BB's ending was too "neat." Walt was able to tie up every loose end, execute his plan perfectly, admit the reality of his actions to his wife, and then go out on his own terms. It's all just too clean and neat. You then compare it to something like The Wire's ending (yes, they are two different shows) and it's night and day. It's why many feel like Ozymandias is the true ending to BB, because the real finale dips too hard into fan fulfillment. It doesn't help speak to a larger theme, but just wraps things up expectedly. Again, it's not terrible. Nothing is wrong with how things ultimately play out, but it feels "wrong" on a thematic level. It doesn't try and push new ground, but go in for a nice safe landing.
El Camino is like that for Jesse, except for me it's even worse. To start, I've never been one to fall for the Jesse sympathy angle. Yes, by the end of the series he's suffered some truly heinous shit, but Jesse wasn't some child or a lost puppy. Jesse was a grown man who made every decision by himself. He straight up tells his parents in the finale that it wasn't their fault, they tried all they could. So, Jesse's choices biting him in the ass is fair comeuppance. There's a reason why Michael Corleone ends The Godfather trilogy a lonely old man, loved by no one, who dies alone. Scorsese always glamorizes the gangster lifestyle before bringing all his characters low, you can't play the game and come out on top, eventually there is a reckoning.
In El Camino, Jesse is able to tie up all his loose ends, say goodbye to his friends, say goodbye to his parents, and screw off to a new life in Alaska. However, this isn't truly punishment in the Henry Hill type where he resents being turned into a regular nobody, Jesse desires a nice and quiet life. And, he's got plenty of illicit drug money to last him in his new lifestyle. But again, while what Jesse suffered at the hands of Todd and Co. was terrible, Jesse was still ultimately a mega drug dealer and murderer. He killed people. He sold meth in massive quantities. He lied. He cheated. He stole. And innocent bystanders, people he supposedly cared for, suffered because of his actions. Brock will forever grow up without a mom because of Jesse. What's his consolation? A nice letter?
Jesse needed to actually face the consequences of his actions, at the very least Walt died in the end. Yet, Jesse by the end gets a clean slate. The emotional scars remain, but that's personal it has nothing to do with society's right to judge his actions. People are dead because of Jesse. Meth flooded into the streets. Yet, he gets to live a nice and quiet life in Alaska? That's just okay? To me it just feels wrong.
Near the middle of the film, I thought what was going to happen is that we'd see Jesse finally "Break Bad" and then face the consequences of that choice in the end. By "break bad," I mean commit wrongful acts, such as murdering a cop to get away, without being able to justify his actions by saying Walt made him do it. Jesse was all alone now, the spectre of Walt removed as a convenient blame for any and all his actions. I was hoping Jesse would not have to finally take responsibility for his actions from that point forward. But, the film isn't really geared towards that. Instead, it's more concerned with giving Jesse a nice, safe landing and a pleasant ending.
