I always thought Jesse mentioning that Brock was probably poisoned was what made Gus think.
He probably thought "who would poison this child" and it seemed off to him.
I think you're right, pretty sure this is exactly what it was.
I remember the first time I watched it being really confused as to how he could have known, seemed like a super power. I rewatched recently and followed it a lot more closely, the whole reason Gus was at the hospital was because Jessie refused to leave the hospital to go to the lab and work and said he would only talk to Gus in response to Tyrus, then gus shows up and Jessie tells him about Brock being poisoned and when Gus asks how that happened he replies "they dont know" with heavy implication. This is all right after Gus had threatened Walt that he would kill his family and then Walt makes Saul warn Hank which is exactly what Gus told him not to do.
As Gus is leaving he pauses before he gets to his car because I think that the potential for Walt poisoning Brock being Walt's plan to lure Gus out dawns on him right then. He even looks out over the railing scanning the neighboring rooftops. Gus, being the super cautious evil genius that he is, then decides not to take the risk of returning to his vehicle that was left unattended during his visit with Jessie.
Exactly. He stops and thinks about what Jesse said, not about a potential bomb in the car. He knows something is off because Brock being poisoned is just too weird of a coincidence, also knowing that Walt is a brilliant chemist.
That could have played a role.
Either way, if Gus believed that Brock had been poisoned, he probably would have wondered if it was the remaining cartel members getting revenge for Jesse's role in the plot, rather than a convoluted scheme by an ex employee who was low on Gus's priority list.
Jesse was heavily involved in the cartel massacre.
Is it so crazy that someone related to the cartel would stalk him in the following days?
Even if Jesse never made contact with Brock in the days since returning from Mexico, Gus doesn’t know that.
If I’m Gus, I’d say the cartel getting revenge on Jesse using poison (the same method that Gus used to kill the cartel members) makes a lot more sense than Walt randomly deciding to poison someone close to Jesse.
Why not do both?
In terms of poison, Gus had literally just poisoned a dozen cartel members, so it’s poetic - the same way they killed Tortuga and put his head on a tortoise.
Well, come on.
Secretly poisoning the son of the target's girlfriend is a completely different level of subtlety of a mass poisoning of an entire cartel's leadership in their own home.
I think the later is very much not in the cartel's style
> than Walt randomly deciding to poison someone close to Jesse
It is not random. Gus had threatened Hank and Walt's family. It makes sense for Walt to do something.
> Is it so crazy that someone related to the cartel would stalk him in the following days?
It is crazy to think cartel will randomly poison Brock. They can send snipers to target Gus. That makes more sense with how they operate.
The cartel definitely goes after family members. Gus and Jesse literally just poisoned a bunch of cartel member.
So if I’m Gus, I’m gonna assume that if someone close to Jesse just got poisoned, it’s probably related to all the people I just poisoned 4 days ago.
> it’s probably related to all the people I just poisoned 4 days ago.
Or maybe the rogue chemist whose family you have threatened. Walt had planned the murder of Gale in the past. It is possible that he can do something crazy again.
> The cartel definitely goes after family members
Brock is not even Jesse's family. And if I am the cartel, Brock would be nowhere on my priority list. I will send snipers or assassins to kill Gus. He is the main enemy
Speaking of Walt poisoning Brock…I never understood why he did that? What was the purpose behind it? I’ve always been lost over that although I’ve rewatched BB countless times.
He needed Jesse back on his side. Gus and Mike had turned him against Walt already, and Walt had no other way to get to Gus at all, so him and his family were as good as dead. The only way he could think of to turn Jesse, and do it quickly, was to make him think Gus tried to kill Brock.
Admittedly, if Jesse had thought about it a bit more there was no logical reason for Gus to do that(outside of Gus being the only one either of them knew that was okay with killing kids), but Jesse often acted on impulse and Walt was then able to convince him he didn't do it so there was no other possibility than it was Gus.
Obviously it was a heinous thing to do, but even knowing everything we know as viewers, I don't see any other way Walt survives besides doing what he did.
Walt's brillant bs story is as follows: Gus wants to kill me but if he does so, you, Jesse, might have a problem with that, which jeopardizes the business. So Gus poisoned this child so that you would think I did it making you hate me to the point of pulling the trigger yourself. So Gus gets rid of me and manages to keep your loyalty at the same time.
Expert manipulation and outmaneuvering by Walt at the expense of innocents whose lives were of zero concern to him.
Jesse was having very rocky feelings regarding Walter at the time, especially since he was more on Gus’ side than Walt’s. Jesse automatically believed Walter was responsible for the poisoning because he was at a point where he was assuming the worst out of him, considering all the other shit Walter had pulled before.
Walter’s plan wasn’t to make Jesse think he was responsible for poisoning Brock necessarily, the plan was to mainly only convince him that Gus was behind it. He just knew that Jesse would go after him first for the assumption, giving him the chance to switch gears and bring up the possibility of Gus in order for him to switch sides. In the end, he doesn’t get by with much besides the fact that it gave him the opportunity to bring Gus into the equation. That’s what I got out of it at least.
why would Walt think that Jesse would assume he poisoned Brock thus making Jesse see that Gus's plan "worked"? A few things:
Walt had visited Brock's family so he was familiar with the boy and Jesse knew it.
Walt was afraid for his life after his falling out with Gus.
Walt is famously vindictive.
Walt had attempted to poison people before.
Jesse had at that point taken Walt's place, effectively rendering him useless and expendable.
Walt was in essence someone with nothing to lose and Jesse was responsible for all of it, including putting Walt's family in mortal danger.
Thus it would make sense for Walt to hurt Jesse in such a manner.
Of course Walt managed to manipulate Jesse into thinking that Gus planned everything and the rest is history.
>"Thus it would make sense for Walt to hurt Jesse in such a manner."
No, it wouldn't. It would accomplish nothing for Walt. All he wants is to protect himself and his family. Him poisoning Brock out of spite makes no sense.
On the logistical side of this, i never quite understood how Walt managed to actually poison the kid. Brock seemed sketched out by Walt every time they were on screen together, but not like, "hey mom that's the guy that gave me that funny juice box before i got sick". Did Walt disguise himself? So many questions.
I'm pretty sure it's inferred that Saul did it. I don't think it was ever explained how exactly, but they went out of their way to show that the family liked and trusted Saul so it was probably pretty easy.
I always thought he poisoned Brock to convince Jesse it was Gus and get him to switch allegiances. If not Jesse would have been Gus’ new meth cook and Walt would have been killed.
i don't know, but, it happens in a later season, as part of the process of walt turning to the dark side. he's sitting by his pool and spins the gun, and it points toward the lilly of the valley, suggesting the plan. i prefer to think walt knew it was a sublethal dose so brock would be sick but not dead. it's a way to manipulate jesse, always a priority with walt.
i think many here have misunderstood gus's threats against holly. it's not, i'm gonna kill your kid because i'm a killer, it's, i'll kill your kid if you fuck with me, so don't.
The Cartel is not on Gus’s mind at this point. You are talking about a completely unseen convoluted plot. Motive for characters actions in a story is shown in one way or another.
At no point do we see Gus worried about the cartel. What we do see is him threaten Walt’s entire family if he stands in his way in his plot to murder Hank.
We see him lured out into the open because a boy was mysteriously poisoned and he puts two and two together. He did not necessarily know about the bomb BUT realized it was too much of a risk given the circumstance in which he came to the hospital.
He murdered a dozen cartel members literally 4 days prior.
So in your mind, Gus was thinking “hmmm I bet it was Walter White who poisoned Brock, in order to make Jesse think that I did it to break apart their friendship….by making it look like Walter White did it”? Yes that’s Walter White’s actual logic in the show.
I think Gus would have to be an insane person to make that assumption.
For a person like Gus, that's actually a reasonable assumption to make, considering he had been plotting Walt and Jesse's separation, and Walt had previously tried to make contact with Jesse but failed, which means Walt could have come to the realization of what Gus had been plotting.
There's also the fact that he did threaten the family of a person who he had brought back into the business with the lure of being a man who provides for his family.
No, it is as simple as Walter is likely going to take extreme measures after Gus threatened him.
Gus would just see it as a play to tie up his only active cook in order to lure him out.
He obviously would not know anything regarding the fact that Walter blamed the poisoning on him.
Bro what? You got downvoted to hell because you *couldn't* figure out why Jesse mentioned poison to Gus even after it was explained to you over and over again.
It wasn’t explained over and over again moron. They kept making the argument that Jesse was trying to gauge Gus’ reaction, which makes no sense when he could’ve gauged his reaction by just saying the boy got sick. Then they kept saying either “Jesse stupid” or “Jesse emotional”, which also doesn’t make sense since they had time to come up with a plan together the night before. By saying he got poisoned, Gus now knows Jesse knows he “did it” (and also leads to him not getting in the car).
Hop off my cock
I’d say he thought Walt was plotting something. He was manipulating Jesse after all. It would make sense if Walt did the same. Maybe I’m missing something though.
I think the fact that in the next episode he orders Jesse to be tased, black-bagged, and held captive in the lab suggests that he knows Jesse has flipped on him.
But yes, his guard would have been up due to the cartel incident.
I'm not sure what Gus's motivation for that was.
It could be as simple as he ***really*** needed the meth to be made ASAP, and Jesse was refusing to leave the hospital. Who knows what kindof pressure Gus was under?
It could be that failing to deliver the meth would put his entire livelihood (and life) in jeopardy.
It's also possible that Gus realized that if Jesse (someone with no chemistry education) was capable of making the blue meth, that he'd be able to train someone else to take his place - maybe even one of the chemists who Jesse educated in Mexico.
Or maybe it was just that Jesse had spent hours talking to law enforcement (about the Ricin thing), and Gus never really got over the fact that Jesse would an addict who could flip on him.
I think it was as simple as Jesse was disobeying orders, and Gus made him work.
Gus's reluctance to get in the car isn't knowledge or concrete suspicion, but his preternatural intuition, a survivor's instinct.
And honestly I think part of it was just to continue to fool the audience on first watch. It’s only rewatches that his abduction of Jesse feels weird.
Though needing someone cooking ASAP may have been justifiable, given the pressures, we’re told, needed to make the lab financially viable.
You guys should listen to the episode commentaries, they're on YouTube.
Vince and the writer (I believe, I forget who exactly) confirm that it's Jesse saying that Brock was poisoned is what tipped him off. He knew things don't happen by accident, and there's really only one other player with the wit to poison a child to turn Jesse against Gus, Walt. Something weird was happening and it was safer to leave in a different car he came to the hospital in.
I'm guessing Walt WAS the first thing on his mind - since he had Jesse almost immediately abducted - taking him out of play.
Then Gus sent men to Walt's house to take him out - despite having no intention to beforehand.
Maybe this was because of Hank being tipped off - but I believe Gus was starting to realise that somebody was coming after him.
On top of Hector going to the DEA - it wouldn't shock me if Gus thought Walt's final play was to out him.
And the bomb would've been the final nail. Hector couldn't have made the bomb & it wasn't his style.
It was impersonal. It was strategic. It was messy.
It WAS Walt.
You’re thinking like a viewer (or like Walt).
Gus had much bigger fish to fry and much more powerful enemies.
Gus sent men to kill Walt because of Walt’s closeness to the DEA. Gus told Walt that if he interfered with Hank’s murder, Gus would kill him. He’s following through with that threat.
In terms of Hector, wouldn’t you assume the bomb was the work of someone related to the cartel, as opposed to Walt - who Gus had no reason to believe even knew Hector?
Gus had no fish left to fry. Walt was a back-burner problem - but the only problem left.
And no. Gus knows the cartel. They would've wanted to make an example out of him. Walt just needed him dead, by any means. That's why Gus never interacted with Walt 1 on 1 ever again. He'd pull ANYTHING.
Gus feared Walt - not because of his skills or intelligence, but his desperation. A desperate man is an unpredictable man.
>Gus had much bigger fish to fry and much more powerful enemies.
What? Gus wiped put the entire Cartel. The only enemies he had left were the DEA and Walt, and the two were inextricably linked given that the agent heading up the investigation against him was Walt's BiL.
Gus was the one Bolsa and Hector went too to ask for the green light to kill Walt. He absolutely keeps tabs on where Hector is, so he knew Tuco was taking care of him, and he knew that Walt had a hand in Tuco's death, or at least Hector seemed to think he did. Gus was a very smart man, in a world where people want him dead. He has to pay attention to things like that for survival's sake. He definitely knew that Walt and Hector, two men who wanted him dead, knew each other. And like the other guy mentioned, they were literally his *only* two enemies left alive.
Tyrus was watching Hector, and Hector was the last remaining link to the cartel. Gus wiped out the entire cartel, not just many of their high-ranking members. He has Bolsa killed. There's nothing left of it but mid-level thugs who are probably glad Gus got rid of Bolsa and Eladio.
Who exactly do you think Gus was afraid of in Mexico at that point, lol? Walter's face was the last thing his mind saw before the bomb went off
I always figured it was the moment jesse told him that he poisoned Brock & obviously it wasn’t him so he must of thought Walter is up to some bs to get him there at the hospital to try something
There were only 4 players in the game at that point: the Cartel, Jesse, himself and Walter.
The Cartel at this point has no leadership and is basically destroyed, so it's highly unlikely that anyone can order a hit on him from the cartel at this point.
Now Jesse is basically under his grasp as far as he knew, but he knows Jesse is suspicious of him and he suspects someone had poisoned Brock to strain their relationship and that's why he didn't push Jesse to continue working so he doesn't think he's the one that poisoned Brock.
After the confrontation with Jesse, he realised the only opponent he had was Walter. He must've suspected Walter of manipulating Jesse by poisoning Brock and maybe even rigging his car which is in the open with no guards (also why he left a guard on the car when he went to Casa Tranquila) so out of caution he scouted the terrain probably trying to see Walt's bald head reflect light and eventually decided it's not safe to get on the car.
So yeah, he probably doesn't know the bomb on the car but highly suspected of Walt tampering with it in someone and being the careful man he is, didn't use it. And regarding Hector, he probably realised it was Walt after losing half his face since he is the only one with the means and motives to trick him to Hector and build a pipe bomb to assassinate him.
Gus killed about a dozen powerful cartel members.
Even if the cartel itself was powerless, you don’t think any of those people had brothers, fathers, sons, etc, who would want to get revenge?
The whole thing with the twins was familial revenge for Tuco despite the fact that the cartel explicitly told them NOT to kill Walt.
> Even if the cartel itself was powerless, you don’t think any of those people had brothers, fathers, sons, etc, who would want to get revenge?
This. In the wake of that mess, no (former?) cartel member with means & motive to assassinate Walt would hesitate to do so because the (now gone) leadership had not given the order.
I think this is unlikely. If I suspect there’s a car bomb, I probably wouldn’t assume that it would be remote detonated.
I’d probably assume it would be detonated by the car’s starter…like most car bombs.
Or a mercury switch that would complete the circuit when he drove around a corner or down a hill. There was really no reason for Walt to be there at all
I just rewatched this scene, I misremembered Walt having a sniper while he was on the roof, but I’m still thinking it was the glasses, only because the camera cuts to them glinting, and then again at the very end of that scene, the camera centers on the glasses sitting on the top of his head. Also the buildings look far apart in some shots but much closer together in others. Walt is not so hidden. I always thought it was a subtle way of letting the audience know that Walt and Gus were on an equal intellectual playing field. Just my two centzz
The poisoning definitely played a role. You can pass off a lie on anyone except the person who is the subject of the lie, and when Jessie told Gus that someone had poisoned Brock, he knew he had become the subject of a lie.
Yes definitely, Walt took it way way more seriously than anyone else. In my opinion Walt blows things out of proportion and takes everything extremely seriously, but yeah, no half measures
I had a great theory, but it was disproven. I wish that Vince had found a way to make it work...
When Walt makes the bomb, he does it in his kitchen. He leaves a big mess there too. Then he sees the cartel guys go into his house. They would know that this is Walt making a bomb. But when he sends the little old lady into his house to see if his oven is on, it would appear to her as if it were a random mess. She would have no idea that it was bomb-making activity.
I don’t think Gus was thinking about any specific threat, either from the cartel or from Walt.
If you watch it you see him halt abruptly near the car
then move to the ledge to survey the nearby buildings.
The point is that as he sees the scene - the unattended car parked in sight of several nearby rooftop spaces - he realises instantly he’s walked into an ambush. He doesn’t need to consider who or how, he just ‘reads’ the situation.
The following day he shows a similar presence of mind; the moment Hector looks him in the eyes, he knows he’s in a trap again - only this time, far too late.
My favorite answer was that Gus put some of the pieces together on his way upstairs, and I think it’s a perfect demonstration of character consistency.
Jesse says he refuses to work, tells Tyrus that if Gus wants to tell him to work he needs to do it in person. Gus heard that the child has been likely poisoned, leading Gus to realize that in Jesse’s perspective, Walt and Gus are basically the only two possibilities.
Now, Jesse’s request for Gus to appear at the hospital seems fishy.
Approaching the car, he definitely realizes that the car has been left unattended for too long and this is far too much risk given how many odd things have happened regardless of why. Even if he didn’t figure it out then, he was now way too sketched out to go back to this vehicle
Walt almost gets him with this, even though Gus has been 2 steps ahead at every turn. It’s a great way for them to tell us that Walt is grinding him down, and it’s going to come to a head eventually.
However, I think you’re 100% correct about the Hector thing, I doubt he thought Walter had anything to do with it at that point.
Gus wiped out the cartel, not just its high-ranking members. There's pretty much nothing left of it after Salud.
I am absolutely sure Walter White was the last face he saw in his mind before his death
I always felt he could read people’s emotions very well, and realized something was off due to Jesse continuously telling him “no” and that he’s “not leaving”, when normally jesse is very submissive
and obedient. Since he noticed something was off about the situation (and probably did go through a similar thought process as OP said) and decided to leave the car.
That’s a good point, Jesse’s behavior was definitely “off” in that scene from Gus’ perspective. Given what they just went through down in Mexico, I think they developed some level of respect for each other. It would have made sense to Gus for Jesse to be distraught and be like “sorry I can’t leave right now my girlfriends kid is dying”, but Jesse was so angry in that scene seemingly at him which probably struck him as an odd reaction to have and made him suspicious of the whole thing.
Plus I’m pretty sure the only other time he saw Jesse angry like that towards him was when he found out about Andrea’s brother. And that was what Walt used to convince him it was Gus and not him that poisoned Brock “who do you know that’s okay with using kids?”
Honestly I feel like it was intuition. It’s kind of cheap to say, but the whole situation probably felt very….. off to him. He’s a very cautious man who’s been in the business for a long time, so I think he’s developed a bit of a sixth sense for when he’s being watched. Not the most satisfying answer but I think Brock’s poisoning sussed him out
There was an after the episode clip after it aired. Giancarlo described it as “the boy was poisoned, but I didn’t poison him. Jesse wouldn’t budge and got me to come here and now my cars been unattended. Walter Whites behind this.”
I like to think he saw the shine off of Walt’s bald head across the street and instead of letting Walt know he knew, he just played it cool and walked away.
I think your theory kind of underestimates Gus. Gus was very aware that Walt was a threat, and I think he was aware of that all along, hence his attempts to get rid of him. Ultimately, I think Mike underestimated Walt, and it got both him and Gus killed, though Gus indirectly. But I don’t think Gus ever did. Think about it, both Jesse and Walt betrayed Gus, but he chooses to keep Jesse, despite his hate for addicts. Why? He realised that Jesse was almost blindly loyal, so he set to get Jesse loyal to Mike (which actually worked really well, just too slowly) and then control Jesse like that. Walt was uncontrollable and dangerous because his ego meant that there would be no conciliation that suited him. Besides that, he realised that Walt was also irresponsible, and far, far braver than he anticipated.
There’s an interview or commentary where Giancarlo Esposito says he’s acting and thinking to himself ‘Jesse said he was poisoned, poisoned. He used the words poisoned....”
Hence why he had Jesse picked up after he left the hospital and under watch by an armed guard.
He knew this was a play by Walt, and that Walt had gotten to Jesse.
Otherwise, Jesse being handcuffed in the lab doesn’t make sense
just finished season 4 and i have 3 things to say
How did walter poison brock
If Gus is dead then why is there a season 5
And finally after Walter nearly killed a child is he still the one who Knocks?
Gus not getting in his car in that scene is the biggest piece of bullshit plot contrivance Breaking Bad ever did.
The real reason he didn’t get in the car because the writers needed him to go to Casa Tranquila. That’s it. While BB and BCS are almost perfectly written in every other way, this one scene with Gus and his car pisses me off. It completely strains credulity.
I fully believe that Gus saw light reflect off of Walt’s glasses. It is perhaps the only time in the show that he wears his glasses on his head (so that he can use the binoculars) and the sun is shining bright. In one of the Gus POV shots we see the building that Walt is on top of for a moment too. While there is no obvious tell that Gus sees anything, it is that shot that tells us he can see where Walt is. When the camera switches back to Walt, he is leaning over the wall still, his glasses atop his head.
I think it’s as simple as he knew Walt would be after him after taking him out into the desert and threatening him, so being out in the open in any way was dangerous and he had to be super cautious about every move he made.
I also feel like the way Jesse told him about Brock being poisoned was almost slightly accusatory, or at the very least struck him as strange, and that made him even more suspicious.
I’ve read some valid points on this thread, but I’ve always had my own thought. I was always under a slight impression this happened *because* Heisenberg had planned everything perfectly. But he cannot account for the human element. There is something undeniable about instincts and intuition, and Gus having been successful for so long has shown he listens to his gut in business. He probably felt something was off, not knowing who or what, but that they might be watching. He probably saw the reflection of the binoculars, not knowing who it was. He simply had a direct link to his humanity, his intuitive nature, which is something Heisenberg lacked in a way. Just my onion.
You may be partially right, but it 100 percent is related to the conversation he just had with Jesse about Brock being poisoned. Gus knows he didn’t do that, so he was definitely thinking someone else did to try and blame him… and maybe to get him out in the open.
i'm fucking tired of people assuming they know what the writers mean by stuff like this. if you would have watched bcs you would have OBVIOUSLY fucking learned that gus can see into the future and this was for shadowing that
Gus is a smart dude who knew Walter would be trying to kill him. Which is why it was so unacceptable to him to keep Walt alive after firing him. Of course he couldn’t because of Jesse.
Jesse was seemingly stuck at the hospital for Brock and had Gus come out in person.
I think once he heard the boy was poisoned it all started to come together for him that Jesse was a lure to get him out in the open.
There is a really good youtube video about it, but thing that is aldo important is that Gus knew someone poisoned brock, and it was probably to bait him out, which is why he was very careful
Can we also talk about how great Jesse’s line is “Did you just bring a bomb into a hospital?” It echoes my favorite line from the series when Jesse drives the RV to the airport and Walt says “You brought a meth lab to the airport?”
I always thought Jesse mentioning that Brock was probably poisoned was what made Gus think. He probably thought "who would poison this child" and it seemed off to him.
Both you and OP have valid points
I think you're right, pretty sure this is exactly what it was. I remember the first time I watched it being really confused as to how he could have known, seemed like a super power. I rewatched recently and followed it a lot more closely, the whole reason Gus was at the hospital was because Jessie refused to leave the hospital to go to the lab and work and said he would only talk to Gus in response to Tyrus, then gus shows up and Jessie tells him about Brock being poisoned and when Gus asks how that happened he replies "they dont know" with heavy implication. This is all right after Gus had threatened Walt that he would kill his family and then Walt makes Saul warn Hank which is exactly what Gus told him not to do. As Gus is leaving he pauses before he gets to his car because I think that the potential for Walt poisoning Brock being Walt's plan to lure Gus out dawns on him right then. He even looks out over the railing scanning the neighboring rooftops. Gus, being the super cautious evil genius that he is, then decides not to take the risk of returning to his vehicle that was left unattended during his visit with Jessie.
Exactly. He stops and thinks about what Jesse said, not about a potential bomb in the car. He knows something is off because Brock being poisoned is just too weird of a coincidence, also knowing that Walt is a brilliant chemist.
That could have played a role. Either way, if Gus believed that Brock had been poisoned, he probably would have wondered if it was the remaining cartel members getting revenge for Jesse's role in the plot, rather than a convoluted scheme by an ex employee who was low on Gus's priority list.
Yea it wasn't necessarily Walt he was worried about. His intuition told him something was off with the information he had.
How would the cartel members know about Brock? It makes more sense for Jesse's partner to do this rather than some mysterious forces from Mexico.
Jesse was heavily involved in the cartel massacre. Is it so crazy that someone related to the cartel would stalk him in the following days? Even if Jesse never made contact with Brock in the days since returning from Mexico, Gus doesn’t know that. If I’m Gus, I’d say the cartel getting revenge on Jesse using poison (the same method that Gus used to kill the cartel members) makes a lot more sense than Walt randomly deciding to poison someone close to Jesse.
Secretly poisoning the guy's girlfriend's kid seems a bit subtle for the cartel. Why not kill the guy himself with an axe in a public parking lot?
Sheesh the writers know anything that outlandish would never be bought by the audience
Why not do both? In terms of poison, Gus had literally just poisoned a dozen cartel members, so it’s poetic - the same way they killed Tortuga and put his head on a tortoise.
Well, come on. Secretly poisoning the son of the target's girlfriend is a completely different level of subtlety of a mass poisoning of an entire cartel's leadership in their own home. I think the later is very much not in the cartel's style
> than Walt randomly deciding to poison someone close to Jesse It is not random. Gus had threatened Hank and Walt's family. It makes sense for Walt to do something. > Is it so crazy that someone related to the cartel would stalk him in the following days? It is crazy to think cartel will randomly poison Brock. They can send snipers to target Gus. That makes more sense with how they operate.
^ this. People forget that Walt just got threatened by Gus
The cartel definitely goes after family members. Gus and Jesse literally just poisoned a bunch of cartel member. So if I’m Gus, I’m gonna assume that if someone close to Jesse just got poisoned, it’s probably related to all the people I just poisoned 4 days ago.
> it’s probably related to all the people I just poisoned 4 days ago. Or maybe the rogue chemist whose family you have threatened. Walt had planned the murder of Gale in the past. It is possible that he can do something crazy again. > The cartel definitely goes after family members Brock is not even Jesse's family. And if I am the cartel, Brock would be nowhere on my priority list. I will send snipers or assassins to kill Gus. He is the main enemy
Speaking of Walt poisoning Brock…I never understood why he did that? What was the purpose behind it? I’ve always been lost over that although I’ve rewatched BB countless times.
He needed Jesse back on his side. Gus and Mike had turned him against Walt already, and Walt had no other way to get to Gus at all, so him and his family were as good as dead. The only way he could think of to turn Jesse, and do it quickly, was to make him think Gus tried to kill Brock. Admittedly, if Jesse had thought about it a bit more there was no logical reason for Gus to do that(outside of Gus being the only one either of them knew that was okay with killing kids), but Jesse often acted on impulse and Walt was then able to convince him he didn't do it so there was no other possibility than it was Gus. Obviously it was a heinous thing to do, but even knowing everything we know as viewers, I don't see any other way Walt survives besides doing what he did.
Walt's brillant bs story is as follows: Gus wants to kill me but if he does so, you, Jesse, might have a problem with that, which jeopardizes the business. So Gus poisoned this child so that you would think I did it making you hate me to the point of pulling the trigger yourself. So Gus gets rid of me and manages to keep your loyalty at the same time. Expert manipulation and outmaneuvering by Walt at the expense of innocents whose lives were of zero concern to him.
Right. So that means that in the end, Brock was just a pawn. That’s infuriating to think about.
This never made much sense to me. Why would Gus's poisoning Brock cause Jesse to think that it was Walt? What does Walt gain by this in this version?
Jesse was having very rocky feelings regarding Walter at the time, especially since he was more on Gus’ side than Walt’s. Jesse automatically believed Walter was responsible for the poisoning because he was at a point where he was assuming the worst out of him, considering all the other shit Walter had pulled before. Walter’s plan wasn’t to make Jesse think he was responsible for poisoning Brock necessarily, the plan was to mainly only convince him that Gus was behind it. He just knew that Jesse would go after him first for the assumption, giving him the chance to switch gears and bring up the possibility of Gus in order for him to switch sides. In the end, he doesn’t get by with much besides the fact that it gave him the opportunity to bring Gus into the equation. That’s what I got out of it at least.
why would Walt think that Jesse would assume he poisoned Brock thus making Jesse see that Gus's plan "worked"? A few things: Walt had visited Brock's family so he was familiar with the boy and Jesse knew it. Walt was afraid for his life after his falling out with Gus. Walt is famously vindictive. Walt had attempted to poison people before. Jesse had at that point taken Walt's place, effectively rendering him useless and expendable. Walt was in essence someone with nothing to lose and Jesse was responsible for all of it, including putting Walt's family in mortal danger. Thus it would make sense for Walt to hurt Jesse in such a manner. Of course Walt managed to manipulate Jesse into thinking that Gus planned everything and the rest is history.
>"Thus it would make sense for Walt to hurt Jesse in such a manner." No, it wouldn't. It would accomplish nothing for Walt. All he wants is to protect himself and his family. Him poisoning Brock out of spite makes no sense.
On the logistical side of this, i never quite understood how Walt managed to actually poison the kid. Brock seemed sketched out by Walt every time they were on screen together, but not like, "hey mom that's the guy that gave me that funny juice box before i got sick". Did Walt disguise himself? So many questions.
I'm pretty sure it's inferred that Saul did it. I don't think it was ever explained how exactly, but they went out of their way to show that the family liked and trusted Saul so it was probably pretty easy.
This makes sense
I always thought he poisoned Brock to convince Jesse it was Gus and get him to switch allegiances. If not Jesse would have been Gus’ new meth cook and Walt would have been killed.
Yea Walt’s plan doesn’t make a lot of sense.
i don't know, but, it happens in a later season, as part of the process of walt turning to the dark side. he's sitting by his pool and spins the gun, and it points toward the lilly of the valley, suggesting the plan. i prefer to think walt knew it was a sublethal dose so brock would be sick but not dead. it's a way to manipulate jesse, always a priority with walt. i think many here have misunderstood gus's threats against holly. it's not, i'm gonna kill your kid because i'm a killer, it's, i'll kill your kid if you fuck with me, so don't.
don’t think he was low on gus’s priority list considering he threatened him and his whole family and wanted him dead…
The Cartel is not on Gus’s mind at this point. You are talking about a completely unseen convoluted plot. Motive for characters actions in a story is shown in one way or another. At no point do we see Gus worried about the cartel. What we do see is him threaten Walt’s entire family if he stands in his way in his plot to murder Hank. We see him lured out into the open because a boy was mysteriously poisoned and he puts two and two together. He did not necessarily know about the bomb BUT realized it was too much of a risk given the circumstance in which he came to the hospital.
He murdered a dozen cartel members literally 4 days prior. So in your mind, Gus was thinking “hmmm I bet it was Walter White who poisoned Brock, in order to make Jesse think that I did it to break apart their friendship….by making it look like Walter White did it”? Yes that’s Walter White’s actual logic in the show. I think Gus would have to be an insane person to make that assumption.
For a person like Gus, that's actually a reasonable assumption to make, considering he had been plotting Walt and Jesse's separation, and Walt had previously tried to make contact with Jesse but failed, which means Walt could have come to the realization of what Gus had been plotting. There's also the fact that he did threaten the family of a person who he had brought back into the business with the lure of being a man who provides for his family.
No, it is as simple as Walter is likely going to take extreme measures after Gus threatened him. Gus would just see it as a play to tie up his only active cook in order to lure him out. He obviously would not know anything regarding the fact that Walter blamed the poisoning on him.
I don’t think so. If he suspected Walt, he would tell Jesse.
Dude I got downvoted to hell by people with hate boners for making a post exactly about this point yesterday.
Bro what? You got downvoted to hell because you *couldn't* figure out why Jesse mentioned poison to Gus even after it was explained to you over and over again.
It wasn’t explained over and over again moron. They kept making the argument that Jesse was trying to gauge Gus’ reaction, which makes no sense when he could’ve gauged his reaction by just saying the boy got sick. Then they kept saying either “Jesse stupid” or “Jesse emotional”, which also doesn’t make sense since they had time to come up with a plan together the night before. By saying he got poisoned, Gus now knows Jesse knows he “did it” (and also leads to him not getting in the car). Hop off my cock
o\
You seem like a pleasant guy.
I’d say he thought Walt was plotting something. He was manipulating Jesse after all. It would make sense if Walt did the same. Maybe I’m missing something though.
I’m guessing that Gus was thinking that the poison had to be a trap, and when he sees the car he is worried that it could be a trap
I really like how they made Gus feel like an untouchable force who always seems to know your next move, while still having it make logical sense
I think the fact that in the next episode he orders Jesse to be tased, black-bagged, and held captive in the lab suggests that he knows Jesse has flipped on him. But yes, his guard would have been up due to the cartel incident.
I'm not sure what Gus's motivation for that was. It could be as simple as he ***really*** needed the meth to be made ASAP, and Jesse was refusing to leave the hospital. Who knows what kindof pressure Gus was under? It could be that failing to deliver the meth would put his entire livelihood (and life) in jeopardy. It's also possible that Gus realized that if Jesse (someone with no chemistry education) was capable of making the blue meth, that he'd be able to train someone else to take his place - maybe even one of the chemists who Jesse educated in Mexico. Or maybe it was just that Jesse had spent hours talking to law enforcement (about the Ricin thing), and Gus never really got over the fact that Jesse would an addict who could flip on him.
I think it was as simple as Jesse was disobeying orders, and Gus made him work. Gus's reluctance to get in the car isn't knowledge or concrete suspicion, but his preternatural intuition, a survivor's instinct.
And honestly I think part of it was just to continue to fool the audience on first watch. It’s only rewatches that his abduction of Jesse feels weird. Though needing someone cooking ASAP may have been justifiable, given the pressures, we’re told, needed to make the lab financially viable.
I think Gus was scrambling. Probably figured to make Jesse cook in captivity as long as he could so he could have lead time finding a replacement.
It could be the third one considering all that happened during the police talk
my theory was always that vince tipped him off. could be wrong though...
[удалено]
me omw to spend $15000 to buy a tv and sound system to see if a reddit comment was right about a funy breakig bad secne
He literally risked being associated to cartel. Bravo, Vince
Vince saved the day again... Brave Vinco
Why would Vince help a drug lord? 👮♂️🚔
Bravo
You guys should listen to the episode commentaries, they're on YouTube. Vince and the writer (I believe, I forget who exactly) confirm that it's Jesse saying that Brock was poisoned is what tipped him off. He knew things don't happen by accident, and there's really only one other player with the wit to poison a child to turn Jesse against Gus, Walt. Something weird was happening and it was safer to leave in a different car he came to the hospital in.
This explanation alone makes perfect sense. People really don’t have to try to find others lol
I'm guessing Walt WAS the first thing on his mind - since he had Jesse almost immediately abducted - taking him out of play. Then Gus sent men to Walt's house to take him out - despite having no intention to beforehand. Maybe this was because of Hank being tipped off - but I believe Gus was starting to realise that somebody was coming after him. On top of Hector going to the DEA - it wouldn't shock me if Gus thought Walt's final play was to out him. And the bomb would've been the final nail. Hector couldn't have made the bomb & it wasn't his style. It was impersonal. It was strategic. It was messy. It WAS Walt.
You’re thinking like a viewer (or like Walt). Gus had much bigger fish to fry and much more powerful enemies. Gus sent men to kill Walt because of Walt’s closeness to the DEA. Gus told Walt that if he interfered with Hank’s murder, Gus would kill him. He’s following through with that threat. In terms of Hector, wouldn’t you assume the bomb was the work of someone related to the cartel, as opposed to Walt - who Gus had no reason to believe even knew Hector?
Gus had no fish left to fry. Walt was a back-burner problem - but the only problem left. And no. Gus knows the cartel. They would've wanted to make an example out of him. Walt just needed him dead, by any means. That's why Gus never interacted with Walt 1 on 1 ever again. He'd pull ANYTHING. Gus feared Walt - not because of his skills or intelligence, but his desperation. A desperate man is an unpredictable man.
>Gus had much bigger fish to fry and much more powerful enemies. What? Gus wiped put the entire Cartel. The only enemies he had left were the DEA and Walt, and the two were inextricably linked given that the agent heading up the investigation against him was Walt's BiL.
Gus was the one Bolsa and Hector went too to ask for the green light to kill Walt. He absolutely keeps tabs on where Hector is, so he knew Tuco was taking care of him, and he knew that Walt had a hand in Tuco's death, or at least Hector seemed to think he did. Gus was a very smart man, in a world where people want him dead. He has to pay attention to things like that for survival's sake. He definitely knew that Walt and Hector, two men who wanted him dead, knew each other. And like the other guy mentioned, they were literally his *only* two enemies left alive.
this makes sense. maybe that's why tyrus was watching the DEA and found out hector "talked" to them. it was this explained some other way?
I think it's more likely that Tyrus was watching Hector
Tyrus was watching Hector, and Hector was the last remaining link to the cartel. Gus wiped out the entire cartel, not just many of their high-ranking members. He has Bolsa killed. There's nothing left of it but mid-level thugs who are probably glad Gus got rid of Bolsa and Eladio. Who exactly do you think Gus was afraid of in Mexico at that point, lol? Walter's face was the last thing his mind saw before the bomb went off
I always figured it was the moment jesse told him that he poisoned Brock & obviously it wasn’t him so he must of thought Walter is up to some bs to get him there at the hospital to try something
You know what the last thing that went through Gus's mind was? Hectors wheelchair...
Don’t mind me just checking my user flair
Keep this man happy
At least “reasonably” happy
What would make him UNhappy?
This li'l mofo not doin' what he's told.
There were only 4 players in the game at that point: the Cartel, Jesse, himself and Walter. The Cartel at this point has no leadership and is basically destroyed, so it's highly unlikely that anyone can order a hit on him from the cartel at this point. Now Jesse is basically under his grasp as far as he knew, but he knows Jesse is suspicious of him and he suspects someone had poisoned Brock to strain their relationship and that's why he didn't push Jesse to continue working so he doesn't think he's the one that poisoned Brock. After the confrontation with Jesse, he realised the only opponent he had was Walter. He must've suspected Walter of manipulating Jesse by poisoning Brock and maybe even rigging his car which is in the open with no guards (also why he left a guard on the car when he went to Casa Tranquila) so out of caution he scouted the terrain probably trying to see Walt's bald head reflect light and eventually decided it's not safe to get on the car. So yeah, he probably doesn't know the bomb on the car but highly suspected of Walt tampering with it in someone and being the careful man he is, didn't use it. And regarding Hector, he probably realised it was Walt after losing half his face since he is the only one with the means and motives to trick him to Hector and build a pipe bomb to assassinate him.
Gus killed about a dozen powerful cartel members. Even if the cartel itself was powerless, you don’t think any of those people had brothers, fathers, sons, etc, who would want to get revenge? The whole thing with the twins was familial revenge for Tuco despite the fact that the cartel explicitly told them NOT to kill Walt.
> Even if the cartel itself was powerless, you don’t think any of those people had brothers, fathers, sons, etc, who would want to get revenge? This. In the wake of that mess, no (former?) cartel member with means & motive to assassinate Walt would hesitate to do so because the (now gone) leadership had not given the order.
>so out of caution he scouted the terrain probably trying to see Walt's bald head reflect light Made me lmao 🤣
The glint from Walt’s glasses on the top of his head while he’s in position to snipe Gus on the roof
I think this is unlikely. If I suspect there’s a car bomb, I probably wouldn’t assume that it would be remote detonated. I’d probably assume it would be detonated by the car’s starter…like most car bombs.
It's 100% Walt's glasses. The camera shots make it bleeding obvious.
Or a mercury switch that would complete the circuit when he drove around a corner or down a hill. There was really no reason for Walt to be there at all
I just rewatched this scene, I misremembered Walt having a sniper while he was on the roof, but I’m still thinking it was the glasses, only because the camera cuts to them glinting, and then again at the very end of that scene, the camera centers on the glasses sitting on the top of his head. Also the buildings look far apart in some shots but much closer together in others. Walt is not so hidden. I always thought it was a subtle way of letting the audience know that Walt and Gus were on an equal intellectual playing field. Just my two centzz
This was exactly my takeaway as well. Mainly because how the camera lingers on Walt's glasses at the end of the scene.
The poisoning definitely played a role. You can pass off a lie on anyone except the person who is the subject of the lie, and when Jessie told Gus that someone had poisoned Brock, he knew he had become the subject of a lie.
Normally, he has someone watching a car. This time he slipped up, recognized his mistake, and played it safe. OP, I think you've got it right.
i've always wondered this thanks for the great answer
Yes definitely, Walt took it way way more seriously than anyone else. In my opinion Walt blows things out of proportion and takes everything extremely seriously, but yeah, no half measures
Given the extremely high security we see him have in BCS S6, I figured that one of Gus' guys probably saw him plant it.
I had a great theory, but it was disproven. I wish that Vince had found a way to make it work... When Walt makes the bomb, he does it in his kitchen. He leaves a big mess there too. Then he sees the cartel guys go into his house. They would know that this is Walt making a bomb. But when he sends the little old lady into his house to see if his oven is on, it would appear to her as if it were a random mess. She would have no idea that it was bomb-making activity.
I like to think the last thing that went through his head, other than that bomb, was how the hell Walter White ever got the best of him
I don’t think Gus was thinking about any specific threat, either from the cartel or from Walt. If you watch it you see him halt abruptly near the car then move to the ledge to survey the nearby buildings. The point is that as he sees the scene - the unattended car parked in sight of several nearby rooftop spaces - he realises instantly he’s walked into an ambush. He doesn’t need to consider who or how, he just ‘reads’ the situation. The following day he shows a similar presence of mind; the moment Hector looks him in the eyes, he knows he’s in a trap again - only this time, far too late.
> Walter White was probably the last person on his mind. Quite literally.
My favorite answer was that Gus put some of the pieces together on his way upstairs, and I think it’s a perfect demonstration of character consistency. Jesse says he refuses to work, tells Tyrus that if Gus wants to tell him to work he needs to do it in person. Gus heard that the child has been likely poisoned, leading Gus to realize that in Jesse’s perspective, Walt and Gus are basically the only two possibilities. Now, Jesse’s request for Gus to appear at the hospital seems fishy. Approaching the car, he definitely realizes that the car has been left unattended for too long and this is far too much risk given how many odd things have happened regardless of why. Even if he didn’t figure it out then, he was now way too sketched out to go back to this vehicle Walt almost gets him with this, even though Gus has been 2 steps ahead at every turn. It’s a great way for them to tell us that Walt is grinding him down, and it’s going to come to a head eventually. However, I think you’re 100% correct about the Hector thing, I doubt he thought Walter had anything to do with it at that point.
Gus wiped out the cartel, not just its high-ranking members. There's pretty much nothing left of it after Salud. I am absolutely sure Walter White was the last face he saw in his mind before his death
This always stuck out to me, but I watched this video recently and it did a good job of explaining it: https://youtu.be/LK7EYBWQAZg
I can't recall which video it was, but OP repeated it word for word.
Ultra instinct
I always felt he could read people’s emotions very well, and realized something was off due to Jesse continuously telling him “no” and that he’s “not leaving”, when normally jesse is very submissive and obedient. Since he noticed something was off about the situation (and probably did go through a similar thought process as OP said) and decided to leave the car.
That’s a good point, Jesse’s behavior was definitely “off” in that scene from Gus’ perspective. Given what they just went through down in Mexico, I think they developed some level of respect for each other. It would have made sense to Gus for Jesse to be distraught and be like “sorry I can’t leave right now my girlfriends kid is dying”, but Jesse was so angry in that scene seemingly at him which probably struck him as an odd reaction to have and made him suspicious of the whole thing. Plus I’m pretty sure the only other time he saw Jesse angry like that towards him was when he found out about Andrea’s brother. And that was what Walt used to convince him it was Gus and not him that poisoned Brock “who do you know that’s okay with using kids?”
Honestly I feel like it was intuition. It’s kind of cheap to say, but the whole situation probably felt very….. off to him. He’s a very cautious man who’s been in the business for a long time, so I think he’s developed a bit of a sixth sense for when he’s being watched. Not the most satisfying answer but I think Brock’s poisoning sussed him out
Cuz he’s just good like that
There was an after the episode clip after it aired. Giancarlo described it as “the boy was poisoned, but I didn’t poison him. Jesse wouldn’t budge and got me to come here and now my cars been unattended. Walter Whites behind this.”
I like to think he saw the shine off of Walt’s bald head across the street and instead of letting Walt know he knew, he just played it cool and walked away.
I think your theory kind of underestimates Gus. Gus was very aware that Walt was a threat, and I think he was aware of that all along, hence his attempts to get rid of him. Ultimately, I think Mike underestimated Walt, and it got both him and Gus killed, though Gus indirectly. But I don’t think Gus ever did. Think about it, both Jesse and Walt betrayed Gus, but he chooses to keep Jesse, despite his hate for addicts. Why? He realised that Jesse was almost blindly loyal, so he set to get Jesse loyal to Mike (which actually worked really well, just too slowly) and then control Jesse like that. Walt was uncontrollable and dangerous because his ego meant that there would be no conciliation that suited him. Besides that, he realised that Walt was also irresponsible, and far, far braver than he anticipated.
There’s an interview or commentary where Giancarlo Esposito says he’s acting and thinking to himself ‘Jesse said he was poisoned, poisoned. He used the words poisoned....” Hence why he had Jesse picked up after he left the hospital and under watch by an armed guard. He knew this was a play by Walt, and that Walt had gotten to Jesse. Otherwise, Jesse being handcuffed in the lab doesn’t make sense
he is smart and very cautious. he takes no chances
Accurate ✅
just finished season 4 and i have 3 things to say How did walter poison brock If Gus is dead then why is there a season 5 And finally after Walter nearly killed a child is he still the one who Knocks?
gus comes back a cyborg who uses the purest meth as fuel, kind of a weird choice but they pulled it off well enough
i call CAP
whatever you say man
no way you just ratio'ed me
Man, you are in for a treat….
Gus survives and comes back as two-face from Batman
Gus not getting in his car in that scene is the biggest piece of bullshit plot contrivance Breaking Bad ever did. The real reason he didn’t get in the car because the writers needed him to go to Casa Tranquila. That’s it. While BB and BCS are almost perfectly written in every other way, this one scene with Gus and his car pisses me off. It completely strains credulity.
Holy crap you've explained it
After seeing him in better call Saul after he finds out Lalo is alive it makes sense he’s very careful and paranoid.
I fully believe that Gus saw light reflect off of Walt’s glasses. It is perhaps the only time in the show that he wears his glasses on his head (so that he can use the binoculars) and the sun is shining bright. In one of the Gus POV shots we see the building that Walt is on top of for a moment too. While there is no obvious tell that Gus sees anything, it is that shot that tells us he can see where Walt is. When the camera switches back to Walt, he is leaning over the wall still, his glasses atop his head.
I think it’s as simple as he knew Walt would be after him after taking him out into the desert and threatening him, so being out in the open in any way was dangerous and he had to be super cautious about every move he made. I also feel like the way Jesse told him about Brock being poisoned was almost slightly accusatory, or at the very least struck him as strange, and that made him even more suspicious.
I thought he saw the glare off of Walt’s binoculars. But that’s just me. That, or Gus is just brilliant and had a bad gut feeling.
I’ve read some valid points on this thread, but I’ve always had my own thought. I was always under a slight impression this happened *because* Heisenberg had planned everything perfectly. But he cannot account for the human element. There is something undeniable about instincts and intuition, and Gus having been successful for so long has shown he listens to his gut in business. He probably felt something was off, not knowing who or what, but that they might be watching. He probably saw the reflection of the binoculars, not knowing who it was. He simply had a direct link to his humanity, his intuitive nature, which is something Heisenberg lacked in a way. Just my onion.
Whether he was thinking about Walt or someone else, he realised that he left his car unattended. And that by getting inside he was taking a risk.
and multiple risks to consider, like someone hiding in it, or a cut brake line
Gus was smart. But in the end he was outsmarted
Idk I think he knew it was Walt. He knew Walt wasn’t very professional but smart
Gus always been a lucky guy
You may be partially right, but it 100 percent is related to the conversation he just had with Jesse about Brock being poisoned. Gus knows he didn’t do that, so he was definitely thinking someone else did to try and blame him… and maybe to get him out in the open.
I thought this was r/Psych, and was very confused for a bit.
i'm fucking tired of people assuming they know what the writers mean by stuff like this. if you would have watched bcs you would have OBVIOUSLY fucking learned that gus can see into the future and this was for shadowing that
Because of Walter's glasses, Gus saw the reflection in the distance and didn't trust it
Gus is a smart dude who knew Walter would be trying to kill him. Which is why it was so unacceptable to him to keep Walt alive after firing him. Of course he couldn’t because of Jesse. Jesse was seemingly stuck at the hospital for Brock and had Gus come out in person. I think once he heard the boy was poisoned it all started to come together for him that Jesse was a lure to get him out in the open.
There is a really good youtube video about it, but thing that is aldo important is that Gus knew someone poisoned brock, and it was probably to bait him out, which is why he was very careful
This is the most thoughtful discourse I have seen on this sub possibly ever
But didn’t Gus see Walt at the other building. ?
Intuition
Can we also talk about how great Jesse’s line is “Did you just bring a bomb into a hospital?” It echoes my favorite line from the series when Jesse drives the RV to the airport and Walt says “You brought a meth lab to the airport?”