episode of BCS does have Jesse sound a bit closer to how he sounded in BB, though still with some noticable huskiness.

* TooDumbToLive: For all his clever ideas, he also has big moments of this, ''in spades''. Gosh, what a brilliant idea to dispose of bodies with hydrofluoric acid in a cast iron bathtub... and extinguish a burning generator with the last supplies of potable water!

* TheAtoner: Seems to have become this as of "Blood Money". He's become so fed up with all the bloodshed and suffering caused by the business, to the point where he doesn't even care about getting his millions' worth of share anymore.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pinkman_jesse_4738.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"This is my own private domicile and I will not be harassed... [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch!"]]'']][[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:As he appears in ''El Camino'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/des5jpg.jpg ''"And whatever happened with me, it's on me. Okay? Nobody else."'' [[/labelnote]]]]

** Despite tax evasion being a major plot point in the show, not once does Jesse ever face any problem from the IRS, not even after buying a $400,000 house from his parents without any official source of income. Saul even tries to get him to start laundering his money, but Jesse just walks out on him and the whole thing is never mentioned again.

* TooDumbToLive: For all his clever ideas, he also has big moments of this, ''in spades''. Gosh, what a brilliant idea to dispose of bodies with hydrofluoric acid in a cast iron bathtub... and extinguish a burning generator with the last supplies of portable water!

** Despite tax evasion being a major plot point in the show, not once in the show does Jesse face any problem from the IRS, even after buying a $400,000 house from his parents without any official source of income. Saul even tries to get him to start laundering his money, but Jesse just walks out on him and this is never brought up again.

* KarmaHoudini: Downplayed: [[spoiler: On one hand, he gets off lightly compared to the rest of Walt's partners (and rivals too, for that matter), keeping his life and his freedom and getting away with a good $200,000 to start over in Alaska. On the other hand, he still suffers from trauma over the things he went through both as Walt's accomplice and as a slave to Jack's gang, and he can no longer have any contact with his family or his old friends.]]

[[Characters/BreakingBadWaltsFamily Walt's Family]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadWalterWhite Walter White]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadHeisenbergsEmpire Heisenberg's Empire]] ('''Jesse Pinkman''', [[Characters/BreakingBadSaulGoodman Saul Goodman]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadDEAAndPolice DEA and Police]], [[Characters/BreakingBadJuarezCartel Juarez Cartel]], [[Characters/BreakingBadSalamancaFamily Salamanca Family]], [[Characters/BreakingBadLosPollosHermanos Los Pollos Hermanos]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadGustavoFring Gustavo Fring]], [[Characters/BreakingBadMikeEhrmantraut Mike Ehrmantraut]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadMadrigalElectromotive Madrigal Electromotive]], [[Characters/BreakingBadAryanBrotherhood Aryan Brotherhood]], [[Characters/BreakingBadOtherCriminals Other Criminals]], [[Characters/BreakingBadOtherCivilians Other Civilians]]-]]]]]

* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler:By Todd]] in "Ozymandias". We don't see much in detail, but he's left with plenty of scars and bruises after and is clearly traumatized by the experience.

!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/BreakingBad'' | ''Series/BetterCallSaul''[[note]]Flashbacks only[[/note]] | ''Film/ElCamino''

!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/BreakingBad'' | ''Series/BetterCallSaul''[[note]]Flashbacks only[[/note]] | ''Film/ElCamino''

->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/AaronPaul

* StupidCrooks: He fell into this mindset during early seasons. He has his street alias plastered all over his website ''and'' on his car's license plate to the point that one could wonder how the DEA could possibly mistake Emilio for "Cap'n Cook". He also blows most of the money Walt gave him to buy an RV on an expensive night at the strip club even after Walt threatened to turn him in, dissolves Emilio's body in a bath tub (along with the bath tub itself), drives a rolling meth lab into an airport, steals meth from Gus, a man who could kill him if he finds out, to sell on his own (and does a terrible job of hiding it, too), and refuses to launder his money under the reasoning that "criminals don't pay taxes". By season 4, he's grown out of this.

* FinalGirl: Despite not being in a horror movie or a girl, with a critical lens, Jesse serves a very similar function as the FinalGirl by the [[spoiler:end]]. Let’s look at the general parameters:
** SoleSurvivor? [[spoiler: He’s the sole survivor of Walt’s and Gus’s drug empires (and Saul, but he’s OutOfFocus in Felina). Like the Final Girl, he’s the only one left who can tell the story of Heisenberg’s rise and Hank’s death.]]
** The most morally ‘pure’ of the group? The trait that’s most emphasized about him is that he’s much more naïve and innocent than other characters in the meth business.
** Confronts the monster at the end? [[spoiler: In two ways. Strangles Todd, freeing himself from his horror. But also confronts [[VillainProtagonist Walt]] telling [[ArcVillain him]] he won’t listen to his orders anymore.]]

** The masculine cannot suffer abject terror: Some feminist critics discuss why the FinalGirl even exists in the first place is that the largely male audience of slasher films would’ve rejected watching a male hero suffer ‘abject terror,’ seeing it as emasculating. In many ways, Jesse serves a similar purpose as the traditional final girl in an updated version of this trope, being the youngest male MC and least traditionally masculine. In his [[spoiler:captivity]], the show uses Jesse to explore [[spoiler:the horror that Walt wrought on others]], without having to emasculate one of the other more traditionally male main characters. Characters like Walt, Hank or Mike being as emasculated as Jesse was during his [[spoiler:captivity]] would break the masculine convention they represent, and unlike Jesse, [[spoiler:all three of these characters meet their end through senseless gun violence.]] Additionally, [[spoiler:whereas Walt constantly reasserts his masculinity in through violence, including the end of ''Felina'', Jesse is the DistressedDude that the audience can pity and empathize with, who Walt saves and protects, and who goes on to live, forever changed by experience.]]