Aaron Paul plays that scene beautifully, just as he has every other small, quiet moment he has been given over the last two episodes. But when Saul takes Jesse out to the desert for a meeting with Walt, and Jesse finally calls Walt on all his bullshit (that Jesse knows about, at least) over the lifespan of their relationship, Paul’s work is finally allowed to kick into the higher gear we all know he is capable of, and the result is one of the greatest scenes in the history of the series. Not only is yet another one of those moments viewers have been waiting years to see – Jesse truly being able to understand when Walt is lying to him, and unafraid to finally ask “can you stop working me?” – but it cuts straight to the heart of how Walt and Jesse’s dysfunctional relationship is built on fundamental insecurities and emotional manipulations. In attempting to get Jesse to willingly disappear, Walt tries to play on his former partner’s need for parental affection and guidance, but by invoking phrases like “clean slate,” or reminding Jesse that he has “a whole lifetime ahead of” him, Walt instead triggers Jesse’s deep-seated guilt, which outweighs any desire for emotional coddling.
Indeed, it is clear, observing Paul’s deeply felt performance, that those phrases cut Jesse like a knife. He says nothing while Walt monologues, but it is easy to tell just how much Jesse doesn’t want a clean slate – his pain is all he has, and he knows there is no moving past it at this point – and he is absolutely terrified of the prospect of living with these sins for the rest of his young (as Walt repeatedly emphasizes) life. And the way these words hurt Jesse, more than the fact that Walt is once again trying to manipulate him, is what sets Jesse off. We know, from this year’s premiere, that Jesse has gotten to a point where Walt’s lies no longer fool him, and I honestly think that if all Walt had done was lie and subtly provoke, rather than appealing to Jesse in ways that demonstrate just how fundamentally Walt misunderstands his former partner, Jesse would likely have stayed silent, let Walt’s words role over him, and leave without getting any more involved than he had to. We have seen how much he wants to be done with Mr. White, but after seeing how little the man comprehends his pain, Jesse cannot help but engage once more. His speech about Walt’s many manipulations, in which he pleads Walt to be honest with him just this once, is a cry to be heard as much as it is an expression of anger or betrayal – and Walt, in his infinite villainy, is able to recognize and pray upon that with a well-timed hug, embracing Jesse just as the young man has begged to be emotionally vindicated.
As tremendous as all this material is, however, it is only a prelude to the main event, a reminder that even at his most emotionally catatonic, Jesse is not stupid. He is perceptive, he holds grudges, and he has reached a state of raw, all-consuming guilt and grief. With those three character traits in mind, there is only one possible outcome once Jesse starts fishing in his pocket for the pot by the side of the road (and to be honest, I predicted this outcome the moment Huell first stepped into the frame with Jesse). On a day when the man who beat him within an inch of his life asked for information and his former mentor manipulated him into adopting a new identity, Jesse is obviously going to be thinking about the past, and all it takes to snap everything involving Brock into place is the realization that Huell is, indeed, a remarkably adroit pick-pocket.
The staging of Jesse’s revelation is absolutely marvelous, perfectly built up throughout the episode and stretched out just long enough for the viewer to constantly remain a step ahead of Jesse, so that when Dave Porter’s exquisite musical score comes in to kick the scene into gear, the viewer is forced to the edge of his or her seat in anticipation. Jesse finally sees it, and just as a flood of dramatic satisfaction and emotional heartache cascades over the viewer, Jesse is off like a bullet, no longer a step behind us, but several unpredictable steps ahead, a loose cannon intent on projecting every ounce of his inner pain outwards, be it on Saul or the White family’s living room. And Jesse, as we know from five-plus years of watching this show, has bottled up an awful lot of pain. Whatever his plan is – and I doubt Jesse has any concrete strategy in mind other than to destroy – I think it is clear, by the episode’s end, that Jesse, not Hank, represents the greatest threat to Walt’s personal life, and that even during their most functional periods, he always has. Unlike Hank, Jesse has no boundaries. Unlike Gus or Mike, he isn’t about to underestimate Walter White. He knows this monster better than anybody else on the series, and he has been scarred more deeply by Heisenberg’s actions; he has seen Mr. White’s true face, and knowing what he now knows about Brock, he can finally contextualize that face as the cause of so much of his ongoing pain and suffering.
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