Mike knew there was very little chance of anything going wrong. That’s why he didn’t bring a gun and why he knew he was safe going alone. He could have gone out and done the swap himself, but leaving the pull guy out there in the open, and scared, but being right there behind him helps make sure there’s more work for him. The pill guy is going to go back and tell the vet about what an amazing job Mike did. I mean, yeah, in the real world he’d never get another job after beating up the other guy, but this is a TV show. The Pill guy is going to give him 5 stars, it probably would have been 4 if he Mike had just jumped out of the car and made the switch himself. Mike got some extra cool points just standing there like nothing was happening.
Of course, if Mike had just done it for him, pill guy would probably request him and happily pay him $1500 each time. That is, if Mike hadn’t said ‘hey, don’t worry about Nacho, he’s not going to hurt you’, but I think that was more for us.
Saul may not have to spend his whole life in hiding. Maybe he gets caught by the police but manages to distance himself from the really criminal stuff by using legal privilege (he couldn’t tell anyone what he knew because of lawyer/client confidentiality) or he could make it seem like he wasn’t aware of any illegal activities. Minimise that side of things. If he does that well the police may not be able to pin anything on him. He’s always been pretty good at doing that. Or maybe Chuck redeems himself by coming to Saul’s rescue with all the legal might of HHM behind him.
All that would probably only take a couple of episodes to resolve and then Saul is free to resume his life and he’s back in the game again. BCS could then carry on and none of us would know what will happen from that point onwards.
Yes, it’s more than a white lie, but I think he was trying to spare Jimmy what likely is a fairly accurate and honest appraisal of his character, ethics, and skills.
But I would still bet that Chuck has done more for Jimmy than vice versa. Further, this dynamic and the edict that Jimmy not be too closely associated with the legal work of the firm likely occurred a long time ago. Although the phone call likely ironed out the details as it related to this particular case, I think Hamlin knew Chuck’s basic feelings a long time ago.
Likely true, but the question is whether he SHOULD believe in Jimmy? Jimmy is a guy who despite being nice and affable is a conman. Even is the recent past, he is willing to being a lying ambulance chaser. Chuck didn’t make him do any of that. I get that the narrative is set up to make you root for Jimmy, but we know he is NOT a good guy. He is a guy willing to cut corners and rationalize his behavior, and Chuck rightfully states how such a person practicing law is a disgrace.
I think he did come through for Jimmy. First, with regard to the case, Jimmy would have been fine accepting a minor settlement, leaving millions on the table. Only Chuck was able to see the magnitude of the case. Jimmy was only taken seriously because he is Chuck’s brother. Jimmy only was able to print the case law because of Chuck. Chuck was the one who reconstructed the shredded docs. Chuck was the reason a firm like HHM would take a case form a guy like Jimmy. Jimmy doesn’t get a meeting without Chuck.
Further, Chuck has likely saved Jimmy countless times in the past. Think about it from Chuck’s pov. How many times does he have to stick his neck out for his brother?
I think that is probably accurate, although unstated.
I agree, but the question is SHOULD Jimmy like Chuck? If these were real people, why would the average person like someone like Jimmy if they knew his history?
It’s obviously somewhat speculative, but the reality is that criminal lawyers like what Jimmy becomes are generally not that skilled IMO. Even the minor things like going into a meeting with Mike not knowing at all what is going on, and allowing his client to talk are two things a good lawyer wouldn’t do.
I think that is likely Jimmy’s rationalization, but remember that he was doing shady things in the recent past before he appreciated how his brother felt. I suppose you can make a case that he felt that before he heard it, but Chuck didn’t tell him to try to scam the city accountant’s family.
But how else could Chuck have handled this situation when he was still mentally stable that would have been better and wouldn’t have compromised his integrity or their relationship? Chuck, for good reason, fundamentally thinks Jimmy is a dishonest person who would is an unethical lawyer. How do you tell someone that in a way that doesn’t sever the relationship?
Well, I think he was letting loose at that point. Either way, no argument here friend. Just wanted to discuss the show.
It intrigues me how co-creators Gould and Gilligan sort of make it up as they go along, nothing rigid, nothing written in stone …which is how the creative process should work. After watching a screening of “Pimento” they commentedon Jimmy’s journey to become Saul:
"According to Gilligan and Gould, how he gets there is less a question of specific steps and more one of establishing motivation. “I worried all through Season 1 that we weren’t getting to Saul Goodman fast enough,” Gilligan said, but added “now I’ve come around 180 degrees and I’m thinking ‘God, I don’t want to get to Saul too quick’, I love Jimmy McGill so much.” The key question, so Gilligan and Gould said, isn’t “how long does it take to turn Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman,” but “what kind of problem does becoming Saul Goodman solve?”
On second thought, during podcast interviews several of the actors have commented that they stick to the script, the writers are very particular about the story being told in a certain way…the exact words are important.
I agree completely with this post. In the latest episode I felt that Mike is getting predictably written - any action scene will simply have him perfectly execute the “silent bad-ass” archetype. If he always has to be a perfect killing machine, then at least I would want to see more depth to his personality - something contradictory or unflattering.
Perhaps the writers missed an opportunity in not letting BCS be the period where Mike actually perfects his art, rather than it seeming as having always a part of him.
I hear what you’re saying but maybe it’s just not far back enough to show a big learning curve. They would do well to have him stumped a few times, but he has been a crooked cop for 30 years by this point. ISTM disarming a wannabe and sussing out how a drug deal will probably go should be in his wheelhouse already.
So what if someone makes a winning guess and someone else makes a losing guess. What impact will that have on anyone here?
I doubt the impact will be much of anything or that it will make much difference either way. Someone will be right and someone else will be wrong. If the two predictions are opposites, then it can’t really be helped if things turn out in diametrically opposite directions. It would really have to be required to work out that way. Wouldn’t it? It won’t make much difference either way, will it?
I loved Mr. Show which is why I am very happy Odenkirk has gotten this gig.
People make predictions all the time guy. Go for it. Many spoiler box it though, because a lot of people don’t want to see a million guesses, one of which is probably correct. Lol.
The guy’s a poser who reads too much Soldier of Fortune. Not only do I doubt he could track down Mike, he wouldn’t stand a chance if he did.
With Mr. Pill’s recommendation, and Mike’s comments, I bet he could convince the Vet that the guy was bad news, and he erred in recommending him. I suspect it’s through the Vet that Mike begins to select his own crew, which is what he has established in Breaking Bad. “If’ I”'m doing this job, I’m picking my own guys. Who have you got?"
I don’t see why the neo-Nazis would be after Saul. I don’t recall them ever meeting Saul, in fact.
Saul’s face would have been on the TV and in the newspapers, as a suspect wanted in the the Heisenberg case. There would be a reward for information leading to his arrest. That’s what he was worried about. Not neo-Nazis, just someone recognising his face.
And the bigger problem with that is that his face is plastered all over billboards and buses and everywhere else because he advertises so much. Everyone in ABQ knows what he looks like just like you know what some of the local ambulance chasers and bankruptcy lawyers in your town look like. I think that was part of the reason why he had to disappear.
Here’s something I’m going to toss out there. A few weeks back a co-worker of mine said something to the effect of ‘I think Chuck [WRT his disease] is setting Jimmy up, I don’t know how or why and I know it doesn’t even make sense, but that’s my guess’. I was going to mention it here just to get it on record, but it seemed so off the wall I just left it alone.
Based on what we’ve discussed in this thread about how Chuck’s illness gets better and worse with Jimmy’s behavior and the fact that (as far as I can recall) Jimmy never mentioned Chuck in BB, I’m going to guess that as Jimmy turns into Saul and goes from ‘kinda scammy’ to full blown criminal lawyer, Chuck’s illness will cause him to kill himself.
I have some other ideas on why there’s no Chuck in BB, but that’s the one I’ll lock myself into, for now. The only wiggle room I’ll give maybe all or part of the reason for Chuck offing himself is because of guilt over what he did to Jimmy or Jimmy abandoning himself and starting his own life. Either way I’m thinking that his mental illness will cause him to take his own life and Jimmy will play into it.
And I think the dumbass embezzler’s wife will figure back in, if not in the finale then next season. QUOTE]
Oh I agree, we haven’t seen the last of Betsy Kettleman …so many fans loved her that the show’s creators hinted they couldn’t discard such a rich character. I can’t wait.
As am I …also waiting for the chicken man, Gus Fring. Giancarlo Esposito really wants a part in Saul, and decidedly to be pro-active about it. He told fans somewhere online, “I told Vince Gilligan: If you do not put me in Better Call Saul, I will kill your wife. I will kill your son. I will kill your infant daughter.”
Flashback Jimmy in a Cicero (?) jail - “I know I’m a lousy brother. I’m a lousy brother, I’m a big screw up, and if I was just a better person, I would not only stop letting you down, you know what, I’d stop letting me down. And it’s about time that I started to make both of us proud.”
That was a guy who was tired of living the sleazy life*, bringing shame on his family, disappointing his Atticus Finch brother … he truly wants to start literally doing everything he can to fight against his baser instincts and walk the straight and narrow …a man struggling to do the right thing.
And he succeeds in a way, works in the mail room, gets his law degree, works as a public defender to make Chuck proud, etc. … but $750 a pop has him on the edge of poverty. Chuck is ill, can’t work, and Jimmy tears up the HHM checks because he thinks it a scam to cheat Chuck out of his share of the firm - still don’t know the back story on that. So Jimmy starts drifting to the skateboarding-twins-shady side to make some money …
*Can anyone explain what a “Chicago Sun Roof” is … without embarrassing me half to death?
On one of those podcasts I heard the writer and director of “Pimento” -Tom Schnauz - say that there was originally a six minute opening flashback of pre-teen Jimmy which had to be cut for time reasons. Six minutes is a long time. Instead of trying to trim it to death, he saved it for another episode next season. It shows a very young Jimmy McGill back in the day, like nine years old.