Last week’s episode definitely left off with a finale-like ending. By “finale-like” I mean that the season could have ended there and most fans would’ve been left on the endges of their seats and just fine and happy with the thrills that awaited us in the next and finale season. Though this episode wasn’t finale-like, it was not without a couple of intensely stressful moments that I dare say outdo most situations this show’s had to date.
Though we knew things for Walt wouldn’t end up with Jesse putting a bullet in Walt’s skull (and, but the way, I love that Jesse still calls him Mr. White), it didn’t take away from the tension in the room as I watched that scene. Would Jesse have pulled the trigger if he was even a little bit high?
Walter’s logic about how the ricin passed onto Jesse’s girlfriend’s son are quite complicated, though in a way they make sense. However, I’m not all that sure I believe Gus is that clever. Think of all the pieces that had to be put together to make sure Jesse went to Walter for revenge. First, Gus would’ve had to have known Walter and Jesse made the ricin. For one thing, they were very careful about how they made it, never mind where they wound up storing it, in the cigarette. Then there’s a matter of knowing for sure which cigarette it was that stored it, taking it off Jesse when he wouldn’t notice, getting it to the kid and making sure he smoked it (from a stranger, no less) … and that’s not all. So, with all of that said … is it possible Walt actually did give that cigarette to the kid, to save his own family?
I don’t think the show could survive in the same way if we found out Walt intentionally poisoned a kid, though I can think of one way out of it. For example, I could see a revelation where we find out Walt poisoned the kid, but with something a lot less deadly than ricin, just to get Jesse in the situation he’s in now, helping out Walt. But it’s preposterous to think Walt got to Jesse’s cigarettes, so I can’t see that happening at all. More than likely what happened was the kid sneaked a cig from Jesse, and all of this is one big misunderstanding. Awesome.
The most chilling moment of the episode came when Walt awaited Gus, across from the parking garage. The fact that Gus seemed to sense there was something not quite right was just downright crazy. Is it because he knew Jesse visited Walt, so he was on the lookout for something to happen? And how many times does Gus need to stand way out in the open before someone says “screw it!” and actually guns him down?
So what’s going to happen to cap of the season? Mike is still out of the picture, so will he come back and maybe take Gus out because he’s sick of dealing with this bullshit? Here’s what I think is going to happen, and I’m pretty much reiterating this from before. One way Walt could have taken out Gus (or could still) would be to plant some blue ice in Gus’s house or car. That would at least give Hank the evidence he’d need to initiate a full-out investigation of Fring’s operation. Walt makes an anonymous tip to the DEA of where to look for the lab at the laundry, and the place is raided and Gus goes to jail. Next season would partially deal with Walt trying to make sure Gus’s security tapes aren’t discovered.
Any guesses to what’s coming next? Anyone not going to make it out of the season alive?
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Oct 02, 2011 @ 23:00 EST5EDT
There is no way Walt gave the poison to the kid, not according to the timeline and i don’t believe walt made contact with Saul to do it for him, no way… Now if Gus has bugged Jesse’s crib, what Walt says makes sense and it’s totally possible, and i believe Gus is that clever to do so. I think there’s no misunderstanding, the kid didn’t take the cigarette and poisoned himself (it would be awsome indeed). Walter has no intention to frame Gus, he’s obsessed in killing him, it was whole season thinking of that.
I’m kind paranoid here, I watched the episode again, and when Walter spins the gun at the table and it points to some plant, it looks like something came up at Walter’s mind. Maybe a poison less deadly as you said. And the search that Huell did at Jesse it looks like he put something in his own pocket, maybe switching the cigarette box with poison for another one of the same brand.
*POST AUTHOR*
At this point there are two scenarios I could see having happened:
1) Walt told Saul to get Jesse’s cigarettes any way he could, and replace it with another. He did this using the bodyguard. Saul probably has no idea why, but he does what Walt asks because he’s told it’s important. Saul calls Jesse down to the office to give him his cash, which right there seems on in and of itself, because why is Saul really all that worried about Jesse’s money at that point? Walt poisons the kid with something not-so-deadly, to get Jesse to assume Gus did it, etc., etc. Remember, the characters on this show are so good at acting and lying that I wouldn’t put it past Walt being able to pull off that game.
2) The kid took the cigarette himself at some point.
I’m hoping it’s #1!
The problem with Gus going to jail is that it does not ensure his silence on who Heisenberg is and he probably has a lawyer is willing to send out orders to the security team to take out the likely suspects behind who set him up. The only safe way to get rid of Gus is by killing him.
There’s an “Inside Breaking Bad” video for this episode on the AMC site, where the actor who plays Gus explains that Gus was surprised by the fact that the kid was poisoned, and it was that oddity that let to him being cautious in the parking garage (and probably assuming that Walt did it). So I think it’s safe to assume Gus didn’t do it. Unless that’s just the actor’s own conjecture. And possibly Gus did it, but knew that Jesse was plotting something because of the cold reception he gave to Gus touching his shoulders, and the fact that Jesse wasn’t blaming Walt for it.
As to whether Walt did it? As he was convincing Jesse otherwise, I was also thinking that not even Heisenberg could poison an innocent child. Also there doesn’t seem to be any way that Saul would go along with it, since Huell would have had to remove the cigarette from Jesse’s pack when he searched him (even if Walt could make his own ricin, which he can, the cigarette is gone.)
So I’m left expecting that a) Brock found the ricin in the cigarette himself and somehow ingested it (he wouldn’t need to smoke it–I think it was in a capsule of some kind) or b) Brock doesn’t have ricin poisoning, and Jesse just somehow lost the cigarette.
I assume we’ll find out for sure next week.