- Confirmed: The show will run 6 Seasons with 63 total episodes, exactly one more than Breaking Bad.
- Seemingly confirmed as of “Fun and Games”, where the final scene leaps into the Breaking Bad timeline.
- Confirmed so far. Season two's first episode starts with an flash forward opening.
- Season 3's focus on the Mike side of things is detailing how he and Gus started working together.
- Specifically, he will die in a accident involving his gas appliances or fuel containers. There's lots of references implying that fire might be the way
- Confirmed, he commits suicide by starting a house fire with him inside.
- Jossed in that he doesn't call himself Saul, but it's clear the final seeds are planted.
- Jossed — that was the Day in the Limelight episode for Mike, and Jimmy barely showed up... unless you count the sixth episode of Season 3.
- Jimmy's "Saul" name is already pretty established by the time Breaking Bad starts — Walt and Jesse hire him specifically because Jesse's aware of his reputation. If Better Call Saul runs long enough to close in on the timeline of Breaking Bad, Jimmy will probably have been "Saul" for several seasons already.
- Jossed — Jimmy begins using the Saul pseudonym professionally in Season 3, albeit not as a lawyer.
- Kim will be Saul's first wife with whom he'll have a falling-out and divorce over his increasing unscrupulousness. Saul's second wife will be some random acquaintance who he marries in a quickie Vegas wedding while getting over his relationship with Kim.
- Jimmy's failed first marriage happened before Better Call Saul started. That's explicitly mentioned in the episode where he explained what a Chicago sunroof is. So if Kim marries Jimmy, it would be marriage 2.
- Regardless, it's probably really possible that they will end up with a falling out during the show. When Jimmy reveals to Kim how he fabricated evidence to get Daniel off, she is has a What the Hell, Hero? moment. More moments will probably lead to them parting ways, which will probably lead to Jimmy becoming firmly rooted in his criminal lawyer ways.
- This part is Jossed. Season 5 reveals that Kim is Jimmy's third wife, with Jimmy being asked about his previous two marriages.
- Jimmy's failed first marriage happened before Better Call Saul started. That's explicitly mentioned in the episode where he explained what a Chicago sunroof is. So if Kim marries Jimmy, it would be marriage 2.
- Confirmed.
Even if they weren't, the fact that they're criminals is evident from the money they stash under their sink. Career criminals almost always do business in cash. Since the way they make their money is illegal (theft, drugs etc.), they have to pay in cash to keep their business transactions as secret as possible, and keep their real cash income off the books. Otherwise, they'd have to explain to interested parties like their credit card company or their bank why their bank accounts are receiving and paying out hundreds if not thousands of dollars every week to and from known street criminals, and why they are earning so much more than their dayjob would net them. They can't put the money in electronic accounts because physical cash is harder to trace. Electronic transfers leave electronic paper trails and electronic accounts can be frozen.
- Confirmed, and he uses the money to start his shady dealings.
- Confirmed... though not directly. The neighbour is an old woman, by the way.
- Confirmed. It's called Talking Saul and covers some episodes of Season 2 and 3.
- And probably not willingly if I had to take a guess.
- Jossed. He's suspected of killing two cops. And he did it, though it was to avenge the death of his son.
- Still a possibility, but considering the events of "Pimento", it will likely have a different impact on Jimmy and the audience than what is described above. Chuck might even end up dying a Karmic Death.
- Additionally, Mike never meets Gus Fring and instead lives happily ever after with his daughter-in-law and his granddaughter.
- In the future, Hank, Jesse, Badger, and maybe Emilio and Spooge will show up. It would be interesting if Emilio and Spooge come up, since Jesse mentions that Emilio was acquitted thanks to Saul, and Jimmy mentions that he represented Spooge.
- This appears to be what the Gene sequences go for.
- He doesn't die, but he's incredibly stupid, buying a conspicuous Hummer H2 and calling the police on Nacho's burglary.
- Not so much. He's more idiotic than even the Kettlemans.
- This show so far actually takes place in 2002.
- Confirmed. Though self-inflicted.
- Even if it wasn't cancer, and it was just heart disease, it's still very likely that he knew he was dying, which is why he pushed so hard for that one last con with Jimmy, so that he could die doing what he loved most, or at least cram as much conning in as possible before he departed this world.
- Nope. It was called Switch.
- This even makes sense considering that "Granite State" took place over the course of a time period as long as the entirety of seasons 1-3 of Breaking Bad put together.
- Jossed: Kim was his third wife.
- To further add credit to this theory, in the episode where Tuco dies, Hank is shown debriefing his colleagues and at one point, he mentions that Tuco is suspected of knifing a Mexican national in 2003. Given that season 1 of Better Call Saul is set in 2002, it's possible that that "Mexican national" was Nacho.
- Jossed with the reveal in "Pimento" that Nacho's real name is Ignacio, who is apparently still alive in Saul's first episode on Breaking Bad (Saul asks Walt and Jesse if Ignacio sent them), which took place after Hank shot Tuco.
- Actually, Saul was asking Walt and Jesse if it was Lalo that send them, and pinned the blame on Nacho/Ignacio. That said, the "Mexican national" referenced by Hank is explained in Season 3 as Tuco stabbed a guy in prison off-screen, something Hector isn't happy about.
- Jossed with the reveal in "Pimento" that Nacho's real name is Ignacio, who is apparently still alive in Saul's first episode on Breaking Bad (Saul asks Walt and Jesse if Ignacio sent them), which took place after Hank shot Tuco.
They credit Nacho's actor Michael Mando in the main cast list even though he only shows up in four of the ten episodes in seasons 1. And Vince Gilligan has confirmed that Nacho will have a bigger role in the plot come season 2.
Given her age, compared to Tuco's uncle Hector in Breaking Bad, I would say that this would be the case. And it makes sense to me because if she came from the side of Tuco's family that the Cousins, Hector, and Joaquin come from, she would have known more about the Salamancas being a cartel family and would probably call Tuco out on his "salsa stain" lie.
- However, she could still come from the side that the other Salamancas who appeared in Breaking Bad come from, considering that there's plenty of evidence that she pretends not to know about Tuco's criminal activities.
The billboard worker is played by Eddie J. Fernandez, who happened to play one of the cartel hitmen that take Gus's chemical supplier Duane Chow hostage, and whom Mike later kills when rescuing Chow. They might be the same person.
There are a lot of storylines in Breaking Bad that are open-ended, and which could reasonably be resolved with Better Call Saul. Here are the Breaking Bad characters that haven't yet shown up:
- 1. Huell Babineaux and Patrick Kuby
- It's strongly suggested when they each first show up in season 4 that Huell and Kuby have worked for Saul for a long time, but just never appeared on screen.
- Confirmed with Huell on season 3 episode 5.
- 2. Lydia Rodarte-Quayle
- Based on their encounters in Breaking Bad, Lydia is a known associate of Mike's who had a long history with him prior to "Madrigal". Now, we may not need to see much more of Madrigal Electromotive, the German conglomerate whose Texas branch funded Gus Fring's meth distribution network, but it could be interesting to see Lydia herself in younger, (maybe) more innocent days, when she first got involved in the operation.
Considering that Better Call Saul's also more flexible with its locations than Breaking Bad, having doubled Albuquerque for both Philadelphia and for Cicero, the fact that Lydia lives in Houston rather than Albuquerque isn't much of a stumbling block. And since Gus is confirmed for season 3, what's to say that Lydia won't eventually have to show up? - Confirmed on Season 3 episode 6.
- Based on their encounters in Breaking Bad, Lydia is a known associate of Mike's who had a long history with him prior to "Madrigal". Now, we may not need to see much more of Madrigal Electromotive, the German conglomerate whose Texas branch funded Gus Fring's meth distribution network, but it could be interesting to see Lydia herself in younger, (maybe) more innocent days, when she first got involved in the operation.
- 3. Hank Schrader and/or Steven Gomez
- In the Breaking Bad episode "Face Off", when Hector went to the DEA office as part of his and Walt's plan to bait Gus into going to the nursing home, he stalled by saying he'll speak to Hank, and only Hank. This makes me think that Hank and Hector have a bit of a history. With Mike shutting down Hector's operation by getting one of his trucks busted, the DEA are now on Hector's trail.
- Confirmed on Season 5 episode 3.
- 4. Juan Bolsa
- One imagines
that part of the Mike and Gus plotline will revolve around how Gus gained the favor of Juan Bolsa over Hector. - Confirmed on Season 3 episode 4.
- One imagines
This preview clip from season 2 shows Mike in the same parking garage where the "Man Mountain" meeting was held, waiting for Pryce to show up. Instead of the wood-paneled Honda Odyssey minivan from "Pimento," Pryce drives up in a bright yellow Hummer with red flames on the sides, which he clearly bought with the money from the previous drug deal with Nacho. Mike isn't impressed by Pryce's choice of car, knowing full-well that suddenly spending a couple hundred thousand dollars on a brand-new car that he probably can't afford on his salary is probably going to cause Pryce to attract attention from the police. Mike insists that they'll drive his car to their next meeting (presumably with Nacho).
- Mike Ehrmantraut: This business requires restraint. That is the opposite of restraint.
- Confirmed. They part ways when Daniel insists on driving the car to the meeting.
- Confirmed. Jimmy does a pro bono job for Daniel to get him out of trouble with the law.
Mike knew that showing up in that Hummer ensured that that would be the last drug deal Daniel would ever get to do with Nacho no matter what else happened. Even if Nacho wasn't going behind Tuco's back, Mike wouldn't risk doing business with a guy this clueless and careless. Add the threat of Tuco finding out, the money doesn't matter at all in the risk/reward ratio, it is all risk at that point. Even if Mike had gone with him, Nacho never would have dealt with Daniel again.
This is why Mike warned Daniel get someone to watch his back. It is not simply a case of it being the same level of danger as the previous deals (even though Nacho now comes alone as opposed to coming with bodyguards). The second Nacho sees that Hummer, Daniel is pure liability, and therefore is no longer a viable partner. So, he becomes fair game to rip off, if not worse. Mike didn't know specifically what would happen, but he knew nothing good could come from showing up alone in that school bus for six-year old pimps.
Showing up without protection in the Hummer is basically the equivalent of advertising "ROB ME!" on a giant neon billboard. Nacho is smart enough to figure out why 'the protection' and Daniel have had a parting of ways. If the guy is too stupid to listen to good advice, what else is he being stupid about? Like where he keeps his cash? Just advertising what an easy mark he is. Come to think of it, when Nacho broke into Daniel's house, it probably didn't take him more than five minutes tops to find the hiding place. So Nacho gets the drugs, gets his money back, and gets to walk away from Daniel at the right moment. Perfect score from his point of view. That is, of course, until the next episode, where he's forced to return the cards, and some of the money, to Daniel, because Daniel had the audacity to call the cops. Of course, as consolation, he gets Daniel's Hummer, and gets to have it destroyed instead and split the parts value with Mike.
I think Chuck successfully going after Kim is going to be what turns Jimmy into full-on Saul. Notice how in "Cobbler," Chuck showing up to HHM just to watch over Jimmy leads to a great Saul moment - the Hoboken Squat Cobbler story he tells the cops. It's like Chuck doesn't understand that he gets the brother he expects. You treat Jimmy with respect, you get Jimmy. You treat Jimmy like shit, especially when he is being an awesome human being and lawyer, you get Saul.
- Chuck never gets Kim expelled from HHM. Though he does filch Mesa Verde from her later when she does resign to go into independent practice.
Part 1: Self-delusional diseases like "electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome" don't come out of nowhere. Maybe Chuck was subconsciously looking for an excuse to not go into the office any more.
Part 2: Why? Maybe, despite reality, he doubts his ability to perform up to expectations at HHM (imposter syndrome). Or maybe his "brilliant legal mind" rep came from a couple of lucky "hits" and he doesn't think he's as good as everyone thinks he is. Maybe he's a procrastinator and he does the occasional all-nighter or all-weekender to catch up.
In any case, he realizes that Jimmy is smart, very smart, a hard worker, self-starter, capable of being a really great lawyer. And good with people, which Chuck is not. And he can't stand the thought of being upstaged by Slippin' Jimmy. So that's why he has sabotaged Jimmy and will do so again. The whole "Slippin' Jimmy with a law degree" outrage is just a smokescreen.
Just a theory. But it fits the facts. And although Part 2 could be completely off base, I'm very certain of Part 1. Vince Gilligan didn't put something as wild and memorable as Chuck's "electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome" into the story for nothing. When that first came up I was thinking "Chuck has whaaaat? Oh come on. This was just put in to be wacky." It seemed like a crazy contrivance. But Gilligan is a much better writer than that.
I think a lot of viewers were like, “Oh shit! Ernesto looks SO MUCH like Gustavo Fring!” Now, Ernesto and Gus don’t have the same skin tone. They don’t have similar facial features. Furthermore, they may not necessarily be related as there are LOTS of people in Albuquerque who have Hispanic names.
But consider the intentional choices made by the showrunners. The lingering shots show the side of his face, like a profile angle, in order to emphasize the things that they DO have in common visually: his wire-frame glasses, his shirt, his tie, his haircut. These are all things designed by the showrunners. If it was a facial resemblance (which they do not share) then it could mean nothing. The fact that it is intentional choices makes me think that the resemblance is… intentional.
Then there's a matter of how Ernesto behaves a lot like Gus. He’s smart. He doesn’t need to take notes, but when Chuck condescendingly suggests that he does, does he start a fight? No, he respectfully gets out a notepad and begins to take notes. (What would Gus have done?) He’s professional and focused whenever he's around Chuck, but when he sees Jimmy or Kim, he is charming, warm, and friendly. Seem familiar? Maybe someone who was intensely focused and professional but would also hold family barbecues, smile warmly, and never let his own ego get in the way of his business.
Let me again emphasize that I’m not talking about their resemblance in facial features or skin tone, because those are actually the two ways in which Ernesto and Gus differ the most. It’s the details of their costumes, their demeanors, and the strange amount of focus and screentime that was put on a character who seemed to simply be an intern running errands. The showrunners were DEFINITELY deliberately evoking Gus, no doubt about it. All I wonder now is, why? Is it just a tease or will Ernesto become influential in introducing Jimmy or Mike to Gus? Seems too coincidental of details for someone like Vince Gilligan to just randomly include.
- Ernesto's last name has not been revealed yet. In this show, characters that have played even minor roles than Ernesto have been given a last name. Erin Brill (Jimmy's Davis & Main babysitter), Joey Dixon (Jimmy's camerman), Ximenez Lecerda (the truck driver that Mike attacked), etc.
- If Ernesto is Gus's son or nephew, it would give Gus a personal reason to keep his war with the cartel 'cold' (he refuses Mike's suggestion to hire more muscle for an all out war after his trucks get attacked). While the obvious reasons are to avoid the attention of the police and the Cartel's superior warchest, the Cartel may try to hit someone close to him in his personal life (as they have done before). This immediately grounds a previously mythical character, reveals a previously unknown weakness, gives Gus a morality chain and ties up the two ongoing narratives (Jimmy's and Mike's) even further. They did the same for Mike by revealing his past in Philadelphia.
Jimmy referred to the Personal Property Statements as "413's", and Chuck corrected him to "513's". Jimmy did this deliberately so Chuck would take a look at the wills and help out. Maybe not so much because Jimmy needed the help, but because Jimmy wanted to prod Chuck a little bit to get back into legal work. Jimmy's checking on Chuck through the window (just after leaving the house) is consistent.
- This is exactly what happened. Chuck even scolds Jimmy for doing so. "You wanted to play Tom Sawyer, wanted me to paint the fence, and God help me, it worked!"
The Saul we know in Breaking Bad was open from the start to using murder as a problem-solver. Something has to happen that desensitizes Jimmy to killing. I think that Jimmy will commit voluntary manslaughter on Chuck in the middle of a heated argument, probably at Chuck's home, sometime during season 2 (maybe even during the clear argument we see between them in the trailers). Chuck will anger Jimmy into hitting him with an object or something and then Jimmy will call Mike to help him cover it up. This event will haunt Jimmy and send him much further down the road to becoming Saul.
- Jossed.
- They'll likely buy him out of his share and force him to sign a confidentiality agreement to avoid the embarrassment. He won't be fired for the video incident, but the leash will be tightened significantly. I could see where D&M might make Jimmy take a representative to all future client meetings and severely restrict his access to corporate financial accounts. He is certainly needed to make the short term deadlines, but his specialty in handling these clients is replaceable. Once he reaches their target client density, Jimmy's services are worthless. In essence, they would extract his value and push him out slowly without the need to can him upfront.
- Sort of jossed. The commercial puts Jimmy in hot water, but not fired. He does deliberately get himself fired from Davis and Main, but it's because of intentional poor behavior that he invokes in a way to keep his signing bonus.
She clearly has left enough of an impression on him if he names his holdout company "Ice Station Zebra Associates," after one of Kim's favorite films.
After re-watching the office scene where Jimmy is explaining how he got the new residents and plans to get 200 more. You can see that Kim is looking at him with a big smile and pride. But then Chuck puts Jimmy's actions in question. Suddenly Kim is becoming defensive by not allowing Jimmy to rub his leg on hers. The reason Jimmy is lying to Kim about the video approval is that he knows she doesn't like the Jimmy that operates outside of the box, unless he is approved by HHM, D&M, and/or Chuck. So in a sense he is testing her love for him because it seems she likes him when he is "lawful". He tried to explain her why he did the Cobbler video she clearly doesn't like his direction and wonders if she ever will if he continues his "showmanship". I don't think he really cares for Davis & Main - he realizes that he wants to be his own boss and not to answer to HHM/Chuck/Main and eventually Kim.
His actions - like the Squat Cobbler, the bus solicitation, and airing his ad without Cliff's authorization - read of a long con. I think Jimmy is shaking D&M down - only as a long game sting rather than his conning bar patrons. And D&M are kind of ripe for the taking. He only accepted the offer of employment after looking at the rich middle aged guy at the pool. What could be a bigger scam than making his harried naïve lawyer experience an actual persona? And D&M are ripe for the taking, like throwing a gazelle to a pride of lions - Cliff giving the impression of the hacky-sack boss tinkering on his guitar, the balmy artful ambience of the cedar pillar pow-wow hut décor of D&M. Jimmy, ironically, is the enemy of most pretention (a Chuck trait). He secretly resents D&M and so his ad campaign might very well be deliberate sabotage. He does love Kim but wants to gently win her over to his side. Play by his rules, and no one else's.
Let's face it, I think Jimmy practically has become Saul in all but name by this point in season 2. In Season 1, Jimmy used the 'Slippin' Jimmy' techniques occasionally, and usually only when he was in a tight corner, like his business with the Kettlemans. In Season 2, it strikes me that Jimmy embraced Chuck's "The Reason You Suck" Speech; that is, Slippin' Jimmy has become Jimmy's real persona and Jimmy McGill, the naïve lawyer-for-hire, is a mask.
- In fact, we now know in "Gloves Off" that Jimmy never wanted the Davis & Main job to begin with. He only did it to please Kim.
- With their New Age offices and hacky-sack bosses, and a façade that crumbles at the tiniest thing by the way, Davis & Main feels like it could be a front law firm for some criminal activity. It could be a pathway to tie another criminal element into the story, like potentially some of Gus's associates (in Breaking Bad, almost all of the guys involved with Gus's meth and security teams had the same lawyer. So while we don't know if Vince Gilligan will make that story leap, it isn't all that far fetched.)
- He's met Tuco. Now he's met Hector. The "Next Week" previews make clear that the Cousins will appear. I can definitely see Mike catching Gus' eye and recognizing talent and stealth and reeling him in. Maybe Victor approaches Mike and says "There's someone who wants to see you". Whatever it is, it'll definitely have something to do with Gus's grudge against the Salamancas (and Hector in particular), and in turn Mike's relationship to the Salamancas.
- So far, we've seen that Hector has taken to using first legbreakers and then the Cousins into threatening Mike. Now Mike has Hector on his enemies list. He and Gus have reasons to hate Hector. Inevitably, they'll team up and exact something on Hector.
- Confirmed in Season 2, Episode 10. The first letter of every Season 2 episode is an anagram of Fring's Back, and in Season 3 Episode 2 Gus reveals he wrote the note.
So basically Chuck hates Jimmy because he stole money from his dad's store. Allegedly, Jimmy stole 14k over seven years while Chuck was getting his law degree in the Ivy league school. However, we know Jimmy does not steal from his friends. Jimmy walked away from the $1 million he could've gotten ripping off the Kettlemans, but stole $14k from his dad over 7 years? So this is the part where I ask, how did Chuck pay for college? Chuck was at best getting paid intern money when he was studying for his degree, so how did he cover all expenses in college? I suspect that Jimmy and his father helped put Chuck through law school, and eventually his dad went broke helping his son. Chuck probably could not face the fact that his dad went broke doing this so his blames Jimmy.
- Partially jossed. Jimmy did steal some money, but not much. In truth, their father was a very vulnerable man who was prone to being the victim of grifters.
- Hector's shown taken blood pressure pills in Nailed after Mike steals $250,000 from one of the cartel's deliverymen. Mike probably stresses him out enough to cause a stroke.
- And Nacho takes his blood pressure pill that he drops on the floor.
- Confirmed, somewhat. Mike doesn't actively participate with Nacho causing Hector's paralysis, but he does offer Nacho advice and keeps Gus (who doesn't want to see Hector dead) out of the loop.
I also think Jimmy was likely the "favorite" son of their father, and Chuck holds resentment of it. He goes as far as to blame Jimmy for the troubles of the family store, its closing, and essentially blames his brother for their father's passing soon after.
While Jimmy does live life on the wild/shady side of things, this is not the primary reason why Chuck dislikes him.
In season 1, Jimmy is a guy who struggles to get by doing the right thing.
In season 2, Jimmy has embraced that he'll always be Slippin' Jimmy, but he just doesn't know how to use Slippin' Jimmy tactics without getting caught.
So I think in season 3, we'll see Jimmy learn how to be a good lawyer and get away with his Slippin' Jimmy tactics.
- As of "Inflatable," he's taken to wearing the flashy suits of Saul Goodman.
- It's one thing to grift someone for an expensive bar tab. It's debatable whether that was a crime. But this is a $10,000 scam that clearly rises to the level of criminality, convincing someone to invest in a fictitious company. This could get her fired from HHM and induce Schweikart and Cokely to rescind their employment offer, as well as getting her disbarred.
I think that her present situation with HHM is starting to wear her down as she's come to realize that, much like Jimmy's sour relationship with Chuck, she'll never regain Howard's respect or be looked upon as an equal peer or eventual partner.
I believe that Kim is going through something similar to what Jimmy went through with Chuck in Season 1, and is taking on some Jimmy-esque traits for very different (and much more dangerous) reasons than Jimmy. Jimmy does his Slippin' Jimmy schtick, and his eventual transformation into Saul, because it's in his nature. But Kim does it for a thrill, almost like a drug. It's pure escapism for her. She feels herself upholding the law and working her ass off only to be shit on by Howard. I think she pulled that con as a way of "striking back" against the law. It comes out of a desire to want to feel in charge of something (it's the same road that turned feeble Walter White into the ruthless Heisenberg). She's feeling that inevitable slip of her grip on the control of her life and that con was empowering.
I don't believe that she wants to become another Jimmy—she just seems to empathize with Jimmy on some level as she is now experiencing something with Hamlin reminiscent of what Jimmy experienced with Chuck. A part of her would love to throw it all away and run off with Jimmy.
Admittedly, we don't know everything about Kim that there is to know, but we know enough about her to conclude that she works extremely hard and gets the shaft repeatedly (as made clear by how hard she worked to find a client to bring in at HHM, only for Howard to keep her in doc review; it took Chuck's pull to get her out of there). Jimmy works just hard enough to eek by and Kim hates that part of him. But seeing Jimmy take risks (like lying to the police about Daniel, bribing a bus driver to solicit clients, running a TV ad behind his boss's back) and at least for now still coming out ahead has emboldened Kim to some degree.
Kim's unenthusiastic response to the job offer from Schweikert & Cokley tells me that her heart simply isn't with it anymore. HHM was her crowning achievement—it was her point of pride. To fail in that trivialized any other firm offer. It's exactly the same as with Jimmy: appeasing Chuck and HHM was his aspiration. When he failed in that, Davis & Main just didn't interest him and it turned him into Saul.
I think that Kim is headed down a dangerous path. She is going to try taking that road with Jimmy in hopes that it will validate her emptiness...but, since she is not a true con at heart, like Jimmy—she's going to get herself hurt somewhere down the line.
I was afraid of this happening to her character but I feel that the writing is on the wall: She's going to go down the road with Jimmy and it will destroy her.
It took me almost two seasons to realize it, but it struck me watching "Inflatable", that.....
The reason Jimmy couldn't fit into the corporate / legal straight-jacket of Davis & Main was because he wouldn't, couldn't stop being Jimmy. No matter how hard he tried, and he did try, he never was able to put his career over his personality.
Kim fit in perfectly, walked the walk, etc., but at what expense? When I thought about it, I realized that, outside the law, she has almost no personality. The only time she really shines outside of work is when she's pretending to be someone else - conning KEN WINS or that guy at the bar.
I didn't realize this until I reflected back on the previous two episodes leading up to this. Whenever Kim is talking about the law, she's as sharp as a tack, cutting red tape, touring the facility. She's confident, well-spoken, professional. But in the last two episodes, as soon as someone starts asking her about HER, her background, life, likes, dislikes, what happens? She stutters, stammers, gets visibly flustered, and pretty much never answers the questions. It's like the whole legal life and environment just absorbed and swallowed all the individuality and personality she ever had.
And there's the fact that in the job interview with Schweikert, Kim accidentally calls him "Howard". That was an "aha" moment. She realized Jimmy was right, she won't be any happier working for this guy. All Schweikert would ever be for her would be the New Howard.
He may even be trying to get HHM tied up in litigation too. The result of this little transposition could mean that any number of important packages get delayed or lost as they get sent to the wrong address. Which causes a ripple effect, as certain important notices may be time-sensitive, and go ignored until deadlines pass. Or, clients' classified documents end up in the wrong hands and accidentally become public knowledge. In the meeting, Chuck said that the federal government is notoriously unforgiving towards banks—-even the slightest unintentional error can land you in judicial review for years. And the bank will sever ties with HHM because they'll see any problems that result from the typo, as HHM's responsibility.
It will delight Jimmy to no end to see his smug "better than thou" brother squirm over HHM appearing to make a huge mistake in legal documents and trying to get out of it. If Chuck has to explain the mistake (which he likely will given he talked them into retaining HHM), then he will have to do it while showing he is mentally capable of performing the work like in the first meeting. Which means more meetings with the client with electrical devices and electronics on around him, in turn meaning he either breaks down in front of the Mesa Verde people and looks mentally unstable or he makes himself sicker.
It could all prove to be career ending for Chuck if he breaks down in front of the Mesa Verde people and even harm HHM as a law firm. As it would be bound to get out that HHM have been hiding Chuck's illness from clients for a long time, which will in all likelyhood please Jimmy no end adding to his character development.
- Confirmed in Season 3, Episode 5. While Mesa Verde goes back to Kim, Chuck secretly records Jimmy admitting to forging them to get him disbarred. Jimmy breaks into the house and destroys a duplicate of the tape itself. When Jimmy's disbarment hearing comes up, he instead proves that Chuck's electromagnetic sensitivity isn't real by having Huell slip a battery into his shirt pocket. He breaks down, ranting and raving about his client.
I fully understand what Jimmy did - Chuck has come after him several times, demeaned and undermined him, but Jimmy forgave or understood because of their history and Jimmy's apparent need to keep "making amends" with Chuck for his past. But THIS time Chuck came after Kim and Jimmy knows that Kim never did anything to warrant Chuck's going after her so directly. Not saying that Jimmy's perspective is correct or that Chuck did anything technically unethical but the intent behind what Chuck did, and why, was clear to Jimmy.
- Jossed. Chuck does not get in trouble for it, aside from losing Mesa Verde.
After all, Hector believes he is untouchable. Mike has the angle on the whole situation. He is a step ahead all the time. And Hector has a low opinion of Mike, so he would never think he'd be able to get shot by a old, dumb man like Mike. Mike's a great actor. But, something happens to Nacho, but he is too well liked to kill him off this soon.
I've thought this ever since the first meeting. Hector had to have realized there's much more to the story than originally thought. Especially when Mike conceded to the $50K offer and didn't quite hold up his end in lying to the D.A. about the gun.
- Confirmed. The moment Nacho betrays Lalo in season 5, practically the entire Cartel and Salamanca family are after for his death. When Nacho commits suicide after revealing to have put Hector in a wheelchair, the latter becomes so infuriated that he shoots Nacho's corpse.
- He's killed by the twins.
Look at the episode titles:
- Switch
- Cobbler
- Amarillo
- Gloves Off
- Rebecca
- Bali H'ai
- Inflatable
- Fifi
- Nailed
- Klick
But look closely at the first letters from each episode:
- Fifi
- Rebecca
- Inflatable
- Nailed
- Gloves Off
- Switch
- Bali H'Ai
- Amarillo
- Cobbler
- Klick
= "FRING'S BACK"
And it's not unlike Vince Gilligan or Peter Gould to put subtle clues in the episode titles, either here or in Breaking Bad. After all, each episode title refers to something in the episode proper. What if this is their way of saying that season 2 has been building up Mike's introduction to Gus Fring?
- Confirmed.
- The episode titles were not made available all at once. Only the next episode's title was made available at each week at first, then on week 3 ("Amarillo"), all episode titles through episode 7 ("Inflatable") were made available, and recently the final 3 episode titles. It looks like it was carefully planned to avoid the fans to detect the mystery right at the start.
- If the phrase was not set as an anagram, it would be absolutely obvious by the fifth episode. Scrambling it made it possible to see the anagram only at these last few weeks.
- If you think hard, you can come up with very few 10 letter phrases that may have some relevance to Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul: like NACHOSDEAD, HANKISBACK, JESSESBACK, SAULISBORN, etc, etc. I challenge anyone to come up with 10.
Now, how many combinations we can have with the titles? Although there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, but some are rare to be found at the beginning of a word (such as X). Some are rare to be found in the middle of a word. Let us just assume, to make it easier, there are 22 letters we can start a sentence, and then 24 letters to follow it.
Doing that gives us the astronomical number of 2,522,559,283,200 possible permutations. That's 2.5 trillion.
Now, the odds of any of the one thousand phrases to be found in that combination is about 1 in 2,522,559,283. How rare is that?
- That is 10 times LESS likely than winning the jackpot at the Powerball.
- Those are the odds of you living to be 120 years old.
- It is twice LESS likely than finding a person in the world with the exact same fingerprints as you.
- It is twice LESS likely than you calling a random phone number and the person picking it up being one of the surviving Apollo crew members.
Confirmed by the creators. It does spell FRING'S BACK.
But let's do a hypothetical. Say Chuck did make the mistake. Chuck looks all frustrated as heck. Jimmy didn't even do it. Jimmy has no idea what Chuck is talking about.
Chuck doesn't even believe Chuck. The frustration you saw at the end of that episode, sort of seems like his mind is going in circles. As if he doesn't know if it's 100% true or not. Chuck must believe it is true, and that he can never make a mistake. Chuck was trying to convince himself that Jimmy did do it when he said, "I know he was here, I know he did do it!" But there is no way Chuck would know if that's the right spot, the copy shop he went to. Or even if that was what he did, because the tapes had been recorded over and Jimmy had paid Lance to be silent. Chuck was going out of his mind.
You see when Lance denied it. It's hard to tell if Chuck knew that Lance had been paid off. For Chuck to believe Jimmy didn't do it, it's terrifying. His mind would not have it, he would not take it. It's almost as if he started to believe at the end Jimmy didn't do it. And that he was making up reasons to blame him for his mistake. He started going out of his mind before even thinking of the possibility that Jimmy could do it, with a minor mistake. Then he finally snaps, and comes out with this outrageous theory.
So yeah, I do believe Chuck believes Jimmy did it. He figured out what his mind wanted him to figure out. So yeah. Chuck figured out an imaginary situation. But furthermore, Chuck may have been out of his mind, because well, maybe he got the wrong store. Another thing, why continue the argument? This is because there was no evidence of this. Chuck's mind didn't even rationalize a reason that it was impossible to know what place Jimmy went to (how many late night photocopy shops exist in Albuquerque?). Chuck was so enticed by the idea that maybe Jimmy didn't do it, he forget to think these things through. So in that instance Lance terrified him. And he thought it was possible Jimmy might not have done it.
In a nutshell, when Chuck makes a mistake (real or engineered by someone else), he feels he needs to believe Jimmy did it because he can't accept that he made a mistake. Even if Chuck actually had made the mistake, he'd still blame Jimmy. That seems to be what Kim was going at in that scene at Chuck's house - that Chuck may be right, but with no evidence, it looks like he's trying to deflect blame for his mistakes onto other people.
- After he looks around and sees what lengths Chuck has gone to, he knows it's obviously some sort of trick and that he won't just let it go. There is a shot where Jimmy looks resigned to the fact that something has to give.
- His confession is verbatim how he committed the fraud. Rule of thumb with TV writers is that no one makes a black-and-white confession unless they're intentionally doing so as part of a bigger plan.
- Jimmy knows who he is and is not trying to run from it. He's the lawyer who is not afraid to get down and dirty to achieve what he wants. He is willing to accept whatever consequences come from this act.
- He knows Chuck won't legally go after him, just ask him to move on in his life, do whatever he wants as long as he no longer uses the McGill name. That is how we get the birth of Saul.
- There was something about the way Jimmy recounted all he did, saying, "you got it all exactly right, point by point....". Chuck may be brilliant but Jimmy is no dummy either. He knows it's unlike Chuck to be so humble and defeated, so it wouldn't surprise me if he knew what Chuck was up to.
- And then just to leave, without seeing what effect, if any, his confession had? Wouldn't he still have been worried about Chuck, afraid he would do something drastic?
- If he knew Chuck intentionally got him to confess, then he also finally realizes the depths Chuck is willing to go to ruin him. If so, his last respect for Chuck is gone, and it may be that he is willing to let go of "McGill" rather than being forced to relinquish the name.
- If you listen closely, Bob Odenkirk is using his full on BS voice the whole time they are talking. Like Jimmy could spot a con. Maybe Jimmy was secretly recording the conversation as well. The way he spoke sounded rather disjointed. Like, maybe he is planning to re-edit the conversation. "Of course I did it to make you feel better," is an odd way to respond to a question. Which makes you wonder, would Jimmy want to discredit Chuck further? I honestly think this feud may escalate to the point of Chuck dying or committing suicide and Jimmy essentially is forced to change his name because of the infamy associated with the McGill name and/or grief/respect.
- Jossed. When Jimmy finds out through Ernesto that he was being taped, he's in disbelief, freaks out and is completely furious.
Season 3 predictions
- Mike's arc will be about him starting to work for Gus, and becoming a hardnosed professional killer
- Jimmy's arc will be about him settling into his Saul Goodman persona and getting his practice off the ground
- Jossed. He just uses it to get him disbarred.
But Nacho was the guy who was covering Hector from that angle. He'd only know to cover that angle if he knew where Mike was going to take the shot from. Which can only mean he was an accomplice with the guys that Gus had sent to plant the note and set off the car horn.
Let's also consider Nacho seemed upset when talking about the 'good Samaritan' who got killed because of Mike's sparing the driver during the robbery, and he was already looking for a change in the Family hierarchy. Call me crazy, but that sounds more like an item in Gus's agenda rather than Nacho's own agenda.
- It's pretty much confirmed when Gus first meets with Mike on the remote road. He knows so much about what went down between Mike and Hector. He even knew Hector was done with Mike, and Mike was done with Hector until he found out the good Samaritan was shot. The only one who would know all of that is Nacho. Coupled with the fact that Gus confirms he wrote the note, and Mike probably put two and two together.
Plus Chuck sounds like a mad man when he talks about the electricity wearing him down and ruining his faculties, although I suppose he could edit that bit out. The thing is though, I don't think Chuck would blackmail Jimmy either, he already turned down the opportunity to do that earlier on in the series. It would make sense that he would ask Jimmy to change his name, but still, that's not really Chuck's style. He does things by the book.
So I think his only play is to give the tape to Howard and leave it up to him, that's the kind of sly thing Chuck would do to keep his own hands clean. Howard wouldn't want the tape to go public either, so I think he'll do the blackmailing and Jimmy will forfeit the 20% they agreed when the Sandpiper cash settlement comes in, he'll force Jimmy to close down his practice, putting Kim in the proverbial shithole, and force Jimmy not to practice under the McGill name.
After all, the extent of Chuck being crazy would do terrible damage to HHM. Remember that Howard insisted that Chuck didn't need to go to the Banking Board hearing that day. If you tried and imagine how it would play out in front of a judge, it becomes ludicrous: "Well your honor, as I was retrofitting my walls with tin foil for my imaginary illness which just resulted in my emergency hospital visit and 20 hour catatonic state from simply walking into a copy center, I tape recorded my loving brother admitting to committing a felony while telling me how valuable I am in life and how people need me. Jimmy clearly admits that he is telling the truth and not lying to make me feel better...his brother who is applying tin foil to walls and refused medical treatment because of electricity even though I went to the courthouse/copy center to spite my brother. I'd like to call Ernesto as a character witness since he is one of the 3 people on the planet who have interaction with me." See, it would be shot down before even getting to the discovery stage.
- Jossed. It's played to court.
Kim listens to the tape and sides with Jimmy. She says the tape cannot hold in court and finally accepts she is like Jimmy, she can be OK with cutting corners and bending a few rules so justice is done.
Since the criminal prosecution/disbarment route isn't an option, perhaps the next best thing is that Chuck and Howard create legal chaos for Jimmy and Kim, stealing clients and creating difficulties for them to practice at that dental office. This forces Jimmy to rent a spot at that mini mall where he used to be, or his future strip mall office.
In time, HHM creates a situation where Jimmy cannot use the McGill name, and they make Kim's life so miserable she cannot carry on alongside Jimmy, so she is forced to sever all ties with him. At all times, Chuck uses that tape as a reminder Jimmy is powerless to do anything, as he can detonate that bomb and kill them all. So Jimmy ends up hiring Mike to steal the tape, but something goes wrong (Chuck stumbles upon Mike breaking in or refuses to hand over the tape at gunpoint) and Chuck is shot to death. Rather than admit to killing Chuck (the first full measure act he did), Mike stages it to look like an accidental fire caused due to misplaced candles. He lies to Jimmy, stating the fire took place afterwards, and the tape was destroyed in the fire (when in reality Mike actually has the tape, to use it if necessary).
- The reason the tape would be so valuable to Mike is because it'd something to blackmail Jimmy with if necessary. So when Mike or Gus needs legal assistance with the cartel involvement (and we're talking S4 here), they have a tape to force Jimmy into being a "CRIMINAL lawyer".
Heartbroken, without Kim, without Chuck, without authorization to use his own name, he becomes Saul.
Here is my theory on how Nacho might know Gus and how it connects to the finale's "Don't" note.
- Nacho accidentally blocks the view. doesn't know Gus.
- Nacho intentionally blocks the view. doesn't know Gus.
- Nacho intentionally blocks the view, knows Gus.
- Nacho accidentally blocks the view, knows Gus.
We can safely say that, if Nacho knows Gus, him blocking Mike's line of fire was no accident. So #4 is a no go. Being able to block Hector, almost a mile away, is way too convenient to be a coincidence. So #1 is a no go.
That leaves us to think that Nacho blocked Hector intentionally, but how did he know where Mike would be? Yeah he can assume that there are a few spots in the area where Mike can be but that's a gamble. A few hundred feet to the left or right and Mike has a clear shot on Hector. So that takes away #2, that Nacho doesn't know Gus.
That leaves me with #3 to believe that Nacho knows Gus and it was all planned.
And it's important to realize that Nacho never interacts with Jimmy in season 2, and aside from the solo deal with Daniel in "Switch," almost all of his scenes are shared with Mike. This means there's long gaps of time where Nacho is offscreen. Here's how I fill in the gaps: after Nacho hires Mike to dispose of Tuco, he starts to think of alternatives because he doesn't want to end up dead if there's failure. Mike explained that killing Tuco might be a bad idea and that the cartel will start digging in and it's a matter of time before they blame Nacho just because the cartels are paranoid and getting rid of Nacho is the right thing to do.
So the staged fight in the parking lot happens, which gets Tuco arrested. But this brings Hector and the Cousins onto Mike. So Nacho realizes that Mike was right - slight disruption in the Cartel drug train brings major heat and eyes on everyone involved. Mike drops the gun and gets $50K from Hector, which he splits with Nacho. Nacho knows that the problem isn't going away and it's only a matter of time before this all blows back on him. In his spare time, Nacho looks for plausible solutions, but then Mike steals the cash from the truck.
Nacho knows it wasn't the typical competition because the driver was spared. Nacho wonders if maybe Mike didn't plan it alone, which makes him search for a plausible answer. Someone who wants to replace Hector's distribution yet be loyal to the Cartel. Nacho asks around and Gus's name comes up as a possibility. Nacho thinks Mike works for Gus.
After meeting one another, Nacho learns that Mike is a lone wolf. Nacho tells Gus about Mike and both are thinking of a plan to replace Hector. Gus has Los Pollos Hermanos and the resources of Madrigal Electromotive, thus a 10 times larger delivery network. The cartel is making $250K from a truck. Perhaps Gus can offer a distribution of 10 trucks. That's 10 times the profit. Nacho knows Mike is a professional who can be a great asset to Gus but all they want to do now is plan this carefully. How to get rid of Hector without raising any eyebrows.
Since Mike is on a hot head run, Nacho asks Gus to help slow Mike down without revealing the plan to him just yet. So Nacho blocks Mike's line of fire while one of Gus's henchmen plants the note on the car. That's my assumption on how Nacho knows Gus. I know there are plenty of possible holes in my thinking but it seems plausible.
It's possible that Nacho has been working for Gus from the beginning of the show. The two men have a few things in common: sharp and calculating, trustworthy to those who don't make mistakes, doesn't use the product, the opposite of a Tuco type. Furthermore, it would be useful for Gus to have someone who could leak him inside information on the Salamancas, and thus, in those long periods of offscreen time, Nacho makes Gus aware of Mike, and how he may be useful to them. Learning how Mike handled Tuco and later the attack on the truck would be a godsend for Gus because he'd see Mike as an equal who'd easily make a good part of his operation.
We know in Breaking Bad that Saul shies away from those things, despite mentioning them. But I wonder if it's possible that he had Chuck murdered at some point. While I highly doubt that Jimmy could ever become THAT bad but I wonder—could Chuck be Jimmy's first instance of ordering someone killed? Could this be the final push that Jimmy will eventually make that will take him into the depths of Saul territory?
Clearly, Jimmy still has a LONG way to go as a man who, while disturbed by the prospect of it, was not above recommending having someone killed. But in order for Jimmy to sink THAT low he would HAVE to go through some sort of trial by fire—something that really puts his morality to the test and, ultimately, cements him as Saul.
We know in Breaking Bad that he still maintains a certain moral compass:
- He was opposed to Brock's poisoning
- He still parted ways with Walt and Jesse in a respectful fashion despite his experiences with them
- He cringed whenever he mentioned "Belize" as if he couldn't handle saying the words "have him killed"
- He tried to give Walt one last piece of good advice in regards to his dilemma in "Granite State"
Still, though—for Jimmy to eventually sink low enough to recommend hits on people, SOMETHING has got to give. SOMETHING terrible needs to first happen that would put him in the mindset of someone who could have the stomach to give such an order.
Could Chuck be it? I mean—if Jimmy could possibly have his own brother killed, and hire Mike to do such a thing, then he'd have the capacity to recommend anyone after that point.
I'm not saying that I WANT Jimmy to do this (it would render his character irredeemable, in my opinion) but SOMETHING has to give to make Jimmy sink this low.
As much as I respect them, I sometimes wonder if Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould even know how to make the transition happen. It's one thing to be Slippin' Jimmy—he's been there all his life—but to order hits against people? THAT is the angle that I'm beginning to think the writers are struggling to find a path to. Jimmy just doesn't seem to have it in him. So, it begs the question—what guides him into that direction?
- Jossed. Rebecca is alive and well.
There are clips in the official trailer that appear to show Jimmy's car in the Los Pollos Hermanos parking lot. And at least one production still of Gus in suit and tie outside what might be the offices of HHM.
- Jossed. "Plan and Execution" shows that Mike and Lalo Salamanca got Jimmy dragged into Fring's orbit, with Hamlin a collateral damage instead.
Gus said to Jesse in "Cornered" that he "likes to see something in people". If there's something he can take away from observation of Mike, it's that Mike has a cool-under-pressure temperament, which Gus admires. Remember how Mike told Daniel "do your homework" on their first drug deal with Nacho? Well, that has to be a big thing with Gus as well. He probably knows more about Mike than Mike knows about himself. Remember how in Breaking Bad, he carefully watched Walt and Jesse before doing business w/them.
Furthermore, something else that Mike has, as Nacho said, is that he's "nobody" in the Albuquerque underworld. He's new. Few people know he exists in that area. That's a plus. He doesn't have a wacko DEA brother-in-law, for instance.
So I think what probably makes Mike an appealing guy to Gus is that Mike hates Hector almost as much as HE does. Cool as he is, Mike also carries grudges for a long time (we saw that with avenging his son's death). He has emotions and hatreds...they're just hidden. Gus would like the idea of someone who hates Hector working for HIM, killing off the Salamancas on HIS time-table.
- Confirmed. Gus wrote the note telling him not to shoot and led him on a wild goose chase.
But to Mesa Verde, the tape still hurts Chuck as much as it does Jimmy or Kim. Chuck claims that his mental 'issue' with electricity is making him incompetent, and Jimmy says that Kim did all the heavy lifting for Mesa Verde while Chuck and Howard took credit.
Bottom line— What Jimmy did by forging those documents is reprehensible, but the issue is still ultimately on Chuck's head... because Chuck can't work in an office, he had to bring the Mesa Verde files to his home— where they weren't kept safe and confidential.
If Mesa Verde hears the tape they might leave Kim as a result of her association with Jimmy—- but they sure as hell won't go back to HHM.
- Pretty much confirmed by Howard after Chuck plays the tape for him: Mesa Verde will never come back to them, even if they get the company to drop Kim.
So I think that Gus has secretly had his henchmen watching the Salamanca operations, using the same tactics that we saw Mike use before attacking Hector's truck. This is where Victor comes in because this is exactly the sort of thing we saw him do at several points throughout his time in Breaking Bad. So they see Mike hanging around causing problems and looking to do more.
Now I believe this would have started with Mike's fight with Tuco. I posit that Victor was sitting in a car, out of viewing range, but close enough to see the whole thing unfold. Victor determined from how fast the police were to arrive after the fight got physical, concluded that Mike had set Tuco up. So he goes back to Los Pollos Hermanos and privately informs Gus of what he saw. Gus takes interest and wants to know who this guy is and what he wants from Tuco. So he orders Victor to keep a watch on Mike. Subsequently, Victor sees both of Mike's meetings with Hector and relays word back to Gus. He also learns Mike's identity from watching him work at the parking lot booth. Gus decides "This guy Mike Ehrmantraut seems kinda like me: has a low profile job that doesn't raise suspicion, and harbors a grudge against Hector Salamanca." Now of course, Gus is cautious, so he does give orders for Victor to not have Mike under 24 hour monitoring. That allows Mike to attack Hector's truck. Subsequently watching his next meeting with Nacho allows Gus to conclude that Nacho could also be usable as an ally, so he somehow solicits Nacho. So when Mike goes out into the desert, following Nacho's van, Victor is able to follow Mike, and planted the note and set off the horn, and Nacho is able to deliberately block Mike's firing line because he knows where Mike is going to be.
- Another thing worth noting: on a rewatch of every scene where Mike is conducting surveillance on Hector, many of the camera angles and framing are set up in ways that imply that Mike himself is being watched, or at least noticed by a second observer. I haven't seen any commentary regarding that, but after a few viewings I can't help but notice this. If Gus already has Victor casing out Hector's operation, he almost certainly is noticing Mike. This is a good tie-in to their future relationship.
- It's certainly even more of a possibility after Mike finds out that his cars have been bugged. We can assume that Mike's own car may have been bugged as early as the altercation with Tuco. It would explain how the Cousins found Mike with his granddaughter in the pool in "Bali H'ai": because they were following the tracker. If we assume the tracker is Gus's, then we can assume Gus is working with the cartel currently, and has plans of his own. Gus probably wants to get back at Hector for Max's murder. If he has plans of his own to mess with the cartel, then it makes sense that he would want to stop Mike from shooting Hector and having the cartel simply replace him until Tuco gets out of jail. If Tuco or anyone else is in charge, the cartel is less predictable.
Why do I suggest that Nacho gets killed as a result of this? It's from the fact that when Hector was introduced in Breaking Bad, Tuco was taking care of him at a rural outpost in the middle of the desert. It's hard to see Tuco or the Cousins not taking some sort of major retaliatory action against someone (anyone) even remotely connected with causing Hector's stroke. As Gus and Mike are off-limits to them (Mike is protected by Gus, and Gus can't be killed because he's got the distribution network), that could very well be how Nacho gets killed.
There seems to be a running theme with Mike and surrogate son figures. In Breaking Bad, Victor and Jesse struck me as these sorts. Admittedly Breaking Bad didn't tell us much about the relationship Mike had with Victor but we could see that he was visibly upset over his loss (the scene where he wipes Victor's blood off his sleeve and looks upset). Jesse was the strongest surrogate son figure as I doubt anyone could argue that he cared about Jesse.
But we also know that Mike had a real son at one point and he got killed.
Given this, it strikes me that Mike is the kind of guy who is trying to fill the void of his lost son by sort of taking on other "son figures". And given his growing connection to Nacho (albeit a more hostile one), Nacho strikes me as possibly the first of Mike's father/son dynamics a la Mike / Jesse. We see evidence already of a growing respect that Nacho seems to have for Mike. I'd say it's entirely possible that we'll see a Mike / Nacho connection reminiscent of the one he had with Jesse.
Also consider that in Breaking Bad, when Lydia suggests killing Gus's employees before they can rat on her or Mike, Mike turns her down by pointing out that he vetted them with great care, suggesting he has similar dynamics with them.
While Jimmy may start practicing law publicly as 'Saul Goodman,' I get the feeling that behind the scenes, he's still very much just Jimmy. I just don't believe it's fundamentally possible for a guy like Jimmy to change THAT drastically...I DO, however, believe it's possible for Jimmy to ACT like Saul in public, but privately, behind the scenes, he's all Jimmy. Even Bob Odenkirk said at some point that Saul is Jimmy's public persona. We've already seen some of that persona in his billboard stunt, his Sandpiper ad and various other things.
Based on Odenkirk's statements, "Saul" is, more or less, a public persona of Jimmy, for the most part...which means that Jimmy will still be there behind the scenes.
He did mention that Jimmy will become more corrupt, so I'm thinking that Jimmy will be a more corrupt version of himself while using his "Saul" persona.
In fact it wouldn't be surprising if Jimmy is shown having inner conflicts with himself over some of the things he does as Saul.
Bob Odenkirk mentioned that the path of Saul will be very slow but that, when it happens, will have a major dropoff. He referred to it as "A plateau with a giant dropoff". So, Odenkirk believes that Jimmy will very quickly turn into full-blown Saul. So, what could cause such a catastrophic change?
Perhaps Season 3 will regard a massive butting of heads between Jimmy and Chuck which will culminate with Jimmy's reputation being tarnished enough that no one would want to trust him. As a final nail in the coffin of their relationship, Jimmy will carry out the most drastic option he's been avoiding all this time: committing Chuck. I believe that he'll dredge up enough on Chuck to have him committed (perhaps going so far as to have Mike plant something to make Chuck unwillingly highlight how nuts he is). Jimmy will have Chuck committed and then have his name changed to "Saul Goodman" to start over with a clean slate, his bonds with Chuck destroyed and his reputation as Jimmy in shambles.
In doing so, he'll lose most if not all of the money he gained working on the Sandpiper case, which would explain how he ends up in a cheap strip mall office. Basically, I think that Jimmy will sink to the very bottom and rise from the ashes as Saul Goodman. Basically, "Saul Goodman" is Jimmy's attempt at washing his past away—a big middle finger to his "past life". Saul Goodman will be his phoenix—his armor. He basically will embrace the darkest side of himself—the side he's most comfortable with—and will think of Saul Goodman as a barrier and a form of comfort, and working with people like Mike, Gus, and eventually Walt and Jesse, helps him achieve that.
Also consider that Jimmy's arc is basically a Lighter and Softer version of Walt's arc. In Breaking Bad, killing Jane was what put Walt past the point of no return. So for Jimmy, committing Chuck would be his "Jane" moment.
Let's also remember that Chuck and Kim are the only threads that keep Jimmy's better side alive. Being disgraced, losing Kim and finally committing Chuck would wash that all away. Saul Goodman would be his "rebirth".
Rewatch the "Gene" sequences. It's clear that Jimmy is longing to resume being "Saul Goodman". "Saul" becomes a veil for him. He feels naked and vulnerable without it.
Perhaps, with Mike first meeting and going to work with Gus, Better Call Saul will show us the "other side" of things and show us that there was good and bad on BOTH sides of the conflict: "Mike and Gus's side" and "Walt's and Jesse's side".
We're literally being treated to an organization of criminals who, like it or not, are treating their criminal enterprise like a professional business. Breaking Bad seemed to indicate a sort of friendship between Mike and Gus at the very least on a very formal structure. Just examine the way that Mike speaks to Gus in his various scenes—he's the most informal with Gus out of all of Gus' henchmen. I think we're being treated to "the other side of the coin" in this series and, when all is said and done, we'll end up looking at Breaking Bad within a very different context: both sides that were at war had some good and bad elements. It would establish that Mike and Gus didn't always see eye to eye. Sometimes Mike is in favor of one option while Gus wants to do it differently.
From what's aired so far, we're literally seeing the other side of the fence and are coming to realize that Walt was a latecomer into this mess and that Jimmy and Mike were the original players.
Something rarely ever noted is that Kim has propensity for the dark side. Yeah, she comes off as a "by the book lawyer and the righteous angel trying to guide Jimmy away from doing bad" but people forget that:
- She got involved in the hotel fraud thing with Jimmy. Admittedly, when it was on KEN WINS, Jimmy persuaded her, but she got such a buzz from it and she initiated it the second time they did it. And it was at a time when both had a lot to lose.
- She knew Chuck was right and Jimmy was guilty of tampering with the Mesa Verde documents. Yet to protect her own interests and not lose her client she sided with Jimmy. Admittedly it was just an accusation, and Chuck didn't give her evidence and she isn't obliged to go out and seek it proof that Chuck was right but...
- ....she became a co-conspirator by figuring out how Chuck would prove Jimmy was guilty when she, while maintaining perfect plausible deniability, got him to go to the copy shop clerk to bribe him, incidentally starting the chain of events that landed Chuck in the hospital again.
I think Kim's need for the thrill, her ability to manipulate, and do whatever it takes to get what suites her best interest has gone under the radar. Mostly because Jimmy is such a hurricane it appears that she just gets sucked into his mess but look at certain events and it's obvious that her character has the ability to develop pretty deeply and ruthlessly, especially in a world where she loses her main client, business is slow, and Jimmy takes up other ventures.
Because Kim doesn't make it to Breaking Bad, it's obvious that things won't end well between Kim and Jimmy. Maybe in the post-BB timeline but not before that.
A lot of speculation is about Kim either dying, having to go into hiding or Jimmy doing something so egregious that she can no longer face him. But maybe what happens is that Kim ends up going to jail. Not framed or set up, but because of her own actions (none of which have happened in the first two seasons yet). Probably breaking the law to get Jimmy out of trouble, and probably without him knowing.
Over the course of season 2, we see Jimmy constantly seducing her towards breaking the law. With the best intentions of course, for fun, and for her business. After Jimmy gaslit Chuck out of the Mesa Verde account, and Chuck confronted him on it, Kim was forced to chose between 'doing the right thing' and clearing things up between Chuck and Mesa Verde (ratting Jimmy out) or condoning his crime while keeping her client. Chuck even said that she had no choice, because that's who Kim is up to that point. So far her character had been incorruptible. She was capable of flirting with Jimmy's fraud but she never crossed the line. Up to that point. That's when she crossed it by siding with Jimmy against Chuck's (true) accusations.
Perhaps, rather than growing further apart, the two will probably grow closer together in upcoming seasons. She slowly comes to a point where it's no longer her tolerating Jimmy's criminal activities but instead breaking the law on her own accord.
Where does Mike's son tie into this? Well, the thing to consider about Mike and Jimmy is that the same overreaching themes are present in their plotlines. Remember that Mike compelled his son to become a dirty cop rather than do the right thing in the name of self-preservation, tearfully admitting later to Stacy that "I broke my boy". That said, Jimmy ends up breaking Kim. She will end up ruining her own life because of him and he will have to live with that.
- Jossed. "Gene" survives, and the show is renewed for a sixth and final season.
- Confirmed, but Ernesto warns Jimmy instead.
I like to think Mike's altercation with Tuco is what got him on Gus' radar. They could have started watching him at this point and realized he was more than just a random pedestrian defending himself and set out to intentionally get Tuco arrested. This also means Tuco knows about Gus's side dealings with Nacho. I predict Gus will ultimately want to use the Tuco incident to drive a wedge between Hector and Nacho and sow chaos in the cartel, which Mike will feel conflicted about.
- Confirmed.
I imagine that the trackers are Gus's way of testing Mike. He probably knows every possible thing he could know about Mike, and wants to hire him on, so he's giving him sort of a "test". Gus wanted Mike to find out where the trackers were. The gas cap was the last place anyone might expect a tracker to be hidden, and proving that Mike can think outside the box would make Gus feel he's worthy of a spot in the organization.
...but the reality is, I think Howard was actually talking about Chuck. Because, that's the part of Chuck that's a better lawyer than Jimmy right now. Chuck likes to win arguments. He loves it more than anything else. He probably loved it more than his wife. And Chuck does not like to lose an argument. And Chuck, once he's made up his mind about something, will not budge. Period.
So, knowing what we know, Chuck is the kind of guy that loves to win arguments more than he loves people. He's caught up in the idea of winning. And he's stubborn once he's decided something. And Chuck decided a long time ago that Jimmy was a stupid, irredeemable conman. All Chuck wants right now is to win that argument and prove it to the world. Chuck couldn't even tell his own brother what his mother's last words were. Chuck couldn't forgive his mother for thinking of Jimmy, the stupid irredeemable conman, with her dying breath and can't forgive Jimmy for being on his mother's mind in her last moments.
That's Chuck, a clearly broken soul, losing his mind, who only has his arguments left to win. And the biggest argument, looming in the background, is the one no one touches with him; namely, the idea that he's allergic to electricity and not mentally ill.
But the big argument on Chuck's mind now is the original one with Jimmy, that his brother is a stupid, irredeemable conman. Jimmy can't even pull tape off the walls correctly. Chuck WANTS his brother to fail. Chuck is the guy who would rather say, "I told you so," than to prevent a tragedy. That's not who he is. He could have mentored Jimmy. Helped him. Brought him under his wing.
Just look at Howard. Howard is a good guy whenever he's away from Chuck. But whenever Howard is with Chuck, or is under Chuck's influence, suddenly he's an asshole. Leave Howard to his own devices, and generally, he's a good guy. What kind of a lawyer could Jimmy had been had Howard been his mentor, at HHM?
If Howard had mentored Jimmy, Jimmy would have probably turned out like Kim. She's turned out pretty great for the most part. Maybe Howard could have helped Jimmy in the same way. But we'll never know. Because, Chuck was proved right about Jimmy McGill...and man, did Chuck do everything in his power along the way to make sure of that.
It feels at first like an elaborate, inorganic way to have their storylines intersect: Mike calls Jimmy, of all people, to keep an eye on his mystery "tracker" guy in Los Pollos Hermanos. Couldn't Mike do that himself? Was it really necessary to have Jimmy be part of Mike's story in this episode? But I realized afterward just how important this scene is in defining their relationship:
It's that Mike treats Jimmy like an accessory. Every time he's called on Jimmy, it's never to make use of his street smarts, his knowledge of the law, his con instincts, or...anything, really. It's always stuff like "Spill coffee on this guy," or "Spin a ridiculous excuse for this loser drug thief" or "Stand in as my lawyer when I cop to a gun charge." In "Witness," Mike tosses Jimmy into Los Pollos Hermanos, not because he thinks Jimmy has any particular flair for surveillance...but because Jimmy's someone expendable. If he gets caught and somehow harmed, it's no skin off Mike's back. And given their minimal interactions in the past, it's easy for Mike to sever any possible involvement he might have with Jimmy's snooping around.
It was easy to assume, early in the series, that Gilligan and Gould would push a Mike / Jimmy relationship that mirrored Walt and Jesse...and that's not happened. There's no indication that Mike had any respect at all for Jimmy after he became Saul. Likewise, Saul never showed any real warmth for Mike; he made use of his espionage skills, sure (and it makes sense now why, as he's seen him in action, with "James Bond gadgets" to boot), however he was nothing but apprehensive of Mike when they went into business together for Vamonos Pest.
And this speaks to an obvious, yet I feel overlooked, character flaw that Mike has: it's that he can be overly callous in dealing with other people. Like Chuck, Mike has a habit of making harsh judgments and has a tendency to see only the extreme negatives in people he deals with.
Remember, in Breaking Bad, it was Gus, not Mike, who chose to give Jesse a second chance. Mike wouldn't have bonded with Jesse if not for Gus's order to further involve him in the operation. Before that, he saw Jesse as a pretty useless liability, very similar to how he sees Jimmy.He did the same to Walt, and was so harsh that he threw the criticism right in Walt's face. Now, in this instance, he was spot on - but the callousness with which he handled it was pretty much what led to Walt losing it and killing Mike.
And Better Call Saul shows that Mike was exactly that way to Jimmy. There's clearly so much more to Jimmy than what Mike sees, and while he may have twigged perfectly to Jimmy's basic instinct as an impatient hustler, he's treating him like fodder and not really giving any chance to Jimmy's other aspects.
And I think it's that treatment, in part, that added to the build up of Jimmy's explosion to learning that Chuck had taped him. It was that Mike was yet another Chuck, another guy on his high horse judging Jimmy and treating him like someone who deserved only the worst.
Howard is the only credible, non-biased witness to the crime. The private investigator is non-credible as he was essentially being paid to be present for the purpose of catching Jimmy in the trap set by Chuck. His testimony can be discredited as self serving (he's going to say whatever he's being paid to say). Everything rests on Howard. But Howard I think doesn't want to be involved at all.
Howard is the only sane one of the bunch. He's willing to placate Chuck behind closed doors because he's a friend and a partner, but you can tell he's been unsure of this from the start. If he goes forward with participating in this matter, it'll become public that one of the partners of HHM is batshit crazy, and a former employee and associate is a two bit con man. That's a PR nightmare Howard doesn't want to deal with, as that sort of blowback would manifest itself in clients suddenly fleeing HHM. This might be where Howard draws the line and turns his back on Chuck. Without Howard, this case falls apart and Chuck is at a loss.
It's important to know that Howard has known the many ways in which Chuck has been holding Jimmy back from the start. He knows they lost Kim as well because of Chuck, just because she was friends with Jimmy. And she was proving to be a top notch lawyer. If they had rewarded Kim for her hard work like they should have, they would've had an ace lawyer joining the ranks, and they wouldn't have lost Mesa Verde. I also got the impression he's had enough of Chuck's antics, pretending in glorious drama how he was going to quit because he made a mistake, all to manipulate Jimmy, and giving Howard nearly a heart attack. And then manipulating Ernesto to tell Jimmy about the tape.
I got the feeling that scaling that wall in his nice suit, and having to leave and hide his keys, wallet and phone for the umpteenth time for Chuck may have been once too many for Howard.
It's not unthinkable that Howard would see it in Jimmy's best interest:
- Chuck makes an unfortunate mistake.
- He blames his brother, who he's been holding back for years.
- Knowing by the way, that Jimmy took care of Chuck.
- Chuck goes out of his way to tape Jimmy confessing, while pretending to be grief stricken over his mistake. Jimmy admits to it to make Chuck feel better and not quit HHM. (At this point Howard might just be grateful to Jimmy for "taking the fall")
- Then Chuck sets a trap for Jimmy by hiring a 24/7 PI and manipulates Ernesto into luring Jimmy over.
- He explicitly states to Howard that "he knows his brother" and that he'll try to break in at night. What then happens is an emotional Jimmy showing up in broad daylight. The opposite of what Chuck predicted. This might just prove to Howard that Chuck really doesn't know Jimmy at all.
- Jimmy might come in crashing in to destroy the tape, but to Howard he might also be crashing in to face Chuck. Which, in all fairness, he was.
- To Howard, it might just seem as though Jimmy, who was trying to better his life, finally passing the bar and bringing in a huge lead with Sandpiper, and still being held back by his brother, was now being sabotaged by his brother.
- If Howard assumes that Jimmy admitted to falsifying that document because he wanted to make his brother feel better, because he genuinely thought Chuck was losing his mind over his mistake, then maybe Howard could see Jimmy's actions, though over the top emotional, as something he felt he had to do, otherwise he might be (from Howard's perspective) disbarred under false pretenses. Howard may have said he was a witness to what happened here today.
I'm starting to think that "Saul Goodman" is not going to happen with the current situation with Chuck, but it will play a big part. The exact part will be bringing up Chuck's disorder in court, having Chuck break on the stand from being on there too long, dragging his personal life into the court with Rebecca and possibly even disparaging HHM (if Howard testifies) at the trial, since this is some petty shit and yet they are supposed to be uber professionals in the field but are willing to go after a family squabble? Bullshit. After all that, Chuck's reputation will be in tatters and he may become more of a recluse or actually get institutionalized. Fast forward to Sandpiper being settled, which means Jimmy will be entitled to his cut. Jimmy heads to HHM to get his check and Howard is happy to give it to him, with a catch: he'll get Chuck's cut too (which should be pretty substantial since Chuck is a partner), but he has to stop practicing the law. But the exact phrasing will be along the lines of "Jimmy McGill must cease all practice of the law." At first Jimmy's dejected and furious, Chuck just won't stop even after everything that has happened. But, a sly smile creeps across his face. Cut to Jimmy at the bank cashing the check and then depositing it into a new account for Saul Goodman.
- Jossed, although it's implied in the Season 4 finale that he stops practicing under the name "McGill" in part to spite both his brother and the New Mexico Bar Association, in addition to it being the name most of his criminal associates know him by.
- They've been foreshadowing this throughout. Jimmy's threat to burn Chuck's house down, as well as a comment in an earlier episode about all of the flammable fuels Chuck keeps around to enable his electricity-free lifestyle, etc.
- Chuck won't be seriously injured in the fire. At worst, he'll be treated for smoke inhalation and some minor burns.
- Jimmy's arson threat will lead the police/fire inspectors to investigate the fire as arson, but the fire will quickly be found to be accidental—started by one of Chuck's lanterns or his camp stove—and Jimmy will be cleared.
- The investigation, however, will draw official attention to Chuck's lifestyle—his EM sensitivity, living without electricity, and using liquid fuel fired camp stoves and Coleman lanterns.
- The police and/or Chuck's doctors, possibly along with Chuck's friends and colleagues at HHM including Howard, will strongly urge Jimmy to have Chuck committed. The house fire will serve as incontrovertible proof that Chuck is a danger to himself and others. Jimmy will be left with no choice but to have Chuck committed.
- Confirmed and jossed. The house fire was intentional.
One of the photos that Mike took which Jimmy found particularly interesting is "a gas lantern sittin' on a stack of friggin' Financial Times". While it can be presumed that these photos could have been taken at any time, the photo of the Financial Times shows the front page of one page. Given that the photo is pretty close and fairly sharp, it's possible that someone with a keen eye like Chuck would notice the date of that particular issue, and note that the photos were taken after the break-in. From there, Chuck could reasonably deduce that the only person he let into the house at that period who may possibly be aligned with Jimmy is the handyman who insisted on using power tools and driving Chuck to leave the area.
- Jossed. It was a stroke, although it was brought on by an assassination attempt via medicine tampering.
What Jimmy did with the insurance manager at the end of "Expenses" will seal Chuck's fate as a lawyer. The insurance company will review the Bar Committee's transcripts and it will provide legal support, at least enough for the insurance underwriters, who are not subject to any hard and fast standards, as this is a private contract between the insurance company and the insured lawyer, that Chuck presents an elevated malpractice risk and not insurable in his now well documented condition at any premium.
Since HHM is a partnership, the actions of one partner bind the entire partnership, which means that HHM as a law firm will be faced with a fundamental change in the whole firm's underwriting risk. Chuck's medical issues and questionable fitness to practice will be attributed by the insurance company to the whole partnership. The firm will have no economic choice but to remove Chuck from the partnership and have him placed on medical leave in order for HHM (soon to be just HH) to survive. It may be that Mesa Verde sues HHM for legal malpractice given that Chuck was their original lawyer and the charges against Jimmy is for B&E and destruction of property/evidence, and was never found guilty of altering the Mesa Verde documents (their senior in-house legal counsel read the entire transcript). This will likely cascade into a fitness review with the New Mexico Bar Association. Chuck may well be medically disqualified from the practice of law by the NM Bar for an indefinite time, perhaps long after Jimmy has done his 12 month suspension, which with Chuck's age will practically mean the end of his legal career.
Another possibility is that the insurance company might view the failure to disclose Chuck's illness as a form of fraud, thus making all of HHM uninsurable even without Chuck. Most insurers require disclosure of any medical issues that could compromise a lawyer's ability to practice law. And Chuck does have medical issues that are impacting his work. He appears (to outsiders) to have made a mistake. Insurers also have to be made aware of actions that could lead to litigation. Those together are enough for an insurance company to assert that HHM hasn't adequately disclosed issues related to representation. Insurance companies are pretty good at wiggling out of having to cover people. This is a good example of something that gives them the wiggle room they need.
- Confirmed, mostly. The insurance company threatened to jack HHM's malpractice premiums sky-high, firm-wide. This prompts Howard to ask Chuck to retire.
It's that throughout the entire series, Jimmy has been amazing at pulling off schemes. That's his strongest trait: every single scam he oozes works out in his favor, and even in the rare instances when one doesn't, he is STILL clever and spry enough to figure out ANOTHER scheme to get out of it. That's how he always came out ahead. And the point of his flashbacks as a younger scammer in the past have told a story: a story about a man who's so talented at sleight-of-mind and pre-Facebook social engineering that he could be a millionaire, but he always sets his sights too low. Jimmy McGill is all talent but no ambition.
So of course he, and the audience, totally expected his scam on Irene to succeed. But then it didn't. He got what he wanted, sure, but he utterly destroyed another person, a person that, although she was another in a long line of victims, he ended up kind of liking because she was an innocent, not one of the usual vapid schmucks he was used to ripping off. For the first time he chose the wrong mark.
And that's the important part. Jimmy himself FINALLY realized that. And he realized it so deeply that he suddenly no longer gave a shit about the reward. He turned his prodigious talent for fixing bad situations away from himself for once and towards another, doing whatever he could — even to the extent of humiliating himself publicly — to give Irene her life back. He acted like a human for once, not just a facsimile of one.
It was the first time that Jimmy McGill had felt regret, and he DESPISED the feeling. It wasn't anything like the feeling of triumph; he was used to that. That was his drug of choice. This new, previously-alien emotion known as 'hurt'.
And that's why, as horrific and agonizing as it was, Chuck's death is even MORE tragic and devastating. Because as though hideously clairvoyant, Chuck chose to take his own life at the VERY MOMENT that his brother was on the crux of true goodness. If Chuck hadn't done it, Jimmy would likely have matured like other people and just become another person. But by killing himself, Chuck put the final nail in that coffin for his brother. He doomed him. He sent Jimmy sprinting toward the dark side (and Walter White) with open arms rather than tiptoeing tentatively, as he'd been before.
- Maybe Chuck has a plan to further screw Jimmy from beyond the grave: The scene may well look like Jimmy broke into the house again.
For season 4, this would do a lot of work for Better Call Saul. For one, it would keep Howard relevant to the show, because with Chuck dead, isn't a natural way to keep Howard in the story. And the breakdown of his relationship with Chuck was a pretty big turning point in how interesting he is as a character.
Furthermore, asking Kim to come back as a name partner would be a win-win for both parties. Even though Kim is not the biggest fan of Howard, she clearly is burned out trying to do a solo career, and a higher paying lower stress job could convince her to put her differences aside. Howard also clearly respects Kim, and needs a new partner who can replace Chuck, since the McGill name is undoubtedly tarnished in the legal system due to Chuck's activity at the Bar hearing and his suicide.
It will also drive a dramatic wedge between Jimmy and Kim. Since Jimmy is clearly done with elder law, it seems likely he will finally get into the drug world. Kim will be back doing honorable clean law while Jimmy is making dirty money with Nacho, Mike, and Gus, and this would go further to the inevitable falling out of Jimmy and Kim.
After Kim's car accident she is discharged from the hospital with pain meds. When she is eating breakfast one morning Jimmy asks her if she wants Ibuprofen or "the good stuff" and she chooses the good stuff, which is undoubtedly an opioid. She gets hooked on the opioids and spirals into drug addiction. She either dies or is sent to prison or rehab during the Breaking Bad years, and since there is no remaining tether for Jimmy to be good, he finally abandons all pretenses about being good and becomes Saul Goodman. This is why 1) she does not show up or get mentioned during Breaking Bad and 2) Jimmy as Saul is OK with the casual murder of drug dealers like Badger during Breaking Bad... drugs wrecked his and Kim's life.
They won't reveal what happened to Jimmy until the season finale to keep the viewers in suspense.
- Jossed.
Jimmy's "Well Howard, that's your cross to bear" when Howard takes the blame for driving Chuck to suicide, and his sudden chirpiness (making coffee, feeding the fish) comes just after Jimmy realizes that he is the reason for Chuck's suicide (as you know, being forced out of HHM was the straw that broke Chuck's back and that was an indirect result of Jimmy having snitched to the insurance firm about Chuck's mental state).
Perhaps, rather than Saul Goodman being this darker side that Jimmy descends into, Saul is instead the fake face and persona Jimmy puts on (subconsciously?) to cope with the pain he causes for himself. See, in the last conversation Jimmy ever had with Chuck, Chuck told him he should no longer regret or feel shame about his inability to stop himself from lying to others and hurting them. Deep down, this struck a chord with Jimmy, and Saul comes out as his mind's way of taking Chuck's advice and covering up the pain he holds within. By the time we get to Breaking Bad, Jimmy is playing a part all the time, with the exception of a couple of scenes where he’s in danger or scared, which causes him to break the facade for a bit. In fact, in his last scene in Breaking Bad, it’s actually kind of eerie in how he’s more Jimmy there than Saul. Because by then there’s no reason to keep pretending.
This is more or less in line with what Bob Odenkirk said in interviews about the season 4 premiere, which is that Jimmy's cavalier attitude following Howard's confession was Jimmy compartmentalizing all the painful events of the recent past.
Put it another way, Saul is a compulsion that Jimmy has trouble controlling. It's visibly stressful for him to be on the straight and narrow all the time. He gets thrills and kicks from pulling a fast one on people. You might say it makes him feel.... alive. Unfortunately, the more Saul-like activities Jimmy engages in, the more he becomes Saul, a fast-talking, dishonest, slimy huckster who can talk his way out of anything bc he knows how to work people. That's way more fun for Jimmy than doing paperwork or feeling bad about Chuck's death.
There are a lot of parallels to drug use and addiction. Back in the season 1 finale, when Jimmy and Marco met up, running cons was their way of getting high. When Jimmy's stressing about stuff in seasons 2 and 3, he runs a con with Kim to blow off steam. So in that sense, yeah, running cons makes Jimmy feel good and he uses it to avoid feeling bad, not only about things he's done but the normal bad feelings people have anyway when they're unhappy with their lot in life.
- Confirmed in "Fun and Games."
1. We know that Declan and Gus have some history together, but Breaking Bad left it ambiguous as to what went on between them. This would be another great opportunity for the show to add new context to characters with minor parts in Breaking Bad, especially considering that Declan had such a small number of appearances.
2. Gus gave Gale a bunch of meth samples to analyze supposedly so he could find the best supplier on his side of the border. Gale says that the best sample "hovers around 67%". In Breaking Bad, Lydia says that Declan's cook only makes meth that is 68% pure. That's a one percent margin difference.
3. Gale also advises Gus to tell the cook to check his glassware, as it is introducing contamination. When Lydia inspects Declan's lab, she makes a comment about it being filthy.
Given the universe we're dealing with here, it's the money from maybe the cartel, but more likely from seemingly harmless ventures like Los Pollos Hermanos; it's possible that this regional bank is cooperating with or even just another front for Gus and his Madrigal-backed operations.
If you go looking for character flaws in Mesa Verde you might see:
- Their willingness to put up with some shadiness surrounding Kim + Jimmy
- Kevin and Paige's extreme niceness to Kim, all those lunches and dinners (though yes, that's just business, the show has spent a fair amount of time having us rub shoulders with those characters.)
- Kevin Wachtell is slightly too much of a good ol' boy to just be a plain ol' bank manager. It reminds me of something Hank said about Gus during Breaking Bad when he was trying to track all his comings and goings and what he was doing, and frustratedly came up with nothing: "A guy this clean has to be dirty."
- Consider the blue lighting in the room with all the models. Color is really important on this show; in the Gene opening sequences, Jimmy ("Gene") has always been filmed in black and white. The blue fish tank that foreshadows Saul's involvement with the drug world is the visual focus of almost every scene it's in. Kim also drinks out of a blue bottle.
- A look at Mesa Verde's proposed branch locations on a map show some overlap with locations where Breaking Bad established Gus has Los Pollos Hermanos restaurants.
Him going to ground and hiding seems unlikely because of his father. If he goes into hiding, the Salamancas would kill him to bring him out of hiding. Even if Nacho takes his father with him (which seems unlikely considering how stubborn and principled his father is, though then again Nacho had gotten papers to set up new identities for both himself and his father), we also know for a fact that Nacho has some relatives down south of the border. If he and his father go into hiding, the Salamancas hunt down those relatives. It is simply not possible for Nacho to go into hiding. Also, the writers have already used the vacuum-cleaner guy to disappear Saul, Walt, and Jesse ... are they going to use the same on Nacho? That seems to be an overuse of that particular plot device, and the writers are more creative than that. (Plus his actor, Robert Forster, has died, so...)
So death or prison are the more likely options, with the scales tipped more towards death. Why? Because Gus knows Nacho is a liability. If Nacho ever spills the beans to Lalo or anyone else in the Salamancas what exactly Gus did to Hector, they will immediately take out Gus. Gus can't risk that. It is simply undeniable that Gus will eventually want to kill Nacho. He cannot risk letting him live. So even if Nacho goes to prison somehow, Gus would arrange for someone to shank him on the inside.
- Gus has a central role in the eventual Nacho's death by handing him over to the Cartel, but ultimately Nacho chooses to die by his own hand.
Back in season 1, Jimmy promised Tuco (an unstable man) that if they let them go, he promises they will never cross paths again as it was an unintentional crossing with the crime world and he wishes to stay clean and out of it.
By the time Tuco gets out, Saul will be very known in the crime underworld. Tuco may not like this, starting a mini feud between Saul and the cartel (explaining why Saul thought Walter and Jesse were the cartel in their encounter).
It would be funny if Saul basically accidentally caused the events that led to Walt becoming Heisenberg (having Krazy-8 snitch, leading to Emilio's bust and the phosphine gas incident).
That would explain why Gene is a little over-paranoid because he thinks the cops may link Krazy-8 to him. (This obviously doesn't mean much but in Gene's paranoid eyes it does)
In the synopsis for the premier episode, it mentions that Lalo discovers a problem in his operation. Based on a combination of set photos and the cast list, we know the scenes in the teaser that show Lalo investigating a drug house and finding a baggie of drugs is from the first episode. So why is he inspecting the drugs so closely? What’s the problem with them? Well...in season 4, Juan Bolsa gave Gus permission to buy from drug manufacturers north of the border, and he had Gale run tests on them, and Gale said that they were dreck. Why would Gus want to be selling lower grade product? Because it’s not for him. For the time being, Gus's trucks are the only route over the border for the cartel's drugs, so he gives a cut of the product to the Salamancas. Given Gus's greediness, he's probably been giving them the lower quality product while keeping the higher-quality product for his own dealers. This probably led to a decline in sales for the Salamancas, which is what's prompted Lalo to come investigate (remember, he says he has a “good head for numbers”).
- Confirmed. Gus messed with the Salamanca product as part of a cover-up to force a sitdown where he could "confess" about Werner's work.
According to the script for 4x10, a scene was cut showing Lalo setting fire to the Travel Wire to destroy any evidence of his existence.
Production photos from season 5's filming also show what appear to be burned hedges in front of Gus's house, as well as one of Gus's restaurants being firebombed. Both are probably Lalo's work.
There's a lot of speculation about how Kim's arc will end. They range from her dying, to her not actually going down and being a silent partner to Saul, to losing her law license because of Jimmy. While I somewhat believe in the last camp, I don't think Jimmy will be the one to "pull the trigger on her" so to speak.
The reason for that is a simple meta one. Namely, that Kim is a main character with her own character arc. She has to be the master of her own fate. While technically "cross Saul" would be a choice she could make, it's not a particularly interesting one since she is essentially forced into it. Her arc would end up being "a good character who breaks a little bad, goes back to being good, and gets punished by her bitter ex-boyfriend for doing so".
That's not particularly satisfying end for a character in a story this character focused. It could do wonders for Jimmy's arc, but Kim would be a worse character for it from a writing standpoint, and I don't think the writers would sacrifice her very character for Jimmy's. If she's going down, she has to do it to herself, and it has to fit the story.
A big theme throughout the show has been that "You'll get far by playing dirty." Every character that's willing to break the rules (on the "legal side" of the show at least) gets ahead. Jimmy could have taken all the Kettlemen's money and he would have gotten away with it. He got Sandpiper by going through their trash and piecing it all together (technically legal, but still, literally dirty). He could have gotten the Sandpiper settlement if he was willing to break Irene's heart. Or the most glaring, recent example at the end of season 4: Jimmy's first attempt at getting his law license back, all that sincerity...and he's labeled insincere. It's only when he lies and tells them what he knows they want to hear he gets it back and is labeled sincere.
This doesn't just extend to Jimmy either. Chuck also finally got one over his brother by not-legally-but-totally conning him with the tape (and in season 2, he also had the option to just extort Jimmy when Kim was in doc review by threatening to keep her there).
More importantly: This is also true for Kim (though she only recently broke bad law-wise). She was the one who came up with the whole idea of faking the threat of a fictitious media circus to get the ADA to cave to a better deal for Huell. She swapped the Mesa Verde building plans. And in "Magic Man," she gets her client to take the plea deal she wants him to take by playing dirty. She sees how effective it is, and despite her saying "No more", I think we all know this isn't the last time.
So, the most likely guess, is that Kim will pull another illegal scam, that this time will get her into trouble (super original). It will however be minor trouble plot-wise. She will be able to easily get out of it if she's just willing to pull a cover-up scam, but she will hesitate and not follow through. She will instead play it straight and it will blow up in her face. She ruins her reputation in Albuquerque, maybe faces disbarment, and decides to move back home to small-town Nebraska to start her solo lawyering career over again, or Jimmy breaks up with her expressly to avoid her reputation being destroyed by being associated with him. Either way, she's not dead, as Breaking Bad-era Saul would be a much darker character if that had been the case.
Regardless, now her character arc instead becomes, "Good character breaks bad, doesn't follow through on being bad, and loses everything." Which is much more satisfying. And gives Kim more agency in that it's her own choices that do her in. Now it fits the theme, and also reinforces Mike's oft-repeated refrain of "no half measures" - in other words, if you're gonna break bad you'd better be willing to follow through to the end. This is also the lesson Saul will pick up from this. After this their relationship will be on its death throes if it isn't over already. Kim will resent Jimmy because he was right, and she will resent herself for breaking bad in the first place.
At the end of "Namaste," Mike is attacked by the street gang, passes out, and wakes up in some Mexican hut. It wouldn't be hard to assume that Gus still has his people keeping tabs on Mike, and after he got stabbed they rescued him and now he’s been brought down to Mexico to recover and be attended to by Gus’ physician. This will be the episode where they reconcile their differences, as the description of "Wexler v. Goodman" says that “Mike turns up the heat on Lalo”. Episode 5 is also titled "Dedicado a Max", which translates to "Dedicated to Max", the name of Gus’ partner who Hector shot. So stands to reason that Gus will share part of his backstory with Mike to build trust with him.
On top of that, depending on how much Gus knows of Mike, Gus will have Mike contact Saul, since he knows they have a relationship already. In the preview, we see Mike calling Saul and saying “So you’re a lawyer again?”. I think Gus will want to use Jimmy as another double agent against Lalo since he now knows that he’s working for him. In the most recent Ethics Training videos, during the intro we’re shown a quick animated scene of Saul being pulled to both sides in a tug of war between Gus and Lalo, which I think is foreshadowing this.
Gus will probably use Saul and Nacho to sabotage Lalo’s operation so badly that the cartel will kick him back down south and leave Gus north of the border. Killing Lalo at this point would be too suspicious. We’ve seen other clips from various teasers and trailers of the cousins with huge piles of cash and stacking them into duffel bags, so perhaps it’s related to that and Saul and Nacho pull off a heist. Whatever it is, this will be what's on Saul's mind in Breaking Bad when Walt and Jesse kidnap him out to the desert.
As seen from his character folder, Nacho is a sort of Foil to Jesse. This could continue into the fates of both characters. Vince Gilligan has stated that he previously planned for Jesse to end up in jail at the end of the series, later trying to carry it to El Camino, but it was scrapped when the writers disagreed with it. As Jesse goes on to live a hopeful and free life, Nacho could contrast that with him ending up in prison, reusing the previous idea. Possibly not dead, but stuck behind bars while his family cuts ties with him. He leaves his criminal lifestyle, but has to pay for it and does not go out on his own terms.
- This seems to be a direction that the show keeps nudging towards. He tries to flee with fake identities for him and his father, but his father refuses and tells him to go to the police to turn himself in. He tells Mike that he wants out of not only Gus' plans, but the entire cartel business, only for Mike to hold off on discussing this to continue dealing with Lalo. Mike tries to convince Gus to let Nacho go, but Gus insists on keeping Nacho as an asset. Nacho all but directly tells Don Eladio that he wants to leave the criminal life behind. Eladio's response? "You are in the wrong business, my friend."
- Jossed. Nacho instead is caught between a rock and a hard place in the cold war of the Salamancas and Gus and chooses to die on his own terms.
Now Saul's sleazy and self-interested Breaking Bad behavior might still be a tough nut to crack if they take this route, any way the writers want to skate around it, since Breaking Bad never dwelled much into Saul's personal life, to the point that we didn't even know he had a brother let alone a wife until Better Call Saul came out. That being said, looking only at Better Call Saul it makes the most sense, because Jimmy attaining the success he has as Saul without Kim helping him would be like if Gus and Mike suddenly stopped working together and yet somehow Gus was able to reach the height of his success on his own. The Jimmy and Kim that have been characterized in Better Call Saul are the complimentary pieces to each other that are necessary for them both to achieve in the Albuquerque underworld.
I know it feels a bit too cheap and convenient to simply have Kim "in the background" in Breaking Bad, but there are clues that suggest she would be the right woman for the job. Jimmy is good at the "face to face" con, but Kim is the back room operator... she has the work ethic, attention to detail and mindset to run the back room operation. She is the Bernie Madoff, and her whiter than white (in terms of her ethics) image would certainly help her as all banks, etc., would have their guard down when dealing with her, whereas Saul would raise instant red flags.
: I Knew It!!
So, the most fitting way and karmic way to end Saul's story is to put him behind bars. He spend the last decade twisting, dodging, and Flipping the Bird at the law, while helping God knows how many do the same. And that's his way of being punished for it; Having the exact same fate he helped others avoid. It would also be poetic by showing the three ways being a criminal can end for you. Walt has death, Jesse has freedom, so it would only be fitting that Saul will get prison. Walt's story ended with him dying in the place he felt most alive in with a smile on his face. Jesse's story ended with him ending up in the place where he can get a second chance at life with a smile on his face. Saul's story will end with him ending up in the place he helped others avoid for his entire life, and he probably won't be happy about it.
- Confirmed.
- Jossed as of season 6, with the American Greed special confirming he's wanted after the events of BB.
- Jossed as of season 6, with the American Greed
Killed by the cartel in front of Jimmy, the thing that shows, above all, the consequences of Jimmy's choices. Unlike the case of Skyler and Walt, however, Kim probably won't disown Jimmy over it.
- Adding to this, it could be why Kim isn't in Breaking Bad, Jimmy disowns HER upon seeing how little she cares about Howard's death and realises that his dragging her into the criminal underworld (which reached a sort of climax in 'Something Unforgivable') has made her reach a Moral Event Horizon.
- Confirmed, in a way. Howard is killed by Lalo in front of Jimmy, and his death has numerous similarities to Hank's. Although it’s Kim who breaks up with Jimmy after this incident, not the other way around.
Saul/Jimmy hasn't worn one so far throughout BCS, yet he's pretty much always wearing one in Breaking Bad. This was likely somehow directly influenced by Howard, though the context is yet to be seen—maybe he's taking a trait from a victim in the same way Walter does. Or maybe he's genuinely emulating him due to some kind of change in their relationship in season 6.
Gus, Mike, Saul, Walt, Jesse and everyone else. This includes the murders of a number of his family members. On the surface this sounds a bit like a soap opera plot twist but the talented writers of BCS will have a way of making it convincing.
In a promo image of Walt and Jesse in BCS, they, according to some analytics, wear similar clothes as in Episode 207 of Breaking Bad "Negro y Azul". And "Black and Blue" in Spanish means... "Negro y Azul".
- Jossed.
- Jossed. Only Howard dies in the said episode.
- To add another idea to this, the ending of the penultimate episode will be similar to Breaking Bad's "Granite State". Jimmy/Saul/Gene will resolve to make one final act, and the episode will end with the full version of the Better Call Saul theme tune, thus setting-up the finale in a dramatic way.
Credit to a Reddit poster again, kind of. Walt's obsession with the fly was brought on by, amongst other things, an unseen conversation he had with Gus in which Gus insisted that flies and other insects do not enter the lab. This conversation will be shown in a flashforward, or at least implied. The reason for Gus's attitude will be that at least one body is buried in the lab (likely that of Lalo, but Howard and Kim are other possibilites).
Like Ozymandias, it's the third from the last episode of the series, and it's directed and written by Thomas Schnauz (who has already done several Wham Episodes of both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul). This might feature the death of Lalo, possibly that of Kim too, and the return of Walt and Jesse in a flashforward.
After finding out about Howard's death Cliff will mention to Erin that Howard had claimed Jimmy had sabotaged him to get the Sand Piper case settled and Erin will in turn tell Cliff about Jimmy's previous failed attempted to get the case settled by turning the Sand Piper residents against each other. This will make Cliff realize what happened but will have no way to prove it.
He will figure out that Jimmy and Kim were behind the Sandpiper sabotage and that they also have something to do with Howard's death/disappearance and will pursue investigations. A less likely possibility is that he will be considered too much of a loose end without him even pursuing things further. In either case he will become inadvertently tangled in the net of the criminal world (be it Jimmy and Kim and/or the cartel) and it won't end well for him.
Jossed on the show, but it's foreseeable, given her incredibly low opinion of herself at the series end.
Assuming Jimmy actually dies in the finale, of course. Jimmy will somehow manage to make it to Kim in Florida, perhaps to apologize to her, or to try to make amends, or maybe just say goodbye. However, Glenn will show up, recognize Jimmy as the infamous Saul Goodman, and shoot him dead in an attempt to protect Kim from him.
Yep.
When Gene returns to a life of crime, Jeff suddenly no longer seems intimidating to Gene anymore. Hence the change from Don Harvey to Pat Healy.
