And I also have to say, the ricin cigarette has been an incredible misdirect. Jesse has been harboring it almost all season as this big secret weapon to use against Gus, and it ends up being used by Gus as a weapon against him. This is the work of masters (and of course I’m talking about the writers here, not Gus).
Sorry for the triple post, but I have insomnia and I can’t keep BB out of my head. 
Just to further reinforce my case that Gus didn’t see anything outside (if anyone still has any doubt after reading my post above), consider the following evidence: first we must accept that Walt, paranoid though he may be, correctly surmised that Gus poisoned Brock hoping that Jesse would blame Walt for it and that would drive the final wedge between them. Second, at the point of Gus’ meeting with Jesse, he knows that Jesse will have noticed the missing ricin cigarette by now (Jesse is a smoker, after all). Now when Jesse mentions that Brock was poisoned, he asks Jesse one, and only one question:
“How did this happen?”
Jesse’s response, “they don’t know”, tells Gus all he needs to know. Because if Jesse had fallen into his plan by blaming Walt, he would have immediately spilled that to Gus (and of course, Gus would have then either egged him on to kill Walt or asked if he would “sign off” on him killing Walt now). But instead, Jesse offers none of his own theories, despite the fact that he is missing his poisonous cigarette and he knows Brock didn’t take it on his own. That means that if Jesse isn’t blaming Walt, it leaves very, very few options for who he thinks did poison Brock. And when Gus realizes that Jesse knows he did it, coupled with the fact that he also knows Walt has been actively trying to murder him for some time, that raises an enormous red flag on the whole situation. And that’s what I submit that Gus was contemplating in the garage and why he had more than ample reason to stay away from the car without the need to see a “reflection in Walt’s glasses” or some other such nonsense (looking out on the horizon was just a way of sizing up the situation and realizing that if he was about to get car-bombed, this would be a really great place to do it).
Also, when Gus placed his hand on Jesse’s shoulder, Jesse very clearly flinched. There were a number of indications that Gus could use to deduce something and be more suspicious than usual.
Just want to point out that we had no confirmation one way or another in this episode on Ted’s status.
So does anybody know the street value of 200 lbs. of pure meth? I’m just curious as to how much of a financial hit Gus is taking by a batch being ruined.
[QUOTE=cmyk]
We also can’t know if Gus really did poison the kid. I’m starting to think it’s a big circumstantial misunderstanding, and Jesse just tipped his cards, because if Gus actually didn’t know about the poison, he certainly does now, and there could only be one reason for that to exist.
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Assuming for a moment though that Gus didn’t know about the ricin earlier, he still doesn’t know about it now. Jesse didn’t name the type of poison in their conversation. And if you have no other reason to be suspicious, there’s nothing all that unusual about a little kid poisoning himself on his own.
(But I believe Gus has known about the ricin from the start.)
Gus says he’s a member of the hospital board. Where does he find the time for that??
Agreed. We need at least one more of Walt’s “better living (and killing) through chemistry” tricks before the show is over. Preferably a few of them.
I bet you’re right, and I think it’ll be that the machine hiding the lab is “too clean”. It’s missing oil stains or burn marks on the floor surrounding it, or something. (Because it’s never used for its nominal purpose.)
Thanks for noticing. Now that’s bothering me again. (In a good way.)
Saul also said he’s hitting the road in this episode. I hope he’s not out of the show for good.
In reading the comments on another site (under Sepinwall’s review on Hitfix) there is quite a discussion on whether or not Walt could have been the one to poison Brock.
Someone there pointed out that when Walt spins his gun the third time, and it points away from him, that it is pointing towards a plant with red flowers. A castor oil plant.
I wasn’t on board w/ the Walt Did It theory until finding out this bit of info (if it turns out to be accurate, I need to re-watch to know for sure). Anyone have access to that scene to confirm what kind of plant it is?
The thing that I noticed was one of these hanging next to the machine that tilts forward. Now, more then likely it’s nothing. I assume that a big laundry like that has a gantry crane for getting the laundry from the floor into the machine but it’s the only thing I caught that seemed at all out of place to me.
I don’t think Saul is totally gone yet. He asked Jesse to put in a good word with Gus for him. I think he’s just planning to lay low until the Walt disappears (which as far as he knows is still in the works) and Gus stops looking for him [Walt].
I loved the tension of the episode but poisoning Brock was out of left field.
Assuming Brock was poisoned – and we have to assume this, since the cigarette is gone and the kid is very ill – how was it done? How did Tyrus get the ricin on something that only Brock (or Andrea) would be exposed to? Break into the house and put it on a toothbrush? Or “Hey kid! Want some candy?”
Gus is responsible, but I don’t think he did it so that Jesse would blame Walt. Walt had no opportunity and Gus knows this, so why try to set him up?
Most important, how did Gus think Jesse would respond? “Okay, I guess you can kill him now.” Nuh uh. Gus had to know that Jesse would go after Walt, and in doing that, Jesse is put at risk. Gus needs Jesse.
It makes no sense for Gus to do it in the first place. “There will be an appropriate response.” That’s an obvious threat, so if anything happens to someone Jesse cares about, Gus is the only one Jesse will blame.
Way too convoluted, unless we believe Gus has lost his mind.
Or maybe Walt did it… Maybe the ricin is a red herring and he only poisoned Brock with something less deadly. Something to get him laid up in the hospital for a bit, but enough to get Jesse back on his side.
I just had a thought. The ricin went missing the same day that Brock got sick. If I recall correctly, it takes a day or two or three before symptoms start, right? So something’s not right here.
Also,Walt would know that it would take a few days. He’s the one who originally told Jesse that. But he didn’t question the kid getting sick the same day the ricin disappeared. Why didn’t he?
Maybe kids get sick from it quicker. Or maybe there’s something else going on here.
Walt had a gun pointed at him. He didn’t have time to think it through.
Walt had only seen Brock once. The kid barely registered with him. How does making a kid sick get Jesse on his side? We’re left with the same questions as if Gus did it – when, how, why.
There is a red flower in the background (I tried to get it the best I could in the screen shot) but it does not look like a pointy puffball like your castor plant there. It looks like a flower-type flower.
There are a lot of things about the ricin that don’t make sense. I agree it’s strange there are no cops asking questions. I wonder if Brock isn’t sick from something entirely unrelated or got into some other kind of poison.
I could imagine Jesse somehow misplaced the ricin cigarette and everyone is so keyed up that all of this drama is happening over a misunderstanding. As has been discussed here before it is very likely Jesse’s place was bugged and Gus knew about the ricin. Now it disappears and everyone suspects everyone else which starts triggering all kinds of chaos.
It sounds like something the writers would do. To me it is more plausible than the writers ignoring the fact that cops would be immediately looking for Jesse if there was suspicion of ricin poisoning. But this show has surprised me before so anything is possible.
I wonder too what exactly did happen to make Andrea apparently stop talking to Jesse. If she thinks he has any information I would think she would be trying to get it out of him.
I would agree, except that Vince Gilligan has said explicitly that his intention with Walt was to transform him from the protagonist to the antagonist over the course of the show. And considering the ease with which Walt now entertains solutions that involve killing people (see Gale), I don’t think it’s a huge stretch. If he really thought that the only way he could save himself and his family was to kill that kid, I don’t think he would hesitate at this point.
I don’t necessarily think that’s what happened, but I don’t think it’s out of the question.
Are you kidding? He admitted that he might be responsible for her son being ill, or at least exposing him to a poison. That’s enough to piss off any mother.
Hmm, do you have a link for that interview Doc? I’d be interested to see it. Although I still maintain that he definitely didn’t do it here (whether he would have been willing to or not).
What difference would Walt having the plant make? We know he has access to the raw materials needed to make ricin…he’s already made it.
It would be more about foreshadowing, not a direct correlation. But, as shown above w/ the screen-cap that was posted - the plant in question in that scene wasn’t a castor oil plant.
Or maybe that is exactly what they want us to think.
There was just something kind of vague about the way the whole thing played out. We never got any confirmation that he was poisoned, did we? Only Jesse saying so. He never admitted anything to Andrea. He said it was a hunch. Yes, obviously she would be suspicious the way he ran off but there is just something off about the whole thing.
If Jesse just happened to know that Brock had been poisoned with ricin that would not be the end of the conversation. The parents or doctors or police would be asking lots of questions.
Sometimes this show is very clever with what it implies.