Better Call Saul (AMC) TV Show • Page 123

yeah Saul said if it’s good enough for Bernie Madoff it’s good enough for him

 

If this doesn't get a cinematography nom next year..


Well, I'll just bitch about the Emmys as much as I already do lol. Stupid it didn't get one this year obviously

 

My friend is three episodes behind and it'd be killing me not talking with her about if it wasn't for this thread haha.

 

You know, the only detail that never really mattered as much as I thought was the fact that Saul ended up in Nebraska near where Kim was from. At first I thought that was by design and Saul was attempting to cross paths with her some day, but we saw in the flashback that he knew she moved to Florida. So it didn’t really mean anything outside of paying off a throwaway line in Breaking Bad lol.

 

Interesting detail or random bit of nothing: Gene's initial phone call when he's arrested is to the Cinnabon where he makes sure the employee he sort of left on the hook for the day is ok, and sets them up for his...absence. Compare with Gus calling the Los Pollos Hermanos in the immediate aftermath of getting shot in the showdown with Lalo earlier in the season.

 

so apparently the chuck flashback scene predates the entire show lol. in the flashback jimmy tells chuck he might get him the financial times tomorrow. in the first episode he brings chuck the financial times

chuck: "oh financial times!"
jimmy: "i know you missed it so i figured what the heck"

 

For someone who lives in Albuquerque and loved Breaking Bad, I really need to start this show.. haha

 

Lmao, oh. Derp.

 

I will preface it with this, don’t go directly from the last 4 episodes of Breaking Bad into this. It’s jarring. Better Call Saul starts out very slow, methodical, and a bit quirky and silly. The stakes are low. It’s a character and relationship study and it takes a while to really build and get invested. Stick through and you’ll be heavily rewarded. I’d say by the end of the first season getting into the second you’ll be invested and by the end of the third season it becomes pretty binge-able.

 

So I decided to sit down and rewatch the finale again and, yeah, I think you’re on to something with this.

We see the “Time Machine” book the first time in episode 1 of this season here when his place is being raided/emptied out by the Feds:



Then we see it again in episode 2 here when the Kettleman’s call “Saul” to agree to meet with him after he’s convinced them they have grounds to sue Howard Hamlin (as well as convincing them Howard is on cocaine):



And then finally it’s here at last in the final episode at Chuck’s place:



So the first “ghost” we see is Mike who Jimmy talks to about the “Time Machine”. When Mike asks Jimmy what he’d do if he had a time machine, Jimmy offers up a surface level answer stating that he’d invest and become a billionaire in the modern world. Mike asks him if that’s all, incredulous to the answer because there’s obviously more under that surface, but Jimmy doesn’t want to delve any deeper into it so he gets up and walks away saying he’s rested.

The next ghost is Walter who wants nothing to do with his pithy hypotheticals and tells him to just ask the real question; just ask about regrets. He’s being given another chance here and the ghosts are getting irritated. This time Jimmy at least focuses on himself by citing the time he ran a scam and it physically harmed him for life, but Walter has nothing to say to this thin veneer of an answer beyond telling him he’s always been this way.

Finally, the third ghost we see is Chuck even further in the past. Here, Chuck asks Jimmy if he’d like to stay a while, maybe talk about his clients and cases. Jimmy thinks Chuck just wants to tell him what he’s doing wrong to which Chuck replies “That’s not what I had in mind” and in this moment you can tell he means that. Chuck is genuinely reaching out and Jimmy chooses to see past it. Chuck then says, “Jimmy, if you don’t like where you’re headed, there’s no shame in going back and…changing your path.” Jimmy takes this as a slight and asks Chuck when he’s ever changed his path. Chuck can only respond with “We always end up having the same conversation don’t we” and it’s kind of notable here how haunting that shot of Chuck is with half of his body shrouded in darkness to the point that you can barely even see his eyes. He literally looks like an apparition warning him that they only ever have the same circling conversation, as if to imply his future will never change so long as Jimmy refuses to be honest with himself; he’ll always be asking the same questions.

And that’s when the camera pans down to reveal the book on Chuck’s countertop…because if Jimmy were to be honest this is the moment he secretly wishes he could go back to. He wouldn’t have walked out on his brother. He would have stayed and talked about his cases and his practice and maybe then he would have struck out onto a different path. I think it’s also worth noting that this scene comes right on the heels of Jimmy finally shedding himself of Saul in the courtroom and admitting to what he’s done. It turns out that Chuck was right. Jimmy looked around at the wreckage he’d left behind him and ahead at what was lying in wait for Kim and made a decision.

If you don’t like where you’re headed, there’s no shame in going back and changing your path.

Edit: And now seeing this post:

…makes this “Ghost” scene with Chuck that much more powerful to me. The moment right before everything we saw from the beginning.

 

Thanks for this. I was contemplating starting it all over again from season 1 of breaking bad and going through El Camino and then Saul. Still haven’t decided if I should, but I definitely want to start it.

I love how the cast loves abq and it’s people as well as it’s soccer team.

 

LOL

 

New spinoff incoming

 

Watching the episode after Sauls intro to BB (I had watched his first episode a few weeks ago) and I gotta tell ya, it feels really good watching some good ole Walter/Jesse RV cooking adventures.

 

Yeah I’m gonna rewatch breaking bad soon. I watched it as it aired so I haven’t seen season 1 in what 15 years?

 

I’m just….wow

 

You guys all are doing a fantastic job siphoning through the flashbacks and the themes. This episode was everything.

The name’s McGill. James McGill.

 

lol

 

Some nice bits of info in this Rhea interview. The cigarette scene between Kim and Jimmy was the last scene of the show they shot. They also apparently shot a version of the final scene where Kim shoots Jimmy the finger guns back in a subtle way, but they didn’t use that take because they felt like it signaled that Kim was saying “I’m back in the game, let’s start scamming again” and missed the more mournful tone of the ending they went with instead. She also feels that Kim would absolutely see Jimmy again and would, over the years, attempt to lighten his sentence the proper way. When asked if she’d ever return to play Kim again, she says she would. Given that she’s kind of become “this show’s” Jesse, I do in some ways think it’d be kind of neat to see Kim get her own movie ala El Camino (but better than that) maybe focusing on her life after or during whatever Cheryl Hamlin chooses to do with the information Kim gave her. I’m more than happy with what we have though.

Kim Wexler’s Curtain Call