Who is Jessi?
Gus and Mike have spent a good part of the season winning Jesse to their side, rehabilitating him.
It’s possible that Jesse’s house is bugged and that Gus and Mike know that Walt’s been trying to get Jesse to kill Gus. Plus, Gus can’t get close with Walt again, because of Hank.
I’d agree with this if the cartel knew about Walt/Heisenberg. I think the only one who knows is the Uncle, and he’s not talking.
The cartel chemist knows Jesse’s no chemist, but all they cared about was whether he could make the blue stuff. Doesn’t matter to them how Jesse learned to do it, just that he knows how.
His alternative was to take Walt, and there’s no way he was going to do that because while Jesse is emotional and perhaps easily led Walt is a total loose cannon. Plus, he knew Don Eladio didn’t care jack about chemistry credentials- he blew the brains out of the first meth chemist- it was the procedure he wanted; the chemists on staff can reverse engineer and improve it. And while an all out charge might be suicidal he didn’t have much of a choice: they were going to keep coming after him and eventually kill him if he didn’t, and a very risky surprise attack was his one chance at a decisive (at least temporarily) victory.
In the chaos that ensues he’ll be able to fortify his position and renegotiate with the cartel and this time as a man who they know you don’t fuck with. Had he rolled over and raised his leg to them they’d know they had him and wouldn’t bother to show him respect. It’s better they see you as dangerous and hostile than cooperative but weak.
I don’t know if you meant that to be funny but it is. 
It says something about how great this episode was that in all this discussion of great scenes in this episode (all well deserved), no one mentioned all the Saul/Skyler/Ted Beneke stuff, which was both hilarious and also actually interesting (somewhat surprising, as the Beneke plotline up until now has been one of the least interesting, imho).
Don’t be a deck.
You seem to be forgetting something: Gus is a businessman. Like Don Eladio said “Los negocios son los negocios” (business is business). Walt has proved himself unreliable and a huge liability. Jesse has proved himself a valuable asset. That’s all that matters (and anyway, Jesse has been clean for a while).
No, he’s not. Did you forget the whole part where Walt is actively planning to murder Gus as soon as he gets the opportunity? Walt is a problem that needs to be dealt with. Gus’ rather brilliant plan of doing so involves winning over Jesse, who used to be Walt’s greatest (and only) ally.
What other option did he have? He sure as hell isn’t taking Walt anywhere (unless he’s in a barrel in the back of a truck). Jesse was clearly uncomfortable with the whole idea but putting him under that pressure gave him his moment to shine, and it worked wonderfully.
Why though? Jesse is unimportant to the operation. The very first episode of this season made it very clear that Gus wants a chemist to run the lab. Why would they go to such lengths to rehab a loose cannon junky when there clearly are other qualified people in the operation.
There is no doubt that Gus knows Walt is trying to kill him, Walt confessed as much to Mike. But Walt’s motivation is self protection; a result of Gus isolating and fucking with Walt. If we accept that Gus wants Walt, and only Walt, to run the lab, we should expect Gus to you know, not actively kick the hornets nest.
The Hank angle is also very important to consider. Gus knows about the relation. If Walt is pushed to choosing between dying and confessing, there is a chance he’ll confess to Hank and throw Gus under the bus. Why would Gus keep pushing Walt?
But he doesn’t know how. At all. Lets say somewhere along the production line there was a container that was only half as big as the one Jesse is used to dealing with. Uh oh. Do we halve the formula? Crap, I don’t even know the formula. Can I just cut everything in half? Crap, this product is completely different than what I expected. It was beyond luck that Jesse was able to make the same product in a different lab. I’m willing to admit that I should suspend my disbelief in this situation, but generally this show is good about respecting that. Regardless, Gus’ took a huge chance with Jesse in Mexico, which is quite contrary to the character we have known so far.
Well, that’s precisely what makes Jesse disposable and Walt not. Why would you take your best brain to a sketchy and dangerous meeting with the cartel? No. You don’t play your whole hand all at once and you don’t give away the entire store. Walt would be so proud to be more knowledgeable than everyone else that he would actually spill trade secret sorts of details that he should probably keep to himself to preserve the integrity of his product.
You take your second-stringer – your backup guy – whose loyalty you’ve been building and whom you can afford to lose if your plan goes south. Add to that what Sampiro and AuntiePam said and your best choice is Jesse, and that is exactly why Gus and Mike have been grooming him over the past few episodes.
But I have to say that, for all his brains, Walt is pretty fucking stupid for it to have not occurred to him that Jesse’s place might be bugged. I’m pretty sure it is. Really? Gus will kill Victor right in front of you for no apparent reason* other than to show off his Supreme Badassery and you think Jesse’s place isn’t bugged? That’s just willful stupidity, IMO.
- Actually, I have a theory about that too. Just before Gus sliced Victor’s throat open was when we heard Walt’s desperate speech. Because Gus doesn’t really want the cartel to have the exact precise formula (so that he will have a corner on the blue meth market), what Walt did was really very poor form (like Gale taking notes and leaving that around to be collected later as evidence). He basically listed a bunch of pitfalls that Victor would/should want to avoid when he’s cooking for the cartel in Mexico (Sounds like a new Food Channel show, doesn’t it? Cooking for the Cartel with Victor: this week: Mexico! :D) I think Gus had no choice but to kill Victor because of Walt running off at the mouth. Victor could have gone back to Mexico, cooked perfect blue meth, and pushed Gus’s operation right out. Better to do that right in front of Walt, too, to intimidate him into keeping his fool mouth shut. If Walt was so expendable, then Gus would have sliced his throat right then and there, or he’d have taken him to Mexico and left Jesse to clean out the tanks back at the lab.
The only thing that seems really clear to me: Skylar and Walt are not very good strategic thinkers. I bet neither of them play chess.
Walt is a liability but Jesse isn’t? Jesse just killed Gale. Jesse has been high the first half of this season.
In what way is it brilliant to force the one person upon which your entire operation relies into a position where his only options are kill or be killed?
The plan is for Gus to eat some poison with the Cartel boys and puke it up. The well being of the person Gus brings isn’t important when the key variable is “either we all go back together or we die.”
The only way Gus’ plan would be foiled is if the person he brought to convince the Cartel that the chemistry is good fails at his job. Who is more likely to fail, the chemist, or the two-weeks-sober junky?
Jesse killed Gale to protect Walt (and at Walt’s strong urging), but he never wanted to do it and still feels terribly guilty over it. Gus understands that. Now that Jesse is on Gus’ side, he doesn’t have to worry about something like that happening again.
Walt hasn’t been forced into any position. He has completely dug his own grave through his actions and myriad poor choices.
?? Are we watching the same show??
The end of season 3:
Jesse was pissed that Tomas is involved in the drug trade and plans on taking revenge on Gus’ street dealers. Walt gets wind and negotiates a deal, Gus promises no more kids in the drug trade, and Jesse agrees to back down. Tomas gets shot and Jesse plans to kill the drug dealers again. Walt saves Jesse’s life and in doing so damns both of them in the eyes of Gus.
The rest from Wikipedia:
I know what happened, but you seem to be confused as we were just talking about Jesse killing Gale, which has nothing to do with any of this. The extent that Walt killing the street dealers (who were expendable and rather unimportant to Gus anyway) influenced that chain of events is minor - Gus wanted to get rid of Walter well before that due to his extreme unreliability. The consequence of killing the street dealers was probably mostly one of fueling Walt’s paranoid psyche.
And Gus also knows why Jesse wanted to kill them (the street dealers) - remember the sit-down they had where Gus ordered those dealers “no more children”? They went against that and killed the child anyway, so it was they who disobeyed Gus - not Jesse. Of course, we’ll never know whether Gus actually ordered the hit and the meeting with Jesse was just for show, but I like to believe he didn’t.
Just because Jesse has never synthesized phenylacetic acid doesn’t mean that he’s incapable of making Walt’s formula. They’ve been cooking together for four seasons now, hundreds, maybe even thousands of pounds of product, over the span of a year. And even if Walt wasn’t instructing Jesse every step of the way, do you really doubt that Jesse wouldn’t have picked everything up by now?
And, of course, Gus knew that Jesse was capable of cooking Walt’s product. He was buying it from Jesse at the beginning of season three, when Jesse was cooking it out of the back of the RV. Did you forget about that? He was making it under totally different circumstances back then, using equipment that was much smaller than what he would’ve found in the lab. Obviously, it wasn’t luck. He knows what he’s doing. Even Walt admitted that Jesse’s product was as pure as his own.
To recap season 3:
Walt is chugging along, makin’ meth with Gale. Gus, and everyone else involved, is happy.
Jesse gets beat up by Hank, is going to press charges.
Walt makes a deal with Jesse that he’ll hire Jesse on as a lab assistant.
Gus is pissed. “NEVER TRUST A JUNKY!” Gale is let go.
Jesse starts work and starts stealing meth from the lab.
Jesse picks a fight with street dealers.
Walt again comes to Jesse’s aid and negotiates a truce.
Jesse breaks the truce
Walt saves Jesse’s life
The scene that everyone still has in their mind where Jesse shoots Gale.
From my perspective, much of the drama from season 3 comes from the fact that Gus hates Jesse because Jesse is a wild card. Why is Gus willing to take a chance on Jesse now, after Jesse has proved himself even less reliable than before? On the other hand, Walt has constantly acted out of self preservation and loyalty to his friends and family, which seems like it would be more forgivable. Especially considering Gus needs Walt, and Walt holds a lot of cards 1) he could screw everyone over by going to Hank and working out a deal where he gives up the head of a huge meth organization 2) he could refuse to cook 3) he could try to kill Gus. I think Gus should be courting Walt and trying to smooth things over, not antagonize him and force him to play some cards.
Please give me an example of Walt’s unreliability with Gus that doesn’t stem from Jesse’s actions.
I did forget about that. Fair enough, taking Jesse to Mexico is plausible, but still quite risky.
I still don’t get why Gus is deliberately stirring the pot with Walt and being BFF with Jesse. Sure sure, Machiavellian plan to drive Walt insane. Things always work out for Gus.
I don’t think the cancer is Jesse’s fault. Could be, but I doubt it.
Well, there’s the fact that he told his wife about his meth cooking profession and has her actively involved in the money-laundering operation (and don’t for a second think Gus doesn’t know that she knows, as well as the influence she has on him). There’s the fact that he’s a social retard who doesn’t know how to interact with Gus in public or not drop hints to his DEA brother-in-law to satisfy his own arrogance. He’s too much of a risk, plain and simple.
Walt stopped cooking for Gus at the end of the second season. Gus was only able to convince him to return to cooking after manipulating his ego by purchasing Jesse’s product, by revealing to him the expensive lab in which he’d be working, and by calling on his natural instincts to provide for his family.
And, of course, all of the wrangling Gus has to do with The Cousins to keep Walt alive. Gus has had to do a lot to keep Walt cooking.
I don’t think Gus has been deliberately stirring the pot with Walt. Meaning, I don’t think Gus is trying to get Walt to act inappropriately.
He’s been marginalizing him for most of the season, sure. But he hasn’t been poking at Walt unnecessarily, I don’t think. Walt’s still cooking product in the laboratory, and now has Tyrus to help him. He’s not being threatened or cajoled into working. He’s being left alone. It’s only Walt’s paranoia and aggression at being left alone that makes it seem like Gus is tightening the noose, when really all he’s done has been employing Jesse in a different sector of his operation.
Gus really only has two options here, since he needs somebody to cook:
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He can rehabilitate Jesse. Beside being a junkie, his only mistakes, at least according to Gus, have been his attempted murder of two child killers and his loyalty to Walt.
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He can continue to employ a murderous loose-cannon who plans to kill him at the first opportunity.