#jane die‚ it was clear that he only cares about jesse in terms of how jesse can benefit him and keep him out of troubel)

[otogariado]

don't get me wrong, walt is terrible. but for all the shit walt puts jesse through, for the way he treats and talks to jesse, walt makes so much of a point to emphasize how much he "needs" jesse to keep him alive. be it from gus or someone else. and he doesn't want jesse to do something that's gonna end up getting himself killed, either.

"without us, you have nothing. you kill me; you have nothing. you kill jesse; you don't have me."

like. the way he words this out is so deliberate it's kinda driving me nuts. "you kill jesse; you don't have me"?? what on earth does that fucking mean

[izzythehutt]

As horrible as Walt's parting words to Jesse in Ozymandias were, in some ways it seems like they would be psychologically freeing for him.

Walt giving him over to people who he clearly hired to kill him and telling Jesse, "oh, before these people torture you for information and then shoot you, I want you to know I also let your girlfriend die of an overdose" with zero additional context is such clear and unequivocal proof that Walt was always a soulless monster who never cared about him. Which like, we the audience know is not true, Walt is grief-stricken, blames Jesse for Hank's death (lol Walt actually it is 10000000% your fault and you're projecting but what else is new?) and this final parting shot is a big fat "I never loved you" shaped-lie and the kind of deeply personal knife twist you could only give someone you loved like family and felt betrayed by, but Jesse has zero reason to think that.

Jesse can't comprehend that Walt thought Jane was so bad for him it would be better if she died rather than drag him down into a heroin-fueled OD spiral with her. Maybe years down the line he would be able to understand that was the rationale for this repulsive act, but there's a very good chance he will never understand it, and this will just be one of the giant mysteries of their relationship that haunts him for the rest of his life.

In the moment, though, his cruelty is the ultimate bridge-burning severance. All "complication" and gray areas are gone. No more mixed feelings.

A lot of what makes the relationship so uniquely upsetting for him is never really knowing if Walt cares about him or not, because so much of their dynamic is built on lies and manipulation. And in the short-term, this removes the ambiguity! Mr. White really always was the devil in a family man, chemistry teacher skin suit! Even if Jesse is beating himself up for loving this monster and having such misplaced faith in him, at least he can now just hate the guy in peace.

(Though...was Jesse even thinking much about Walt in that five month period of servitude? I get the sense that in Granite State the two of them in their respective prisons are avoiding thinking about each other because they both blame one another for where they ended up.)

Then the finale happens and all that uncomplicated hate gets mucked up again, because hey, what is Walter White good for if not messing with your head?

Walt comes into the compound with a plan to kill everyone there, has Jesse brought into the room where he's going to set off his robot machine gun death trap, clear proof that Jesse was one of his intended victims (if he'd come there to liberate him he would have done it and then gone to the lab to let him out.) Then he sees Jesse, pathetic and in chains, and....tackles him to the floor and shields him with his body before setting off the trap, calmly watches as Jesse strangles his chief captor, then once everyone in the room except the two of them are dead he...slides Jesse his gun and tells him to shoot him. Which is Walter accepting that he deserves death at Jesse's hands, an apology, forgiveness and what he wants to happen all rolled into one. Jesse demands he admit this is what he wants, sees that Walt has been shot (meaning he will forever live with the knowledge Mr. White literally took a bullet for him) and refuses to indulge him in this final act of murder/suicide.

Then he follows Jesse out of the clubhouse and has the gall to SMILE AND NOD AT JESSE before he jumps into Todd's car and speeds off to freedom?? Like, really? How DARE you, Mr. White!

Everything about this is completely consistent with the selfish asshole that Jesse has known for the past two years....but also very clearly and unequivocal proof that he cares about Jesse and always did! There is zero reason for him to do this except for the history between them. This is the bizarre swan song of their demented criminal partnership.

And Jesse gets his second chance...solely because of Walter White.

Walt freed Jesse in the only way he possibly could that would keep him out of jail. He could have turned himself in, reported Jack and Co. and gotten them all arrested, Jesse included. Instead he perpetrated incredibly fucked up, science-adjacent violence to kill everyone who hurt his partner and died in the act. This is the Heisenberg equivalent of a giant-ass apology.

Which means that in the years that follow, Jesse will have to parse through everything that happened between them, reevaluate it all, live in that bizarre gray area when in many ways it would have been easier to just hate him. Not to say there won't be a part of him that does. But it won't be the only part.

Poor Jesse. He will forever have to live with the knowledge that Mr. White did, in fact, care about him, and the inevitable ambivalent and complicated feelings that come from that.