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Better Call Saul, the TV series

Chuck is opposed to Jimmy being a lawyer for two reasons. One bad reason, that he thinks Jimmy will never deserve to be his equal. And one good reason, that a con man with a law degree is dangerous.

The events of Breaking Bad fully vindicate his second reason. Walter required multiple people to enable him to go on as long as he did. Without that enabling, a lot less damage occurs.

Jimmy's ad is well produced but it fits his Saul persona more than Davis & Main. It has the opportunistic ambulance chaser stink, it doesn't look like something from a firm with prestige, and Jimmy knew it.
Sadly, I think the first (bad) reason is the real reason, in that Chuck is incapable of getting around his own ego as a named partner of a firm, who perceives that his perpetually-baby brother got into law by cutting corners and, further, exploiting the law for his own benefit.

It should be pointed out that this show clearly demonstrates that Jimmy, at the beginning of his career, set out to follow in his brother's footsteps and honor the family business - honor Chuck. He's made a point of "doing the right thing" many times - efforts that Chuck was neither aware of, or turned a blind eye to, due to his own prejudice. Chuck never allowed himself to see what Jimmy was trying to do as honoring him in any way, but to be a continuous burden and bug in his side. God forbid Jimmy surpasses Chuck in his prowess of the law and rain-making abilities (like Sandpiper demonstrated he could do) - something he could not abide. The law was supposed to be "his thing", that Jimmy was perceived by Chuck as an interloper, or a charlatan, never taking it seriously because of his pre-law life choices as "Slippin' Jimmy". This led him to actively undermine Jimmy secretly at every turn, culminating in the Sandpiper debacle. I believe it was this lack of faith and constant passive-aggressive crushing of Jimmy's dreams on Chuck's part that ultimately led to Jimmy's descent into "Saul Goodman" - the amalgamation of the old and new. It's very much a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" kind of situation. Jimmy decided he'd had enough of "doing the right thing" - a realization he has recently embraced this season - and begun to do his own thing regardless of how he was perceived. The betrayal was made worse because Jimmy always helped his brother, by bringing him food, bringing him his mail and kindly supporting him through his difficulties with EM radiation and tinfoil hat issues.

The second (good) reason is the BS pretense that Chuck uses to justify his otherwise-unjustifiable actions. Yeah, Jimmy started off being a "bad seed", but Chuck's complete and thorough lack of faith is what I think finally pushed Jimmy to the dark side. But you could tell that, even in his time during Breaking Bad, he still had a nugget of humanity inside him. Yeah, he exploited people and situations beyond what most would do, but he still had a conscience, to a degree.
 
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I am hoping we see a pre-stroke Tio! We know from flashbacks on BB he was a bad ass, maybe we will see him in this show as his old self.
 
That's a good point, that if Chuck had been more supportive, maybe Jimmy wouldn't have turned into the man we saw in BB. It may have been a self fulfilling prophecy. But I question whether even with Chuck's support Jimmy ever could have been happy and successful as a law abiding attorney. He is smart enough, clever enough. He could have succeeded for a while, but he would have blown himself up eventually. He thrives in high risk situations, and naturally gravitates toward them. Chuck might have made Jimmy become Saul faster, but he always would have become Saul.

One of the great things about Breaking Bad is that most of the characters, even the villains aren't sociopaths, with the exception of Tucco. Jimmy always had humanity, but when we first see him he's the first one to suggest a prison shanking for Badger.

I've been waiting to see Gus but it would be very cool to see Tio before the stroke. Maybe we will even see the stroke in the show. I wonder at what point in development they decided Saul and Mike were co-main characters. Whether it was always planned that way or they figured it out when they wrote Mike's first big episode.

I'm more interested about how Mike reacts to Nacho's hit request than in Jimmy's story right now. And we know Nacho probably dies, I'm very curious how. He either dies, goes to jail, or gets disappeared by disappear guy.

Other things we know from Breaking Bad we expect to see in Saul's story. How does he meet Disappear Guy? What Chinese guy does he think is going to murder him when Walter pretends he's going to murder him? How does he come to own a lasertag?
 
Jimmy didn't so much dodge a bullet as his boss called a cease fire. But Kim ended up getting dinged anyway. I understand the cold, business logic behind it. Somebody had to suffer for Jimmy's misstep, but Jimmy's importance to the case they're building means it couldn't be him - not yet anyway - so it had to be his sponsor. Of course, Jimmy's right too in that it's a crappy way to do business.

Mike's story was fantastic. Everybody got what they wanted and nobody had to die. Outstanding.
 
Kim wasn't punished to spare Jimmy the punishment. She was punished because she covered for Jimmy and didn't mention he lied to her about the ad being approved.

Jimmy isn't being kept because he's needed by the Sandpiper case, he's kept because Clifford Main exercised mercy. Jimmy is important to the case but like Main said, the case isn't worth the firm's reputation.

Jimmy's punishment and Kim's are unrelated, they are employees of two different firms. Main hired Jimm on Hamlin's word, he doesn't worry about who pushed for it behind the scenes. From Hamlin's perspective, Kim withheld information relevant to his firm's business relations. The connection between the two is just what Jimmy assumes Chuck's motives are.
 
Cool to see Jim Beaver's weapons dealer character again. Nice call back to the final season of Breaking Bad.
 
Cool to see Jim Beaver's weapons dealer character again. Nice call back to the final season of Breaking Bad.

A young Krazy-8 (Max Arciniega) also made an appearance in this episode. Another character that will also get caught up in the Walter White shitstorm that is on the horizon.
 
A young Krazy-8 (Max Arciniega) also made an appearance in this episode. Another character that will also get caught up in the Walter White shitstorm that is on the horizon.
Shit that was Krazy 8? It's been so long since I've seen season 1 of BB that I didn't even recognize him. I need to go back and rewatch Breaking Bad!
 
I knew I recognized him but I forgot where. For a second I thought it was Fring's friend who was murdered by Tio, but that must have happened years before this.

How many years before BB are we anyway?

I keep waiting for Fring to appear. Maybe they're holding that for the season finale.

Watching the character of Nacho is kind of morbid. Watching him develop as a character knowing odds are he dies horribly.
 
So..Tuco heads off to prison for a while for the assault, and that is when Skinny Pete meets him. I'm still not sure how Tuco and Mike will stay at arm's length, since we know that Mike becomes somewhat important and well known in the ABQ underworld when he is working for Gus.
 
If Mike is in with Gus, it would be sensitive for Tuco to try to kill him because at this point in time the Salamancas need Gus' American distribution network. Gus could make a phone call and spare Walt and he killed one of their own, he could easily spare somebody who just baited the fight that sent him to prison. I forgot that little detail that Pete met Tuco in prison. I'm curious where in the timeline Gus is right now. I assume his friend was already murdered by Tio but he may not have built his empire yet.
 
That was just some stranger who was meeting his girlfriend and Jimmy thought for a second was somebody who recognized him. Elaborating further on that question would be a Breaking Bad spoiler.
 
Well, it has been off the air for several years now...

In other news, Darth Vader is Luke & Leia's father! :D :whistle:
 
Several years? 2 1/2 years!

Just being careful out of politeness. I'm sure just watching BCS will eventually spoil parts of Breaking Bad.

If he is asking if the person in the Cinnabon is Tuco, he definitely hasn't seen BB because Tuco dies early in the series.
 
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Interesting way to start out the episode last night, flashing back to a time when Chuck was relatively happy, and we get some more backstory on the brothers' relationship.

And now Jimmy has a babysitter that won't let him do anything fun. It will be interesting to see how he ditches her.

There has to be something more to why Hamlin's keeping Kim in doc review. He's just so determined about it.
 
I'm excited about pre-stroke Tio making an appearance. The complexity of Mike's situation now is staggering, it's like he's surrounded by buzz saws. Tio right now seems perfectly happy to leave Mike alone if he says it was his gun. But doing so pisses off Nacho and gives the cops a pretext to pressure him on the murder charge. And if Tio finds out the situation was a setup and Mike wasn't just an innocent victim of Tuco's rage, an entire drug cartel targets him. He runs they threaten Kaylee.

Dare I say, his only out is to cozy up to a powerful associate of Tio who may have an axe to grind with him.

Loved seeing Kim just working her ass off and fighting for her career, and loved the scene with Charles at the end. I think Hamlin just doesn't trust Kim's judgment about people anymore. He probably inferred a romance between her and Jimmy.
 
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I'm excited about pre-stroke Tio making an appearance. The complexity of Mike's situation now is staggering, it's like he's surrounded by buzz saws. Tio right now seems perfectly happy to leave Mike alone if he says it was his gun. But doing so pisses off Nacho and gives the cops a pretext to pressure him on the murder charge. And if Tio finds out the situation was a setup and Mike wasn't just an innocent victim of Tuco's rage, an entire drug cartel targets him. He runs they threaten Kaylee.

Dare I say, his only out is to cozy up to a powerful associate of Tio who may have an axe to grind with him.

Loved seeing Kim just working her ass off and fighting for her career, and loved the scene with Charles at the end. I think Hamlin just doesn't trust Kim's judgment about people anymore. He probably inferred a romance between her and Jimmy.

"No half measures" indeed. Had Mike gone with Nacho's original plan and shot Tuco with the rifle, he wouldn't be in this jam.
 
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