Breaking Bad's Walter White and Jesse Pinkman appear in Better Call Saul season 6, episode 11, straight from the Breaking Bad timeline, prompting questions of how old they are in their appearance. The episode shows a flashback to 2008 when the character of Saul Goodman was first featured on Breaking Bad, which also happens to be the name of the Better Call Saul episode. To make matters somewhat more confusing, the episode of Breaking Bad that introduced Saul Goodman was called "Better Call Saul." While the actors have aged, Walter and Jesse have not. Their characters picked up from where they were in season 2 of Breaking Bad.
The meshing of these two episodes, Better Call Saul season 6, episode 11, and Breaking Bad season 2, episode 8 was unique in that the two timelines fit together seamlessly, as if they were one long connecting episode. This is a testament to the creative genius of Vince Gilligan. In the "Better Call Saul" episode of Breaking Bad, Jesse and Walter kidnapped Saul outside his office building and took him in the RV out to the desert. There, they showed Saul a freshly-dug grave in order to scare him. In Better Call Saul's "Breaking Bad," episode, the viewer learns what transpired during the ride out to the desert with a bound and hooded Saul bouncing around in the back of the RV.
Related: The REAL Meaning Behind Better Call Saul’s “Breaking Bad” Episode Title
In their Better Call Saul appearance, Walt is 50 years old and Jesse is around 24, which can be calculated from clues in Breaking Bad. In the pilot of Breaking Bad, Skyler gave Walter a surprise party for his 50th birthday. His birthdays were the only real character time markers in the entire show. In Breaking Bad's season 5 episode "Fifty-One," Jesse gifted Walt a TAG Heuer Monaco watch for his 51st birthday. Walt was touched by the gift, but later, when he tried to fall asleep, the ticking tormented him. Walt turned 52 in the season 5 series finale "Felina." On his way back to New Mexico from New Hampshire in that episode, he stopped at a gas station and made a call from a phone booth. Before exiting the booth in the Breaking Bad episode, Walt left his watch on top of the phone, signaling knowledge of his impending death. The following day, his birthday, he went out in a blaze of glory, an ending worthy of Breaking Bad. Remotely activated by Walt's car fob, machine gun fire riddled Jack Welker's compound, fatally wounding Walter White but saving Jesse Pinkman.
Jesse's Age In Better Call Saul Is A Bit Harder To Calculate
In Breaking Bad season 4, episode 11, Jesse's age is mentioned in passing. Gus Fring's doctor reveals Jesse's weight, height, blood type, allergies, and age: 25 years old. There is no reference in the series to Jesse's birthday, nor any of the other characters besides Walt and Walt Jr. (whose 16th birthday his father missed). Walt is marked by the passage of time, while Jesse is not. Still, doing the math backward puts Jesse's age at about 24 years old in his Better Call Saul appearance.
There's a reason they're both portrayed differently. In both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Jesse's and Walt's ages can be established. For Walt, it's overt. For Jesse, however, it's not. The viewer isn't meant to see a progression of time with Jesse. He represents the troubled machinations of youth, and in that regard, how old he is doesn't matter. There's no clock ticking for Jesse; he can be redeemed. Walter White can not. He had to answer for his crimes chronologically started in that Better Call Saul episode, and, in answering for them, he had no further need of the watch.
