NFT: Better Call Saul - Season 4 Finale

Have officially broke bad.

Kim has learned slowly that Jimmy has absolutely no empathy.

I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know when he is lying and when he is not now.

It’s all good man.

Kim and Jimmy. It's Saul.

She liked or was turned on by slipping jimmy when the mark was corporate or "for good" or an act, but this "act" conned her and she seemed alarmed and shocked.

When she realized how truly heartless he was or could be and how he truly didn't have compassion she seemed horrified.

at least that's how I viewed it.

Saul Goodman

thanks, I wouldn't have made the connection.

we've seen this scene of Kim believing, Kim realizing she's been taken in by Jimmy's ways (and apparently dismayed/distraught by it), Kim back to loving Jimmy/believing so many times now I'm anesthetized to it. Eventually, the show will get around to telling us what happens to Kim.

Where did Jimmy get the 30ish grand for his scheme? a year ago (when Chuck died) he was broke. apparently selling drop phones is a lucrative business.

humanized Chuck a bit. Chuck was a bastard, but there was a time when he did actually care for his brother.

I'm sure we will see even more why Chuck started to loath his brother.

In comment 14115313 BigBlueDownTheShore said:

Quote:

humanized Chuck a bit. Chuck was a bastard, but there was a time when he did actually care for his brother. I'm sure we will see even more why Chuck started to loath his brother.

That’s what I saw as well - they’ve made Jimmy a sympathetic figure over time bc of how harshly Chuck treated him, but in the end it was Chuck who knew better than anyone that he was Slipping Jimmy at heart

In comment 14115381 mfsd said:

Quote:

In comment 14115313 BigBlueDownTheShore said: Quote: humanized Chuck a bit. Chuck was a bastard, but there was a time when he did actually care for his brother. I'm sure we will see even more why Chuck started to loath his brother. That’s what I saw as well - they’ve made Jimmy a sympathetic figure over time bc of how harshly Chuck treated him, but in the end it was Chuck who knew better than anyone that he was Slipping Jimmy at heart

You see, I think Jimmy really did try to win his brother over, but the constant rejection and finally finding out that his brother was the one who was sabotaging him is what did him in. He was willing to do the right thing and change at one point, and he could be a good lawyer if he wanted too.

I think thats what Kim saw, and everything else. Once Chuck and Jimmy disown each other Jimmy is no holds bared.

...but, Saul’s here to stay. Nice payoff.
It totally makes sense that they showed Chuck’s capacity for kindness towards his brother in the episode where Jimmy finally gives in to his ego.
I’m going back to BB for a refresher on Mike’s “Half Measure.” I thought for sure this would be it.
I wish Nacho had more of a role in this episode. Would have liked to see him go further down the spiral, rather than only Lalo advancing this part of the story line.
To a lesser extent, I wish we could’ve seen slightly more on Howard turning around HHM. We can all assume it’s partly out of spite for Jimmy, but maybe one little video mash up in an earlier episode would’ve helped bridge the jump between struggling Howard and a respectable, rejuvenated Howard.

The opening that humanizes Chuck and shows he once cared about Jimmy was obviously to set the stage to make Jimmy's performance in front of the appeals board seem genuine. All along Kim believes Jimmy did love Chuck. She wanted him to see a counselor to deal with grief she assumed was there. She wanted him to be genuine in front of the appeals board when he spoke about Chuck. She was stunned when it turns out that Jimmy has truly stopped caring about Chuck and I think that is the wedge that will separate them. While she enjoys the scams they run she sees them as being harmless or to right wrongs. I think now she sees Jimmy like them because he just doesn't have much of a moral foundation.

So what is left for season 5? The final separation between Saul and Kim? War an uneasy peace between Fring and the Salamancas? Does it end with the introduction of Saul to Walter White?

It seems obvious he's going to die, but I like his character and am definitely a little bummed about it.

Podcast had the writers say this season for Jimmy is all about his reaction to losing Chuck. They wanted to bookend the season going back to what they thought might be their best moment together.

A key scene not talked about yet was Jimmy’s pep talk from hell to the shoplifter and then crying alone in his car. To me, that’s about Jimmy realizing no matter what, he’ll always be an outsider, and no more than his mistakes to the legal community. So it doesn’t matter what he does.

Lalo squirreling up into the ceiling is actually based on a real event. They wondered how you get by bullet proof glass and some research turned up that thing happening.

That scene with Mike and Werner was great/terrible. Great acting, going from thinking he’s going to talk his friend into letting him see his wife to realizing he’d misread things or fooled himself. Is there no other way? Brutal. And Mike deciding to be the guy to do it was both him owning his error, and an act of kindness to Werner.

They had a Nacho scene but it had to go for time. The episode was juuust under an hour.

Probably because they spent so much time with Mike and the German and I pretty much knew where that was going.

Did love all of the Jimmy-Kim scenes though.

I'm with you on the speech to the shoplifter. He was bemoaning his own life as well.

but, I don't know where the Chuck pride/love for Jimmy first getting becoming a lawyer comes from. Chuck has a rant later on disparaging Jimmy's law degree, calling him a chimp with a (law degree? machine gun?), that Jimmy will always be slipping Jimmy - this was AFTER Jimmy discovered out the mega old folks screw which should have made a name for him. I would never have expected that early love/pride. It clashes too hard with the attitude toward Jimmy they've shown us from Chuck before (when Chuck brought Jimmy to the mail room) and after (pretty much the entire BCS show).

With Werner gone, what happens to his crew? I think Mike or Gus said they'd be sent home, but right away? Do they bring someone else in to supervise and finish the lab, or do they bring in an entirely new crew to finish the job?

In comment 14117712 BlackLight said:

Quote:

With Werner gone, what happens to his crew? I think Mike or Gus said they'd be sent home, but right away? Do they bring someone else in to supervise and finish the lab, or do they bring in an entirely new crew to finish the job?

I was under the impression that they all have to die. Now that Werner is dead (along with his expertise), they are nothing but loose ends.

In comment 14117343 Mike from Ohio said:

Quote:

So what is left for season 5? The final separation between Saul and Kim? War an uneasy peace between Fring and the Salamancas? Does it end with the introduction of Saul to Walter White?

Saul and Walter are something like five years away from meeting. That's a lot of ground to cover in ten episodes.

the connection between Saul and Gus. Presumably, that's where Mike is the bridge between the two.

the people on the show had varying opinions. Some said it was like Chuck’s ego “of course I’d be the choice for swearing in.” Notice he didn’t say as others did “proudly attesting for...” It was more like a duty. That’s how I read it. Others thought he was a bit proud, but leary. And, at the party he showed up but was leaving early. It was only Jimmy that got him up there and he had fun despite himself. He cared about Jimmy, and that night they just imagined as the best it got between them, even if Chuck remained condescending. But no one knew the moral looseness of Jimmy as Chuck did. And by reinforcing that’s what he thought of him, he seemed to cause it to get worse as a reaction.

The car scene is also, IMO, Jimmy’s frustration that whenever he’s straight forward, he loses. It’s like with the commercial on Sandpiper. He was right, but because he doesn’t follow their direction for a boring, staid commercial, he gets in trouble anyway. When he was more straight up with the committee they said he was insincere. It’s his manipulation that seems to work, so as you said, with the girl he’s bemoaning his life and positing a new manifesto - cut corners, be hated, but come out on top and say FU to all of them. And so, Saul Goodman has his marching orders.

Think it is only 1 more season. Maybe, but the main writer producer (not Vince) was saying there is so much story to tell he thought about an 11tg episode but it wasn’t possible.