This may have been asked before, but Walt's entire scheme with poisoning Brock was about getting Jesse back on his side by convincing Jesse that Gus was behind it. But theoretically, could Walt have possibly found a way to get Jesse back on his side without having to poison Brock?
shareObviously not! Also for the sake of the series, it had to be done that way. So why ask?
Whatever the plan would be, it had to get Jesse on Walt's side while turning him against Gus. This was on the heels of Walt bugging Jesse's car, followed by a pretty brutal fight.
Expect there could have been other plans that could have worked, but like with many other plans (fulminated mercufy, ricin, magnets, turret gun), this was yet another one that followed the science format...it worked and was entertaining.
So, other possible plans...Walt would need to find a way to show Jesse how bad Gus was. At this point, Gus was winning Jesse over, giving him what he needed, that he wasn't getting from Walt...like confidence, pride and recognition. Gus telling Jesse that he "Sees things in people" was brilliant on Gus' part. Didn't take much to gain Jesse's loyalty, since he needed that recognition. Walt did the same thing earlier, to finally get Jesse back on his side, when he told him his meth was equally good. All goes back to Jesse losing this from his real father.
One plan that might have worked was to show Jesse the real side of Gus...the one that would hurt children. If Walt could somehow have rigged a wire that Mike wouldn't be able to detect during a pre-meeting frisk, he could have recorded Gus ' threats on Walt's family. Have to believe that Jesse hearing Gus threaten to kill Walt's infant daughter might have been enough to turn him back on Walt's side.
But even if an alternate plan like this might work...wouldn't have been as good IMO as what they actually came up with...which is why we're still talking about it, years later...so there's that.
One plan that might have worked was to show Jesse the real side of Gus...the one that would hurt children. If Walt could somehow have rigged a wire that Mike wouldn't be able to detect during a pre-meeting frisk, he could have recorded Gus ' threats on Walt's family. Have to believe that Jesse hearing Gus threaten to kill Walt's infant daughter might have been enough to turn him back on Walt's side.
Correct. Hard part would be to convince Gus to meet with him, since Gus pretty much washed his hands of Walt and would be extremely cautious of a meeting. That's where Walt would need to be very creative with getting the meeting, then hiding the mic.
Of course the question then becomes, why go thru all this just to get Jesse on your side...why not figure out how to kill Gus if you get this meeting. Problem is, Gus would likely be well protected from harm at the meeting. The challenge was to get him in a situation where he'd be vulnerable...as it played out.
So if the question is, did he have to poison Brock...then a follow up question could be, did he have to get Gus to go somewhere he knew he'd be, where Walt could prepare the murder?
Suppose you could always just track Cyrus until Gus popped up, and kill him with a sniper rifle...but that's no fun. Remember, he had to also kill all of Gus' crew to be safe. Taking out Tyrus with the bomb prevented the others from getting a warning.
Have any alternate plans in mind? Would be a good to see them debate this in the writer's room.
From a writer's perspective, the most likely alternative way that Walt kills Gus would have probably involved the Mexican cartel somehow. He somehow meets with them, makes a deal with them to eradicate Gus so that they can run everything themselves, and then finds his own way of taking care of them after (perhaps in the same manner Gus did.)
shareAt that point, probably not. Walt had maneuvered himself into a corner.
The common sense, sensible approach was still available. Forget about Jesse as an ally and go to Hank. Walt could've literally led the DEA into Gus' meth lab. They would've had Gus by the balls.
Reasonably speaking? No. Walt exhausted nearly all of his options already. He tried shooting Gus dead in his own house, but Gus knew he was coming and called him to say, "Go home, Walter." Then he tried hiring a hitman, and Saul broke down all the reasons why that would be a bad idea. Lastly, he created a new dose of ricin for Jesse to use on Gus, but lost faith in Jesse's ability to kill Fring. Poisoning Brock to get Jesse back on his side was pretty much a last ditch effort (I'm rationalizing his decision to do so, just saying.)
share