How did Walter White poison Brock in Breaking Bad season 4? The incident didn't happen on screen but the writers have provided an explanation.

How exactly did Walter White poison young Brock in Breaking Bad? The incident took place in season 4 of the AMC hit series but the truth didn't come out until the following year. Since then, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has provided insight into what viewers didn't see with the poisoning.

The character Brock Cantillo (Ian Posada) was the six-year-old son of Jesse Pinkman's girlfriend, Andrea (Emily Rios). Jesse met Andrea at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in Breaking Bad season 3 and the pair eventually struck up a relationship. Brock greatly admired Jesse and the two would often hang out and bond over video games. After Jesse and Andrea broke up, he continued to send them money through Saul Goodman so they could afford a better living situation. The pair reunited in Breaking Bad season 4 but shortly after, Brock was rushed to the hospital with a serious illness.

At first, Jesse believed that Brock was given the ricin that was intended for Gus Fring; he thought that Walt stole the ricin and gave it to Brock as a way to punish Jesse for getting too close with Gus. When confronted, however, Walt gave Jesse the idea that it must have been Gus who used the ricin to harm Brock. Walt went to great lengths to convince Jesse, even planting the ricin-filled cigarette Jesse thought he had lost inside Jesse's Roomba vacuum. Sadly, Jesse was right; Walt did cause Brock's illness as a way to turn Jesse against Gus. But the poison wasn't caused by ricin as later confirmed —it was from a Lily of the Valley plant, revealed to be in Walt's backyard in the final shot of Breaking Bad's season 4 finale. But how exactly did he poison Brock with berries from the plant?

Breaking Bad’s Brock Poisoning Explained

Gilligan provided more details regarding the poisonous ploy 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 the drink. The rest of the plan involving the ricin stolen by Huell then played out on-screen.

Brock ultimately survived the illness and made a full recovery. Walt later encountered Brock at a dinner gathering where he seemed very uneasy around the young boy. His actions have obviously caused a lot of guilt for how he used a child's health to mess with Jesse. While Walter White had many breaking points throughout the series, many fans consider Brock's poisoning 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 himself admitted to Jesse that he poisoned Brock with a Lily of the Valley plant just to keep Jesse on his side in order to kill 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 let 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 as a way to honor Andrea. However, El Camino, released in 2019, gave Jesse Pinkman barely enough time to tie up loose ends and get a shot at the freedom he so desperately sought while he was kidnapped by Jack Welker and the neo-nazis. Before escaping to Alaska, Jesse sent a letter to Brock, but what exactly he wrote was left to the viewers' imagination. Vince Gilligan originally planned to have Jesse read as a voice-over, but later chose to keep its content a secret, which remains between the creators and Aaron Paul to this day.

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

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. The AMC series features plenty of tough moments, but Brock's poisoning in Breaking Bad season 4 is one of the hardest to watch.

More: Breaking Bad’s Finale Almost Killed Saul Goodman: Why It Didn’t