Breaking Bad: 5 Times Walter White Was Right (& 5 Times Jesse Pinkman Made The Right Call)
Walt and Jesse both made some bad choices on Breaking Bad, but each of them also made some right ones at important times.
True to the overarching chemistry theme of Breaking Bad, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman’s partnership is fickle and volatile. It’s subject to betrayal, hierarchy dynamics, and lies– pretty much like a modern family these days. Somehow these two newbie crooks made it work and learned a lot on the job.
There times where Walter White was correct and also moments where Jesse Pinkman was right. The bottom line is, neither can’t have succeeded without the other in the harsh and cruel criminal underground of Breaking Bad. So to point out how these two managed in their incongruent partnership, here are five moments where each of them made the right decisions.
MR. WHITE WAS RIGHT: KILLING KRAZY-8
Not many people would have the guts or the lack of conscience to kill someone tied up and helpless– not even someone as egoistic as Walter White. That’s why killing Krazy-8 was a difficult choice for him as it signified his descent into the criminal underworld of Albuquerque.
Being still a good person back in Season 1, Walt did nearly everything to convince himself not to off Krazy-8. In the end, Krazy-8’s bluff made Walt see clearly what needed to be done despite the sympathy he developed for the hardened cartel drug dealer.
JESSE WAS RIGHT: INTRODUCING WALT TO SAUL GOODMAN
Walter White might have been a genius but he doesn’t know the ins and outs of crime. So he had to leave it to Jesse Pinkman’s street smarts in order to deal with Badger being arrested after peddling their meth. How did Jesse fare? Well, he introduced us and Walt to the best worst lawyer on television, Saul Goodman.
It was a fateful meeting though one could say that it was only a matter of time before they eventually cross paths with the criminal lawyer. In any case, Saul Goodman turned Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from two blundering upstarts to drug kingpins.
MR. WHITE WAS RIGHT: MERCURY FULMINATE
Sometimes Walt hatches moments of genius especially under intense pressure where everything he does just slides into place correctly as planned. We got our first taste of this after Tuco Salamanca sent Jesse to the hospital after a failed partnership.
Walt not only found a way to scare Tuco but also to refrain from resorting to lethal methods using Mercury Fulminate and a bit of a poker face. Because of this, Walt got him and Jesse an easy but rather daring way into the Juarez Cartel and jumpstarted their drug “career.”
JESSE WAS RIGHT: SAVING THE NEGLECTED CHILD
Jesse Pinkman has always been shown to have a soft spot for children, especially the neglected ones with bad parents. Somehow, this moral compass within him remained intact when concerning anyone under the age of 18. That’s why he chose to save a child’s life in Season 2.
In what would become Jesse’s most heartfelt moment in Season 2, he not only successfully retrieved their stolen drugs and money but also managed to save a neglected child’s life like a comic book anti-hero. It’s one of his redeeming qualities, aside from being comic relief.
MR. WHITE WAS RIGHT: RUNNING OVER GUS FRING’S MEN
Jesse’s genuine care for minors only intensified and became more instrumental to the plot as soon as they decided to work for Gustavo Fring. He later finds out that Fring’s men were using children to peddle drugs and even kill competitors so he decided to do something about it.
Moreover, Fring’s men also killed Combo, one of Jesse’s friends. Jesse, like a cowboy without a plan, decided to have Western-style shootout with the more seasoned cartel henchmen– until Walt came to the rescue and ran over them with his Pontiac Aztek like a badass. Crisis averted… for Pinkman, at least.
JESSE WAS RIGHT: TAKING HIS HOUSE BACK
It’s not hard to see how Jesse Pinkman became the way he did. His perfectionist parents hovered over him like a helicopter for most of his childhood and never gave much love or reward. They even decided to cheat Jesse out of his house and sell it. They could have stopped at evicting him, honestly.
That’s why it was a rather satisfying moment for Jesse to get the upper hand from his terrible parents by buying back the house and basically getting the last laugh in their damaged relationship.
MR. WHITE WAS RIGHT: LEADING HANK AWAY FROM THE RV
One of the most tense moments in Breaking Bad is when Hank Schrader finally tracked down the RV that Jesse and Walt used as a mobile lab. This would not have been a problem except Walt and Jesse were still inside the RV just as Hank came knocking at its door.
Walter, in a typical genius under pressure moment again, decided to channel a bit of Saul Goodman and asked Jesse to provide legal barriers against Hank. It did work for a while and they also lead Hank away thanks to Saul Goodman’s fake call. Too bad Jesse got the brunt of Hank’s retaliation but at least they didn’t get caught red-handed.
JESSE WAS RIGHT: THE MAGNET
There’s no shortage of character development in Breaking Bad and it’s usually not for the better. Jesse Pinkman’s growth, however, is pretty decent so far. He learned how to be a more clever person to a certain degree. This was evident enough when he suggested destroying Gus Fring’s laptop using a large magnet.
It was an ingenious and unconventional plan that only a creative mind can come up with. Even intelligent criminal veterans like Mike Ehrmantraut couldn’t come up with a tech-savvy idea. Walter White was no better either.
MR. WHITE WAS RIGHT: RESCUING JESSE FROM JACK WELKER
Of all the worst things Walter White did to Jesse Pinkman, the worst was betraying him to Jack Welker before revealing that he let Jane die. Afterward, Welker’s gang enslaved him for several months. It was the worst punishment Jesse ever had in his life and he didn’t even deserve it.
Thankfully, Walter White set the record straight and decided to save Jesse Pinkman from Jack Welker. The thing is, he could have let Jesse die as that would have been easier but he still went the extra mile to save his partner from the machine gun volley. He hit two birds with one stone in the process.
JESSE WAS RIGHT: LEARNING FROM MIKE
One thing that did cause Jesse to become more intelligent in his criminal vocation was when Mike personally took him under his tutelage. This made Jesse more alert and mindful of his surroundings.
His pairing with Mike was a bit short-lived but at least Pinkman showed much promise after being instrumental in Gus Fring’s plan to massacre the Juarez Cartel. It was Jesse’s finest moment, that’s for sure.
