BTW, it kind of sucked seeing Jesse have this revelation and not quite being able to follow along with him. I know I should’ve been saying, “Holy Schneikies!” as I was watching it unfold but just. couldn’t. get there. :smack:
Jesse accuses Walt of poisoning Brock with the ricin (after correctly guessing that Huell lifted the ricin cigarette). He thinks Walt did it just to lash out at Jesse for betraying him and cooking for Gus, which will let Gus kill Walt.
Walt fakes a revelation. He says that Gus needed Jesse’s permission/acceptance in order to kill Walt. So Gus, having known for being willing to put children in danger or kill children, poisoned Brock in a way that would make it look like Walt was the one that did it. Walt convinces Jesse that Tyrus could’ve lifted the cigarette out of Jesse’s locker, since he cooked that day - and that Gus could’ve found out about the ricin because of all the security cameras. That Gus has always been ten steps ahead of Walt, and this was Gus’ plan to not only have Jesse accept Walt’s death, but actually do it himself.
Jesse accepts this as an explanation and buys into the idea that Gus poisoned Brock and tried to frame Walt for it, so he agrees to help him kill Gus. Eventually Jesse finds out it’s Lilly of the Valley that did the poisoning, and so he wonders where the ricin cigarette went, if it was all a coincidence. Walt plants fake ricin in Jesse’s Roomba.
Huell lifting the weed off Jesse lets him know that he was right in the first place - that Huell had lifted the ricin cigarette in the first place, and therefore it was all a ruse by Walt, and Walt was the one who poisoned Brock.
Thank you. I’m starting to agree with the others in this thread. This whole plot point seems a bit contrived. Not to mention that it forces you to remember certain minor details from episodes 3 seasons ago.
The implausible part is how Walt managed to poison Brock, and whether it’s really possible Huell could’ve lifted the cigarette. The actual ruse regarding how Walt tricked Jesse into thinking Gus did it is actually quite clever and one of the best parts of the show.
And the reason Walt didn’t use the ricin to poison Brock rather than concoct the new toxin (which would have been consistent with the Gus did it story) was?
He wanted something that Brock was more likely to not die from?
He wanted Jesse’s telling the docs about ricin to be wrong so the investigation into Jesse how Jesse knew about the ricin would end and Brock’s illness would be blamed on Brock somehow eating lily of the valley for kicks?
As to the waitress/diner bit … I thought the waitress was just scared of serving people with swastika tattoos who look like they could be very bad news people … but talking about a major heist in public with no apparent discretion did strike me as being very bone-headed.
Pretty sure the comment about kids on bikes and helmets was meant to remind us about the kid on the bike and to hammer us with the fact that Todd’s story of how everything went off so tight with the only big complication being the guy pushing the truck off the tracks had left out the kid complication.
Thanks a ton, SenorBeef! This clears things up quite a bit. Regarding the quote above, was the fake ricin ever found, and did Walt do this so Jesse might think Brock found it and put it there, or maybe that Jesse dropped it and the Roomba sucked it up?
Jesse was stressing over the missing ricin - if Brock’s poisoning was a coincidence, what happened to the ricin? Walt came over and helped him search his place. He asked him when the last time he checked the Roomba was, and Jesse said about a week. So they opened it up and found the ricin in there, which Walt planted. It was Walt’s way of explaining the missing ricin - Jesse must’ve misplaced it at some point in the last week and the Roomba scooped it up.
There was a lot of questions surrounding that on the internet and finally Vince just put it to rest on the podcast and said that Huell took the pack. I think they made it pretty clear that he can pick pocket someone in this episode when he took Jesse’s weed right in plain sight of the camera. I’m pretty sure they made it blatantly obvious to the viewers on purpose this time. Of all the things to go around in circles about, they didn’t want us to spend all week going back and forth about whether or not Huell took it or Jesse lost it.
Indeed. Not that I’m an expert (though I am fascinated by pickpocketry!), but the key is the misdirection, as w/ magic/sleight of hand. Sausage-fingers might be a handicap, but not one that a skilled pickpocket couldn’t overcome.
Whenever you watch a show about pickpocketing, one of the things they always tell you to watch out for is someone bumping into you (because that’ll distract you and you won’t notice it). If someone as big as Huell went the opposite way through a door at the same time as you, you’re not going to notice him reaching into an open jacket pocket, especially when your goal is to GTFO forever.
Ahhh! So that’s why Huell stood in the doorway when Jesse was trying to get by. My friend and I at the time thought it was kind of an awkward egress and nothing more.
As much as the needlessly over-complicated ricin plot gives me a throbbing stress headache whenever I think about it too much, it’s actually impressive in a perverse sort of way that there aren’t any actual plot holes in it. Walt managing to poison Brock at his school is the closest thing to one, but it’s not *impossible *that he could have done it.
You can see his little slight of hand if you re-watch the scene.
Because Jesse found it in the Roomba, he reasonably assumed that he had dropped it in his house (rather than it being stolen from his pocket) and that the Roomba must have picked it up while vacuuming.
I don’t think the ricin plotline was overly complex or implausible. It requires you to pay close attention, but it’s actually pretty brilliant - you see the groundwork laid by Walt and just how clever he could be with his deception. It made Jesse’s confrontation with Walt in his apartment one of the most intense, interesting, and clever scenes ever put on film.
Well, I guess it depends on perspective. I think it’s needlessly over-complicated for this show. Since so much of the focus of the series is on extremely organic storytelling and character development, this kind of Rube Goldberg plotting kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. In a different context it might have worked well.
Actually, what annoys me the most is the extremely contrived bit with Jesse smoking the joint in Saul’s office, clearly set up just so Huell would need to pick his pocket again to lift his dope, in order for Jesse to have his light bulb moment.
It’s consistent with Jesse not giving a fuck about anything lately. What else has he been doing with his time lately except feeling horrible, getting high, and throwing money from his car when he’s sick of listening to Badger and Skinny Pete?
So why did Walt use lily of the valley to poison the kid and not the ricin?
To make it look like an accident, meaning no more investigation into the case.
Yeah, I know, it’s interesting how Walt not only knows how to make and poison people with ricin, but also knows about a common plant with effects that at first resemble those of ricin, and then just happens to have that plant in his back yard.
Yeah, the dude must have had a keep interest in poisons for a while. Which, come to think of it, isn’t really surprising.
He didn’t want to actually kill the kid.