Breaking Bad/Headscratchers

• "Skyler, it's charity." "Why do you say that like it's some dirty word?" Why does Walt say that like it's dirty word? I admit I've met people who were too prideful to accept charity but only when their money troubles were somehow their fault (bad investments, a gambling problem, whatever). But Walt's cancer and subsequent medical bills aren't his fault at all. So why does he have so much trouble accepting even the slightest bit of help? (Full disclosure: I'm still finishing up season 2 right now so if it's been explained since then I apologize.)
  • It's just Walter's personality. He has an insane pride, and he feels weak if he can't be self-sufficient. Skyler implies at one point that he was raised that way, and of course the fact that he's never really lived to his full potential (with his chemistry skills, he could have done a lot better than being a high school chemistry teacher) has made his ego easily-bruised. The idea of taking money from his former partner, his falling out with whom caused his current financial condition, is like salt in his wound.
  • Walt's tragic flaw is very much his pride. This becomes more and more obvious as the series continues. His breakup with Gretchen, the fallout with Schwartz, his refusal of their money, and his decision to cook meth are all these impotent attempts to wrest control of his life from an indifferent universe. He's always felt put-upon and bitter. There's always been this feeling, boiling just beneath the surface, that the world owes him something. And then he got cancer.
  • A lot of people are like that. This Troper knows one person who dislikes her neighbour who got a pool via Make A Wish Foundation. This is a woman who's had her cable cut off several times and keeps switching to different providers. I think it's part of human nature to prefer stealing to charity.
• Okay, so in the season 4 finale we find out Brock was poisoned by much less lethal Lily of the Valley berries instead of ricin. Walt conveniently happens to own this species of plant. I'm guessing Walt was still the one who made the ricin cigarette disappear so Jesse would assume that was the source of Brock's sickness and he could turn it around and blame Gus. I get everything up to that point. Now, between Gus constantly watching Walt, Walt being driven to paranoid insanity over getting his family killed, and Walt being terrified to leave his house, how the HELL did he actually do it? How was he logistically able to get the berries from the plant beside his pool (Point A) to Brock's mouth (Point B) in the window of a few hours while remaining completely transparent and not even having a plan before that morning?}}
  • Saul and his mooks. They had direct access to Andrea and her kid, since Saul was giving her the money from Jesse himself. Saul is VERY eager to give Jesse his share, even though Jesse is in no real danger. Sure, Saul was in a hurry, but it didn't stop him from meeting with both Jesse and Walt in the finale. Also, pay attention to Huell when he pats down Pinkman - it looks like he hides something in his pocket.}}
    • The problem I have with this explanation is the mooks have been consistently developed as nothing beyond bumbling, incompetent comic relief before this event. Yeah, they helped Walt and Skyler get the car wash, but Skyler was the one who did most of the work there. I have a really hard time accepting these same goons managed to flawlessly pull off Walt's improvised master plan in a split second of time between episodes 11 and 12.}}
      • They may not be smart, but Saul is. He's been giving candy to Brock, too. And there was time - it's been at least a couple of hours between Walt's Russian roulette and Jesse getting the phone call from Andrea. Besides, I wouldn't exaggerate how stupid these guys are, the only real time they screwed up was when Ted died, but in that situation I don't imagine Gus Fring himself expecting Ted to act like such a fucking moron.}}
        • But, why would Saul help out Walt? The episode before Saul had to be begged by Walt to make a phone call yet Walt talked him into poisining a kid he has previously showed affection for. Also, this plan doesn't fit Saul's usual motivation of self preservation.}}
          • He's a paranoid crook. And Walt's plan fits his motivations perfectly - Gus could easily consider him a loose end, especially after Walt's disappearance plan failed. Also, he's helping in a perfect opportunity to create a power vacuum in the meth business, and Saul's greedy enough to think of becoming Walt's Tom.}}
          • Not to mention that Saul was more worried about Gus finding out he called the DEA on him then actually making the call for Walt, once Walt says he doesn't have to mention Gus at all then he has no problem doing it.
  • I don't really understand why people consider this part of the plan some kind of incredible coup. Alright, yeah, a lot of the stuff having to do with Jesse and Hector were insane masterstrokes, but come on. Getting a six-year-old to eat something? Anybody over the age of 13 could pull that off, no problem.
• How exactly does Gus's organization work? How does he have time to micromanage his fast food restaurant while also running a massive drug operation? How does he run a massive drug organization with what appears to be only two lieutenants- Mike and a random easily-replaced guy? How can Mike have the time to be a "cleaner" and a private investigator for Saul, respectively, if he's also doing all this work for Gus? How can the other guy have time to watch Walt and Jesse all the time they're at work, and Jesse long enough to figure out exactly which of his houseguests stole all his money, since he seems to be Gus' #2 guy? Why does Gus personally negotiate a dispute between a low-level drug crew and Jesse and Walt if he's so high up that barely anybody actually knows him? Given all these apparent limitations on his organization, how does he go up against the freaking Mexican Cartels and win?
  • To be fair, Mike was a cleaner before Gus got the meth lab running. We now see him being Gus's lieutenant full time.
  • Maybe this weird, small, tiny crew working inside legal bounds (the laundry, Los Pollos Hermanos) is the reason why this operation works out. And Gus' settling the dispute between Jesse and the two drug dealers makes sense, coming how he wants to give the vibe of a Benevolent Boss all the time. Also, this dispute is crucial - if a lackey of his makes a mistake, it could cost him Walt, his Golden Goose.
• I'm watching season 3, specifically the episode where Hank starts staking out Jesse's house, and I can't figure out why Hank doesn't just show the picture of Jesse to that girl from the gas station. If he gets a positive ID, then he has enough to get a warrant and search Jesse's house.
  • First off, that picture isn't enough for a positive ID. That's why the police have line-ups. Hank couldn't get a positive ID without tipping Jesse off. And that wouldn't be enough to convict him. MAYBE they could get him for selling, but not producing. Hank needs to connect Jesse to the RV, and he can't do that if Jesse knows he's being watched.
• So Jesse leaves Badger in the desert after an argument and fight. Then after Jesse and Walter escape from Tuco, Jesse is all of a sudden hiding out with Badger? What gives???
  • Badger isn't really smart. Like, at all. We're talking about a guy who starts humping a canister of P2P. And he does call Jesse out that he was left in the desert, so he could have some slack cut here.
• So, why doesn't Gus just kill Walter, cut his losses and replace him already? His reasoning is supposedly, with Gale dead, no one else can cook as high-quality meth as Walter can, but why exactly does he need 99% pure meth? Wouldn't Gus rather have an inferior cook that does what he's told instead of a loose cannon master chef who has this history of causing trouble for him? His customers are drug addicts, and probably used to much lower quality drugs. They're not going to stop buying because it's not premium quality.}}
  • Explained in Season 4 Episode 8 in a flashback which showed a young Gus pitching the idea of selling meth to the cartels with a very good friend who is a talented biochemist. This friend could have stressed the importance of purity of the drug and he may sell only the best as to not disgrace his memory.}}
    • I rather suppose that he has to *absolutely* meet his quota. As Jesse said, he has no Gale left, and the guy who knew how they cooked was seen at the crime scene, and not reliable enough if something went wrong on the chemistry-side of things.}}
    • Exactly. I forget the episode, but Gus said that because of the enormous overhead costs of his operation, he can't afford to halt production even for a day. Plus, given the occupational hazards of the job (loss of product due to raids, or the need to pack up and get the hell out of Dodge in order to avoid the DEA) Gus probably needs some "cushion money" to stay safe and afloat.}}
  • The trouble of finding someone smart enough or experienced enough to handle the superlab, but who's willing to break the law. Ordinary meth cooks don't know enough chem to run things smoothly, and most chemistry experts aren't criminals. Remember, Gale wasn't just some guy Gus recruited, he knew him through that scholarship thing. And Gus' meth needs to be a certain quality for the operation to be effective, his superior product allows him to charge more and gives him an edge over the competition.}}
• So, Gus is planning on killing Walter's family if he attempts to interfere in his plans to kill Hank, and he just assumes that Jesse's going to be ok with this? The guy who was planned on getting himself killed to avenge a child's death is just going to be cool with Gus offing an innocent women, a teenager, and an infant?}}
  • We don't know that Gus told Jesse the part about killing Walt's family.}}
    • In fact, we now know that he didn't tell Jesse about that, since Jesse had to hear about it from Saul.}}
  • It's possible that he was only bluffing to keep Walter in line. In season 3, Gus is highly offended when Walter suggests he may have had a hand in the murder of a child.}}
  • Okay, he didn't tell Jesse, but still, he couldn't do it. If Walt's family was suddenly wiped out, Jesse would probably figure out that Gus was behind it. He must have been bluffing.}}
• What was Gus doing before Walt? He clearly had plenty of money, a distribution network, a chain of Los Pollos Hermanos, and was constructing the lab with the intent of having it run by Gale, but how did he get it to that point? Was Gale working for Gus for a lot longer? It seemed that Gale was going to start working for him, but Walt came in instead and pushed Gale down the ladder.
  • Gus tells the ABQ police (Hank, Gomi, and the Leut.) that Gale was an aspiring chemist and Gustavo had financed his education. So yes, they went way back.
  • It's implied that Gus was working with the Mexican Cartel from the beginning, acting only as a distributer in the US. His plan, apparently, was to build his own superlab in the US, then cut ties with the cartel and get the DEA to go to war with them (hence the attack on Hank). That way, he'd control production AND distribution and eliminate his main competition.
• The whole conflict between Gus and Walt bothers me. I mean, yes, Walt killed a couple of his dealers, but there were extenuating circumstances. Gus is nothing if not patient. This is a man who saw his best friend murdered in front of him and waited twenty years to take revenge.}} But he feels the need to kill his best cook over the lives of a couple of street dealers who presumably mean nothing to him? And okay, I can see the need to get rid of unstable and disloyal elements in his organization, especially after Gale's murder. But then why does he try to replace Walt with Jesse? Jesse, who defines the word unstable, who was responsible for the whole thing with the dealers, and who actually shot Gale? Seems to me that Gus should have just forgiven Walt a long time ago and this whole mess wouldn't have happened.
  • Gus wasn't just angry over Walt killing two lowlife dealers. Walt's actions created a grotesque murder scene and left bodies Mike had to spend the entire night cleaning up. Leaving bodies in a public place jeopardizes Gus's entire operation, making Walt a HUGE liability. Just look at how Gus reacted to Victor letting himself be seen in Season 4. Also, he recruits Jesse because Jesse can basically create Walt's product while still being younger, stupider, and more malleable than Walt. With Walt, all Gus sees is a man who is far too close to being his intellectual equal to ever be trained into serving under him.
  • Also, "Half-Measures" make it clear Walter and Jesse are loyal to themselves, not to their employer. Jesse was already an unstable element Gus allowed only out of respect for Walt and out of necessity. Gus was already dependent on Walt, letting this slide would give Walter a big mental advantage. Hell, trying to punish it STILL did that: just see how Walt acts in season 4 - he's both paranoid about his life and on a power binge after winning the battle with Gus. There was no way to control him anymore.
  • I dunno, the more I think about this the less sense it makes. OK, so here's the situation: Jesse wants to kill two low-level dealers who killed his friend, especially because they used a child. Walt rats him out to Gus (so that should be in Walt's favor). Gus calls a meeting, sternly admonishing the two who used the child, telling them to cut it out. They kill the kid, Jesse tries to kill them but Walt does it first. Why does Gus care about this so much? Either 1) the two low-level dealers disobeyed him in killing the kid (so they're at least as unreliable as Walt and Jesse), or 2) he ordered the death of the kid (which considering Season 4 seems more likely, but didn't at the time, to either the characters or us). Only in scenario 2 does it make sense for him to get angry at Walt and Jesse, BUT even then why wouldn't he just lie and say "Uh, hey guys, thanks for taking out those two dudes who totally disobeyed me and weren't supposed to do that, now get back to making me hundreds of millions of dollars"? Seems MUCH easier and more sensible for Gus, especially after he just made a big deal about being offended that Walt would dare suggest he ordered the death of a child. Things go back to how they were, with everyone content and making money--no dead Gale, no Hank on the trail, no dead Victor. Hell, no dead Gus. But that isn't just a mistake in hindsight--I don't think it made any sense at the time. Why was Walt's reaction after killing the two guys "run"? Shouldn't it have been "run...to Gus to tell him we killed two guys who disobeyed him and murdered a child"?
  • Walt and Jessie are Gus' cooks, not his assassins. Having them go off on their own to kill these two guys is not their job and it's a huge threat to his organization because they did it in such a public way. The killing proved to Gus that Jesse and Walt can't be trusted not to do something incredibly reckless and dangerous when they feel justified, and that makes them a liability. Also, Gus didn't order the death of the kid. He only said "No more children" in the scene, and the two idiots misinterpreted him.
  • True, but if Gus didn't order the death of the kid, then his killing (a very public child murder) is way worse than what Jesse was planning on doing or what Walt eventually did (a pretty public gang shooting, which is probably relatively routine for the Chicken Man's organization considering how much turf he controls). Considering that this was the first time Walt (or even Jesse) had ever done something like that, and the unique circumstances--Jesse's girlfriend's brother is the one murdered--it just doesn't make sense for Gus to immediately decide that Walt and Jesse need to go. Maybe he decides that they're too unpredictable (though I'd think getting rid of them would be riskier), but if so the obvious thing to do is pretend to forgive Walt and Jesse and get rid of them later down the line. Gus all but announces that he's going to off Jesse and Walt immediately after they take care of a huge problem for him, albeit one that they weren't supposed to solve.
  • Gus is mad at them because the very last orders he gave to Jesse and Walt were to leave well enough alone and let him handle it from here on out. In fact, Mike had already told Jesse that they were sparing his life in the first place as a favor to Walter. You do not kill a drug lord's dealers: as soon as somebody kills his dealers and gets away with it, it's open season on his men from anyone who wants a piece of his turf, because he's proven he won't defend them. Gus orders everybody to play nice and let him handle things, and the very next evening Jesse and Walt have killed those dealers even though they gave Gus their word that they would never even speak to them again. They've proven themselves both capable of violence and disobedient; Gus cannot afford to abide that.
• Season 3 questions regarding the motives of Tuco's Cousins Okay, so I'm just watching this through now and I don't speak spanish so I'm missing a lot of Season 3 dialogue - but why are Tuco's cousins so gungho about killing Walt, and only go after Hank when Gus says they can't kill Walt (at least, I think that's what's going on, again, no subtitles on Spanish dialogue). Tio knows Hank killed Tuco (That's why Tio wouldn't help Hank put away Jesse). Yes Walt did try to poison Tuco (and failed), but Hank is the one that killed him, yet it seems like revenge on Hank is an after thought or a substitute for killing Walt.}} What gives?
  • The cousins originally thought it was Walt (Heisenberg) who had killed Tuco. What Gus told them was that it was actually Hank who had done the deed, which was the truth. This made them shift their anger and resolve towards Hank.
  • Hank is a DEA agent. Killing a government official or law enforcement means a LOT of trouble for organized criminals, so it's a big taboo. The cousins didn't have permission from the Cartel to kill Hank, so they went after the next best target. Gus told them that they were operating in his territory, and that he was willing to give them permission to kill Hank if they laid off Walt.
    • Also remember that Tuco's death took place outside, Hector only heard what was happening. Walter admitted that they'd tried to poison him, then there was a struggle and a gunshot. Then Hank pulled up and there were a lot more gunshots. Given that Tuco probably had a fatal wound before Hank even arrived, it's hard to say where to place the ultimate blame for his death.
• In season 2 Tuco beats one of his boys so hard he starts convulsing and has no pulse. Tuco tells "Heisenberg" to "breath into his mouth" (perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation) but Walt refuses, saying "they don't teach that anymore, it doesn't work". Uh, what? Because they taught it to me when I got my CPR certification.
  • He's lying because he doesn't want to do it. Also, I don't think mouth-to-mouth is going to fix someone who's been beaten to death.
  • That's the part I was unsure about. I thought he might have been lying, but why? Why not just say "it won't work"? Or even "I'm a chemist, not a doctor"? But instead he makes up a very specific lie that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation doesn't work and isn't taught anymore.
  • It IS taught, but you're also taught not to do it unless you have the right mask, otherwise you're just asking to catch something deadly. So it's really a lie by omission more than anything.