On the show, yes. But I think it was implied when Jesse used to be Walt’s student that they kinda know each other. I got this notion from Walt’s precautionary enlistment of Huell to shadow the school during Jesse’s post-gasoline rampage in case he went after Jr.
I kinda wished he did though lol. “W-w-w-why are you hittin- OW crutches”
(yea I’m going to hell IDGAF)
EDIT: Saul never met Marie. And if Mike counts, he never (directly) interracted with both sisters.
they make it pretty clear that Gretchen and Walt had an affair
Walt wasn’t married at the time and Gretchen was his gf afaict. That was the point of those flashbacks with hippy looking prof Walt with a young looking TA type Gretchen hanging on his every word.
All we really know is “Walt left” just randomly, according to Gretchen and not really disputed by Walt. He was over to their house and I guess to meet her family.
I don’t believe Elliot was in the picture at that point, I think he moved in on Gretchen after Walt was long gone. Elliot and Walt appeared to be best buddies in college, and both poor, while apparently according to the post above at least Gretchen came from privilege. I didn’t pick up on that in the show myself, but I didn’t think the show actually gave a reason besides those hints.
It was probably just left unresolved to add mystery to the show. Similarly, it’s rather inconceivable that Walt managed to get the ricin off of Jesse, Jesse couldn’t notice until later, and he had the time and means to poison Brock in that short time span, and have Brock hate his guts as if Brock knew he got poisoned. Gilligan actually states when they were writing those parts they kind of skipped over it and it’s not really possible, but he didn’t want the audience to focus on that. I don’t think there is a “good” canon explanation for the Walt and Gretchen rift and the sale of the shares as well. Although I think we can chalk it up to super ego Walt.
It’s also rather unlikely that Walt could only get a job as a high school teacher in ABQ. He’s obviously a genius chemist, there is no question on that. And from his age, it was a time with a better economy and a shortage of chemists. His brother in law is a DEA agent, he would likely have been a DEA chemist. The DEA has a ton of those guys, basically in the line that Walt was in. I used one once as an expert witness for a drug case. They are not as smart as Walt and really only do pretty simple chemistry. It’s not as fancy as you see on the show 
Still beats being a HS teacher though. Walt could also have been a prof at a university, and in fact that’s what everyone thinks he was at that party. Now you could tell me he just didn’t want anything more, that the man lacked ambition. And I counter with, if that was the case, he wouldn’t exactly have been trying to build an empire. I thought Walt was driven by his ego and desperately wanting to be acknowledged as intelligent, which I can admit I was like in my 20s. It’s just he’s 50 and the same haha.
In “Salud” a wounded Walt tells Walt Jr. about his own father’s last moments, and doesn’t want to be similarly remembered to Flynn. The writers talked about how they rarely want to venture in Walt’s past so that the viewers don’t think “Oh, he got this way because of this moment as a kid, etc.” so we are at the mercy of these small revelations and speculation.
http://news.yahoo.com/galloping-asian-meth-demand-drives-record-production-un-023526865.html
Paging Walter White lol.
the joke is, who the fuck use a pager these days
Walter could have saved himself a ton of problems had he simply had Jessie killed in season 3.
Maybe, maybe not. There is a possibility Gus would have killed him anyway, and wanted Gale to run the lab the entire time. And without Jessie, Gus would have succeeded. The problem with that is we can’t know for sure. IF Gus was perfectly okay with Walt running the lab, and just left Walt-Gale alone things probably would have worked out great for Walt. I doubt Hank keeps pursuing Heisenberg and he just eventually gives up. I don’t remember how bad the Walt-Skylar rift was at that time, but if it wasn’t that bad yet, Walt’s family life might have been saved too.
Possibly but it seemed like Gus genuinely respected Walter. It wasn’t until Jessie started something (again) that Gus wanted to get rid of the both of them.
I think Gus wanted Gale running the lab mainly because Gus personally vetted for him, Remember, Gus still made his enterprise with meth for decades, only to have his biggest threat in Walt’s uber-pure Blue Sky eat into his kingpin stronghold.
By enlisting Walt he was able to garner the technique for himself. When Walt wanted out the first time “I am not a criminal” it would’ve been mutual had the Cousins not interfered in their revenge spree. Knowing Walt owes him in several fronts, Gus showcasing the superlab and not taking no for an answer gave him leverage against both the Cartel’s meddling as well as an eventual disposing of the oft-irrational Walt and his mancrush with Jesse.
The flashback of Gale/Gus during Box Cutter? That was the biggest hint Gus wanted Walt gone, until Gale convinced him otherwise based on his observation on the purity of Gus’ “competition” aka Blue Sky.
Walt probably wouldn’t have had trouble with kids being used to sell drugs. With Jessie dead, he would never have truly angered Gus in the first place.
Jessie is a hypocrite on that anyway. He knew Walt had a baby kid and was going to burn his house down. Jessie is just a selfish whiny douche. He’s making all that meth and he seemingly doesn’t care if it’s going to impact kids in a bad way or if they use it even. That kid he meets with the crack head parents, he doesn’t see how drugs are causing that situation? Unreal.
I never really liked Jessie as a character. I think the actor playing him is great but the character just feels like he’s there to create drama as opposed to being an interesting character.
Why does the shit hit the fan? Because Jessie fucks up.
You could make a drinking game based on the number of times he fucks up.
As much as I came to like Jesse, I must agree that his primary function storywise is to fuck things up. It was often deeper than “fuck shit up” and led to some gripping drama, but still.
For instance, he kicks off S5B by throwing the money away. This is understandable. He feels guilt over helping to melt an innocent kid in acid. However, I thought if Jesse was going to be despondent like that, it would happen right after the melting. No. Right after, he wanted the buyout money. He did almost cry hearing about the kid on the news, but it’s not the level of sadness you’d expect out of him at that point.
His despondence later on is probably the only time I really felt like they’re just stirring shit up. But that gave us S5B, so I’m willing to overlook it.
I felt like he was there for wiggers in Suburbian America to identify with the show. It’s a good show but it does play some things by the number. Walt as a 50 year old white male who is a middle class chemistry teacher, Skylar the uptight housewife who has an affair, Marie the klepto bitch trophy wife, and Hank the loudmouth pseudo-racist cop. Even Krazy 8, or Domingo, with his backstory of being a local small business owner’s son who happened to struggle with legit employment after college.
Jesse, lol Jesse, he is there as the image of your average harmless junkie. Acting tough but really shaking like a leaf, and looking ridiculous in way too big clothing. He could be any number of viewer’s sons, or what they think their son is up to when he is out with his friends.
perfect character summary lol, btw fuck jessie bitch should have died in the end
Um, actually jesse should have just let gus kill walt, then everything would have been peachy for him.
It goes both ways
Kinda off topic, but that’s one thing I wondered: if Jesse had let Gus kill Walt, would Gus have just killed Jesse when he found someone more competent?
I’m thinking that because why would Gus go through all that trouble of getting Jesse to like/sympathize with him, only to “kidnap” him and force him to cook under armed guard in the 4th season finale? Kinda seems like he was pissing on his work.
Jesse lost a lot of man hours being pre-occupied with Brock. Gus already suffered many production setbacks thanks to both Walt/Jesse, shiiiit I’d use armed guards too when I AIN’T MAKIN’ DAT FIGHT MONEY, moreso after the Cartel’s severance and prior to God Mode (Lydia’s Czech Republic deal)
Also arms guards to murk Walt if he foolishly comes close
I think he would have. Jesse was really only needed for the Mexico thing, it was just a bonus that he could actually cook Walt’s recipe. If Victor hadn’t been seen, maybe he could have cooked it too. Jesse is an absolute simpleton who sucks at chemistry, I don’t understand why nobody else can copy that formula when they see it being made the same way every time themselves. I guess in BB mythos people have special powers that give them that higher purity level. In actual science blue meth is going to be inferior to the clear stuff to begin with, and I don’t think you can get anywhere near that purity. But in BB world blue meth is the purest, but only Walt can do it, and Gale would have gotten it too if he wasn’t killed right then. But somehow Jesse with no chemistry knowledge can pull it off while others can not, because he is also special in some way.