Interestingly, Chuck said that it was the back-up that was destroyed and that he still had the original.
Then again, Chuck lied. He said the tape was destroyed. How could it be destroyed and still exist at the same time? Somebody ain’t being straight. The law is pretty exact in these matters, which is why Kim sweats it out over the difference in meaning between a comma, a long dash, and a semi-colon.
Chuck did not lie or even bend the truth, he’s being completely straight. Jimmy destroyed a physical cassette tape, we saw it happen and there were 3 witnesses to it. That is what Chuck said happened, and that is what went into the plea deal, including the $2.98 cost to replace it. The fact that it wasn’t the physical tape Chuck used to record Jimmy originally is immaterial, because he never claimed that it was, and what the tape had been used for would be irrelevant to to charges or plea deal. The fact that Chuck had a copy of the data on the tape is also irrelevant as to whether or not Jimmy destroyed the tape, because having a copy of the data elsewhere doesn’t mean that the physical media was not destroyed. I’m not sure why this is a difficult concept for you, but this will be my last repeat of these facts.
I got here late and just want to defend the Jimmy and Kim relationship. 
The show needs Jimmy to be erratic and make many irrational decisions, but they still need the relationship to make sense and I think they’ve pulled it off very well.
For starters, almost everyone in-universe is charmed by Jimmy – not just neutral, actively like him.
Just about the only person who does not, is Chuck, and it’s implied that part of the reason for that is that Chuck is jealous of how “a great many people are fond of Jimmy”.
Jimmy’s great company for Kim, she enjoys just shooting the shit with him, and she is actually thrilled by the grifting thing – remember the look on her face after she did it the first time?
And he’s successful over and over again in the series: the sandpiper thing, getting hired by davis and main and then starting his own practice that’s thriving overnight. IRL he’d simply be rich and successful by now, hands down, case closed.
In-universe he has some weird self-destructive impulses, and Kim can see it, but she must also see he still has great potential to be tremendously successful once he’s in the right place and he’s resolved his issue with his brother.
I have no problem believing that in her heart, she’s besotted with him, and her head can still believe he’s going places.
I agree. I love their relationship.
Though it is odd that in the commercials for Pollos Hermanos they talk about fresh ingredients, herbs, shows chicken grilling and slow roasting, and yet in the restaurant it seems to be just fried chicken.
We shall see. There may be more to this than you are taking into account. I have a feeling damaged/destroyed is like the difference between mostly dead and all dead.
In a random lighter note, apparently Jimmy had some previous experience recording conversations (from Mr. Show, a sketch comedy show Bob Odenkirk was on in the 90s) Mr Show - Bugged Drug Deal - YouTube
The tape issue. Basically Chuck is trapped, and he does not know it. Despite being a super sharp lawyer apparently, how on earth that is possible, well its Hollywood.
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Chuck can be cross examined on the tape. He denies there is an another tape. Howard can be crossed on the fact that he heard Chuck say there was a tape; this was information freely shared with Kim, it would not attract privilege. Attacks Howards credibility.
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Chuck/Howard bring the tape into evidence. Kim asks why did he make two copies. Makes him look like he has it out for his brother and reduces his credibility cause…
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…the issue of the contents of the tape arise. If Chuck tries to suppress it, again credibility drops…
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…On the other hand if the contents are revealed, well on the a face of it there is a major felony being discussed there,* one that Chuck does not repor*t, despite being a lawyer. He cannot fall back on the “love my brother” defense, since he did make a call, get brother arrested and convicted of an offense. So Kim will put it that Chuck played this whole game purposely to get his brother debarred, an abuse of prcocess. This married with Chuck’s well attested opposition to Jimmy being a lawyer means the tape is going to hurt Chuck a lot more than its ever going to hurt Jimmy.
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Add to that the fact Kim and Jimmy will certainly lead with Chuck’s less than stable mental condition, it will be much easier for them to convince the Board that Chuck had it in for Jimmy.
In short, they have flipped the tape to an asset as opposed to a liability.
Gawd. I remember having to flip cassette tapes!
And exactly right.
The case to the Board, with their lower evidenciary bar -
- Charles McGill is seriously cray-cray.
- Charles McGill has a long established belief that James McGill does not deserve to practice law, based on longstanding sibling issues and has in the past taken actions to impede James McGill’s career.
- Despite this James McGill has loved and been loyal to his brother, selflessly taking care of him physically, bringing him food and ice, preventing him from being admitted to a psychiatric institution when such was medical advice, and advocating for his business interests when he was unable to do so himself.
- Charles McGill made a mistake with dates on a major filing and then proceeded to create a complex hustle to manipulate James McGill to say he did it (if that’s what it would take to help his brother’s mental health stabilize). This obsessive mission to destroy James McGill’s career created yet another delusion in Chuck and then required the knowing cooperation of his law partner in creating a decoy tape and even hiring a private investigator to stay 24 hours a day, at substantial cost to the firm and all of its partners, all in service of a mentally ill man’s delusions and obsession with destroying his brother’s career.
Chuck ends having to take the position that he is not delusional, he just has a sensitivity to electricity, and that the medical doctors who have said it’s mental illness and wanted him placed in a psychiatric institution were just wrong and that indeed he’s always known that Jimmy should not be allowed to be a lawyer and that his brother has indeed long taken care of him even as he secretly worked to impede his brother’s career.
Slippin’ Jimmy is good enough, and Chuck is established as crazy enough, that even Howard might not be sure what is the truth by the end of the hearing. Maybe this really is just another one of Chuck’s many delusions? Howard instead may begin to be more concerned about how the rest of the partners may feel abut the misuse of the firm’s funds being used for Chuck’s vendetta and how that plays in regards to the firms reputation with potential and current clients. His loyalty to Chuck may get tested against his ethical obligations to the firm as a whole.
Great analyses. Chuck could be better off just dropping the whole thing now. Can he do that?
I would imagine that once the report has been made to the bar - which the prosecutor was going to do - it is beyond the control of any complaining party.
I agree - great analyses, folks. How many more eps in the season?
Agree that it’s a good analysis, but a nitpick: it was an address (transposed digits) that he seemingly made a mistake with, not dates.
Six.
No. Not because of anything procedural (he can’t stop the hearing, but he could decline to show up and let them know he doesn’t want Jimmy disbarred), but because he believes he is Protecting The Law from Jimmy The Monkey With A Machine Gun. In order to drop it, he’d have to decide that he’s OK with Jimmy practicing law, and OK with Jimmy’s illegal document modification, and he’s got way too much invested in those ideas to back down now. Also, he believes he’s in the right and going to triumph, and believes he’s just a guy with a simple medical condition, not a nutjob waiting to be exposed as crazy. He’s going to go into the hearing prepared to prove that Jimmy broke into his house to destroy the tape of Jimmy confessing to an illegal document modification plot, and he’s got ample proof that that’s exactly what happened. He expects Jimmy to fight the admission of the confession, and to try to argue that he didn’t really break in, or didn’t say it, or ‘well you can’t prove I said it’, none of which are going to work (especially since anytime it’s his word against Jimmy, his cronies will take his word).
What he doesn’t expect is for Jimmy to admit that the breaking and entering and confession all happened and to not argue against them at all. Jimmy is going to claim that Chuck has major mental issues, and that Jimmy has been helping manage and cover them up for a long time. He’ll point to all of the things he’s done to help Chuck, and to the fact that Chuck can’t function on his own in the world - Jimmy had to bring Chuck groceries, now HHM does it and will have to testify to it. He’ll point to the dangerous living conditions that he’s photographed (copper roughly pulled out, lantern on the paper) and to how badly Chuck fared in the hospital. I think the paper mike handed him was Rebecca’s address, and that he’ll call her as a surprise witness. I also suspect that Ernesto is going to turn up at the trial, he’s had a lot of contact with Chuck and Jimmy and is a really good witness to tie things together.
He’ll point out that he’s helped Chuck even as Chuck turns more and more against Jimmy, he will probably get Chuck and Howard to admit that Howard wanted to hire Jimmy but Chuck blocked it. He’ll point out that if he was out to get Chuck, he could have had Chuck committed at the hospital very easily and ended up in control of Chuck’s money (the doctor will testify to this if she gets called, and Howard will have to too). When it gets down to the tape, he’ll claim that he didn’t touch the documents but that he admitted to it on the tape to try to keep his brother’s condition from getting worse. When he broke in he was both angry at and worried about his brother, and that his brother was going to make a fool of himself with the tape. Chuck’s document modification theory works against him here, if Jimmy is willing and able to sneak in and change documents as part of a plot to discredit his brother, why didn’t he sneak in to steal the tape instead of kicking in the door while shouting at Chuck?
So Jimmy might get a slap on the wrist, but he’s not going to get disbarred for what’s now clearly him getting stressed and trying to save his brother from a bad decision. Meanwhile the entire bar sees Chuck as a crazy, vindictive nutjob who’s willing to abuse the legal system to persecute his own brother, and will probably want to disbar him. I suspect Chuck will have a breakdown somewhere in here before they actually do it, and may very well die alone in a hospital because I’m sure Jimmy is banned from his medical care at this point. I also don’t think this will all play out next episode, I think the hearing will take two episodes to complete.
For fun I poked back at the thread for the finale of last season and it’s interesting to compare stuff from then to now. I had forgotten about the copy guy, but I don’t think he’s going to get called in. I said I wouldn’t be surprised if Howard dropped Chuck, but Chuck is still part of HHM (I suspect Howard is liking the ride less and less however). I didn’t buy Mike’s strong vendetta against Hector, but this season explained that it’s because of the bystander being killed. We saw that Jimmy didn’t know about the tape, so his ‘Nixon’ comment was dramatic irony. Also, my prediction then seems to mostly match what I’m predicting now (though Howard isn’t as anti-Chuck as I thought then):
That doesn’t help, but I think the vast majority of the vendetta is because of Hector threatening Mike’s granddaughter. Mike has been consistently shown since Breaking Bad to be more motivated out of love and care for her than anything else.
Two things about two characters.
Howard
Howard is a man who does not let his personal feelings get in the way of his professional obligations. To the extent that when dealing with him, everyone around assumes that said obligations are in consonance with his actual feelings. Every time his personal opinion(s) of Jimmy (or even Kim) have been displayed, Howard has illustrated that he actually likes him.
Jimmy
He gets along with everyone. People like him. We saw him with Rebecca last season, charming her despite Chuck’s efforts. The prosecutor Jimmy often butted heads with, came in and said that he would try and get the hearing moved up so Jimmy could be released, the judge granted him bail easily and even said she hoped he returned to the Bar soon.
The way I think its going to play out is that as a result of all that has been said both in this post and above, Jimmy gets off. Chuck’s cronies are charmed by him.
And Howard is the wildcard, I think he is coming around to the view that his professional obligations are now the same as his personal feelings, that Jimmy is a hustler, but at heart, a decent person and a good lawyer, and Chuck is a vindictive asshole and liability.
I predict in the end all of this hits Chuck at once, his fellows believe Jimmy and Howard betrays him by telling what Howard thinks, I can see that being what pushes Charles McGill over the edge.
I think most of us predict that at this point. The question I have is whether this will be a mid-season climax or whether they’re going to milk this one looming case until episode 10. Kind of like I expected the Kettleman story in Season 1 to be dragged out across the whole season, but instead they wrapped that up mid-season and moved onto Sandpiper and Jimmy’s past life in Cicero.
What are the odds that Chuck ends up in a competency hearing of his own out of this and loses his license?