The reason Walt has to keep Jesse alive

Just did another rewatch. On previous watches I always viewed Walt never killing Jesse to be due to a deep father-son type connection they had, and that’s what kept Walt at least 1% good in my head.

But on this rewatch I realized that Walt keeping Jesse alive is more about Walt needing to convince himself that he’s still a good person. Having this connection to Jesse, whom he protects, and who implicitly endorses Walt’s actions and worldview, is reassuring to Walt that he’s not actually evil. Jesse is a person with a genuine moral compass and if he’s on Walt’s side, Walt can convince himself he’s good.

I think it’s most obvious when he wants to talk and convince Jesse he had to poison Brock. He can’t kill him, he needs Jesse’s approval of his own actions.