That love that introduced Jesse Pinkman to heroin use—and led him to distance himself further and further from his partner in the methamphetamine business—was seen by Walter White as a threat. As soon as he had the opportunity to get rid of Jesse's crush, Walter decided to take her, in one of the strongest scenes in the series.
Krysten Ritter, the actress who played Jane Margulis, knew all along that her character would die. She didn't know when it would happen and how, but she was sure it would be shocking. That's how it went.
Breaking Bad -the fiction starring Bryan Cranston as Walter White and Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman- has several deaths. And of course, if it tells the story of a chemistry teacher and a young man with a certain network of contacts on the streets, who decide to dedicate themselves to the production and trafficking of methamphetamine in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Among drug traffickers, murderers, and criminals of a different nature, the use of homicide to achieve certain purposes is one more tool in the repertoire. Walt and Jesse knew this but were slow to realize it. Breaking Bad viewers also expected to see death, but perhaps not of the caliber that Vince Gilligan showed us.
When it comes to deaths, Krazy-8 may have been the first homicide perpetrated by Walter White, but it was Jane Margulis who marked the definitive step from her to the criminal better known as Heisenberg. A 26-year-old girl whose only sin was wanting a better life with her boyfriend.
It's true, Jane blackmailed Heisenberg to have millions of dollars and go somewhere far away with Jesse. For Walter, Jane not only confronted him, but she also alienated him from his partner in the methamphetamine business. She had become an obstacle. She was even called "Yoko Ono" by the production team of the series, as detailed by Alan Sepinwall in his book The Revolution was Televised (Updated edition, 2015).
It was not premeditated. When Walter entered Jesse's house and saw the couple sleeping, his intention was to wake up his colleague to discuss "work" matters, but amid frustration at not getting any reaction -due to the effects of heroin-, he saw a terrible event that turned into an opportunity.
Jane-who was sleeping propped up against Jessie, both on their sides-shifted as Walter tried to wake Jesse and she was left on her back. Within a few minutes, she began to vomit and cough. She did not have the strength and awareness to get up and prevent her death.
Walter immediately went to the other side of her bed reflexively to help her, but he couldn't even touch her when a dark thought crossed her mind. Her death served him well, and all he had to do was refrain from intervening.
"The only time we got our attention for an episode," Vince Gilligan recounted in a Comic-Con take on "Phoenix" (S2E12). "Or rather, the only time there was a bit of doubt. They asked us, are you sure you want to do this?"
As explained by the creator of Breaking Bad, the original idea was even stronger than the final version. While Jane dies of manslaughter -or negligent- in the aired episode, in the first draft Walter injects her with another dose of heroin to cause her death.
"You know, go big or go home. That was our motto. But I'm glad we didn't go that direction because otherwise, we all would have gone home," the director joked.
"Between the writers, we came up with the version that we finally recorded, but nobody prevented us from doing the heroin overdose. What they did tell me on several occasions was: 'You're drunk, you need to sit down' [laughs]. You have to go places Risky, but you don't need to go that far. Sometimes it's better to take baby steps to keep the fun going," said the man after some episodes of The X-Files, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul.
