How Walt Actually Poisoned Brock

Walter poisoned Brock in season 4 of Breaking Bad, but the truth didn’t come out until the following year. The character Brock Cantillo (Ian Posada) was the six-year-old son of Jesse Pinkman’s girlfriend, Andrea (Emily Rios). Brock greatly admired Jesse and the two would often hang out and bond.

After Jesse and Andrea broke up, he continued to send them money through Saul Goodman. The pair reunited in Breaking Bad season 4, but shortly after, Brock was rushed to the hospital with a serious illness — which turned out to be because Walt poisoned Brock.

At first, Jesse believed that Brock was given the ricin that was intended for villain Gus Fring. He thought that Walt stole the ricin and gave it to Brock as a way to punish Jesse for getting too close to Gus.

When confronted, however, Walt gave Jesse the idea that it must have been Gus who used the ricin to harm Brock. Sadly, Jesse was right as Walt caused Brock’s illness to get Jesse to help him kill Gus on Breaking Bad using the Lily of the Valley plant, but it isn’t clear how Walt poisoned Brock with the berries.

Breaking Bad’s Brock Poisoning Explained

The Writers Referred To Walt As “Evil Juice Box Man”

Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan provided more details about Walt poisoning Brock at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013. The writers of Breaking Bad referred to the incident as Walt becoming the “Evil Juice Box Man,” imagining him injecting the poison into Brock’s juice box. Off-camera, Walt had somehow planted the juice box in Brock’s lunch at school, making sure only he came in contact with it.

The rest of the plan involving the ricin stolen by Huell then played out on-screen. Thankfully, Brock survived and recovered. Walt later encountered Brock and seemed very uneasy around the young boy.

While Walter White had many breaking points throughout the series, many fans consider Walter White poisoning Brock as the moment Heisenberg really turned evil, dropping any remnants of the morality he once had and focusing on retaining power regardless of who he had to harm to achieve it.

Jesse eventually put the puzzle pieces together and figured out that Walt was responsible, causing an enormous amount of turmoil between the two men. Jesse also confronted Saul Goodman, who admitted that he did help Walt but didn’t know that his intention was to poison a young boy.

Later on, Walt admitted to Jesse that he poisoned Brock with a Lily of the Valley plant just to keep Jesse on his side for them to orchestrate the death of Gus Fring, but by that point, their relationship was already in shambles.

Shortly after, as Jesse was being dragged to Jack Welker’s Compound, Walter White also confessed to Jesse that he witnessed Jane Margolis die and chose not to intervene. After Walt set Jesse free in the Breaking Bad series finale, many thought one of the first things Jesse would do was find Brock and take care of him.

However, 2019’s El Camino gave Jesse Pinkman barely enough time to tie up loose ends and get a shot at freedom after he was kidnapped by Jack Welker and the Neo-Nazis. Before escaping to Alaska, Jesse sent a letter to Brock, but the contents of the letter remain between the writers and Aaron Paul to this day.

Vince Gilligan originally planned to have Jesse read it as a voiceover but later chose to keep its contents a secret, which is why El Camino didn’t reveal Jesse’s letter.

What Brock Actor Ian Posada Has Been Up To Since Breaking Bad

Posada Features In The 2015 Thriller Sicario

Ian Posada, alternatively known as “Li’l Ian Posada,” is the young actor responsible for bringing Brock Cantillo to the screen in Breaking Bad, and he’s not been in much else. Throughout the episodes he appears in, Posada’s adorable acting work is a key component in making him so lovable for both Jesse and the audience.

This, in turn, is what makes Walt’s decision to poison the young boy so despicable. Poisoning any kid would be horribly wrong, but Brock is especially sweet and innocent.

Since appearing in Breaking Bad from 2010-2013, Ian Posada hasn’t been in much, but he did play one of drug lord Fausto Alarcón’s sons in 2015’s Sicario. It’s an interesting coincidence that both of Posada’s major roles have been in content centered around illegal drug dealing, but fortunately, Sicario keeps him mostly out of harm’s way, unlike Breaking Bad.

What happened to Brock after Breaking Bad also remains a mystery. The AMC series features plenty of tough moments, but Brock’s poisoning in Breaking Bad season 4 is one of the hardest to watch.

Walter Didn’t Kill Brock, But Breaking Bad Features A Shocking Child Death

Drew Sharp Was Killed By Todd

AMC

Despite Brock’s fate being unknown, Breaking Bad viewers have speculated that he probably ended up with his great-grandmother — a much luckier fate than what happened to another minor in the show, 14-year-old Drew Sharp (Sam Webb).

Drew was the kid on a dirt bike who was killed by Todd because Drew witnessed Jesse, Walt, and Todd during their train heist. What’s truly notable about the death of Drew is that, ultimately, Jesse was the only one who had a problem with it in the crew, while Walt accepted the death as a consequence of the game.

This shocking child death was a key point in Walter White’s Heisenberg transformation. Though Breaking Bad spared Brock, it killed Drew to show how far Walt has come. This was made especially apparent when Walt had no issue dissolving the child’s body in hydrofluoric acid to remove the evidence.

There remains a distinct difference between being involved with meth dealing and gang violence, and actively poisoning kids or dissolving their bodies in acid. There is a reason infanticide carries a far lengthier prison sentence than the murder of an adult, as Jesse’s reaction to Drew Sharp’s death shows.

However, while Walt actually killing Brock could have backfired for the show, the shocking death of Drew at Todd’s hands was necessary to show both Jesse and Walt’s evolution as criminals. It was one of the most shocking Breaking Bad moments, but arguably necessary for the narrative.

Playing Brock Brought Ian Posada To Tears (But Not Because Of The Poisoning)

Posada Was Devastated By Andrea’s Death

Walt poisoning Brock was shocking, but that moment was not as unsettling for actor Ian Posada as another tragic death on Breaking Bad. According to Emily Rios (via Hollywood Reporter) who plays Andrea, Posada’s mother called her following the episode in which her character is killed by Todd.

Rios remembers Posada was devastated by the death of his on-screen mother, and she had to reassure him that she was okay. It just goes to show that Breaking Bad is not a show that’s suitable for children, even if the child was in the show.

Is Poisoning Brock Walt’s Most Heinous Act?

Walt Also Allowed Jane To Die In Her Sleep

Seeing the decent and caring person he is in the first episode of the series, fans may be left to fully realize how Walt turned into the monster he had become. Walt had been on a gradual and shocking journey to becoming a more ruthless man.

Perhaps the moment the audience truly saw what this man was capable of when it came to protecting his empire was allowing Jesse’s girlfriend Jane to die in her sleep. However, at that moment, at least the audience could see the intense guilt Walt felt about the decision and its consequences.

The poisoning of Brock seemed to be the act that convinced Walt there was no line he would not cross, and he became deadlier as a result. Ordering the execution of all of Mike’s men in prison was a terrifying display of his power. Walt killing Mike was also a shocking moment as it was the first murder he committed that was truly unnecessary and that he simply did out of anger.

The poisoning of Brock may have opened up the floodgates of Walt’s villainous actions, but from nearly taking a young boy’s life to using it to manipulate Jesse into committing another murder to using Gus’s death to solidify his empire, Walt poisoning Brock remains his most heinous act on Breaking Bad.

Poisoning Brock Was Walt’s Point Of No Return

Walt’s Actions Made Redemption Impossible

Breaking Bad took a bold approach to its series by taking a character who was largely a good person and a good family man who abided by the law and turning him into a ruthless criminal. Throughout this journey, the show continued to walk a line in how much Walt could get lost to this dangerous world and how much the audience would still be cheering for him as the hero of the story.

However, with the poisoning of Brock, it became clear that the show didn’t intend to make Walt a sympathetic character anymore. This was the moment the show made it clear Walt was the villain of the story and there would be no redemption coming for him.

Though he had done terrible things before, it felt like the show was leaving the path open for him to redeem himself and keep the audience on his side. Allowing Jane to die was a cold-blooded act, but the show purposefully showed that Walt did not make the decision lightly. It is telling that there is no such moment for his poisoning of Brock.

The audience is left with the horrific reveal at the end of the episode of what Walt did without showing him struggle with the decision. In fact, all the audience sees is the pride Walt has in defeating Gus.

Even in the memorable moment in which Walt finds himself meeting Brock after the poisoning, he seems cold and uncaring for what he did. It was not a mistake that Breaking Bad made in pushing the protagonist too far, but rather a conscious attempt to change the way the audience saw Walter White.