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1) Mike Ehrmantraut has seen a lot of people in pain. (Some of it he'd caused himself; more often people caused their own problems, and Mike was called in to deal with them. Like right now.) There's nothing particularly new about Jesse Pinkman's pain when Mike first sees him sitting on the front porch of his duplex.
Mike ushers the kid inside. He's young. Younger than Mike's son, Stephen. Stephen had always felt that Mike was too tough on him. Their relationship had been fairly strained until Kaylee's birth. Mike wants to take a picture of Jesse Pinkman and send it to Stephen, wants to say, "This, this is why I raised you the way I did, so you wouldn't end up like this." But of course, that would be unprofessional, and anyway, he's not sure a picture would fully explain it.
What surprises Mike is the kind of connections a junkie kid like this has. It isn't as if Mike's services come cheap, yet Saul Goodman had sent him out for this simple task. But he doesn't have time to worry about the details. There's evidence to destroy, and a client to bring back to earth. A client who's not paying attention to him, lost in his own world of misery. Mike slaps him, and the kid flinches, but doesn't seem otherwise bothered. He seems to finally digest Mike's script, at least.
Before Mike leaves, he asks, "Do I need to state the obvious?" The kid looks at him with sad, vacant eyes, and Mike decides that he does: "I was not here." That shouldn't be too hard for the kid to remember, since he barely seems to know Mike's there right now.
On his way out the door, Mike says, "Hang tough. You're in the home stretch."
After that, Mike assumes that he'll never see Jesse Pinkman again. He isn't thrilled about having this assumption overturned. But Mike doesn't ask questions when Saul asks him to find Jesse. It isn't hard to guess where he'd go. The Shooting Gallery is full of people seeking the same oblivion Jesse so clearly wanted.
What's harder to understand is Walter White's insistence on finding the kid, taking care of him, despite Mike's warnings. It makes him wonder what exactly the relationship between the two of them is. They seem an unlikely pair, to say the least. But they're clearly a pair of some kind. Walt emerges from the Shooting Gallery with Jesse cradled in his arms. The kid is sobbing, far worse off than he'd been the last time Mike had seen him. Mike gets out of the car to help Walt maneuver him into the backseat. Jesse's odor is not the worst thing Mike has ever smelled, but it's not the best. He'll have to have his car cleaned. Well, that's what Saul pays him for.
"All right, Walter, where to?" Mike asks, and the blank look in Walter's eyes confirms Mike's suspicion that Walter has not thought this through, not at all.
Walter says, "I just want him to be… safe."
Jesse sobs.
Mike sighs. "I know some facilities. The thing is, he's over 18, and as far as I know, you're not legally related to him."
"So?"
"So he can only be admitted to rehab if he agrees to it, if he admits himself. You can't just drop him off like a puppy at the pound."
Walter sputters for a moment and says, "Jesse, you'll go to rehab, won't you?"
Jesse mumbles something unintelligible.
Walter's tone shifts, becomes somehow both pleading and threatening, and he says, "Jesse, Saul won't give you your share until you're clean."
Jesse says, "Whatever," and it's not really clear to what he's referring, but Walter takes it as assent.
It seems like a waste of money to Mike, but no one asks him.
2) Mike had warned them that Pinkman was a loose cannon, though he does find it a little hard to believe that the kid who'd once sobbed all over his backseat had killed Gale Boetticher in cold blood.
Shit.
Mike waits patiently for Gus to get to the lab, while Walter blusters and Jesse stares vacantly. That kid is definitely not all there. Finally, Gus arrives and looks down upon them silently, listening while Walter raves, blaming Gale's death on Gus. Walter's pleading grows increasingly urgent, and Mike knows Gus's intimidation is working on him, anyway. Pinkman seems barely aware of his surroundings. It's dangerous to work with a man who doesn't care if he lives or dies. Such people are reckless, incautious. Not useful traits when working outside the law.
Mike knows that things are about to get messy, but he's still surprised by the silent bloodbath, watching Victor bleed out. It's brutal, and shocking, and Gus's message is clear.
Gus is a businessman. Now they're in business with Walter and Jesse.
"Well, get back to work," Gus says, leaving Mike behind to watch these two idiots clean up the body of his former associate. It's an undignified end, to say the least, but it isn't as if Mike has never disposed of bodies before. Mike's a professional.
The next time he sees Jesse, the kid is unhinged in a different way. He's surprisingly lucid--lucid enough to call Mike's bluff about killing the meth head in Jesse's living room. But he remains a liability.
Mike needs to convince Gus not to take any half measures. Walter White had said he wouldn't work without Jesse, but if his choices come down to working without Jesse, or dying… well, Mike's not a betting man, but he'll put money on Walter working without Jesse. Say what you will about Walter White, he definitely cares if he lives or dies, which makes him predictable.
Mike tells all this to Gus. He knows Gus doesn't pay him to ask questions, but he can't help but ask, "Are you sure about this?" when Gus tells him his plan. When he said something needed to be done about Pinkman, he really did not have in mind orchestrating some kind of fake crime so this junkie kid could prove his worth. But Gus tells him yes, unequivocally, and Mike obeys.
It's not hard to convince Jesse to come with him. He doesn't even have to pull his gun. Jesse doesn't struggle, he just sits quietly in the passenger seat. Now instead of Victor, who was a consummate professional if nothing else, Mike's stuck in a car with Jesse Pinkman, the exact opposite of that. Jesse Pinkman, who believes Mike is taking him to his death.
Finally, Mike asks, "You gonna ask where we're going?"
"Nope."
Mike's pretty sure this nonchalance isn't feigned, and when Walter White--possibly the only person who cares whether Pinkman lives or dies--calls looking for him, Jesse seems more annoyed than anything else.
Finally, Jesse comes out and asks it, "What you told Mr. White. That's just bullshit, right?" Mr. White. They're not even on a first name basis. "What, you, uh, figure on just leaving me in some ditch?"
"What do you care?"
"I don't. But I'll tell you now, you better shoot straight, old man, or I'll slice off your other ear before this is over." Mike looks over as the kid unstealthily arms himself with a set of housekeys. Maybe the kid does care if he lives or dies. Mike still wouldn't call his survival instincts strong, by any means, but at least they're in there somewhere.
As the day goes on, Jesse grows more and more irritated with Mike, and in turn, more and more irritating to Mike. He misses Victor's silence.
But finally, they get to their last stop, the one where Mike had made arrangements for an idiotic fake robbery. Mike leaves the keys in the car, wondering if Jesse will notice. But Jesse says nothing, just makes a show of boredom, and Mike goes on. From inside the warehouse, he grabs the stash and listens to the sound of his car driving away. Well, now he can tell Gus that's what happens when you trust a junkie, just like he's said.
Then the kid surprises him by coming back with the car and picking him up. Jesse offers a breathless explanation of the robbery Mike had planned.
He's still not sure of the logic behind Gus's plan, but he can't deny that Jesse passed the test. The kid had taken care of it, and come back for Mike.
"Just like you wanted, the kid's a hero," Mike tells Gus. Gus doesn't reply, but he doesn't seem surprised.
3) Mike doesn't claim to "see things in people," the way Gus does, but he's generally pretty good at reading people. It was part of being a cop, part of being a PI, and it's definitely a big part of his current job.
Jesse Pinkman is easy to read, but hard to understand. Jesse wears his heart on his sleeve, or more accurately, on his face. The first time he'd met Jesse, the kid had been a case study in raw pain. Most of that is now buried somewhere deep inside him, but flashes to the surface from time to time. His face shows boredom, and excitement, and disappointment, like a child who doesn't know any better.
Jesse talks, too. He talks a lot. Eventually Mike stops shushing him, or Jesse stops being afraid of Mike, and Jesse offers up random pieces of information. He reminds him of the way Kaylee waves her drawings in Mike's face as soon as she finishes them. It's more than attention, Mike realizes--it's approval. Jesse wants his approval.
This doesn't surprise Mike, exactly. Mike's accustomed to subordinates courting his favor, if not quite in this manner. What does surprise him is that eventually, he does approve of Jesse.
Jesse's smarter than he looks. Smarter than he acts most of the time. But what Mike likes about Jesse is the simple fact that the kid's got a good heart. It's refreshing. Even if it's not exactly an asset to have in this line of work.
One afternoon on one of their runs, Mike finally indulges his curiosity and brings up one of the few subjects Jesse hasn't already willingly babbled about. He asks, "How did you and Walt get to be partners, anyway?"
Jesse says, "Uh," and looks sheepish.
Mike says, "It's not my business, kid, I'm just curious."
"Nah, it's just, I used to cook with another guy, and, uh, Mr. White recognized me, uh, from his chemistry class, and he, uh, told me he'd turn me in, unless I taught him how to cook."
"Let me get this straight. Your former chemistry teacher blackmailed you into teaching him how to cook crystal meth?"
"That's pretty much it, yeah," Jesse says. "Uh, but, he's really… I mean, I owe him my life. Um."
Mike had called Jesse loyal, and that's true, but Mike's starting to wonder if "Stockholm Syndrome" might apply as well.
4) After Jesse's been clean for long enough to hold a coffee mug one-handed without spilling it everywhere, Mike takes him out into the desert and teaches him how to shoot.
At first Jesse huffs and says, "Um, I know how to use a gun."
"Uh huh," Mike says. "So hit that target."
"That's like, really far away."
"And… you'd rather wait until an active shooter gets closer to you because...?"
Jesse's face closes inward, and he aims at the target, and he misses it completely.
"Try again," Mike says. Jesse's hands are shaking, Mike notices. He'd thought the kid was past that. "Are you using again?" he asks sharply.
"No!" Jesse says. "Not like I even have any free time anymore anyway."
"Mmm," Mike says. "Kid, here, look at me. You want to stand like this, with--you're right-handed, right?--so, your left foot in front. You need to have a good, balanced stance. That's the first thing. Don't lock your knees."
Jesse mimics Mike's stance, he does as he's told, and he hits the target right in the head. He looks sick.
"You feel okay?"
"I just…" Jesse looks at Mike in his sidelong way, then says, "Um, do you ever, you know, think about them? Um, people you've killed?"
Mike says, "Sure. Sometimes."
"Does it--how do you--" Jesse starts. "What am I supposed to do?" he finally asks.
Mike pats his shoulder. "Just do what I tell you to do, okay, kid?"
Jesse looks at Mike again. He says, softly, "Okay."
"Jesse, don't worry. You're nobody's top choice for a hitman, all right? I'm teaching you this for your own defense. For emergencies. Like I said, things might get hairy, here. I need to be sure you can handle yourself. Now, try again."
Jesse eventually learns to shoot well enough. Still, it doesn't surprise Mike to see Jesse freeze up when the shots ring out at the farm. What does surprise him is the protective instinct that kicks in when he sees the kid just standing there. Mike half-knocks, half-drags him out of the line of fire, and feels a bone-deep sense of relief when Jesse stumbles to safety behind the shed, behind him.
Later, Jesse says, "Yo, like, uh, I guess I never thanked you for what you did. Thanks."
"Next time, don't stand there like an idiot. Move your feet. Running and so forth," Mike says. He's doing his best to impart wisdom to this kid.
His efforts pay off in Mexico. Sure, Jesse stands around like an idiot when the poison starts taking effect. Mike supposes it would be a little confusing if you weren't in on the plan. Still, after Mike says, "Make yourself useful," Jesse does, and Mike finds himself in the surprising position of actually owing his life to Jesse Pinkman.
5) Mike can't pretend he enjoys agreeing with Walter White, but it's the best option for now. Mike knows he has to get out of here soon, and he doesn't want another loose end. Especially not one like, as Jesse so aptly called him, "Ricky Hitler." Mike had certainly kept some rough company since leaving the police force, but working with neo-Nazis is a new low.
Mike has connections, though, and he'll use them. First, he calls Jesse and asks, "Are you with Walter?"
"Yeah, I was just leaving."
"You want to come by the office? I have a proposition for you."
"All right."
Jesse arrives shortly thereafter, looking worn out. He looks so, so much older than when Mike had first met him, even though that was, what, barely a year ago. Mike's genuinely not sure how Jesse will respond to what he's about to suggest. He knows Jesse's taking Drew Sharp's death very hard. But he also knows, better than almost anyone, how deeply Jesse's twisted loyalty to Walter White runs.
Mike says, "I'm getting out, Jesse. The DEA's closing in on me, and… I'm done."
To Mike's surprise, Jesse says, "Yeah? I… I think I'm out too."
Mike raises his eyebrows, and Jesse says, "When I left… Mr. White, he was just, like, whistling while he worked. I…" he shakes his head. "And, like, I know I've done… bad stuff… but that guy Todd… that guy is literally a Nazi, yo."
Mike does not miss that Jesse is still not on a first name basis with Walter. But maybe circumstances have changed enough that Jesse is finally ready to take Mike's excellent advice and get the hell out of here.
"I have some connections," Mike says. "We can get someone to buy out our shares of the methylamine. I haven't called yet, because I wanted to see how much we'd be offering. But for the quantity of methylamine we've got, each of our shares would be easily worth millions. More than enough to get us all set up with new identities."
"Yeah. That sounds… that sounds really good," Jesse says shakily.
"You understand what that means, right, kid? New name, new identity, new city. You couldn't come back to Albuquerque. You couldn't keep in touch with anyone."
"Oh, yeah, real big loss," Jesse says. "My family won't have anything to do with me. The… I've just… bad things have happened to everyone else I've cared about. Because of me. The best thing I can do for everyone is to get out of here and never see them again."
Mike's a little taken aback by Jesse's raw pain. But if it helps get him out of this business alive, Mike won't do anything to dissuade him. "All right, Jesse," he says. "Let me make a few more phone calls."
He's just finished making the arrangements when Walter walks in. This, Mike knows, will be difficult for Jesse. Mike sighs and says, "Might as well get this over with. Come in. Join us."
Mike watches Jesse watching Walter rant. His demeanor reminds Mike of the battered wives and children he used to see as a beat cop. The kid looks like he's trying to shrink in and make himself invisible.
"Yeah, um, about that, actually, Mr. White, um, I'm out, too," Jesse says. He makes skittish eye contact with Walter and adds, "I don't think I can do this anymore, so, um, I'm retiring, I guess."
He watches Walt get in Jesse's face, hissing, "Pennies on the dollar, Jesse, and that's what you're going to sell out for? Pennies? Why?"
Jesse makes eye contact with Walt and says, "Five million isn't pennies. It's more money than I've ever seen. And when it comes down to it, are we in the meth business, or the money business?"
At that, Walt sputters. "Jesse. I thought we had each other's backs. Partners, Jesse."
Jesse shakes his head, and the anguish on his face may as well be flashing neon. "I'm sorry, Mr. White. I… I'm done."
Mike finds the startled look on Walter White's face to be moderately satisfying, and he takes the opportunity to say, "We have arrangements to make, Walter. If you're done unloading the batch, you'd better go home to your family now."
"This isn't over," Walt says on his way out the door.
"Yes, it is," Mike says.
After they hear Walt drive off, Jesse stays motionlessly propped up against the desk, staring into space. Mike walks over to him and gives the kid's shoulder a quick squeeze. "You're making the right call, kid," he says. He fights back both a sigh and a smile when Jesse visibly brightens at the praise.
A fresh start will be good for Jesse, Mike thinks. Wherever he ends up, Mike suspects he'll end up a follower, looking for approval from whoever he runs into first. He knows it would defeat the purpose of going into hiding, for him to stay with Jesse, but part of him wants to keep an eye on the kid. Still--no matter where Jesse ends up, if he can just get away from Walter White, Mike thinks he'll be better off than he is now.
*) After everything's said and done, after Walt's sickening grandstanding about killing Gus, it doesn't surprise Mike to hear Walt blithely say, "Look, Jesse, give me some time here. I'll need a little help getting things up and running during this transition. You can at least do that for me, right?" To hear Walt guilt trip Jesse Pinkman, as if Jesse were the one who had acted recklessly and ruined the good thing they'd had going. Twice.
It doesn't surprise Mike to see Jesse fold, to see the bleak expression on the kid's face after Walt gets back in the driver's seat.
Mike knows that Jesse is very unlikely to follow his parting advice: "Kid, just look out for yourself," but at this point, it's all he can offer. Mike's no stranger to abusive relationships. He did the best he could to get Jesse out, but, well, Mike's time is limited, and he can no longer afford to spend it on lost causes.
It doesn't surprise Mike when he calls Saul and learns that Walter and Jesse are both in his office.
It doesn't surprise him when Jesse offers to go to the airport and bring him his go-bag after Saul balks. But Mike knows that Saul is correct, and there is a non-zero chance that the person who runs this errand for him might end up in hot water. So he agrees when Walt offers to get it for him.
Mike had correctly identified Jesse's defining trait as loyalty, for better or for worse. Mike knows in his bones that the kid's loyalty to Walter White is going to end badly for him one of these days. He doesn't want Jesse's loyalty to Mike to end that way.
Mike knows, too, that there is a non-zero chance that Walter White will betray him. If that's the case, so be it. He won't purchase his freedom at the cost of Jesse Pinkman's.