• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Better Call Saul, the TV series

A quiet, reflective opener. I liked that the episode (aside from the flash forward) opened immediately after Chuck's suicide and took its time to allow Jimmy, Kim, and Howard mourn and come to terms with Chuck's death. The most fascinating moment was at the very end when Jimmy realized he drove his brother to his suicide because of the insurance, but instead of feeling even worse, he suddenly awoken from his stupor because Howard felt openly guilty and took the blame. Considering all of the shit Howard pulled on Jimmy over the years, I can't say I blame him for letting Howard to "bear that cross" but, damn, that was cold.

Even though Kim doesn't know the full truth, she instinctively knows something was off because of how quickly Jimmy broke free of his stupor. I wonder if Kim will figure out Jimmy was responsible for the insurance company discovering Chuck's illness. That will most certainly end their relationship for good.

The rest of the episode was place settings for the rest of the cast. Nacho may think he's in the clear with the pills, but Gus is no fool. It's only a matter of time before things get bad for Nacho. I forget who the guy who observed Nacho on the bridge but I did recognize him, just not sure who he works for.

Not much for Mike but I loved watching his puttering around the warehouse. :lol:
 
That was Victor, the guy who eventually runs afoul of Gus's boxcutter.

Jimmy has to be feeling lots of mixed emotions. Hearing Chuck praised for how amazing he is for the whole day after everything Chuck tried to do to him, and then must be some anger for never accepting all the help he gave for years.

I saw his response to Howard as a way of telling to himself, "I'm not spending any emotional resources on this". Letting all the real emotions in is painful so he's shutting them out.
 
Also I agree the sequence is awesome where Mike tries to actually do his fake job. Maybe he was just checking out whether he could trust the bookkeeping to protect himself but think he also had some kind of honor compulsion.
 
It's open to interpretation why Jimmy was smiling at the end. Maybe he was happy that Howard took the blame. Maybe he feels less culpable because it was a personal choice by Chuck (rather than an accident resulting from Jimmy not being there take care of his older brother). Maybe seeing Howard's grief made him decide that blame was pointless. Maybe he sees Chuck's suicide as a final win against his judgmental and successful older brother. Maybe Jimmy was losing touch with reality a bit at the end of the scene. Maybe all of the above.
 
Jimmy's clearly got complex feelings about his brother, but one thing he definitely does not want to do was share in the ritual of commiserating him. He didn't want to filter down to his positive feelings about his brother like everyone else does the moment a person is dead. Howard had just given him a social cue to play the part and say "Oh, it was my fault to, I never should have...", and Jimmy just made a point out of declining to do so.
 
Damn, I love Kim and her fiery takedown of Howard regarding his little truth bomb last week. So much love and compassion for Jimmy to defend him at such great lengths. Jimmy doesn't deserve her. I don't look forward to the inevitable day when he breaks her heart when he finally becomes Saul.

Plus, added bonus of seeing Howard looking so cowed. That's been a long time coming.

Meanwhile, Nacho is so fucked. :lol:

JirinPanthosa said:
That was Victor, the guy who eventually runs afoul of Gus's boxcutter.
Click to expand...
Ah, thanks for the refresher.
 
Last edited:
I loved the ‘wolves and sheep’ moment when Jimmy calls the copier people morons for hiring him then goes home and looks up value of the hommels.

He looked into the future there and saw it ending just the same way as his stay at Davis & Main.

I’m wondering if the two stories are going to reconverge soon, and Jimmy is going to get involved with Nacho’s escape plan. Jimmy has to meet vacuum cleaner guy somehow, and that’s now best possible ending for Nacho.

We know that when Walt & Jesse pretended to be executing him he said “It wasn’t me, it was Ignacio!” I have a feeling this season we learn exactly who he thought was murdering him and why.
 
I loved the anticlimax of that letter.

You expect a royal 'Screw you' from Chuck to Jimmy, and it turns out it's a letter Chuck wrote in the time period after he got the job in the mail room and before he got his law degree. The subtext, Chuck thought so little of Jimmy after that, he didn't bother to update the letter. A much bigger 'Screw you' than if he had said 'Screw you', just not saying anything at all. The last time Chuck respected Jimmy, when he had accepted his role as inferior.

Poor Nacho. I know he probably dies but I hope somehow, he possibly gets away. Rooting for vacuum cleaner guy here.

Hello Gale. You have six years to live. ;)

It's weird watching all of this, thinking about how different all of it might have turned out if a chemistry teacher never got diagnosed with lung cancer.
 
Last edited:
Also, when Jimmy called someone about the hommel I assumed he was calling Heull. The fact it was Mike and then an unknown just kicks that can further down the road.

Heull, possibly the only real survivor of this show.
 
Good to see Gale again, and Ira, too! :D

I also liked the anticlimax of the letter as well has the stark dichotomy of reactions between Kim and Jimmy. Great observation, Jirin, about when the letter was written and how Chuck never bothered to up date it. Yet another level of sheer disdain Chuck had towards Jimmy, but at this point, Jimmy doesn't care anymore.

Not much going on in this episode other than the Great Hummel Heist and the frame-up job for Arturo's body. The Gale cameo is pretty much the biggest highlight of the episode and I wonder if we'll get to see him again. I sure hope so.
 
I hope they don't kill off Kim. At least let her escape before the events of Breaking Bad unfold. A lot of red flags in that relationship with Jimmy, Kim. Get out now!
 
Kim's reactions to everything going on are one of the wonderful things about this season so far. Very layered, some cognitive dissonance going on, some rationalization going on. She's seeing things about Jimmy she doesn't want to accept but also realizing she knew all along, she's doubting all her own decisions and her commitment to being a lawyer for a place like Mesa Verde working for just another group of self-congratulating money men.

The way it's going, I don't think Kim is going to die, but I'm worried she'll have some kind of breakdown and leave the profession entirely. Either that or have an emotional crisis that leads to finally rejecting Jimmy and coming out of it by realizing what she really wants is a more fulfilling, less lucrative type of lawyering.

Kim and Nacho are probably going to be the most exciting things about the rest of the series, because they're the only two likable characters whose fates are not known.
 
Last edited:
There's one theory that Kim was working in Saul's office during all those years of Breaking Bad. She never met Walt because Saul was keeping her away from the drug business.
 
I find it extremely unlikely Kim would ever work for an illegal organization, but it's a reasonable theory that Kim was still his girlfriend.

It just doesn't seem like where all this is going.
 
I found where I read the theory (picture evidence in the link):

3 'Better Call Saul' Fan Theories That Will Make You Rethink EVERYTHING
Andrew Bridgman
@bridgmandrew
August 3, 2018
...
3. Saul Goodman's silent partner during Breaking Bad is revealed to be...Kim Wexler

Kim has been one of the few sources of hope in Better Call Saul - mostly acting as a moral center of gravity for Jimmy to cling to when his conman impulses began to get the better of him. The assumption has - for most people - been that Jimmy would continue to descend into a moral abyss (especially after the death of Chuck) and would stray so far from the legitimate law world that he would even burn his bridges with Kim, the one person who ever truly believed in his potential and maybe even loved him for who he was. After all, it's not like Kim would FOLLOW Jimmy into the sewer of sleaze and money laundering that birthed Saul Goodman, right? RIGHT?!

There exists another possibility - that Jimmy does continue to sink deeper into the world of drug distribution and fraud, but instead of ditching Kim in the process, he drags her down with him. Yes, Kim becomes Saul's mysterious "silent partner" for the duration of Breaking Bad, and the person running Ice Station Zebra Associates.

For those of you who don't remember, Ice Station Zebra Associates was Saul's shell company he used for his money laundering operations (which Skyler was notably unimpressed with). But the name has also popped up in Better Call Saul a few times now...and every time in conjunction with Kim. So is the company a way of keeping Kim's memory close to Saul's heart in a future where Kim couldn't stomach his amorality, or is it actually Kim herself joining Saul on the outskirts of the law?

The first hint we see comes early in season 2, where Jimmy and Kim are starting to grow closer together - even having a cuddly movie night at home, watching the film 60s thriller "Ice Station Zebra" on TV, with Kim quoting the film and talking about how much it means to her (and her dad).

But then the connections get clearer: Kim is at something of a lowpoint mid-season 2 of BCS (dealing with Howard's distrust of her and her shaky position at HHM) while Jimmy is in an unusual position of comfort (as part of his then-new job at Davis & Main). While sitting at a bar having a drink, she gets the itch to have some fun with Jimmy - so calls him in and has them run a scam on a businessman sitting nearby, convincing him to write them a check for $10,000 to their new tech start-up...

...called Ice Station Zebra Associates.

Oh, and maybe you want MORE proof, huh?

In Breaking Bad, there is a 2nd desk in Saul Goodman's office - although we never see who inhabits it during the series (likely because Saul would want to protect that person from directly interacting with criminal elements). That desk is covered completely in books and paperwork...

Seem familiar?

Kim's desk was notorious for constant clutter and mess - because that was Kim's way, to always take on way too much.

We've already seen hints of Kim flirting with "breaking bad" and the thrill of the con - is it possible Jimmy drags her down with him? Honestly, this would perhaps be the most tragic ending for Better Call Saul - not only could Jimmy not save his own soul, but he also corrupted the soul of the one person who ever believed in his potential to do good in the world.

It would also add a new, tragic layer to the flashforwards - when "Gene" is watching the Better Call Saul commercials in his sad little home by himself, he begins to cry. Was he crying over his lost life and the end of everything he had built? Of course. But maybe there was more - maybe he was also crying because he had to leave Kim behind for good, and the BCS commercials were his only way to remember her.

http://www.dorkly.com/post/86905/3-...heories-that-will-make-you-rethink-everything
 
Cluttered desks don't really mean anything but I must admit the Ice Station Zebra connections are compelling. I had completely forgotten about that shell company from Breaking Bad so when we got those references in Better Call Saul, I didn't think much of it, especially considering the context of the film of the same name. I remain unconvinced that Kim is Saul's silent partner, but I'm willing to believe he used the name as a tribute to her. Also, did we know Saul actually had a silent partner or is that just speculation on the author's part based on the unoccupied desk?
 
Another reason to think Kim might have gone bad, at least for me is so we can see her again in those future segments. Just had a idea but what if this show ends kind of on a happy note. Kim and Jimmy even though both corrupted are reuinted and find each other again. Maybe they do get a happy ending only it is one neither of them ever saw coming and even if they are crooks it would make sense in a cynical way that they cheated the system and ended up getting away with it. Just took longer than expected.

Jason
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top