Gilligan had too many ideas for the “Breaking Bad” universe, and the incredible characters he created eventually spun the series off into a whole franchise. The incredible sorta-prequel series “Better Call Saul” has given so much more background to Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) that he might actually be the franchise’s main character, not Walt, but Jesse is still a vital part of the whole shebang. In fact, the first addition to the “Breaking Bad” canon was “El Camino,” a Netflix film from Gilligan that told the story of what happened to Jesse after he escaped in the final episode of the series. While some fans found the movie to be extraneous, those who had become attached to Jesse finally got a satisfying conclusion to his story. After all, the end of “Breaking Bad” gives Walt the ending he deserves, so why not poor Jesse?

“El Camino” shows Jesse as a deeply broken man who will never be the same, but there’s hope that he can start a new life in Alaska. His heart was almost always in the right place, and Walt often pushed him to do things he would never have done otherwise, going all the way back to dissolving a corpse in acid in season 1. Jesse went from a goofy little punk who said “b****” too often to one of television’s most compelling characters, and without him, “Breaking Bad” would have been just another story about a seemingly normal guy turned evil because of dire situations. Instead, it’s a perfect character study of two men who couldn’t be more different, and that duality is everything. Look, they don’t build bronze statues in downtown Albuquerque of just anyone, okay?

“Breaking Bad,” “El Camino,” and “Better Call Saul” are all streaming on Netflix.