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“ | Man, shit happens, huh? | „ |
~ Todd's nonchalant comment to Jesse regarding his murder of Drew Sharp. |
“ | Just so you know, this isn't personal. | „ |
~ Todd as he is about to kill Andrea. |
“ | Jesus... Mr. White- | „ |
~ Todd's last words before he is strangled to death by Jesse Pinkman. |
Todd Alquist is the secondary antagonist of the fifth and final season of the crime drama series Breaking Bad and one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Jack Welker) of its 2019 sequel film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
He is a friendly and hardworking, yet ruthless, mentally-disturbed, and sinister enforcer for the White Supremacist gang run by his uncle, Jack Welker. Todd is also an exterminator for Vamonos Pest: a fumigation company used by Jack's employer Walter White along with his partners-in-crime Jesse Pinkman and Mike Ehrmantraut, as a front to cover-up the distribution of their meth business following the demise of their drug kingpin Gus Fring. As such, Todd served as the overall archenemy and moral antithesis of Jesse Pinkman.
He was portrayed by Jesse Plemons, who also played Robert Daly in Black Mirror, Prince Joachim in Jungle Cruise and Militiaman in Civil War.
Biography[]
Todd Alquist grew up as the nephew of infamous gang leader Jack Welker and would become influential to the latter's White Supremacist faction. This soon escalated at some point when they began working for Jack's employer Walter White along with his associates Mike Ehrmantraut and Jesse Pinkman, the latter of whom Todd would embark on a personal conflict with as time goes on. Furthermore, Walt and Mike's crime boss Gustavo Fring had been killed by his sworn enemy Hector Salamanca in a plot elaborated by Walt to takeover Gus' drug empire.
At some point, Todd and the other Vamonos employees worked as burglars - gathering information and selling it to outside parties from the houses they tent, though this practice stops once they conceal the meth operation. Todd notices and disables a nanny cam at Walt and Jesse's first cook site, attracting their attention.
He is later used as an accomplice in the heist of methylamine from a freight train. The heist is successful, though Todd shoots and kills a young boy named Drew Sharp, who stumbled upon the crime. Todd does not show much remorse about the murder; he explains to Jesse that "shit happens" and keeps the boy's tarantula as a trophy. The team reluctantly keeps Todd employed after he explains his actions: there could be no witnesses, and henceforth Todd realized that his own uncle Jack could be most valuable to the operation.
After Jesse and Mike exit the business, Todd becomes Walt's partner in the cooking process. Todd helps Walt dispose of Mike's car and body after Walt murders Mike, and Todd uses his uncle's prison connections to help Walt eliminate Gus Fring's nine former employees and their lawyer who were imprisoned.
With no one opposing them, Walt and Todd partner with another meth distributor named Declan along with notorious Madrigal Electromotive executive Lydia Rodarte-Quayle to run a highly profitable meth empire for months across the American Southwest and overseas in the Czech Republic, until Walt bows out of the business. It is implied that Todd acted as the main cook for Declan, but was said to have caused a fire in the lab which makes Declan hire a cook of his own. This move causes the purity of Lydia's product to fall to an unacceptable 68%, prompting her to (unsuccessfully) try to bring Walt back into the business and ultimately to hire Todd, his uncle, and the Aryan Brotherhood to massacre Declan and his men, in order to reinstate Todd as the primary cook. They then take the methylamine from Declan's lab and return to New Mexico.
When Todd makes his first independent cook, although the quality has improved, the color of the Methamphetamine is no longer the signature blue expected of the 'Heisenberg' brand meth which disappoints Lydia. As a result Todd vows to improve his cook in order to match up to the standards expected of their product. Conveniently, Todd is shortly afterwards contacted by Walt, who informs him that he may have another job for him and his Uncle Jack, it is then revealed that Walt wants Jesse Pinkman killed. After Todd arranges a meeting at his Uncle's gang's headquarters, Walt and Jack go over the details of the upcoming hit to be carried out on Pinkman, including the form of payment. After rejecting Walt's offer of money, Jack insists that he will carry out the hit on the condition that Walt cook for them, in order to teach his nephew Todd how to perfect the intended blue shade to the Methamphetamine. Reluctantly Walt agrees, asserting that he will do a single cook with Todd to help him get the formula right.
Following this, Walt is duped into driving into the desert to a location where he stashed the $80,000,000 he had made from his meth career, after his former partner Jesse informs him that he has found the money, and is going to destroy it as revenge for Walt's part in the poisoning of Brock, a child close to Jesse. However it turns out that this was a setup by Jesse in order to lure him out into the open. Panicked by this Walt calls Todd's Uncle Jack for help, only to call off the hit when it is revealed that Jesse is accompanied by Walt's DEA brother in law-Hank Schrader, and his partner Steve Gomez. Regardless, Todd, his uncle, and the rest of his Aryan Brotherhood gang arrive at the scene heavily armed, which results in a shootout between the gang and the two DEA agents. The outcome is a foregone conclusion, with both DEA agents being gunned down by the numerically superior and more heavily armed Brotherhood gang. Hank is wounded, whereas Gomez has died during the fighting, but he is soon executed by Jack, who sees no possible outcome in which he could be allowed to live despite Walt's protests.
Before their departure, Jack's gang decide to take Walt's money. However, Jack decides to leave Walt with a single barrel of the money, and informs him that due to the high esteem that his nephew Todd holds Walt in as his former employer, he isn't going to kill him or leave him with nothing. During this moment, Walt who is eager for retribution on Jesse, points out that he is hiding under a nearby car (Jesse was previously thought to have escaped during the ambush). Jack prepares to execute Jesse, only to be stopped by Todd, who volunteers to torture Jesse in order to gain any information about anyone else who might be aware of their criminal operation. Satisfied with this, Walt allows Todd and his Uncle's gang take Jesse with them.
Sometime after this, back at the gangs hideout, it is revealed that Todd has heavily beaten Jesse, who is kept chained up in a cell built into the ground. During this scene, Todd removes Jesse from his cell and leads him into his lab where he chains him to a wire on a rack. He then tells Jesse to cook, revealing that he is using Jesse to help him get the meth formula right. In order to motivate Jesse, besides torturing him, Todd has pinned up a photo of Jesse's former love interest, Andrea and her son Brock, showing Jesse that if he does not comply, then they will suffer the consequences.
After Walter White goes into hiding because of the nationwide manhunt that has been placed on him, Todd, Jack and several other of Neo-Nazi gang pay a visit to the White residence. Todd threatens Skylar and her two children, Walt Jr. and Holly, warning her not to speak to the police of their involvement in Walt's drug empire or to mention Lydia's name. Shortly after this Jesse attempts to escape from the gang's compound but is caught. As a lesson and future incentive, Todd executes Andrea in front of Jesse and threatens to do the same to her young son Brock should he not cooperate with them. This effectively breaks Jesse and turns him into their personal meth-cooking slave.
During this time, Todd's cleaning lady Sonia finds his stash of money which Todd has hidden in his apartment in order to keep it close. Todd strangles Sonia to death with his belt and enlists Jesse's help to bury her in the desert. While at his apartment with Jesse, Todd reveals his large stash of cash and comes up with an idea of a new place to hide it where he believes that no one will ever find the money. In the desert, Jesse finds a gun in Todd's glove compartment and considers killing him, but is calmly talked down by Todd.
Soon after Todd sets up another meeting with Lydia for a progress report and partly because of his fascination with her. However Walt interrupts their meeting in order to set up a face-to-face business deal with Todd's uncle Jack. Lydia quickly agrees to Walt's proposition, despite Todd's reservations about working with him again. As Walt walks away from their table Lydia explains to Todd that they are to murder Walt at this meeting to ensure his silence about their involvement in the Meth trade. Later Todd is present in the Neo-Nazi clubhouse when Walt drives in to meet with Jack. Todd watches as his uncle reveals that they had no intention of dealing with Walt and plan on executing him. Walt manages to delay his own murder by accusing Jack of cheating him by partnering up with Jesse instead of killing him. Jack orders Todd to bring Jesse into the clubhouse so he can show him how broken Jesse has become. Despite Todd's reluctance, he brings Jesse in. Walt then tackles Jesse to the floor and as Todd goes to pull him off, Walt activates the remote controlled M60 machine gun in the trunk of his car, which begins firing and kills all of the gang except Todd, and Jack, who is mortally wounded in the shooting. After the gun stops firing Todd looks out the window in total shock at what just took place. However, before he can act, Jesse wraps the chains binding his wrists around Todd's neck and proceeds to strangle him; Todd is unable to break free from Jesse's grip as the latter strangles him so hard that the former's neck ultimately snaps, finally killing Todd and avenging the deaths of both Andrea and Drew Sharp respectively. Moments later, Walt executes Jack to avenge Hank's death and is revealed to have killed Lydia before he later dies himself from his injuries.
Following the deaths of both Todd and Jack as well as the demise of their Nazi gang, not to mention Walt's death as well, Jesse takes Todd's keys and flees in his El Camino - taking Todd's gun from the glove compartment once again to be his weapon. With the police tracing the car through Todd's LoJack the next morning, Jesse abandons the El Camino at Skinny Pete's house and instead flees in Badger's car. Returning to Todd's apartment, Jesse spends the night ransacking it in search of Todd's stash of money. Jesse eventually finds it hidden in the fridge door just before Neil Kandy, the welder who built Jesse's tether at the Neo-Nazi compound, and his partner Casey arrive disguised as cops and also in search of Todd's stash of money. Jesse is forced to reveal the hidden money to Neil who states that Todd has at least a million dollars hidden upon seeing it. The men agree to a three-way split of the money and Jesse attempts to use his portion to pay Ed Galbraith, Saul Goodman's "Disappearer", to give him a new identity. However, Jesse's portion proves not to be enough so he seeks out more money from Neil, leading a gunfight and the deaths of Neil and Casey. Jesse is left with two-thirds of Todd's money - his own and Neil's portions - which proves to be more than enough to pay Ed to smuggle Jesse to a new life in Alaska.
Personality[]
On the surface, Todd is awkward and soft-spoken. Despite being polite and having a strong eagerness to please his employers, Todd is a ruthless and callous killer when it comes to disposing of those who he feels may threaten the security of his criminal career; this is most notably demonstrated by the fact he killed a child after he witnessed him and his employers rob a train of its methylamine. When it comes to carrying out commands or doing what he feels is necessary in the name of business, Todd will perform these actions without hesitation or remorse. However, Todd never feels any genuine animosity towards those he kills. And in the case of his cleaning lady, he even wanted to give her a proper burial for being a nice and loyal worker and got upset when Jesse assumed she was stealing from him.
He tends to hold those who employ him, such as Walter White, in high regard and as such will show visible respect as well as loyalty to them. His dedication is shown when during his first cook with Walt, he turns down payment, remarking that he only wanted to be paid when he achieved the standards that he felt were expected of Walt's product. After Walter's brother-in-law, Hank, was killed by his uncle, Todd gave his sincere condolences to Walt.
His attitude towards his Uncle seems to be more relaxed, with him being somewhat less appreciative around him. However, he still demonstrates his characteristic desire to impress him with his abilities, implying that Todd's key motivation is approval and praise from his superiors, giving him a high sense of self-worth as opposed to pure and simple greed.
Known Victims[]
- Drew Sharp - Shot to prevent him from speaking as a witness.
- Andrea Cantillo - Shot in the head in retaliation for Jesse trying to escape Jack’s compound.
- Sonia - Strangled to death with a belt when she discovered his stash of money.
Trivia[]
- In an online 2013 article by Bustle, Todd Alquist was ranked as being the third most evil character on Breaking Bad, being surpassed only by Tuco Salamanca and his uncle Jack Welker.
- In addition, Todd is also one of the most hated characters in the series due to his heinous actions.
- Before working at Vamonos Pest, Todd was an employee at the Albuquerque Gazette.
- Due to Jesse Plemons' putting on weight for his role in Black Mass, Todd looks noticeably more overweight in El Camino than he appeared in Breaking Bad (despite the fact that El Camino takes place at the same time as Breaking Bad). This inspired a series of memes in the fandom that refer to Todd as "Fat Todd" and make jokes about the discrepancy. However, by 2023 Plemons lost all the weight he gained for Black Mass, as can be seen in Civil War, where his character has the same body type as Todd Alquist.
- In retrospect, Vince Gilligan was so fascinated with Todd Alquist that he wishes that he could have further explored Todd in the show. Thus, while deciding which Breaking Bad characters should return in El Camino regardless their status following the series finale, Gilligan decided to bring back Todd in flashbacks.
External Links[]
- Todd Alquist on the Breaking Bad Wiki