People forget that the timeline of the show is WAY more compressed than the manner in which we watched it. This all happens within a little more than a year, and most of the last two seasons in a VERY short time frame. The ricin revelation makes sense because it was REALLY fresh in Jesse's mind. I don't get how people don't get what happened if they've watched the episodes recently.
Because Jesse is dumb drug user and he's connecting dots that couldn't be connected in the court of law based on known evidence. He's really reaching to come to these conclusions.
Not sure I'd agree that Jesse is dumb, but in any case he's had a lot of time to sit alone in his house and contemplate all the craziness that's been going on in his life over the preceding months. Its not like he's totally oblivious one second and then all the dots are connected the next.
It's definitely plausible. I'm estimating that the ricin was taken from him about six months ago (in the show timeline), so it's fairly recent and fresh in his mind. I'm sure we've all had epiphanies from events that happened months or years ago. Jesse may be a drug addict, but he's not totally stupid like people are making him out to be. He's been very instrumental in a lot of the stuff he and Walt have pulled off.
For one, Walt's strategy to "brainwash" Jesse to distrust Gus was kind of weak. There were never any set in stone conclusions, just logical, subtle reasoning (and a nudge by Walt). I guess Jesse's whole "you've been playing me this whole time" revelation was supposed to be the glue that held the story together but, meh... The kid wasn't even poisoned by ricin. Jesse found the ricin in the vacuum. Just a bit too much of a stretch for me. As far as Jesse should be concerned the kid being poisoned is a completely unrelated incident.
And we know he has been obsessed with the ricin. Remember that they spend all that time searching for it. He tells Walt he's been playing it through his mind over and over trying to figure out what could have happened to it. Given his last 2 conversations with Walt, he also has grown not to trust anything about him, and has grown to understand he has been used at every turn. How easily Walt gets past the kid getting murdered by Todd really bothers Jesse. Walt says "well, he did see us." Jesse now knows Walt is willing to accept the death of child to get what he wants. Recall when Jesse is threatening to kill Walt last season that Walt says to him "who do we know that is ok with using children," and basically tells him to shoot him if he thinks he is capable of doing something like that to a child. It is ridiculously easy to believe that Jesse could put the dots together. You just need to see those scenes put together, and there is everything you need to know.
It would be, except Walt pretended he didn't know about the ricin. That despite looking all over for the ricin for days and playing it through his mind over and over, he doesn't find the ricin until Walt helps him, and even Walt tells him to open the Roomba again. Jesse's realization that Mike is dead is the only big jump to conclusions that happened.
The bigger stretch for me is that all these events happened in one year? I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but for instance: Hank opens an investigation into the blue meth, gets close to cracking the case, get promoted after tuco dies, goes to El Paso dea, has meltdown there, moves back to NM, gets suspended after beating up Jesse (IG investigation opened?), gets shot, is paralyzed, goes through painful recovery, learns how to walk again, works with apd while on leave, comes back to work, get promoted to station chief (despite having just been suspended a few weeks?/months ago for misconduct and likely having a pending IG investigation on him)--all within one year? Did I get everything? I mean I get some of these other deus ex machina/convenient scenes that at least serve to move the plot. It's fun and I'm willing to suspend disbelief because they are moving the plot forward. I don't get the choice however to make a decade worth of events into one year. Its unrealistic and it seems completely unnecessary. Might be just be a nick pick, but it just seems like such a strange choice.
While i agree its a stretch, It's not unrelated. Walt implied that Gus poisoned Brock with the ricin. Jesse found out it wasn't ricin and said it was not Gus. So it was never really solved as to who poisoned Brock.
I don't think it's too much of a stretch. When he couldn't find the cigarette, Jesse had already thought of Huell lifting it off of him. When he finds his weed gone and is looking at the pack of cigarettes in his hand, he realizes that his earlier suspicion was probably correct and Huell lifted the Ricin cigarette. Why would Huell/Saul steal the cigarette? How did they know? Likely because of Walt. So at this point he pretty much knows Walt has the Ricin. Which means Jesse never had it. That the cigarette he found in the Roomba was a fake. That Mr. White helping him search for it was a complete sham. Walt was just playing him. Why? To what end? Why would he steal the Ricin instead of just asking for it back? Or making more? Was it to make Jesse think he lost it? If Walt had the Ricin, why did he let Jesse continue believing Brock had been poisoned by it? Why did Walt accuse Gus of stealing the Ricin and poisoning Brock when Mr. White had it the whole time? These are the questions Jesse is asking himself. None of this is a leap in logic. You might think it's a stretch to tie it Brock, and if you're looking for a definitive connection you may be right. But Jesse just realized that Walt had been manipulating him with the missing Ricin. And all that happened at the same time Brock got poisoned. In fact, Walt stealing the Ricin is the exact reason why Jesse thinks Brock has been poisoned in the first place. If Jesse hadn't realized his cigarette was missing, he wouldn't have though Brock was poisoned. For somebody in Jesse's mental state, it's not far fetched for him to begin to connect the two. Knowing for sure that Saul was involved, he goes to his office and knocks him around a little and forces him to confess. If he only had a strong suspicion before, he now has confirmation. I think that scene in Saul's office is Jesse looking for confirmation of his suspicions. He suspected, but he didn't know for sure. If he had known for sure that Walt poisoned Brock, he would've skipped going to Saul's and gone straight for Walt.
Gotcha, for me I'd dismiss Brock being poisoned altogether. I would assume he was screwing around the plant. Kids will be kids.
Great video compilation by a viewer that goes back and shows all of the steps that led to Jesse's realization. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/q9496wqFKvE?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Also, agreed that him coming to the conclusion/realization was not far-fetched at all. Just look at some of the older clips in the video of how much of an emotional toll the whole Brock poisoning and almost killing Walt (for what he came to believe was a silly mistake on his part) took on him. It would all definitely be something that is right at the top of his mind still.
Yeah the bigger stretch to me was the story Walt gave Jessie about the ricin to begin with. Super meticulous and wealthy drug lord Gus, decided to bum a cigarette off of you from your locker when you weren't looking, only to find that one of the cigarettes was doctored with a powdered substance that must clearly be ricin. He must of thought, hey instead of killing you for having poison and attempting to kill me, I'll steal it from you and try to kill your sort of girlfriend's kid. If you were trying to kill me before out of self preservation, you will surely stop now out of pure anger. Or, I didn't know you were trying to kill me, in which case, having no power and wealth on my own to create ricin, I attempt to poison this kid with this most fortuitous find, without meaning to send you any kind of message. Just wanted to be dick, and you won't notice it missing because ricin filled cigarettes are probably so commonplace for you, you probably have a spare lodged in your roomba.
That's not it at all. The story was: Gus wanted Walt dead, but Jesse wouldn't cook for him if he killed Walt. Gus comes up with a plan to make Jesse want to kill Walt himself. Gus somehow finds out about the Ricin (via his cameras or informants) and poisons Brock with it (Gus has been know to use/kill kids) to make Jesse think Walt was responsible. Gus hopes Jesse will blame Walt and kill him, or at least drop his objection to Gus killing him. Gus gets what he wants, Walt dead and Jesse still cooking for him. And that's kind of what happens. Jesse thinks Brock is poisoned with Ricin and blames Walt and goes to his house with the intention of killing him. Walt just spins this plausible story about Jesse being manipulated by Gus. The only real flaw in all of that is that there's never really a clear explanation for how Gus would've known about the Ricin. That part's a little hazy. But the rest makes enough sense to Jesse for him to buy into Walt's story, or at least put enough doubt in his mind for him to not kill Walt.
Geez, people, get the hell over it! It's not that big of a stretch with the ricin. There's only one critical mistake the writers made in 5 years that almost no one has caught. Only one. When Walter passed out and the plate broke, not one piece made it to within reach of Krazy-8. I have the DVD and watched that scene at least 10 times, and it never happens. The plate breaks, and all the pieces are nowhere within reach of him. Only flaw. Everything else is plausible.
