With the Season 6 premiere of Better Call Saul right around the corner, our favorite
chicken chain front will soon be back in style.
This will be the final season, broken into two segments.
Being a prequel series, the ultimate fate of many characters is already known.
Crazy 8, Tuco Salamanca, the well dressed Salamanca brothers, Hank and Gomez, Hector
Salamanca and Gustavo Fring, Mike Ehrmantrout, Bolsa, Lydia, Eladio- whatever intense life
threatening situations any of these characters find themselves in, we know they all survive
into the Breaking Bad timeline, relatively unscathed from this point forward.
Now that is not to say that there aren’t some interesting stories ahead involving these
characters.
We know something must happen in the evolution of the Gus-Mike alliance, and while I cannot
speak for anyone else, I’d love to see more about Crazy 8’s transition, and it would
be pretty damn cool if we got a quick scene of Tuco and Skinny Pete sharing a jail cell.
But however these stories unfold, the most intriguing dynamic going into the final season
revolves around the characters whose fates are unknown.
That primarily boils down to the Big 5 that fit the bill - Lalo Salamanca, Nacho Varga,
Howard Hamlin, Kim Wexler, and the Creme De La Creme, Gene Takavic.
The ultimate fate of Lalo and Nacho are almost certainly tied together, and there is reason
to believe that this will directly connect with the missing piece of the puzzle in the
Gus-Mike alliance.
Now if we are to believe what Gus told Hector in Breaking Bad, then the Salamancas are all
gone, which strongly suggests Lalo is dead.
On the other hand, we also know that Goodman was terrified when he mistook Walt and Pinkman
for payback from Lalo.
Saul was quick to blame Ignacio before realizing his error.
So that leaves two possibilities - either Goodman was unaware of Lalo’s demise, or
Gus was either lying or mistaken in believing he’s dead.
Whatever fate awaits Lalo should potentially provide a powerful payoff.
He’s definitely been a strong addition to the later seasons of Better Call Saul, where
he acts almost like a composite of the entire Salamnca family with an added dimension of
being an intelligent patient strategist, traits not normally seen with the rest of the family.
Lalo took out a team of Gus’ top hired assassins, and he is aware that Nacho is the one who
sold him out, which led to the death of innocent lives on Lalo’s estate.
This could perhaps be the incident Goodman referred to when he eagerly blamed Nacho for
whatever it is he thinks Lalo wanted revenge for.
Or there could be another big showdown ahead.
Nacho has always been a likable character in the show, and he’s been especially easy
to root for since Gus started muscling him with the ever present threat on his father’s
life.
Nacho is kind of like Pinkman in the sense, both wanted out of the game at various points
in their criminal careers, and both of them always had a decent side, a certain moral
code despite their unbecoming shady behavior.
And in the end, all things considered, Pinkman had a happy ending.
I’m not so sure that will be the case for Varga.
Nacho clearly loves his old man, a hard working good and honest man of principles based on
everything we’ve seen - but at some point Nacho made a decision that hard work didn’t
pay, the same type of decision we see when McGill starts truly making the transition
into Goodman.
And it also has similarities with guys like Walt and Mike.
I think Nacho will ultimately pay some type of price for first crossing that line.
I tend to think the cost probably won’t be the life of his father, because I don’t
think the Gus-Mike relationship would survive into the Breaking Bad timeline if Gus ever
pushed that button.
Then again, now that Lalo knows Nacho betrayed him, where innocent people died as a result
of Nacho being complicit in the attack, then maybe Nacho’s dad will be the ultimate cost
- for abandoning his father’s honest lifestyle in favor of entering the dangerous game.
But however it plays out, I do not believe things will end well for Nacho.
One of the omnipresent themes throughout the Breaking Bad universe was thieves rolling
on other thieves, and this is especially true in Better Call Saul.
Nacho himself provided a perfect example of this when he stole Pryce’s baseball card
collection, only in this instance, there was a slight breach of etiquette when Pryce reported
it to the police.
Pryce was a fellow crook, so the expectation was that when one crook rolls another, the
victim will typically refrain from bringing law enforcement into the equation.
But that theme also largely relates with the greater evolution of the relationship between
Jim and Kimmy, and this ties back into the idea that taking shortcuts is more lucrative
than playing by the rules as an honest hard worker.
In a flashback to Jimmy’s childhood, a young Jimmy disapproves of his father being taken
advantage of and providing such an easy target for con artists.
His father, not unlike Nacho’s old man, seems to have been an honest hard working
man.
But the early lesson Jimmy took from this wasn’t to follow his father’s honest lead,
but instead he wanted to distance himself from that.
Instead of becoming a sucker like his pop, Jimmy chose to follow the lead of the exploiters,
robbing his own father in an early defining moment.
He would evolve into slippin’ Jimmy, and we learn a bit about the evolution of his
conning ways when we see some of his exploits with his pal Marco.
After Chuck bailed Jimmy out after he defected in a car sunroof, Chuck offered him the job
in the mailroom.
Going forward Jimmy was doing his best to win the approval of his big brother.
But unbeknownst to Jimmy, Chuck resented his kid brother to no end, in large part because
people loved Jimmy, and it’s strongly suggested that - despite all of Chuck’s mighty intellect,
and despite all of his celebrated success in his chosen profession - his parents seemed
to have a soft spot for that little screw-up kid brother of his, Slippin’ Jimmy.
Even when their own mother was on her deathbed, Jimmy was hungry and needed some food, and
Chuck was the one who heard her last words - where she cried out for Jimmy.
Chuck lied about her final moments.
The whole time Jimmy was working hard to try and win his brother’s approval which continued
after Jimmy himself became a lawyer, Chuck started actively working against Jimmy, via
Howard, while acting like he had no say in such matters.
Fast forward to Chuck’s final talk with Jimmy, where Chuck overcompensated by hurtfully
claiming Jimmy never mattered to him.
This combined with Chuck’s subsequent death helped drive McGill on a direct path to becoming
Saul Goodman.
In a flashback to Kim’s childhood, a young Kim disapproves of her mother being irresponsible,
showing up late and drunk to pick her up.
Poor Kim was just standing around waiting with her Cello.
It’s similar to when Jimmy rejected his father’s honest ways.
The lesson Jimmy took then was “Don’t be a sucker like Dad!”.
In the case of Kim, she likewise rejected her mother.
She rejected her mother’s irresponsibility, and based on what we know about Kim, she became
the master of her own destiny.
Kim was the one who was going to be responsible for her own well being, and this is later
supported when Kim pushes back against Jimmy’s efforts to try and help and save her.
But Jimmy doesn’t save Kim, only Kimmy saves Kim.
If Chuck’s final conversation with Jimmy and his subsequent death act as the catalyst
for Jimmy beginning his transformation into Saul Goodman, then it was the entire Mesa
Verde ordeal with Acker that drove Kim on the path to become Slippin’ Kimmy.
Kim’s revelation with Acker resulted in her quitting Mesa Verde, doubling down on
her pro bono work, searching for a specific type of case for reasons we may not yet understand,
and scheming against Howard where her overall demeanor and outlook appear darker than we’ve
ever seen.
Kim’s transformation has coincided with Goodman now all out to please Kim - like he
previously sought Chuck’s approval.
Since Chuck died, Kim seemed to be the only thing keeping Jimmy from going all in on Goodman.
But now Jimmy is ripe to become the exact thing he rejected all of those years ago when
he decided he wasn’t going to be a sucker like his father before him.
Jimmy is ripe for the taking, and Kim seems ripe to roll him over under the right set
of circumstances.
And Kimmy is likewise ripe to become what she once rejected in her own mother - becoming
irresponsible and reckless, now that she has two feet firmly planted in the game.
The big point of contention for Kimmy and Jim is whether destroying Howard would mean
scorched earth where they’d have to hurt him real bad, or merely be, in Kim’s words,
“a career setback”.
Howard’s ultimate fate may well be directly intertwined with the defining moment for both
Kim Wexler, and possibly for Goodman, too.
Goodman was already betrayed by his brother Chuck, and this resulted in McGill embracing
his inner Goodman with the only thing keeping him remotely grounded in his McGill roots
being Kim herself.
But on some level, McGill knows he’s complicit in Chuck’s demise, because his desire to
PLEASE Chuck prevented him from truly helping him and having him committed.
Traditionally Jimmy always had a certain line he wouldn’t cross.
Not to an extreme, anyway, as Kim is now suggesting with Howard.
Jimmy usually didn’t try to totally destroy someone.
One instance when he did was where he played Irene and turned her friends against her.
But even here, Jimmy’s guilt got the best of him, and he sacrificed his own reputation
in elder law to help her gain redemption among her friends.
When under the guise of their alter egos Giselle and Viktor with a “k”, they generally
targeted obnoxious types who exuded a certain arrogance.
Kim was usually the one who had to reign Jimmy in from taking it too far, but now with the
Howard situation, the shoe might well be on the other foot.
But traditionally, Kim tends to get her way and Jimmy usually smiles and takes it.
Kim loathes those in positions of power and authority, who step on the little man, and
she now despises people like Schweikart, and Kevin, and Howard.
This is why she’s doubling down on helping the downtrodden, not to help them, but because
it makes her feel empowered, and her wrath is now directed at Howard.
Whatever happens with Howard will also represent a defining moment in the McGill-Wexler marriage.
We never see or hear mention of Kim in Breaking Bad, but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t
alive, nor does it mean that she isn’t still connected with Goodman in some manner.
But we know whatever is about to happen - whether it represents the end of Goodman’s relationship
with Kim - we know this will be something big that propels the Goodman we first knew
into the Breaking Bad timeline.
Who knows, maybe Kim is still out there pulling the strings and using Goodman as her pawn.
One way or another something transformative for McGill is inevitable, and however that
plays out, I’m fully expecting the struggle he faces in his final moments of having any
McGill left in him - will directly tie in with the plight of Gene.
Gene is FINALLY taking a stand when he changes his mind on his phone call to Ed.
The entire time we see Gene he was a frightened man, living a sheltered life that goes everything
he once stood for, hence the only real satisfaction he experiences is through living in the past.
Whether he’s watching old commercials, signing his name afraid to set off alarms, suffering
anxiety complications from his omnipresent paranoia, or giving advice to a young punk.
He now has the Jeff situation to contend with.
While we do not know for certain that Jeff’s intentions are sinister, we can probably assume
they are.
Jeff knows who Saul Goodman is, and worse yet, he knows that Goodman has fled Albuquerque
and uses an alias.
So this seems to be another example of one thief trying to roll another, but Gene is
sick of hiding a frightened sheltered life.
Gene appears ready to face the music, whatever the tune may be.
But more importantly, he’s embracing his younger self, refusing to be a sucker like
his old man, and he seems ready to do his thing for perhaps one final stand.
I really hope they give us a nice chunk of Gene’s storyline, because for me it is every
bit as captivating as Kim’s story, and I believe there is an opportunity for a quasi-Godfather
II type of thing here, where we can have two unfolding timelines that compliment each other
on multiple levels.
And I’m especially interested in seeing how Francesca figures into all of this with
regards to the pending November 12th phone call at 3pm.
That’s all I got, and I for one am fired-up for the final season of Better Call Saul.
Thanks for watching everyone.
I hope you enjoy the final season, and have a wonderful viewing experience throughout.
You’re done!
You are done!