Better Call Saul

[Walter Kurtz]

"My hope and my dream is that the ending we have is surprising, but then once you think about it, feels inevitable." Peter Gould (current showrunner)

From an excellent article in our primary source of non-industry news (the BBC).

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/202 ... eaking-bad

[Boosmahn]

I'm embarrassed to admit that, for last week's episode, I did not realize

Spoiler

Gene was reverting specifically back to Jimmy. I'm pretty sure I thought of his behavior as his "old ways," Saul not excluded.

As for this week's episode,

Spoiler

it reached Breaking Bad levels of poor decision-making. Just as it seems Gene is ready to leave the Saul persona behind, his unsuccessful phone call caused him to -- is there a better word? -- relapse. (I have never been more concerned to see a foot massage machine in my life.) I wonder if we'll ever know who was on the line: Kim or an employer telling Gene she doesn't work there anymore (or an employer telling Gene something else)? If he received news that Kim no longer works there, he would be left without any private way to contact Kim. You can kind of hear Gene towards the end of the call, so I wonder if one can make out what he's saying if they listen carefully. I'll check this out later.

[therewillbeblus]

Spoiler

The call was deliberately indecipherable, and it was 100% Kim on the other line. Jimmy touched the stove with an expectation, didn't like the response he got, and relapsed into needing to self-destructively be the center of his own world, to put others down to make himself feel not big, but bigger than a stain. This show gets psychological processes of behavior so right- it's not an attempt to achieve euphoria, but rather that dysphoria feels so unbearable -specifically the core belief Jimmy carries that he's nothing- that they demand reprieve.

I loved that we were excluded from the phone call, because it doesn't matter. Our distance from the 'action' was a sobering reminder of what Jimmy cannot fathom, and that we would miss if we were subjectively aligned with him like we were moreso in BB: that he is right-sized, not the center of the world, and not that important. Gilligan and Gould have grown up a lot between these two shows, and it's never been demonstrated to subtly as there. I also loved the mirroring of Saul touching the stove of going to see Walter and him breaking bad into the house- they're seemingly disconnected but one decision leads to another, and it's a calamitous lesson unlearned to repeatedly ignore advice from the objective parties we surround ourselves with to just go with an emotional 'gut' instinct independently, in isolation, skewed with amoral self-will-run-riot.

[oh yeah]

Absolutely outstanding episode tonight. BCS has always been great, but this entire final season (especially the Howard plot), so masterful and so dark like S6B of the Sopranos, has made me think it is indeed superior to BrBa in many ways. I love the B&W stuff, like a mini-noir (and indeed the whole story is very noir in the way it deals with fate and karmic consequences for one’s actions)

[Kracker]

"Guy with that mustache probably doesn't make a lot of good life choices" Ouch.

Well, this episode took the sharpest of turns..

Spoiler

'The moment when Better Call Saul became Breaking Bad'

I guessed that the name of the episode implied that this would show the events of the "Better Call Saul" episode from Saul's POV and it would up really recontextualizing the part Saul had to play in BB, hammering in what Gene said in the previous episode how he created Heisenberg; it was ultimately he not Walt that set the destruction in motion, pinpointing Saul's walk up to the high school as his own "moment of doom". The door slam cut at the end is one of the most powerful shots in either series. I think Peter Gould once said once BCS was done, the show would have us see BB in a different light. With the seasons usually being 10 episodes, Nippy was pretty much that 10th episode finale signifying BCS being done, with these last 3 episodes essentially being what people expected the movie to do and change the way we think about the show.

The episode's title also has that double significance as Gene decides to break bad (And on his 50th birthday, just like Walt) but leaving the explosive catalyst sending him on this reckless tear a complete mystery, which is too big of a loose end for everyone to speculate over forever after the show is done. One that caused Gene to act so violently (the call mirrors Walt's call to Walt Jr) then become so reckless, to the extent of stealing money he doesn't even need, after going so long being so careful as not even trip an exit alarm, as if he wants to be caught. Likely we might get it in the form of the other side of the conversation, much like the Nacho/Mike&Gus phone call. The place Gene contacts to reach Kim is called "Palm Spring Sprinklers" and the next episode is titled "Waterworks" so we'll see.

A big theme of the series is tiny moments tipping things into dramatic motion. We get the phone call we figured was going to happen right after where we left off and one little moment of Francesca mentioning Kim asked about him, just because, for a brief moment, she shed her rough exterior and felt sorry for him enough to feel she had to give him something and it sent him to try and reach her and then down that dark, dark path.

Likewise, we get the surreal moment when Jesse told Saul he never heard of anyone named Lalo, which seems to be rather punctuated. It did seem to spark a change in Saul as if before he was determined never to get involved in drug cartel business ever again until Jesse became the one that convinced him he might be truly free to do so again with Lalo truly gone.

I feel like they are really setting us up for a grand connection between all three timelines and that's what we might see in the finale. As Bryan Cranston mentioned a few scenes with Walt and/or Jesse, and this was only one, so we haven't seen the last of what these BB-era scenes will reveal.

- Poor Jeffy. This really makes me wish Don Harvey was playing that part, just to see him go from threatening to a beaten man actually scared of Gene/Saul.

- Two parallel instances of Saul being told to stay away from the guy with cancer lest it end in disaster. I like how the fact that the mark has cancer seems to make Gene even more determined to take him as if he very much sees him as Walt. "So? A guy with cancer can't be an a**hole? Believe me, I speak from experience."

- Mike comparing Walt to BetaMaxx: higher quality yet shorter lifespan.

[Roscoe]

I'm embarrassed to admit that, for last week's episode, I did not realize

Spoiler

Gene was reverting specifically back to Jimmy. I'm pretty sure I thought of his behavior as his "old ways," Saul not excluded.

That's interesting, because

Spoiler

It seemed to me that Gene wasn't reverting to Jimmy, but morphing into Heisenberg -- the closeups of that balding head, mustached face and scowling expressing reminded of the famous caricature. All that's missing is the hat.

The Jimmy I remember was more about the scam, the con, the fun of putting one over in general and maybe getting some payback, especially on those stuffed shirts who keep punching him down in particular. And Jimmy wouldn't have pulled the scam on the guy with cancer. He'd have been telling the other guys to abort. Saul might have gone ahead that bit of awfulness, but his merry witty viciousness is gone from Gene now. We're seeing JMM's final avatar, and it's a pretty ugly one.

The Frankenstein references were interesting.

[Kracker]

That was for the last episode, not this one. "Nippy" was all about reverting to back to Jimmy with everything from relishing in pulling off the con to still having a way with old people. It was an ending and story arc completion to BCS.

Spoiler

Then this episode, two phone calls showing him he lost everything turn him into a monster that never healed from losing Kim, losing Chuck, Howard's death, etc. I wouldn't say the Heisenberg comparison is apt since the two manifested differently. Especially with the Frankenstein analogy.

[Roscoe]

That was for the last episode, not this one. "Nippy" was all about reverting to back to Jimmy with everything from relishing in pulling off the con to still having a way with old people.

So it was. Apologies, all.

[flyonthewall2983]

Spoiler

With regards to the flashbacks, it felt a bit like of an extension of what happened in El Camino, where you can see the moments it steps out of the main plot to give you some idea of what Jesse is thinking, using incidents from his past to inform what’s happening in that moment.

But where there is ultimately some kind of catharsis for Jesse, I think we are seeing these past incidents maybe as different as Gene chooses to remember them, and maybe starting to act more on his emotions as he breaks into this guy’s house. I think essentially what he is after by doing that, more then just this guy’s money, is trying to give himself closure about the whole mess. And just how much blame for the shape his life is in, that he lays on Walter White’s feet.

[therewillbeblus]

"Guy with that mustache probably doesn't make a lot of good life choices" Ouch.

Spoiler

Didn’t even make the connection between Walt’s stache during that pre-goatee period, and Gene’s in his new life, but it gets me wondering about whether we’re seeing these as flashbacks or objective representations of Jimmy’s choices and transformations. Either way, there’s a fatalism in the air, and I think Jimmy has always been more aware of his self-destructive behavior than he lets show- barely hanging on to the lies he’s telling himself most of all.

[Walter Kurtz]

At first glance it now appears that it is untrue that Jimmy and Kim were bad for each other.
Jimmy may have been bad for Kim Wexler.
But Kim was good for Jimmy.
Without her he is a chimp with a machine gun.

But then on second glance it may be more true than ever.
Kim disappears? Tommy gun.
An idea of Kim disappearing? Tommy gun.
If Kim never existed then Kim can’t disappear...
And only the chimp remains... but without a Tommy gun.

But… and a major but is this:
Kim's non-existence would have been better in the long run for Jimmy.
But once she existed her presence was actually good for him.

[therewillbeblus]

I think that's a little too deterministic and unfair to the complexities of human relationships and how they've shaped us, especially since the show has taken great pains to accentuate this theme as deeply historical and psychological defined over time. We could say the same about all of Jimmy or Kim's relationships before they entered each others' lives, so to put all the weight on their union is rather cheap and undermines the rich history in the elisions of their lives that the show has incorporated so well into understanding who these people are and how their entire conditioned lives have rendered fatalistic action, rather than just one thing. A moment where someone 'breaks bad' isn't avoidable in a vacuum, but a product of many variables and how we've coped with them across our lives, and Better Call Saul has done a much better job than Breaking Bad at illustrating this mature take on human behavior.

Jimmy's reactivity to feeling rejected, to being wanted or needed, to dysphoria's agony and the impulsive need to pretend like everything's okay, to get power over others, to engaging or disengaging with people he allows himself to be vulnerable with, and to his complicated relationship with his own emotional sensitivity as someone who repeatedly swallows glass to cut up that beating heart of passionate morality... well, it doesn't all hinge on his relationship with Kim. This stuff could and would and has come out divorced from Kim, and something (well, a lot of information) tells me that Jimmy would end up broadly where he does based on interactions with plenty of other people over the course of his life. Certainly not 'exactly' where he is -circumstances have aligned to get to a veryyy specific place of consequence there- but he'd likely arrive at a spiritual bottom nonetheless

[Walter Kurtz]

I disagree with you almost completely.

Also... I do not believe KW was on the phone as you have 100% certainty of. If is was indeed her then Jimmy's response would have been utter devastation... utter collapse. Devastated people do not have energy. In fact they often do collapse. It takes energy to be angry.

Or maybe it was just obscenely, badly directed.

[Walter Kurtz]

At any rate...

Breaking Bad is the story of Steve Wozniak.
Better Call Saul is the story of Steve Jobs.

- 30 -

[therewillbeblus]

Also... I do not believe KW was on the phone as you have 100% certainty of. If is was indeed her then Jimmy's response would have been utter devastation... utter collapse. Devastated people do not have energy. In fact they often do collapse. It takes energy to be angry.

Or maybe it was just obscenely, badly directed.

As someone who has worked with people around emotional regulation issues professionally for half my life, but also quite simply lived on this planet for a few decades, I hate to inform you that people have diverse ways of responding to triggers and don't behave uniformly by a succinct, homogenous logic of reactivity. What would be the point of creating six seasons around these characters- or any characters- if we were all so simple? What a strange and baffling oversimplification of how people 'in general' behave

[flyonthewall2983]

For Gene to be that pissed off from what appeared to me as an engaged conversation with a total stranger makes no sense to me.

[Walter Kurtz]

For Gene to be that pissed off from what appeared to me as an engaged conversation with a total stranger makes no sense to me.

Kurtz himself has left this building... for good I think (-30-). Our take at Walter Kurtz which is Kurtz, two assistants, and me (the intern who is writing this particular-and probably last-post) is that KW had either left permanent word in the office that she would not come to the phone... or that she left immediate word that she didn't want to accept the call knowing who it was....

Thus, Jimmy's anger in not being able to convince the person on the other end of the line to get the call to KW.

The four of us are unanimous in our opinion here that this anger is indeed with a "total stranger". But what do we know? Kurtz has an Oscar for directing and as he suggested... the scene could just have been badly directed. In any case... the four of us in totality can't possibly compare with nor comprehend the radiant wisdom of certain people who have actually lived for "a few decades"!

[therewillbeblus]

It's quite possible that Kim is not on the other end of that line, but either way, the point still stands that people can react to a disruption of expectations with multiple emotions. Anger is often considered a secondary emotion, that people are more comfortable reacting with than, say, leaning into the vulnerability from their impotence to control a situation. That vulnerability is psychologically dangerous to internal parts of their psyche, because they don't trust that they'll be able to escape from the quicksand of negative core beliefs ("I'm unlovable" "I'm a failure" etc.), but with a perception of justified anger, or a tangible impulsive behavior that can tap in for fear, one can engage tangibly against their stressors, even if it results in self-destructive behavior.

In many ways, this is entirely in step with Jimmy's behavior, so I'm surprised to read multiple posters confused by how this makes no sense for the character. Jimmy has always struggled to lean into discomfort that might cause himself to admit his powerlessness conflated with weakness. Whether in relation to Chuck, or Howard, or small fry clients, or Kim, it makes complete sense that- if he hears an olive branch has been extended (according to his own constantly-evolving narrative in his mind) by Kim, and then calls, and receives an answer either from her or someone that blocks his ability to get any further- that Jimmy would react the way he always has to powerlessness: By trying to get power where he can, in self-destructive ways that hurt others. Hurt people hurt people. That's a saying uncoined by me, but it's absurd to say that people collapse at being devastated. I've scarcely met even the healthiest of self-actualized people who will naturally lean into these intangible marks of powerlessness over blending with some kind of protective part that can react in any other way than to collapse. So, if there's a random person on the other end of the phone saying Too Bad, yeah, Jimmy is going to blow a fuse now that he's stepping a foot over the line firmly in the I Want My Old Life Back section.

I would argue that the entire show of Better Call Saul is about good people dealing with their uncomfortable core beliefs, negative self-directed thought patterns, uncomfortable emotions and accompanying physiological sensations (or, clinically put, IFS parts) and making morally-bending behavioral choices as a result of their struggle to cope with them individually coupled with social influence. Yes, Jimmy and Kim are not good for each other because they aid one another in bringing out the parts that offer tangible escapes from their respective dysphoria, but they also exist in a milieu with many, many other influences- those that Walter White, Jesse Pinkman etc. have contested with- that we all contest with, because they're ubiquitous in life. To say that if I never met an enabling ex-partner, I'd be totally self-actualized and not have my current problems is a ridiculous statement that diffuses my responsibility, no matter how appealing it would be to believe- hell, that's why people say inane stuff like that

[RIP Film]

A small thing but I liked how we got subtle insight into Mike’s mean streak toward Saul in Breaking Bad. It seems it wasn’t so much Mike himself changing, but his attitude toward Jimmy— from one of basic concern to moral loathing, the more he inhabits the skin of Saul. In fact Saul probably becomes a lightning rod for his aggression since he is seemingly forced into a working relationship with him, wherein he projects the seediness of the work onto Saul while assuming for himself there is a professional distance from it.

[flyonthewall2983]

Spoiler

Mike’s trajectory by the time he is killed is made all the more tragic, because he finds himself surrounded by the same mindset that killed his son in Philadelphia. Maybe the most powerful moment on the show is in the Season Four opener when he pulls the gun on Gus as he kills victor with the infamous box knife. The new family of his that he built up during BCS is torn down incrementally once Gus went into business with Walter White. Mike’s unrelenting distaste for whom, speaks so much more to his soul then I can even dream of.

[Walter Kurtz]

it's absurd to say...

...is a ridiculous statement

...inane stuff

You seem to have a deep, intertwined symbiosis with the character of Saul Goodman and LASH OUT JUST LIKE HE DID when things don’t go your way. And your ongoing and seemingly infinite amount of psychobabble navel-gazing may soon exhaust the finite capacity of the internet.

I’m a former Vassar girl (American Lit) now working in LA as a reader (coverage) etc. for WK. Everyone that WK and I have seen collapses when presented with devastating news. I guess we privileged Hollywood-types and lit-chicks are just self-actualized, as you say, even though they don’t exist in your self-fabricated universe.

Maybe you're hanging out with the wrong crowd, darling.

What did you do when your most loved parent died in front of you? Did you kick her in the head? Did you smash furniture? Or did you collapse, sobbing… and hold her in your arms.

What’s that saying about looking around and seeing assholes everywhere when in fact…. the person looking is ? You’re looking around and seeing troubled addicts and troubled Saul Goodmans and troubled everyone else when the person most troubled seems to be yourself.

Sarah

I'd say chill out, but as sure as the sun rises in the east, we know that you will persist in your psycho-dramatic invective because just like in the story of the scorpion and the frog----

It’s in your nature.

[tenia]

There aren't many members of this board I can distinctively understand where they might be coming from, but I certainly wouldn't challenge TWBB at understanding how some people can react to very stressful situations or understanding.

I don't think this has anything to do with being a Hollywood person or a lit-chick (whatever this means - sorry, I'm French and Google isn't helping on this one), but I would definitely, in such circumstances, not talk about "hanging with the wrong crowd" since the crowd in question might be psychologically distressed people TWBB is helping as a job.

However, I'm sorry to say that different people do react differently to similar stressful information - a given person might not even react like they used to decades earlier. Which seem like a difficult thing for you to imagine, but there you go. Sometimes I cried, sometimes I didn't feel much, and sometimes, when I was younger, I used to punch walls, so I'm myself an example of this if one was actually needed to illustrate that, well, not all people acts and reacts the same.

I'm however quite unsure how much added value all this exchange has about Better Call Saul, but I know mental projections (though they oh so rarely are good ideas) like this one usually are a spontaneous escape door precisely when you don't want to chill and back out a bit and instead double-down on the psycho-dramatic invectives.

[therewillbeblus]

On this very page, Walter Kurtz has responded to triggers challenging their perspective by politely disagreeing, playfully disengaging from discussion on a discussion board with passive condescension, and then aggressively attacking my character with insults over cherry-picked lines ostensibly targeting his worldview. That's a pretty wide range of labile behavior for one person- or, taking the bait, perhaps this is another person on his account. Either way it proves my very point that people respond differently to different triggers at different times, and this is some pretty low-stakes triggering compared to what we get on the show.

[Walter Kurtz]

Sarah, again, its not WK. Nothing you said could ever devastate me... so you completely miss the point at how the people in my universe and me respond to devastation. Of course I'm titillating myself by engaging in a wide range of responses... they are not responses to devastation but merely to your aggressive behavior. Aggressive behavior doesn't devastate me. A bad drink at happy hour? That just might do it. And one more hour to go!

[therewillbeblus]

I apologize if you felt my behavior was aggressive. Yet you fired back with extremely provocative targeted insults that offended aspects I've disclosed about my “troubled” past, and essentially called me an asshole. I thought this was against the rules, but either way I'm going to tap out since this doesn't feel like a safe place at the moment