you can get so
caught up in the idea of winning
that you forget to listen to your heart
[Music]
do jimmy mcgill and howard hamlin have
more in common than we think the common
link between them is chuck mcgill big
brother to jimmy and mentor and
colleague of howard hamlin the
relationships each had with chuck were
almost polar opposites in many ways and
yet chuck commanded the loyalty and
admiration of both indeed chuck largely
acted as a father figure to both chuck
was an intellectual giant who became an
ace in his profession through hard work
and dedication at quick glance chuck
seemed to adhere to his father's honest
principles and was thus a law abiding
citizen however chuck's morals were
largely defined by the law as it was
written at a particular time whereas the
moral compass of his old man boiled down
to more of a greater sense of right and
wrong despite being a model citizen and
a powerhouse intellect who was the
embodiment of hard work for whatever
reason his parents seemed to favor his
much younger degenerate brother unlike
chuck jimmy was a troublemaker jimmy was
a thief who would rob his own family and
jimmy preferred shortcuts to hard work
but jimmy had something in great
abundance that chuck lacked charisma
people loved jimmy despite being a royal
screw-up jimmy was a charming fella who
exuded confidence in a way that made him
very likable chuck resented what he
deemed as undue praise bestowed upon his
kid brother by all those around him
especially his parents and most
especially their beloved mother when
their mother was on her deathbed jimmy
was hungry and wanted some food only
chuck was there to witness her final
words as she cried out for jimmy this
moment symbolically best defines all of
the resentment chuck had towards his
scumbag kid brother chuck was the one
who was right there by her side to the
end putting in the time and devotion and
in the end she cried out for jimmy who
was out getting himself a sandwich chuck
lied to jimmy about her final moments a
sign of how bitter he was the fact that
chuck was so much older than jimmy
undoubtedly left him longing for the
good old days when he was an only child
long before slip and jimmy came to be
howard on the other hand was persuaded
to become a lawyer by his desire to
please his old man co-founder of hamlin
and mcgill but chuck was the one who
acted as a mentor to howard through law
school and beyond when hamlin joined the
firm the name was subsequently changed
to hamline hamlin and mcgill chuck
respected howard because among other
things chuck knows that howard put in
the hard work and dedication when jimmy
secretly became a lawyer years later
howard acted as a proxy for chuck to
deny jimmy a job as a lawyer at hhm
there are two things happening here
howard is exhibiting loyalty to his
mentoring colleague and chuck is
dismissing his younger brother because
in his eyes he isn't a real lawyer as
always slip and jimmy took shortcuts
whereas howard hamlin exhibited the
devotion and hard work required to earn
his status but for chuck jimmy made a
mockery of it it's ironic that while
chuck respected howard more
professionally jimmy was the one taking
care of him with his newspapers and his
ice and his supplies always eager to
please his mentally ill brother jimmy
viewed chuck as a savior whom he
idolized he wanted to be just like chuck
and he mistakenly believed chuck would
be proud of his achievement but chuck
only saw a slip in jimmy the degenerate
whose ass he saved in the aftermath of
the chicago
sun roof incident jimmy's over eager
desire to please chuck and gain his
approval actually led jimmy to harming
him because jimmy was the one who had a
chance to get chuck the help he needed
with his mental illness
howard is complicit in this too and
howard had selfish motivations in terms
of keeping the firm viable but at the
end of the day jimmy and howard admired
chuck and they both exhibited an
unwavering desire to earn his approval
howard was better at this and howard
remained loyal to chuck's will in
keeping jimmy out of hhm this caused a
lot of tension between the two until the
tensions eased off when jimmy learned it
was chuck all along but chuck was
determined to ruin jimmy by any legal
means necessary which went against the
spirit of their old man who had a
genuine sense of what was right and
wrong even if he was otherwise a sucker
and an easy target chuck didn't see this
as wrong because if it was legal it was
moral in his eyes he was always trying
to teach jimmy a lesson that you need to
obey the law and in his overzealous
quest chuck engaged in some morally
shady behavior that was unbecoming even
if it was technically legal howard
actually put in a good word for jimmy at
davis and maine almost in defiance of
chuck or perhaps out of guilt by his
treatment of jimmy because of his
loyalty to chuck when jimmy got in
trouble over the commercial he ran kim
got in trouble at hhm where howard
punished her for not informing them of
jimmy's designs but this was almost
certainly at the direction of chuck
jimmy runs the scam on chuck and it may
have worked if chuck wasn't such a
consummate professional no way chuck is
forgetting an address number that's a
single digit off from the year of the
magna carta again chuck is very
underhanded rejecting his old man's
sense of right and wrong and he sets his
kid brother up to expose him again to
teach him a lesson that jimmy needs to
obey the law according to chuck the law
is all the law is everything and if it's
legal it's moral jimmy exploited his own
brother's illness to make him look like
a whack job where he was also forced to
come to the realization that his illness
was not physical but mental jimmy
further looked to break chuck by having
his ex-wife at the hearing it was an
utter humiliation which sent chuck on
the warpath jimmy further exploited
chuck with the insurance and by that
point howard had finally had enough
howard realized chuck was now a huge
liability to the firm and he was willing
to spend his own money just to get chuck
the hell out of there howard the kid
brother chuck always thought he wanted
had just called his bluff chuck had
nothing left chuck had a moment of
self-reflection and deep down he finally
realized that despite being an
intellectual giant of epic proportions
he was mentally unwell after chuck took
his own life jimmy and howard both had
renewed tensions with guilt over chuck's
death jimmy had taken advantage of and
exploited his brother's illness and
howard had taken away that what he most
held dear his legal career chuck took
both for granted howard showed great
loyalty to chuck when he screwed jimmy
over on his behalf while chuck acted all
outraged and innocent and jimmy showed
chuck unwavering loyalty by literally
taking care of his supply needs and
caring for his well-being and yet
despite chuck taking both of them for
granted jimmy and howard both still knew
deep down that chuck was mentally unwell
and needed help and they never helped
him how he needed to be helped they
helped him how he wanted to be helped in
other words at heart jimmy and howard
are both pleasers seeking special
connections where they need validation
and approval from those they love and
admire after chuck's initial betrayal
jimmy transferred that pleaser void by
turning his attentions all in on kim
constantly looking to make her happy and
progressively seeking her approval on
more and more matters and like chuck
before her kim is playing jimmy and has
been all along she's taking advantage of
his devotion and need for validation and
little by little she is becoming more
and more influential with every major
decision he makes particularly with
regards to their co-creation of the saul
goodman character kim tends to almost
always get her way and jimmy is all too
happy to do his part to ensure she gets
whatever it is she wants as long as he
can be true to himself but somewhere
along the line jimmy lost sight of the
fact that kim is clearly made of sterner
stuff he awakened a sleeping giant and
she is now out of control now we don't
know a whole lot about howard's
relationship with cheryl it is possible
that howard may have done something
horrible and unforgivable but based on
what we've seen in howard's therapy
session and his interaction with cheryl
howard's relationship seems an awful lot
like jimmy and kim's both men constantly
looking for approval constantly seeking
validation and always looking to please
their more demanding wives howard seems
to be going out of his way to be kind to
cheryl and she seemed to coldly dismiss
him as he suggested in therapy howard
seems willing to put in the effort and
do what it takes maybe this is howard
overcompensating kind of like walt
overcompensated for all the lying by
cooking breakfast skylar usually went
out but walt jr was usually all too
happy to eat a nice breakfast and who
knows maybe howard and skyler were
shacking up do we know for sure that
holly is waltz or maybe jimmy's little
hooker scams got howard in trouble with
cheryl she did seem to uncomfortably
gloss over that point when she mentioned
bowling balls and so on you remember
what was going on with chuck's brother
jimmy you mean with the bowling balls
and
so on
that's not over with we simply do not
know the cause of howie and cheryl's
problems but as an audience we are given
howard's perspective which makes us
inherently sympathetic towards his
effort but this is the same kind of
thing we always got with regards to
howard's treatment of jimmy and kim we
know the story from their perspective
where howard always comes across like an
arrogant elitist jackoff so we can
sympathize with them but really what did
howard ever do that was so bad he
remained loyal to his mentor who was
manipulating him he remained loyal to
the firm that his old man helped build
and he reprimanded kim for a lack of
professional due diligence but right now
kimmy and goodman are the scumbags
trying to ruin poor howard's reputation
howard is the good guy here at least
where kimmy corleone and saul goodman
are concerned howard might perhaps be
the classiest individual character in
the breaking bad universe were it not
for the fact that walt jr existed and i
do not say that jokingly walt jr was as
admirable as they come a true moral
compass with the right blend of loyalty
and independence where he could assess
the difference between what is right and
wrong better than any other character in
the breaking bad universe bar none
howard ain't that classy nacho's dad
might be close but from what we've been
shown howard definitely seems like one
of the few good guys in a world of
unruly opportunist degenerate scumbags
even now the rivalry between jimmy and
howard largely resembled that of a
sibling rivalry not unlike a pair of
brothers who just buried their old man
again here like the case with cheryl
howard is the one who tried to make
amends who tried to befriend jimmy and
offer him a job to try and do him right
but deep down much in the same way chuck
resented jimmy for the attention he got
from their mother jimmy seems to resent
howard because chuck respected howard
more professionally remember jimmy was
never happier than when he thought him
and chuck would be working sandpiper as
a brotherly duo so it makes sense that
jimmy resents howard the exact same type
of way chuck resented jimmy then of
course jimmy has always been visibly a
little reluctant about kim's scheme to
destroy howard it again feels more like
a sibling rivalry right up to the fact
that in order to try and settle their
differences the two duked it out old
school in mostly sportsmen like fashion
although even here jimmy proved a
greater willingness to get down and
dirty than howard but that's the thing
of it whatever kim and jimmy have in
store for howard he knows what they are
capable of he saw firsthand how they
humiliated and destroyed chuck which
ultimately led to chuck being a
liability with insurance which finally
made howard push chuck out and then
chuck took his own life and howard has
been overwhelmed with guilt he saw
firsthand how their scheme dominoed its
way to chuck's demise including his own
role therein howard knows he's up
against a pair of really clever and
innovative scumbags but kimmy and jim
are all cocky and arrogant and i believe
they still view howard as a total wimp
but howard hamlin is a fighter he saw
the elaborate scheme they played on
chuck and therefore might be a step
ahead of them here and realized that the
withdrawal was a setup that he shouldn't
fall for and if that is the case i think
we're in for the old scooby-doo double
mask trick on the horizon where just
when you think kimmy and jim perfectly
execute their plan howard will flip the
script and emerge victorious having
anticipated their move either that or
like darth vader before him jimmy will
follow his heart remembering what howard
once said to him you can get so
caught up in the idea of winning
that you forget to listen to your heart
so what do you think of jimmy and howard
in their ongoing rivalry please share
your thoughts in the comments section
can't wait for the mid-season finale
thus far tight tight tight tight yeah
thanks for watching everyone i hope you
enjoyed and have a wonderful night you
think i'm crazy
i never said that no you didn't because
you're very polite but you think it what
if it's all in my head
and if that's true this allergy to
electricity isn't real it's a
manifestation of something deep i'm not
saying it's 100 real okay but chuck is
smarter than you and me put together if
it's not real
then what have i done you have the power
to help your brother truly help him
ignoring this won't make it go away
we're working together on this
that's up to you jimmy
you're not a real lawyer
university of american samoa for
christ's sake an online course what a
joke couldn't keep his hands out of the
cash drawer
but not our jimmy couldn't be precious
jimmy mom took it upon herself to call
you i was just letting her know where i
was you didn't cry to her on the phone
what no you didn't cry and beg mom for
help jimmy no mom it's me chuck
jimmy
no mom stealing them blind
and he gets to be a lawyer what a sick
joke
i should have stopped them when i had
the chance in the end
you're going to hurt everyone around you
you can't help it
so stop apologizing and accept it you're
paying me out of your own pocket
you won
i don't want to hurt your feelings
but the truth is
you've never mattered all that much to
me
we're going to pull the plug and we are
going to live to fight another day
what other day
you remember what was going on with
chuck's brother jimmy you mean with the
bowling balls and
so on i don't know any joke dog or
tugboat
so we can end this right now we ain't
leaving without our cash
i money it's getting worse
in fact it's possible you might hear or
see
something
that
my friend
is albuquerque's public enemy number one
i'm handling it i will put an end to
this
whatever it takes
it happens today
you can get so
caught up
in the idea of winning
that you forget to listen to your heart
at the end of it he
might never be able to practice law
again
he doesn't deserve that hey mom um
dad's cooking breakfast but don't worry
i'm also doing all the dishes
give it to me chandler i want you're
done you are done