(Jesse) "That did it?"
(crash)
(switch off)
(and it falls)
"YEAH, BITCH!"
"MAGNETS"
"MAGNETS" (repeatedly)
"MAGNETS" (while showing footage of "Better Call Saul")
["Better Call Saul Theme"]
(MatPat) Hello Internet.
Welcome to FILM THEORY!
The show that wanted to be more attractive,
so we swallowed a bunch of magnets.
Painful joke? Most certainly,
but not nearly as painful as those magnets
coming out the other end.
Speaking of MAGNETS, let's talk "Better Call Saul,"
the sequel-prequel series to one of television's
greatest shows, "Breaking Bad."
The show flashes back six years before Walter White
starts up his meth-cookery, to tell the story of how a
young lawyer with the best of intentions
named Jimmy McGill
becomes the sleazy defender of criminals
Saul Goodman!
Sadly, not many people are watching it,
and certainly not many of YOU who watch this show are watching it,
but HECK, every once in a while I need to take a break from making half-baked superhero theories
to introduce you to a show that is definitely worth your time.
Let me tell you "Better Call Saul" is definitely one of those.
Admittedly, it's slow, like, REALLY slow,
like we're at the end of season three and not a whole lot has happened slow.
It's also quiet, like, REALLY quiet,
like long sequences of the show happened in complete silence quiet,
but it is one of the most beautifully shot deeply moving explorations
of character and relationships ever to be put on a TV screen.
These people feel brutally real, both for the good and for the bad.
The relationships feel lived in, and for fans of "Breaking Bad," it gets you to question
everything that you thought you knew about the characters from that series.
I mean, I hated, HATED Gus Fring in "Breaking Bad."
He was like my Joffrey in "Game of Thrones," I could not WAIT for this guy to die!
And in "Better Call Saul," I have rooted SO HARD for him to win,
someone who I knew full well goes on to do awful, awful, AWFUL, horrific things.
THAT IS HOW GOOD THIS SHOW IS! So, do yourself a favor. The first two seasons are on Netflix.
Right now, go binge them and then pirate your way through season three.
Do it for three reasons: 1) The show is great. 2) It'll help ensure that the show gets a fourth season.
And 3) At least then this video may not horrendously underperform.
Ad-pocalypse, guys, it's a real thing! (BOOM!)
But every once in a while, you gotta do something for ART'S SAKE!
Anyway, whether you've seen the show or not, the reason I'm dedicating a full episode to it today when I could be covering
"Wonder Woman," or "Cars 3," or "Guardians 2," or "Pirates,"
or LITERALLY ANY OTHER THING that I could POSSIBLY be covering that would absolutely give me more views and definitely more ad revenue
is that it poses a fascinating science question that I think you all will enjoy.
So to catch you up, Jimmy McGill and Chuck McGill are brothers, lawyers, and deceivers.
Although those last two might be a bit redundant, AM I RIGHT? UP TOP! (Smack!)
Anyway, one of Chuck's defining character features is that he's supposedly allergic to electricity.
Anything that produces electromagnetic radiation causes him discomfort and pain.
In the show's own words, "This illness, what does it feel like?"
"There's a tightness in my chest, difficulty breathing, and pain."
In fact, he's so sensitive to it that he requires that all the lights be shut off and all watches and cell phones get left outside whenever he enters a room.
His house is like a dark cave lit by lanterns, and if he ever does have to interact with electricity,
he wears a space blanket to protect him. What's a space blanket, you ask?
"Compact Mylar sheets. They insolate and protect against mild electromagnetic radiation."
He's like a human Jiffy Pop. (click) Anyway, Chuck's condition has always been a bit . . . questionable,
but it REALLY pays off in the incredible Season 3 episode "Chicanery."
To give you context, Jimmy cares for Chuck, Chuck screws over Jimmy, Jimmy screws over Chuck in return, Chuck takes Jimmy to court.
And it's in court during Jimmy's cross-examination of Chuck when we see the following.
"So if I just pulled a battery, say, from a watch or something, and I got it close to you, close to your skin, you'd know?"
"I would feel it, yes. The intensity drops off with distance, per the inverse square law."
Jimmy then asks,
"Can you tell us where the nearest source is, right now?"
"Jimmy, do you have something in your pocket?"
But NO, it's Chuck with something in his pocket. Jimmy asks Chuck to reach into own his breast pocket,
revealing a battery that Jimmy had planted on him. Chuck immediately drops the battery and recoils as Jimmy grabs it,
shoves it into his phone, and proves that the thing was charged the whole time.
And the Internet turned electric, which in retrospect probably sent some discomfort Chuck's way,
debating on whether or not unplugged batteries draw any current and therefore produce any electromagnetic radiation.
"Chuck shouldn't have recoiled from an unplugged battery. There's no current there."
"No, cell phone batteries are constantly drawing a tiny bit of current."
"But it's next to none. The exit signs in the room could be giving off stronger signals."
"Actually, all of this is irrelevant because he's been faking it the whole time."
And on and on and on!
So, loyal theorists, my question today--can you actually be allergic to electricity?
Is the fact that batteries don't emit a whole lot of electromagnetic radiation an oversight on the part of the writers?
Is Chuck actually sick, or has he been faking his illness the entire time?
And what does ANY of this mean for the future of this series?
'Cause, let me tell you, the scientific answer to this question actually reveals a lot about this character and where he's headed to next.
So to truly answer this question, we have to look all the way back to the beginning.
Since the character of Chuck was first introduced in Episode 1 of "Better Call Saul,"
viewers have speculated that he might be faking his condition, and though it sounds elaborate,
faking a medical condition is absolutely the type of thing that Chuck WOULD and COULD pull off.
I mean, this is the guy who, in his desire to revoke Jimmy's legal license, exaggerates his illness to lure Jimmy into confessing a crime on tape,
then stages himself accidentally letting someone else hear that confession, hounding on the fact that
the person would go back and tell Jimmy, causing Jimmy to break into his house and destroy the tape in front of two witnesses
that Chuck just so happened to plant there for a couple of days for just such an occasion.
I mean, that is, like, some "Saw" levels of puppeteering other people.
Or, convenient plot loopholes, but WHATEVER!
That being said, the show has also had several scenes where we see the world from Chuck's point of view,
like the one we used at the top of this episode, and the way that these scenes are shot and edited
it seems to confirm that electricity genuinely causes Chuck pain and distress.
There's no one around watching him, and yet he's still acting weird.
So, the best place to start seems to be answering the question--
Can a person truly be allergic to electricity ?
(zap, thunderclap)
Well, the idea isn't something that was just made up by the writers.
There are actual people out there who claim to experience some sort of adverse reaction to electronics.
First written about back in the eighties, this condition has since been dubbed electromagnetic hypersensitivity, or EHS.
And according to several polls taken, it's been estimated that as high as 4% of the population claim to experience it to some degree.
Symptoms can be as mild as tingling skin and fatigue or as severe as full-blown migraines and heart palpitations.
But just because people SAY they have an illness doesn't necessarily make it true.
Is there any scientific data to back this stuff up?
Enter Project Nemesis!
(stifles laugh) That's seriously its name, like something straight out of "Resident Evil," Project Nemesis.
How bad --- must you feel working on a project named Nemesis?
These researchers just, they needed something cool to do with their lives, and they're like,
"Alright, let's call this, like, the coolest name ever."
Anyway, as part of Project Nemesis, scientists made boxes that, when turned on, would generate an electromagnetic field.
The idea was to place these boxes underneath the beds of their subjects.
On some nights, the box would turn on and generate a field, and on other nights it would stay off and do nothing.
As part of the experiment, they also made other boxes that looked identical to the electromagnetic field generators,
except they were dummy boxes that never turned on.
Now, each subject had a dummy box underneath one side of their bed and a live box on the other side
to see if the subjects ever favored sleeping on one side or the other on nights that the live box turned on.
At the end of the experiment, there weren't any noticeable physical effects, like heavier breathing or faster heart rate,
but six of the thirty-five subjects did consistently switch which side of the bed they slept on whenever the device was turned on.
Interesting results, to be sure, but certainly not the most definitive.
In a follow-on test, researchers had subjects sit in a booth underneath an electric coil,
and subjects were then asked to tell the researchers whether that coil was on or off.
Seven out of the sixty-three performed better than chance, but still hardly the electrifying results that they were looking for!
So to put the issue to bed, we read a 182 page research review.
That's right, 182 of this stuff for you guys in this episode. (That's nothing.)
That's, like, longer and more boring than "The Old Man and the Sea," and we all know how I feel about that book! :p
182 of this stuff that was put out by the World Health Organization, which reviewed not only these studies
but also thirty others related to electromagnetic hypersensitivity.
The paper concluded that, of those studies, only seven showed any evidence of EHS existing at all,
and of those seven, two were unable to be repeated, another two contradicted each other, and the last three seemed to be the result of statistical errors.
(sarcastic clap)
Well done. Well done, science, well done, take a bow.
Long story short (too late), the research points to this being a made-up condition,
which would seem to imply that the people who say that they're allergic to electricity are faking.
And that would explain some of what we see in the show.
In episode five of season one, Chuck is hospitalized.
He remains unresponsive until all the electricity is shut off in his room,
whereupon he's able to finally talk and explain his condition to the doctor. Seems legit, right?
But here's the thing--while he's talking, the good doctor secretly turns his medical bed on. and he doesn't seem to notice.
(sirens) FAKER ALERT! (muffled) We got an incoming report of a FAKER!
It's the same story with the battery in the court room scene from season three.
Chuck is absolutely fine until he pulls the battery out of his pocket and sees it,
at which point, only then does he flip out and toss it away, obviously faking his reaction.
But then in the next episode, Chuck, alone in his house, after being disproven in court,
grabs hold of a battery which doesn't produce a whole lot of EM radiation,
and yet it still seems like it's causing him problems.
Why would he keep up the act if he knows he's alone and not being watched?
And in real life, why would so many people report having such severe reactions to electricity
when the research doesn't seem to back it up? It all seems so contradictory,
and that's because IT IS!
The explanation for all these bizarre symptoms and contradictory research lies in two words--
Sorry, it's technically three words. Forgot to count "the." Rewind to the dramatic reveal music.
The solution lies in three words--
Now, I'm sure you all heard about the placebo effect
where somebody has a headache, you give them fake medicine, tell them it's real medicine, and voila!
Their headache is cured despite it being the medical equivalent of an Altoid.
I don't care how "curiously strong" it was, it ain't doing diddly for my migraine.
Well, the Nocebo Effect is very similar.
You give somebody a fake pill, tell them it has certain side effects, and what do you know?
They start manifesting those same effects even though the pill is fake.
In other words, if a patient believes something harmless can actually harm them, oftentimes they actually experience real pain,
and that's what's happening with Chuck.
He isn't allergic to electricity, but he THINKS he is, and that's enough to cause the pain and discomfort we watch him go through
every time he is confronted with electromagnetic waves, or at least something he thinks emits electromagnetic waves.
And this, in turn, explains everything we see happen on the show.
Remember that pivotal courtroom battery scene? Viewers were upset by the scene because
a charged battery shouldn't give off a significant amount of electromagnetic radiation unless it's plugged in.
They called this a "plot hole" or an "oversight," but it was totally intentional.
Chuck's condition is psychosomatic.
It doesn't matter whether or not unplugged batteries give off electromagnetic waves at all.
All that matters is that Chuck thinks they do.
The battery doesn't hurt him until he sees it.
He's not faking it; he's actually feeling pain in that moment, but it's not from anything the battery is or isn't emitting.
It's from his brain THINKING the battery is emitting something that will harm him.
I mean, if you took this to its logical extreme, if Chuck thought that asparagus gave off EM radiation,
he'd be hurting every time he went through the veggie stand of his local grocery.
That's also why that season one episode he isn't threatened by the hospital bed. He doesn't know it's on,
and thus his brain doesn't think there's anything in the room that could be causing him harm.
As a result, he feels nothing!
Now, what all of this means for the rest of the show is REALLY interesting.
Remember Project Nemesis? I mean, how could you forget; it's still the coolest name for a research project ever.
Well, one of the most interesting findings is that subjects that claimed to be harmed by electricity
noticed that their symptoms lessened after taking and failing one of the Nemesis tests.
Suddenly, their belief in the condition was threatened by proof that they weren't actually feeling anything real,
that it was all in their head, and as a result, their symptoms started to weaken.
According to the paper itself--
just like Chuck and the courtroom battery scene.
The battery incident wasn't an oversight or some plot hole; it was very intentionally put there by writers who have clearly done their homework.
Towards the end of season three, episode six, we see Chuck walk to a payphone to call Dr. Cruz,
the same doctor who secretly turned on his medical bed two seasons earlier.
Given that Chuck has just been given evidence that his condition is all in his head,
it makes sense that he'd now be able to venture further from his house under more intense lights.
His symptoms are weakening. This perfectly aligns with the Nemesis findings.
What's more, this means that Chuck is finally seeking help for his real but kinda not real condition.
He's getting stronger, and like any monster growing in power,
he knows how threatening he'll become to our hero Jimmy once he's broken free from his very real, yet very imaginary, electric fence.
Only time and season four will tell,
provided the show gets a season four, which is why you gotta go watch it right now! 'Cause look at how awesome this show is!
ANYWAY, remember, that's just a theory,
a FILM THEORY!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand cut!
If you don't smash that subscribe button right now in the next three seconds,
you'll experience an electromagnetic tingle running through your spine.
In 3! 2! 1!
Did you feel it? You're still here, did you feel it?
Electromagnetism running through you!
And hey, if you're a fan of either "Better Call Saul" or "Breaking Bad," make sure that you check out my theory
over here on screen right now of how Walter White could've technically survived the series finale of "Breaking Bad."
It's a good one, click it.
So now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and binge watch "Breaking Bad" from the beginning because DAMN! That was a great show.
Oh, so good! Alright, I'm gonna go watch it. Click the subscribe button; otherwise, you're gonna keep feeling that electromagnetic tingle.
Just sayin', and uh, I will see you all next week!
How much chuck could a Jimmy Chuck chuck, if a Jimmy Chuck could chuck wood? Nailed it!