|
"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Man, shit happens, huh? | „ |
| ~ Todd's apathetic comment to Jesse about his murder of Drew Sharp, who's a child. |
| “ | Just so you know, this isn't personal. | „ |
| ~ Todd before killing Andrea. |
| “ | Jesus, Mr. White... | „ |
| ~ Todd's last words to Walter White before Jesse Pinkman kills him. |
Todd Alquist is the secondary antagonist of Season 5 of the crime drama Breaking Bad and one of the two overarching antagonists of its 2019 sequel film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
He is an exterminator for Vamonos Pest, a fumigation company used by Walter White, Mike Ehrmantraut and Jesse Pinkman as the front to their meth business after Gustavo Fring's death. He is the arch-nemesis and antithesis of Jesse.
He was portrayed by Jesse Plemons.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General[]
- Although his death via strangling by Jesse's cuff links was brutal, it was played for karma and satisfaction as he deserved it for all that he's done, especially with his personal villainy towards Jesse. He also died in the exact same way he killed Sonia.
- Despite having been raised to be the monster he is by his uncle, he doesn’t have moral agency issues. Although the habits of the Neo-Nazi gang shaped his moral perception for the worse, he still shows indifference about murder as evidenced when he says "don't make me feel worse about it" to Jesse after killing his cleaning maid. His awareness of right from wrong is made more clear by how he grimaced a bit at the fact that Jesse mentioned him killing Drew in his confession tape.
- Despite Breaking Bad’s high Heinous Standard, Todd still stands out due to his low resources and his personal villainy towards Jesse as well as his Moral Event Horizon far surpassing even Hector’s worst action, as the latter never killed any children onscreen unlike Todd.
Breaking Bad[]
- He, along with the pest control, robbed houses that they fumigate later on to avoid suspicion.
- He helped Walter White and Jesse Pinkman rob a train filled with methylamine.
- When a young teenage boy named Drew Sharp saw him, Walt and Jesse after robbing the train, Todd immediately kills the kid without any remorse for his actions, only expressing that it was to protect the mission (which itself is a flimsy reason since the heist was over at that point and their was very little evidence around them to make him a witness) and shows little if any remorse for killing him, even stating openly that at the end of the day he would do it again. On top of Todd killing the boy, he also had much less of a plausible pragmatic angle for it than what Hector Salamanca did to the Innocent Civilian. This makes his deed uniquely and extraordinarily heinous even in measure to the latter’s.
- When he and the rest watch Jesse's confession tape and he mentions Todd killing Drew, Todd’s face quickly turns to a surprised grimace.
- While telling Jack and Kenny about the robbery, he also intentionally left out the detail about him killing the boy. Especially since Jack doesn’t hear about it until watching Jesse’s confession, Todd’s expression implies the same undertone as his fact omission that he was just worried about his uncle punishing him.
- After the murder, he takes Drew's tarantula for himself and puts it in his aquarium after trapping it for several hours in a jar (most likely as a trophy).
- He tips off Walt and his men by hinting that his uncle "has connections in prison", the knowledge of which to Walt later resulting in several of Mike’s agents being brutally murdered.
- He made an apathetic comment about his murder of Drew Sharp to Jesse, despite the latter being seriously affected by the murder of a child, pushing Jesse to punch Todd in the face to get back at him and teach him that child murder is wrong and unnecessary.
- He willingly joins the meth-making that Walt teaches him, continuing the production even after the trio that brought him (Walt, Mike and Jesse) decided to quit.
- Even though he shows a completely neutral attitude when Walt reveals to him that he killed Mike Ehrmantraut, he still willingly helps him dissolve the body in acid. he also brought Mike's car (in which he was injured and killed) for Old Joe to destroy it and remove the evidence for it.
- He helps Walt meet with his uncle in planning to kill 10 prisoners in two minutes.
- He helped Declan to cook meth and also caused a fire (albeit accidentally), causing the latter to fire him. It is admittedly not explicit, but Todd admits that the disagreements with him caused the attack on his group.
- After Walt left the production, Todd convinces him to return to the life of crime (which of course put him at risk of arrest).
- He aids his uncle Jack Welker and his other Neo-Nazis into the shootout which kills Declan and his group, actually pointing at the wounded Declan for his uncle to kill him. He later goes on to help in the shootout which kills Gomez and eventually Hank Schrader.
- While Jack was originally going to kill him, Todd convinces him to keep Jesse alive, stating he could get the information he told Hank and Gomez out of him, and abducts him into the compound, allowing him to be beaten and tortured and enforces him to cook meth under the threat of Andrea and Brock Cantillo.
- When Jesse tried to escape and refused to cook meth for Jack and his gang of Neo-Nazis, Todd forces him to watch as he kills Andrea by shooting her in the back of the head with a gun, simply telling her that it isn’t personal.
- He bursts into Walt's house with some men by Lydia's order and threatens Skyler and her baby daughter's lives to make sure Skyler didn't talk about Lydia.
- According to his neighbor, he left the roof of his car in a way that endangered and disturbed his neighbors.
- Although he is apparently not happy with the idea, he agrees without argument that Walt will be killed by his uncle's gang, even telling Walt that he shouldn't have come back.
- He shows no sadness to the Neo-Nazis and his “family” dying as they probably raised Todd, but when Walt murdered all of them he was just surprised on how Walt killed Welker's gang instead of feeling any sadness.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie[]
- He told Jesse that if he tried to escape, he would have to "pay the little boy a visit", in other words kill Brock as punishment.
- Although he did remark how Jesse could break his leg when Kenny and Neil are torturing him, it's most likely pragmatic as he stated specifically that he won't be able to cook if they continue to do so with him having his leg chained.
- When his cleaning lady, Sonia, found a book of his money, Todd strangled her to death with a belt and made Jesse bury her body in the desert. Though to be fair, Todd did insist Jesse not “make him feel any worse about it,” implying he did have some minor remorse things turned out this way.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is too affable to be Near Pure Evil, as he acts extremely polite and respectful to anyone while talking to them, and none of this is a facade, making his affability 100% genuine.
- He has respect and/or care for multiple people:
- His care towards Jesse is utterly twisted yet completely genuine, as he genuinely sees him as a friend, convinces Jack to keep him alive, gives him food and lets him out of his prison when Jack and his gang were out partying, and attempts to connect with him, even offering to get him pizza. beer, and a couple of large pies after the job of burying Sonia was done.
- He greatly respects Walter and manages to convince Jack to give him a barrel of his money they were stealing (which had over 10 million dollars in it). He also spares Skyler when she promises to keep quiet and still doesn't kill her (despite Lydia asking him to do so) out of respect for Walt. When Walt returns to Albuquerque and Jack orders Kenny kill him, he claims Walt shouldn't have come back. Even his last words are "Mr. White", showing his impression towards Walter's machine gun set up rather than being angry and upset for losing his crew and uncle.
- Looks up to and has some genuine care for his uncle Jack, even uttering his name after Walter successfully killed off the rest of the Aryan Brotherhood.
- He is shown to love Lydia Rodarte-Quayle at least to some genuine extent, as he wanted to continue the meth business to get close to her. Even though he mostly just desires to sleep with her, he still shows respect and compliments notable parts he likes of how she dresses and keeps a snow globe of her in his room.
- While justifying it and not feeling too bad about it, he still has some slight remorse for killing Sonia, as he did state he felt bad for killing her and wanted to bury her someplace nice because she deserved it.
Trivia[]
- Todd was the first icon of the Mature template in the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki.
- While he is not as bad as his uncle (personality-wise, if he was outheinoused by him he wouldn't be here in the first place), Todd is one of the most hated Breaking Bad characters, much more than Jack. This is because his crimes, such as killing a child or his treatment of Jesse Pinkman, are more personal, not to mention he has more screen-time and his personality is more terrifying when compared to the more one-dimensional Jack.
- Todd is one of the few cases of Affably Evil when the villain's affability doesn't make him more sympathetic and instead makes him more despicable. His total lack of empathy doesn't help him either.
External Links[]
- Todd Alquist on the Villains Wiki.
- Todd Alquist on the Breaking Bad Wiki.
- Todd Alquist on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki.
[]
 /  Inconsistently Heinous
| ||
|
Canon Los Pollos Hermanos Other | ||
 Inconsistently Heinous
| ||
|
Animated Features Anime (Aniplex) Live-Action Features Animated Television Live-Action Television Fanon See Also | ||