Jimmy tried to get a refund for his malpractice insurance, but the company refused over the phone. He went in in person to try to talk someone into refunding him the money since he isn’t a lawyer. He didn’t have his account number with him, so they had to look him up and that introduced mention that he’s Chuck’s brother. When they refused to give him a refund since the insurance is still effective, he ‘broke down’ and talked about how miserable he is and all of the mistakes and travails he’s had… including that he aggravated his brother’s mental health condition, which the insurance company was unaware of.
Finding out about Chuck’s condition led them to raise the rates for HHM. Howard was annoyed with this and called a meeting with the insurance company, him, and Chuck. The meeting ended with Chuck angrily ranting at the insurance company that what they were doing is illegal, and swearing to pretty much call down the wrath of god on them in a courtroom if they didn’t back down immediately. Chuck expected Howard to follow him on the crusade, but Howard said essentially “Chuck this is the last straw, you’re acting irrational and you’re dragging the firm into it without consulting me, it’s time for you to quietly retire”. Chuck responded with “OK, then I’m taking my shares of the firm out, and I know that paying me that much will trash the firm, so you’re going to have to keep me”. Howard responded by taking out enough loans to buyout Chuck, presented him with the first check, then made him give a retirement speech on the spot and walked him out of the building. After this, Chuck had his final breakdown and suicide.
It’s not actually clear in the scene how planned his actions were. A competent lawyer not having the account number with him seems a bit odd, and is a very convenient way to ‘accidentally’ mention his brother’s name. On the other hand, it’s possible that he did just go in to try to get a refund, and the mention of his brother pissed him off and made him decide to stick it to Chuck on the spur of the moment.
Whatever floats your boat, amigo. I find BCS excessively slow at times too, but it’s a different kind of drama. Overall I enjoy the character arcs and I’m often surprised by where they decide to go next.
Yes! Excellent. Finally, a peek at Saul. Let Howard take the blame, he hates him anyway. And who cares if a damned fish dies.
Only two people ever meant anything to Jimmy - Chuck and Kim. He knocked himself out to impress/please/help them … got a law degree through the mail, chose to specialize in elder law, took a job he hated with Davis & Main to make Chuck proud, also so he could pay off Kim’s law school loans and maybe start a practice, etc.
Chuck crushed him when he said he never gave a damn about what happened to Jimmy. Maybe he’s starting to abandon hope of catching a break, to hell with idealism, he’s tired of trying to do the “right thing” - which goes against his grain anyway.
I love watching Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut. I don’t care how slow the show may be at times, watching Mike and wondering what he’s thinking and planning is fascinating.
I can’t agree with this. He definitely cared a lot about his parents, he was bothered by his father getting conned and wanted to help protect him, and we saw that he was clearly distraught when his mother died. He had a wife and him being upset by her cheating on him was what prompted the fateful Chicago Sunroof incident that led him to work at HHM. Marco clearly meant a lot to Jimmy too, he was very glad to see him and his death was not an easy thing for Jimmy to deal with. His parents died sometime before the show, his wife left him before the move to Albequerque, and Marco died in the first season so these probably are the only two people left who mean anything to Jimmy, but they’re not the only ones ever.
(real nitpick, and completely irrelevant) did anyone else question the bench where Jimmy is sitting in front of the burned wreckage of Chuck’s house ? He’s sitting on a bench, appears to be across the street from Chuck’s house, really despondent and Kim comes along and encourages him to “go home”.
But he’s sitting on a bench, across the street that is facing AWAY from the street (his back is to Chuck’s house). Like the opposite of a bus bench. Except in downtown areas, I’ve never seen a bench placed purely for the use of pedestrians’ convenience.
It has the appearance of one of those composite material benches you would find in a park, but I don’t recall ever seeing that Chuck lived across the street from a park. It always appeared he lived in a typical suburban area.
Oh, I’m about 1000% sure he has no idea the coast is clear, that’s what makes it so tragic. The BB timeline took up two years of in-show time, from Walt’s 50th to 52nd birthdays. Hank found out about Gale through the Whitman book some time between birthday 51 and 52, and soon after that Walt went underground in NH, and Saul took the fast train to Omaha at the same window of time. His Cinnabon life is apparently well established, he’s known to his crew and the people around the mall, he’s established, which means that he’s been there a while and the BB events are well in the past–and yet, he’s still living every day looking over his shoulder, waiting for someone to finger him, that shot out of the dark that’s never going to come because everyone’s dead. He’s effectively dead–everything that made him Jimmy and Saul is buried and gone and only sad pallid paranoid Gene is left, a shambling mall zombie relic. It’s a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, that such larger than life characters be reduced to so little.
The “slowness” of the show is what makes every single beat of that tragedy mean something–you don’t lose a single bit of the awfulness of what’s happening in the relief of fast banter or cheap laughs and nonstop bangbang action. Every step has its consequence, and the audience gets to experience it in the same crushing, inexorable way the characters do. Anyone complaining the show is slow and/or boring is simply not understanding or appreciating the artistry of what’s being shown.
I’m going to miss this show when it’s over, as it inevitably must be. I wonder if they’ll go ahead and figure out a way to show all the other stuff Saul was up to as he was dealing with Walt and Jesse–that would be a feat of epic proportions.
I have a vague recollection of Chuck living across from a park, but I wouldn’t swear on it. It is odd that the bench wouldn’t be facing the street though.
So, who gets Chuck’s money? Especially the $8 million Howard promised him last season, and the $1+ million dollar check Howard wrote him as a down payment? I’m surprised the subject hasn’t even come up. The insurance money for the house fire alone is probably a fortune.
Jimmy’s want ad days may be over soon. Or not. Chuck isn’t the kind of guy not to have an up-to-date will and testament. And Jimmy has not been on his good side the last few years. But who else? Chuck had no one. Did he leave everything to his ex wife? A charity? HHM? And if he didn’t have a will, does that mean Jimmy gets everything?
Awesome research! They likely had to build a burnt out house that looked similar due to not wanting to burn the actual one down. Then they put the bench where it would be most effective from a storytelling point of view.
Even if he knew that no one from the criminal side was after him, he would still want to hide from law enforcement. Hell, a show or two about the investigations that surely followed after Hank and Walt’s deaths might be interesting.
I remember an episode where Jimmy and Chuck are sitting on a park bench. Jimmy is happy to be working on a case with Chuck - ‘the two McGill brothers, side by side, righting wrongs, knocking off the bad guys.’ Chuck starts eyeing a transformer. Jimmy tells him to take off his shoes, ‘feel the grass between your toes.’ Chuck does, then says they should go back in, they have work to do.
BTW, yes, I should change what I said to - “Only two people mean anything to Jimmy - Chuck and Kim.” I was thinking about his present-day life.
Thing is, though, the fact that he’s not even trying to find out what’s up or figure out an angle just highlights the tragedy–Saul got broken and all that’s left is Gene. Poor schmuck is just getting comprehensively dismantled by life, aided and abetted by his own poor choices.
It’s gratifying and sobering that everything doesn’t work out in the end, and we’ve known that since BCS began. Still, it would be nice to see Gene catch a break once in a while.
They should probably drop a reminder that Mike feels crushed by guilt about the death of his son, and his feelings for his son’s daughter are all the more intense because of it.
I’d love if if they would. I expect all BB fans have questions about what Saul was doing.
But you’re right: it would be a major writing challenge.