Without a damn doubt! I know you can force employees to act happy but istm that the entire company came out to applaud his return quite sincerely. I don’t think Chuck wants to keep Jimmy subservient, as suggested, as much as never really believed that he ever will stop being Slippy Jim.
So he must keep Slipping Jimmy subservient.
Agreed. I got to see him on Broadway in a revival of “The Best Man.” He was on stage with James Earl Jones, John Larroquette, Eric McCormack, Angela Lansbury, and Candace Bergen and held his own.
He bought a new filter for his vacuum cleaner.
I’m pretty sure that’s why I said ( probably not ) on whether he did that or not. I was saying though that if he had to he could have, not that he did, should have, thought about it etc. Just like the Nuclear Powers, he’s never had to exercise the option but the threat is always there. Clearly, I can’t make this point clearly enough and that’s really the only point I was making. I was responding to a post that said how could he convince partners who did NOT like him enough to lose a $ 20 million dollar case. I mentioned one way he could have done that if he had to.
Well no. Not necessarily. He couldn’t let Jimmy be a lawyer at his precious firm but there’s no way he went all mental case to keep Jimmy his servant.
Well, I think it matters in the (corporate) legal field a lot. Many top corporate law firms won’t hire even great students from middling law schools. That’s why all these schools are obsessed with ranking to the point they often hire their own unemployed graduates just to boost their standing. It may not matter on a practical level, but it’s matters to everyone who makes decisions either because of inertia, culture, or true beliefs.
But you don’t get points for difficulty in general when the stress and adversity was self-inflicted.
In reality, a firm like that would almost NEVER hire a guy like him.
I think the safe assumption is that Chuck has likely told him similar things many times in the past. I think you are giving short shrift to the fact that Chuck seems to have regularly saved his fuck-up brother for years with no appreciation. He probably has heard Jimmy tell him he’s gonna change a thousand times, gotten him out of jams, and put his reputation, money, and position in peril to save Jimmy. It’s terrible to have a screw up sibling, but it’s much harder when that person is a liar and grifter. You can never trust people like that, and many lawyers take trust, honesty, and respectability VERY seriously. Jimmy has compromisable ethics and morals, and most lawyers like Chuck would find that really hard to endorse by hiring him in an official capacity.
Jimmy is/was essentially a conman, and Chuck was constantly enabling that behavior because he felt obligated. Chuck loves Jimmy, but he doesn’t respect him, and I think that is perfectly understandable given their relationship. I think it’s a bit much to expect Chuck to hire him in a position where ethics are held in such a high regard when Jimmy has demonstrated for years that he doesn’t have any ethics.
We know what happens to Jimmy/Saul, and no matter the betrayal he felt from Chuck, it doesn’t explain how he turned into the guy who is helping Walt arrange hits to protect his drug business. If anything, that should tell us that Chuck’s instincts were right here. Circumstances don’t generally turn you into a person who is running scams and aiding and abetting serious crimes when you have other options like practicing law in an above board fashion.
Also consider the fact that Jimmy didn’t even tell Chuck he was going to school. I think that says a lot about their relationship as well.
Actual practice of the law is largely nuts and bolts. I think the idea of the smooth talking lawyer skating by with the gift of gab is largely a myth.
A very good episode (especially the Mike parts) but I have to say I have a problem watching it slightly similar to just one of the many problems I had with Star Wars 1 to 3: we know how a prequel is going to end …
Jimmy is really and truly a “good guy” who we are increasingly beginning to care about and we know going into it that he will be a tragic figure. We know that all of this trying to do the right things will end up resulting in his eventual Cinnabon life. There is no chance he, our well intended good guy, will prevail. His every effort to do the right thing for good reasons is in process of destroying his future.
Now we do not know the exact path that that tragedy will follow and kudos to the show runners, writers, and actors for making the unveiling of that path clever and interesting. But a certain tension is removed by our knowing how it must end … the character we most identify with and like will fall mainly it seems because he’s tried to do the right things.
Something about that is making me enjoy this a bit less the more the show goes on.
Is it just me?
After this episode I hated Jimmy’s brother, but I’ve thought about it more.
We don’t know Chucks side. Not really. We know Saul, and the show is about his exploits and from his point of view. We see a little about his 'drunk man Rolex 'scheme, but that is it.
When Chuck said “the law is sacred, if you mess with that people get hurt”, forget Chuck’s elitism, he could certainly be talking about real events. Slipping Jimmy fake falls in a ma and pop store which sues them out of business because the didn’t follow exact legal procedure. Jimmy got his degree (he passed the Bar, forget the credentials that means something to every lawyer) and then when he told his brother he made the case he had changed. The next episode he pulls some shady crap with the billboard, he lies to Chuck and he finds out. He has not really changed.
Chucks actions were pretty shitty, but that referral would have netted Jimmy 20 grand now and tons more later which was more than fair. It wasn’t fair that Jimmy expected to be partners in his brothers law firm just because. Jimmy cares for his brother, he deserved better treatment, but I’m not convinced his brother was entirely in the wrong.
McKean is an excellent, excellent actor, he seems to throw off energy to other actors, who toss it back. He also has subtle nuances. That scene in HHM’s cleared out conference room when Howard is telling Jimmy that they want the case, but not him, Chuck makes little sputtering, annoyed noises and kind of rolls his eyes, acting like he can’t believe it either - that’s not easy for an actor to do, act like he’s acting.
He did a stint on SNL, skits and impressions … had excellent comic timing.
Bob Odenkirk also worked on SNL - a writer? - he and Jon Stewart were stand-up buddies in the old days. There is something to be said about comics having an extra skill that enables them to become great serious actors.
That last scene between McKean and Odenkirk – definitely Emmy worthy.
And IIRC, he wasn’t running from the cops, he was running from that gang of methed-up skinheads (white supremists?) … that Walter wiped out with the click of a keyring. Is there anyone else chasing Saul?
Sooo, I hope when the show finally catches up to Saul in Omaha, we see him trying to redeem himself in some way, trying to become Jimmy again. To me, Jimmy is already far more likable than any character we saw on Breaking Bad. I want a happy ending for him dammit …
Well, yeah. But the shortage of likeable characters on Breaking Bad isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.
Point taken … and I forgot to mention bad cop, good criminal Mike, who just wants to support his granddaughter … out of guilt, not greed.
I can’t wait to meet Goodman’s staff, I liked sassy receptionist and the two goons (hue and Redhead). It was also hinted in Breaking Bad Jessie had knowledge of Saul first hand so I think near the end Saul will get Pinkman, Skinny Pete and/or Badger out of trouble.
Saul was running from the cops, not the neo-Nazis.
Two DEA agents are missing, presumed murdered. The cops believe that Walt is behind it, and the cops have Skyler in custody and presumably telling all she knows. Which includes detailed knowledge of how deeply Saul is involved in Walt’s activities. THAT’s why Saul decided to disappear, and why he’s never going to reappear if he can help it.
Maybe not conciously. The thing is, the motives of a person with significant mental problems may not be what appears to us to be rational self-interest, or even acknowledged to themselves.
There is pretty obviously a long history between these brothers … in the end, how much of his “illness” is tied up with his messed-up relationship with his brother? It seems to get worse when he disapproves of Jimmy, and better when he approves of him.
I don’t think Chuck is consciously undermining Jimmy all this time. He’s not Dr. Claw trying to think of ways to destroy Inspector Gadget. One of the things he told Jimmy in the conversation at the end was “You know I’m right!” I think he honestly thinks he’s doing what is best for both of them. I don’t think he realizes that he is motivated by caring about his brother, but he’s also motivated by jealousy regarding how some things have come easier to Jimmy.
So maybe it was curiosity, then he saw that it was a real case, and without even meaning to took it over. The $20 million does sound like a legitimate number, it does sound like there are plenty of legitimate victims in this case. It just also happens that while Chuck raises the money in a way to get more of the victims more money, he also raises it higher than Jimmy would be able to handle on his own. And it’s for the best for everyone, because Jimmy must know deep down that he should be in charge of this, because he knows that he is a conman at heart. I imagine Chuck’s thinking would be along those lines.
That’s true, this is probably not the first time that Chuck has heard Jimmy say that he was going to turn things around. He loves but doesn’t respect him is exactly right. It’s an interesting, complex relationship.
But I don’t think Chuck’s instincts were right with Jimmy. I think it’s a tragic case of living up to (or down to) expectations. I was thinking about what would have happened to Jimmy if Chuck had died shortly before Jimmy finished his law degree. Or maybe he didn’t die but he retired and moved to a beach house in the Caribbean and didn’t have as much contact with Jimmy. I don’t know if he would have gotten a position at HHM, it sounds like still he probably wouldn’t, but I think he could have still gotten some sort of position at some smaller law firm, or something making money. And if in this alternate universe he still stumbled upon a case like Sandpiper and brought it to HHM, it would be disappointing if they didn’t hire him, but not devastating like in this universe. He’d be upset but dust himself off and keep on working. I don’t think Jimmy would end up as an Atticus Finch like paragon of virtue, but I don’t think he would have ended up as a *criminal *lawyer. People’s expectations of us does have a big affect on how we act. It has a conscious and subconscious affect.
I can’t blame Chuck for not believing that Jimmy turned his life around. It’s tragic because we can see how hard Jimmy is trying. He does seem to genuinely care about the elderly clients, and he wants to make money but he’s not trying to scam anyone here.
Also, I think Jimmy didn’t tell Chuck that he was getting his law degree was because he had probably told him so many other times that he was getting his life together, and was afraid of disappointing him again. He didn’t want to try for it and then fail and see his brother be disappointed. It just happens that this time he didn’t fail, so he told his brother after it was all done. But since Chuck didn’t see Jimmy trying, he didn’t see how hard he worked and how big of a deal it was.
On the one hand, I want to assume that they’ll just have the two brothers go there separate ways when Jimmy goes full Saul. OTOH, I wonder if Chuck would get so bad as to kill himself when his brother becomes one of ‘those’ lawyers. Putting fake neck braces on people, trying to scam/scare good people out of money because of a fender bender. Defending the worst that NM has to offer…being a criminal lawyer.
We talk about how we know where the series has to end up, but Chuck/Howard/Kim etc where never mentioned* in BB so we have no idea what’s going to happen with those characters other than that they have to go away before WW arrives. I mean, so far the only scene that lost it’s tension is that we knew he wasn’t going to get his finger cut off.
*Unless Kim is one of his ex-wives. But that still leaves a lot of wiggle room.
Right. There is no happy ending for Jimmy. And unlike BB in which we mostly all saw the dark side of Walt very very early on, even when he was trying to fool himself as to his motivations, Jimmy is an earnest guy really trying to do right as best he can. A good tragedy needs the downfall to be from some essential tragic flaw … being a pretty sweet flim flam man hardly seems up to that level.