Jesse Walsh

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This article is about Jesse Walsh from the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series. If you are looking for one or more other versions of Jesse Walsh, please check the Jesse Walsh (disambiguation).

Jesse Walsh
Biographical information
Born	Unknown, 1969 (Age 17)
Status	Alive (presumably)
Gender	Male
Species	Human
Lifestyle information
Occupation	Student (Springwood High School)
Family information
Family Members	Ken Walsh (father) Cheryl Walsh (mother) Angela Walsh (sister)
Friends	Ron Grady †
Romances	Lisa Webber (probably)
Appearance
Played by	Mark Patton
First appearance	A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
Final appearance	A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

“	My dad thinks I'm on drugs. My mom thinks I'm crazy. And, you know, at this point, I don't know if I don't disagree with her.	”
	— Jesse to Lisa in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge.

Jesse Walsh is the main protagonist in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge.

In the movie universe, Jesse is one of the rare male leading protagonists of the film who faced Freddy Krueger. His parents, himself, and his sister move into the house Nancy Thompson and her mother lived in and begins to have nightmares that involve Freddy Krueger. Every night, he would dream that the room he's in is burning hot. Freddy would possess him and kill in his body.

Story

A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

Jesse Walsh is a Springwood High School student who moves into Nancy Thompson's old house on Elm Street with his family and begins to experience nightmares about Freddy Krueger.

Freddy enacts a plan to possess Jesse, using his body to kill in the physical world, slowly gaining the strength to manifest his form physically. Freddy uses his powers to kill Jesse's abusive coach and attempts to kill Jesse's sister, though Jesse is able to resist. He confides his fear in his friend Ron and asks him to watch over him while he sleeps but as Ron himself passes out, Freddy manifests and murders Ron.

Jesse retreats to his girlfriend Lisa's house during a party, but Freddy again takes control, trying to kill her. Jesse fights back against his control and Freddy instead turns on the other teenagers present, murdering 6 party guests. Freddy travels to the Boiler Room where he would take his child victims while still alive. Lisa confronts Freddy and Jesse is able to finally regain control, exorcising Freddy. After this incident, while traveling on the school bus with Lisa, their friend Kerry is impaled through the chest by Freddy and the bus careers off the road, revealing Freddy is still alive and has again trapped Jesse. His fate is left ambiguous.

Personality

Jesse is an introverted young man, however, when something bothers him or pleases him, he does not hesitate to say so. He is someone strong and capable of facing adversity, he also cares about the well-being of all the people who make up his circle and if the only option is to get away from them so as not to hurt them, Jesse will do it.

Physical appearance

Jesse Walsh is introduced as a young man with blonde hair and blue eyes and a developing tan. He's athletic, though thinner in stature, standing around 5'11" with a well-defined jawline and grown out hair. His most well-known outfit is blue jeans, a white shirt, and a blue-and-black checkered button-up over shirt.

Relationships

Lisa Webber

Lisa was the first to want to meet Jesse when she moved to Springwood. He usually takes her to school every morning and, as the story progresses, she ends up falling in love with him. She knows that Jesse is in trouble and that's why she never judges him, she always tries to be as understanding as possible with him, so she wants to be with him most of the time to protect him.

Ron Grady

It is with Jesse that we see that Ron relates the most. Although at first their relationship was conflictive, they eventually ended up being friends. It is precisely Ron who reveals to him that the house where Jesse lives is riddled with deaths. Ron also seems to care about the well-being of his friend, so he tries to be funny and understanding with him most of the time.

Other media

Jesse's Lost Journal

While the events depicted in Jesse's Lost Journal are not part of the series timeline or canon, Mark Patton (who played Jesse Walsh in A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge) wrote a string of events that he believes could go down in history as "what really happened." Following the timeline of the film series, the events we see in Freddy's Revenge take place in 1986, while the events described in Jesse's diary are mentioned as occurring in 1982 and 1985.

• Please see here the special article for the character of Jesse Walsh in the story written by Mark Patton.

Trivia

• His fate at the end of the film is ambiguous, but Mark Patton believes that Jesse is alive.
• Jesse, along with Maggie and Lori, are the only main protagonists who are in a single movie and do not appear again.
• Jesse is the only main Elm Street character that is male. The other protagonists (Nancy, Alice, Kristen, Lori & Maggie) are all female.
• Jesse is one of the 2 people that Freddy possesses, the other is Bill Freeburg.
• Jesse is the first known male survivor of Freddy Krueger.
• Jesse and Freddy's relationship is intended to have a homoerotic subtext with Freddy representing Jesse's fear of 'coming out'. Commentators point to the lack of interest Jesse shows in Lisa and his retreat to Ron's bedroom after a failed attempt at having sex with her, implying Ron is the object of Jesse's affection. At one point in the film, he also ends up in a gay S&M club where he is confronted by his homosexual gym teacher, Schneider. This plot is not made obvious in the film though Krueger-actor, Robert Englund and writer David Chaskin both admit to the concealed subtext.

Quotes

• (To Lisa): "Christ, what do I have to do to make you understand me? Last night he made me try and kill my sister."
• (To Ron): "You're full of shit, Grady."
• (To Ken): "Did they tell you that that girl lost her mind, and her mother killed herself in our living room?"
• (To Ron): "Just watch me. And if anything starts to happen - If I start to act weird, or start dreaming weird, or try to walk out of here, you gotta stop me. I don't care if you have to hit me over the head, just don't let me leave. And, Grady... don't fall asleep."