Breaking Bad: Fans Divided Over Jesse Pinkman’s Epiphany
Fans may not like every character in Breaking Bad but there is one thing that we can all agree on: The writing is pretty fantastic. As the hit AMC show comes to a close critics are starting to put it in the “greatest show ever written” category. But that doesn’t mean that the show is perfect. Fans were divided after last night’s episode over whether or not Jesse Pinkman’s revelation was believable.
And just in case you couldn’t figure out, there be spoilers ahead.
At the end of last night’s episode, when Jesse is standing on the side of the road waiting for a mysterious man in a minivan to drive him into the Alaskan wilderness, he realizes that Mr. White was the one who was responsible for putting little Brock in the hospital. Jesse makes this realization after he notices that Huell stole his marijuana.
It is a bit of an “a ha!” light bulb moment and if “Confessions” was a stand alone movie it would be a pretty big cop out. Message boards lit up last night as people complained that “Jesse would have never figured it out” that quickly.
But Jesse hasn’t been pondering this problem for a mere 40 minutes. Pinkman has been obsessed with how the drug trade effects children ever since he pulled that little red haired kid out of the tweakers house. Then there was Brock. Then there was the fact that Gus Fring was using kids to sell drugs. Then there was Drew Sharp.
Breaking Bad may be focused on Walt’s transformation but they’ve also been bending Jesse Pinkman for the last few season and we’re about to watch him break bad. Violently. With a can of gas and an obsessed mind set on vengeance.
But was it believable? Could Jesse have figured out that Walt was the one who poisoned Brock simply by grabbing a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket?
That answer is up to the individual fan but remember that Jesse has already accused Walt of poisoning Brock in the past. Near the end of season four Jesse says: “You had Saul do it. I went to his office. He called me and just had to see me today. His big Man Mountain body guard patted me down and that’s when he must have stole it off of me, right? Was that the plan?”
(You can see the confrontation at around the two minute mark below.)
Walt was able to convince Jesse that he would never hurt a child but the thought has been lingering in the back of Jesse’s mind. After all, he did find Walt happily whistling shortly after the murder of Drew Sharp. Would Walt kill a child for his own personal gain?
As Jessie is standing on the curb waiting for his ride to anonymity he is probably thinking about the terrible things that he’s done. He’s probably thinking about Mr. White and Jane and Brock and Saul and when he reaches into his pocket for his marijuana he has an epiphany: Heisenberg poisoned Brock. It’s time to go to war.
Do you think Jesse Pinkman’s epiphany was believable? If you don’t, here’s a video that reportedly shows Huell lifting the cigarette from Jesse during a pat down last season.
