Thanks Arnie. Those are some excellent articles on hypnosis and mind control. Very insightful.

I’ve placing that material here arnielerma.wordpress.com

Hey thank you, Missionary Kid…Your words mean a lot to me 🙂
I’ve enjoyed hanging with you, too.

You’ve convinced me that Walt is a lot shittier and lot less sympathetic of a person than I had always seen thought of him. I still don’t believe he’s a sociopath tho.

I will give it another watch. I’ve seen a couple of the seasons twice, but not the entire show start to finish.

Characters would be very boring and one dimensional if they were black and white. There’s going to be some gray area that lets you see glimmers of humanity from even the darkest characters. It keeps you engaged with them and emotionally invested in the show. I’m sure some part of him had genuine affection for Jesse just like he did for Hank but that didn’t stop him from ruining them both. Walt turned Jesse over to the nazis to be tortured and killed, remember? And just to twist the knife, Walt told Jesse he could of saved Jane but instead watched her die, just to crush him emotionally.

There were also practical reasons for keeping Jesse alive and even saving his life. Remember that for a time Jesse was the only thing keeping Gus from killing Walt. Walt also needed Jesse as an able lab assistant who was no competition to him, like Gale was. Jesse was loyal to Walt and Walt knew that and made full use out of it in order to kill Gus and become the head honcho. There’s also the control and influence Walt had over Jesse, which Walt craved.

Give the show another if you feel up to it. There’s a lot of nuances and events that make a lot more sense on a 2nd viewing. Not saying my pov is the only right one, just that you may see where I’m coming from if you give it another watch.

Why does he constantly go out of his way to keep Jesse alive? He doesn’t need Jesse after he meets Gus. Jesse is entirely irrelevant, but Walt really doesn’t want them to kill him.

He’s not a sociopath.

I don’t mean to beat a dead horse or anything but I just got done watching the entire BB series for the 2nd time and Walt does finally admit his true motives in the very last episode. In the same conversation he also lies about what happened to the rest of his money. I just thought it important that you know you were wrong and I was right. 😉

I really, really hope Stewart goes for it. He’s in a unique position – he has a huge amount of power and respect, he’s an executive producer on the show, and he’s about to retire. I can’t think of anyone better suited to deflating our man Cruise.