Some Thoughts On Last Night's "Breaking Bad."

Over all, a great episode and I can't wait for next weeks finale. However, tonight's episode has me thinking some very disturbing thoughts. The central knot was this: Jesse's kid pal Brock gets poisoned by ricin. Jesse first blames Walt and comes within an inch of shooting Walt. Walt though convinces Jesse that it was Gus who did it and they should work together. It's nice to see Jesse and Walt together again, but let's look at the idea a little more in depth.

GUS AS POISONER: First he'd have to know there was the ricin in the first place. Granted with Gus' paranoid surveillance this is not a hard hurdle.  Nor is it hard to believe that he could have had a goon lift the bad cigarette from Jesse.  The problem is, how did Gus give the kid the poison?  I doubt that Brock would take candy from a stranger, or even free chicken.  The next problem is, if the kid ever gains consciousness, there is a good chance he would blow the whole plan.  Jesse can be slow but if Brock said, "I felt ok till I had that free chicken," well Gus better hope that Mike is back from Mexico by then.  It just has a few too many risks.  There is unfortunately, a more reasonable solution...

JESSE AS UNINTENTIONAL POISONER:  Yes I know Jesse said he clearly remembers changing the cigarette to a new pack, but we all know how memory works.  How many times are we absolutely sure that we've done something and then realized "oops I had a brain fart."  Even if Jesse did do it, did he have the pack on him at all times?  Maybe he left it on the table as he changed clothes for example.  It would only take a moment for Brock to take a cig.  Why would he?  Cause he father surrogate smokes of course and he's so cool.  How many kids, have done something just like that?   The reason why this works so well is that there's no problem in how Brock got dosed, he did it himself.  Of course, if this is the truth it will kill poor Jesse.  There's one more solution though and it's the darkest...

WALT DID IT:  When Jesse first received the ricin from Walt he noticed it was less than the first batch they cooked to kill Tuco.  Now, I have to ask myself, is Walt the type of guy to give ALL the poison to Jesse considering they were having trust issues even then?  If Walt kept some back that would mean he wouldn't have to get the sample back from Jesse.  It would be a red herring.  Walt knows Jesse's house, he's broke in before.  He knows Jesse's habits so he could probably guess what Brock would eat and Jesse wouldn't.  Or, being the smart guy that he is he might have figured another way to dose the kid.  The question would be why?  The answer is he needed Jesse back to his side, and it is far easier to believe Gus did it than Walt.  But could Walt do it?  I think so, because Walt is the God of Rationalization.  Walt would just tell himself, "I'm just going to make the boy sick, I'll make sure the doctors know what's wrong and he'll recover."  Remember, Walt watched Jesse's first girl friend die and lifted not one finger to help.