Jumping into Better Call Saul was a bit of a no-brainer.
The prospect of a prequel following the origin story of one of the most interesting characters
in the series, along with the potential for some more context for characters like Mike
and Gus, along with knowing that this would likely have the same amount of quality in
writing and presentation - I was sold from the word go.
However, in spite of that, there was a tiny part of me that subconsciously treated this
show as more of an add-on to the Breaking Bad story, rather than viewing it as its own
independent story just taking place in the same universe.
I was extremely excited for this new narrative, but unfortunately I had begun treating it
as somehow lesser than its predecessor simply due to the nature of its design.
And as I’m sure you’re aware if you’re watching this, I couldn’t have been more
wrong.
As one would expect from Gilligan and co, Better Call Saul is absolutely its own thing,
with plenty of power and distinct identity in its story, along with a cast filled to
the brim with not just recontextualized familiar faces, but plenty of new ones that fit the
story like a glove and are just as impressive as the characters from Breaking Bad.
The directing is arguably even better than before, with visual flair all over the place
and a knack for knowing which techniques to use to accent these moments in ju st the right
way.
And most pertinently for this topic, the writing is phenomenal, with so many new yet fitting
ideas and variables to add richness to the universe.
And one of the best representations of Better Call Saul’s powerful storytelling is also
one of the best episodes of anything I’ve ever watched.
Chicanery is a landmark for the series and a definitive turning point.
It is the episode where Jimmy finally broke free of the ongoing legal issue involving
the falsifying of some of Chuck’s documents, where he was able to supposedly get the monkey
off his back that seemed to taunt at his legitimacy as a lawyer wherever he went, and where he
was assured of a conclusive quote unquote victory over his brother.
But arguably most significantly - it’s the episode where we see a complete and total
breakdown of a mentally ill man, resulting in one of the most conflicting and painful
scenes I’ve ever experienced.
To establish some context as to all of the elements at play here, I’m going to start
by stating the obvious and saying that the relationship between the brothers of James
and Charles McGill was toxic, to say the least.
Despite Jimmy going out of his way to nearly revolve his life around helping Chuck with
his electromagnetic hypersensitivity - a condition which was later proved to be a sad case of
that mental illness - Chuck regarded him with deep-seated bitterness and took everything
he did for him for granted.
And this was due to a myriad of things that piled up throughout both of their lives.
On one hand, Chuck was always hardworking, straight-laced and intelligent, taking the
legitimate and difficult route throughout life and becoming a lawyer as a result of
his pure graft and years of dedication.
Whereas Jimmy was always the naturally charismatic one, the one whose laziness and adherence
to taking shortcuts was complimented by how charming and great with people he was.
And it didn’t help that those were elements Chuck never had which caused him to be envious,
but the main thing is that Jimmy was always something of a delinquent that conned people
and got into trouble and somehow got by by the skin of his teeth due to luck, his personality
and social skills, or his brother himself.
In fact, Chuck went out on a limb to help Jimmy out of a serious legal bind on the condition
that Jimmy commit to straightening out his life - a decision that Chuck ultimately ended
up regretting.
And to top it all off, on her deathbed, their mother’s last words were directed towards
her son James rather than Chuck, which really hammered the nail in and summed up how unloved
he felt next to Jimmy.
As a result of all of this, Chuck began to fester a deeply unhealthy inferiority complex
towards his brother - although this in itself wasn’t enough to make him lose himself.
But the one thing that he just couldn’t stomach was the prospect and eventual reality
of Jimmy becoming a lawyer - and not just that, but the fact that Jimmy did so through
what Chuck viewed as half-ass methods not worthy of a law degree.
To Chuck, as someone who always did things in the proper and dilligent way and viewed
the law as sacred, and as someone jealous of Jimmy’s antics and luck, this was the
ultimate insult.
This brother of his who had never had to work half as hard as he did to get by in life,
who had been having messes cleaned up for him since his was young, who could never be
described as legitimate - was being granted the same noble profession as him.
Which, in Chuck’s eyes, indirectly made them equals on paper.
And his pride just couldn’t take that.
He
states that his main problem here is that Jimmy would run amok with his authority as
a lawyer, but to me it’s clear that that is just a mask to hide the fact that he doesn’t
want his brother to succeed, at least not in this way.
He’s proud of Jimmy and happy for Jimmy.. as long as Jimmy is happy in a way he can
stomach.
And it’s such a very human dynamic at play.
We may not like to admit it, but I’m sure most of us can relate to the type of pettiness
that characterizes Chuck.
Being jealous of someone, seeing it as unfair that they don’t have to work as hard as
you do to get to the same place, feeling as if none of your struggles have been acknowledged,
feeling unloved in comparison and as a result, feeling hard done by.
I have utmost sympathy for Chuck and I don’t think it’s fair to condemn him for experiencing
these very human feelings.
He is nowhere near a shallow, evil villain and the details behind his story are very
much worth paying attention to.
What I don’t like, however, is the way he took advantage of Jimmy’s compassion and
kindness and ended up betraying him in the most personal way.
And Jimmy’s response of pure disgust and explosive fury was, while DEFINITELY justified,
almost equally painful to witness.
It made for great television, but this cat and mouse throughout the first two and a half
seasons of the show is a summation of a relationship gone horribly wrong.
Imbued with a myriad of jealousy, resentment, hate, and the saddest element - genuine brotherly
love.
I think it’s clear that Jimmy deeply cared for his brother before and even during all
of this ugliness, and despite Chuck telling him that he never really liked him all that
much, in my opinion the show establishes that he was blowing some hot air.
He may not have had as strong affection for Jimmy as the latter had for him, but underneath
the bitterness there is a genuine connection there.
And that’s the main element that makes this episode’s crowning moment so unbelievably
heartbreaking.
Chicanery chronicles the court case meant to settle the dispute between the two involving
Chuck’s accusations of Jimmy forging documents to cause him to lose a client - an accusation
that ended up being true.
If Chuck were to win, Jimmy would be unable to practice law anymore, and that was obviously
something thar Jimmy could never let happen.
And with his back to the wall he resorts to what he views as a necessary evil.
Jimmy and Kim’s goal here was to make the board understand that the taped confession
they have where Jimmy admits to having falsified the documents was simply the result of Jimmy
lying to Chuck due to wanting to do anything possible to calm his brother down as a result
of his mental illness.
And to prove this to them, they have to prove that he has a mental illness.
So through a devilish bit of manipulation involving Huell’s classic sleight of hands,
a phone and some batteries, Jimmy tackles Chuck’s problem head on, resulting in Chuck
completely losing it.
This leads to an absolute meltdown laying bare all of Chuck’s pride and psychological
issues, at the end of which Chuck is forced to confront that not only has he lost the
case, but that he has a genuine issue here that he can’t really ignore any longer.
In the end, this is a victory for Jimmy.
But it does not feel like one at all.
It isn’t a moment of triumph or happiness, because he knew that through doing this, he
had completely humiliated and destroyed Chuck while laying his illness out there for all
to see.
And there is nothing to savor in that.
And to add to this, while Chuck was undoubtedly ungrateful and despicable in a lot of ways,
in the end, everything he was saying in that rant was correct - embellished by his emotional
aggression and bias, but correct and true.
Jimmy did forge the numbers.
He did execute a publicity stunt with the billboard.
He did steal from his family’s cash register.
And he did defecate on a sunroof.
He did all of the things Chuck referenced in his wild rant.
This doesn’t make him right in the way he goes about things, but it can be argued that
Jimmy deserved some consequences for his actions.
And that is why Chuck being truthful here is so key.
None of the events Chuck recalled or the things he accused Jimmy of were false, but because
he had lost his cool and made himself look quote unquote crazy, nothing he said could
be properly heeded by the board, and Jimmy had already won.
He apologized and collected himself immediately after realizing his mistake, but the damage
was done and none of those in power here could look at him the same, which is such a sad
and brutally honest concept applicable to real life as well.
Chuck was a horribly flawed person, but I can’t help but feel that he did not deserve
*this,* and I can’t help but feel immense sympathy for how trapped he must have felt
in this moment.
He may not have electromagnetic hypersensitivity, but the mind can be a cruel thing, and him
thinking that he does does not make him any more healthy.
Quite the contrary, in fact - it makes him far more lost than any of us blessed to not
suffer from something similar.
It’s entirely fair to dislike Chuck, even to hate him for his ego, selfishness, lack
of gratitude and consistent tendency to try to stop Jimmy from achieving his dreams because
of his own insecurities.
He pushes and pushes Jimmy away, almost forcing his brother’s character flaws to become
exaggerated and displays little to no compassion for a man that very much deserves some for
what he sacrificed to try and help him, regardless of his faults.
And though I do maintain that deep down he cared a little for Jimmy, he also postured
and lied in a roundabout way to those involved try to take the moral high ground by stating
that he loved his brother and that he was just a lost soul with a good heart who needed
some guidance despite simply wanting to lord over him and feel superior to him for once.
To put it simply, Chuck’s a pretty bad guy and I sure as hell didn’t like him.
But this is a very nuanced, sensitive situation that requires an open and empathetic perspective.
Jimmy is our protagonist and it only makes sense to lean towards rooting for him, but
make no mistake - this is no outcome to be celebrated and Jimmy’s attitude towards
the whole thing tells a story of its own.
He had to do this, but that didn’t make it right.
Deep down, Jimmy probably knows that if you ignore the layers of resentment, a lot of
the issues Chuck has with him do hold weight.
Jimmy is arguably just as flawed of a person as Chuck, in far different ways of course,
but he was just able to slip by for one reason or another and come out of a lot of situations
unscathed.
He led a bit of a charmed life in that way, and became the tragic flaw of sorts that was
the cause of Chuck’s ultimate unravelling.
Him being our primary eyes in the story means that we can never really fully appreciate
the full scope of the harm his acts did to his brother, but even the little we do get
make Chuck’s poor behaviours understandable, though of course not justifiable.
I think he knows that most of not all of Chuck’s problems and negatives, while directed towards
him, were caused by him.
Regardless of whether or not that is justified and regardless of Jimmy’s intent, that is
the reality of the situation and he very much carries that weight, which leads to his own
spiralling and deflections later on.
But I digress - the point is, Jimmy knows that he isn’t blameless, that he did do
many things wrong, and that Chuck does have a point.
And here, Jimmy does something just as bad as anything Chuck had ever done to him.
It’s a very complicated situation.
Neither is a good person and neither is bereft of blame.
They damage each other and no one is in the right.
Yes, Chuck is terrible, spiteful and unfair, completely consumed and condescending towards
the actual work his brother did put in.
But he isn't wrong about Jimmy, even though he is a big part of the reason for it, and
his pride and jealousy have combined with his condition to make him someone who just
can't function properly.
What we see in this episode is someone who is very mentally ill, and suffering for it.
It is the breakdown of a person who isn't in their proper capacity.
And as such, it is a moment of necessity, not triumph.
Jimmy is disgusted and disturbed with himself, but he had to resort to destroying Chuck,
because they had reached an impasse that was only going to be cleared with ugliness.
Jimmy's a wonderful character with some great traits, but he is far from a blameless victim
here and this story wants us to realize this through what I view as one of the most uncomfortable
scenes in anything ever.
It’s wonderfully natural, raw and nuanced character writing and beautifully painful
storytelling, and this in itself is an example of why Better Call Saul is not only its own
entity as a story, but worthy of standing alongside it’s older brother as the zenith
of television.
In the end, despite the constant conflict and toxicity the two have been through, they’re
brothers.
And Jimmy never wanted to reduce Chuck to this.
And it’s this win, the first real trigger for the spiral that lead to his death, coupled
with these unfiltered, resigned words from Chuck in the series finale prior to his death,
that lead Jimmy on to the path of embracing this seedier side of him that may not have
manifested without provocation.
One of Chuck’s most notable lines here in the courtroom is that Jimmy will never change.
And perhaps he’ll end up being correct about that.
It can be argued that he know who Jimmy is more accurately than anyone except maybe Kim
- he’s always known and he is deeply in tune with how he thinks.
But what he doesn’t realize is that his condemnation of his brother and his inability
to trust in him and truly believe that he could change is a big part of what may cause
Jimmy to stay on this path.
Like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And Jimmy, the man who once upon a time was the only one who properly tended to, understood
and cared for his brother, ultimately ends up being the one to destroy him.
It is grimly poetic writing, and it is as indicative of the quality of this story as
anything else.
Many thanks for watching.