Trademark Breaking Bad the universe beautifully portrays what could be, or should be, if only one circumstance were different. And in Vince GilliganIn the world, people waste their potential for motives that you don’t always expect. Average Better call Saul The viewer can’t look at Saul GoodmanBob Odenkirk) in his flashy Cadillac and think that he was once a decent guy - the kind of guy who cared for a sick brother and sister - and that his notorious fall from grace was not just due to vanity or sheer greed. Sol’s alter ego, Jimmy McGill, was not removed due to his lack of a Cocobolo table (although he played that hand well). His fall from grace is due to family rejection. Jimmy and the complex dynamic between him and his brother ChuckMichael McKean) shapes the show more than any other. Chuck’s acceptance and rejection determine Jimmy’s actions and decisions. Without Chuck’s rejection, there would be no Saul Goodman.
Chuck has been a big influence in Jimmy’s life.
In the season 4 episode “Winner”, we see a flashback of Jimmy just passing his bar exam. Chuck put aside his feelings to look proud and supportive during the ceremony. Then they go out to celebrate. The brothers perform a karaoke duet to ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All”. Previously, the stubborn Chuck even boasted while playing the lead role. Even though they are having a great time, we see their dynamics in the game. There is love there, but Chuck also has to be the best and be the center of attention. Jimmy is content to play second fiddle while they get along and Chuck is proud of him. But it’s as weird as it gets.
The brothers contrast sharply with each other. Chuck is straightforward, responsible and wealthy, with a keen legal mind. He wears expensive suits, listens to opera and loves to cook. Jimmy, on the other hand, was a teenage petty criminal who, even in his twenties, swam from scam to scam. Even as a lawyer, his future looks bleak. He has to bribe a court clerk to work most of the day, and for such meager sums that he struggles to keep his two-tone Suzuki Esteem together.
Jimmy, also known as “Sliding Jimmy”, has a sketchy past, but after being bailed out by his hero older brother, he was ready to change his ways. Jimmy idolizes his brother. When Chuck gives him a second chance, Jimmy does his best to prove himself and maybe even make his brother proud of him. Like his friend KimRhea Seehorn), he uses his time at the Hamlin Hamlin McGill Post Office to get into law school. However, to his eternal disappointment, Jimmy couldn’t make Chuck proud.
When Jimmy and Chuck get along, we see Jimmy’s desire to do the right thing and work hard to get his career off the ground. We see him go beyond the call of duty to help the Kellermans. We then see how eager he is to help the elderly when he finds out about shady dealings in the retirement community. Jimmy tries several times to become a legal lawyer, to become like his older brother, only to see Chuck sabotage him.
Chuck’s Sabotage in Season 1 of Better Call Saul Breaks Jimmy
In Season 1 Episode 8, Chuck encourages Jimmy to take action against Sandpiper Crossing Nursing Home when Jimmy expresses concern that they are cheating their residents. Chuck doesn’t even sleep all night to put together the pieces that Jimmy put together. They work together to file a lawsuit against Sandpiper Crossing, and Chuck’s health even seems to improve when he leaves the house without all of his usual precautions to get the paperwork on the case. They seem to enjoy working together. Then, in episode nine, Chuck makes that fateful phone call to HHM.
With this regrettable betrayal, we see the completely self-serving Jimmy go into revenge mode. He is avidly trying to speed up the Sandpiper Crossing lawsuit. He changes the addresses on the Mesa Verde case files to make Chuck look bad. Chuck is fired from the case and tricks Jimmy into admitting this in order to disqualify him from a lawyer. Then in Season 3, Episode 5, “Chicanery”, Jimmy takes Chuck to court and drags Kim along, but not without losing his license for a year. He then voids Chuck’s insurance, effectively ending Chuck’s career.
Chuck’s motivation for his ploy is jealousy and insecurity. He is jealous that Jimmy was their parents’ favorite, and after losing his parents and breaking up with his wife, he feels his career is all he has to offer. As his illness progresses, he finds that he cannot fulfill himself in life without work. He then feels threatened as Jimmy begins to feel better.
In the final episode of Season 3, titled “Lantern”, that dreadful “you didn’t mean much to me” punch sealed their fates. Chuck realizes that without a career or a brother, he has nothing left, and ends his life. Outgoing Jimmy is speechless after confessing. He struggles to express himself when informed that his brother is dead. He’s happy to let Howard goPatrick Fabian) think that it is his fault, while knowing that he partially contributed to the death of his brother. Jimmy seems to often lose touch with his emotions around death. He appears distraught in public but detached in private, as if he is faking it.
Jimmy then does his last act as a real attorney. Even though he does the right thing to save his client, Irene (Jean Effron), then he throws away his rolodex, effectively ending his practice as a practitioner of the law of the elders.
He and Kim still go about their business with Victor and Giselle. He sells disposable phones to slackers to build up a customer base for later. When he gets his license back, he decides to continue the business as “Saul Goodman”. By the fifth season, Jimmy and Kim are plotting violent revenge on Howard for no particular reason. Jimmy works as a cartel agent. He even tries to trick Kim into expanding the Mesa Verde business. He slowly fulfills Chuck’s prophecy about Jimmy as a lawyer: a chimpanzee with a machine gun.
Kim is probably everything that keeps him from becoming the Sol we know from Breaking Bad straightaway. Kim was the main character alongside Jimmy, not the antagonist behind Jimmy, until she decided to leave him. At this point, she finished the job that Chuck had begun.
Losing Chuck turned Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman
In the end, we see Jimmy’s ultimate regret come to fruition: ruining Chuck’s career and possibly causing his suicide. We see how this haunts him as a person and a professional. But we also see how it redeems him in the end. By telling the truth about Chuck and lying to save Kim, he (almost) kills Saul. In honor of his brother, he tries to become a decent person again, albeit behind prison walls.
Even though Jimmy and Kim are partners in crime, the loss of a brother in his life has turned Jimmy into Saul. Their brotherly relationship drives the plot, and even after Chuck’s departure, his presence is felt in Jimmy’s decision-making. Whether he’s trying to forget the trauma of his suicide by choosing to do the opposite of what Chuck would have done, or trying to make his brother proud, Jimmy remains who he is and becomes “Saul Goodman” as a result of his eternal… relationship change with Chuck and Chuck’s memory.
Source: Collider
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