So I just watched El Camino, and I was struck by Mike and Walt’s scenes with Jesse. Both men take a paternal sort of interest in Jesse’s future–but their demeanor and intent is so different, as they do it.
Mike resists giving advice at all, at first–tells Jesse he isn’t him, and can’t know what he should do. Then he shares his honest opinion when he’s asked. And it’s not the most practical of advice. It’s more of a dream, really. Go to Alaska. The last frontier.
You picture clean snow and a horizon full of possiblity. It’s not a plan–more a distant hope for what Alaska represents. It’s a desire of the heart.
Walt, though… his advice comes completely unsolicited. And it’s concrete–mundane and practical. Go to college. Make something of yourself. Then he ignores Jesse’s thoughts about sports medicine and tells him business is the place for him. Something he sees as a channel into greater things. To making a mark. Because that’s what Walt wants and always wanted–to be perceived as important. To do something “really special.” Jesse is unimpressed.
None of this is special to him.
So you can see why one set of advice lands and the other doesn’t. Jesse doesn’t want to be seen and appreciated and known for what he’s done. It’s nothing he could ever be proud of. He tells Mike he wants to make it right–even though Mike knows that’s something he can never do. He cares about the destructive effects of his choices, and nothing for how people see and know and fear him.
So instead of righting wrongs, Jesse disappears. Unlike some Ozymandias–carving his works into stone–he erases his own name. Takes on a new one–unknown to everyone–and vanishes into the snow and trees.
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