From the insider podcast, re what is motivating Mike’s daughter-in-law:
Kelley Dixon, the host of the podcast and an editor on the show, had basically the same question we have… was she faking it, was she deluded, etc. She asked Vince Gilligan, and he avoided the question. Obviously a non-answer, but at least it means they’re aware of the ambiguity… it’s not like they thought they were making it clear that she was lying, and we all just missed it, or something like that.
I hope that Michael McKean gets an award out of this show. He’s always been a good comedic actor, even when he was Lenny, but his dramatic talents are a revelation. He’s brilliant as Chuck.
Wow, sure that’s not a typo? Aaron Paul was born in '79, and I always thought Jesse was closer to my age (1982) than my little sister’s age ('89). Actors are always playing wildly different ages than their own, though, so I shouldn’t be too surprised. Was there any clue at all during Breaking Bad to Jesse’s age? Besides just “pretty young compared to Walter”? I’m wondering where the Wiki got that birth date.
Definitely not a typo. I got the impression at the beginning that Jesse had not been out of high school long at all, so ~19 at the start makes sense. I looked a little deeper in the Wiki and they mention that:
“Crawl Space” is S04E11. I believe there was supposed to be a 2 year gap in the show’s timeline between S3 and S4 (and possibly more time between the first and second half of S5?), which explains how he supposedly ends up being 27 at the end, and no older than 20 at the beginning.
The numbers are still slightly fuzzy without knowing the exact timeline (if it was ever even established), and I still can’t find the cite for how they got that exact birthdate, but it roughly adds up.
OK even weirder, Wikipedia’s entry on Jesse gives a specific b-day of 9/14/84, and in fact has the same opening line about him but with a different date:
Very strange, since neither gives a specific citation for that info. Also, the body text and the little summary blurb are in direct conflict on Wikia, since the summary says Sep. 24th rather than the 14th.
I did check the episode “Crawl Space”, and there’s a shot where there’s a shelf with labeled blood packs for Gus, Mike, and Jesse, but I can’t make out any DOB. A few seconds later he picks up one of his own blood packs and on the flip side there’s a bigger label with even more info, but at least to me it’s impossible to read anything besides A negative.
Anyway, we can assume he was born somewhere between the dates given from '84-'89. 
Seems like overkill. You could threaten him and he’d likely leave the state and shut up for life.
Walter was turning 50 in S1 premier. He was turning 52 when he came back to New Mexico from New Hampshire at the end of S5. Two years.
Re: Jessie’s age and Mike’s granddaughter. It’s really not that important. Obsessing over minutiae. What ever happened to “suspension of disbelief”?
I agree - just got curious after seeing the oddly specific birthdate and then later, the discrepancy between Wiki and Wikia. I think somebody probably tried to read the label off the blood pack in that episode to come up with the date and possibly misread it. The doctor definitely says in his dialogue that Jesse is 25 at that point, though.
Ultimately though no, it doesn’t really matter.
And lest we forget David St. Hubbins in Spinal Tap.
Hey, I’m impressed with all the research, man!
I love Michael McKean, and this is not sarcastic in the least : I thought he was fantastic in the movie “Clue” with Tim Curry and Leslie Ann Warren.
He played a nervous, accident prone, bumbling idiot kind of guy until the very end :
Until it was revealed that he worked for the FBI and wasn’t really gay
Well, Jesse died in Colorado at age 29 in 2014 after the legalization of marijuana:
[Marijuana Overdoses Kill 37 in Colorado On First Day of Legalization](Crime Marijuana Overdoses Kill 37 in Colorado On First Day of Legalization Jan 02, 2014)
Jan 02, 2014
The police chief of Annapolis, MD actually cited this article to the State legislature:
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story!
Part of what I like about the show is that James McGill really isn’t Saul Goodman at the time of the show. He was Slippin’ Jimmy and keeps slippin’ (pun intended) back into that role a bit, but he’s definitely got a moral compass. It may not always point right, but he really seems to care about a certain brand of justice - putting in a ton of effort for those $700 public defender checks isn’t required, he seems to really care about the Sandpiper residents, and of course returning the county money from the Kettlemans. He has no problem ripping off the obnoxious rich guy or faking evidence to get Hummer guy out of trouble, but there’s a clear logic to those being OK to him (rich guy is an asshole who needs some cumuppance, no one’s getting hurt by Hummer guy). But we can see how his attempts to be mostly legit keep blowing up, and him losing more and more patience with not being a con man.
I don’t agree - Jimmy idolizes Chuck, and put in a lot of work to become an actual lawyer. He didn’t just get a fake cert, he did correspondence courses and passed the bar while holding down a regular job and not making a living from scamming. That took some serious time and effort over the course of years, that wasn’t just a one-time quick thing. And Jimmy clearly shows a talent for law and unusual thinking, like the way he got into elder’s heads. Jimmy with Chuck helping him reign in the scam side and learn what’s not OK could be great, and he wouldn’t really need to understand being legit to do it, he could just follow Chuck’s lead.
I think Chuck has pretty much set Jimmy up to fail - he saved him from the charges in Chicago, got him started leading a legit life, but artificially kept him from succeeding while keeping the interference secret. IMO if Chuck had bailed Jimmy out of Chicago and gotten him a job, but then told him essentially ‘you’re on your own’, or at least been honest about him working at the law firm, we would not be looking at Saul Goodman - we’d be looking at Elder Law guy who breaks rules he can get away with, and scams expensive tequila from rich jackasses for fun. It’s the betrayal by his brother that seems to be really pushing him to the criminal lawyer business.
Yes.
I haven’t seen the next episode, “Gloves,” yet so I don’t know what new light it sheds on Chuck’s character. I did think it was interesting that this episode showed (again, I suppose) that Chuck isn’t wrong about Jimmy. He most certainly did set Jimmy up to fail on many occasions, but he also knows his brother. The problem is that he doesn’t want to be wrong about Jimmy. His greatest fear is not that Jimmy will embarrass him or ruin the case against Sandpiper or discredit the law firm, but that he won’t. So instead of helping Jimmy change, he undermines him and sabotages him just for the satisfaction of being proven right about what a loser his brother is.
Exactly.
Anyone figure out who Rebecca Bois is? The name on the sheet music that Chuck gently brushed with his finger?
I have to say, if I were in legal trouble, I probably would call Saul. Wouldn’t hurt to have Mike as your attorney’s investigator, either…
Since I’m re-watching “Breaking Bad” Each week on Sundance I finished Season 5, Episode 2, Madrigal today. You know, the episode that opens with Herr Schuler killing himself in the Men’s room.
In the timeline of the Series, in this episode, Walt is 51. So we’ve gone about a year and a half into the BB story. In this episode (where Mike talks to Lydia, the first time we meet her in the series, in the same diner that Salamanca meets with Mike in “Gloves Off” ) when Mike is being grilled by the DEA we not only find out that Mike used to be a cop in Philadelphia, but that his granddaughter is 10 years old.
So we can guess that Kaylee is at least 8 1/2 years old at the beginning of BB. Because Kaylee looks to be about 4 years old in BCS, I think we have about a window of 4 years prior to BB when all we’re watching happens.
BCS is explicitly in '02/'03 and BB starts in '08. The granddaughter’s age doesn’t fit exactly, but that’s how it is.
