Sep. 7th, 2011
MASK OR MENACE - information.
Sep. 7th, 2011 11:11 am
jesse pinkman
{breaking bad} {basics}
“ You either run from things or you face them.
It's all about accepting who you really are. I accept who I am. I'm the bad guy. ” — Jesse Pinkman, No Más {overview}
background
If Heisenberg was the king, then Jesse was the prince. He was the man's most trusted and treasured partner, a protégé and a surrogate son. Once upon a time, Heisenberg had been an ordinary schoolteacher named Walter White, and Jesse had been his failing student. They reunited by chance years later and their meth business was born. Though their partnership was far from blissful, the men came to depend upon and care deeply for one another. Jesse's loyalty to Walt was such that he was willing to kill for and die for the man, a promise which Walt would put to the test throughout their relationship. Together they ruled their drug empire for only a year, before a series of events led Jesse to betray Walt by confessing his crimes and aiding the DEA in their pursuit of the kingpin. Walt retaliated by ordering Jesse's execution. Jesse managed to escape death, but suffered a worse fate at the hands of Walt's men, who tortured and enslaved him. After the fall of Heisenberg, Jesse has become one of the most wanted men in the United States. reputation
appearance
In an effort to blend in with the locals, Jesse's wardrobe has adapted over time and taken on a retro vibe that calls back to Marlon Brando in The Wild One or James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. The basic components of Jesse's outfit are generally the same on any given day: sneakers, skinny or cuffed jeans, fitted t-shirt, and leather jacket. There's an obvious gangster/biker influence to his fashion choices and he often looks, quite frankly, like he might rob someone at gunpoint. That's the idea. Jesse is scrawny and small in stature, standing at only 5'8", and he compensates by dressing to intimidate. He wants to look like someone who shouldn't be messed with. In terms of color, Jesse favors black overall, with garnishes of subdued primary colors and flannels. His clothing is expensive but not ostentatious. When it comes to Jesse's demeanor, he's become carefully controlled. It used to be that every thought in his head was readily apparent at a glance, but circumstances have caused him to develop a habit of keeping perfectly still and empty. This makes him slightly constrained in casual situations, as he has to remember to react to others in an open way. Only when he's in trusted company does he let go and allow his true emotions to surface. His vulnerability shows in his hands, as he wrings them or rubs at his neck when he's anxious. Jesse chain smokes to keep himself occupied, and as a result, he always smells like cigarettes. His voice has a gravelly, rough quality to it, and it's deeper than most people would imagine from the looks of him. He speaks with an indistinct American accent and a thuggish cadence that betrays his criminal culturalization. “ I'm the guy your boss brought here to show you
how it's done. I suggest you stop whining like a little bitch and do what I say. ” — Jesse Pinkman, Salud {abilities}
powers
ACCELERATED REGENERATION. Jesse recovers from wounds and illness about twice as fast as the average person and to degrees beyond normal human scope (e.g. he doesn't scar and he can regenerate lost limbs). He is immune to poisons and drugs, as he metabolizes them too quickly. Jesse's healing strength also enriches his blood, so that it that can be used to heal others via I.V., ingestion, or contact with a wound. The greater the damage, the more blood will be necessary to heal it, but a constant drip could potentially enable someone to regrow a limb over time, just as Jesse is currently capable of doing. A single dose of his blood could, for example, work as an antidote for poison or cure an illness or heal small wounds. Also, unlike regular blood, Jesse's blood will not spoil even if it isn't properly stored. It could potentially be harvested for use weeks after it's been shed. POWER AUGMENTATION. Jesse is capable of amplifying the superpowers of others within eyesight range of him. When he directs his intentions toward the target, that target's ability is doubled in strength - and duration, if there's a time limit involved in that power. If Jesse is killed, knocked unconscious, or removed from the area, then that effect is neutralized. If someone's powers have been drained or nullified, then Jesse is able to restore them for as long as he's present. He can use this power to boost his own healing abilities, which results in his regenerating at an exponential rate rather than the double-speed at which he regenerates when that power is in its latent state. That is, he doesn't normally need to be able to concentrate on regenerating, but he will if he wants to regenerate more quickly. Of course, he has to remain conscious enough to focus on the task. skills
arsenal
“ The thing is... If you just do stuff and
nothing happens, what's it all mean? What's the point? ” — Jesse Pinkman, Problem Dog {history}
In 1984, Jesse was born to wealthy parents in a pleasant and safe neighborhood of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He enjoyed a childhood typical of many upper middle class white children, given the freedom to pursue ordinary extracurricular activities such as kung fu classes and drum lessons. His real passion, however, was art. If he wasn't playing video games, he was scribbling on every piece of paper he could find - even the backs of his test papers. He was drawing from the moment he could hold a crayon in his hand, and had big dreams of becoming a comic artist someday, his sketchbooks filled with superhero designs.
While Jesse had a bright and creative mind, he lacked the attention span for schoolwork. As the years went on, he fell further and further behind in his classes. Eventually he stopped trying altogether. The more his parents pressured him, the lower his confidence dropped and the less any of it seemed worth the effort. By the time he landed in Walter White's eleventh grade chemistry class, he'd resorted to turning in incomplete assignments decorated with drawings of his teacher being sodomized with lab equipment. Around the same time, Jesse was experimenting with a variety of drugs. Cigarettes, then marijuana, and eventually methamphetamine became his favorite vices; partying became his outlet for frustration. Meanwhile, Jesse's home situation became strained. His parents repeatedly threw him out for his drug use, but allowed him to return whenever he showed a token amount of repentance. (One such attempt involved enrolling at DeVry University for data systems management. Jesse, of course, dropped out halfway through the semester.) In the end, he moved in with his Aunt Ginny across town. Ginny was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and Jesse became her caretaker as the rest of the family distanced themselves out of grief. It was a burden that Jesse shouldered alone, glad to do it but resentful of his family for abandoning Ginny in her time of need. Ginny was a liberal spirit who loved and accepted Jesse as an individual, unlike his parents, and after her death he felt her loss profoundly. Although ownership of her house fell to Jesse's mother, he was allowed to continue residing there. With no occupation and no direction, Jesse took up selling the meth that his former schoolmate Emilio Koyama started cooking. Business was simple in those days, limited mostly to their circle of acquaintances, but highly profitable. He bought himself a red Monte Carlo lowrider, complete with a vanity plate: "THE CAPN", which stood for his alias, "Cap'n Cook". Word got out around town about this Cap'n Cook slinging glass and the DEA was tipped off to Emilio and Jesse's cook site. By sheer luck, Jesse was having sex with a pretty neighbor at the time of the DEA's raid. Emilio was arrested, but Jesse leapt out the window in his boxers and made a break for it. Unfortunately, someone witnessed his escape: Jesse's former high school chemistry teacher, Walter White. Walt had been on a ride-along with his brother-in-law, one of the agents responsible for the raid. He said nothing to his brother-in-law about Jesse, instead showing up at the boy's house later that evening. Jesse assumed Walt was there to convince him to come clean, but Walt had another goal in mind. He wanted to partner up, to cook meth together. When Jesse laughed at him, Walt added, "Either that, or I turn you in." Jesse begrudgingly agreed to the arrangement. And with that, the two began their partnership in the meth business. Walt gathered supplies from the high school's chemistry inventory and sent Jesse off with $7000 on a mission to procure an RV that they could turn into a rolling meth lab. Jesse proceeded to blow the money on strippers and booze, using what was left at the end of the night to pay his friend Combo for a stolen RV. Their first cook went better than Jesse could have imagined. Out in a beat-up old RV in the middle of the desert, Walt cooked up the purest glass that Jesse had ever seen. "This is art, Mr. White!" he proclaimed, and immediately took a sample to pass on to a distributor - Emilio's cousin, Krazy-8. Krazy-8 and Emilio (out on bail) were, however, less than pleased to see Jesse. Emilio believed that Jesse had ratted him out to the DEA and that his absence on the day of the raid was no coincidence. They then forced Jesse at gunpoint to take them to the real chemist who had cooked up the meth sample. When they arrived at the RV, Emilio recognized Walt from the raid and told his cousin that the man was with the DEA. They prepared to shoot both Walt and Jesse, but Walt convinced them that he could simply show them how to cook his recipe. What he cooked up instead was phosphine gas. Walt locked the two dealers inside the RV and waited for them to suffocate. Then he and Jesse drove the RV and the two bodies back to Jesse's home. Only... Krazy-8 wasn't quite dead yet. This left the two with tasks neither of them wanted to carry out: first, to murder Krazy-8; and second, to dissolve the bodies in hydrofluoric acid. They flipped a coin. Jesse was assigned body disposal. After hours of trying to work up the nerve by smoking meth, Jesse went out to drag the body from the RV. And was spotted by Walt's wife, Skyler. Luckily, she failed to notice the body wrapped in garbage bags not ten feet away, too engrossed in telling Jesse off for selling weed to her husband. (He hadn't, but he had made the mistake of calling Walt's home. When Skyler had done a little investigating and demanded to know why someone like Jesse would be calling, Walt offered the false explanation that Jesse was his pot dealer.) When Skyler was finally gone, Jesse dragged the body into his house and up the stairs to the bathroom. Walt had instructed Jesse to find plastic containers in which to pour the acid, but Jesse had failed to find one large enough to fit a body. He decided the bathtub would be sufficient. And then learned that was a horrible mistake when the acid ate not only the body, but the ceramic of the tub and the floor beneath it. The ceiling collapsed, splattering acid and gore throughout Jesse's hallway. Walt helped Jesse clean up the mess, lecturing all the while - even though he still hadn't completed his own task. Krazy-8 was, in fact, recovering and growing stronger every day, kept as a prisoner in Jesse's basement. Jesse finally left the house in frustration, shacking up at a motel with a prostitute named Wendy just to get away for a while. By the time he returned, the deed was done. Jesse and Walt disposed of Krazy-8's body, then agreed that they would be through with the business once their batch of meth sold out. Sampling the product with his friends left Jesse increasingly paranoid in the days that followed. Finally, in a sleep-deprived and tweaked-out panic, he fled his house and ran back to his parents'. He passed out for a full day, then managed to convince them to let him stay on a couple more. But the effort to clean up was ruined when their maid reported to his parents that she'd found a joint hidden in his room. Jesse told them that the joint didn't belong to him, but after so many previous betrayals, they didn't believe him and asked him to leave. Jesse complied without argument... because he was covering up for Jake, his 12-year-old brother, to whom the joint actually belonged. At least Jesse had managed to sell the batch of meth. And, with his family pushing him away, he attempted to reach out to Walt. Walt was furious and suspicious when Jesse showed up at his home, alleging that Jesse was wearing a wire. Jesse berated him for his paranoia and threw Walt's half of the cash - $4000 - into the swimming pool on his way out. Trying to move on from the drug trade, Jesse began to interview for regular jobs around town but found himself highly underqualified. He ran into his old friend, Badger, while he was out. They shared a joint, Jesse expressed his frustration with his most recent partner, and Badger offered to become his new partner. Jesse, although initially reluctant, accepted the offer, and the two drove off for a cook session in the desert. At the end, Jesse was dissatisfied with the quality of their meth. He made numerous attempts, using all of Badger's pseudoephedrine supply, but threw away each unsatisfactory batch. Furious, Badger attacked Jesse. Jesse left him stranded in the desert, driving off in the RV. Soon after, Walt returned to Jesse: "Want to cook?" They agreed that there would be no more bloodshed, that Walt would deal solely with chemistry as a silent partner and that Jesse would be in charge of the business aspect, on the street. But during their next cook, Walt began coughing so violently that he stumbled out of the RV and tore his shirt open to get some air. Noticing the marks on Walt's chest, Jesse was reminded of something similar he'd seen on his aunt during her treatment. He realized that Walt had lung cancer. Suddenly it all made sense, why a straight like Walt would choose to go into meth production. Jesse began selling the latest batch around town, but he wasn't moving it fast enough for Walt. To meet his healthcare costs, he needed Jesse to sell it in bulk... but Walt had killed the only distributor Jesse knew personally. Someone new had stepped in, a "badass" named Tuco. When Walt ordered Jesse to meet with him, Jesse protested, saying it would be less risky to continue selling in small quantities. Jesse's friend Skinny Pete had done jail time with Tuco, though, and offered to introduce them. The two of them brought a pound to Tuco themselves, which Tuco sampled and approved of. ("This kicks like a mule with his balls wrapped in duct tape!" he proclaimed after snorting the product off a bowie knife.) He was less pleased when Jesse named his price - $35,000 - and demanded the full amount up front. Tuco shoveled stacks of cash into a sack, but when Jesse reached for it, Tuco knocked him to the ground and beat him with the sack of money. Jesse was hospitalized with broken ribs and remained unconscious for over a day. After visiting Jesse in the hospital, it was Walt's turn to have a chat with Tuco. And with the help of some highly explosive fulminated mercury, Walt introduced himself as "Heisenberg" and managed to persuade Tuco to accept a new demand of $50,000: "Thirty-five for the pound of meth you stole, and another fifteen for my partner's pain and suffering." Meanwhile, after his release from the hospital, Jesse had been forced to try to sell his house to pay his own medical bills and was now living in the RV. Walt found him there and handed him an envelope full of cash, but Jesse wasn't remotely happy to learn about the new deal with Tuco. Walt had promised two more pounds of meth, but Jesse couldn't obtain nearly enough pseudo to produce that much meth. When Walt and Jesse handed over far less than two pounds at their next rendezvous with Tuco, the distributor was dangerously aggravated. Especially when Walt asked for even more money, as an investment. To soothe Tuco, Walt promised a yield of four pounds rather than two, sending Jesse into an internal panic. Back home, Jesse pointed out that it would take two or three hundred boxes of sinus pills to produce four pounds of meth, but Walt assured him that there was another way and they could synthesize the necessary ingredients themselves. Still uneasy, Jesse tried to back out, but Walt drew him back in with an encouraging pep talk. After gathering the necessary supplies and stealing a barrel of methylamine from a warehouse, Jesse and Walt were able to complete their cook with a new recipe. (Unfortunately for them, the RV wouldn't start, so the cook had to take place in Jesse's own basement.) The resulting product was a blue crystal rather than clear, but after sampling it at their next meet, Tuco exclaimed, "Blue, yellow, pink. Whatever, man. Just keep bringing me that!" Before they could leave the scene, however, Tuco - still tweaked out on the product - lost his temper and beat one of his own men, No-Doze, to death. His other henchman, Gonzo, pleaded to take the body so that they could give him a proper burial, but Tuco insisted that he hide it right there in the junkyard. Walt and Jesse looked on, afraid for their own lives, but Tuco let them be. $737,000 was Walt's estimation of how much money he would need for his family. Eleven more exchanges and then he and Jesse would be free of Tuco and the drug business. As witnesses to a murder, Jesse was less confident that they would survive long enough to see eleven exchanges. He bought a gun to defend himself and insisted that they had to kill Tuco, certain that Tuco's men were stalking him. But Walt pointed out that Jesse didn't even know how to use that gun and that Tuco was never alone, that Jesse would never get the chance to shoot it. Walt had another idea: to poison Tuco with ricin at the next exchange, disguising it as meth. But the next exchange didn't come. Tuco came to Jesse first, forcing him to drive to Walt's house at gunpoint, then kidnapping Walt as well. He brought them to his uncle's house, where they would wait for the arrival of his cousins, who would smuggle them into Mexico. Tuco believed that Gonzo had snitched to the DEA, but that the three of them could continue their business safely across the border. While they waited, he searched through their things and discovered both Heisenberg's true identity and the bag of ricin-laced meth. Jesse tried to talk it up as their new product, but he made the mistake of adding that the secret ingredient was chili powder. Tuco chose the blue meth instead because he hated chili powder. They didn't get another chance to use the ricin. Tuco became so tweaked out and paranoid that he dragged Jesse outside to shoot him. (After all, he only needed Heisenberg to cook with him in Mexico.) Walt managed to distract him long enough for Jesse to wrestle for Tuco's gun. They shot him in the side and ran for Jesse's car, but spotted another car quickly approaching the house. They believed at first that it was Tuco's cousins and hid out of sight. But the new arrival turned out to be Hank, Walt's brother-in-law from the DEA, who had tracked down Jesse's car after finding out Jesse was Walt's pot dealer. Skyler believed that Jesse had something to do with Walt's overnight disappearance and had sent Hank out to search for him. Tuco, injured but still alive, engaged Hank in a firefight. Hank shot him dead, and Walt and Jesse fled on foot into the desert, unseen. In need of separate alibis, Jesse and Walt parted ways on the road. Jesse returned home to clean up the meth lab in the basement and stash the RV in a lot owned by Badger's cousin. Then he met with his hooker friend Wendy at their usual motel. They agreed on the story that Jesse had been with Wendy the entire weekend. The DEA stormed the motel room and hauled Jesse and Wendy off for questioning, but Jesse claimed that his car had been stolen while he was at the motel. Without the evidence to hold him and with his alibi secured, Jesse was set free. Once outside, Jesse contacted Walt by payphone. Walt had successfully created his own excuse for his disappearance - a fugue state caused by the stress of his cancer - and was "recovering" in the hospital. Walt shocked Jesse by telling him to get the RV repaired so that they could resume cooking. Jesse had assumed they would be out of the business for good, but it was true that he'd lost everything he'd earned ($67,920 that had been stashed in a bag in his car, confiscated by the DEA) and Walt now had to finance "the world's most expensive alibi": his hospital stay and psychiatric evaluations. Shortly after, Jesse was thrown out of his aunt's house by his parents, who had discovered the meth lab in the basement after being questioned by the DEA. Walt reluctantly handed over half of his own share of the drug money to pay for Jesse's living expenses and Jesse charmed his way into a new apartment managed by a cute tattoo artist named Jane. Walt and Jesse resumed their business, this time acting as distributors themselves while Jesse's friends - Skinny Pete, Badger, and Combo - hit the streets. Things began to look up for Jesse, who was back in his element and confident with small-time dealing. His luck ran out when Skinny Pete was robbed by a pair of junkies ("Spooge" and "his skank"). Jesse saw the loss as breakage, but Walt argued that word would get out about Jesse's leniency and he would lose his street cred if he didn't "handle" the situation. When Jesse asked what Walt expected him to do, Walt handed Jesse his gun. Skinny Pete tracked down the junkies' address and Jesse went in, intending to threaten the pair into paying up. However, he was distracted when he discovered a neglected child living at the house, giving the junkies an opportunity to turn his own gun against him. Luckily, the pair were equally distracted with the task of trying to break open an ATM they'd just stolen. A fight broke out between the two while Jesse feigned unconsciousness. In the end, the doped-up skank crushed Spooge's head under the ATM and Jesse called the police to the scene - risking his own neck to make sure the little boy would end up in a safer place - before running off. The gruesome experience left Jesse shaken. Walt, unable to get a hold of him, showed up at Jesse's door and scolded him when he realized Jesse had been holed up and getting high the whole time. Jesse explained what had happened, but Walt was optimistic. If word got around on the street that Jesse had crushed a thief's head under an ATM, it'd provide the perfect opportunity to expand territory. Jesse was skeptical but went along with it, passing down orders for his crew to move on to new neighborhoods. Meanwhile, Jane - who lived next door - was becoming wise to Jesse's game, and Jesse noticed. When he started to confess that he may not have been entirely honest with her when he moved in, she told him she didn't care, as long as he kept his business away from their duplex. With that wall torn down, she and Jesse became closer... and soon they were sleeping together. Jesse's drug use was a complicated issue between them, though, as Jane was in recovery for 18 months. They were forced to hide their relationship from her father, Jesse's landlord, who feared that she might relapse if she hung around the wrong crowd. Jesse and Walt's growing operation pulled in $90,000. Things were going well with the meth business... until Badger was arrested. Jesse brought Walt to Saul Goodman, a criminal lawyer favored by shady individuals for his knowledge of legal loopholes and lack of scruples. The DEA offered Badger a deal: turn over Heisenberg and walk free. Saul arranged for a decoy Heisenberg - a criminal who made a living off going to prison for other people - to be delivered to the DEA. After proving himself, he became almost like a third partner to Walt and Jesse. A very expensive partner, it turned out. After Saul's fees, their remaining funds were only $16,000. Walt interrupted Jesse's plans for a romantic getaway, demanding that they return to cooking immediately. He claimed that their methylamine was losing its chemical potency and that they would have to cook for four days straight to create as much meth as possible while it was still good. While in the desert, though, Jesse realized that Walt's condition was deteriorating. It wasn't the methylamine that was spoiling; Walt was dying. The cook yielded 42 pounds of meth... $672,000 for each of them. Afterwards, as they parted ways, Jesse solemnly swore to deliver Walt's half of the money to his family should he die before the batch was sold. But Walt didn't die. In fact, the cancer went into remission. Jesse was ecstatic when Walt told him, wondering what it meant for their future, but Walt said that he planned to retire from the drug trade after the 42 pounds was sold. Jesse was disappointed but understanding. He turned his focus to spending more time with Jane, the love of his life. Peace didn't last. The consequences of pushing into new territory finally caught up with Jesse's crew. His friend Combo was gunned down by a local gang for selling in their neighborhood. Apparently, people had realized that Jesse wasn't the tough crime lord that rumor claimed he was, that he wasn't responsible for the incident with the ATM. Jesse's remaining dealers abandoned him. Walt and Saul became preoccupied with trying to figure out how to sell their remaining 38 pounds of meth, but Jesse was reeling from the death of his friend and couldn't care less about meeting with a new distributor. He locked himself up at home to get high. Jane, breaking her sobriety in an attempt to comfort him, introduced him to heroin. While Jesse and Jane were doped up and unconscious in bed, Walt scored a deal with their new distributor - a local businessman named Gustavo Fring. With only one hour to make delivery and unable to reach Jesse by phone, Walt broke into Jesse's apartment to grab the product. When Jesse awoke, he panicked, thinking someone had stolen all of their meth, and Walt didn't bother to tell him otherwise. When Jesse finally realized that Walt had made the sale without him, he felt betrayed. But Walt admonished Jesse for using heroin and told him that he wouldn't see his half of the money until he got clean. He refused to contribute to Jesse's eventual overdose. When Jane learned that Walt was withholding nearly half a million dollars from Jesse, she blackmailed Walt, threatening that she would tell everyone about him if he didn't give Jesse what he was owed. At the same time, Jane's father realized she was using again - and he blamed Jesse. He told Jesse to leave the apartment immediately and promised to take Jane to rehab in the morning. Walt gave in to Jane's demands, delivering Jesse's cash the same evening. Jane told him that he would never see her or Jesse again and shut the door in his face before he could plead with Jesse to reconsider. Elated, Jesse and Jane made plans to leave for New Zealand that night. They went into the bedroom intending to flush the rest of their heroin... but gave in to temptation and ended up using it instead. When Jesse awoke the next morning, Jane was dead beside him. Saul sent a "cleaner" named Mike to clear the scene of all drugs and paraphernalia, then Jesse made the 911 call. "I woke up, I found her, that's all I know," he uttered weakly. After Jane's body was taken away, he fled to a crackhouse, where he likely intended to die. But Walt came to his rescue. When he arrived at the crackhouse to take Jesse to safety, Jesse clung to him and sobbed, "I killed her. I loved her more than anything." Walt cradled him in his arms and assured him that he hadn't killed anyone. Then, finally, he took Jesse to a rehab facility. Weeks later, Walt came to visit. He was preparing for a surgery to remove the tumor from his lung and wanted to say goodbye to Jesse, just in case. But Jesse was despondent. When Walt tried to encourage him to get better, Jesse replied, "I deserve this... I deserve whatever happens." The Wayfarer 515 disaster only compounded Jesse's guilt. Jane's father, it turned out, was an air traffic controller. Distraught over his daughter's death, he lost concentration on the job, which resulted in a mid-air collision of two aircraft. All 167 passengers died, and Jesse counted every single death as his responsibility. After Walt picked him up from rehab, Jesse said that he was finished using but that he also had to accept the truth about himself: "I'm the bad guy." Sober but severely depressed, Jesse began to take steps to put his life back together. He noticed his family had put his aunt's house on the market, so he went through Saul to buy it off his parents. The asking price was $875,000; he bought it for $400,000 in cash after blackmailing them because they'd failed to mention the meth lab in their disclosure - a felonious omission. As Jesse walked up to the door with his house keys in hand, the Pinkmans were stunned to realize he was the one who'd purchased it. His home remained empty for some time. He slept on the floor of the living room and spent his waking hours dialing Jane's phone over and over to listen to her voicemail message. But eventually the number was disconnected, and Jesse was truly left with nothing to hold on to. Saul, in the meantime, was putting pressure on Jesse to convince Walt to resume cooking. Jesse, however, had no interest in dragging Walt back into the business. Numb, with no other direction to steer his broken life, Jesse took the RV out into the desert and cooked up a batch by himself. Afterwards, he took the product to Walt, hoping for approval. But Walt, possessive of his recipe, became cold as he realized what Jesse was planning. When Jesse asked for a meet with Walt's distributor, Walt snapped, "My guy is a pro, and he doesn't deal with junkies." Later, Saul instead arranged for Jesse to deliver the product to one of Gustavo Fring's men, Victor. But Victor only paid him half of what the meth was worth, iterating that it was only Jesse's half. The other half of the money, it turned out, was given to Walt. Jesse was furious, believing that Walt was dealing with Gus behind his back. They met at Saul's office and Walt handed over his half of the cash, but not without adding, "That is the last money you'll ever earn in this business. I'm in, you're out." Gus had only been using Jesse to motivate Walt to return to work. Jesse wasn't ready to give up yet. He rounded up Badger and Skinny Pete, promising a return to the way things were before they got greedy and started pushing their luck. A safe, small business. After sampling Jesse's new meth, they were on board. But first, they had to get the RV fixed up and make sure there was nothing about it that would attract attention from the authorities. Jesse sent Badger off to talk to his cousin at the lot. A short while later, Jesse received a call from Badger that Walt had shown up at the lot and ordered the RV destroyed. Believing that Walt was trying to ruin his business, Jesse rushed to the junkyard where Walt had taken the RV. He stormed in, ready for a fight, but a second later, Hank's car pulled up. The DEA agent had been following Jesse and he'd identified the RV as Jesse's rolling meth lab. Hank had unknowingly tipped Walt off, and Walt was trying to protect Jesse by having the RV destroyed. The two of them locked themselves up in the RV while Hank circled it, trying to find a way inside. Thankfully, the junkyard owner showed up and pointed out that Hank would need a warrant to search an RV, which was legally considered a private domicile. As Hank sat in his car and waited to obtain the warrant, Walt arranged for a diversion. Minutes later, Hank received a phone call from someone pretending to be a police officer, who reported that Hank's wife had been in a car accident and was in critical condition. Hank rushed off the scene. Jesse and Walt looked on as the RV was crushed... along with Jesse's hope for a future in the meth business. Jesse returned to his home. As he was walking up to his front door, Hank's car pulled up. Exasperated, Jesse turned around and told Hank to contact his lawyer, but Hank wasn't interested in talking. He threw himself on Jesse in a fit of blind rage, punching him to the ground, and proceeded to beat him unconscious. Saul was ecstatic as he took photos of Jesse's injuries at the hospital, telling Jesse that he now had a Get-Out-Of-Jail FREE card. But Jesse, seething with bitterness and hatred, told Walt and Saul that he intended to press charges and ruin Hank's life. He pointed out that his real Get-Out-Of-Jail FREE card was Heisenberg's identity. If he was ever caught, he would give up Walt to the authorities. Days later, Walt returned to the hospital. He told Jesse he had a new job for him, that they could be partners again. Jesse saw through his attempt to save Hank and brushed him off. Walt was stunned, asking how Jesse could turn down an offer of $1.5 million. At that, Jesse snapped tearfully: "I am not turning down the money! I am turning down you! You get it? I want nothing to do with you! Ever since I met you, everything I ever cared about is gone! Ruined, turned to shit, dead, ever since I hooked up with the great Heisenberg! I have never been more alone! I have nothing! No one! Alright? It's all gone! Get it? No, no, no. Why... Why would you get it? What do you even care, as long as you get what you want, right? You don't give a shit about me! You said I was no good. I'm nothing! Why would you want me, huh? You said my meth is inferior, right? Right? Hey! You said my cook was garbage! Hey, screw you, man! Screw you!" As Walt walked out of the room, he paused at the door to tell Jesse softly, "Your meth is good. As good as mine." An hour later, Jesse called Walt to tell him that he would take the job. They would be partners again. As Jesse was leaving the hospital days later, he spotted an ambulance pull up and watched as Hank was carted into the ER, covered in bullet wounds. Jesse smiled in satisfaction. It looked like he would have some justice after all, even if he couldn't press charges. On to his new job. He was taken to an industrial laundry, underneath which was hidden Gus Fring's superlab. When he arrived, Walt was in the middle of dismissing the partner that Gus had previously assigned to him, a dumpy chemist named Gale Boetticher. As Jesse hopped around the lab shouting like a little boy in a playground, Gale looked on in horror and muttered, "This makes no sense." After Gale departed, Walt began to prepare for a cook. Jesse was surprised until he realized that Walt hadn't gotten word from his family, since the lab had no cell reception. He told Walt about Hank, and Walt rushed off to the hospital, leaving Jesse alone to wait. For hours. And hours. Until Victor walked in and asked why nothing was cooking. It was days before they actually got to cooking. Once they did, though, they were enormously productive. Enough that Jesse figured out that Gus would be making $96 million off their product. $96 million compared to their $3 million cut. It wasn't fair, but Walt scolded Jesse for being greedy when he brought it up. Jesse, however, decided to start scraping a little off the top. He began to steal small amounts from each batch, passing them on to his dealers to earn side cash. He also hatched the brilliant plan to start selling meth to his fellow recovering addicts at NA meetings. It wasn't long before Walt noticed that the numbers weren't adding up. But Walt was also becoming increasingly paranoid, talking about how things had to be perfect for Gus or they would both be dead men. Jesse walked into the lab one day to realize Walt hadn't gone home the night before, that he'd spent all night trying to wipe out a "contamination" - that is, a common house fly that was buzzing around the lab. Walt wouldn't allow him to cook until the fly was eliminated. But there was a batch that needed to be completed or it would spoil. Jesse ended up drugging Walt with sleeping pills just so he could finish the batch himself. But while Walt was nodding off, he told Jesse a story: "There was some perfect moment that passed me right by... It was the night Jane died. I was at home and we needed diapers and so I said I'd go, but it was just an excuse. Actually that was the night I brought you your money, remember? And afterward I stopped at a bar. It was odd, I never do that - go to a bar alone. I just walked in, sat down. I never told you. I sit down and this man, this stranger, he engages me in conversation. He's a complete stranger. But he turns out to be Jane's father, Donald Margolis. Of course I didn't know it at the time. I mean, he's just some guy in a bar. I just didn't put it together until after the crash when he was all over the news. "Think of the odds. Once I tried to calculate them, but they're astronomical. I mean, think of the odds of me going in and sitting down that night, in that bar, next to that man. I told him that I had a daughter and he told me he had one, too. And he said, 'Never give up on family.' And I didn't. I took his advice. My God, the universe is random, it's chaos. It's subatomic particles and endless pings, collision - that's what science teaches us. What does this say? What is it telling us that the very night that this man's daughter dies, it's me who is having a drink with him? I mean, how could that be random? "...Oh, that was the moment. That night. I should never have left home. Never gone to your house. Maybe things would have... Oh, I was... I was at home watching TV. Some nature program about elephants... and Skyler and Holly were in another room. I could hear them on the baby monitor. She was singing a lullaby. Oh, if I had just lived right up to that moment and not one second more. That would have been perfect." Jesse listened, confused but engrossed. When it was over, Walt began to apologize, repeating: "I'm sorry about Jane. I'm very sorry." Jesse didn't understand why Walt was apologizing. It wasn't Walt's fault. It wasn't his own fault. It wasn't even Jane's fault, he said. It was just something that happened, and Walt had been right. Two addicts with that kind of money, they were bound to have both died that week. "I miss her though," Jesse sighed at the ceiling. "God, I do." The contamination was neutralized, the batch was finished, and when Walt awoke the next day, he warned Jesse to be careful about stealing anything from Gus. "I won't be able to protect you," he told Jesse, to which Jesse replied, "Who's asking you to?" Business wasn't doing so well around the NA meetings. Skinny Pete and Badger both had reservations about selling to people in recovery, which frustrated Jesse. He decided to show them how it's done, hooking up with a new girl named Andrea. They went back to her place, but just as he was preparing to pitch a sale, Andrea's son Brock came home. Jesse hadn't realized she was a mother and backed out immediately. He refused to sell to someone with a child. He continued seeing her, though. And he learned something else: Andrea's little brother Tomas was the one who'd shot Combo. At just ten years old, Tomas was initiated into the local gang. Jesse was horrified and went out to investigate the neighborhood himself. He bought meth from Tomas... and paled when he realized it was Heisenberg's signature blue meth being peddled by that gang. Gus was their supplier. They were Gus's men. Jesse told Walt about everything and pleaded for help in taking down the dealers who were using Tomas. They could make another batch of ricin. His friend Wendy would often bring them burgers, since they got hungry stalking around the neighborhood, keeping an eye on Tomas's sales. It would be easy. But Walt was afraid and told Jesse to forget it, that revenge would be pointless. So Jesse went ahead with the plan himself. Only, for some reason, he was intercepted by Mike and Victor before he could complete it. They dragged him into a car and drove him to a chicken farm, where Gustavo Fring and Walt were waiting for him in a trailer... along with the two drug dealers Jesse had intended to kill. Gus attempted diplomacy, but Jesse wouldn't hear it, furious that Walt had snitched and that Gus would allow his dealers to use children as executioners. He refused to promise peace until Gus swore that the practice would come to an end. "No more children," Gus promised, and Jesse reluctantly shook hands with Combo's murderers. That night, while he and Andrea were in bed, there was a phone call. Tomas had been killed. Jesse didn't show up at the lab the next day. Instead, he relapsed. Preparing himself for war, he snorted a few lines of meth, loaded his gun, and returned to the neighborhood where Combo had been shot. He would get his revenge or die trying. He approached the dealers, who stood waiting for him. All three drew their guns. Before a single shot could be fired, a car came screeching toward them and slammed into both dealers. One was killed instantly. The other reached for his fallen gun. Walt stepped out of the car, picked up the gun, and shot the dealer in the head without so much as a second of hesitation. Jesse looked on, stunned, until Walt lifted his head and said, "Run." Saul arranged for a hiding place: a laser tag arcade he'd been trying to convince Walt to buy earlier, for money laundering purposes. Jesse camped out there while Saul provided Mike with a fake address in Virginia, where he claimed Jesse had fled. It was only a temporary solution, though. Soon Mike - and Gus - would track him down and kill him, unless they could think of a plan. Walt came to Jesse, explaining that Gale had returned to his post as assistant in the lab. Walt was certain, however, that he and Jesse both would be killed once Gale was confident enough to cook Heisenberg's recipe by himself. They wouldn't be safe unless Gale was eliminated. Jesse recoiled at the thought of killing an innocent man. Gale hadn't done anything to either of them. He was only a threat because of his skill. He pleaded with Walt to go to the authorities instead. "Federal Witness Protection, that's a good deal. As for me, I'll hit the road, yo. I'll make it. We had a good run... but it's over." "Never the DEA," was Walt's reply. He knew that Gus couldn't stop production, and if there was no other chemist, then Gus would have to keep them alive. Weakly, Jesse said that he couldn't kill Gale. Walt stepped up, saying that he would be the one to do it, but that he needed Jesse's help. Jesse continued to resist, but Walt pressed on, "When it comes down to you and me versus him, I'm truly sorry, but it's gonna be him... I saved your life, Jesse. Are you gonna save mine?" All that he needed Jesse to do was follow Gale home. Walt would handle the rest. Jesse obeyed, but when he called to provide Walt with the address, he continued to beg Walt to go to the police instead. Walt again refused. That night, while Jesse was holed up in the arcade getting high, he received a frantic phone call from Walt: "You'll have about a twenty-minute lead. They've got me at the laundry and they're going to kill me. Jesse, do it now!" Jesse sped to Gale's apartment immediately and knocked at the door. Gale answered, then blanched when Jesse pointed the gun at him. He spoke in a soft voice, offering money, offering anything Jesse might want from him. "You don't have to do this," he murmured, while Jesse tearfully tried to steady his aim. But Jesse, knowing Walt's life was at stake, couldn't back down. He shot Gale in the face, stepped back as he registered the horror of that moment, and slowly turned to walk away. He was sitting in his car, frozen in shock and still in the parking lot of Gale's apartment complex, when Victor found him. Victor put a gun to his head and forced him to drive to the lab, where he joined Walt. Mike and Victor watched over them through the night. Walt, attempting to display his usefulness, suggested that they begin a cook. Jesse, meanwhile, stared wordlessly into space. Mike refused to let either of them move, but Victor smugly got to work. "We ain't missin' no cook," he sneered, and it sank in that Walt's plan had probably failed. Gus arrived in the morning. He said nothing as he entered. He looked at Victor's work, then slowly dressed himself in one of the lab cleanup jumpsuits. Walt, in the meantime, attempted to explain Jesse's actions. As Gus seemed unmoved, Walt's speech became more distressed, and eventually he was practically begging for their lives. Jesse continued to sit in silence, expecting the end. Gus approached him and picked up a boxcutter, which prompted Walt to sputter, "You kill me, you have nothing. You kill Jesse, you don't have me." Jesse finally turned his head to look at Walt. In a single swift movement, Gus grabbed Victor and sliced his throat open. While Victor's blood splattered onto Walt and Jesse, Gus stared furiously at the two of them. Jesse stared back, at first frightened. Then he slowly leaned forward, as if daring Gus to come at him. But Gus didn't. He dropped Victor's body at their feet, told them to get back to work, and departed. After disposing of Victor's body and changing out of their bloody clothes, Jesse and Walt went to Denny's. Walt looked on as Jesse voraciously enjoyed his breakfast, suddenly manic. When Walt asked if Jesse was okay, Jesse shrugged. And when Walt attempted to plan for the future, Jesse laughed it off. "We're all on the same page," he explained, seeing Walt was mystified by his nonchalance. "The one that says: if I can't kill you, you'll sure as shit wish you were dead." In the weeks that followed, Jesse drowned himself in hedonism. He bought a state-of-the-art stereo system and threw a party - a party that he refused to allow to come to an end. Because his attempts to reach out to Walt failed, he surrounded himself with strangers just so that he wouldn't have a moment alone to dwell on what he'd done. His home became little more than a crackhouse, with addicts camping out and trashing the place while they waited for Jesse's frequent handouts of meth and cash. Jesse was losing his mind. He shaved his head and began using drugs more heavily. He became so careless that when one of his houseguests stole the bag containing all of his remaining money, he didn't even blink. And when Mike returned the money and delivered the bloodied and bound thief to him, Jesse shrugged, took the bag, and walked away. Mike wouldn't let it go. He asked Jesse if he wanted to know what would happen to that thief, and Jesse sneered, telling Mike he didn't care. He wasn't scared and he wouldn't straighten up or fly right or whatever they were trying to get him to do with that little display. Jesse told him that he knew they weren't going to kill that thief, anyway. "You know how I know? 'cause you went to the trouble of putting a blindfold on him." The next day, Mike dragged Jesse out of bed and into his car. As they drove out into the desert, Mike asked if Jesse wanted to know where they were going. Jesse, gazing out the window with a solemn and resigned expression, replied, "Nope." The lack of blindfold made it seem pretty obvious where he was going. Apparently Walt had begun a panicked search for him, because Mike received word that Walt was trying to track down Gus. They spoke by phone and Walt demanded to speak to Jesse, to know he was alive and well. Jesse didn't bother to plead for Walt to save him, nor did he offer any useful hints about their location. But something about the call filled him with the will to live, because after he got off the phone, Jesse surreptitiously slid his keys between his knuckles and warned Mike that he'd better shoot straight. When they reached their destination and got out of the car, however, Mike didn't make a move. He grabbed a shovel, ignoring Jesse entirely, and dug up a bag of cash which he deposited in the trunk. As it turned out, Jesse was merely accompanying Mike on pickups for the day. Over the course of the day, as they drove around the state, Jesse began to relax. But he was confused about the arrangement. Mike snapped that it wasn't his call, that he was only doing as he was ordered, and he clearly wasn't happy about it. But Jesse proved his worth at the end of the night, when he saved Mike from a pair of thugs looking to rip them off. Accompanying Mike became Jesse's new job. He showed up at the lab less and less, much to Walt's frustration. Walt approached Jesse about it, pointing out that it was clearly Gus's plan to drive them apart. Jesse disagreed. It had probably started as Mike babysitting him to keep him off drugs, he realized that, but he had proven himself a valuable asset by saving Mike. In sharp contrast to Walt's paranoid hysterics, Mike softened up to Jesse. He took pity on the kid as his withdrawal symptoms began to display, taking on an almost fatherly demeanor. And Jesse continued to surprise him during their field trips, showing remarkable competence. Gus was apparently impressed as well, complimenting Jesse after a meeting with Mike. Jesse took the opportunity to ask why Gus had chosen him for this. Gus's reply was, "I like to think I see things in people." Jesse continued to suffer from post-traumatic symptoms, flashing back to the night of Gale's shooting very frequently. But he refused to try to bury those feelings in drugs. He focused on cleaning up his home and restoring order to his life. As Jesse was putting himself back together, Walt was falling apart. He showed up at Jesse's home, trying to manipulate Jesse into murdering Gus. Jesse interrupted him halfway through his recruitment speech. With deadened eyes, he told Walt that he would do it. He would kill Gus. Walt prepared a capsule of ricin and delivered it to Jesse, who hid it in his "lucky cigarette". Jesse promised to use it as soon as he got the chance. But days went on, and several chances presented themselves; for some reason, Jesse couldn't work up the nerve to do it. And Walt noticed his hesitation. He continued to pester Jesse about it, becoming more and more agitated by Jesse's excuses. Jesse claimed he hadn't seen Gus at all, but it was a lie... and Walt knew it. In the meantime, tensions were rising between Gus's operation and the Mexican Cartel, and the DEA were sniffing around the distribution centers of Gus's business, the fast food chain Los Pollos Hermanos. Mike and Jesse, along with several of Gus's other men, were assigned to cleaning up various locations. On their way out after one clean-up, a sniper opened fire on the group. Jesse looked on in frozen horror and nearly became a victim himself, but Mike threw him down and saved his life. The both of them watched from behind cover as Gus walked straight into the gunfire, arms open and inviting confrontation. At the sight of him, the gunman fled. When Jesse questioned Mike about it, Mike told him to ask Gus directly. Jesse was invited to Gus's home for dinner that evening. He stood in the kitchen, watching Gus prepare their meal, with the perfect opportunity to poison the food. But he still hesitated. During their meal, Gus asked if Jesse could cook Walt's formula... alone. Jesse bristled at that and snapped, "You asking me if I can cook Mr. White's crystal without him? Me? The junkie loser you were about to waste and dump in the desert a month ago? This your plan, huh? Invite me to your house and make whatever the fuck this is? Be my buddy and make me feel important? Then get me to keep cooking for you after you kill Mr. White? You wanna talk like men? Let's talk like men: you kill Mr. White, you're gonna have to kill me, too!" Gus calmly corrected him, "That is not what I asked you. You are here because circumstances with the Cartel are unteneable and I need your help. I need you to help prevent an all-out war." The following night, Jesse called Walt over to his house. Terrified, Jesse explained that Gus wanted him to go to Mexico to teach Cartel chemists how to cook Walt's meth. He begged for Walt to coach him, fearing he would die if he failed in the task. But Walt was cold and disinterested, only asking if Jesse had seen Gus personally. Jesse denied it. "You lying little shit!" Walt accused him. He said he knew that Jesse was at Gus's home for two hours and eighteen minutes. "You had one thing to do! One thing! That is the only thing, I might add, that would save our lives. And you were right there. You were in the house and you didn't have the guts to do it! You never had any intention of killing him, did you?" Two hours and eighteen minutes. Jesse realized that Walt had been tracking him the entire time. It was a slap in the face, after everything Jesse had done for Walt. While he was reeling from that betrayal, Walt added, "I'll give you advice: go to Mexico and screw up like I know you will and wind up in a barrel somewhere!" Jesse leapt at him in rage and the two of them brawled until Jesse finally threw Walt out of the house, growling, "Get the fuck outta here and never come back." The next day, Jesse was on a plane to Mexico with Mike and Gus. Blindfolded, they were brought to the Cartel's superlab. The Cartel's chemist mocked Jesse's inability to synthesize phenylacetic acid, but Jesse snapped back that he expected the ingredients to be prepared before his arrival. "If he wants to learn how to make my product he's got to do it my way. The right way... Now go get me my phenylacetic acid, asshole." The resulting meth was 96.2% pure, much better than any Cartel chemist was capable of producing. Jesse cheered triumphantly until one of the Cartel's men put a hand on his shoulder and told him it was only the first of many. Jesse was confused and asked him what he meant by that. "You're staying," the man explained with a smile. "You belong to the Cartel now." Jesse's heart sank with the news, and when they arrived at Don Eladio's hacienda to celebrate, he questioned Mike about why he hadn't been told about this decision. Mike, in response, assured him that either all of them were going home or none of them were. He was true to his word. The entire scenario, it turned out, was merely part of Gus's plan to exact revenge upon Don Eladio and the rest of the cartel. He presented a gift of poisoned tequila to them, which was happily shared among Don Eladio, his capos, and Gus himself (but not Jesse, as an addict in recovery; or Mike, their driver). Midway through the party, everyone who'd ingested the tequila collapsed and died. Gus survived only because he'd swallowed activated charcoal beforehand, but he was in critical condition. As Mike and Jesse dragged Gus to a car, Mike was shot in the side by one of Don Eladio's men. Jesse shot and killed the man in return, then drove off with Mike and Gus both relying on him to save their lives. When he reached their rendezvous point, he found a hospital tent already set up and doctors waiting for them. Gus was treated first, despite Jesse's frantic protests that Mike was dying too. Both were stabilized in the end, with Jesse helping to care for Mike. He realized, as he was sent to fetch a new bag of blood for Mike's transfusion, that Gus had prepared for the worst case scenario. The doctor had all of Jesse's medical records and blood for him as well, just in case. It dawned on him that Gus never intended to abandon him, even after all their previous conflicts. He'd been included in the mission as a real part of the team. Mike, unfit for travel after such an injury, remained in Mexico while Gus and Jesse departed on foot. As they walked, Gus told Jesse that he believed he was capable of running a lab alone. Jesse, wise to the implications, told Gus that he refused to cook unless Walt was allowed to live. On their way home, Jesse and Gus took a detour to a nursing home, where Jesse witnessed Gus taunting Tuco's mute and disabled uncle, Hector "Tio" Salamanca. Jesse had seen him before, at the house where Tuco nearly killed him. As Gus explained that Don Eladio was dead, he also praised Jesse for killing the last of Hector's bloodline: his grandson, Joaquin. Gus left Tio with a token of Don Eladio's demise, then he and Jesse departed. Gus apparently conceded to leave Walt in peace for the time being, because Jesse returned to work at the superlab alone. When Walt realized someone had been in the lab, he showed up at Jesse's house. Jesse, in the middle of playing video games with Andrea and Brock, was enraged to find Walt at his door. Walt begged him to stop cooking for Gus, but Jesse icily reminded Walt that the last time he asked for help, Walt had wished him death. That week, Jesse continued to work in the superlab by himself. Coincidentally or not, the DEA was tipped off to the laundry's possible role in the meth trade, leaving production shut down and Jesse trapped inside for the day. When Gus called to point out that it was Walt's doing, Jesse still refused to sanction any "final" retaliation against Walt. After leaving the lab, Jesse attempted to call Walt. There was no answer. Saul, however, had left him a whole slew of messages. When he arrived at the law office, Jesse was immediately and aggressively patted down by Saul's bodyguard, Huell. He was then escorted in, Saul declaring that the end times had arrived while shoveling Jesse's remaining cash into a duffel bag. When he said that he was leaving town, Jesse asked what happened. Saul told him that Walt had been dragged out into the desert and that Gus had threatened to kill him and his entire family. Jesse returned home and waited for some contact from Walt, but it was Andrea who called him instead. Brock was hospitalized with a mysterious flu-like illness that was only getting progressively worse. When Jesse arrived at the hospital, he noticed his ricin cigarette was missing from its pack and told Andrea in a panic that the doctors needed to be treating Brock for ricin poisoning. Then he fled. His agitation settled under the surface by the time he arrived at Walt's home. He was steel-faced as Walt led him inside, silent as Walt recounted all of his fears coming true. When Walt put his gun down to pace the room, Jesse picked it up. And pointed it at his teacher, asking, "Why did you do it?" Poisoning Brock was something only Walt could have done. Only he knew about the ricin. He must have arranged for Saul to have Huell take it off of him at the office. It must have been his revenge, because Jesse was cooperating with Gus. Jesse put it all together, screaming as he advanced to press the gun to Walt's forehead, "This is your way of ripping my heart out before you're dead and gone! Admit it!" Walt boldly maintained his innocence, bursting into crazed laughter as Jesse pushed him to the floor. He had been waiting for Gus to send someone to kill him... "And it's you." Everything was part of Gus's manipulation of Jesse, all part of his plan. He'd learned about the ricin by spying on them and now turned it against them, driving them apart and then pushing Jesse to pull the trigger himself. "Think about it. It's brilliant!" Jesse doubted that explanation, but Walt had a counter to every point he raised. Still, he gritted his teeth and tried to will himself to shoot. Walt even goaded Jesse, telling him that if he really believed Walt was capable of murdering a child, he might as well do it. But Jesse couldn't. He lowered the gun and rushed for the door, intending to hunt Gus down. Walt stopped him. He told Jesse to just leave, to run away from all of it, but Jesse refused. "Then let me help," Walt offered quietly. Walt came up with a plan of attack. First, Jesse had to lure Gus out into the open. The first attempt failed, as Jesse's behavior somehow made Gus realize that something was off. Before they could try again, Jesse was taken into police custody for questioning in regards to the poison and how Jesse had been so certain it was ricin, specifically. Only when Saul visited him at the police station did Jesse recall a way to draw Gus back out into the open: the old man in the nursing home. His enemy, Tio. While Walt executed the plan, Jesse was trapped for several hours with the police. Finally, word came from the hospital that the toxicology screening had come back negative for ricin. Jesse was free to go. On his way out the station, however, Jesse was thrown into a van by Gus's men and taken to the lab, where he was held hostage at gunpoint and forced to cook while Gus handled the situation outside. Another few hours passed. A phone call alerted the guard that someone was coming down the elevator, so Jesse was handcuffed to a machine. As he waited and listened, two shots were fired. He fearfully looked over to see who was coming for him... and sank back in relief when he saw that it was Walt with the news: "Gus is dead. We've got work to do." They destroyed the lab together, then returned to the hospital. Jesse met Walt on the roof of the parking garage to give him the news: Brock hadn't been poisoned after all. He'd accidentally eaten the berries from something called lily of the valley, and he'd make a full recovery. Wracked with guilt, Jesse asked if they had still made the right decision in getting rid of Gus. Walt assured him that they had. They shook hands and parted ways. With Walt's help, Jesse ended up finding that missing ricin cigarette weeks later... in his vaccuum's dust tray. He burst into tears when he realized he'd nearly killed his teacher and best friend over such a stupid mistake. "I don't know what's wrong with me, Mr. White," he sobbed in remorse, but Walt assured him that their friendship was strong and their partnership had saved both their lives in the end. The next weeks were spent tying up loose ends. Evidence from the cameras in the lab had to be eliminated and Gus's men in prison had to be paid off for their silence. Walt and Jesse re-entered the meth business on their own terms, this time with a new (and reluctant) partner: Mike. They began using a local pest control company, Vamonos, as their cover; cooking in people's homes before fumigation. Business wasn't bad, but it wasn't drawing in nearly enough money for Walt, who had become accustomed to the large paychecks he'd received from Gus. His greed and recklessness led to repeated clashes with Mike. Jesse desperately worked to mediate, but his intervention earned Walt's ire. "I've been thinking about Victor," he told Jesse one day, his tone passively threatening. "All this time, I was sure that Gus did what he did to send me a message. Maybe there's another reason... Trying to cook that batch on his own, taking liberties that weren't his to take? Maybe he flew too close to the sun, got his throat cut." That wasn't enough to shake Jesse's loyalty, though. He'd left Andrea after realizing how much danger his profession could attract to her and Brock (and that he might eventually have to confess to her that he was a murderer), so Walt was now the closest thing he had to family. Jesse did everything in his power to keep Walt's respect now that he'd finally earned it. Though Walt had essentially threatened his life, he still gave the man a $5000 watch for his birthday. ( Update. ) |
