Question about Walter and the cigarette in Season 4 of Breaking Bad
In Breaking Bad, what was Walter's reason for changing the poison cigarette with a mild substance and making Jesse's girlfriend's kid get sick?
I think it is about psychological manipulation over Jesse, but it is too elaborate as a plan and it created more trouble than benefits. I fail to see what was the expected outcome and how it would have affected the plot if it never had happened.
Best Answer
Walter was not playing Jesse, just Gus.
Walter's intent was not to manipulate Jesse, but to manipulate Gus and the bodyguard into an unguarded place. Poisoning Jesse's girlfriend's son causes stress to Jesse, who believed it was the ricin from the cigarette. This heightened his stress level so he could not perform the cooking duties for Gus. Walter was forcing Gus into a conversation, at the hospital, that started as a cook responsibility conversation with Jesse, but turned into a compassionate one, since Gus relieved Jesse from cooking to stay near the boy. Walter knew Gus' attitude was "family first"; so does the audience. Walt used the unguarded time to bomb the car, a plan which failed because Gus luckily evaded the explosion by walking away because he "sensed something".
The remainder of the "situation" which involved the FBI, was defused by Saul, and the eventual knowledge that ricin (which was never named, I believe) was not the cause. It had to be something else Walter created because ricin, if confirmed, would have had Jesse arrested, possibly as a terrorist, since ricin is so deadly. Hello Guantanamo!
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What did Walter do with the cigarette?
Meanwhile, Huell clandestinely snatched the cigarette back from Jesse at Walt's request, and, in part one of season five, Walt placed a fake ricin cigarette in Jesse's vacuum. Jesse found it and concluded he was responsible for losing it all along.Why did Walter smoke a cigarette?
Walt took up smoking when he was a young man overseas as a driver for the Red Cross in France. Like young men in the military when they were confronted by long periods of boredom broken by brief, unexpected moments of intense activity, Walt turned to cigarettes, especially since they were easily available.Why did Walt ask Jesse for a cigarette?
Walt wants to kill Gus because he knows Gus wants him dead. He talks Jesse into doing it. Walt gives Jesse the cigarette with the ricin to kill Gus but it doesn't happen as Jesse is becoming loyal to Gus and Mike.How did Jesse find out about the cigarette?
In the season 5 episode Confessions Jesse realises that Saul and Huell took his ricin cigerette on the orders of Walt (Jesse finds this out by threatening them with a gun) which causes him to also realise that Walter was behind the whole false story of Gus poisoning Brock when it had been him all along.Breaking Bad Finale Theory - A Case For Walt Poisoning Brock
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