@@Ray_D_Tutto You’re right. They didn’t know him. They also didn’t think they themselves were guilty. They thought they deserved the money. Despite that, I still think there is some truth to what she said.
@@justincruz5720 at that point in time, no, I don't believe he was, he was playing it straight until the "I'll never do that mistake again" scene, but I do think it was foreshadowing (pastshadowing?) To his days as saul goodman on breaking bad
@@Ray_D_Tutto If you watched the show, you'd remember that the reason why was due to Chuck. Chuck smeared Jimmy's name through the mud in their business. The kettlemens were being advised by HHM prior to Jimmy, Howard was a pawn of Chuck who was doing this badmouthing on his behalf. Howard basically convinced the Kettlemens that Jimmy was the sort of lawyer guilty people hire. Which means Jimmy is a criminal lawyer (as in he commits crimes to be a lawyer)
In many ways, Chuck was right about Jimmy, but he also fueled his brother’s turn into Saul Goodman by putting him down time and time again. Jimmy and Chuck’s relationship is one of the most interesting I’ve ever seen in fiction because neither brother is completely in the wrong or in the right about the other. It’s very realistic since real life sibling rivalries/relationships work this way.
Chuck may have been right but if he had just tried for one second in his damned life he could have changed anything. Sometimes the worst sin is to watcha crime happen even though you have the ability to stop it, and betrayal of Family is the worst of all sins.
He's a liar, manipulator, borderline sociopath, scammer, shady, vengeful, unethical... Even as a child he chose a stranger stealing from his family business over his own father, a huge betrayal to his own family. He may not be "evil" in the sense like Darth Vader or Gus Fring......but it's not inaccurate saying he's a villain. Seen whiplash? Calling Fletcher "evil" is a stretch....yet he's terrifying, and quite villainous, especially the last 20 minutes of the film and that switcheroo he pulled.
I hope people agree with me here, but I think Mike deserves his own episode. He committed worse crimes than Jimmy/Saul, but many of the fans give him a pass because he's portrayed in a more sympathetic light. Mike's choices to commit horrific crimes were still evil, and I think an episode about him would be very interesting.
@@theblackbasketball He thought that his morals and decisions triumphed everyone, he thought he could kill people and make money out of it, because he decided that he's a "good" criminal. And then after Nacho's Father shatters Mike's world view, instead of changing for the better, Mike fully embraces his brutal dark nature and becomes a full-time compliant murderer for Gus. He thinks that he has the right to subtract Walter and Jesse's hard earnt-money for a "hazard" pay for a group of people that are retroactively detrimental to their entire operation, and refused to take any other path because they were "his guys". So because Mike is too much of a narcissist to admit that hiring those guys was a mistake, he doubles down even further and affirms that they all equally MUST pay up to his people so they could keep quiet, and effectively ensured that Walter and Jesse were held hostage by Mike's artificial legacy costs. Mike's guys where exactly that; MIKE'S guys. They are his responsibilty and therefore after Gus's death, they become his loose end to tie up, and yet he forces it upon the rest of the group to pay for Mike's arrogance. What makes Mike even worse in Breaking Bad than in Better Call Saul was that he already accepted defeat once, when he realised he was wrong after 6 seasons of BCS, Nacho's dead breaks it down for him and makes him realise that he isn't morally superior in any way or manner, he's just as vengeful and hateful as the Salamanca's he swore to kill. So for the rest of his time in Breaking Bad he refuses to be in a situation where he's ever wrong again, and refused to believe his nihilistic and work-commited view could be any different, refusing to accept that Gus is an evil man, and that he is willing to hire Neo-Nazis and child murderers just because it's "part of the job". He's effectively the same as Walter White's Heisenberg caricature, except what makes him narcissistic is that he believes he still somehow ethically superior to everyone else around him in the game specifically Heisenberg himself. That's why I believe Mike is a horrendously evil narcissistic old man. Still one of my top five characters though, for sure.
@@ibrothebro6864 I disagree with a lot of what you say. He doesn’t think of himself as a “good criminal” at all. Go look at the episodes where he knew he became a dirty cop by taking bribes. He knew he was doing a bad thing and he even stated he regrets it greatly in the desert with saul because it did result in his sons death inadvertently because his son was a good cop. And then you bring up Nachos father like he didn’t already have a similar experience when he had to kill another good man, Werner Ziegler. That sent him into a bad state of mind where he didnt even want to be by his family which is what he was doing all this crime for. Next the hazard pay argument is just idiotic to me. They were paying the men in prison so they wouldn’t snitch on them because they were helping them with their business. It effected all of them, not just mike. Walt got too anxious and ended up killing all of them and mike anyway tho. And you say he refuses to see gus as an evil man and all I have to say to that is did you even watch better call saul? He goes against gus many times and sometimes successfully like when he protects nachos dad or unsuccessfully like when he wanted to save werner but gus needed to punish him. So pretty much I see Mike as a guy who is evil for sure because he helps commit many crimes but I think he similar to Gus in the sense that they do it for strictly business and they are both very professional. And we see Mike as a good guy outside of his working life as well. He acknowledges he isnt a good man many times but he definitely isnt the close to as evil as a person as Gus or Walt.
In all fairness, with the whole poisoning Brock aspect, Saul did not know about Walt doing that. He was utterly disgusted that he wanted nothing more to do with Walt before Walt intimidated him to keep being his lawyer.
This just goes to show how brilliant and ambiguous the character is. Is he feigning ignorance to protect himself or is he fully aware? Do we just see flashes of Jimmy when Saul does/recommends the right thing, or is Jimmy the authentic, unrealized version of the character that has been buried? I guess it boils down to is Jimmy calling the shots or is Saul? Seems like a combination of both.
@@fareseno no. Walt threatens home a couple times. He specifically says "you're done when I say you're done". And Saul knew he had been involved in some deaths at that point so it was a very real threat. He even tried it again at the end when they were both in the basement. Walt tried to intimidate Saul into going with him, but was too sick to keep up the image of a tough guy.
@@charmander466 that not true, saul literally say in the ending "i was terrified but not for long, i saw an opportunity, big money, and i took it, held it tight, and my next every morning day has been helping Walter white empire, i was more than a willing participant". It's really funny that you say that because Jimmy used that story of him being the underdog in Heisenberg game as his checkmate to get out of prison, before he redeemed himself. while in reality, like so many characters in BB/BCS, saul was in the game because he's liked it.
The thing I absolutely love about the way Jimmy/Saul/Gene is written is the fact that if you heard about him in real life, or only saw him at certain points of his life, you would easily label him as an irredeemable evil scumbag. But because we’re given an empathetic look at his entire history you’re forced to see him as a complex and nuanced human deserving of redemption.
almost seems like a template on which we should view all people in society thought of as evil...nah nevermind, would solve too many problems by understanding behavior. we need problems to generate money, great system lol
That's the human story though. More people are complex than fairly simple. Nobody is two dimensional. Even the worst people in history had a few redeemable qualities when you get a glimpse of their personal lives. But as a character from a blockbuster movie once said, "it's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me". Some of the worst people have done great things, and some of the greatest people have done the worst things. Everyone is capable of good or evil, and we all commit acts of both (either intentionally or unintentionally) throughout our lives.
it's like the fundamental attribution error. we attribute other people's behaviour to their personality and OUR OWN behaviour to our situation. we fail to see what leads people to do bad things, unless it's about us.
Chuck in Season 2 is not only a good example of a Lawful Evil, but also the deadly sin of Envy. Accompanied by his OCD, Chuck couldn’t understand how people would like Jimmy more than him, let alone his own parents. He’s the perfect villain for an anti-hero like Saul Goodman.
At some point, it is understandable to sympathize with Chuck. He had done everything right in a sense yet was still overlooked for his more charismatic brother. A brother who had screwed up again and again yet was always given a pass. However, Chuck didn't help matters by constantly antagonizing Jimmy and essentially helping create the monster that was Saul Goodman.
@DangerousBoxx1 The whole point of the final episode is actually that Jimmy takes all crimes of both series combined onto his shoulders, "It was All only Me!" , and thus accepts his brother's idea of law: - The 7 years prison-deal , plus the one year in hell he already had behind him, would have been already the perfect match to the 8-years sentence in Dostojevsky's Crime and Punishment. But, okay, Jimmy's truly infinite hunger for recognition ( Kim, Jury, all criminals, himself, of course the audience; - so about everybody) also played a major role. ^^
Jimmy feels like such a realistic character in the BB/BCS shows. He's not as bad as most of the other characters but he is a terrible person no doubt. I think the best part though is that he ultimately redeems himself.
I wouldn’t say he totally redeems himself. The damage his actions caused can’t be undone, particularly with those whose deaths he had a hand in. Also while there is a certain nobility in taking the entire blame for he and Kim’s wrongdoing at the end, lying to the court to let her off the hook for her evil actions was wrong.
When he is intertwined to return to the bar he says that he will honor his brother and the name McGill, it was a lie at the moment, but at the very end, he did honored Chuck and the law by deciding to turn himself in and confess his crimes.
@@felixjohnston3402 She wasn't left of the hook though. Jimmy said in front on the marshall on the plane that he had extra information regarding Howard's death that involved Kim, which led to Suzanne calling Kim which led Kim showing up on court that day. That is the reason why he lies, not to let her off the hook. Remember that she confessed and left herself vulnerable to a civil suit by Howard's widow.
@@felixjohnston3402 You missed the point...His actions are not fixabile but for the first time he doesn't make a scheme to shift the blame from him. He finally owns it up and takes responsability for the choices he's made and for the first time takes the blame for someone else to let them live their life instead of using them as a scapegoat
One thing that stunned me about this show (as someone who watched Breaking Bad first) this show successfully made me forget about how Saul was in BB. By the end of season 5, I'd completely forgotten the kind of man he was compared to the Jimmy we've come to know. When Kim breaks up with him, and the show immediately skips ahead to the BB time era, I felt shell shocked by his personality. It was so polarizing to see him as "Saul Goodman" after watching this character grow. Just goes to show how far someone can fall, even a relatively good hearted person.
so true. started the show with hopes to see more of saul's shenanigans. but once jimmy actually fully adapted into his saul persona... it didn't feel the same.
@@blap9467 If you watch his first meeting with Walt in BB, he actually says that his real name is McGill, and that he's just pretending to be Jewish "for the homeboys"
I think you missunderstood the Time Travel question. Jimmy's actual answer would be to travel back in time to when Chuck first got sick and Jimmy started helping him. This is implied by the flashback appearing seemingly out of nowhere in the episode, AND the fact that Chuck is reading the actual novel "The Time Machine". Sure, Jimmy says he would go back in time to make a lot of money, but this is also the Jimmy that was bottling down all his feelings regarding Chuck's death and their relationship. Jimmy had never been motivated by greed. If he had, he wouldn't have returned the Kettleman's stolen money. He was motivated by recognition, hence why he's so hurt whenever he feels someone is looking down on him, and why he always tries so hard to be acknowledged by Chuck.
@@charliemalick8985 and extra devastating considering that if he and Chuck really were able to make amends, it's possible the 'Jimmy McGill' the audience & Kim knew would still be kicking (rather than slipping).
Yeah Jimmy never really striked me as a greedy person, as Saul it was more so just him making money for the sake of making money, not because of greed but just for something to do in order to distract himself from his past and try and prove his own value to himself.
Saul is the only anti-hero I can think of that doesn't use violence (mostly) to solve his problems, instead, he uses his charisma and his intelligence of the law to get what he needs. EDIT: OK for those who believe Jimmy is a bad person. You are right but I don't think he's a villain because although he committed so many crimes he never took pleasure in hurting people unless he was scamming them. Nevertheless, I think of him as an anti-hero on the fact that he was mostly forced to become eviler just to survive.
@@mooks500 Yes that’s why he’s always been the PROTAGONIST as he’s been the main character since the start of his own show. But he’s still a anti-villain to villain entirely.
@@nhandinh7404 lol yes he is, Saul Goodman is NOT just simply a “person” at all, he’s a terrible person entirely who allows and promotes evil to flourish for his benefit. He’s WAY more than just a “person” at all here. That fact that you actually unironically say that he’s “nOthIng lIkE eIthEr” and tried to ignore all his actions that have negatively effected so many people and forgot about the reason WHY he’s in prison for his whole life shows that you don’t know what your talking about or deliberately dishonest about the situation. Saul Goodman IS a bad person that promotes evil.
Saul is a good example of "If the world won't give me a chance to be an honest man, then I guess I'm not an honest man" If his brother had been even just a little more supportive I think Jimmy might have been able to stay an honest lawyer
Doubtful, but at least possible. In my experience, at least when it comes to lying, but I believe it is the same with all immoral actions, it’s like this: Once you start, it’s easy to continue, but hard to stop, because it’s so much easier to just keep doing it. If you admit to lying, everyone will know you’re a liar and won’t trust you, regaining their trust will be hard, and your brain will reflexively come up with reasons why you’re not really lying. It’s easier to tell someone “I have a test tomorrow” rather than telling them you don’t like them and don’t want to hang out with them, but the truth would be better in the long run, saves everyone a lot of hassle. Saying you messed up is harder than just to pretend it wasn’t your fault. Jimmy had long ago opened the door to being dishonest, and even when he was doing better, he pulled pranks on Harold, cut corners to get better time slots et.c. He refused to do anything according to the rules. He was never going to make it as a lawyer, the temptation to go rogue would always be just one bad day away and he wouldn’t be able to resist if it meant an easy score.
I think he would’ve been a chaotic good or at least chaotic neutral lawyer. He probably would’ve been a schmoozy sleazy lawyer whose only goal would be to help his clients, but he could also use that for good
@@wattsnottaken1 what’s ironic is that Chuck, like Jimmy, also has a scheming manipulative conman side to him. He just has access to legal means to do it. Jimmy may con someone out of the cash in their wallet, but Chuck manipulated a client to steal their business from Kim, he manipulated Howard’s sense of duty and guilt to make him reject Jimmy, and he preyed on Jimmy’s attachment & emotions to him to bait a confession out of him (knowing that NM is a one party consent state so he could legally record him). He even used Ernie as a pawn in that whole scheme, knowing he’d be fired. At least when Jimmy used Irene as a pawn, he felt guilty and righted a wrong. Jimmy also punches up. Chuck punches down.
Sadly life forces some of us in paths we not intended, I for example after being humilliated múltiple times by my family or work boss I become a really ruthless guy, "My uncle us sick and need money?" Not my problem "That worker make múltiples mistakes" just fire him, i will not take the time to train him if HR is hiring people without experience in the field So if people see that will call me a bad person, yet they would not know how many times I loaned money to my family that never pay me back, or how many hours and resources i put in my work to only we mocked when I wanted they to pay foto the extra hours or I wanted a vacant with better pay only for them to give it to somebody without knowledge that did not stick for more than a month
Nah, Jimmy always had that bad side to him and nothing or no one could change him. I hated Chuck sometimes, but he was the only one to see Jimmy for who he really was, and held him back because he knew he'd do more harm than good
@@RWM0 but jimmy isn't as selfish as Chuck is or as chuck thinks jimmy is. He always tries to help wherever he can but just cannot help cutting corners and cheat. It's like Mike's analogy of bad guy vs criminal. Jimmy is definitely a criminal and it's not entirely coz of chuck
For anyone who hasn’t seen Better call Saul, it is fantastic. You have to accept it is a slow burner like breaking bad. The detail is what makes these two series so amazing
@@Boomi_Dog Season 1 was way better than i expected too though 2 was pretty boring as they didn't have a lot of interesting storylines but season 3 to first half of season 6 is some of the greatest TV ever imo
I'm glad that with Better Call Saul they realised that keeping things 'slow' was preferable. As Breaking Bad picked up pace (and I guess there was pressure to do this, as it made it more popular) the quality declined. It's like BCS was made for those of us who enjoyed the early seasons of BB most.
Vince Gilligan summed up the motivations of Walt and Jimmy very well in one sentence: “Walt wants to be respected; Jimmy wants to be loved” That’s why Walt got into the business. He not only wants the money. He wants to PROVIDE. Thats why what Gus said to him resonated so much. Thats why he rejected the grey matter offer: it was charity, and he’s not providing for his family. That’s why he went down in a blaze of glory, killing Jack’s gang and spending not a single second in a prison cell, leaving one last masterpiece as Heisenberg by destroying a powerful neo nazi gang and the chief distributor of blue meth. Jimmy stayed in the law and the Saul Goodman persona because nobody in the world loves him anymore. Chuck is dead, Kim left him, and he has all but himself to drown his sorrows. So he turned to being a lawyer, not allowing his life to be interrupted by any moment of silence and introspection. Jimmy was only able to confess once he realized that the only person in the world also confessed because of him, realizing that Kim still values him no matter what he has done. He chose the 86 year sentence in ADX over a 7 year one in a cushy prison because he knows that to be loved is much, much more valuable than having all the material possession in the world.
After watching the show’s finale I felt that the message was: “it’s never too late to change”. Even if your whole life you were someone, you can always try to be somebody else. Even in the last minute of the last episode of the last season.
He finally accepted who he was. He started as Jimmy McGill, became Saul Goodman and was kinda forced to be Gene Takavic, but in the final episods, it all rolled back, getting him arrested as Gene, negotiating as Saul and in the end, declaring that he is James McGill. Not Jimmy, but James, the name his parents gave him at birth, the name he really started with, but never was until then.
@@metalbrute4795 I think that's naive. We shouldn't ignore the fact that elders typically have a lot less control over their lives, legally and socially, and that they suffer more physical pain and limitations due to aging. There's a power dynamic there that you don't get with most people.
One thing: It is unknown whether or not Jimmy actually embezzled the 14000 dollars from his parents business. The show specifically leaves it ambiguous as to whether or not chuck was capping about how much Jimmy took from his family. It’s just as likely that jimmy’s father lost the money but giving it away.
Yeah, idk why he lead with that for chuck and Jimmy's relationship instead of the underlying animosity chuck had since his parents loved their 'golden child's jimmy
It's almost certainly a combination of the two. Jimmy explained (to Marco, I think) that his dad was too nice and gave a away too much. Chuck attributed the missing money entirely to Jimmy. As we're showing both the dad giving money away AND Jimmy taking money in the same scene, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
It's most likely a 70-30 ratio. Jimmy even if he was thief wouldn't have stolen entirety of 14k since his con was to get away with it. Jimmy at most would've stolen 30% of 14k while the rest was taken by deadbeats who came to know that Jimmys dad would hand them a huge sum for a sob story. Other small amount also would have added but I don't think Jimmy stole majority of that 14k
I don't think Jimmy ever wanted to work for the Salamancas. Nacho kept Jimmy's number after the desert incident. Then they kept coming to him. Jimmy appeared to be afraid to say no to them. He also seemed to be partly motivated out of desperation to pay bills. He was afraid of Nacho, he was terrified of Lalo.
Oh he definitely had his opportunities to turn down the cartel's offers, more than once. He could have said no to Lalo asking him to carry the bail, Lalo even told Jimmy that he can always find someone else. THAT was his best chance to walk away, and if he did, honestly, maybe Howard wouldn't have died, his and Kim's life would be totally different too. But that's the case with Jimmy, he's not a heartlessly evil villain like Lalo or Hector Salamanca, but he always ends up harming himself and the people around him.
Yeah, I always reject this idea he could have ever said "No" to Lalo... and he knows this. You can't even say "Yes" to Lalo... what hope does a no have?
@@XiyuYang yeah, uh, no. Lalo saying he can find someone else means he's going to have Jimmy killed to tie up loose ends and then hire someone else who will do what he asks
Jimmy McGill might just be the most human character I’ve ever witnessed in media, everything he does, he does so for a plethora of mental reasons brought on by previous traumas and experiences, and once he was freed from those pains, he was able to truly become himself again, after being lost for so long, like he told the court room in the end, “I was the one that ran away”
@BB49 what OP means by “most human” doesn’t refer to him being humane or like the average person. Jimmy, and all his emotions and struggles are successfully displayed in the series with complexity, presenting us with a variety of factors that influence his actions and fate, which is ultimately what every human goes through in life, a struggle between our own soul’s agency and adversity, trauma and either positive or negative outside influences.
@BB49 Yes, because he finds himself in very extreme situations, but at his core he is still someone with a story that explains itself, and is consistent with his own past.
Yeah but we don’t watch shows to see how most people do most things. We watch shows (or engage in the consumption of fiction) to see what people do in extraordinary situations. People will always want to see the humanity in fundamentally flawed characters. So as fictional characters go there is a lot of humanity in Jimmy. He can’t help himself and realises too late a lot of the time, does stupid and/or reprehensible things with good intentions or simply because he has been wronged and seeks revenge (which every honest person has done one way or another). I can certainly say that I have met people that have tried to do good (not self serving) by doing something miss-guided, no matter how extreme. I don’t believe these characters would be as intriguing if we couldn’t see the nuances that make them relatable, regardless as to the extent of their sins or the objective extremity of their situations.
@BB-xx3dv I stand by it. Simply calling out people's wording, some of which I'm not sure you fully understand, is not equal to forming a solid argument of your own. According to me.
I think Jesse quite succinctly gave the best description of Saul’s true character when he told Walt, who was in complete dismay that Jesse wanted to hire an obvious ambulance chasing hack of a lawyer like Saul. “When you need a criminal lawyer, hire a criminal lawyer.”.
That's why most people feel sorry for Jimmy because for majority of the show we see him as charlie hustle and Saul. If we would have how much of a pain a younger Jimmy was, pretty sure people would've stopped proping up defenses for him. I don't hate the character but I think our affection for Jimmy blinds us.
I've never thought of Jimmy as "evil", to be honest. He is definitely a bad person, though; a con man, a criminal, and an extremely manipulative individual. But evil just doesn't feel like a word I'd use to describe him.
Idk he kinda ruined a mans reputation, then got him killed, then never thought about it again while continuing to help build a meth empire helping hundreds more get killed. Seems pretty evil to me
@@boofpack3642 He did think about it, Howard's death was eating him up inside, but he locked it away and his it, putting on that facade mask of Saul Goodman.
I think one thing worth mentioning is that whenever he does deals with criminals they always keep to the deal and are rather honest with him (guy picking up trash under the highway, Ida who steals the doll with him actually gets more at the auction than what jimmy estimated but still gives jimmy a 50% cut to which jimmy even says "you could have kept this and I'd never know the difference"), whereas the legitimate people always give him the run around and try to screw him over (guitar store owners, HHM people, albeit davis and main do treat him well.)
Huh. That's a cool observation. Maybe that's indicative of how well he communicates and operates with criminals or people who operate a little bit outside the lines of the law.
Jimmy is a grown man who already was divorced 2 times chuck saves him I don’t see how it’s chucks fault at all Saul was destined to wind up being a shitty person even without chuck
@@werovivero9219 nah. Chuck is his biggest emotional pillar. If chuck has given enough time for Jimmy, developed, honed and supported him, he would've been better. He was divorced first time coz chuck wasn't there yet to give him the opportunity. And the second time he got divorced is when after chuck pushed him on the edge.
Nah, Jimmy would’ve quickly got bored of living the straight life and would’ve started “slipping” back to his old tricks. We saw that when he got hired by Davis and Main
I knew at the end of Season 3 when Chuck said to Jimmy: “in the end, you’ll bring everyone around you down” that the show would not end well for Jimmy. The writing is too meticulous for that line not to mean anything. Chuck was wrong about Jimmy in many ways, but he also knew Jimmy better than anyone else.
Yk I would actually say Kim knew Jimmy better than anyone else. I feel like Chuck could only see the negative aspects of Jimmy, whereas Kim truly saw Jimmy in his entirety. Flaws and all.
I knew from season 1, episode 1. The show is named “better call Saul.” How could it possibly end well? Saul’s scummy nature was overshadowed by Walter white’s descent into evil, but it was still there
@@dominickw.3718 , not really Kim. Because if she did, her and Jimmy would’ve never done what they did to Howard. Especially considering that some of the things that Howard was going through, she knew about it. And yet, Jimmy still was considering calling a whole thing off, but Kim just kept pushing it.
It’s kinda cool to see how both shows follow the same type of road map when it comes to their series in that the first episode builds as much remorse and sympathy for their protagonist as possible and see how long you will stick with them.
“Better Call Saul” should be considered one of the best spin-offs of all time. It could’ve easily been just a formulaic duplicate of Breaking Bad but adopted it’s own identity to keep it just as engaging!
@@Jose-se9pu Frasier is pretty great but I don't know, BCS is just an anomaly, it strengthens BB as the original, and completely recontextualizes things in such a complex way, not to mention that it's a masterclass in character work and visual storytelling
@@Jose-se9pu I'd say this is correct in the sense of clearly surpassing the original show. BB is just too good for this show to have topped. But spin-offs were the best for different reasons.
@@ursaevitas5 Both shows are absolute masterclasses of TV. I go back and forth thinking about which one is my favorite. While I think Breaking Bad is more consistently entertaining, I have to say that the writing and character drama in Better Call Saul are even better than Breaking Bad, which is not a small feat. The relationships between Jimmy and Chuck, Jimmy and Kim, Mike and Gus, Gus and Hector are all wonderfully layered and detailed in a way I just haven't seen in other shows, movies, or games.
Beneke’s situation is entirely self inflicted. Never mind that they basically were there to force him to pay his taxes, his injury was a result of him running away and slipping. Saul’s men didn’t even touch him.
@@thegatorhator6822 I mean… Skylar joined beneke fabricators to make Walt jealous. If she never worked there she wouldn’t have had to worry about the IRS, since Ted would’ve been arrested separately. In the end Saul and Walt’s involvement is kinda Skylar’s fault.
@@c.a.k.comedy692 None of this would have happened if Bogdan would have smothered Walt to death with his big luscious brow in early 2008, so I mean really everything from Emilio to Hank's death and more is on him
@@c.a.k.comedy692 definitely on Skyler. No one told her she had to be involved in faking the books. She thought it was fun and exciting, then when reality hit she wanted to act like a mob wife sending people to intimidate Ted. She also stole almost 1mil from Walt, who was actively involved in a meth ring she knew was dangerous. I was not a fan of her around this time
I feel those 2 time travelling conversations are some of the most impactful because it showed how far gone Jimmy was. All the scamming and misdeeds were an after thought and his own wellbeing and profit was his focus. Wasn't till he saw the love of his life in danger that he finally came clean.
My interpretation of those two scenes are different. I think Jimmy only talked about money because he’s such an emotionally repressed person that he refused to acknowledge the pain he had about losing Chuck (Mike scene), Howard and Kim (Walter scene) so he kept talking about things that make him feel comfortable with himself which are money and the scam, which for any outsider like Walter, this makes Jimmy seems superficial but for those who knows who Jimmy really is, we will know that he’s just deflected the truth because he’s sad and lonely and was afraid to confront it.
“He never set out to do harm to others.” Rarely do anyone, but when you set out to do nothing but enrich yourself you’ll be surprised how quiet the suffering of others becomes.
He’s definitely a different type of evil. He never knows when to quit, he endangers those around him, he rarely sees logic or reason, and he loves pulling scams, deceiving people, even going so far as to destroy an old woman’s social life. It’s tragic in a way, but despite not really being maliciously evil, he is a terrible person
Evil is _slightly_ relative. I would personally put Saul at the light stages of evil. 1.) Jimmy relentlessly harassed Howard in horrible ways to make himself feel better about his life. He did it for the thrill. Honestly, it's disgusting literally no matter how you put it. 2.) Jimmy helped to put murders, abusers, and potentially rapists back out on the street. I know that being a lawyer, it is your job to defend your client, but it doesn't make it any less evil.
@@Tombr4mb41.) ill have to correct you there. There are some indications as to Jimmy’s reluctance in participating in the scam. For one, it was KIM’s idea of scamming and ruining howards credibility and reputation. Jimmy doesnt want this, telling kim that “they are doing something unforgivable.” The other part of that is the boxing match. Jimmy fought howard in the ring because he feels guilt about what he is doing. If he didnt feel any sort of guilt or shame, he wouldve walked away from howard in that moment, instead of actively getting in there and letting himself get knocked out like that.
Ur kidding me? The shit he did to Chuck? To Howard? Getting all those people killed most cause he wanted money? He knew about all of it and didn’t care because he was getting paid
29:13 Saul actually didn't know Walt was going to poison Brock. All he knew is that Jesse had a ricin cig that needed to be lifted off of him and given to Walt, under the guise of "helping" or "saving" Jesse. He found out later, and was so outraged that he actually tried to cut ties with Walt, but Walt gave him the famous line, "We're done...when I say we're done." There are some lines even Saul won't cross.
I think they also made a mistake in the part where he outright claims that jimmy stole 14k from his parents store, i think that chuck just automatically blamed jimmy and didn’t consider that their dad just literally lost track of how much he gave away.
@@richyc.6465 uh no the videocmakes it clear it was probably a mixture of both his father being too generous + jimmy stealing money, though we’re never truly told which was the more dominant aspect
Saul might not have known Walt was going to poison Brock, but he was fine with hinting to Walt multiple times about 'killing' Jesse, and even Hank. He was protecting his own interests most of the time.
I'm not even sure he was relatively shallow even in Breaking Bad. The man had a lot of quirks and an odd set of morals even as far as back then. The villains definitely benefited from BCS.
@@user-xl5kd6il6c He's a fun character, and has a lot of well thought out quirks, but emotionally he's definitely not a three dimensional character until what BCS did
These are the characters I hope you eventually do: Homelander - The Boys (2019-) John Milton - The Devil's Advocate (1997) Fast Black - Street Smart (1987) David - The Guest (2014) Jerry Blake - The Stepfather (1987) Lil Z - City of God (2002) Bane - The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Steve - Fresh (2022) Caligula - Caligula (1979) I really hope you will do them someday!
I was on season 2 of Better Call Saul when this video dropped. I waited until I was finished specifically so I could watch this video, and I'm so glad I did. Great video
@@viveksuresh6472 it’s not about succeeding in a specific endeavor, it’s about sacrificing your humanity as a whole. If you spend your whole life lying to everyone, you can’t trust anyone, and that’s a lonely existence. Just look at how dead inside jimmy seems in the later seasons
@@calvin2911 but isn't it also shown that he didn't find any benefits from following the morals and values set by society as shown in the initial episodes and as the series progressed and he started cutting corners and revealing his shadier side he found more happiness and a feeling of fulfillment and contentment. Or is it because that's just who he is and Chuck was right about him not changing simply because that's in his nature and how he was molded to be?
What I love about this show is how Chuck was 100 percent right about Jimmy with a law degree is dangerous, but had he reacted differently and if he and the rest of the legal community didn't treat jimmy like a scumbag, things would have been different, but Chuck was too blinded by his history with his brother
I think you missed a detail about the con man scamming Jimmy's dad. Jimmy did call him out and tell his dad, but he refused to believe and payed him double of what he was asking. Then when they were alone, the guy told Jimmy that there were to kinds of people, sheeps and wolves and to choice which one he wants to be. Other then that, I loved the video.
Yup, this is an important detail, because it's the same trap that Jimmy will continually fall for the entire series. It's not just Jimmy wanting to do bad, its him thinking he can tip the scales of justice by having two wrongs make a right. He only resorts to a scam when honesty has proven to be ineffective.
it's an interesting detail. Both paths require work. Honesty and doing things legitimate takes work and persistence....Kim and the other lawyers and even Jimmy show us this. But it's a work that clearly kills Jimmy. The fraudulent side likewise requires work. The scamming, persistent dodging of the law and the tenacity to think on your feet and argue your story or defense and to get right back in it, and cover your tracks well after. Jimmy has a thrilling talent for one. Like an alcoholic, he'd have to fight the urge his whole life to play it straight. And so, he doesn't. He attempts honest avenues and its exhausting, draining, depressing. He can't find a way to deal with it, so he doesn't try and relapses to the high he gets from....even the most innocent tweaks to a case or a deception....even those that serve good or noble causes. Of course, feeding the beast becomes a deeper pit every time. And that's what creates Saul.
2:30 Jimmy probably convinced himself that the only way he could avoid becoming naive and gullible like his dad was to con others before they could con him.
It's sadly a pretty common mentality among people high in Machiavellian traits. They become paranoid about losing their power and it drives them to be abusive and manipulative. Countless studies have shown that link between Mach traits and paranoia, and it's a big reason why Machiavellians tend to lead more miserable lives.
this typically how some kids end up so twisted, they have very soft and some what spineless parents, and the kids almost always have to stand up for their parents.
The best part of BCS is how it recontextualizes BB's Saul Goodman. Now we know that behind the clown lied a broken man who had lost everything because of his greed. In a Sense this makes his end in prison actually a happy ending for him. Like the show basically makes the Life of Gene and him being incarcerated feel like the same thing, but at least he has Kim back and doesn't have to look over his shoulder every time. Btw I think it would be cool to analyse Mike next.
He is in a supermax fed prison where the real life version of it is they keep you in a cell for 23 hours a day. He could get transferred to a different one at some point though that lets people see the sun more I guess. I think the intended goal is to do just that at some point.
I don’t think there is a more soul crushing phrase than “you destroy everything you touch.” My parents said that to me once and even after everything else they’ve done.. it’s still probably one of the top ten worst things they’ve ever said to me. I don’t think there’s anything that will destroy your self esteem and trust in yourself like that phrase right there.
Well we see him directly taking money from the drawer, and I’m sure that the dad probably did the books and would know how to account for small handouts he gave. I think that jimmy blaming it all on his dad is trying to cover up his own hand he played in the business failing
@@logancarlile8895 No its a bit deeper than that. He sees what bad people can to nice people. How they can abuse kindness. His fault however is that he concludes that there is therefore no point in being a nice guy. He sees this as the only logical conclusion but its says a lot about him. He just as well could have concluded how unfair it is to be a bad person and a liar of course, but this doenst occur to him. Its not about the $14,000 missing, its an insight in how Jimmy sees the world, even as a kid.
@@logancarlile8895 yeah but in the same scene we see his dad giving away money, which makes it ambiguous, but it’s far more likely that the dad gave away more money than Jimmy took, Jimmy played a part in the business failing but I don’t think it was entirely his fault like Chuck says it was
@@jpeg204 yeah but if the dad gave away something he would know it was given away and been able to account for it in the books. It wouldn't need to be "discovered" that it was missing.
"Howard, like Chuck, is no saint" I seriously disagree, he never over-extended the authority of his own volition or sabotaged anyone. He was the only good man in the Breaking Bad Universe uninvolved in crime and was the biggest victim because of it. He is nothing near the vindictiveness of Chuck. Edit: Also people mention a bunch of Civilian characters in the replies, like Lyle or Fred. The thing is that those characters don't have any form of authority they could have abused. Howard was just as powerful as Chuck but he always used his power to keep his firm and clients afloat and not out of pettiness. The other civilian characters don't have the authority to do any substantial damage, they are just harmless.
@@skyranger1366 nah you gotta remember that, like jimmy, chuck was howard’s idol. chuck and howard’s dad built HM and then later brought Howard up into HHM, Chuck is a almost a father figure to Howard so of course Howard would back him. and he clearly shows growing mistrust in chuck and remorse in chuck to the point that he STOPS backing Chuck and reveals everything to Kim. idk id say he was in a tough position and made the weight decision eventuslly
I think what's so endearing about Jimmy throughout BCS is his constant teetering between moral and immoral. I genuinely seen myself in the more human side of Jimmy, the constant need for validation from his Brother, the urge to do whats right even when it doesn't feel right and sound on. Jimmy without a doubt becomes bad person after his full transition into Saul Goodman, but I cannot help but be enamored with the character of Jimmy McGill. He's seriously one of the most dynamic and interesting character from media I've ever seen
I would have called the man we see in BB evil without hesitation, and I would have called the man he was during the majority of BCS as quite incendiary, but after the show's ending and on smaller occasions, he's the sweetest, most genuinely empathetic "evil" person in media in my recent memory. He's culpable for unspeakable acts of evil, but it's impossible for me to truly see him as such. That's why I adore the ending, because in his own twisted and confusing way, he's redeemed in a believable and bittersweet way.
The redemption and acceptance of his fate and understanding he has regrets and has buried his emotions for years and gets to see the love of his life again where she sees him how she always has was very moving
the ending was a big dissapointment for me. It would have made more sense for him to take the short sentence then get out after a few years then help Kim as much as he wants (or as much as she would allow). Instead, he took a life sentence. It was a complete waste.
@@DaggerSecurity but no it doesn’t because then he’s the exact same taking the easy way out sauling his way out instead he accepts his fate proves Chuck wrong that he can change and he did
@@DaggerSecurity I think both of them proved to the other that, though they truly care for each other, they don't deserve to be with the other and have done far too much harm to ever prioritize themselves in that way again. Saul got the 7 years by being the same destructive and selfish person that led him down that path. Jimmy only won by refusing to go down that path for himself. He's in prison, but Jimmy won, for what little that can mean at that point.
@@DaggerSecurity why would that make sense for you? What thematic message would that portray? Jimmy accepting the consequences of his actions and finally repenting for the awful things he did and getting all the buried pain off his chest is literally the only ending that thematically makes sense and feels correct for the character. The entire show has a sympathetic look at Jimmy, so if he took the 7 year sentence then that would mean he never would’ve faced the wrong things he did and he would just remain as Saul, a shell of himself, that would not be a sympathetic ending at all it would mean he never changed. But by accepting the consequences he essentially killed the Saul persona and became Jimmy again. I’m sorry but your proposed ending is horrible and if they released that it would probably be regarded as one of the worst endings ever by people who actually understand the show.
@5:31 I'm pretty sure Jimmy didn't ace the bar exam. He passed the bar exam on his third try. But this was still an amazing achievement working full time and studying at an online university.
You forgot to mention that the whole theme of the Breaking Bad episode in BCS is that his break up with Kim traumatized him so much, specially when she says he never told him Lalo was alive because she though he would back off the scam. When Mike tells him to back off Heisenberg he doesn't want to.
Saul Goodman is the mask that Jimmy wears at the end of fun and games when we jump from Jimmy and finally get Saul Goodman it was such a gut punch absolutely brilliant writing
It’s hard for someone to change when no one believes you can. I can’t pretend I don’t understand Chuck’s position though. When you have had a friend or family member who always mess up or screw you over and just expect you to forgive them, it’s hard to keep caring about them.
While I think this was a great analysis, I wish you had delved more into Jim and Kim’s relationship, because that was another big aspect of Saul’s character and what lead him to confessing in the first place. I think that Kim was the best of both worlds for Jimmy. She liked participating in Jimmy’s scams (very similar to Marco and Jimmy’s scamming) and she was a total boss when it came to lawyering much like chuck (and if she had continued could’ve even surpassed him). While chucks death turned Jimmys lawyer profession straight to Saul Goodman, Kim was practically the final nail in the coffin for Jimmy McGill up until he turned himself in (which I believe was only due to potentially having Kim back in his life)
I disagree with the characterization of Howard as a “pretentious d-bag”. Sure he was flawed, just like every character in this universe. But, he was overall the most morally good character in either show.
he’s only a d-bag in the first two seasons but after finding how that howard did was he did to jimmy was because he was just following chuck, i don’t get why anybody would hate him after that
Yeah Howard is kind of a wonder character you don’t really see in fiction. He seems like he’s going to be just the perfect grinning privileged blonde haired asshole character but instead he plays it completely against type and is just a normal friendly guy. If anything his greatest flaw was with how he undervalued Kim and treated her badly when he should have lifted her up.
I’ll never forget when Jesse first brought him up to Walter. “You need a criminal lawyer.” “What are you talking about?” “No, you need a CRIMINAL lawyer.” 😂
I believe that Jimmy’s main desire was affection and understanding, both of which he could never managed to earn from his brother Chuck. Despite their differences, Jimmy glowed with joy when Chuck showed him even an ounce of affection, which unfortunately Chuck was aware of and would use to his own benefit. Jimmy found this affection and understanding within his relationship with Kim Wexler. She rarely asked Jimmy to change, instead requesting that he keep the details of his corner-cutting to himself in an attempt to shield themselves from testifying against each other, to the point of marrying. In the later seasons I noticed a greater degree of restraint by Jimmy of his impulsive behaviors due to his affection for Kim and his desire to have her acceptance. Increasingly he inquired for Kim’s approval as he enters further into his signature Saul Goodman law practice, and even tried to dissuade Kim from attempting on Howard’s reputation, a man who he would gladly take a shot on any day of the year. Kim was the closest thing he had to the dynamic he wished to have with Chuck. His brother pushed him into being Saul Goodman, but Kim compelled him to restrain from fully embracing the Saul persona because he cherished her affection and understanding above everything. The moment Kim left his life, Jimmy decided he would not seek anyone’s approval any further, only his own. This is when he gave himself fully to his impulsive behavior and truly turned into Saul Goodman.
i love the fact that in the final time machine part with Jimmy and Chuck hints that that is the true moment Jimmy would go back and change. It takes place right before the show starts and its one of the only times Chuck is trying to really talk to Jimmy as a big brother
He painted psychotropic drugs onto faked photographs that Howard Hamlin would touch and go bananas, destroying his career. If Lalo hadn't murdered him, that's what would have happened. That's pretty evil. He got to the point that he drugged people and stole their money while unconscious, not caring if they died as a result. That's pretty evil as well.
So many people take Walt and Jimmy's side over Skylar and Chuck lol. Jimmy isn't the most evil but he is as evil as at least Walt was when he let Jane die.
@@ClintonKE you think Chuck was a good person or should have been sided with? Its safe to say that Jimmy never would’ve become Saul if Chuck wasn’t such a backstabbing awful brother, Chuck should not be sided with. And people sympathize with Jimmy because basically every immoral thing he did throughout the show was either for a good cause, he was forced into doing it, or because it was him lashing out due to the pain he was going through. What he did to Howard was the main truly awful thing he did, but it ended up even worse than he could’ve anticipated, and obviously working with Walt was awful aswell. Jimmy has done horrible things, but ultimately he is a sympathetic character because we understand why he does the things he does and it comes from either a well intentioned place or a place of deep pain, this doesn’t necessarily excuse his actions but it makes it more sympathetic, in the case of Walt it’s obvious that almost everything he does is out of pride and ego, two completely different characters.
@@jpeg204 Yeah Jimmy was screwing his life up before Chuck got involved man. Did you forget the fact that Jimmy was 30 or so years old and on a fast track to ruining his life before Chuck stepped in? And did we watch the same show? What was so moral about stuff like getting fired on purpose because you wanna keep your bonus from a company that was only good to you and you want out cause you don't feel you fit there or destroying the social life of an old lady that thinks your her friend? Btw a lot of your excuses to defend Jimmy could be applied to Chuck's actions as well. "Well intended, deep pain." So how come you can't seem to be sympathetic towards him? I mean both of them messed up but Jimmy crossed the line a whole lot harder than Chuck did IMO.
I’d love to see an analysis of Shane from The walking dead seasons 1-2, I thought Jon bernthal was amazing and really made Shane a complicated antagonist.
@@johnallenbailey1103 that's the whole point of this series. He analyzes their actions over the course of their part on a show/movie and determines at the end whether or not they were evil
Lol, looking back at the early seasons, Shane was 100% right. He just adjusted to the end of the world quicker than rick and the others. Only thing he did wrong the Lori situation, which being ricks best friend, should never have happened, dead or alive.
I thought an important scene was the one with Marion. After she discovers who Gene actually is, Saul rips the phone cord out of the wall and goes to tie her up. You can see jimmy struggling against Saul to complete the task and ultimately Jimmy wins with Saul running away. I think this was a bit of foreshadowing of Jimmy coming through at the end and doing the right thing. Goes back to the motto, "doing the right thing isn't always easy."
@@themidnighttavern6784 the original scene would have had Gene strangle her. But Bob outright said he would not strangle Carol Burnett. It doesn't matter how good of an actor he is, killing a legend like Carol Burnett is not a good image to have associated with your resume.
I think the limit of Jimmy's evil can be truly seen in the final few episodes when he finally steps back from the brink, refusing to strangle Marion and re-embracing his life as jimmy mcgill. He's certainly not a good person but he's not walter white or gustavo fring.
I'm so glad he didn't strangle Marion, while it would've been shocking as hell, that would just turn him into yet another Walter White, which was never meant to be the charm of the show And besides, the irony of an old lady getting him jailed after all that time dedicating himself to elder law was so fucking worth it lmao
I like to view Saul and Walt in the nature vs nurture debate • Walt was always Heisenberg deep inside the events of the show just brought it out • Saul while doing cons at a young age strived to be the best lawyer and had people stamping him down
These character studies are so well written, it just seems like a good amount of effort is put into them. This is just a shout out from a random subscriber, Analyzing Evil is of quality entertainment and I appreciate the work put into the show. I look forward to more to come!
Your Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul videos are very interesting so far, I think these would be some fantastic videos - Marlo Stanfield (The Wire) - Stringer Bell ( The Wire) - Chris Partlow (The Wire) - “Billy” (Black Christmas 1974) - Le Chiffre (Casino Royale) - Thomas Shelby (Peaky Blinders) - Elliot Alderson ( Mr Robot) - Mr Blonde (Reservoir Dogs) - Simon Gruber (Die Hard with a Vengeance)
Billy from Black Christmas would be my dream Analysing Evil episode ; he's probably the most underrated, disturbed and scariest psychopath the slasher movie genre has ever produced
@@stevie_mcw Nahhhhh, I want a tyrell Wellick one more, imo the only bad thing about Mr Robot is how Tyrell was barely in it and even then he became my favorite character
It would be cool to see one on the drug lords from the Wire (especially Stringer and the Greek). I say all of them because none are really the 'main villain' so to speak, and the show is less focused on specific characters than the broader systems they exist in.
Just like Chuck said, giving Jimmy a practice in law is like giving a chimpanzee a machine gun. Jimmy didn't just have a machine gun; he possessed the entire artilley
Such a amazing tv show. In todays age, to have such good writing without a huge budget and without over sexualisation of actors is a huge feat. Storytelling driven by plot.
Suggestions for future episodes: -Arthur Morgan -John Marston -Micah Bell -Dio Brando -Frieza -Thanos(Comic book version) -Darkseid(Comic book version) -Lex Luthor(Comic book version) -Cell -Light Yagami and L -Doctor Doom(Comic book version) -Angel Eyes(Good, the bad, and the ugly) -Grand Moff Tarkin -Darth Bane and Darth Zannah -Grand Admiral Thrawn -Omni Man -Darth Malgus -Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus -Inquisitor Jerec -Joruus C'baoth -Darth Vitiate -Prince Xizor -Professor Moriarty -The Piller Men from JoJo -
Arthur Morgan wasn’t evil. He did bad deeds but he wasn’t an evil man. Not even at his worst. And everything he did was done with respect to loyalty to those he loved. Morgan wouldn’t belong here. It’s not even complex. He was a man who went down a bad path and literally chose to do the right thing in the end when he was dealt a shitty hand. I’d argue John belongs here even less. Micah on the other hand has zero redeeming qualities.
My friend and I had a good long talk after we watched the final episode of Better Call Saul and he made an interesting point that separates it from Breaking Bad. _"I think there's a solid case to suggest that Walt was always Heisenberg deep down and the events of the show just progressively brought out more of who he really was. The question of "Was Saul Goodman Inevitable" is a lot more vague because there's evidence throughout all six seasons to suggest the answer is both yes AND no."_
Now I understood the real meaning behind his public name "Saul Goodman", and probably, it was due to his negative coping mechanism, and trying to fill his sadness with anything even if it is grief.
That finale was dog shit. Fetid, worm-infested dog shit and in no way should Jimmy McGill (or any of his personas) have done what he did if he stayed within character.
@@bunniesbunniesbunnie agreed honestly. Even if Jimmy wanted to turn a new leaf the fact that he threw away the 7 year deal, which he got legally, made no sense.
@@distantnemesis1593 Being Gene showed how tired he was of paranoia and guilt in general. Whats waiting for him outside after seven years that he hasn’t destroyed pretty much. Huell isn’t contacting him, Francesca is pretty much only on a call basis, and Kim wrote out a condemnation of their actions to Howard’s wife/would never want to see him again if he went through with the lie otherwise. He just decided there was no more drive to be slippin jimmy and he still flexed on the court. It’s one thing to end the show on “and then the courts found him guilty of all charges: the end”, but this ending was both Jimmy outplaying the court and having the punishment decided on his own. He became his own judge after an entire two shows of being looked down on by almost everyone.
I mean he only went into jail because of Kim, I don’t think Jimmy is even fully remorseful in the finale. him smiling when the prisoners were cheering his name and him doing the finger gun at Kim to me subtly shows that although he says he’s done with Saul, he’s gotta walk the talk in the end.
Another drama-related character whom I’d love to see analyzed would be Elizabeth Jennings from The Americans. Like Jimmy/Saul/Gene she does a lot of bad things but there’s a really interesting debate as to whether or not she’s evil.
When jimmy tried to change his ways and become a better person he was shot down time and time again, so it was inevitable that he would turn back to the life he was able to succeed and be respected in
His employment at Davis & Main. And his elderly law practice. Both opportunities ruined by his greed, impatience, and pride. Without interference from anyone else.
@@pierrelindgren5727 Wanting to quit Davis & Main and keep his bonus doesn't exactly make him a bad person. It does reflect on him actively fighting potential success because of his infatuation with Kim. With his elder law practice, he partially ends up sabotaging it because of the greed of HMM as well. They hold back on finalizing the settlement to line their pockets with more money, using the elders getting $100 or so more as an excuse. His greed itself definitely plays a part though
Jimmy even in Season 1 was doing some shady stuff. The hospital bill from the skateboarder's broken legs and the billboard stunt clearly make Chuck feel valid in not thinking Jimmy has changed for real like he 1st thought (because in his will he did think he did). Sure Chuck has his pride but he was clearly shown to like working with Jimmy as shown with him building Sandpiper. So maybe if that was all there was Chuck could have got over his inferiority complex. But Chuck also blames Jimmy for destroying the life of a man who also trusted him...their father. So shadowy stunts like the billboard and hospital bill (which really Jimmy should have quit when he was lucky to escape with his life from) that are very easily these 2 stunts that caused Chuck to grow nervous around Jimmy again. Because as Saul Gone shows us Chuck was the day before Jimmy got the hospital bill clearly touched by how Jimmy was taking care of him when he didn't need him to.
I’m not sure if you dive into video game characters but I would enjoy videos about Joseph seed, Pagan Min, or Vaas Montenegro. I think their all very well written characters that can be looked into .
8:00 While I think Chuck didn't tell Jimmy that his mother called out for him right before she died was probably out of resentment for jimmy, it could also be regarded as a noble act as how bad would that make Jimmy feel that he left his mothers side to go get food and she woke up looking for him then died? Just a thought.
I think it is in character for Chuck for it to be both. Chuck frequently does things that are out of spite and justifies them with the law, even when it doesn't really make sense.
Jimmy definitely deserves the title for evil. Thing is, evil isn’t necessarily irredeemably despicable or not deserving of comprehension and empathy. He might’ve been born this way, but had he not been exposed to certain truths and external behaviors (such as the guy at the store and Chuck’s constant habit of putting him down), I feel like he wouldn’t have done a lot of stuff he ended up doing. It’s also really fascinating how Chuck’s definitely a piece of shit to Jimmy, but in some VERY brief moments, you can see what looks like genuine love toward his younger brother. Was it actually genuine, or was it just him feeling good about himself because he was clearly the “superior” brother in certain social situations? We’ll never know for sure
I think Chuck played the biggest role in Jimmy's fall because he never thought that he could be anything more than a toxic person that ruins other people's lives and never gave him the chance to prove that he could be more. So he never tried to be anything more.
I think Jimmy genuinely tried to be a better person in the early parts of the show, but yeah Chuck doing what he did was a huge blow for that whole idea. He also happens to be in a world that rewards deceit and cutting corners which is what Jimmy is best at
I’d say the most evil person is the one who decided that Better Call Saul deserved no Emmys.
Say it again man. Fuck the Emmys
They’ve still got 1 more chance next year
#facts
Really? That’s astonishing.
The libtards of Emmy-board.
He can’t be evil, his name is literally Goodman
He is the breaking bad
((()))
It's all good, man
@@armitx9No that is Mister What
Checkmate
It’s interesting , he was considering a “bad lawyer” at the start of his series but could talk his way out of almost anything even on episode one.
He wasn’t a bad lawyer. He was just the kind of lawyer guilty people hire.
@@justincruz5720 How so? Betsy Kettleman knows nothing about him or his personal life yet made a snap judgement.
@@Ray_D_Tutto You’re right. They didn’t know him. They also didn’t think they themselves were guilty. They thought they deserved the money. Despite that, I still think there is some truth to what she said.
@@justincruz5720 at that point in time, no, I don't believe he was, he was playing it straight until the "I'll never do that mistake again" scene, but I do think it was foreshadowing (pastshadowing?) To his days as saul goodman on breaking bad
@@Ray_D_Tutto If you watched the show, you'd remember that the reason why was due to Chuck. Chuck smeared Jimmy's name through the mud in their business. The kettlemens were being advised by HHM prior to Jimmy, Howard was a pawn of Chuck who was doing this badmouthing on his behalf.
Howard basically convinced the Kettlemens that Jimmy was the sort of lawyer guilty people hire. Which means Jimmy is a criminal lawyer (as in he commits crimes to be a lawyer)
In many ways, Chuck was right about Jimmy, but he also fueled his brother’s turn into Saul Goodman by putting him down time and time again. Jimmy and Chuck’s relationship is one of the most interesting I’ve ever seen in fiction because neither brother is completely in the wrong or in the right about the other. It’s very realistic since real life sibling rivalries/relationships work this way.
kind of like oepidus rex, oepidus' dad tries so hard to prevent the prophecy from coming true that he ends up playing a hand in fulfilling it
L Chuck
Chuck may have been right but if he had just tried for one second in his damned life he could have changed anything. Sometimes the worst sin is to watcha crime happen even though you have the ability to stop it, and betrayal of Family is the worst of all sins.
Cuck's opinion was a self-fulfilling prophecy. He refused to accept Jimmy as anything but a criminal, so that's what Jimmy beame.
It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And he gets to be in Analyzing evil? What a sick joke!
You think this is bad this!?!! Chicanery! Hes analyzed worst!
AND YOU, YOU HAVE TO STOP HIM! YOU.... I'm sorry 😐
He's a liar, manipulator, borderline sociopath, scammer, shady, vengeful, unethical...
Even as a child he chose a stranger stealing from his family business over his own father, a huge betrayal to his own family.
He may not be "evil" in the sense like Darth Vader or Gus Fring......but it's not inaccurate saying he's a villain.
Seen whiplash? Calling Fletcher "evil" is a stretch....yet he's terrifying, and quite villainous, especially the last 20 minutes of the film and that switcheroo he pulled.
@Nero And I shouldn't have. Took him into my own firm! What was I thinking?
@@dasher3532 He'll never change, he'll NEVER change...
I hope people agree with me here, but I think Mike deserves his own episode. He committed worse crimes than Jimmy/Saul, but many of the fans give him a pass because he's portrayed in a more sympathetic light. Mike's choices to commit horrific crimes were still evil, and I think an episode about him would be very interesting.
I’ve been waiting for the Mike episode
Mike was an evil narcassistic hypocrite, and his death at the hands of Walt was one of the most poetic endings possible for a character like Mike.
@@ibrothebro6864 How was he narcissistic?
@@theblackbasketball He thought that his morals and decisions triumphed everyone, he thought he could kill people and make money out of it, because he decided that he's a "good" criminal. And then after Nacho's Father shatters Mike's world view, instead of changing for the better, Mike fully embraces his brutal dark nature and becomes a full-time compliant murderer for Gus. He thinks that he has the right to subtract Walter and Jesse's hard earnt-money for a "hazard" pay for a group of people that are retroactively detrimental to their entire operation, and refused to take any other path because they were "his guys". So because Mike is too much of a narcissist to admit that hiring those guys was a mistake, he doubles down even further and affirms that they all equally MUST pay up to his people so they could keep quiet, and effectively ensured that Walter and Jesse were held hostage by Mike's artificial legacy costs. Mike's guys where exactly that; MIKE'S guys. They are his responsibilty and therefore after Gus's death, they become his loose end to tie up, and yet he forces it upon the rest of the group to pay for Mike's arrogance. What makes Mike even worse in Breaking Bad than in Better Call Saul was that he already accepted defeat once, when he realised he was wrong after 6 seasons of BCS, Nacho's dead breaks it down for him and makes him realise that he isn't morally superior in any way or manner, he's just as vengeful and hateful as the Salamanca's he swore to kill. So for the rest of his time in Breaking Bad he refuses to be in a situation where he's ever wrong again, and refused to believe his nihilistic and work-commited view could be any different, refusing to accept that Gus is an evil man, and that he is willing to hire Neo-Nazis and child murderers just because it's "part of the job". He's effectively the same as Walter White's Heisenberg caricature, except what makes him narcissistic is that he believes he still somehow ethically superior to everyone else around him in the game specifically Heisenberg himself. That's why I believe Mike is a horrendously evil narcissistic old man. Still one of my top five characters though, for sure.
@@ibrothebro6864 I disagree with a lot of what you say. He doesn’t think of himself as a “good criminal” at all. Go look at the episodes where he knew he became a dirty cop by taking bribes. He knew he was doing a bad thing and he even stated he regrets it greatly in the desert with saul because it did result in his sons death inadvertently because his son was a good cop. And then you bring up Nachos father like he didn’t already have a similar experience when he had to kill another good man, Werner Ziegler. That sent him into a bad state of mind where he didnt even want to be by his family which is what he was doing all this crime for. Next the hazard pay argument is just idiotic to me. They were paying the men in prison so they wouldn’t snitch on them because they were helping them with their business. It effected all of them, not just mike. Walt got too anxious and ended up killing all of them and mike anyway tho. And you say he refuses to see gus as an evil man and all I have to say to that is did you even watch better call saul? He goes against gus many times and sometimes successfully like when he protects nachos dad or unsuccessfully like when he wanted to save werner but gus needed to punish him. So pretty much I see Mike as a guy who is evil for sure because he helps commit many crimes but I think he similar to Gus in the sense that they do it for strictly business and they are both very professional. And we see Mike as a good guy outside of his working life as well. He acknowledges he isnt a good man many times but he definitely isnt the close to as evil as a person as Gus or Walt.
In all fairness, with the whole poisoning Brock aspect, Saul did not know about Walt doing that. He was utterly disgusted that he wanted nothing more to do with Walt before Walt intimidated him to keep being his lawyer.
And his final scene in BreBa he said to Walt to surrender so his wife wouldnt take all the blame. He knew his limits
This just goes to show how brilliant and ambiguous the character is. Is he feigning ignorance to protect himself or is he fully aware? Do we just see flashes of Jimmy when Saul does/recommends the right thing, or is Jimmy the authentic, unrealized version of the character that has been buried? I guess it boils down to is Jimmy calling the shots or is Saul? Seems like a combination of both.
Saul wasn't really forced to be walt lawyer, he liked his job with the thrill and danger and loved the money that coming in
@@fareseno no. Walt threatens home a couple times. He specifically says "you're done when I say you're done". And Saul knew he had been involved in some deaths at that point so it was a very real threat. He even tried it again at the end when they were both in the basement. Walt tried to intimidate Saul into going with him, but was too sick to keep up the image of a tough guy.
@@charmander466 that not true, saul literally say in the ending "i was terrified but not for long, i saw an opportunity, big money, and i took it, held it tight, and my next every morning day has been helping Walter white empire, i was more than a willing participant". It's really funny that you say that because Jimmy used that story of him being the underdog in Heisenberg game as his checkmate to get out of prison, before he redeemed himself. while in reality, like so many characters in BB/BCS, saul was in the game because he's liked it.
The thing I absolutely love about the way Jimmy/Saul/Gene is written is the fact that if you heard about him in real life, or only saw him at certain points of his life, you would easily label him as an irredeemable evil scumbag. But because we’re given an empathetic look at his entire history you’re forced to see him as a complex and nuanced human deserving of redemption.
almost seems like a template on which we should view all people in society thought of as evil...nah nevermind, would solve too many problems by understanding behavior. we need problems to generate money, great system lol
That's the human story though.
More people are complex than fairly simple. Nobody is two dimensional.
Even the worst people in history had a few redeemable qualities when you get a glimpse of their personal lives.
But as a character from a blockbuster movie once said, "it's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me".
Some of the worst people have done great things, and some of the greatest people have done the worst things.
Everyone is capable of good or evil, and we all commit acts of both (either intentionally or unintentionally) throughout our lives.
it's like the fundamental attribution error. we attribute other people's behaviour to their personality and OUR OWN behaviour to our situation. we fail to see what leads people to do bad things, unless it's about us.
Tale as old as time
I wouldn’t see him as evil, sigma
Chuck in Season 2 is not only a good example of a Lawful Evil, but also the deadly sin of Envy. Accompanied by his OCD, Chuck couldn’t understand how people would like Jimmy more than him, let alone his own parents. He’s the perfect villain for an anti-hero like Saul Goodman.
At some point, it is understandable to sympathize with Chuck. He had done everything right in a sense yet was still overlooked for his more charismatic brother. A brother who had screwed up again and again yet was always given a pass. However, Chuck didn't help matters by constantly antagonizing Jimmy and essentially helping create the monster that was Saul Goodman.
Lawful evil is a perfect way to frame Chuck. Damn that's good.
@@dangerousboxx666 Could you imagine Chuck as a judge? He’d just throw the book at everyone.
@@georgeleslie7307 he would be a monster. Too just is a thing.
@DangerousBoxx1 The whole point of the final episode is actually that Jimmy takes all crimes of both series combined onto his shoulders, "It was All only Me!" , and thus accepts his brother's idea of law: - The 7 years prison-deal , plus the one year in hell he already had behind him, would have been already the perfect match to the 8-years sentence in Dostojevsky's Crime and Punishment.
But, okay, Jimmy's truly infinite hunger for recognition ( Kim, Jury, all criminals, himself, of course the audience; - so about everybody) also played a major role. ^^
When a character is so well written that fans are battling the fact if he's evil or not.
Berk
Waltuh
says more about the dumbasses “interpreting” the story
Exactly! Best con man ever written
@@VividManify With a very fickle moral code.
Jimmy feels like such a realistic character in the BB/BCS shows. He's not as bad as most of the other characters but he is a terrible person no doubt. I think the best part though is that he ultimately redeems himself.
I wouldn’t say he totally redeems himself. The damage his actions caused can’t be undone, particularly with those whose deaths he had a hand in. Also while there is a certain nobility in taking the entire blame for he and Kim’s wrongdoing at the end, lying to the court to let her off the hook for her evil actions was wrong.
When he is intertwined to return to the bar he says that he will honor his brother and the name McGill, it was a lie at the moment, but at the very end, he did honored Chuck and the law by deciding to turn himself in and confess his crimes.
@@felixjohnston3402 She wasn't left of the hook though. Jimmy said in front on the marshall on the plane that he had extra information regarding Howard's death that involved Kim, which led to Suzanne calling Kim which led Kim showing up on court that day. That is the reason why he lies, not to let her off the hook. Remember that she confessed and left herself vulnerable to a civil suit by Howard's widow.
Indeed. Hell, you could say he's the most human character in fiction, flaws & all.
@@felixjohnston3402 You missed the point...His actions are not fixabile but for the first time he doesn't make a scheme to shift the blame from him. He finally owns it up and takes responsability for the choices he's made and for the first time takes the blame for someone else to let them live their life instead of using them as a scapegoat
One thing that stunned me about this show (as someone who watched Breaking Bad first) this show successfully made me forget about how Saul was in BB. By the end of season 5, I'd completely forgotten the kind of man he was compared to the Jimmy we've come to know.
When Kim breaks up with him, and the show immediately skips ahead to the BB time era, I felt shell shocked by his personality. It was so polarizing to see him as "Saul Goodman" after watching this character grow. Just goes to show how far someone can fall, even a relatively good hearted person.
Everyone wanted Saul when they first started watching the show. When we saw Saul, it was depressing and wanted Jimmy baxk
I find it crazy how a funny comedic character had so much layers. And I actually thought Saul Goodman was his real name 😂
so true. started the show with hopes to see more of saul's shenanigans. but once jimmy actually fully adapted into his saul persona... it didn't feel the same.
The writing of the shows and the performance by Bob really bring that to life and it’s amazing.
@@blap9467 If you watch his first meeting with Walt in BB, he actually says that his real name is McGill, and that he's just pretending to be Jewish "for the homeboys"
I think you missunderstood the Time Travel question.
Jimmy's actual answer would be to travel back in time to when Chuck first got sick and Jimmy started helping him. This is implied by the flashback appearing seemingly out of nowhere in the episode, AND the fact that Chuck is reading the actual novel "The Time Machine".
Sure, Jimmy says he would go back in time to make a lot of money, but this is also the Jimmy that was bottling down all his feelings regarding Chuck's death and their relationship.
Jimmy had never been motivated by greed. If he had, he wouldn't have returned the Kettleman's stolen money. He was motivated by recognition, hence why he's so hurt whenever he feels someone is looking down on him, and why he always tries so hard to be acknowledged by Chuck.
@@charliemalick8985 and extra devastating considering that if he and Chuck really were able to make amends, it's possible the 'Jimmy McGill' the audience & Kim knew would still be kicking (rather than slipping).
Your a alcoholic if u think imma read all that but sure 👍🏽
@@Notypls101 then why comment
Yeah Jimmy never really striked me as a greedy person, as Saul it was more so just him making money for the sake of making money, not because of greed but just for something to do in order to distract himself from his past and try and prove his own value to himself.
@@jpeg204 bc opportunity was knocking on the door and I had to answer
Saul is the only anti-hero I can think of that doesn't use violence (mostly) to solve his problems, instead, he uses his charisma and his intelligence of the law to get what he needs.
EDIT: OK for those who believe Jimmy is a bad person. You are right but I don't think he's a villain because although he committed so many crimes he never took pleasure in hurting people unless he was scamming them. Nevertheless, I think of him as an anti-hero on the fact that he was mostly forced to become eviler just to survive.
*anti-villain, he’s nothing like a anti-hero at all.
@@Gadget-Walkmen *person he’s nothing like either
@@Gadget-Walkmen he's never been the antagonist of the story
@@mooks500 Yes that’s why he’s always been the PROTAGONIST as he’s been the main character since the start of his own show. But he’s still a anti-villain to villain entirely.
@@nhandinh7404 lol yes he is, Saul Goodman is NOT just simply a “person” at all, he’s a terrible person entirely who allows and promotes evil to flourish for his benefit.
He’s WAY more than just a “person” at all here.
That fact that you actually unironically say that he’s “nOthIng lIkE eIthEr” and tried to ignore all his actions that have negatively effected so many people and forgot about the reason WHY he’s in prison for his whole life shows that you don’t know what your talking about or deliberately dishonest about the situation.
Saul Goodman IS a bad person that promotes evil.
Saul is a good example of "If the world won't give me a chance to be an honest man, then I guess I'm not an honest man"
If his brother had been even just a little more supportive I think Jimmy might have been able to stay an honest lawyer
Doubtful, but at least possible.
In my experience, at least when it comes to lying, but I believe it is the same with all immoral actions, it’s like this:
Once you start, it’s easy to continue, but hard to stop, because it’s so much easier to just keep doing it. If you admit to lying, everyone will know you’re a liar and won’t trust you, regaining their trust will be hard, and your brain will reflexively come up with reasons why you’re not really lying. It’s easier to tell someone “I have a test tomorrow” rather than telling them you don’t like them and don’t want to hang out with them, but the truth would be better in the long run, saves everyone a lot of hassle. Saying you messed up is harder than just to pretend it wasn’t your fault.
Jimmy had long ago opened the door to being dishonest, and even when he was doing better, he pulled pranks on Harold, cut corners to get better time slots et.c. He refused to do anything according to the rules. He was never going to make it as a lawyer, the temptation to go rogue would always be just one bad day away and he wouldn’t be able to resist if it meant an easy score.
I think he would’ve been a chaotic good or at least chaotic neutral lawyer. He probably would’ve been a schmoozy sleazy lawyer whose only goal would be to help his clients, but he could also use that for good
Chuck saw Jimmy as a threat.
@@wattsnottaken1 what’s ironic is that Chuck, like Jimmy, also has a scheming manipulative conman side to him. He just has access to legal means to do it.
Jimmy may con someone out of the cash in their wallet, but Chuck manipulated a client to steal their business from Kim, he manipulated Howard’s sense of duty and guilt to make him reject Jimmy, and he preyed on Jimmy’s attachment & emotions to him to bait a confession out of him (knowing that NM is a one party consent state so he could legally record him). He even used Ernie as a pawn in that whole scheme, knowing he’d be fired.
At least when Jimmy used Irene as a pawn, he felt guilty and righted a wrong. Jimmy also punches up. Chuck punches down.
Sadly life forces some of us in paths we not intended, I for example after being humilliated múltiple times by my family or work boss I become a really ruthless guy, "My uncle us sick and need money?" Not my problem
"That worker make múltiples mistakes" just fire him, i will not take the time to train him if HR is hiring people without experience in the field
So if people see that will call me a bad person, yet they would not know how many times I loaned money to my family that never pay me back, or how many hours and resources i put in my work to only we mocked when I wanted they to pay foto the extra hours or I wanted a vacant with better pay only for them to give it to somebody without knowledge that did not stick for more than a month
The sad thing is, Chuck's unwillingness to ever accept Jimmy as trying to improve his life turned Jimmy into Saul.
Nah, Jimmy always had that bad side to him and nothing or no one could change him. I hated Chuck sometimes, but he was the only one to see Jimmy for who he really was, and held him back because he knew he'd do more harm than good
@@RWM0 There would be times where Chuck would try to connect and Jimmy would reject, for example the regret thing.
@@RWM0 Chuck had a nobel cause but arrogant attitude.
@@RWM0 but jimmy isn't as selfish as Chuck is or as chuck thinks jimmy is. He always tries to help wherever he can but just cannot help cutting corners and cheat. It's like Mike's analogy of bad guy vs criminal. Jimmy is definitely a criminal and it's not entirely coz of chuck
Self-fulfilling prophecy
For anyone who hasn’t seen Better call Saul, it is fantastic. You have to accept it is a slow burner like breaking bad. The detail is what makes these two series so amazing
It gets great starting season 3
Sadly in these times of tiktok aka 15 second attention span (at most) BCS and Breaking Bad would be considered slow burners.
@@Boomi_Dog Season 1 was way better than i expected too though 2 was pretty boring as they didn't have a lot of interesting storylines but season 3 to first half of season 6 is some of the greatest TV ever imo
I'm glad that with Better Call Saul they realised that keeping things 'slow' was preferable. As Breaking Bad picked up pace (and I guess there was pressure to do this, as it made it more popular) the quality declined. It's like BCS was made for those of us who enjoyed the early seasons of BB most.
I see a lot of BB fans criticising BCS for this reason which I've never understood. Breaking Bad wasn't exactly all action
Vince Gilligan summed up the motivations of Walt and Jimmy very well in one sentence: “Walt wants to be respected; Jimmy wants to be loved”
That’s why Walt got into the business. He not only wants the money. He wants to PROVIDE. Thats why what Gus said to him resonated so much. Thats why he rejected the grey matter offer: it was charity, and he’s not providing for his family. That’s why he went down in a blaze of glory, killing Jack’s gang and spending not a single second in a prison cell, leaving one last masterpiece as Heisenberg by destroying a powerful neo nazi gang and the chief distributor of blue meth.
Jimmy stayed in the law and the Saul Goodman persona because nobody in the world loves him anymore. Chuck is dead, Kim left him, and he has all but himself to drown his sorrows. So he turned to being a lawyer, not allowing his life to be interrupted by any moment of silence and introspection. Jimmy was only able to confess once he realized that the only person in the world also confessed because of him, realizing that Kim still values him no matter what he has done. He chose the 86 year sentence in ADX over a 7 year one in a cushy prison because he knows that to be loved is much, much more valuable than having all the material possession in the world.
DAMN, NAILED IT
Wow, man, just…wow. I need to watch this series again, even though I did just a month ago.
Jimmy used to want to be respected like Chuck but by BB he doesn't give a shit anymore about that
Minor note: Jimmy definitely did not “ace the bar exam.” He flunked it at least twice before finally passing.
My exact thought
He literally says “I failed a couple times”
@@bradenr867 it's fairly common for lawyers to fail the bar a few times. It's even been noted that the bar is harder than compared to 20 years ago.
Failing it a couple times makes no difference in the eyes of the law if you ended up passing, by Chuck's own mindset that doesn't matter
@@1337snake888 Wrong. Lawyers look down on you if you flunked the bar.
@@denisesudell2538 ok expert. Have fun with your partial statements. Sounds like a horoscope.
After watching the show’s finale I felt that the message was: “it’s never too late to change”. Even if your whole life you were someone, you can always try to be somebody else. Even in the last minute of the last episode of the last season.
Similar message to the ending of Bojack Horseman
I interpret it as "By accepting that he never could change, he did change a little bit."
He finally accepted who he was. He started as Jimmy McGill, became Saul Goodman and was kinda forced to be Gene Takavic, but in the final episods, it all rolled back, getting him arrested as Gene, negotiating as Saul and in the end, declaring that he is James McGill. Not Jimmy, but James, the name his parents gave him at birth, the name he really started with, but never was until then.
This is why The Last of Us 2 works for me
@@abelsanchez2070 I mean if you're able to ignore everything else that is wrong with TLOU2 and focus on that particular detail then, sure, I guess
I like how Walter and Gus for Analyzing Evil got sinister, intimidating and quiet intro theme.
Jimmy is just Jazz.
complex rhythms = complex character
JIMMY SAUL GOODMAN THE LEAST EVIL 😈
How does anyone get through any videos on this channel with its horrendous robotic Al narration?!
@@anti-ethniccleansing465 not AI dummy.
@anti-ethniccleansing465 has jim can't swim vibes. Supposed to come of as a scientific analysis.
You forgot to mention the most evil thing he did…making Irene cry…elderly abuse is pretty evil
Lalo is nothing compared to Jimmy destroying Irene's friendships
@@kitchensarehot8769 nah it was huel, he was secretly behind everything 😂
Yep it happens all the time at the retirement center
they are people like the rest of us, being old doesn't make you immune to being taken advantage of. Old people abuse is just people abuse.
@@metalbrute4795 I think that's naive. We shouldn't ignore the fact that elders typically have a lot less control over their lives, legally and socially, and that they suffer more physical pain and limitations due to aging. There's a power dynamic there that you don't get with most people.
One thing: It is unknown whether or not Jimmy actually embezzled the 14000 dollars from his parents business. The show specifically leaves it ambiguous as to whether or not chuck was capping about how much Jimmy took from his family. It’s just as likely that jimmy’s father lost the money but giving it away.
Good call. Probably wasn't that much, but still a good amount i imagine.
Yeah, idk why he lead with that for chuck and Jimmy's relationship instead of the underlying animosity chuck had since his parents loved their 'golden child's jimmy
It's almost certainly a combination of the two. Jimmy explained (to Marco, I think) that his dad was too nice and gave a away too much. Chuck attributed the missing money entirely to Jimmy. As we're showing both the dad giving money away AND Jimmy taking money in the same scene, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
It's most likely a 70-30 ratio. Jimmy even if he was thief wouldn't have stolen entirety of 14k since his con was to get away with it. Jimmy at most would've stolen 30% of 14k while the rest was taken by deadbeats who came to know that Jimmys dad would hand them a huge sum for a sob story. Other small amount also would have added but I don't think Jimmy stole majority of that 14k
THANK YOU!
I was looking for this comment.
I don't think Jimmy ever wanted to work for the Salamancas. Nacho kept Jimmy's number after the desert incident. Then they kept coming to him. Jimmy appeared to be afraid to say no to them. He also seemed to be partly motivated out of desperation to pay bills. He was afraid of Nacho, he was terrified of Lalo.
Oh he definitely had his opportunities to turn down the cartel's offers, more than once. He could have said no to Lalo asking him to carry the bail, Lalo even told Jimmy that he can always find someone else. THAT was his best chance to walk away, and if he did, honestly, maybe Howard wouldn't have died, his and Kim's life would be totally different too.
But that's the case with Jimmy, he's not a heartlessly evil villain like Lalo or Hector Salamanca, but he always ends up harming himself and the people around him.
Yeah, I always reject this idea he could have ever said "No" to Lalo... and he knows this. You can't even say "Yes" to Lalo... what hope does a no have?
@@XiyuYang yeah, uh, no. Lalo saying he can find someone else means he's going to have Jimmy killed to tie up loose ends and then hire someone else who will do what he asks
he was kind of sucked in but he was also the one who insisted on getting the money for Lalo, so he was in it
It’s the same thing with Walt in BB he was intimidated and terrified of Walt because of what he was capable of and jimmy/saul couldn’t say no to him
Jimmy McGill might just be the most human character I’ve ever witnessed in media, everything he does, he does so for a plethora of mental reasons brought on by previous traumas and experiences, and once he was freed from those pains, he was able to truly become himself again, after being lost for so long, like he told the court room in the end, “I was the one that ran away”
@BB49 what OP means by “most human” doesn’t refer to him being humane or like the average person. Jimmy, and all his emotions and struggles are successfully displayed in the series with complexity, presenting us with a variety of factors that influence his actions and fate, which is ultimately what every human goes through in life, a struggle between our own soul’s agency and adversity, trauma and either positive or negative outside influences.
@BB49 Yes, because he finds himself in very extreme situations, but at his core he is still someone with a story that explains itself, and is consistent with his own past.
Yeah but we don’t watch shows to see how most people do most things. We watch shows (or engage in the consumption of fiction) to see what people do in extraordinary situations. People will always want to see the humanity in fundamentally flawed characters. So as fictional characters go there is a lot of humanity in Jimmy. He can’t help himself and realises too late a lot of the time, does stupid and/or reprehensible things with good intentions or simply because he has been wronged and seeks revenge (which every honest person has done one way or another).
I can certainly say that I have met people that have tried to do good (not self serving) by doing something miss-guided, no matter how extreme. I don’t believe these characters would be as intriguing if we couldn’t see the nuances that make them relatable, regardless as to the extent of their sins or the objective extremity of their situations.
@BB-xx3dv I stand by it.
Simply calling out people's wording, some of which I'm not sure you fully understand, is not equal to forming a solid argument of your own. According to me.
@BB49 just admit that you have never watched the brilliant slippin jimmy animated show
Jimmy is going straight to bottom tier in the evilness tier list
Yeah, he's a horrible person. No doubt about it. But I honestly wouldn't call him evil.
@@noahmclaughlin7921 The gingerbread man should be top S tier tho
He is a selfish person that did destroy Howard Hamlin. He's worse than Salieri. Not to mention all the people he helped Walter hurt.
Marion says hi
Evil nonetheless but agree
I think Jesse quite succinctly gave the best description of Saul’s true character when he told Walt, who was in complete dismay that Jesse wanted to hire an obvious ambulance chasing hack of a lawyer like Saul.
“When you need a criminal lawyer, hire a criminal lawyer.”.
_How does anyone get through any videos on this channel with it’s horrendous robotic Al narration?! It’s AWFUL!_
How does anyone get through any videos on this channel with its robot Al narration?! It’s AWFUL!
It's not AI dude, it's the guy's voice
The Slippin Jimmy spinoff shows how truly vile Jimmy can be
That's why most people feel sorry for Jimmy because for majority of the show we see him as charlie hustle and Saul. If we would have how much of a pain a younger Jimmy was, pretty sure people would've stopped proping up defenses for him. I don't hate the character but I think our affection for Jimmy blinds us.
Slippin Jimmy is a disgrace and not canon.
@@Nai-qk4vp I will take your word for it. I absolutely refuse to watch that show
And he gets to be a cartoon!? What a sick joke!
@@jaibonaparte Lol yes
I've never thought of Jimmy as "evil", to be honest. He is definitely a bad person, though; a con man, a criminal, and an extremely manipulative individual. But evil just doesn't feel like a word I'd use to describe him.
The banality of evil. Most people don't recognize evil. They think it's more obvious.
Idk he kinda ruined a mans reputation, then got him killed, then never thought about it again while continuing to help build a meth empire helping hundreds more get killed. Seems pretty evil to me
Evil is knowingly damaging people.
What else do you choose not to see around you?
You are right. By that logic and thinking everybody is evil including your and my government
@@boofpack3642 He did think about it, Howard's death was eating him up inside, but he locked it away and his it, putting on that facade mask of Saul Goodman.
I think one thing worth mentioning is that whenever he does deals with criminals they always keep to the deal and are rather honest with him (guy picking up trash under the highway, Ida who steals the doll with him actually gets more at the auction than what jimmy estimated but still gives jimmy a 50% cut to which jimmy even says "you could have kept this and I'd never know the difference"), whereas the legitimate people always give him the run around and try to screw him over (guitar store owners, HHM people, albeit davis and main do treat him well.)
Huh. That's a cool observation. Maybe that's indicative of how well he communicates and operates with criminals or people who operate a little bit outside the lines of the law.
Imagine if Chuck accepted Jimmy after Jimmy passed the bar exams... Imagine how Better Jimmy would have become.
Jimmy is a grown man who already was divorced 2 times chuck saves him I don’t see how it’s chucks fault at all Saul was destined to wind up being a shitty person even without chuck
@@werovivero9219 nah. Chuck is his biggest emotional pillar. If chuck has given enough time for Jimmy, developed, honed and supported him, he would've been better. He was divorced first time coz chuck wasn't there yet to give him the opportunity. And the second time he got divorced is when after chuck pushed him on the edge.
Imagine how many people would still be alive if Chuck simply had accepted Jimmy
Then the series would be called Ringing Slippin' Jimmy than Better Call Saul :^)
Nah, Jimmy would’ve quickly got bored of living the straight life and would’ve started “slipping” back to his old tricks. We saw that when he got hired by Davis and Main
I knew at the end of Season 3 when Chuck said to Jimmy: “in the end, you’ll bring everyone around you down” that the show would not end well for Jimmy. The writing is too meticulous for that line not to mean anything. Chuck was wrong about Jimmy in many ways, but he also knew Jimmy better than anyone else.
Yk I would actually say Kim knew Jimmy better than anyone else. I feel like Chuck could only see the negative aspects of Jimmy, whereas Kim truly saw Jimmy in his entirety. Flaws and all.
I knew from season 1, episode 1. The show is named “better call Saul.” How could it possibly end well? Saul’s scummy nature was overshadowed by Walter white’s descent into evil, but it was still there
@@dominickw.3718 , not really Kim. Because if she did, her and Jimmy would’ve never done what they did to Howard. Especially considering that some of the things that Howard was going through, she knew about it. And yet, Jimmy still was considering calling a whole thing off, but Kim just kept pushing it.
I knew it wouldn’t end well for Jimmy when I saw breaking bad in 2015 lol
It’s kinda cool to see how both shows follow the same type of road map when it comes to their series in that the first episode builds as much remorse and sympathy for their protagonist as possible and see how long you will stick with them.
“Better Call Saul” should be considered one of the best spin-offs of all time.
It could’ve easily been just a formulaic duplicate of Breaking Bad but adopted it’s own identity to keep it just as engaging!
What about Joanie Loves Chachi?
I think Frasier (which most people dont even know was a spin-off) still holds that spot.
BCS is right up there, though.
@@Jose-se9pu Frasier is pretty great but I don't know, BCS is just an anomaly, it strengthens BB as the original, and completely recontextualizes things in such a complex way, not to mention that it's a masterclass in character work and visual storytelling
@@Jose-se9pu I'd say this is correct in the sense of clearly surpassing the original show. BB is just too good for this show to have topped. But spin-offs were the best for different reasons.
@@ursaevitas5 Both shows are absolute masterclasses of TV. I go back and forth thinking about which one is my favorite. While I think Breaking Bad is more consistently entertaining, I have to say that the writing and character drama in Better Call Saul are even better than Breaking Bad, which is not a small feat. The relationships between Jimmy and Chuck, Jimmy and Kim, Mike and Gus, Gus and Hector are all wonderfully layered and detailed in a way I just haven't seen in other shows, movies, or games.
Beneke’s situation is entirely self inflicted. Never mind that they basically were there to force him to pay his taxes, his injury was a result of him running away and slipping. Saul’s men didn’t even touch him.
The insane mega stretch of saying it's on Walter White is unhinged lmao
@@thegatorhator6822 I mean…
Skylar joined beneke fabricators to make Walt jealous. If she never worked there she wouldn’t have had to worry about the IRS, since Ted would’ve been arrested separately. In the end Saul and Walt’s involvement is kinda Skylar’s fault.
@@c.a.k.comedy692 None of this would have happened if Bogdan would have smothered Walt to death with his big luscious brow in early 2008, so I mean really everything from Emilio to Hank's death and more is on him
@@c.a.k.comedy692 definitely on Skyler. No one told her she had to be involved in faking the books. She thought it was fun and exciting, then when reality hit she wanted to act like a mob wife sending people to intimidate Ted. She also stole almost 1mil from Walt, who was actively involved in a meth ring she knew was dangerous. I was not a fan of her around this time
Yeah i agree dumbass he was running off like that.
I feel those 2 time travelling conversations are some of the most impactful because it showed how far gone Jimmy was. All the scamming and misdeeds were an after thought and his own wellbeing and profit was his focus. Wasn't till he saw the love of his life in danger that he finally came clean.
My interpretation of those two scenes are different. I think Jimmy only talked about money because he’s such an emotionally repressed person that he refused to acknowledge the pain he had about losing Chuck (Mike scene), Howard and Kim (Walter scene) so he kept talking about things that make him feel comfortable with himself which are money and the scam, which for any outsider like Walter, this makes Jimmy seems superficial but for those who knows who Jimmy really is, we will know that he’s just deflected the truth because he’s sad and lonely and was afraid to confront it.
“He never set out to do harm to others.”
Rarely do anyone, but when you set out to do nothing but enrich yourself you’ll be surprised how quiet the suffering of others becomes.
He’s definitely a different type of evil. He never knows when to quit, he endangers those around him, he rarely sees logic or reason, and he loves pulling scams, deceiving people, even going so far as to destroy an old woman’s social life. It’s tragic in a way, but despite not really being maliciously evil, he is a terrible person
Evil is evil nonetheless.
I would argue he’s a very logical person. Logic goes beyond morals, and Jimmy always had a pretty well thought out plan to his schemes. A->B->C.
Not evil. More broken
jimmy felt bad for ruining the old women’s social life tho
@@a-d-c-d Evil people can feel bad about their actions
He never felt evil to me, more like a morally flexible opportunist than anything. Man still has a heart deep down.
Evil is _slightly_ relative. I would personally put Saul at the light stages of evil. 1.) Jimmy relentlessly harassed Howard in horrible ways to make himself feel better about his life. He did it for the thrill. Honestly, it's disgusting literally no matter how you put it.
2.) Jimmy helped to put murders, abusers, and potentially rapists back out on the street. I know that being a lawyer, it is your job to defend your client, but it doesn't make it any less evil.
@@Tombr4mb4its not his fault things turned out the way they did
@@Tombr4mb41.) ill have to correct you there. There are some indications as to Jimmy’s reluctance in participating in the scam. For one, it was KIM’s idea of scamming and ruining howards credibility and reputation. Jimmy doesnt want this, telling kim that “they are doing something unforgivable.” The other part of that is the boxing match. Jimmy fought howard in the ring because he feels guilt about what he is doing. If he didnt feel any sort of guilt or shame, he wouldve walked away from howard in that moment, instead of actively getting in there and letting himself get knocked out like that.
What he and Kim did to Howard is inexcusable and makes both of them strictly evil, even if he didn't die in the end
Ur kidding me? The shit he did to Chuck? To Howard? Getting all those people killed most cause he wanted money? He knew about all of it and didn’t care because he was getting paid
29:13 Saul actually didn't know Walt was going to poison Brock. All he knew is that Jesse had a ricin cig that needed to be lifted off of him and given to Walt, under the guise of "helping" or "saving" Jesse. He found out later, and was so outraged that he actually tried to cut ties with Walt, but Walt gave him the famous line, "We're done...when I say we're done." There are some lines even Saul won't cross.
This video presents some things in a weird light, kinda gives the vibe they didn’t totally give the series a full solid thoughtful analysis.
I think they also made a mistake in the part where he outright claims that jimmy stole 14k from his parents store, i think that chuck just automatically blamed jimmy and didn’t consider that their dad just literally lost track of how much he gave away.
@@richyc.6465 uh no the videocmakes it clear it was probably a mixture of both his father being too generous + jimmy stealing money, though we’re never truly told which was the more dominant aspect
Saul might not have known Walt was going to poison Brock, but he was fine with hinting to Walt multiple times about 'killing' Jesse, and even Hank. He was protecting his own interests most of the time.
@@IBeMelissa so did Skyler tbf
Saul Goodman went from a relatively shallow character in Breaking Bad to one of the most complex characters on television.
I'm not even sure he was relatively shallow even in Breaking Bad.
The man had a lot of quirks and an odd set of morals even as far as back then. The villains definitely benefited from BCS.
>shallow character in Breaking Bad
Not even close
I kinda get what you mean but shallow isn’t the word. BCS definitely elaborated on the character but he was far from passé or shallow in BB
@@user-xl5kd6il6c He's a fun character, and has a lot of well thought out quirks, but emotionally he's definitely not a three dimensional character until what BCS did
Kudos to the man himself Bob Odenkirk
"Howard, like Chuck, was no saint." HOWARD WAS ANGELIC
... AND IN THIS HOUSE HOWARD HAMLING WAS A HERO, END OF STORY.
I guess you could say that Jimmy was slippin’ into evil
What a sick joke
Slipping bad
hey hey hey, the close the tab button is just up there! Press it. get out
You think this is funny? this chicanery? He's done worse!
He memed through a sunroof!
These are the characters I hope you eventually do:
Homelander - The Boys (2019-)
John Milton - The Devil's Advocate (1997)
Fast Black - Street Smart (1987)
David - The Guest (2014)
Jerry Blake - The Stepfather (1987)
Lil Z - City of God (2002)
Bane - The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Steve - Fresh (2022)
Caligula - Caligula (1979)
I really hope you will do them someday!
City of God, yes, please
@@br3ad420 yes 😊 City of God is a Remarkable film!
Lil Z is the most menacing villain in cinema. And the fact that there are tons of people like him existed in real-life.....
would love to see homelander
@scrimmy that is going to be his next video, he said it on the Gus Fringe vid
I was on season 2 of Better Call Saul when this video dropped. I waited until I was finished specifically so I could watch this video, and I'm so glad I did. Great video
Same lol
me too
Saul is the most unflinchingly realistic portrayal of the pitfalls of Machiavellianism I have ever seen
I learnt a new word today
So do you feel one must act accordingly to the ethical and moral codes set by society in order to truly succeed in any realm of human endeavour?
@@viveksuresh6472 it’s not about succeeding in a specific endeavor, it’s about sacrificing your humanity as a whole. If you spend your whole life lying to everyone, you can’t trust anyone, and that’s a lonely existence. Just look at how dead inside jimmy seems in the later seasons
But saul isn't machivelian. He breaks alot of the rules machiavelli lays out. Largely revolving around pettiness, greed, and lack of restraint.
@@calvin2911 but isn't it also shown that he didn't find any benefits from following the morals and values set by society as shown in the initial episodes and as the series progressed and he started cutting corners and revealing his shadier side he found more happiness and a feeling of fulfillment and contentment. Or is it because that's just who he is and Chuck was right about him not changing simply because that's in his nature and how he was molded to be?
What I love about this show is how Chuck was 100 percent right about Jimmy with a law degree is dangerous, but had he reacted differently and if he and the rest of the legal community didn't treat jimmy like a scumbag, things would have been different, but Chuck was too blinded by his history with his brother
Being right might differ from a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Jimmy was genuinely trying to change it was Chuck that forced him to tap into his old ways
Plus Chuck was mentally ill with his "condition".
He was right, but he was wrong (morally). His treatment and resentment of Jimmy largely influenced the way that Jimmy turned out.
chuck was right he just went about explaining it in the worst way possible which in turn made Jimmy even worse
I think you missed a detail about the con man scamming Jimmy's dad. Jimmy did call him out and tell his dad, but he refused to believe and payed him double of what he was asking. Then when they were alone, the guy told Jimmy that there were to kinds of people, sheeps and wolves and to choice which one he wants to be. Other then that, I loved the video.
Yup, this is an important detail, because it's the same trap that Jimmy will continually fall for the entire series. It's not just Jimmy wanting to do bad, its him thinking he can tip the scales of justice by having two wrongs make a right. He only resorts to a scam when honesty has proven to be ineffective.
it's an interesting detail. Both paths require work. Honesty and doing things legitimate takes work and persistence....Kim and the other lawyers and even Jimmy show us this. But it's a work that clearly kills Jimmy. The fraudulent side likewise requires work. The scamming, persistent dodging of the law and the tenacity to think on your feet and argue your story or defense and to get right back in it, and cover your tracks well after. Jimmy has a thrilling talent for one. Like an alcoholic, he'd have to fight the urge his whole life to play it straight. And so, he doesn't. He attempts honest avenues and its exhausting, draining, depressing. He can't find a way to deal with it, so he doesn't try and relapses to the high he gets from....even the most innocent tweaks to a case or a deception....even those that serve good or noble causes. Of course, feeding the beast becomes a deeper pit every time. And that's what creates Saul.
2:30 Jimmy probably convinced himself that the only way he could avoid becoming naive and gullible like his dad was to con others before they could con him.
"Ya ain't first yur last!"
'The winner takes it all.'
It's sadly a pretty common mentality among people high in Machiavellian traits. They become paranoid about losing their power and it drives them to be abusive and manipulative. Countless studies have shown that link between Mach traits and paranoia, and it's a big reason why Machiavellians tend to lead more miserable lives.
this typically how some kids end up so twisted, they have very soft and some what spineless parents, and the kids almost always have to stand up for their parents.
@@mohamedadan6678 I think you missed the point of the entire show
The best part of BCS is how it recontextualizes BB's Saul Goodman.
Now we know that behind the clown lied a broken man who had lost everything because of his greed.
In a Sense this makes his end in prison actually a happy ending for him. Like the show basically makes the Life of Gene and him being incarcerated feel like the same thing, but at least he has Kim back and doesn't have to look over his shoulder every time.
Btw I think it would be cool to analyse Mike next.
He is in a supermax fed prison where the real life version of it is they keep you in a cell for 23 hours a day. He could get transferred to a different one at some point though that lets people see the sun more I guess. I think the intended goal is to do just that at some point.
I don’t think there is a more soul crushing phrase than “you destroy everything you touch.” My parents said that to me once and even after everything else they’ve done.. it’s still probably one of the top ten worst things they’ve ever said to me. I don’t think there’s anything that will destroy your self esteem and trust in yourself like that phrase right there.
Sorry to hear brother. Just know it is not true. You have the power to mold things better.
I thought it was strongly implied that the Dad was a big part of the 14,000 being missing as he constantly gave away money and free goods
Well we see him directly taking money from the drawer, and I’m sure that the dad probably did the books and would know how to account for small handouts he gave. I think that jimmy blaming it all on his dad is trying to cover up his own hand he played in the business failing
@@logancarlile8895 No its a bit deeper than that. He sees what bad people can to nice people. How they can abuse kindness. His fault however is that he concludes that there is therefore no point in being a nice guy. He sees this as the only logical conclusion but its says a lot about him. He just as well could have concluded how unfair it is to be a bad person and a liar of course, but this doenst occur to him. Its not about the $14,000 missing, its an insight in how Jimmy sees the world, even as a kid.
@@logancarlile8895 yeah but in the same scene we see his dad giving away money, which makes it ambiguous, but it’s far more likely that the dad gave away more money than Jimmy took, Jimmy played a part in the business failing but I don’t think it was entirely his fault like Chuck says it was
I think it was a mix. He was giving stuff away, and jimmy was taking money.
@@jpeg204 yeah but if the dad gave away something he would know it was given away and been able to account for it in the books. It wouldn't need to be "discovered" that it was missing.
"Howard, like Chuck, is no saint"
I seriously disagree, he never over-extended the authority of his own volition or sabotaged anyone. He was the only good man in the Breaking Bad Universe uninvolved in crime and was the biggest victim because of it. He is nothing near the vindictiveness of Chuck.
Edit: Also people mention a bunch of Civilian characters in the replies, like Lyle or Fred. The thing is that those characters don't have any form of authority they could have abused. Howard was just as powerful as Chuck but he always used his power to keep his firm and clients afloat and not out of pettiness. The other civilian characters don't have the authority to do any substantial damage, they are just harmless.
Howard deserves his fair share of criticism as he enabled Chuck and willing helped him in his effort to destroy Jimmy's professional career.
The only good man?
What about Papa Varga?
The only thing he does wrong would be not standing up to Chuck as much as he could've.
@@skyranger1366 nah you gotta remember that, like jimmy, chuck was howard’s idol. chuck and howard’s dad built HM and then later brought Howard up into HHM, Chuck is a almost a father figure to Howard so of course Howard would back him. and he clearly shows growing mistrust in chuck and remorse in chuck to the point that he STOPS backing Chuck and reveals everything to Kim. idk id say he was in a tough position and made the weight decision eventuslly
What about Lyle? He was pretty good as well..dude just works a 9-5 and wants to impress his boss.
Jimmy's story is so brilliant because it's largely a Shakespearen tragedy with such beautiful echoes of Macbeth throughout.
I think what's so endearing about Jimmy throughout BCS is his constant teetering between moral and immoral. I genuinely seen myself in the more human side of Jimmy, the constant need for validation from his Brother, the urge to do whats right even when it doesn't feel right and sound on. Jimmy without a doubt becomes bad person after his full transition into Saul Goodman, but I cannot help but be enamored with the character of Jimmy McGill. He's seriously one of the most dynamic and interesting character from media I've ever seen
I would have called the man we see in BB evil without hesitation, and I would have called the man he was during the majority of BCS as quite incendiary, but after the show's ending and on smaller occasions, he's the sweetest, most genuinely empathetic "evil" person in media in my recent memory. He's culpable for unspeakable acts of evil, but it's impossible for me to truly see him as such. That's why I adore the ending, because in his own twisted and confusing way, he's redeemed in a believable and bittersweet way.
The redemption and acceptance of his fate and understanding he has regrets and has buried his emotions for years and gets to see the love of his life again where she sees him how she always has was very moving
the ending was a big dissapointment for me. It would have made more sense for him to take the short sentence then get out after a few years then help Kim as much as he wants (or as much as she would allow). Instead, he took a life sentence. It was a complete waste.
@@DaggerSecurity but no it doesn’t because then he’s the exact same taking the easy way out sauling his way out instead he accepts his fate proves Chuck wrong that he can change and he did
@@DaggerSecurity I think both of them proved to the other that, though they truly care for each other, they don't deserve to be with the other and have done far too much harm to ever prioritize themselves in that way again. Saul got the 7 years by being the same destructive and selfish person that led him down that path. Jimmy only won by refusing to go down that path for himself. He's in prison, but Jimmy won, for what little that can mean at that point.
@@DaggerSecurity why would that make sense for you? What thematic message would that portray? Jimmy accepting the consequences of his actions and finally repenting for the awful things he did and getting all the buried pain off his chest is literally the only ending that thematically makes sense and feels correct for the character. The entire show has a sympathetic look at Jimmy, so if he took the 7 year sentence then that would mean he never would’ve faced the wrong things he did and he would just remain as Saul, a shell of himself, that would not be a sympathetic ending at all it would mean he never changed. But by accepting the consequences he essentially killed the Saul persona and became Jimmy again. I’m sorry but your proposed ending is horrible and if they released that it would probably be regarded as one of the worst endings ever by people who actually understand the show.
@5:31 I'm pretty sure Jimmy didn't ace the bar exam. He passed the bar exam on his third try. But this was still an amazing achievement working full time and studying at an online university.
“It caused the destruction of everything he once was and everything he could’ve been.” That a beautiful quote to end this episode! Great work
You forgot to mention that the whole theme of the Breaking Bad episode in BCS is that his break up with Kim traumatized him so much, specially when she says he never told him Lalo was alive because she though he would back off the scam. When Mike tells him to back off Heisenberg he doesn't want to.
Saul Goodman is the mask that Jimmy wears at the end of fun and games when we jump from Jimmy and finally get Saul Goodman it was such a gut punch absolutely brilliant writing
It’s hard for someone to change when no one believes you can. I can’t pretend I don’t understand Chuck’s position though. When you have had a friend or family member who always mess up or screw you over and just expect you to forgive them, it’s hard to keep caring about them.
While I think this was a great analysis, I wish you had delved more into Jim and Kim’s relationship, because that was another big aspect of Saul’s character and what lead him to confessing in the first place. I think that Kim was the best of both worlds for Jimmy. She liked participating in Jimmy’s scams (very similar to Marco and Jimmy’s scamming) and she was a total boss when it came to lawyering much like chuck (and if she had continued could’ve even surpassed him). While chucks death turned Jimmys lawyer profession straight to Saul Goodman, Kim was practically the final nail in the coffin for Jimmy McGill up until he turned himself in (which I believe was only due to potentially having Kim back in his life)
Saul Goodman is the most in depth character I’ve ever viewed on a screen. Bob Odenkirk is a genius.
I disagree with the characterization of Howard as a “pretentious d-bag”.
Sure he was flawed, just like every character in this universe. But, he was overall the most morally good character in either show.
He really is a good guy. He comes off as arrogant, but all he did was overall pretty fair.
he’s only a d-bag in the first two seasons but after finding how that howard did was he did to jimmy was because he was just following chuck, i don’t get why anybody would hate him after that
Yeah Howard is kind of a wonder character you don’t really see in fiction. He seems like he’s going to be just the perfect grinning privileged blonde haired asshole character but instead he plays it completely against type and is just a normal friendly guy. If anything his greatest flaw was with how he undervalued Kim and treated her badly when he should have lifted her up.
The multiplicity of this character is what amazes me the most.
I’ll never forget when Jesse first brought him up to Walter. “You need a criminal lawyer.” “What are you talking about?” “No, you need a CRIMINAL lawyer.” 😂
I believe that Jimmy’s main desire was affection and understanding, both of which he could never managed to earn from his brother Chuck. Despite their differences, Jimmy glowed with joy when Chuck showed him even an ounce of affection, which unfortunately Chuck was aware of and would use to his own benefit.
Jimmy found this affection and understanding within his relationship with Kim Wexler. She rarely asked Jimmy to change, instead requesting that he keep the details of his corner-cutting to himself in an attempt to shield themselves from testifying against each other, to the point of marrying. In the later seasons I noticed a greater degree of restraint by Jimmy of his impulsive behaviors due to his affection for Kim and his desire to have her acceptance. Increasingly he inquired for Kim’s approval as he enters further into his signature Saul Goodman law practice, and even tried to dissuade Kim from attempting on Howard’s reputation, a man who he would gladly take a shot on any day of the year.
Kim was the closest thing he had to the dynamic he wished to have with Chuck. His brother pushed him into being Saul Goodman, but Kim compelled him to restrain from fully embracing the Saul persona because he cherished her affection and understanding above everything. The moment Kim left his life, Jimmy decided he would not seek anyone’s approval any further, only his own. This is when he gave himself fully to his impulsive behavior and truly turned into Saul Goodman.
i love the fact that in the final time machine part with Jimmy and Chuck hints that that is the true moment Jimmy would go back and change. It takes place right before the show starts and its one of the only times Chuck is trying to really talk to Jimmy as a big brother
He painted psychotropic drugs onto faked photographs that Howard Hamlin would touch and go bananas, destroying his career. If Lalo hadn't murdered him, that's what would have happened. That's pretty evil.
He got to the point that he drugged people and stole their money while unconscious, not caring if they died as a result. That's pretty evil as well.
This vid is definitely needed because we shouldn't let our affection for a character blind our judgement
Good life lesson
So many people take Walt and Jimmy's side over Skylar and Chuck lol. Jimmy isn't the most evil but he is as evil as at least Walt was when he let Jane die.
@@ClintonKE you think Chuck was a good person or should have been sided with? Its safe to say that Jimmy never would’ve become Saul if Chuck wasn’t such a backstabbing awful brother, Chuck should not be sided with. And people sympathize with Jimmy because basically every immoral thing he did throughout the show was either for a good cause, he was forced into doing it, or because it was him lashing out due to the pain he was going through. What he did to Howard was the main truly awful thing he did, but it ended up even worse than he could’ve anticipated, and obviously working with Walt was awful aswell. Jimmy has done horrible things, but ultimately he is a sympathetic character because we understand why he does the things he does and it comes from either a well intentioned place or a place of deep pain, this doesn’t necessarily excuse his actions but it makes it more sympathetic, in the case of Walt it’s obvious that almost everything he does is out of pride and ego, two completely different characters.
@@jpeg204 Yeah Jimmy was screwing his life up before Chuck got involved man. Did you forget the fact that Jimmy was 30 or so years old and on a fast track to ruining his life before Chuck stepped in? And did we watch the same show? What was so moral about stuff like getting fired on purpose because you wanna keep your bonus from a company that was only good to you and you want out cause you don't feel you fit there or destroying the social life of an old lady that thinks your her friend? Btw a lot of your excuses to defend Jimmy could be applied to Chuck's actions as well. "Well intended, deep pain." So how come you can't seem to be sympathetic towards him? I mean both of them messed up but Jimmy crossed the line a whole lot harder than Chuck did IMO.
Yeah after better call Saul, i love, and hate him.
I’d love to see an analysis of Shane from The walking dead seasons 1-2, I thought Jon bernthal was amazing and really made Shane a complicated antagonist.
He wasn't evil.
@@johnallenbailey1103 that's the whole point of this series. He analyzes their actions over the course of their part on a show/movie and determines at the end whether or not they were evil
@@an-animal-lover it can't even be considered with the evidence from the show.
Lol, looking back at the early seasons, Shane was 100% right. He just adjusted to the end of the world quicker than rick and the others. Only thing he did wrong the Lori situation, which being ricks best friend, should never have happened, dead or alive.
I thought an important scene was the one with Marion. After she discovers who Gene actually is, Saul rips the phone cord out of the wall and goes to tie her up. You can see jimmy struggling against Saul to complete the task and ultimately Jimmy wins with Saul running away. I think this was a bit of foreshadowing of Jimmy coming through at the end and doing the right thing. Goes back to the motto, "doing the right thing isn't always easy."
I think he was going to strangle her, not tie her up. Which makes the moment even darker. Look at how he's holding the wire taunt between his hands.
@@themidnighttavern6784 the original scene would have had Gene strangle her. But Bob outright said he would not strangle Carol Burnett. It doesn't matter how good of an actor he is, killing a legend like Carol Burnett is not a good image to have associated with your resume.
I think the limit of Jimmy's evil can be truly seen in the final few episodes when he finally steps back from the brink, refusing to strangle Marion and re-embracing his life as jimmy mcgill. He's certainly not a good person but he's not walter white or gustavo fring.
Yep, you could see the eagerness to take back his soul. Perfect ending for a morally grey character
I'm so glad he didn't strangle Marion, while it would've been shocking as hell, that would just turn him into yet another Walter White, which was never meant to be the charm of the show
And besides, the irony of an old lady getting him jailed after all that time dedicating himself to elder law was so fucking worth it lmao
Can't wait to see you cover huel babineaux, the true secret master mind behind better call Saul and breaking bad.
I like to view Saul and Walt in the nature vs nurture debate
• Walt was always Heisenberg deep inside the events of the show just brought it out
• Saul while doing cons at a young age strived to be the best lawyer and had people stamping him down
These character studies are so well written, it just seems like a good amount of effort is put into them. This is just a shout out from a random subscriber, Analyzing Evil is of quality entertainment and I appreciate the work put into the show. I look forward to more to come!
Your Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul videos are very interesting so far, I think these would be some fantastic videos
- Marlo Stanfield (The Wire)
- Stringer Bell ( The Wire)
- Chris Partlow (The Wire)
- “Billy” (Black Christmas 1974)
- Le Chiffre (Casino Royale)
- Thomas Shelby (Peaky Blinders)
- Elliot Alderson ( Mr Robot)
- Mr Blonde (Reservoir Dogs)
- Simon Gruber (Die Hard with a Vengeance)
I think just about every character in Reservoir Dogs could work, as I find Mr. Pink to be just as interesting as Mr. White.
Billy from Black Christmas would be my dream Analysing Evil episode ; he's probably the most underrated, disturbed and scariest psychopath the slasher movie genre has ever produced
@@stevie_mcw Nahhhhh, I want a tyrell Wellick one more, imo the only bad thing about Mr Robot is how Tyrell was barely in it and even then he became my favorite character
It would be cool to see one on the drug lords from the Wire (especially Stringer and the Greek). I say all of them because none are really the 'main villain' so to speak, and the show is less focused on specific characters than the broader systems they exist in.
Id love to see him do the wire characters
*"A man who constantly flirts with evil" SO BEAUTIFULLY SAID*
Just like Chuck said, giving Jimmy a practice in law is like giving a chimpanzee a machine gun. Jimmy didn't just have a machine gun; he possessed the entire artilley
Dork
Saul Goodman was basically Slippin Jimmy with a law degree.
Such a amazing tv show. In todays age, to have such good writing without a huge budget and without over sexualisation of actors is a huge feat. Storytelling driven by plot.
Suggestions for future episodes:
-Arthur Morgan
-John Marston
-Micah Bell
-Dio Brando
-Frieza
-Thanos(Comic book version)
-Darkseid(Comic book version)
-Lex Luthor(Comic book version)
-Cell
-Light Yagami and L
-Doctor Doom(Comic book version)
-Angel Eyes(Good, the bad, and the ugly)
-Grand Moff Tarkin
-Darth Bane and Darth Zannah
-Grand Admiral Thrawn
-Omni Man
-Darth Malgus
-Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus
-Inquisitor Jerec
-Joruus C'baoth
-Darth Vitiate
-Prince Xizor
-Professor Moriarty
-The Piller Men from JoJo
-
jesse pinkman
Not the pillar men 🤣🤣
That first trio I'd love to see.
Homelander
Arthur Morgan wasn’t evil. He did bad deeds but he wasn’t an evil man. Not even at his worst. And everything he did was done with respect to loyalty to those he loved. Morgan wouldn’t belong here. It’s not even complex. He was a man who went down a bad path and literally chose to do the right thing in the end when he was dealt a shitty hand. I’d argue John belongs here even less.
Micah on the other hand has zero redeeming qualities.
My friend and I had a good long talk after we watched the final episode of Better Call Saul and he made an interesting point that separates it from Breaking Bad. _"I think there's a solid case to suggest that Walt was always Heisenberg deep down and the events of the show just progressively brought out more of who he really was. The question of "Was Saul Goodman Inevitable" is a lot more vague because there's evidence throughout all six seasons to suggest the answer is both yes AND no."_
Now I understood the real meaning behind his public name "Saul Goodman", and probably, it was due to his negative coping mechanism, and trying to fill his sadness with anything even if it is grief.
The inflection and pacing of the narrator here is comical.
He definitely deserved going to jail. I think he finally accepts that too in the fantastic finale.
That finale was dog shit. Fetid, worm-infested dog shit and in no way should Jimmy McGill (or any of his personas) have done what he did if he stayed within character.
@@bunniesbunniesbunnie Good thing he got OUT of character. out of SAUL... out of GENE. And into James ...
@@bunniesbunniesbunnie agreed honestly. Even if Jimmy wanted to turn a new leaf the fact that he threw away the 7 year deal, which he got legally, made no sense.
@@distantnemesis1593 Being Gene showed how tired he was of paranoia and guilt in general. Whats waiting for him outside after seven years that he hasn’t destroyed pretty much. Huell isn’t contacting him, Francesca is pretty much only on a call basis, and Kim wrote out a condemnation of their actions to Howard’s wife/would never want to see him again if he went through with the lie otherwise. He just decided there was no more drive to be slippin jimmy and he still flexed on the court. It’s one thing to end the show on “and then the courts found him guilty of all charges: the end”, but this ending was both Jimmy outplaying the court and having the punishment decided on his own. He became his own judge after an entire two shows of being looked down on by almost everyone.
I mean he only went into jail because of Kim, I don’t think Jimmy is even fully remorseful in the finale. him smiling when the prisoners were cheering his name and him doing the finger gun at Kim to me subtly shows that although he says he’s done with Saul, he’s gotta walk the talk in the end.
Another drama-related character whom I’d love to see analyzed would be Elizabeth Jennings from The Americans. Like Jimmy/Saul/Gene she does a lot of bad things but there’s a really interesting debate as to whether or not she’s evil.
I do need to thank you for this episode. While he isn't evil , per se, he's still well deserving of psychological study
Chuck had the best line from the show "Slippin' Jimmy with a law degree is like a chimp with a machine gun"
How crazy it is that there is a real video of that one could watch for frame of reference?
When jimmy tried to change his ways and become a better person he was shot down time and time again, so it was inevitable that he would turn back to the life he was able to succeed and be respected in
His employment at Davis & Main. And his elderly law practice. Both opportunities ruined by his greed, impatience, and pride. Without interference from anyone else.
@@pierrelindgren5727 Wanting to quit Davis & Main and keep his bonus doesn't exactly make him a bad person. It does reflect on him actively fighting potential success because of his infatuation with Kim. With his elder law practice, he partially ends up sabotaging it because of the greed of HMM as well. They hold back on finalizing the settlement to line their pockets with more money, using the elders getting $100 or so more as an excuse. His greed itself definitely plays a part though
He’s basically one of those people who says, “You really have changed. BUT SO HAVE I.”.
@@pierrelindgren5727 yeah the guy never took responsibilty
Jimmy even in Season 1 was doing some shady stuff. The hospital bill from the skateboarder's broken legs and the billboard stunt clearly make Chuck feel valid in not thinking Jimmy has changed for real like he 1st thought (because in his will he did think he did).
Sure Chuck has his pride but he was clearly shown to like working with Jimmy as shown with him building Sandpiper. So maybe if that was all there was Chuck could have got over his inferiority complex. But Chuck also blames Jimmy for destroying the life of a man who also trusted him...their father.
So shadowy stunts like the billboard and hospital bill (which really Jimmy should have quit when he was lucky to escape with his life from) that are very easily these 2 stunts that caused Chuck to grow nervous around Jimmy again. Because as Saul Gone shows us Chuck was the day before Jimmy got the hospital bill clearly touched by how Jimmy was taking care of him when he didn't need him to.
I’m not sure if you dive into video game characters but I would enjoy videos about Joseph seed, Pagan Min, or Vaas Montenegro. I think their all very well written characters that can be looked into .
8:00 While I think Chuck didn't tell Jimmy that his mother called out for him right before she died was probably out of resentment for jimmy, it could also be regarded as a noble act as how bad would that make Jimmy feel that he left his mothers side to go get food and she woke up looking for him then died? Just a thought.
I think that’s kindve a stretch
That was also my interpretation while watching that scene for the first time.
I think it is in character for Chuck for it to be both. Chuck frequently does things that are out of spite and justifies them with the law, even when it doesn't really make sense.
Its one of those things that could be both. He went and saved Jimmy both because he does care for him and because his mom asked him to after all.
gus may have murdered hundreds in cold blood, but atleast he never defecated through a sun roof
Hector on the other hand shit on the DEA floor.
Such an incredibly human story. I think that's what makes the series so successful.
Jimmy definitely deserves the title for evil. Thing is, evil isn’t necessarily irredeemably despicable or not deserving of comprehension and empathy. He might’ve been born this way, but had he not been exposed to certain truths and external behaviors (such as the guy at the store and Chuck’s constant habit of putting him down), I feel like he wouldn’t have done a lot of stuff he ended up doing.
It’s also really fascinating how Chuck’s definitely a piece of shit to Jimmy, but in some VERY brief moments, you can see what looks like genuine love toward his younger brother. Was it actually genuine, or was it just him feeling good about himself because he was clearly the “superior” brother in certain social situations? We’ll never know for sure
“Constantly flirts with Evil” Shows video of him with Kim. Lol that funny.
Do you really need a comma every TWO words??
It sounds like AI right!
When he said "please stay your fingers" it was truly one of the moments in this video
Jimmy is one of the most complex characters in TV history no question.
I think Chuck played the biggest role in Jimmy's fall because he never thought that he could be anything more than a toxic person that ruins other people's lives and never gave him the chance to prove that he could be more. So he never tried to be anything more.
I think Jimmy genuinely tried to be a better person in the early parts of the show, but yeah Chuck doing what he did was a huge blow for that whole idea. He also happens to be in a world that rewards deceit and cutting corners which is what Jimmy is best at
@@dr.aisaitl7439 Every favorable position Jimmy has ever been in was because of Chuck.
@@sebastienc.2257 Nah unless youre trying to say Chuck inspired him to do the things he did. He passed the bar all by himself without any help
People like Jimmy are a force of nature. A whirling cycle of energy that temps with both the positive and negative ,that is built in each of us.