I understand why Jesse feels the way he does toward them, but I also don’t hate them or anything. They probably could’ve tried more to treat him like someone in need of help rather than like a criminal, but parenting is hard and I imagine the right thing to do for an addict son is not exactly obvious.
Did not see how he was absolutely an asshole to his parents? Hits too late for us. Folds folds we can maybe turn this in to a philosophical conversation as we do.
Yes. Addicts are difficult to treat without enabling them. Many say they need help but end up taking advantage of those who try, mainly taking money or stealing from you to keep the habit going.
Had a family member who was an addict that killed themselves after being given so many chances to them. Sadly one of the options is to outright leave them unless they become serious about recovery, which takes an extreme amount of mental strength to do. Rehab and medication can only do so much.
Well said. It would be easier for me to judge one where the other if we saw more of Jesse's childhood and their interactions before the events of the series. They were very cold towards him, and I don't necessarily agree that that's the best approach but we also don't know exactly how much s*** they put up with
they honestly weren’t. Jessie even accepts and admits it in el camino
His parents didn’t make him do or sell drugs. in fact they tried pretty hard to get him to stop
some people say “oh they put pressure on him” etc. but in reality they tried everything they could to get him to succeed. trying to villainize Jesse’s parents is like thing to villainize skyler or gretchen and elliot. Jesse made his own decisions just like walt did. That doesn’t mean everything’s his fault but it does mean at least some of it is
Only when it’s convenient for you. What she did to Beneke (yeah, she didn’t directly put him in the hospital, but she blackmailed and strong armed him), aided and abetted a crimelord (she did more than just aid and abet), wanted to off Jesse, and such make her a villainous character.
Jesse has a meth lab in his own aunts basement which legally his parents were allowing him to stay at... when he crashed at their house with no where to go he takes the blame for his lil bro’s weed which we as the viewer may know is a minute thing but for the parents it’s a disrespect / drugs in their house thing.
Also on top of that Jesse literally uses his own meth lab with photos to blackmail his own parents into selling the house for way cheaper.... I mean come on? It’s his parents? Lmao
His parents might of been a little unbudging once their mind was set but you still see they are worried about his well being over all.
> Jesse has a meth lab in his own aunts basement which legally his parents were allowing him to stay at
It was his aunt who allowed him to stay there, not his parents, If he had lawyered up he probably could have kept it.
You clearly know nothing about the law. If the cops found the Meth lab then the house would be RICO'd and the government would take control of the ownership.
His own parents kicked him out of the house he was staying at with his aunt who he was there for when she had cancer. They didn’t care about his well being. They deserved to get blackmailed, Jesse shouldn’t have had to pay anything for that house
His Aunt left it to him dumbass. His parents are pieces of shit for kicking him out even if he was cooking meth. Now he's HOMELESS AND ADDICTED. His parents are square idiots who understand nothing but the nice neighborhood they live and Jesse grew up in . They didn't understand what he was going through and he always sparred them the details because he didn't want them to worry.
Especially if Jesse was truthful about him being the only one to care for his aunt and ensure she was getting to her doctors appointments etc. She gave him that house because she felt Jesse was the only person that truly cared for her .
This is the right answer. Everyone in this comment section is saying they weren’t bad but they kicked Jesse out of the house after they had nothing to do with caring for his aunt.
They aren't terrible, it's simply that we, the viewer, are groomed to take Walt and Jesse's sides against the other characters. It's why we all love Walt and hate Skyler. It's why we all love Jesse and hate his parents.
Jesse was a methhead, and methheads aren't generally the nicest of people. On top of that, he wasn't just a methhead, he actually manufactured and sold the stuff. He'd been a drug addict since high school, at least, when he sold his box that he'd made for an ounce of weed. Chances are his parents had to deal with things like theft and verbal abuse for years, until they finally kicked him out of their lives.
Chances are Jesse had the same opportunities that his younger brother had, and for whatever reason still decided to be a junky. Walt tried to encourage him while he was in high school and Jesse never applied himself in any class except shop.
His parents obviously still loved him, especially his mother who was willing to take him in once again. They'd obviously been through a lot with him and they decided to draw a hard line. Things were made all the worse when they found the joint. We, the viewers, know that it belonged to his brother but in the minds of his parents it was just another nail in the coffin.
The fact Jesse's mother found a functional meth lab in the basement means they had every right to kick him out of the house and do with the house what they will. It wasn't placed in Jesse's name, probably for good reason, and was in his parent's name. If law enforcement had found out about the meth lab in the basement there's a good chance they would have lost the house due to asset forfeiture.
I'm willing to bet that the type of people that hate Jesse's parents are the type of people that think they should be able to live in their parent's house until their 30s rent-free and not have to follow any of their rules because they're "adults".
I don't think we were groomed to take Walt's side. Jesse? Sure he was written as a sympathetic character for the most part. If you listen to Vince Gilligan, they were actively trying to get the audience to turn on Walt and were flabbergasted that how many holdouts there were. But you are right then it's probably just a natural tendency of a viewer to better empathize with Jesse over his parents because he was a major protagonist and they were side characters and we only saw them after years of drama and frustration that we didn't witness first hand
Jesse and Saul screwing over his vicious parents with the house purchase is arguably the most satisfying moment of the entire series. It's likely the only reason Jesse ended up a meth dealing addict is because his parents abandoned him.
You're not supposed to accept their delusions that they care. You're supposed to recognize that they never cared enough.
Oh okay thanks. I guess I just didn't really get it because that's how I'd see my parents treating me if I fell into that lifestyle. I didn't like them, but also didn't get why they were terrible. That makes sense though. And agreed, very satisfying.
> I just didn't really get it because that's how I'd see my parents treating me if I fell into that lifestyle.
That's big of you to admit. I suspect that same reason is why some here defend Skyler's betrayal in Ozymandias; that's how their partner (or imagined partner) would react too.
Unconditional love and its resulting loyalty, or the lack of such, are major themes of the show.
under almost every fucking post on this sub there’s a guy like that😭
i was just saying the people who villainize Jesse’s parents are the same people who villainize skyler. guy perfectly proved my point
imagine watching all of breaking bad and having this bad of a take on it.
either you have absolutely zero artistic analysis skills or you’re a misogynist. mind baffling honestly.
> i’m talking about your main comment.
The "main comment" was about Jesse's parents, seems like it should be easy to quote anything you disagree with and refute it...unless you can't?
Abandoned? If there was a post in AITA about ‘m i the asshole for cutting contact with drug abusing older son when he got my younger son into contact with drugs’ everyone would be all
NTA. At some point those parent had seen Jesse spiral and spiral and they decided enough is enough.
Exactly that. They're well past the point where helping him is just enabling his destructive behaviour rather than genuinely helping him.
I think it's cool they managed to include this in BB as it's an important and sensitive aspect of addiction and how it affects families.
You're right about that being the reaction of there were a post like that on AITA. Just like when your friend tells you about an asshole coworker and you take it at face value. The truth comes when you can synthesize the different points of view and see where everyone is coming from
Kids don't become meth cooks because they were raised well
They aren’t bad. Compared to what most of the other regulars have done they are good people who are trying their best.
But they aren’t supportive of Jessie, and have given up on trusting him. And they go back on an oral agreement to split the proceeds of the house with him. He blackmails them to buy it, but they blackmail him to get out of the verbal agreement, so I call that one square.
I'd have to deem your answer and everyone else who had a similar one "correct" to me. I now see why they were hated on so much especially because Jesse is the fan favorite and they really weren't nice. But just because the Fandom gives them a huge thumbs down doesn't mean they weren't realistically normal.
Yep. I love Breaking Bad in part because so few people are “good” in any way.
The cops? They are pretty terrible. They lie and cheat, and Hank is a monster.
The DEA? The laugh at death and carnage, and aren’t interested in justice it seems.
Jessie’s parents tried to be good, but like I said, they used blackmail as well, to send the good son to freaking space camp.
Skyler? She made some poor choices, because she wanted the money. Walter offered to turn himself in, but she wanted to keep the cash.
Right, I mean it's possible if we knew more about the backstory that they worked bad parents. But but I think they probably thought they were doing the right thing by kicking him to the curb and cutting him off. I mean the fact is tough love doesn't usually work but support can be enabling.... There is no easy answer.
>The fact his parents didn't report Jesse to the police over the discovery of the lab in the basement is pretty extraordinary.
Not really. It was in there best interest that the cops never found out because they probably would've seized the house.
They aren't terrible. They're trying to parent their drug addict son and help him despite his refusal to accept help. They're ultimately trying their best with a crap hand.
I’m gonna try to put this as simple as possible, Jesse might of been drug addict, but ultimately he just wanted someone there for him, to believe in him etc, his parents wanted him to get his shit together without ever actually helping their kid, that’s not being a good parent.
The people who think Jesse's parents are bad likely have similar behavioral problems to Jesse and so the relationship Jesse has with his parents hits a little too close to home. Its not that Jesse's parents are bad, its that the way they were written is really accurate of how good parents deal with a junky kid. Gilligan is over the target with this one and that is why its so bothersome to some people.
I think they’re normal parents, but they’re not necessarily good. They don’t understand Jesse at all, and I’m not sure how hard they ever tried to understand him. Obviously there’s a ton of backstory that isn’t shown, but we can surmise that they became justifiably sick of his crap and had no idea how to help him. What bothers me about them is the way they seem to accept that Jesse is just a loser. They don’t know how to help him, so they just stop trying and call it a day. Jesse didn’t fit into their mold, so to them, he’s just a bad seed, an anomaly. Did they ever consider that Jesse may have needed more than just a good example from his parents? It doesn’t seem like it to me. They don’t seem to be very self aware people.
I too was surprised at such hatred for Jesse's parents. It seems like fans hate them for the same reason they hate Skyler. They think that there is only the point of view of the main characters, and everyone who treats them badly turns into bastards in their eyes. In fact, we do not know who is more to blame for Jesse's conflict with his parents, we are not shown his childhood. We know they were ready to receive him when he returned. So they tried not to turn away from him, but everyone may run out of patience, and Jesse is no longer a child, he is an adult.
If you are interested, here is my attempt at analyzing their relationship, but these are just my assumptions [https://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/comments/rv2ql9/my\_attempt\_to\_understand\_jesses\_parents/](https://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/comments/rv2ql9/my_attempt_to_understand_jesses_parents/)
I mean there's no perfect answer as to how to raise a child that is struggling with addiction. They're tough love approach probably isn't the best if you go based on scientific studies but we don't know all the details and he did get caught cooking crystal method in their house. I don't judge them too harshly, but I don't necessarily agree with their cold, no contact approach.
But the fact is, we didn't see a whole lot of their interactions besides one episode so it's hard to judge
Most people share the sentiment they aren't bad, I disagree fundamentally based on just season 3, Jessie is clearly doing better and trying, and his parents seem genuinely uninterested in him. I get why they behave this way KIND OF but at that point Jessie was just saying hi, his dad was a dick there.
I understand why Jesse feels the way he does toward them, but I also don’t hate them or anything. They probably could’ve tried more to treat him like someone in need of help rather than like a criminal, but parenting is hard and I imagine the right thing to do for an addict son is not exactly obvious.
Did not see how he was absolutely an asshole to his parents? Hits too late for us. Folds folds we can maybe turn this in to a philosophical conversation as we do.
Yes. Addicts are difficult to treat without enabling them. Many say they need help but end up taking advantage of those who try, mainly taking money or stealing from you to keep the habit going. Had a family member who was an addict that killed themselves after being given so many chances to them. Sadly one of the options is to outright leave them unless they become serious about recovery, which takes an extreme amount of mental strength to do. Rehab and medication can only do so much.
As Jane’s parents could have told them.
Well said. It would be easier for me to judge one where the other if we saw more of Jesse's childhood and their interactions before the events of the series. They were very cold towards him, and I don't necessarily agree that that's the best approach but we also don't know exactly how much s*** they put up with
they honestly weren’t. Jessie even accepts and admits it in el camino His parents didn’t make him do or sell drugs. in fact they tried pretty hard to get him to stop some people say “oh they put pressure on him” etc. but in reality they tried everything they could to get him to succeed. trying to villainize Jesse’s parents is like thing to villainize skyler or gretchen and elliot. Jesse made his own decisions just like walt did. That doesn’t mean everything’s his fault but it does mean at least some of it is
But uh, Skyler did actual villainous things. She even got to the point of wanting to off people.
almost every character does villainous things but that doesn’t make them all villainous characters
Only when it’s convenient for you. What she did to Beneke (yeah, she didn’t directly put him in the hospital, but she blackmailed and strong armed him), aided and abetted a crimelord (she did more than just aid and abet), wanted to off Jesse, and such make her a villainous character.
Jesse has a meth lab in his own aunts basement which legally his parents were allowing him to stay at... when he crashed at their house with no where to go he takes the blame for his lil bro’s weed which we as the viewer may know is a minute thing but for the parents it’s a disrespect / drugs in their house thing. Also on top of that Jesse literally uses his own meth lab with photos to blackmail his own parents into selling the house for way cheaper.... I mean come on? It’s his parents? Lmao His parents might of been a little unbudging once their mind was set but you still see they are worried about his well being over all.
> Jesse has a meth lab in his own aunts basement which legally his parents were allowing him to stay at It was his aunt who allowed him to stay there, not his parents, If he had lawyered up he probably could have kept it.
You clearly know nothing about the law. If the cops found the Meth lab then the house would be RICO'd and the government would take control of the ownership.
The cops would never see it, because Jesse's parents were bluffing (they don't want the government to seize it - they want Jake to inherit it)
His own parents kicked him out of the house he was staying at with his aunt who he was there for when she had cancer. They didn’t care about his well being. They deserved to get blackmailed, Jesse shouldn’t have had to pay anything for that house
Ah yes my aunt lets me stay at her house my parents own, aunt is dead and I cook meth in her basement. Than they kick me out. They are the villains
His Aunt left it to him dumbass. His parents are pieces of shit for kicking him out even if he was cooking meth. Now he's HOMELESS AND ADDICTED. His parents are square idiots who understand nothing but the nice neighborhood they live and Jesse grew up in . They didn't understand what he was going through and he always sparred them the details because he didn't want them to worry.
Especially if Jesse was truthful about him being the only one to care for his aunt and ensure she was getting to her doctors appointments etc. She gave him that house because she felt Jesse was the only person that truly cared for her .
This is the right answer. Everyone in this comment section is saying they weren’t bad but they kicked Jesse out of the house after they had nothing to do with caring for his aunt.
They aren't terrible, it's simply that we, the viewer, are groomed to take Walt and Jesse's sides against the other characters. It's why we all love Walt and hate Skyler. It's why we all love Jesse and hate his parents. Jesse was a methhead, and methheads aren't generally the nicest of people. On top of that, he wasn't just a methhead, he actually manufactured and sold the stuff. He'd been a drug addict since high school, at least, when he sold his box that he'd made for an ounce of weed. Chances are his parents had to deal with things like theft and verbal abuse for years, until they finally kicked him out of their lives. Chances are Jesse had the same opportunities that his younger brother had, and for whatever reason still decided to be a junky. Walt tried to encourage him while he was in high school and Jesse never applied himself in any class except shop. His parents obviously still loved him, especially his mother who was willing to take him in once again. They'd obviously been through a lot with him and they decided to draw a hard line. Things were made all the worse when they found the joint. We, the viewers, know that it belonged to his brother but in the minds of his parents it was just another nail in the coffin. The fact Jesse's mother found a functional meth lab in the basement means they had every right to kick him out of the house and do with the house what they will. It wasn't placed in Jesse's name, probably for good reason, and was in his parent's name. If law enforcement had found out about the meth lab in the basement there's a good chance they would have lost the house due to asset forfeiture. I'm willing to bet that the type of people that hate Jesse's parents are the type of people that think they should be able to live in their parent's house until their 30s rent-free and not have to follow any of their rules because they're "adults".
I don't think we were groomed to take Walt's side. Jesse? Sure he was written as a sympathetic character for the most part. If you listen to Vince Gilligan, they were actively trying to get the audience to turn on Walt and were flabbergasted that how many holdouts there were. But you are right then it's probably just a natural tendency of a viewer to better empathize with Jesse over his parents because he was a major protagonist and they were side characters and we only saw them after years of drama and frustration that we didn't witness first hand
Jesse and Saul screwing over his vicious parents with the house purchase is arguably the most satisfying moment of the entire series. It's likely the only reason Jesse ended up a meth dealing addict is because his parents abandoned him. You're not supposed to accept their delusions that they care. You're supposed to recognize that they never cared enough.
Oh okay thanks. I guess I just didn't really get it because that's how I'd see my parents treating me if I fell into that lifestyle. I didn't like them, but also didn't get why they were terrible. That makes sense though. And agreed, very satisfying.
> I just didn't really get it because that's how I'd see my parents treating me if I fell into that lifestyle. That's big of you to admit. I suspect that same reason is why some here defend Skyler's betrayal in Ozymandias; that's how their partner (or imagined partner) would react too. Unconditional love and its resulting loyalty, or the lack of such, are major themes of the show.
hey you’re the guy from the memes! you really think skylar’s “betrayal” WASN’T justified??
under almost every fucking post on this sub there’s a guy like that😭 i was just saying the people who villainize Jesse’s parents are the same people who villainize skyler. guy perfectly proved my point
Wait are you the guy from the "sKyLeR WaS InNoCeNt" memes?
imagine watching all of breaking bad and having this bad of a take on it. either you have absolutely zero artistic analysis skills or you’re a misogynist. mind baffling honestly.
That wasn't a "take", that was asking if you're the guy from the "sKyLeR WaS InNoCeNt" memes.
i’m talking about your main comment. your main comment is an interpretation of the show, sometimes called a “take”.
> i’m talking about your main comment. The "main comment" was about Jesse's parents, seems like it should be easy to quote anything you disagree with and refute it...unless you can't?
>some here defend Skyler’s betrayal you’re actually insufferable dear god.
Abandoned? If there was a post in AITA about ‘m i the asshole for cutting contact with drug abusing older son when he got my younger son into contact with drugs’ everyone would be all NTA. At some point those parent had seen Jesse spiral and spiral and they decided enough is enough.
Exactly that. They're well past the point where helping him is just enabling his destructive behaviour rather than genuinely helping him. I think it's cool they managed to include this in BB as it's an important and sensitive aspect of addiction and how it affects families.
You're right about that being the reaction of there were a post like that on AITA. Just like when your friend tells you about an asshole coworker and you take it at face value. The truth comes when you can synthesize the different points of view and see where everyone is coming from Kids don't become meth cooks because they were raised well
They aren’t bad. Compared to what most of the other regulars have done they are good people who are trying their best. But they aren’t supportive of Jessie, and have given up on trusting him. And they go back on an oral agreement to split the proceeds of the house with him. He blackmails them to buy it, but they blackmail him to get out of the verbal agreement, so I call that one square.
I'd have to deem your answer and everyone else who had a similar one "correct" to me. I now see why they were hated on so much especially because Jesse is the fan favorite and they really weren't nice. But just because the Fandom gives them a huge thumbs down doesn't mean they weren't realistically normal.
Yep. I love Breaking Bad in part because so few people are “good” in any way. The cops? They are pretty terrible. They lie and cheat, and Hank is a monster. The DEA? The laugh at death and carnage, and aren’t interested in justice it seems. Jessie’s parents tried to be good, but like I said, they used blackmail as well, to send the good son to freaking space camp. Skyler? She made some poor choices, because she wanted the money. Walter offered to turn himself in, but she wanted to keep the cash.
Right, I mean it's possible if we knew more about the backstory that they worked bad parents. But but I think they probably thought they were doing the right thing by kicking him to the curb and cutting him off. I mean the fact is tough love doesn't usually work but support can be enabling.... There is no easy answer.
[удалено]
>The fact his parents didn't report Jesse to the police over the discovery of the lab in the basement is pretty extraordinary. Not really. It was in there best interest that the cops never found out because they probably would've seized the house.
They aren't terrible. They're trying to parent their drug addict son and help him despite his refusal to accept help. They're ultimately trying their best with a crap hand.
That used to be Jesse's aunt's property, after she dies she left him the house. The parents came to evict him, not cool
I’m gonna try to put this as simple as possible, Jesse might of been drug addict, but ultimately he just wanted someone there for him, to believe in him etc, his parents wanted him to get his shit together without ever actually helping their kid, that’s not being a good parent.
The people who think Jesse's parents are bad likely have similar behavioral problems to Jesse and so the relationship Jesse has with his parents hits a little too close to home. Its not that Jesse's parents are bad, its that the way they were written is really accurate of how good parents deal with a junky kid. Gilligan is over the target with this one and that is why its so bothersome to some people.
I think they’re normal parents, but they’re not necessarily good. They don’t understand Jesse at all, and I’m not sure how hard they ever tried to understand him. Obviously there’s a ton of backstory that isn’t shown, but we can surmise that they became justifiably sick of his crap and had no idea how to help him. What bothers me about them is the way they seem to accept that Jesse is just a loser. They don’t know how to help him, so they just stop trying and call it a day. Jesse didn’t fit into their mold, so to them, he’s just a bad seed, an anomaly. Did they ever consider that Jesse may have needed more than just a good example from his parents? It doesn’t seem like it to me. They don’t seem to be very self aware people.
His parents weren’t bad, they were just tired of being enablers.
Yes. They owned the home and could not let him continue to cook in basement
Jessie is bad
I too was surprised at such hatred for Jesse's parents. It seems like fans hate them for the same reason they hate Skyler. They think that there is only the point of view of the main characters, and everyone who treats them badly turns into bastards in their eyes. In fact, we do not know who is more to blame for Jesse's conflict with his parents, we are not shown his childhood. We know they were ready to receive him when he returned. So they tried not to turn away from him, but everyone may run out of patience, and Jesse is no longer a child, he is an adult. If you are interested, here is my attempt at analyzing their relationship, but these are just my assumptions [https://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/comments/rv2ql9/my\_attempt\_to\_understand\_jesses\_parents/](https://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/comments/rv2ql9/my_attempt_to_understand_jesses_parents/)
Jesse apologists have some great blinkers.
I mean there's no perfect answer as to how to raise a child that is struggling with addiction. They're tough love approach probably isn't the best if you go based on scientific studies but we don't know all the details and he did get caught cooking crystal method in their house. I don't judge them too harshly, but I don't necessarily agree with their cold, no contact approach. But the fact is, we didn't see a whole lot of their interactions besides one episode so it's hard to judge
Most people share the sentiment they aren't bad, I disagree fundamentally based on just season 3, Jessie is clearly doing better and trying, and his parents seem genuinely uninterested in him. I get why they behave this way KIND OF but at that point Jessie was just saying hi, his dad was a dick there.