Coin Flips

In the second episode of the television series Breaking Bad, 25-year-old ne’er-do-well Jesse Pinkman barks at Walter White, “And let me tell you something else. We flipped a coin, okay? You and me. You and me! Coin flip is sacred! Your job is waiting for you in that basement, as per the coin!” Jessie and Mr. White are aspiring methamphetamine entrepreneurs with a problem. Negotiations around improving efficiencies in meth distribution collapsed, so Mr. White used phosphine gas to poison two fellow drug distributors, Emilio and Krazy-8. Jesse and Mr. White must dispose of Emilio’s lifeless body and kill Krazy-8, who managed to survive the initial poisoning. With these two jobs, they must decide who gets what task. Neither Jesse nor Mr. White is volunteering to kill Krazy-8, as disposing of Emilio’s dead body is decidedly easier on the psyche. Their method for deciding: the coin flip.