r/betterCallSaul • • 12h ago

If Chuck took Jimmy in HHM we would have reached the same outcome

5 Upvotes

Just like Jimmy did at Cliff&Maine, Jimmy would want to do things his way and not stick to the rules. Chuck and Jimmy would still resent each other eventually, Chuck will kick him out or whatever and we will definitely reach the same outcome.

Jimmy had no reason to leave the dream job at cliff and maine just because it didn't suit his personality due to the micromanagement that he would definitely face at HHM. He didn't even have the decency to hold his end of the contract and pushed his manager-who was extremely nice to him- to fire him to be able to keep the bonus. He told kim that there's no point in being a lawyer if he's not gonna do it his way (colorful)

You can't just assume that Jimmy will be a good lawyer exactly like Chuck wants because he loves and respects Chuck, this is not reliable on the long term.


r/betterCallSaul • • 4h ago

Howard hamlin being the good man is largely driven by recency bias

0 Upvotes

I think the whole “Howard was actually a good guy” sentiment is largely driven by recency bias. The later revelations about his personal life and how Jimmy and Kim treated him make people forget how much of a dick he was in the early seasons.

He was condescending toward Jimmy, helped keep him out of HHM, being an asshole boss towards Kim by demoting her to doc review, and got petty over the Mesa Verde situation, taking it personally when Kim left and trying to make things difficult for her. He was an arrogant, privileged corporate guy who could be pretty petty when he had power over others.

The show gradually humanizes him, reveals his personal struggles, and turns him into a tragic figure who gets unfairly destroyed by Jimmy and Kim and because those later events are so much more emotionally impactful, viewers seem to retroactively rewrite his entire character in their mind.

Howard absolutely didn't deserve a bullet to the head but that doesn't automatically mean he was a great person all along. I think people confuses feeling sorry for him with the idea that he was always a good person.


r/betterCallSaul • • 6h ago

An uncommon take: I didn't originally get the panel's disgust at Chuck in "Chicanery"

47 Upvotes

I'm a huge fan of BCS and I wanted to offer an uncommon take. In Chicanery, when Chuck finished his rant against Jimmy at the hearing, I was surprised to see the panel looking disgusted and confused at him.

The anger that Chuck has was a bit familiar to me: it's very much like the anger of the good brother in the Prodigal Son fable. The good son who stayed home and played by the rules resents the good fortune that comes to his wayward brother. I have a close friend who has struggled with addiction and has often been quite coddled by their loved ones. When you see that enough, and when you doubt the addict is maturing, you can begin to have the anger, distrust, and resentment that McKean conveys so well in Chuck.

When I saw the panel looking disgusted, for a moment I thought, "What did he do wrong? He's just stating what he's gone through." But I realized that by letting it all go, unbottling it in one moment, maybe for the first time in public being that honest, he sounded completely insane and unreliable. And of course by releasing it, he also deeply wounded his brother, along with destroying his own reputation.

I wonder if anyone else sympathized a bit in what Chuck's rant in that moment. Great acting by Mr. McKean.


r/betterCallSaul • • 3h ago

Who was a better lawyer, kim or jimmy?

0 Upvotes

I dont know if someone has asked this before. I think kim, my dad thinks jimmy.( Better lawyer over all, booksmart, good in court, making deals, winning cases, etc) what do you think?


r/betterCallSaul • • 9h ago

Why does no one acknowledge that batteries don't have electricity? Spoiler

0 Upvotes

They treat the battery in Chuck's pocket as proof that he's unwell because allegedly he'd have felt the battery but didn't, so his condition is fake.

But, batteries don't have electricity, electricity, and electromagnetic fields, happen specifically when electricity flows through a wire. A battery doesn't "hold" electricity inside it ready to be let out, they just have chemical elements in them ready to be turned into electricity. It is akin to firewood not "containing" fire within it, just having the chemical fuel ready to combust into fire when it has the opportunity to, if someone were allergic to fire/combustion the way Chuck is allergic to electricity, that doesn't mean they'd be allergic to having a piece of wood or coal in their pocket.

So why does everyone treat him having a battery as proof that he was faking anything? Him not feeling it at all is perfectly in line with the fact that it didn't have any electricity, and then being startled by it could just be an immediate scare of worried that it might have, the way someone allergic to fire might for a second be scared when going into a room covered in gasoline.


r/betterCallSaul • • 11h ago

(Spoilers)Jimmy and Kim had every right to dislike Howard Spoiler

82 Upvotes

Many things can be true at the same time. Howard didn’t deserve to have his reputation ruined, but Jimmy and Kim hating him didn’t exactly come out of left field.

Howard is a smart, strong, and respectful guy who is easily manipulated by Chuck. Howard, on orders from Chuck, treats Jimmy and Kim like garbage early on in the show. Howard always liked Jimmy, but would help sabotage his career because Chuck was a jealous big brother. Howard was always looking out for the best interests of the firm, unless Chuck had other petty interests. He was Chucks lapdog, and it’s understandable why Jimmy would dislike him.

Howard was also really harsh to Kim early on. He punishes her for losing the idiot Kettlemans to no fault of her own. She, and HHM, got them a great deal, and they blew it up because they were stupid. But because they were a big client, and left HHM, Howard punishes Kim, and sends her to doc review. He does the same after Jimmy pulls some slippin shit with Davis and Main. Ofc, a lot of his poor treatment of Kim came from Chuck. But even when Chuck lightens up on Kim, Howard still insists she remains in the dog house.

Howard tries to get Jimmy disbarred. He tried very hard to achieve chucks goal in ruining jimmy’s career. Sure, Jimmy deserved to be disbarred, but as far as he and Kim are concerned, Howard did his part in ruining Jimmy’s career, all because Chuck hated his brother.

Howard hardly ever stood up for what he believed in. But to his credit, he did try to atone for his mistakes. That said, it’s understandable why Kim and Jimmy didn’t like him. He kept them down. Excusing Howard for being an asshole because he looked up to Chuck is a shitty excuse. He didn’t deserve his fate. Jimmy and Kim went way too far. But it’s not really fair to judge Kim and Jimmy for their dislike of him.


r/betterCallSaul • • 11h ago

Why didn't Gus tell Mike he was going to the Laundry? Spoiler

3 Upvotes

When Gus goes to the laundry to look for Lalo, why doesn't he tell Mike? He could presumably do so and mike could send a guy or two for backup, or just to let him know where he is, but he doesn't.


r/betterCallSaul • • 6h ago

Slippin Jimmy was Chuck's way to justify his brother Spoiler

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8 Upvotes

We often discuss the relationship between McGill brothers here, but I wanted to point out something I don't see talked a lot.

During the show you see Chuck's point about Jimmy being "born this way" constantly proven right. Whenever Jimmy has the occasion to do the right thing he fucks up. But then, in the final we realize, through Kim's eyes, that as humans will always have free will and always can make the right and the wrong choice, no matter how we behaved before. So, the question is: why Chuck.came to the wrong conclusion?

A lot of people bring out the jealousy, which definitely played a huge role. However, I don't think that's all. Because if we think about it, Jimmy didn't just fully embrace the philosophy of "this is who I am", but he also uses it as an excuse to never take accountability. Because if you can't change, your repeated mistakes are not really your fault, right? And by repeatedly telling to a person that if they do something wrong it's because of "the way you're born" and not because they made a bad choice, you're implying that their bad actions are never their responsibility since they can't avoid doing them. Basically, what Chuck did for years.

I think that the wholesome flashback with Chuck in Saul Gone was there to show that while he was wrong the whole time, he kept telling Jimmy he couldn't change because part of himself genuinely cared about him. It's much easier to find excuses than to keep people accountable, especially if you love them. Chuck just never truly accepted that Jimmy was capable of making the wrong choice, so he told himself he was just a victim of himself.


r/betterCallSaul • • 16h ago

Kim and Jimmy are having sex only when they are up to something

72 Upvotes

I just realized that jimmy and kim have sex only when they are actively plotting something or right after they finished a scam.
I can not recall a single scene where they wouldn’t be fully clothed in bed when they are not working together. Thoughts? Why do you think that might be?


r/betterCallSaul • • 19h ago

Always Stuck With Me (Chicanery)

0 Upvotes

Why did Chuck reveal the battery in his breast pocket? Even during his initial confusion, refusing to reach into his pocket or denying that anything was there seems like the most logical thing to do in front of a conman. If Chuck had lied or decided not to bother with his request, Jimmy would’ve been flattened.

And genuinely, what else could he have thought was on him at that point? Jimmy pretending to carry a charged cell phone clearly looks like a set-up once he asks the next question.

Like, Chuck understands Jimmy’s end goal. He knows that Jimmy doesn’t actually believe he’s sensitive to electricity, and that he wants to attack his credibility front of everyone. He knows that Jimmy’s only chance at winning over the court relies on making him look crazy. Whatever is in his pocket is clearly supposed to be damning. Jimmy was practically announcing that a current was on Chuck, and he still decided to show it to the court. Even if he was uncertain as to what the object is, why would he believe Jimmy is still bluffing by now?

Very cool scene, very smart plan, but it was held up under the thin assumption that Chuck would listen to Jimmy.


r/betterCallSaul • • 1h ago

About Mike

• Upvotes

*Couldn't post this in BB subreddit cuz of dumb karma regulations so i figured to post it here. let it be known i didn't watch better call saul*
Why does Mike consider himself morally superior to Walter White and act so outraged by his decision to retaliate and kill Gus, even going as far as calling him a ticking time bomb? Walter White is the only one who actually honored the strictly business, professional relationship he had with Gus, while Gus was actively trying to replace him with Gale and eventually have him killed.

People love to pretend they understand the show by judging every single decision Walter makes, but by the end of Season 4, he’s the only character whose actions seem reasonable and make sense to me. He’s genuinely the only one who remained professional and tried to make his working relationship with Gus work.

I’m not here to blame Gus, Jesse, or Mike for the way the business fell apart. What confuses me is why Mike keeps insulting Walter and acting as though he’s the one who was wronged, or as though Walter did something completely out of the ordinary, when all he did was defend himself.


r/betterCallSaul • • 16h ago

Howard really didn’t deserve all that hate

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1.8k Upvotes

Rewatching the show made me realize Howard was actually one of the few decent people trying to do better. Yeah, he had his flaws, but compared to everyone else?
Kinda crazy how much I disliked him the first time around.
Anyone else change their opinion of him after rewatching?


r/betterCallSaul • • 10h ago

Mike's double life

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70 Upvotes

Probably not the first one to notice, but I have been rewatching BCS and just noticed the kids on the right of Mike are wearing all dark and look kind of serious while Kaylee is wearing bright colored clothes and happy. The kids in black and Mike are both looking at Kaylee, the only bright spot in this shot and in Mike's life. Also, there are two kids on the right and they are outnumbering Kaylee just like Mike's crime life is overshadowing everything else, but the only things he looks at and looks forward to is Kaylee.


r/betterCallSaul • • 3h ago

Bob Ode Kirk turns 64 today

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422 Upvotes

r/betterCallSaul • • 15h ago

Better Call Saul Is My Comfort Show When Life Gets Tough

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311 Upvotes

I feel like Better Call Saul is a show that everyone can relate to at some point in their lives. Anyone who has ever felt like they're falling behind in life, struggling to get back on their feet, or slowly losing hope can relate to Jimmy McGill in some way.

Whenever I'm feeling really low, sad, or unmotivated, I sometimes go back and watch an episode of Better Call Saul. And somehow, it reminds me of something important: no matter how many times life knocks you down, you shouldn't give up on yourself.


r/betterCallSaul • • 6h ago

What is the best original soundtrack song

2 Upvotes

My favorite is the “flickering candle” because of how it sets the tone when Lalo shows up and kills Howard in 6x7, but I also love the border crossing song and the song that plays when Nacho confesses what he did to Hector and kills himself in 6x3