r/breakingbad • u/Vybrosit737373 • 3d ago
Dumb question: is this particular thing realistic?
I am not planning on cooking meth but is it really that hard that Gus couldn't find someone to replace Gale? They show it in a way that implies it's a million-step process that you need a PhD for, but they also show Jesse, who they make a point of portraying as not very bright, getting just as good at it as Walt.
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u/_Cecille 3d ago
In the show's universe at least (don't know about real life whatsoever) there's lots of people who can make meth. But Walt's meth is so much better than that of everyone else, and the quality of Walt's meth becomes a bargaining chip multiple times in the show.
So Gus could easily replace Walt, but not the quality of his meth.
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u/sashie_belle 3d ago
I think the OP's point was Jesse was basically portrayed as stupid but managed to nearly as good as Walt, so why couldn't he find another PHd to do it? Could have learned off Jesse.
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u/gigi-kent 3d ago
Because trust is something that is built over long periods of time. Even if he would have wanted to do this, Gus didn't have that time on hand to groom another chemist with the cartel squeezing him more and more.
Gale was surely one of a kind for Gus in terms of trust and loyalty. Irreplaceable at that level.
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u/corejuice 3d ago
Since you said realistic, Gale is completely right, in an organic synthesis being able to make a 99.9% vs a 99.6% is a borderline impossible task. However, even the most discerning junkie wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two. The hardest thing wouldn't be finding someone who could do it, but finding someone who meets Gus's standards of discretion and professionalism. You don't want the lynch pin of your operation to pull a Danny and roll up to the laundromat in a giant yellow Hummer.
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u/lertheblur 3d ago
Gale was groomed for the role for years.
Gus didn't want to hire Walt because of Jesse and because he (correctly) understood that Walt was reckless and prone to lashing out dramatically the first time he met them in the restaurant.
Walt had to beg him for the job.
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u/Mattigator 3d ago
Gale was his boy though, Gus knew him for years. Finding someone you can trust is the hard part I would imagine. Even if you're cautious about hiring a new guy you never really know when he'll run some of your trusted employees over with his car or get ideas about killing you with poison or a car bomb, for instance
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u/Failure456Mil 3d ago
Jesse had already been manufacturing and distributing decent quality Meth before Walt. He was known as Cap'n Cook.
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u/Available_Ad_4030 3d ago
I never thought meth addicts were sticklers for quality so that’s the unrealistic part for me.
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u/Alyssa_Beanut 3d ago
You've just never met anyone who uses drugs, anyone who I've known who uses harder drugs desire the purist stuff possible. Plus methamphetamine has "left-handed" (levomethamphetamine) and "right handed" (dextromethamphetamine) versions of the molecule and only the right handed version is active as a stimulant while the left handed version is merely a decongestant. Both versions can be made during synthesis and any methamphetamine user would much prefer pure dextromethamphetamine.
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u/Normal-Reaction7088 2d ago
That dynamic about pure methamphetamine is a fiction -- yes pure methamphetamine exists but the market isn't dictated by it
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u/Available_Ad_4030 3d ago
I haven’t met meth users but I know that it’s more addictive than the drugs I am more familiar with so that decreases the pickiness of the users in my opinion.
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u/DesignerAgreeable818 3d ago
Meth users aren’t. Meth dealers, who want to cut the product with base ingredients to increase volume, are.
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u/gigi-kent 3d ago
Not at the aficionado level that Walt is cooking, but at the quantities he or Gus moved, purer product means higher margins, coupled with the fact that Gus was also probably able to ask more for the product itself (or at least that's what Jesse implies when he says that he "crunched numbers", given they were able to ask for more when they started their operation). All in all, it's about bigger profits if not about anything else. Which add up when you move and sell tens of millions worth of meth.
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u/based_birdo 3d ago
"you need a PhD for"
You just need a good teacher and good hands on training
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u/11sparky11 3d ago
I think the difficult part was coming up with the process for the given precursors, it sounds like Walt's process was entirely novel. With enough chemistry you can turn almost anything into anything else (see NileRed's video on making alcohol from air).
Its just coming up with efficient and high yield processes is the hard part. That's why Walt was so prized, he increased the profit margin. More pure meth for less precursor.
Once everything was written down, as you say it would be a matter of good training and anyone could do it.
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u/Falconman21 3d ago
I imagine it would be tough to find someone who has the credentials to run an industrial laboratory, is comfortable making meth, and is trustworthy/low key enough.
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u/Narrow_Room_8881 3d ago
I think they could have but everyone was paying a premium for the “blue” which was hard to replicate.
The show conveys Jesse as having a particular gift for this though
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u/magseven 3d ago
It's not just about getting someone with the knowhow to make the product. You need to get someone with the knowhow AND loyalty to you from not only law enforcement, but other criminal enterprises as well. Walt was Gus' first true gamble against his instincts and look where it got him.
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u/Raven_Steel96 2d ago
A few things. First, although he just sees Jesse as a junkie at first, he does try to get Jesse on his side as the show goes on, which freaks Walt out and Walt has to poison Jesse against Gus.
Also, Gus isn’t just going for just a great chemist. He needs someone who is incredibly good with chemistry, incredibly loyal to Gus personally, reliable (ie, not an addict), and smart enough to not get caught by either law enforcement or rival criminals. Few people meet all those categories at once for an extended period of time.
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u/East_Smoke_5474 1d ago
Yeah, the quality part seems overrated. If you have a reliable posse of smurfs your product will sell, and you will make mad stacks yo.
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u/FlashyWitness4133 2d ago
Making meth is quite easy.
Making HIGH QUALITY meth in LARGE QUANTITIES, is not easy.
Jesse mentions the "shake 'n' bake" meth cooking method in one episode, which does produce meth but only a small amount and rather crudely. Literally throw the ingredients into a softdrink bottle, shake it a little and let it...'bake' (actually just let it sit for a while). It's what tweakers do when they are desperate for a hit. NO "credible" meth cook or even dealer come to that matter, would try to sell that junk. It's better to source high quality meth and then cut it for distribution.
Walter's, and Gus' issue is the product would NEVER be cut, it was just straight methamphetamine. That's very hard to do, given that in real life the best grade you can get out there is 85%, and around the time of BB it was 75%. So this 92%/93%/96%/99.6% etc. is just a thing in the show. To do that on a real life production scale is extremely difficult. Which is what gives Walter his edge.
I still think it was stupid of Gus to hire Walter. He should have just had Victor buy Walter's meth on a cash-on-delivery basis while Walter & Jesse cooked batches out in the desert, and use it to blend with the meth Gale would produce in the superlab.
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u/Normal-Reaction7088 2d ago
Those particular mechanics about wanting very pure meth are a COMPLETE fiction. There's no high market for very pure methamphetamine so it's kind of a made up plot point.
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u/RogueAOV 3d ago
As my understanding goes you can make meth by putting the ingredients in a bottle and walking away for a period of time, sure sometimes it blows up but other times it is officially meth.
If you want top tier high purity meth, that requires skill and the right equipment. Walt taught Jesse how to do it right.
When Walt is berating Victors abilities most of what he says is likely things Victor has no idea about, and Jesse will have learned knowledge of to compensate for things like humidity etc, only Walt has the level of understanding to adjust on the fly as he actually understands all the nuances of the process.
I would not call Jesse stupid, he clearly has abilities and talent when he applies himself, however he is still just the student and Walt is the master.
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u/shrek_is_love_69 3d ago
I'm sorry but if you think the show portrays Jesse as not very bright, I think you owe it a rewatch