The trademark of theBreaking Baduniverse is beautifully portraying what could have or should have been if only one circumstance had been different. And inVince Gilligan’s world, people squander their potential for motives you wouldn’t always expect. The averageBetter Call Saulaudience member may not look at Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) in his flashy Cadillac and think that he had once been a decent sort of fellow — the type that cared for an ailing sibling — and that his proverbial fall from grace wasn’t due to just vanity or sheer greed. Saul’s alter ego, Jimmy McGill, wasn’t taken down because of his want of a Cocobolo desk (although he played that hand well). His fall from grace is because of familial repudiation. Jimmy andthe complex dynamic between him and his brother, Chuck(Michael McKean) shapes the show more than any other. Chuck’s acceptance and non-acceptance drives the action of Jimmy’s life and decisions. Without Chuck’s rejection, there would be no Saul Goodman.
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Chuck Is a Major Influence in Jimmy’s Life
In theSeason 4 episode “Winner,”we see a flashback to when Jimmy had just passed the bar exam. Chuck put aside his feelings to look proud and supportive during the ceremony. Then they go out to celebrate. The brothers do a karaoke duet of ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All.” Formerly reluctant Chuck even ends up showing off by singing lead. Even though they have a great time, we see a bit of their dynamic at play. There is love there, but Chuck also needs to be the best, and the center of attention. Jimmy is content with playing second fiddle as long as they are getting along and Chuck is proud of him. But that is as quaint as it gets.
The brothers are in sharp contrast of each other. Chuck is straight laced, responsible, and affluent, with a keen legal mind. He wears expensive suits, listens to opera, and likes to cook. Jimmy, on the other hand, was a teenage petty criminal that, even well into his twenties, floated from con to con. Even as an attorney, his future looks bleak. He has to bribe a court clerk to work most days, and for such meager sums that he struggles to keep his two-tone Suzuki Esteem pieced together.
Jimmy, AKA “Slippin’ Jimmy,” has a sketchy past, but after his hero big brother bails him out, he was ready to change his ways. Jimmy idolizes his brother. When Chuck brings about a second chance, Jimmy does his best to make something of himself, and maybe even make his brother proud. Like his friend Kim (Rhea Seehorn), he uses his time in the Hamlin Hamlin McGill mail room to go to law school. Yet, to his eternal frustration, Jimmy could not make Chuck proud.
When Jimmy and Chuck are getting along, we see Jimmy desire to do what is right and work hard to get his career off-the-ground. We see him go above the call of duty to help out the Kellermans. We then see how he is moved to help the elderly when he learns of shady dealings at a retirement community. Jimmy tries multiple times to become a legitimate attorney, become like his big brother, only to see Chuck sabotage him.
Chuck’s Sabotage in ‘Better Call Saul’ Season 1 Breaks Jimmy
In Episode 8 of Season 1, Chuck encourages Jimmy to pursue action against the Sandpiper Crossing retirement home when Jimmy expresses concern that they are defrauding their residents. Chuck even stays up all night to piece together shredding that Jimmy had collected. They work together to file a lawsuit against Sandpiper Crossing, and it even seems as if Chuck’s health is improving as he leaves the house without all his normal precautions to retrieve paperwork for the case. They seem excited to be working together. Then in the ninth episode, Chuck makes that fateful phone call to HHM.
With that unfortunate betrayal, we see an utterly self-serving Jimmy go into revenge mode. He greedily tries to rush the Sandpiper Crossing lawsuit. He changes the addresses on the documents for the Mesa Verde case to make Chuck look bad. Chuck is fired from the case and tricks Jimmy into admitting it to disbar him. Then in Season 3, Episode 5, “Chicanery,” Jimmy takes Chuck down in court and drags Kim with him, but not without losing his license for a year. He then gets Chuck’s insurance revoked, which effectively ends Chuck’s career.
Chuck’s motivation for his subterfuge is jealousy and insecurity. He is jealous that Jimmy was their parents’ favorite and after the loss of their parents and the split from his wife, he feels like his career is all that he has left to offer. As his illness unfolds, he discovers that he is unfulfilled in his life without his work. He then feels threatened when Jimmy begins doing better for himself.
In the final episode of Season 3 titled “Lantern,” that awful blow of “you didn’t really matter all that much to me” sealed both of their fates. Chuck realizes that without his career or his brother, he has nothing left and ends his life. Gregarious Jimmy is left speechless after the admission. He struggles to express himself when he is presented with the newsthat his brother is dead. He is happy to let Howard (Patrick Fabian) think it is his fault, all the while knowing that he partly contributed to his brother’s demise. It seems Jimmy often disconnects with his emotions surrounding his death. He appears distraught publicly, but unattached in private as if he is putting on an act.
Jimmy then performs his final act as a proper attorney. Even though he does the right thing to save his client, Irene (Jean Effron), he then throws out his rolodex, effectively ending his practice as a practitioner of elder law.
He and Kim still do their Viktor and Giselle hustles. He sells burner phones to ne’er-do-wells so that he can build up a client base for later. When he gets his license back, he decides to further do business as “Saul Goodman.” By the fifth season,Jimmy and Kim then plot a brutal revenge on Howard for little reason. Jimmy acts as a bagman for the cartel. He even tries to con Kim in the Mesa Verde business expansion. He is slowly fulfilling Chuck’s prophecy of Jimmy as a lawyer: a chimp with a machine gun.
Kim is likely all that is holding him back from becoming the Saul we know fromBreaking Badright away. Kim was a protagonist along with Jimmy more than the antagonist behind Jimmy until she decided to leave him. At that point, she finished the job that Chuck started.
Losing Chuck Is What Turned Jimmy McGill Into Saul Goodman
In the end, we seeJimmy’s ultimate regretcome into fruition: destroying Chuck’s career and perhaps causing his suicide. We see how that haunts him as a person and a professional.But we also see how it redeems him in the end. In telling the truth about Chuck and telling a lie to save Kim, he (almost) kills Saul. In honor of his brother, he tries to go back to being a decent person, albeit behind prison walls.
Even though Jimmy and Kim are partners in crime, it was the loss of his brother in his life that turned Jimmy into Saul. Their brotherly relationship drives the plot, and even after Chuck is gone, his presence is felt in Jimmy’s decision-making. Whether he is trying to forget about the trauma surrounding his suicide, deciding to do the opposite of what Chuck would do, or trying to make his brother proud,Jimmy is who he is and becomes “Saul Goodman"as a result of his ever-changing relationship with Chuck and Chuck’s memory.
