Why do I get epiphanies after consuming cannabis?
An epiphany is defined as a sudden realization of deep meaning or understanding initiated by a commonplace experience or object, so cannabis is basically steroids for your brain’s ability to have epiphanies.Let’s pretend this represents your brain:In this metaphor of your brain as an ant hill, let’s say the ants are all neurons, or carriers of information. There are as many types of ants as there are types of information and each ant is carrying a small signal, such as “it’s hot” or “there’s a scary grasshopper.” Together, all of these signals allow the queen ant at the core to process the external stimuli carried to her by the other ants, make sense of it, and then give directions to act.Continuing the metaphor, let’s say the tunnels in the ant hill represent the number of connections in your brain. All the various types of ants carrying information can walk in a relatively straight path to their queen, but there aren’t enough tunnels for them to intersect and interact much with each other. So the queen is getting each bit of information in a way that makes it quick and simple to make a decision, but she isn’t easily able to synthesize the various types of information and interpret their meaning as a whole.So here is your ant hill brain normally:Now here’s a map of your ant hill brain on cannabis:Because cannabis is like one of these:Yup, that’s Elon Musk’s boring machine. It creates tunnels.If we imagine the effects of cannabis as increasing the number of tunnels in the ant hill, we can see how epiphanies become more likely. With so many extra tunnels, ants that had never crossed paths are suddenly brushing right up against other. Although these new winding paths may not always be quicker or more efficient, ants carrying all manner of signals are now able to take new paths to the queen, allowing her to synthesize much richer data than she had available before. So even though the external stimuli affecting the ant hill haven’t changed, the ability for the ant hill to cross-reference the bits of information and understand them deeply and broadly has skyrocketed.TLDR: Cannabis = increased ability to synthesize information = epiphanies
How did Jesse Pinkman know Walt poisoned Brock if Walt used a flower, not ricin?
If you’re in the middle of watching S4, the answer is that Walt *wanted* Jesse to think it was ricin, and wanted to think he’d used Saul (and Saul’s bodyguard) to pluck the ricin off Jesse.Because at that point in S4, Walt and Jesse are not talking at all and Jesse trusts nothing Walt says, so the only way Walt can get Jesse to see him is if Jesse is angry enough to storm over and kill Walt.Yes, I know. But wait!Walt’s plan has two parts: 1. Get Jesse in the door. 2. Convince Jesse that in fact, GUS wanted Jesse to think Walt did this, but did it himself. Because Walt knows that nothing will turn Jesse against Gus faster and more efficiently than believing Gus tried to kill Brock.So by the time you finish watching S4, you know this plan worked perfectly. That’s EXACTLY what Jesse believed, and he acted accordingly, siding with Walt against Gus.But crucially, Walt poisoned Brock with lily of the valley, not ricin, so if Gus ever had the opportunity to say, “What? I did NOT poison that kid with ricin!”, it wouldn’t seem like Walt was a liar, but Brock was a dumb kid who ate a plant, thereby triggering levels of misunderstanding and suspicion.Now, if you’re asking this question because you’ve watched S5, that’s a different answer. Jesse finally connects the dots because a) his eyes have been opened to the degree to which Walt lies and manipulates Jesse about *everything* and b) Huell pickpockets a bag of weed off Jesse, reminding him of his long-past suspicions w/r/t Walt, the ricin cigarette and Brock. Only now, with the 20/20 vision of hindsight, Jesse can see how Walt got everything he wanted — Gus dead, Mike dead and, in a few minutes, Jesse on a one-way-trip to a new, anonymous life.And that tips the balance for him. He *knows* on a gut level, Walt poisoned Brock and did it for his own benefit.Does he have a CSI report to back up this suspicion? No. Could he prove it in a court of law? No, but he doesn’t need to. The only verdict that matters here is Jesse’s: Does he trust Walt at all anymore? No, he does not.(By the way, the show played fair with the viewers by making it ABUNDANTLY clear at the end of S4 that Walt DID poison Brock, because he had a Lily of the Valley plant in his backyard — and we even saw him staring at it, BEFORE Brock got sick. So while it would be unsatisfying for a Murder She Wrote to hang its theory on such thin evidence, since we KNOW Walt is guilty, Jesse’s reasoning doesn’t have to be quite at the MSW/Agatha Christie level.)