It’s better to call Saul is a rare follow-up that outperforms its classic predecessorand Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s Break the prequel ended tonight on a perfect note like every other development it made in its stellar six seasons. Revealing What Became by Jimmy McGill / Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) after his runaways with Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), as well as the fate of his ex-wife and frequent delinquent partner Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn).
[Spoilers Follow]
Last week’s penultimate episode “Waterworks” ended with Jimmy taking it out of the house of Marion (Carol Burnett), who found out—through an internet search conducted after the arrest of his talented son. her taxi driver Jeff (Pat Healy) — that her new friend is not only a neighbor worried about her lost dog, but also a wanted scammer. However, the movie appropriately titled “Saul Gone” doesn’t immediately begin with Jimmy on the run. Instead, it goes back to last season’s eighth episode, “Bagman,” to take a peek at a brief conversation between Jimmy and Mike (Jonathan Banks) as the duo carries $7 million across. desert. Thinking about the day they would return if they had a time machine, Mike chooses the date on which he takes his first bribe. Jimmy, on the other hand, says he’ll head to 1965 so he can get into the ground floor of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and then return to the present as a billionaire (or millionaire). When Mike asked if he was only interested in wealth, Jimmy replied, “What else?”
The love of money and the thrill of the scam are fundamental to Jimmy, and two colorful flashbacks follow – one involving a hidden conversation with Walter, the other a meeting late at night with his late brother Chuck (Michael McKean) —Emphasizes that fact too, as well as Jimmy’s inability to see the fault of his previous practices and feel remorse. The fantasy of profoundly changing the past doesn’t appeal to Jimmy, and “Saul Gone” nevertheless presents his last chance to do so. However, at the beginning of the episode, Jimmy’s future looks both bleak and bleak. Quickly picking up where “Waterworks” had stopped, Jimmy ran away from Marion’s house and tried to escape town with a shoebox full of cash and diamonds. Unfortunately, the police were in hot pursuit, and he was quickly caught – hiding, fittingly to the depth he was sunk, in an alleyway dump, full of trash.
Hearing that one of Jimmy’s regrets was a simple ruse he’d gotten into as a teenager, Walter said, “So you’ve always been like this.” It’s better to call Saul from the outset has been the story of a man who can’t stop being a shady villain – or at least, can’t stop his worst impulses from tormenting his better nature. ta. Even facing a life sentence plus 190 years, and facing cocky prosecutors and Hank Schrader’s angry widow Marie (Betsy Brandt), Jimmy remains calm, composed, and collected. collect, fully believe it, when he tells his mentor Bill Oakley (Peter Sickness.), things will work out “with me at the top, as always.” Sure enough, Jimmy convinced the DA that he could sell the jury on the idea that he was Walter’s victim—a plausible scenario that scared his enemies into offering him a plea deal. would leave him only seven years behind bars.
As it turns out, this is not the critical case of rewriting history that “Saul Gone” has built. After completing this sweet deal – to the point of boosting his luck by asking for his favorite prison as well as a weekly ice cream desert – Jimmy learns that Kim has admitted the truth to the case. Howard Hamlin’s (Patrick Fabian) murder with authorities. While they are unlikely to prosecute, Howard’s wife intends to bring civil charges, meaning Kim is bound to be in financial ruin. Jimmy stabs Kim out of the story with sweeter talk didn’t hurt the DA, but word of his efforts returned to Kim, prompting her to attend the hearing that at then Jimmy will accept his begging wrist slap.
Therefore, the period is set for It’s better to call SaulThe climax of the scene, which shows Jimmy cleaning up in front of the judge, admits that he’s an avid participant and willing to join Walter’s meth empire (“Walter White couldn’t have done that without it). have me”) and is legally responsible for both Howard’s death and Chuck’s death. In this moment, Jimmy doesn’t revisit the past much but confronts it, for the first time, completely and honestly, without the falsehoods he’s been coloring it for so long. In doing so, he transforms, figuratively speaking, from Saul – the name he is using in court – back to Jimmy. It is a reversal that shows him as an individual capable of change and thus the antithesis of the anti-hero Walter.
“In this moment, Jimmy doesn’t revisit the past much but confronts it, for the first time, completely and honestly, without the falsehoods he’s been coloring it for so long.“
Alas, noble acts like this go unpunished, and have made many trips back up the memory to contextualize the hardships of Jimmy’s arduous adulthood, It’s better to call Saul finally reached its finish line. After the bus ride to the prison, during which the inmates recognize him as Saul (and begin chanting “Better. Call. Saul” on his behalf), Jimmy is visited by Kim. In an empty room marked by shadows from the windowpane looking straight out of a movie, and with Odenkirk and Seehorn conveying depths of compassion, sadness, and understanding with compassion delicate expressions, the two quietly share a cigarette, their only exchange revealing that Jimmy has accepted. 86 years to keep Kim safe. It was a trade he seemed happy to have made, and proof that he (mostly) left Saul behind. However, their long parting gaze across the gray, snow-speckled prison yard, the distance between them only feet and forever non-negotiable, shows that for the two attorneys is complicated and meaningless This compromise hope, the price to pay for personal growth and self-sacrifice is a true happiness forever after.
However, if its protagonists are denied real victory, It’s better to call SaulThe bittersweet of being closer than nothing is short of a victory. It cements the show as one of the best of modern television — the story of a man who made a mistake even though he knew better, only to remember who he was before it was too late.
