Regarding Breaking Bad and Jesse and the Cigs, I don't buy it. (Spoiler alert)

[stevenleser]

Do not read if you havent seen the latest episode yet.

OK, regarding Breaking Bad, I have to say it. I think the way Jesse was suggested to have realized Walt poisoned Brock was too convoluted to be believable. Believe me, I get it, I understand that this is supposed to show that Walt could have had Jesse's cigs switched out even though ricin wasnt used to poison the child, etc. It's too much to assume that someone with Jesse's intelligence, in the state Jesse was in about to be picked up and have a new identity, etc, would connect. In an otherwise well written show, I think this stands out as not well thought out. Jesse has not been presented to us as a deductive genius, quite the opposite.

[MiddleFingerMom]

1. Not gonna look. I've missed both episodes so far, but my landlord has taped 'em both.

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Now, I just need another tutorial on how to play 'em back.
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I've been watching the series on Netflix and I'm almost done with Season 2.
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I've come to realize that I missed all of Season 2 up to the episode where
they spend the weekend cooking a phenomenal amount of meth and were
trapped way out in the desert with a dead battery.
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I missed the apt mgr GF intro, Badger's bust, Walt's remission, Hank's brief
transfer to El Paso (the tortoise... WHOA!!!) -- all sorts of things. I THINK I
saw most of the rest -- although I don't think I saw how they got hooked up
with Gus.
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GREAT series. Looking forward to starting on Season 6 -- thanks for the
heads-up about spoilers.
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[The2ndWheel]

2. He already (more spoilers)

accused Walt once of poisoning Brock, and held a gun to his head. He figured out what Walt must've done to Mike, and how and why Walt could've done it. He assumed Walt had them talk way out in the desert for a reason.

Jesse was already riled up about Walt manipulating him, basically from the beginning of their relationship, earlier in the episode. It wasn't Jesse's idea to leave town. Walt gets rid of people who are a threat to him. Why would Walt want Jesse to leave town? He knows Jesse would never talk, unless he had a reason. What's the reason? Where's my pot? Oh yeah, I have these cigarettes. Wait, I know Walt's a liar because of Mike. Why would he want to talk to me out in the desert? How am I a threat to him? I did put a gun to his head, and was going to kill him that one time because of Brock. Where's my pot again? Son of a...

[stevenleser]

3. I don't buy any of that happening either. He was catatonic at the start of the episode

and at the beginning of the series, he's a meth junkie who snorts the majority of what he cooks before he meets Walt. Everything that happens he needs Walt hand-holding him.

He's the guy who can't figure anything out and is basically blowing with the wind.

I don't buy the greater Jesse evolution from that into a smart/deductive person with a conscience to start with, let alone this person who at the side of the road, waiting for a completely life altering thing to happen to start analyzing the cigarettes he has to come up with that.

I know what the supposed justification is, I just don't buy it.

[sammytko]

5. I was getting tired of moody Jessie and hoping he was going to exit right - but

guess not.

Someone on another forum listed all the bad things he's done, so he is no angel.

[The2ndWheel]

6. I wouldn't say Jesse is smart/deductive either

Not always anyway. He runs on emotion more than anything. That emotion has constantly been manipulated. He knows it has been. Even when it's happening, he hates that it is, but can't stop it, because in some ways he needs that emotion to be molded.

Is it all perfect down to the letter? Probably not, but it's a TV series, not a book. Jesse was supposed to be killed off at the end of season 1, but worked so well in the show, that what he is now at the end of the series, and what he was supposed to be at the beginning, are going to have to be somewhat different.

The show is about change. If Jesse was going to be just the same meth junkie who can't figure anything out through the whole series, he would've been killed much earlier. Like the guy with the ATM machine.

[Heddi]

8. Jesse's pretty smart

He came up with the idea to rob the train of the chemical that was in the train container.

He came up with the idea to use the big magnet to fuck with the computer in the police storage locker.

Jesse's wheels tend to turn a bit slower than most people's, but Jesse is able to put the big picture into focus. It just takes him longer

[Generic Brad]

10. Magnets, bitches

An instant classic line for this decade.

[pokerfan]

4. But he'd already had that suspicion

back in 412 when he had a gun to Walt's face:

Jesse, you're not thinking clearly. You said it yourself that you had <the ricin cigarette> this morning. When could I have possibly gotten it?
You had Saul do it.
What?
Yeah. I went to his office. He called me in, had to see me today. His big bodyguard patted me down. That's when he must have stole it off me.

Walt managed to talk his way out of it that time, but now, realizing how easily Huell lifted the weed from his pocket, the suspicion came flooding back.

[tammywammy]

9. Ohhhh, thanks!

I had forgotten about that scene. A friend and I were discussing the ricin/cigarette pack earlier today and neither of us really got how Jesse got to that point. This makes sense.

[Spike89]

7. Give Jessie a break...

He's no angel, and he is a humongous screw-up, but they have always made the point that he is actually fairly bright when he isn't fried. He came up with some of the best solutions (the magnet idea). He also ran a batch of meth in the Mexican lab pretty much on par with Walt's quality (everyone else using Walt's recipe pretty much fails). Jessie is no genius, but he is bright and very intuitive.

Jessie spends the entire episode thinking about how Walt has always managed to "work him". And, unlike us, the series of events is NOT more than a year in the past, just a few months. It has been about 6 years since the first episode, but in the show timeline, less than 2 so far.