Season 1 in Review: Jesse
Oh, Jesse. You sorry-ass loser and slacker, you. :(
At 24, he looks and even still acts like a big kid, like a teenager who never quite grew up all the way. But he's basically a decent guy, even here, trying to make something better of himself without quite knowing how to get there. He applies for jobs wearing very nice suits (rawr!), but he gets directed to "advertising". He cooks, but he doesn't know enough to do it himself and people say it to his face.
Even so, the seeds of the perfectionism and drive to improve himself were planted here. He cooks with Badger, and is dissatisfied with the results. So he tries it again. He isn't quite there - doesn't quite know how - but he's not satisfied now with just "being good enough".
Ironically, this drive Jesse has seems to have in part been woken to life by the very same Mr. White he paid little attention to in high school. And it's rather pivotal, I think, that Jesse realizes his and Mr. White's true potential at the first cook, while Walter still looks down on Jesse and refuses to take a few seconds to patiently explain to his suddenly now more-alert student why plastic is necessary; he doesn't really see Jesse's potential until he finally admits: "Your meth is good. As good as mine." And Jesse gets validation of that when the Mexican lab tech confirms: 96%.
When Jesse sees, and realizes, how Mr. White's care and fussiness over his "product" creates something exceptional, that's what sparks the blossoming of Jesse Pinkman over the next five seasons, I think.
But even so, Jesse continues to always be subtly (or not so subtly) guided by someone else's hand. It's only when Walter White goes too far in Jesse's eyes that he truly sees that he is capable of being an independent young man.
But it all started because he happened to be banging the neighbor's wife that day. :P
At 24, he looks and even still acts like a big kid, like a teenager who never quite grew up all the way. But he's basically a decent guy, even here, trying to make something better of himself without quite knowing how to get there. He applies for jobs wearing very nice suits (rawr!), but he gets directed to "advertising". He cooks, but he doesn't know enough to do it himself and people say it to his face.
Even so, the seeds of the perfectionism and drive to improve himself were planted here. He cooks with Badger, and is dissatisfied with the results. So he tries it again. He isn't quite there - doesn't quite know how - but he's not satisfied now with just "being good enough".
Ironically, this drive Jesse has seems to have in part been woken to life by the very same Mr. White he paid little attention to in high school. And it's rather pivotal, I think, that Jesse realizes his and Mr. White's true potential at the first cook, while Walter still looks down on Jesse and refuses to take a few seconds to patiently explain to his suddenly now more-alert student why plastic is necessary; he doesn't really see Jesse's potential until he finally admits: "Your meth is good. As good as mine." And Jesse gets validation of that when the Mexican lab tech confirms: 96%.
When Jesse sees, and realizes, how Mr. White's care and fussiness over his "product" creates something exceptional, that's what sparks the blossoming of Jesse Pinkman over the next five seasons, I think.
But even so, Jesse continues to always be subtly (or not so subtly) guided by someone else's hand. It's only when Walter White goes too far in Jesse's eyes that he truly sees that he is capable of being an independent young man.
But it all started because he happened to be banging the neighbor's wife that day. :P