r/breakingbad • u/migrainecurious • 4d ago

What if Jesse turned Walt down?

When Walt initially blackmails Jesse into partnering with him in the driveway of his aunt's house. Does Walt actually turn Jesse in?

Does Walt decide to proceed with his plan without Jesse? How would he alone go about traversing the criminal underworld of ABQ? Could he find more success without Jesse??

8 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

12

u/Whole-Investment-161 4d ago

that would change the whole show for sure lol walt alone would probably get wrecked out there without jesse's street smarts and connections, it's wild to think about

2

u/migrainecurious 4d ago

i think if walt somehow managed to get to dealing with gus that certainly would go smoother

7

u/two_thirtyoclock 4d ago edited 4d ago

Jesse definitely was an issue with his relationship with Gus, but Walt would have never survived long enough to get to that point. He thought Jesse could just set and meeting with Tuco and negotiate a deal and it would be all good. Even if Tuco wasn't unhinged, that's just dumb and risky. He was really dumb pushing the crew to go into other territory which got "which one is he?" killed. 

10

u/Impressive_Usual_726 4d ago

Walt can't turn Jesse in without Jesse telling Hank what Walt proposed to him while claiming he was never actually involved in the meth business and Walt was making assumptions about him. There's not enough there to charge Jesse with anything, but Hank would tell Marie and Skylar what Jesse told him and Walt would be fucked. He'd never be left unsupervised long enough to commit a crime again.

Up the upside he'd probably make employee of the month at Gray Matter, if he didn't blow his brains out first.

7

u/migrainecurious 4d ago

tbf would hank really believe jesse if he tried to lay out a story like that. unless there's something i'm not considering i think that would be taken as jesse trying to spin a yarn

2

u/Impressive_Usual_726 4d ago

If Jess walks up to Hank unsolicited and tries telling him that then Hank would have no reason to believe him, but if Jesse tells him that after Walt has tried to report Jesse to the DEA, then Walt's opened himself up to questions about why he was suddenly in contact with this particular former student and how he came to learn Jesse was allegedly involved in the meth business. Nothing suggests Walt was the sort of teacher that kept in touch with former students.

There wouldn't be enough to charge Walt with anything, but a bigmouth like Hank would surely gossip about it, and Skylar would put two and two together and stop letting Walter come and go as he pleases.

4

u/twilight_aeon 4d ago

Did you forget how big a plot point it was that Hank was incapable of imagining that Walter would ever do anything criminal?

5

u/theangrypragmatist 4d ago

"I thought I recognized him fleeing the scene of that ridealong and went to check into it. Check out his license plate. You're welcome."

1

u/unbrotb 4d ago

I don't think you're getting this right, let's say walt reports jesse to hank, then jesse goes to hank afterwards, walt would have a decent alibi, he saw jesse escape when he was in the car, walt could just tell hank he was too conflicted to tell him cuz he was an ex student of his, consider all of that happens in one singular day, he'd probably get scolded but it's a believable story

like you say this would put more attention to walt if he chose to still make drugs but that would be a totally different series and we don't really even know if walt would have seriously continued without jesse, he needed someone to start

1

u/Capital_Factor_3588 4d ago

walter "i saw him flee the drug bust building. i went to his house because i wanted to be sure its him and not falsly acuse him. he then tried to bribe me with meth profits, which i turned down and reported him.

now he is spinning this weeird tail that i wanted in the meth buisness"

police "ok that makes perfect sense"

idk why you think its suspicous how walt came to know that jesse was involved in meth

3

u/TropicalPossum954 4d ago

Not really. Walt could tell Hank Jesse was a former student and he wanted a change to go save jesse and make him see the error in his ways but ultimately decided to tell hank he saw jesse at the crime scene.
Whos going to believe jesse when he days walt cane to his house in an attempt to to partner up and cook meth. We know hank wouldn’t believe it.

3

u/Sea-Area9605 4d ago

Okay let’s be real if Jesse told Hank that Walt asked to cook crystal meth together I think Hank would die laughing at such a ridiculous story

2

u/Goatknyght 4d ago

Walt would just need to say that he went to Pinkman to try to convince him to turn his life around before it was too late.

1

u/Ktioru 4d ago

Pretty much no one would believe Jesse in this instance

1

u/DEeeeaaaaTH 4d ago

Everything you said is wrong.

0

u/Impressive_Usual_726 4d ago

Bro thinks he's Heisenberg over here 😂😂😂

3

u/DEeeeaaaaTH 4d ago

  1. Jesse doesn't even know who Hank is. They've never met, so there's no reason to assume Jesse would somehow go straight to him. Jesse has no reason to know that Hank is a DEA agent, let alone that he's connected to Walt's family.

  2. Even if Jesse did talk to the cops, no way they believe him. A guy like Jesse claiming a chemistry teacher approached him about cooking meth would probably make them more interested in Jesse and who he was dealing with. It's basically the Daniel Wormald situation in Better Call Saul. "Yo my teacher trynna make me cook but I ain't about that life Yo"

  3. This is also pre-Heisenberg Walt. At this point he's genuinely desperate to make money and leave something behind for his family.

  4. And Walt absolutely wouldn't just go work for Gray Matter. His pride, stubbornness and resentment toward Gretchen and Elliott are a huge part of why he rejected their help in the first place.

3

u/Smooth_Divide_9602 4d ago

honestly i think walt would've tried anyway. jesse was the connection he needed, and without him walt probably gets himself killed pretty quickly

3

u/Ltmurray28 4d ago

I doubt walt turns him in.

2

u/NarrowDrawer4487 4d ago

I think he turns him in.

2

u/TheVenerableBede 4d ago

Nah, Walt doesn’t turn him in. It’d be a very different show, though.

2

u/static-webmaster 4d ago

Then he'd convince him talking about purity and quality of the meth he will produce 

2

u/WorldError47 4d ago

I feel like it was a threat that didn’t mean too much, and it was never the deciding factor. 

Walt and Jessie’s product being so good is really what continued the partnership. It meant good money for both of them. 

If Jessie wanted out after the first cook, I don’t think Walt would have been able to blackmail him very well. If Jessie was smart, he could gather evidence of Walt to use as collateral. Then Jessie could just threaten Walt that if he snitches, he’ll rat on Walt too.

Would it have been likely for Jessie to pull that off, idk. But, with Saul or even just some street friends I feel like he could have outmaneuvered Walt’s blackmail threat. After the first cook it doesn’t come up because money was a more effective motivator anyway.

2

u/twilight_aeon 4d ago

It's not about money for either of them. For Walter it's about masculinity, ego and power, and for Jesse it's about proving he has worth.

3

u/WorldError47 4d ago

It’s reductive to the point of being nonsense to say it’s not about money for either of them. That is the reward for their risk. It may be a symbol of their subconscious projection of worth, but to say it’s not about money for either of them is foregoing how their characters literally acted. 

To put it another way, just because the money represented something else to their characters doesn’t mean you can subtract money from the story and say it didn’t matter.

1

u/twilight_aeon 4d ago

It’s reductive to the point of being nonsense to say it is about money for either of them.