Warning: SPOILERS ahead for El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
Kandy Welding Co. plays a major role in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, but it wasn’t part of the original Breaking Bad series. In Netflix’s storyline continuation, writer-director Vince Gilligan uses Kandy Welding Co. to establish Jesse Pinkman’s psychological conflict to overcome; the foundation for the final pay-off in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
Breaking Bad’s flashback sequences reveal the backstories for Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). After their personal and professional relationship crumbles, Walter enlists Jack Welker - the leader of a white supremacist gang - to murder Jesse. But Jack’s crew ultimately decides to use Jesse as a meth cook, all the while keeping him locked up underground. As Breaking Bad builds to the series finale, Jack’s crew tortures Jesse, both physically and psychologically. In the final episode, they’re set up by Walter and gunned down. Jesse personally kills his primary tormentor, Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons), before speeding away in a stolen vehicle. Gilligan’s El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie details the immediate aftermath.
Breaking Bad doesn’t include a Kandy Welding Co. subplot. However, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie shows that a specific Kandy Welding Co. employee, Neil (Scott MacArthur), was responsible for helping Todd keep Jesse properly locked up in the original AMC series after Jesse was captured by the neo-Nazis; Neil did this by making sure the pipe Jesse was attached to wouldn’t break. In the Netflix film, Neil and his associate, Casey (Scott Shepherd), pose as police officers, and seemingly arrest Jesse while he searches Todd’s home for hidden money. But it’s not until later that Jesse remembers Neil.
At this point in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Kandy Welding Co. hasn’t officially been identified as a significant part of the narrative. That changes, though, when Jesse makes a deal with Neil and Casey to avoid being murdered. Previous flashback sequences show why Jesse knows there’s money stashed in Todd’s home, as he previously helped Jack’s nephew remove a dead body and subsequently learned about his future plans. In the present, Jesse agrees to a three-way split with Neil after locating the money in a refrigerator, leaving him with the appropriate funds to secure a proper getaway, at least in theory. Outside, Jesse notices that Neil drives a Kandy Welding Co. vehicle, which prompts him to remember a traumatic incident associated with Todd. Neil states, “I was wondering when you were going to remember me.”
After Jesse meets with professional fixer Ed Galbraith (portrayed by the late Robert Forster), another flashback sequence show the specifics of Jesse’s connection to Kandy Welding Co. In the Breaking Bad universe (not depicted on screen), Todd and Kenny (Kevin Rankin) previously hired Neil to build a warehouse contraption to ensure that Jesse couldn’t escape while cooking. Already traumatized, Jesse is forced to test out Neil’s work for Kandy Welding Co. - a humiliating moment that makes him feel even more hopeless and defeated. During the Netflix film’s climax, Jesse interrupts a party at Kandy Welding Co., kills Neil, and walks away with the appropriate money to arrange a one-way ticket to Alaska via Ed. In El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Kandy Welding Co. connects the narrative dots, as Jesse Pinkman addresses traumatic memories en route to finding inner peace.
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