Breaking Bad: Todd Alquist- The Dark Child

Breaking Bad is a show with a lot of hateable characters. Villains like Tuco, Uncle Jack, and that one jerk who stole Walt’s parking spot. But there is one character who seems to be particularly hated by the community above all others: Todd Alquist.

Todd is introduced in the fifth season as a member of Vamanos Pest. After Walt and company purchase their business, Todd increasingly participates in Walt’s criminal enterprise until he actually replaces Jesse as Walt’s number 2 guy. Eventually, he and his Uncle Jack serve as the final antagonists of the series when they betray Walt and steal his money.

Now Todd is without a doubt a terrible human being, and does some pretty horrendous stuff. But if you go by some of the statements made about him by the community, you’d think he was some kind of serial killer or something. People really seem to think he’s one of the evilest characters on the show. True he does do some horrible stuff, but as Walt points out that’s nothing new on this show.

I’ve never really understood the extreme reaction people seem to have for Todd. I don't see him as the psychopath or even sociopath that people describe him as. He does evil things sure, but he never seemed to be particularly malevolent. To be honest, at first he really just struck me as a weirdly written character. A lot of his strange behavior made little sense to me at the time, and I just wrote him off an eclectic but unimportant part of the larger Breaking Bad story.

However, when I was rewatching the El Camino movie for my review, I had a realization about Todd’s character. Todd is a dark child, the mirror version of Jesse, and in this video I’m going to explain.

First though let’s do a quick recap on Todd. Like I said before, he’s introduced in the 5th season as an employee of Vamanos Pest. On the surface, the company is a legitimate extermination business. However the guys also act as B&E artists, noting valuables in the homes they service for later theft. This is how they come to know Saul Goodman, who later introduces them to Walt, Jesse, and Mike.

When the three buy Vamanos Pest to use as their base of operations for their new meth business, Todd distinguishes himself by pointing out a hidden nanny cam in the house. From there, they decide to involve him in their heist of methylamine from the train. Though the job was a success, Todd ends up shooting a young boy named Drew Sharp, who had stumbled onto the scene while riding his dirt bike.

This murder causes a huge rift in their organization. Though they agree to allow Todd to live, Jesse in particular is very heartbroken by the death of an innocent kid. This is what ultimately convinces him and Mike to sell their share of the methylamine to Declan and retire from the business.

Walt is eventually able to work out a deal with Declan and control the meth production, but Jesse, disgusted with Walt’s indifference to Drew’s death, quits the business. Walt is instead forced to turn to Todd as his assistant. Though Todd is not nearly as skilled as Jesse when it comes to cooking, he is studious and hardworking. He also deeply respects Walt, as is eager to serve in his empire.

Todd also introduces Walt to his uncle Jack Welker and his gang of Neo-Nazis. Walt hires them to murder all of Mike’s guys in prison. The precisely coordinated hit removes any witnesses who could have named him, and leaves him free to run his business. However it also leaves him in business with some very unsavory people, a contrast to when he was working with Mike and Jesse who each had their own moral code.

They eventually get the operation in full swing, and Walt makes millions cooking meth alongside Todd. Eventually Skyler convinces Walt to retire, and he gives the operation over to Declan. Todd continues to cook, and though not as good as Walt or Jesse, he is by far the best cook remaining due to his training from Walt.

Jack’s gang eventually kills Declan, and they take over the operation. They begin working with Lydia, who oversees the distribution of meth overseas. Todd develops a crush on Lydia, and pushes his uncle to continue the business so that he can keep seeing her.

When Jesse discovers that Walt was the one that poisoned Brock and swears revenge, Walt hires Jack’s gang to kill him. This ends with them showing up when Hank arrests Walt, and they end up killing both him and Gomez in a shootout. They also rob Walt of his buried fortune, though they do leave him a few million due to Todd’s respect for Walt.

Walt forces them to honor their agreement and kill Jesse for him. However Todd steps in and insists that they take Jesse back for interrogation about what info he gave to Hank before they kill him. In reality though, Todd and the gang keep Jesse as a slave to cook the ultrapure meth for them. Todd again does this so that he can continue to see Lydia through the business.

Jesse eventually makes an escape attempt at the compound, but is caught by Jack and his men. In order to send a message, Todd kills Jesse’s former girlfriend Andrea right in front of him, and they warn him that they will kill Brock next if he doesn’t obey.

In the finale episode, Walt goes back to New Mexico for revenge against Jack and his men. He sets up a trap and has them mowed down by a machine gun in his car. Todd survives the shooting, but is strangled by Jesse in revenge for all the suffering he put him through in the series. Jesse then escapes the compound in Todd’s El Camino, which leads into the events of the movie.

Now based on all that, Todd seems like an incredibly evil person. Not only is he supporting his Neo Nazi Uncle, he personally murders two innocent people: Drew Sharp and Andrea. But if we take a look at these murders, Todd isn’t malicious when he does them. In fact, he apologizes to Andrea that he has to do it.

The same is true of Drew Sharp’s death. Earlier in the episode Walt and Jesse had warned Todd that no one could ever know of their crime. And when Drew saw them after the heist, Todd just followed their instructions and took him out before he could report them.

Now people point out how Todd kept the tarantula that Drew had. Many people think this is some kind of trophy for Todd, likening him to a serial killer. But I actually think he’s just fascinated with the spider in the same way that Drew Sharp was. At his core, he’s just a child.

A lot of Todd’s behavior reinforces this childish mentality. Take his flirtations with Lydia. It’s awkward and weird, like a young boy making his first attempts with a woman. He even makes the mistake of complimenting her shirt, which anyone experienced knows means he was looking at her breasts.

Todd’s actions are interesting when viewed from this angle. It’s not that he’s a cold blooded psychopath committing all these murders without any hesitation. It’s just that he has the emotional affect of a child, and the evilness of these actions just don’t register with him the way they would for a normal human being.

Take Todd’s treatment of Jesse when he’s a slave of Jack’s gang. Todd goes out of his way to be nice to Jesse, bringing him ice cream and worrying about his warmth. Some people think this is Todd just playing with Jesse for fun, the way the gang does when they make him run laps to test his harness. But I actually think that Todd views Jesse as something like a pet.

It would fit given they keep Jesse locked in a cage and tie him up with a chain like a leash. Todd’s is like a little boy with a new dog. He wants to take care of Jesse, not even realizing that he’s not even treating him like a human being at that point.

This child-like symbolism makes sense given that Jesse is often compared to a child as well. He dresses in baggy clothes that make it look like he’s a little boy wearing an adult’s clothes. Or this scene when he’s playing with a bug before he’s supposed to go and kill someone who robbed his dealers.

Jesse’s child-like innocence sets him apart from the other criminals around him. Unlike Walt, Jesse has a conscience. He doesn’t want to cause harm to the people around him, and his naivety and desire to do the right thing allows him to be used and manipulated by Walt. Essentially, he’s a good boy.

Todd is the dark mirror version of this. He’s like a bad little kid pulling the wings off of flies. He causes harm and destruction around him, but it’s because he doesn’t even realize or care what that damage is. Again it’s not that he sets out to cause suffering. It’s that he has a child-like selfishness to only think about his own perspective.

Both Jesse and Todd refer to Walt as Mr. White, symbolizing his role as an authority figure over both of them. They each view him as a teacher, both literally and figuratively, which again reinforces their position as schoolboys.

It’s no coincidence that as Walt goes down his dark path of becoming a meth kingpin, Todd replaces Jesse as Walt’s sidekick. Not only is Todd unquestioningly supportive of Walt and his actions, he's also the one who introduces him to his Uncle Jack, which enables Walt to commit even more heinous acts.

Jesse was the angel on Walt' shoulder, always pushing him to do what is right and arguing against things like killing Gale or Lydia. Todd however enables Walt to continue to do bad things without having to face any of the consequences.

But while Todd might be the devil on Walt’s shoulder, he’s not the literal devil. He is far from the most evil character we’ve seen on this show, and I hope this video has helped shed some light on his character. Let me know you’re thoughts on Todd, and stay tuned for more Breaking Bad content coming soon!