The Simpsons, Think Piece, Uncategorized

Why hasn’t ‘The Simpsons Hit & Run’ been referenced on the show?

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After the first four years of its Fall release in 2003 across GameCube, PS2, Xbox, and PC, The Simpsons Hit & Run had sold roughly over 3 million copies. For a licensed Simpsons game, this is nothing to sneeze at. The game was well received among critics and fans alike. Currently on metacritic, it stands at an average of 80/100 by media outlets across all platforms and an average of 8.5/10 by players. This is the highest reviewed average for any Simpsons game ever. To this day, the game has a vibrant modding community on PC and high demand for a sequel or remake, even inspiring an unofficial finished remake by youtube user and remake artist @reubs (http://www.youtube.com/@reubs).

The next console release, 2007’s The Simpsons Game would go on to sell about 4 million copies. Other than the game being received generally well, a lot of those sales could be owed to not only the good faith of Hit & Run as the previous console installment among consumers, but the rise in mindshare The Simpsons was receiving that year. The game’s release was coming hot off the summer blockbuster debut of The Simpsons Movie which garnered $536.4 million in the box office overall, including an additional $97 million in physical media sales. Fans have been treated with canonical references like in season 19’s premiere intro featuring the town’s clean-up of the shattered dome’s aftermath, as well as meta references like Marge’s proclamation, “No more Simpsons movies! One was plenty,” from “Any Given Sundance”. SpiderPig has made many brief cameos in episodes including “He Loves to Fly and He D’ohs”, “Treehouse of Horror XVIII”, and “Apocalypse Cow”. Even Boob Lady has appeared in season 21’s “Boy Meets Curl”. So while The Simpsons Movie has been been referenced multiple times in the series and treated as canon, why hasn’t The Simpsons Hit & Run, or really any of the games for that matter?

*CORRECTION: Before continuing, it’s important to note that The Simpsons Tapped Out (2012) has been referenced at least 6 times with quick visual gags on the show. Thank you nohomers.net user Frankbags for directing me to this imdb link which lists each episode where they can be found. Tapped Out was an ongoing mobile game for close to a decade, intended to tie into certain updates in the show as you played, so this would be the obvious exception to the query of this article considering the prolonged relevance between both the show and the mobile game for that span of time.*

My first guess as to why past console games have never been acknowledged on the show is how the medium of video games can be seen as niche in comparison to film and television. However, the games industry is more thriving than the music and film industry combined according to SuperData research as stated from a 2023 gamerhub article. In the 20 years since the games’ release, video games have continued to prove fascinating in its innovation to tell stories, exceed in an extensive variety of entertainment value with audiences, and distinguish itself as an interactive art form. Sure, hardware capabilities in 2003 were limited when compared with what AAA studios can accomplish today. Simpsons writers like Rob LaZebnik and J. Stewart Burns have attested to how much they’ve enjoyed completing Red Dead Redemption 2 when interviewed at a panel discussion in E3 2019 so surely they understand this too. While I’d argue The Simpsons Hit & Run holds up incredibly well as a game overall, its graphics are a little rough compared to what is possible for the IP today and possibly left something to be desired from the artists at the time when translating it from the visual quality of the show. That said, while film and television have been established longer than the conception of video games, each medium had to evolve. The Simpsons Hit & Run is a product of its medium’s evolutional history and that’s something to be proud of and celebrated.

It’s true that The Simpsons Movie took the summer of 2007 by storm even in the marketing lead-up to the film’s release. Put a reference of the movie in the show and viewers are more than likely to recognize it. Maybe the overlap in the Venn diagram for people who watched the series and the movie are greater in ratio when compared to the overlap of those who watched the series and played the games. Even so, time has proven how beloved Hit & Run is and subjectivity aside, it’s as highly regarded in Simpsons’ fans circles as the movie, if not more. What’s great about The Simpsons is how in the span of 22 minutes, the historical, pop culture, or political references can range from super broad and well-known to the obscurest of obscure so whether the audience gets it or not shouldn’t be an issue. Now that the show is animated in HD, even the briefest visual easter egg can suffice. I’ve watched every episode to date and have yet to recall any Simpsons game (beyond Tapped Out) or even a Bongo comics reference. Commercial references have existed like nods to Simpsons T-shirts (Season 2’s “Dancin’ Homer”) or Butterfinger (season 14’s “Barting Over”) and even the “Do the Bartman” music video was referenced in season 9’s “Simpson Tide”. The closest a game came to being referenced was a season 15 DVD menu where the logo to Hit & Run can be found:

Beyond the hard work from Radical Entertainment’s dev team and the critical acclaim the game has received, it’s also noteworthy how rare it is for a body of work outside the show to exist that included hours upon hours of voice recordings from the entire cast and is also written by Simpsons writers themselves: Matt Warburton, Tim Long and current co-showrunner Matt Selman. Is it necessary to reference the game in the show? No. But wouldn’t it be fun as all hell if it did! The game is essentially a long-form Treehouse of Horror episode as each level counts as a day leading up to Halloween. Could it be possible for a segment in a future Halloween episode to tie into the events of the game? The show in its recent seasons has been more flexible and experimental with its non-canon stories (“Thanksgiving of Horror”, “A Serious Flanders”, “Lisa the Boy Scout”, etc.) so even a one-off televised adaptation of The Simpsons Hit & Run would be welcome (or a sequel story! or a spin-off! or a spiritual successor!). Matt Selman has gone on record in a 2021 interview with IGN “I would love to see a remastered version of The Simpsons Hit & Run, I would. It’s a complicated corporate octopus to try to make that happen.” My response to that would be, “Have fun with what you can control”. If a game remake or sequel is difficult to make possible from the powers that be, then perhaps you can use the powers you have on the show and the creativity of the writer’s room to have fun with the spirit of the game’s universe. Unless there’s some weird license agreement issue, what’s the harm?

What’s interesting is Matt Selman has come the closest already to writing an episode that captures the spirit of The Simpsons Road Rage and The Simpsons Hit & Run with season 12’s “Trilogy of Error”, produced during Mike Scully’s time as showrunner. This fan-favorite “post-classic” aired between the release of both games so it shares the same tone, characterization, and style of humor that you would come to expect. On top of that, it features multiple protagonists (three compared to the game’s playable five) where Homer, Lisa, and Bart have their own missions. Like the gameplay, they’re pressed for time as they take a tour de force around Springfield. Homer must get to a hospital quick to reattach his severed thumb, Lisa must get to school in time for her science fair presentation, and Bart attempts to avoid the cops and the mob when mixed up with illegal fireworks.

“Video games are so late 90s…Illegal fireworks are all the rave now.” – Kearney, The Simpsons Hit & Run

Along the way, characters steal vehicles or get offered rides from the townspeople and you get the same snappy dialogue and character interactions. Seriously if you ever rewatch this episode, close your eyes and imagine each quest line as a mission in either of these games and it’s uncanny to the point where you wonder if the games developed around the same time gave any inspiration to the show or vice versa. Alright fine, I’ll do the nerding out for you:

Homer’s missions:

  • Keep up with Santa’s Little Helper to retrieve severed thumb.
  • Return to Marge and take the Family Sedan to the hospital.
  • Escape from McBain and steal his car when he’s distracted.
  • Drive to Dr. Hibbert.
  • A thumb is not a finger therefore your finger insurance doesn’t cover Homer’s injury. Drive to Dr. Nick.
  • But first drive to Moe’s to get ice.
  • Marge disappeared. See Cletus and drive to Dr. Nick’s.
  • Dr. Nick’s practice is on fire! To be continued…

Lisa’s missions:

  • Run to school and find a ride if possible.
  • Talk to Krusty. Have Mr. Teeny drive Krusty’s Limo to Springfield Elementary.
  • Don’t alert the cops who are on their way to 123 Fake St.
  • Uh-oh! Mr. Teeny drove you to West Springfield Elementary. Talk to Thelonius.
  • Frolic with Thelonius for a bit and run to Moe’s to see if Homer is available to offer a ride.
  • Talk to Chief Wiggum and exit Moe’s.
  • Marge is parked out front with McBain’s car. Talk to her and ask for a ride.
  • Uh-oh! McBain’s car has run out of gas. Hop on the back of Cletus’ truck and steal it when he arrives at Dr. Nick’s.
  • Drive to school but look out for Bart! Follow Bart , Milhouse, and Fat Tony to the alley.

Bart’s missions:

  • Talk to Milhouse. Sounds like he has big news.
  • Go to your bike and steal Lisa’s for Milhouse to ride.
  • Ride to the secret cave where Milhouse goes to cry.
  • Obtain illegal fireworks and go to various spots in town to cause havoc.
  • You’re wanted! Avoid Chief Wiggum and run to 123 Fake St.
  • Cutscene. You’ve been caught. Talk to Chief Wiggum at the booth in Moe’s.
  • You’re now wearing a wire. Return to the secret cave.
  • Talk to Fat Tony.
  • You’ve been made. Run! Climb up the ladder and head towards the alley…

The episode also features guest stars Joe Mantegna (helps carry the mob motif of the Grand Theft Auto games which Hit & Run takes inspiration from) and Frankie Muniz who’s no stranger to racing cars himself and has now begun a career in the ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America).

Also hey, if one of the first things in Hit & Run you can do is kick Marge, then surely it’s a good trade-off that one of the first things she does in “Trilogy of Error” is cut off Homer’s thumb. Right?

Finally, let’s note that The Simpsons writers have spoofed and incorporated video game material in their plots many times in the past. Some of the best coming from “Marge Be Not Proud”, “Marge Gamer”, “E My Sports”, The Food Wife”, and “The Game Done Changed”. If you purchase the season 13 DVD/blu-ray, you can watch a cool featurette showcasing all of the past Simpsons games. The writers are certainly fans of games and this article’s purpose is simply to remind them that they’ve earned the right to pat themselves on the back for the games they’s helped create including The Simpsons Tapped Out, which while fun and addicting, is unfortunately their most recent offering. One of the best things these games do is provide a treasure trove of references to the show. The show doesn’t need to shy away from returning the favor. Regardless, I truly believe Matt Selman, Al Jean, and the team have been doing a bang-up job in recent seasons to the point where The Simpsons has returned to being my favorite comedy to return to every week. As long as they can keep that up, that’s all I can ask from them. In the meantime, I’m grateful many of these games exist to begin with.

Amidst the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, hopefully studios can stop being cartoonishly greedy and meet the demands of the writers and actors befitting to television’s present business model and be paid the fair wages they rightfully deserve. UPDATE: They did.

Thanks for reading!

Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul “Waterworks” (S6E12)

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“This guy, any good?”

“When I knew him, he was.”

We the people. The penultimate episode of the series opens with a direct shot of the U.S. constitution.  A declaration that the power in our country is gleaned from the people, not congress or a king. Jimmy bounces a rubber ball against this idea similar to how he did against the store-front window back when employed at CC Mobile as an intermittent means to avoid therapy. Bouncing the ball back then (season 4’s “Talk”) was his way of reflecting in the wake of his brother’s death. How can he turn his grief and pain into a way of getting back at the world? A world where his own brother declares “You never mattered all that much to me” before committing suicide. The spiraling answer to that was selling burner phones to criminals who need to stay one step ahead of law enforcement. Jimmy aimed to commit to his bad behavior. This choice was something he hid from Kim for a significant span of time. He lied to her then and he’s about to lie to her now. Saul Goodman twists the constitution into his favor by using the power of the people as a weapon to ironically show that he is the king. By keeping his impatient clients crammed in the waiting room with Francesca, it’s his way of telling Kim that she should could have been the “queen”. The pot of riches is bursting outside his door and if she took the Sandpiper money and joined him, they could have ruled the world together. Instead, she’s going to wait out there with the rest of the “scum” while his bouncing ball takes priority.

It’s all delusion. Saul Goodman’s office being set up as a throne for American justice is as fake and flimsy as the styrofoam pillar of justice that Jimmy mistakenly knocks over. Jimmy McGill not only hates what he’s become due to his inability to cope with pain and abandonment, but the indifference he shows towards Kim when meeting over divorce proceedings isn’t real. Before sending her in, he’s clearly hurt and deeply affected by what’s transpired between them. He stubbornly puts on an act in the same way his brother did to him in their final moment together, even pretending to read irrelevant paperwork as she sits there wishing things could have turned out different. This is Jimmy’s “Lantern” moment where instead of going out in a fiery blaze, he chooses to lean into the worst part of himself. It’s almost as if Jimmy harbors the same mental illness Chuck struggled with, except he’s not completely on his last rope. When Chuck was at death’s door, he lost everything. He burned all his relationships and the respect for himself. Jimmy may have lost the people that mattered most to him, but as Saul Goodman, the one shallow thing he’s pursued since the series pilot, remains: Money. The money obtained at all cost is what will keep him imprisoned in the shell of Saul Goodman for a foreseeable future. It’s his space blanket.

Kim will become affected by her final meeting with Jimmy in the same way Jimmy was affected by his final meeting with Chuck. While she had already made the decision to take responsibility for what went down with Howard, her escape into the shell of who she once was is arguably brought on by a need to punish herself further. She and Jimmy shared the burden of Howard’s death, but if Saul Goodman can carry on like it was nothing, and as if what they shared together was for nothing, then it leaves Kim to carry the weight of the guilt on her own. The only difference is that instead of her retreating into her worse self, she’s retreated into having no self. In the course of six years, she’s buried in a life of indecision. A plain, stale pursuit of the American dream. She’s settled into Florida, working for an established sprinkler company, while sharing a house with a boyfriend (maybe husband?) who is probably an alright guy. They have conversations like whether miracle whip can serve as a substitute for mayonnaise. The Kim we know would probably argue that neither of them are in the same ballpark, but she leaves the idea of them using it up to her boyfriend.

She’s quick to agree on anything anyone else decides all while willing to solve a jigsaw puzzle that has no picture. She’s rid herself of accountability on anything. If an opinion is asked of her, she’s got nothing substantial to offer. She’s on the ‘no choice road’, riding passenger to what’s safe and conventional, perhaps so nobody close can get hurt ever again. This shows how much Howard’s death has haunted her in the long run. It’s not a life she carved for herself overnight, but a tragic philosophy she’s been absorbed into as a coping mechanism. However, it’s still an escape. She dyed her hair brown and relinquished the pony-tail for that reason. When Jimmy calls her at the office, she’s mentally and emotionally sideswiped. She has no idea how to even conduct herself in conversation. Jimmy being a wanted man is nationally known so eventually garnering the courage to tell him to turn himself in is a long leap from being unable to decide what flavor ice cream cake the office should buy for Tammy’s birthday. She wants what’s best for Jimmy considering it’s why she left him to begin with, but Jimmy protests. He argues that she has no idea what he has or hasn’t done and deflects that maybe she should turn herself in if the guilt was enough for them to split the way they did. It’s even an opportune time for her to do so considering Gus, Mike, and Lalo are considered dead.

This phone call, just like the final meeting at Saul Goodman’s office, is yet another catalyst pushing both Jimmy and Kim to make bold life decisions. When Jimmy asked Kim what her thoughts were on Saul’s office, she begins to compliment, but can’t muster to entertain the life he’s chosen, so she cuts herself short with a “Yep”. This response represents a lie. It’s what Jimmy utters defiantly on the phone when he acts like him “still getting away with it” is a good thing. It’s what her new boyfriend in Florida repeats while engaging in intercourse. There’s a lack of intimacy between Kim and her boyfriend which he may or may not catch onto. When he asks her whether running with the bulls is dangerous, she answers “maybe” and he repeats her response back to her as if it’s her usual catchphrase. Jimmy’s brashness over the phone is enough to snap her out of the dull, mindless prison she’s entombed herself in. Taking real accountability for the very thing she’s haunted by can very well set her free and Jimmy’s inability to see that for himself is what serves as a mirror.

So Kim leaves her fate up to the universe in the best way she can. She visits the Albuquerque courthouse where she used to work and hands in an affidavit confessing what really happened to Howard and her involvement leading to the moment before he was murdered. She also hands this confession to Cheryl, leaving her to do with it as she sees fit. Perhaps it can give Cheryl the closure she seeks or perhaps she could use it against Kim in civil court. When asked why Howard was murdered, Kim responds that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is a short answer glossing over the truth and she also dances around the idea of Howard’s suffering in an attempt to make Cheryl feel better. These are moments of weakness within an overall courageous ac of Kim taking accountability. It goes to show how hard it must have been to come straight to Cheryl to begin with but no matter how comforting she makes the truth for Cheryl or herself, the words are still written on paper to prevent any softening of what happened, which Kim probably knew she’d naturally find herself doing. Ultimately, Kim is willing to help change Howard’s reputation around for the better with any means necessary.

Cheryl threatens the idea of suing Kim in civil court but it seems like she’s not willing to go through with it. She sees that Kim came to her personally with no ulterior motive or protest of guilt. She knows Kim did not need to write up an affidavit or come to her at all. All Cheryl wants is closure and Kim is giving her that with the promise of helping to make things better. Kim is the best resource Cheryl has in order to turn Howard’s reputation around so burning Kim to the ground may not be in her best interest. Cheryl is interested in justice, not revenge, and justice means what’s best for Howard and her path to move on from her grief. If Bernalillo County decides to prosecute Kim for her crimes, they can, but for the meantime, there’s no physical evidence to support Kim’s claims.  Kim is very upfront about this to Cheryl which only reinforces her honesty and genuine desire to do what’s right. This moment of confession is a serious form of penance for Kim. For the first time since Howard’s death and leaving Jimmy, the emotions she’s suppressed come pouring out. Its a guttural performance by Rhea Seehorn as she publicly breaks down on the bus back to the airport. There’s no describing the mixture of pain, guilt, and relief that is on display here.

Kim took matters into her own hands in the attempt to make things right but Jimmy is reeling in a more destructive way since their phone call. There was a time when Jimmy would make funny TV commercials, which pales as lighter office drama in the Davis & Main days compared to the true crime drama the show has become, but it was something Kim felt nonetheless attracted towards. Jimmy filled her world with color. However, even Jesse Pinkman, who is crossing paths with Kim Wexler in the most inopportune moment, suspects something may be off with these funny commercials. Kim is on the last leg of her journey with Jimmy, while Jesse has no idea what’s in store for him. It’s impossible to imagine how they could have ever warned each other, seeing as they’re strangers from different eras, but that’s the funny way the world works. Time and space can be incredibly indifferent in this show and yet oddly telling.

When Gene finds an estimated figure of $737,612.62 on his cancer victim’s investment report, it echoes a similar figure Walter White would strive to earn cooking meth. For anyone who’s seen Breaking Bad, 737 is a number contributed to a rare moment where the universe is strangely conscious to when a significant moral line is crossed, which is very much what’s happening here with Jimmy, especially considering he’s dealing with another cancer man. Walt fed himself with delusion that he needed that money to provide for his family, but just like Jimmy’s ironic twisting of the constitution, it was less about the people he loved and more about becoming the head of an empire. Is there any good left in Jimmy or is he destined to suffer the same fate as a man like Walter White? “Waterworks” brings us to the brink of Jimmy at his worst. The first time is when he plans to knock the cancer patient out on the head using the urn of a deceased dog’s ashes. This never plays out as the man passes out on his own. The next moment will be when Marion discovers that Gene is Saul Goodman.

Even with the universe randomly sending a patrol car to park behind the getaway taxi as Jimmy pushes his luck inside the house, he’s still able to get away when Jeff crashes the cab as a diversion. Jimmy embodies Saul Goodman once more, assuring Jeff his freedom, seeing as the stolen watches are not in Jeff’s possession. Blondie’s 1980 hit “The Tide is High” is sung by Jimmy while driving his way over to Marion, who’s informed already of her son’s arrest. When trying to reassure her of his innocence in the phone conversation prior, Jimmy is flying too high to realize that his demeanor wildly contrasts with the nasty tone she witnessed from him when looking out her bedroom window to the garage the night before. She’s previously mentioned back in “Nippy” that Jeff and Buddy got caught up with a bad crowd in Albuquerque so she’s no dummy to expect something foul may be afoot again especially when Gene fails to meet her concerns for Jeff when confiding in him. Marion’s laptop being used to watch cat videos  during the last episode was a great way to lull the audience into a false sense of security before it’s revealed she’s watching the ‘Better Call Saul’ commercial when he arrives. The cat screeching in the commercial is a fine payoff, like a piercing scratch on a record player playing the tune of Gene Takovic. Once you hear the cat screech, you know Saul Goodman is made.

What Jimmy does next is most interesting. For the first time, he seems like a physically dangerous, frightening individual. All the sympathy or hope you may have for his character subsides as he’s lurches over a defenseless elderly woman with a telephone wire held taught between both hands. All the magic that is Slippin’ Jimmy or even Saul Goodman as we know him is gone and we’re left with an awful human physically threatening a woman into a corner of her kitchen. There’s no thrill of a scam here. It’s just plain violence. Jimmy has every intention to take Marion out if it comes to it, but surprisingly stops himself when she utters “I trusted you”. It’s not clear whether Jimmy knew if he’d go through with assaulting the cancer patient or strangling Marion, but he brought himself to the brink in order to find out. Luckily for Marion’s sake, her words ignited something within him. Perhaps what little good remains. The Alpine shepherd boy.

It’s important to note that Breaking Bad was about the transformation of a seemingly good man becoming increasingly evil. Whether that man was always evil or circumstances brought out the worst in him, it will always be up for debate. Better Call Saul on the other hand, is the downfall of a flawed, misguided man who’s been known to possess the periodic will to make up for what he’s done, yet ultimately drowns in the consequences of his actions. The bad behavior isn’t expected to escalate, but continues due to a series of events that make him this way. The idea of redemption may very well be possible but the story has always been how Jimmy is always too late to make up for his choices. Walt was content with going to hell, while Jimmy isn’t. If he knew how to be a better person, he would but his struggle is much more complicated and nuanced.  This is what makes Better Call Saul the more tragic series. As Marion reports Saul Goodman to the authorities via Life Alert, Jimmy McGill is officially too late. What happens next is anyone’s guess.

Final thoughts before the finale:

-The Pina Colada song was sung by Jimmy back when he was hypnotizing the elementary school staff into believing he was authorized to shoot a Rupert Holmes documentary on the property. This is the same bubbly song that’s played when Kim and her boyfriend entertain a backyard barbecue for their friends. It almost seems to be used in the same way when it comes to feeding a lie.

-When Jesse acknowledges the absurd amount of rainfall taking place in Albuquerque that night, Kim barely answers as if it’s boring small talk. She just walked out on Jimmy for the last time after all. Six years later though, when her boyfriend mentions the chance of rain in Florida, she feigns a level of intrigue over the idea of it. Just goes to show how inside out her life has become. It’s great to see that Jesse Pinkman’s appearance actually serves the story in more ways than one, but it’s also fun to get moments though like the mention of Combo being represented by Kim in juvenile court after stealing a baby Jesus from a Nativity scene which was a crime of his mentioned in Breaking Bad. Also Jesse will refer Walt to Saul Goodman’s services because of Saul being able to get Emilio off the hook twice. As soon as we saw Emilio in the waiting room, I figured Jesse was likely near.

-Kim’s final words to Jimmy as of right now are “I’m glad you’re alive.” Perhaps his survival is the best we can hope for going forward. Where he lands spiritually does not seem as hopeful.

-Mike’s old position has been replaced with an automated ticket booth which is a sad legacy to leave behind. Last episode may likely have been his last.

-Jimmy and Kim brushing their teeth together has been symbolic to the state of their relationship ever since season 2’s “Switch”. It’s appropriate that a neutral, passive Kim living a life in black and white would use an electric toothbrush.

-Back when Kim’s involvement during the Breaking Bad era was subject to much speculation, the idea of Ice Station Zebra Associates was a strong clue that she may serve as a silent, supportive partner in the background to all the chaos. Now it’s clear that Jimmy used this in reference to what he’s lost. It’s sad but apparent that she’s still very much on his mind long after she’s gone. Also, Saul Goodman’s sexual harassment of Francesca was seen as glaringly out of character before this final season started. Now it serves fittingly as the unfortunate collateral damage from Jimmy and Kim’s break-up which many wouldn’t see coming.

One more episode to go. Are you ready?

Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul “Breaking Bad” (S6E11)

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“Why are we going off road?”

In last episode’s “Nippy”, it’s intended for us to feel worried that Gene repossessing the spirit of Slippin’ Jimmy can lead him down a slippery slope. Not so much a slope that would lead to his physical incarceration, but one that would compromise his spiritual growth. “Nippy” established that Jimmy’s draw to his former days as a con man is still a very real addiction. Even when that con backs him into a corner where he’s got nothing left but to acknowledge the trail of destruction it’s caused, he’s still left admiring its colorful lifestyle. “Nippy” shows him eyeing the Slippin’ Jimmy attire, but ends with him hanging it back on the rack as he returns to his life as Cinnabon Gene. It’s an ambiguous end implying the tension of who he is and whether he may or may not accept and learn to be better. He enjoyed the taste of Slippin’ Jimmy after a duration of suppressing it, but maybe there’s hope for him to find meaning and catharsis beyond that specific rush. Or maybe he succumbs to that flawed part of himself. Anything’s possible.

“Breaking Bad”, however, boils any hope for Jimmy McGill like a goldfish’s potential vacation home being used to cook methamphetamine. Many classic anti-hero shows such as The Sopranos, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad have explored, in some form, the idea of redemption in their final seasons and Better Call Saul is no different. Jimmy McGill’s story is a tragedy. We are watching the tale of a deeply troubled individual and there’s no fluffing up this story. When the cold open throws us into Breaking Bad’s “Better Call Saul” episode from season 2 and shows us the kidnapping from Saul Goodman’s perspective, Jimmy begs, “Anywhere but the desert!”. Being dragged off-road back to a setting that’s host to his open grave is a powerfully scary start to the episode, underlining Jimmy’s nature to return to potentially fatal outcomes. Even after the many close, dangerous encounters which have caused so much trauma and heartache, it still results as a merely bad hangover he needs to cure with more bad behavior. He’ll feel remorse for a period, but before you know it, he’s making the same mistakes.

When Jimmy decides to return to Marion and Jeff’s house, it has nothing to do with the effort of self-preservation. At first Jeff suspects Saul may be upset that he bought his mother a new laptop which could possibly set off red flags to law enforcement if too pricey, but it’s actually Jimmy giving in to his demons. Jimmy wants to make an ally of Jeff in order to commit more scams and overturn more money. Last episode ended with Jimmy threatening Jeff to never come back or get too greedy, which is the exact trap Jimmy himself falls into. Earlier, when Jimmy finally makes contact with Francesca on November 12th at 3:00 PM (a meet-up scheduled since the cold open of season 4’s “Quite a Ride”), he is trying to figure out what money is left after the feds raided his stash locations. Unfortunately, everything’s gone but it doesn’t seem like it’s the end of the world for him. He still has access to a hefty haul, being enough to afford double the amount of his initial disappearance from Ed. There would be no practical reason for him to need any extra cash. If anything, he’s more interested in the world of his criminal associates’ well-being than the financial loss he’s suffered.

Jimmy will especially perk up when Francesca informs him that Kim has reached out, asking whether Jimmy’s alive. For any romantic, this hits like a ton of bricks. When relationships go south and you still think about that person, it means the world when you learn you’re still in their thoughts. It’s comforting. There’s a moment when Jimmy is driving back to live his life as Gene where he comes to a literal crossroads. He daydreams as he’s driving and snaps to before deciding to get back to a payphone. We learn that Kim is in Florida working for a sprinkler company, as he uses an operator to get through to her. What may have been a pursuit in comfort leads surprisingly to anger and frustration. We don’t get to hear the literal conversation as trucks roar by, but perhaps the emotions speak louder than words.

The end of “Fun and Games” had already tied a direct correlation between Kim’s departure and Jimmy burying himself deep into the world of Saul Goodman. Considering this most recent installment emphasizes the worst mistake Saul Goodman will make by joining forces with Heisenberg, we can probably infer the reason for Jimmy’s frustration. We already know he blames others for the results of his actions. He blamed Chuck’s death on Howard and Howard’s death on Lalo. Now it seems he’s blaming the entirety of Breaking Bad on Kim. He suffers while she lives freely in Florida. Kim took accountability for what happened to Howard and as far as Jimmy knows, she’s freed herself from the bad choice road. Jimmy despises his inability to do the same. It’s the exact reason why Jimmy began throwing bowling balls on Howard’s car and then some, because Jimmy hated that Howard’s pursuit in therapy allowed him to come out the other side in a healthier state of mind.

When Jesse Pinkman inquires about Lalo, it’s not for the sake of having fun reinforcing the throwaway line that gave birth to the character, but it helps highlight the problem with Jimmy’s choices. Who’s Lalo? Jimmy refers to him as nobody but you can tell the question rattles him because on a subconscious level, Lalo represents the grim reaper. Dead or alive, Lalo has evolved into more of a concept, being Jimmy’s inability to change. It’s his inability to turn back from the dangerous road. This is why he immediately requests Walt give the RV’s ignition another try, because the last thing he needs is to be sitting in the dark with his own thoughts along with two kindred spirits. He can’t risk the chance to reflect on what brought him here and what lies ahead, because he knows the answer and chooses ignorance. As the RV pulls away, it’s followed by a ghastly over-head shot of the grave Walt and Jesse dug for Saul, which eerily casts a black-and-white Gene lying within it. One of the greatest transitions the show has ever displayed.

Jimmy’s desire to reach out to Kim was most likely for the purpose of reconciliation, perhaps in the effort to not feel so compelled by his more destructive traits. Kim used to be someone who can pull Jimmy back from his mistakes, but at a certain point in their relationship, it shifted to encouragement. She knew this and left for both of their sakes. The way their phone conversation transpired may have been Kim not meeting Jimmy’s pursuit for comfort, but instead painting a more realistic picture of his current situation. His anger seems almost out of protest. There is a reality Jimmy does not want to face and of course he’s going to fight her on that. This exchange clearly has poured more grease on the fire, explaining why he doubles down on his bad behavior when he decides to prey on a series of unsuspecting barflies and steal their credit card and bank information. Perhaps Jimmy’s thought process is that if he’s unable to escape the consequences of his own actions, then he might as well go down in a blaze of glory. No more hiding. Perhaps the phone call conversation gave him further excuse to pin the blame on Kim so he can continue to embrace the worst part of himself in response. The montage of Jimmy aggressively scamming one victim after another, intercut with him sleeping around, is played to Mike Nesmith’s “Tapioca Tundra”. One key lyric is, “It cannot be a part of me, for now it’s a part of you.”

Jimmy is seen snapping out of a trance twice in this episode and both scenes are heavily related. The first is when he’s thinking about Kim on the drive back from his call with Francesca, and the second is when Mike moves onto new business after warning Jimmy not to get involved with Walter White. Kim is certainly what drives Jimmy’s decision to pursue the “crystal ship” because Walter White’s talents and potential for success is his meal ticket to capitalize on showing the world and Kim his indifference. What’s interesting about this episode is it’s not ultimately an exploration of Jimmy doubling down on a level of bad behavior he’s previously enacted, but Breaking Bad seems to have made his character even more despicable. Many fans (not all) over the years seemed to have this relentless need to pinpoint when a character finally “breaks bad”, implying the first or most true moment a character consciously makes a morally wrong decision. This is usually a pointless endeavor because being good or bad doesn’t fall onto one singular moment, but many, many moments. Whatever you are capable of, you already possess until the moment in question presents itself. So when Jimmy decides to go through with the scam against the cancer patient, it’s not the moment he finally broke bad (he’s been doing bad stuff for as long as we’ve known him), but it is him stooping down to a worse level.

When Jimmy first hears from Mike that Walter White has cancer, he seems to show genuine concern. It’s possible he sympathized with Walt as an underdog doing whatever he can against all odds, similar to the journey Jimmy’s had to endure his entire life. From Jimmy’s perspective, maybe this explains why Walter is so on edge when he first met him. However, Heisenberg’s toxic behavior wasn’t the momentary result of being in a bickering match with his partner Igor, but as we know, it would prove to persist for as long as Jimmy knew him. Walter is the guy that would physically and verbally abuse everyone around him until the very end and it leads Jimmy not to glory but to his downfall, hurting countless people in the process. Walter White is an asshole and perhaps Jimmy feels like an asshole for ever considering they were alike in any way. This explains Jimmy’s initial involvement with Jeff turning from self-preservation to a practice in self-loathing after his phone call with Kim. Not only does he put blame on Kim, but blames Walter for how things turned out, being another easy scapegoat. In other words, the cancer patient he plans to scam gets no sympathy from him this time. Jimmy actively chooses against it and when Jeff’s friend tries to protest, Jimmy becomes as vicious as he was with Kim on the phone.

Jimmy’s unraveling is properly conveyed when Marion overhears him being nasty to Jeff’s friend and his dog before whisking him inside the closed garage. Marion possibly senses there’s something off about Gene now. Once inside, Jeff’s friend brings up a good point in how they are rolling in dough so there’s no harm in letting one man not fall victim to their crimes especially when it’s an innocent man with cancer. Jimmy is combative though and persists on taking this man down. It’s also safe to say that Jimmy didn’t actually vet his marks for being single guys with lots of money, because in truth he probably resents anyone with a family. Nobody is immune from being a sucker. For Jimmy, this is not about the money as much as it’s about it being his call and if he greenlights the hit, there’s no slowing down regardless of moral conflict. For him, it’s an amateur mindset otherwise and he’s long passed mulling over what’s right or wrong. As the cancer patient himself says, “You only go around once” and that’s exactly the mantra Jimmy is using to justify his push forward.

If the phone call with Kim is the catalyst to Jimmy descending down yet another dark path, then the final moment when he breaks and enters the cancer patient’s home, is the point of no return. The visual storytelling bookends this final shot with Jimmy kicking the glass of the phone booth and serves as a callback to when Jimmy broke the door down to Chuck’s house in order to destroy his confession on tape. Jimmy has been making a series of mistakes his entire life, and the fact that the final scene is shown parallel to the fateful day he decided to pull up to J.P. Wynne Chemistry Lab, only helps show the severity of the line he’s crossed here. There has never been a cop-out resolution to a corner the writers have wrote themselves into across either show, so expect this final break-in scene to have some serious weight in the endgame. Is there redemption or hope for Jimmy to turn things around? This episode answers no.

Other thoughts:

-This is the first time we’ve ever seen Saul Goodman in any active cook site of Walt and Jesse. The three of them in the iconic RV together was certainly jarring. The way this episode interweaved these scenes together and made them meaningful was nothing short of brilliant from writer/director Thomas Schnauz.

-Jimmy may have biased reasons to justify going through with robbing the cancer patient, but he also vocalized his relation in having to take exotic pills. There’s also the Breaking Bad era scene which follows with Francesca reminding Saul to take a handful of medications. This again, helps show Jimmy’s inability to sympathize and also feeds into the self-loathing take as well.

-We get some extra information on what happens to some Breaking Bad characters, including the fact that Huell got to walk after being held in a motel room under false pretenses by Hank and Gomez. Ever since Breaking Bad ended, Huell has been living in a perpetual prison from an art standpoint for the better part of decade now. After the last Huell scene in Better Call Saul being him questioning Jimmy and Kim’s desire to sabotage Howard, it’s nice to know he was able to move on to a life in New Orleans.

-The last time we saw Jimmy singing karaoke, it was a sweet bonding between him and his brother Chuck back in the more innocent days before he knew how much his brother resented him. Now he’s using karaoke as a weapon in contribution to stealing enormous amounts of money from innocent people.

-It was excellent to see Mike wearing the same sunglasses he wore back when he was first introduced as a cleaner in Breaking Bad. We can suspect that Saul Goodman’s business is a well oiled machine in this point in time and an opportunity for Mike to willingly moonlight his services. Working for Gus in this era probably wasn’t requiring the same urgency as it was when playing chess with Lalo. It’s the golden era of the Saul Goodman and Gustavo Fring empire. Back then the phrase “putting my foot through your skull” was just playful banter.

What did everyone else think?

Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul “Nippy” (S6E10)

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“How you doing Marion?”

“Great. Are you okay?”

“Oh yeah.”

Up until last episode, the final season has carefully been building to the heartbreaking context as to why Kim is out of the picture in Breaking Bad. Despite their loving relationship and the fun they have twisting the world into their favor, many people suffer as a result. Kim comes to terms with this and not only decides to walk out on Jimmy, but she quits being an attorney altogether. She garners the impressive willpower to walk away from everything she values in her life in order to make a serious change. She won’t be benefiting from the Sandpiper settlement because at this point, it’s blood money and always was. Whether Kim’s decision to leave everything behind helps her come out the other side as a better person or not, she is undoubtedly taking accountability for what’s happened and leading the charge for what she believes is best. Whereas her path for transformation and atonement is her doing, it contributes to the final nail in Jimmy McGill’s coffin because of the willpower he lacks. Jimmy’s regression into Saul Goodman has always been a result of Jimmy doubling down on his unhealthy behavior whenever his life takes a devastating blow. He’s oblivious to how his actions hurt others until they do and is willing to make up for it only when it’s too late. And if he can’t make up for it, he shifts the blame onto others. He’ll internalize guilt, grief, and trauma with an impatience for self-reflection.

So if you’re feeling a little underwhelmed by a flash-forward episode that’s about Slippin’ Jimmy getting his groove back after having just watched an episode solidifying the tragic backstory to Saul Goodman, then you’re okay in feeling that. Skipping ahead to the Gene timeline after last episode’s jump ahead towards the cusp of the Breaking Bad era is a bold, but necessary move. As soon as Jimmy McGill sits in Saul Goodman’s office chair, we know the shell of a human being he will be for an entire series worth of time. Perhaps there’s more to explore there, but for the sake of “Nippy”, we understand the spiritual toll which lead him to the point in time Gene’s at now. “Nippy” as an episode, is designed to leave you kicking and screaming. It’s one thing for Kim to be ripped from the show like a band-aid on an old wound, but the entire world beneath Jimmy has collapsed. It’s appropriate that the Better Call Saul opening theme intro abruptly reaches the end of the tape. “Nippy” allows us to feel the blunt, coldness of what it means for Kim to have left Jimmy. It’s not something she’s done to him, but a downward spiral of something that couldn’t be helped. As we near the end of the series and Gene has nobody but himself, can he turn his life around? Is there redemption for Jimmy McGill? The underlying tension to a full episode where he’s adrift as Gene, is owed to that question. Chuck argued he couldn’t change. Kim left to give themselves the best opportunity to change. So how is that going?

When we last left Gene, he declined the opportunity to be relocated again after Jeff the cab driver discovered who he was. He declared to handle Jeff himself. It was a breaking point where Gene realized his inability to suppress who he is for the sake of self-preservation. “Nippy” opens with guest star Carol Burnett playing Marion, an elderly woman on a rascal scooter who’s shopping for groceries. If you didn’t feel more adrift by the strategic placement of “Nippy” in this season, introducing a new character played by such high-caliber talent only feeds into the complete tonal shift you’re intended to feel here. When her scooter gets caught in the snow, it’s Gene who’s revealed to be in the vicinity posting up flyers of a lost dog named Nippy who we know doesn’t exist. The giddy Slippin’ Jimmy persona is abundantly present here which contrasts, almost mockingly, to the ramifications felt from Kim’s departure. Who is this new character? What is Gene up to?

After cutting the motor’s connection on the scooter, Marion accepts help to be pushed the rest of the way by Gene to her house. This is important to note considering she was introduced as someone who refuses help. Marion intended to go about things her way similar to how Gene had decided to refuse Ed’s help and take the matters of Jeff into his own hands. The difference here is that Marion accepting help leads to a rewarding friendship with Gene (or so she thinks), whereas Gene accepting Ed’s help means throwing more money at the pursuit to run and hide from who he is. That’s the conflict of Jimmy’s character. In the effort of self-preservation, Gene is taking matters into his own hands through actions proven to be the cost of having nobody in his life. Marion can switch between independence and accepting help without it being an intense character or circumstantial crisis .

The plot of this episode is Gene’s attempt to overcome Jeff and by inserting himself as Marion’s house guest, it’s revealed Jeff is Marion’s son. The miserable, suppressed person we’ve known as Gene Takovic is completely absent. What we see here is full Slippin’ Jimmy as he commands the room, absorbing any power Jeff felt he had over Saul Goodman. Jimmy is able to see ten steps ahead on what Jeff intended to do against him, being extortion, but he taps into Jeff’s deeper sensibilities, dangling the idea of reaping rewards from within the criminal paradise. The idea of Saul Goodman or Slippin’ Jimmy coming to life in order to preserve Gene’s cover is a mind trip, considering the risk of exposure is raised in the effort to lower it. However, for Jimmy, all that matters is that it’s an excuse for him to be his colorful self once again. He’s starved for it.

Across six seasons, we’ve followed Gene at the Cottonwood Mall in Omaha, and for the longest time it’s served as Saul’s final destination. The final resting place to blend into in order to evade capture. Not once would one ever consider he’d use the entire map of this mall as the target of an elaborate heist. It’s as if this is a chance for Jimmy to laugh in the face of his own dire circumstances. Jimmy’s plan here is quite creative. He’s cozying up to security to get an idea, on average, of how long the cameras can go unwatched before Frank the security guard (played by Parks and Recreation’s Jim O’Heir) can finish his cinnabon. To extend the time, Jimmy’s also familiarizing himself with Frank’s interests in sports in order to converse with him longer before the cinnabon is completely eaten. He builds a rapport with security so they can trust him, all while scoping out the geometry between the big ticket items for Jeff to steal. If Kim is out there knowing Saul Goodman is deep in hiding, you can bet the last thing she expects Jimmy’s doing is reciting silly rhymes over a megaphone as a random cab driver runs drills in an open field. Even Jeff says, “This whole thing, it seems crazy”.

One key thing to consider throughout this entire episode is that despite how cleverly thought out Jimmy’s idea is, it’s no different than any other heist he’s pulled throughout the series. Something is always subject to go wrong and people can mistakenly get caught in the crossfire. When Jeff needs motivation to go through with this scheme, Gene ironically uses Walter White as a shining example for the riches that lie ahead. When the camera pans in on the cinnabon as Frank prepares to eat it and Jimmy checks his watch for the first time, there’s a feeling of impending doom. Like a bomb’s about to go off or Jimmy tampered with it in some way. Jimmy also turns Marco’s ring on his pinky finger in this moment. This ring signifies his love for the scam but also was gifted to him after Marco’s heart attack. After how many visits from Cinnabon Gene, the same occurrence can likely happen to Frank, but Jimmy doesn’t think about that. When Marco died in the middle of their scam in the season 1 finale, his last words were “this was the greatest week of my life”. This is the positive mindset Jimmy may have in the event things go wrong, so long as he gets one last rise.

When it’s finally showtime and Jeff eventually slips and knocks himself out unconscious, Jimmy is closer to a dead end than he’s ever been. He doesn’t chalk the potential loss up in the notion of “at least I went down doing what I love” but he regresses into a desperate, stammering rant on how he has nobody in his life. He brings up his deceased parents, Chuck, and Kim as concept. He acknowledges how if he died tomorrow, nobody would care. All of this, more or less, is exactly what Jimmy knows to be true. It’s no coincidence that in this moment of desperation, the first thing he thinks of is the death and ruin of those closest to him, along with the revelation that he has nobody, but he uses this moment of awareness as if it’s the last trick in the bag. It’s a hopeful sign that deep down he carries responsibility for how his life has turned out, but once Jeff awakens and scurries off into the bathroom, a wave of relief and absolute euphoria washes over him. We saw a glimpse of Jimmy’s pain being realized, but he’s channeling it in a manner which only serves his destructive side.

What’s sad is that if Jimmy didn’t treat the entire world like potential marks, he’d be able to build a friendship with a person like Frank or Marion, but he can never get out of his own way. For him, a happy ending in his scenario is his fictional dog Nippy being found by a family a few blocks down the road, but in subtext, it’s the idea that he was able to pull off another scam and as far as he knows, get Jeff out of his hair. The frustration of this episode is that after Kim leaving Jimmy and the deterioration of Jimmy’s character throughout Breaking Bad, we’re left struggling to envision a scenario where Jimmy ever achieves a moment of genuine catharsis especially when it means nothing when it stares him in the face. After Gene leaves Frank’s security office, he retreats to a blind spot against the wall which can be interpreted as him reeling from the thrill of the close call, but on closer inspection, it appears he’s emotionally exhausted. This could involve the blind spot of his own self which he’s willing to keep unseen. With three episodes left, his character is spiritually on the line. If his idea of a happy ending is getting the upperhand on a stranger by luring him into the scam only to threaten mutually assured destruction, then that’s a somber, yet fitting note which speaks to the character we’ve followed for the entirety of two dramatic television shows.

The episode ends with Gene in the shopping mall taking interest in the colorful apparel of what he once wore in his heyday. He likes it, but he knows he shouldn’t wear it. He puts it back on the rack and walks away from the shot, out of focus, once again blending into his surroundings. He’s also carrying his Kansas City Royals bag which we can suspect he carries more as a memento of Kim than anything else. This could be a sign of hope that he cherishes the idea behind why he left her, as painful as it was. The opportunity to improve as a human being may not ever be taken, but perhaps beneath the layers upon layers of masks the man wears, there’s a part of him who’s capable of doing so.

Extra thoughts:

-Chuck referenced Carol Burnett in season 2’s “Rebecca” when trying to establish Burnett’s iconic ear tug as a signal to call it a night when Jimmy as a dinner guest becomes too obnoxious for him. I bet Jeff wishes he could have given the same signal to his mother in the attempt to get Jimmy to leave in this instance as well.

-For the past few episodes, I’ve been wondering what will become of the Better Call Saul intro after episode 10. For the previous five seasons, every episode has used the same variations in chronological order. The season finale always ended with the World’s Greatest Lawyer mug falling to the ground. It’s really interesting how they utilized the tape running out right before it smashes on the ground. What happens next is left up in the air.

-As an inventory manager myself in a large warehouse for one of the top leading convenience distributors in the U.S., I can assure you Jimmy would have been able to leave a giant crate at the receiving dock overnight with no problem. In my experience, warehouse managers are always willing to deal with issues dropped on their lap last minute in the next day (or days). I also appreciate the restraint from Jeff stealing too many of each item with high dollar amounts. Small discrepancies in inventory won’t go noticed right away. High dollar merchandise going missing will be noticed, but within 72 hours of Jeff being off the security tapes, he’s likely in the clear. Whether or not he takes Gene’s warning to stay away from him or to not get greedy is still up for debate. For all we know, Jeff might foolishly consider this a ‘get out of jail’ free card (give the police who they really want) in the event he gets caught trying to replicate this stunt in the future.

-The montage of Gene building a relationship with the security guards and getting everything in place ranks among the series best. Excellent use of the swift splitscreen panels sliding in and out of frame and “Jim on the Move” by Lalo Schifrin really pops.

-Gene may be destined to run the Cinnabon for the rest of his life, but won’t Marion think it’s odd when he never visits her again? And what will Frank’s reaction be if Gene cuts him off cold turkey. In a universe that’s been largely consequential, what can we expect in terms of what catches up to Gene? Or will the final episodes strive for something else entirely?

What did everyone else think?

Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul “Fun and Games” (S6E09)

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“The next morning, I wake up, and I’m in paradise.”

“Fun and Games” is the pinnacle episode where characters have a chance to catch up with themselves after being caught up in a long-winded, spiritually-compromised pursuit. Gus, Mike, Jimmy, and Kim have been overcoming mountainous hurdles which they’ve continuously reinforced to be in the name of something greater. Now that they’ve found even ground and promising roads ahead, they’re faced with existential crisis. The opening montage of Jimmy and Kim going about a normal day while Mike and his crew clean up their apartment in the aftermath of Howard’s murder is played to Harry Nilsson’s “The Perfect Day”, covered by Dresage and Slow Shiver. The ironically dreamy drawl of the lyrics “It’s the perfect way to end the perfect day” is undoubtedly grueling as Kim has to present crime scene photos of a battered, bloodied client shortly after her having experienced first-hand the grisly murder of a close colleague she aimed to tear down. This cold open is one big lie they have to live, recapturing the normalcy of their day-to-day. How long can they keep this up? At the end, Jimmy regurgitates Mike’s advice that one day they’ll realize they haven’t thought about what happened and then they’ll know they can move on. But is that just a shallow, self-serving escape enabling one to continue on the road to ruin?

When Gus meets at Don Eladio’s estate to undergo accusations from Hector Salamanca of Gus’ failed hit on Lalo and his hateful intentions towards the rest of them, Gus has the extraordinary task ahead to not only pull off the lie, but also maintain his composure. Every beat of fulfilling his revenge not only pertains to everything going off without a hitch, but how it goes off, like savoring fine wine. Gus is not there to beg or protest. He would never allow himself to be that weak again in the face of his enemies. Instead he has prepared to allow the narrative of Lalo’s faked death speak for itself. In turn, Hector looks like an angry, biased old man while Gus gets to play the stoic, indifferent role of an equal who won’t dignify the allegations with a response. Not only is this a physical win for Gus as he gets to walk out of this confrontation alive, but he’s gifted the opportunity to have his hate be apparent. Don Eladio recognizes it but is too blinded by the financial reward Gus has to offer. As long as Eladio believes Gus’ resentment will be kept in check, Gus never has to put up the phony, smiling front. Once the cousins are taken out of the picture, Gus can be frank towards Hector with his intentions to torture him, knowing Bolsa and Eladio will never take Hector seriously.

After all of this, Gus partakes in a personal moment to himself. The war with Lalo has concluded. We find him alone at the wine bar of a fancy restaurant. A little corner of peace where he can revel in the impossible feats he’s accomplished and how far he’s come. He’s encountered by Dave, the wine steward, who seems to take excited pleasure in Gus’ presence. The two seem to have a genuine interest in each other’s company, although from Gus’ end, there’s a complicated subtext going on. It’s established that this is not the first time Gus has taken refuge in this particular spot. When Dave goes on to divulge in the careful proficiency of the wine, it’s hard to tell if Gus is reciprocating with false interest (like he seems to when Gale shares his chemistry knowledge) or if he’s simply put up a false front for so long that he’s bewildered on how or whether he should embrace his true feelings. Gus is definitely allured by this man, but perhaps he doesn’t know how to be that man again. Perhaps he feels he doesn’t deserve it until he can avenge his old partner. He confesses to Dave that he’s saving an expensive bottle of Côte Rôtie which Dave recommended, for a special occasion. We can assume this special occasion is when Gus buries Eladio, Bolsa, and the entire Salamanca family.

In another lifetime, perhaps Gus and Dave get to share in that special occasion, but there’s something more to this. When Dave eagerly shuffles off to find an unopened bottle of wine which he believes will be of strong interest to Gus, he’s left staring at an empty glass. It’s one thing that Gus feels he can’t celebrate too soon until his revenge fantasy is complete, but is this all there is? What happens when he finishes the Côte Rôtie on the night of this special occasion and there’s nothing left but the grief for his partner? Would there ever be a paradise for Gus in the event he smites his enemies? Or is the road to revenge his true happy place? Is his effort to avenge Max just fun and games to him in the end? Is it validation for him to embody the awful human being he’s always been? We know he’s been ruthless ever since his youth when he broke the legs of a coati and kept it as a pet. We know he has a dark history as a General in the Pinochet Regime. I believe Gus recognizes this brief revelation in Dave’s absence which causes him to leave. When he debriefs with Mike regarding the clean-up of Howard, he immediately instructs Mike to begin the search for an engineer who can continue work on the super lab today. Gus is burying himself back into work to mask any epiphany of his inability to achieve contentment outside his own demons.

When Mike stood at Max’s memorial fountain with criticisms of who Gus was as a person, Gus never pretended he was anyone other than who he was. The underlying selling point for Mike to assist Gus was not derived from any moral justifications of who he’d be working for, but the shared pursuit of revenge and the resources to support it. Mike had decided to play the cards he was dealt after reeling in the aftermath of murdering Werner Ziegler. If it meant he can atone through the end goal of vanquishing the cartel, then at least he’d be doing something good in this world, right? The further we progress into Better Call Saul and analyze Mike’s mindset of being the ‘good bad guy’, it becomes increasingly clear the level of delusion that’s at play. Mike had already nailed it on the head when he called Gus out for being no less evil than the Salamancas. He even knew he was attracted by revenge in the moment he decided to work for Gus. Gus literally says the word out loud, yet somehow in the time that’s passed since then, Mike has twisted the concept into something noble. Something less shallow.

Since the Lalo dust has settled, Mike makes the decision to do right by Manuel Varga by confronting him face to face on what happened to his son. Mike may have committed awful deeds, but he’s an upstanding guy when all is said and done. Again that’s all bullshit. Mike ensures that justice is coming for the Salamancas but Manuel sees straight through it. He spells it out, crystal clear, on how Mike confuses justice for revenge. These are two fathers with murdered sons and Manuel’s acknowledgement of the endless cycle of violence speaks volumes to who he is vs. who Mike is. It’s not the tragedy that propelled Mike’s behavior throughout this series, but who he always was. A gangster who tries to justify his destructive views on the world. The loss of Mike’s son only validated him. As does Kaylee and Stacey’s prolonged happiness. He needed the right pieces in the right spot for him to become the “noble” button man we’ve come to know. Mike, like Gus, is a monster just the same. He may be willing to bathe in self-reflection moreso than Gus, but he’s just splashing around. Hey may not relish in it, but he’s got no intention to change. He’ll live to chalk up every misdeed as a result of the life he’s been dealt. The road of ruin left behind is something to press onward from until the next time someone gets hurt and the cycle continues.

In “Point and Shoot”, Mike has the foresight to know that people will be suspicious when it becomes known that Jimmy and Kim’s apartment complex will be one of Howard’s last known whereabouts. Cliff Main would certainly have reason over most to suspect that Jimmy or Kim may be in some way responsible for Howard’s disappearance. An even larger hurdle to overcome would be denying any foul play to Cheryl, Howard’s wife, considering she was also informed of Jimmy’s oddly slanderous actions towards Howard. Better Call Saul could have easily taken these seeds and generated another season worth of drama but instead they use it to show how low and unstoppable Jimmy and Kim are as a duo. Just like at Jimmy’s reinstatement hearing in the season 4 finale, he digs deep into the complicated relationship he had with his brother Chuck and uses it like a bag of tricks in order to be upfront to Cheryl and Cliff of his beef with Howard. This transparency is a stroke of genius since it shows he’s willing to reveal more about his conflict with Howard than he’s willing to hide. Anyone else guilty in this situation wouldn’t give Cheryl and Cliff an inch.

When it’s still not enough to convince Cheryl that this is cut and dry suicide, Kim doubles down on the lie of Howard being a drug addict and takes the rift in Howard and Cheryl’s marriage (made known to her by Howard moments before he’s shot) and uses it as their escape hatch. By using reverse psychology, she inflates Cheryl with the idea that she as a loving wife would have known better than anyone of what was going on, which in turn makes Cheryl doubt what she ever knew about Howard considering how adrift they’ve been. The emotional toll this has on Cheryl as Kim and Jimmy effortlessly swat away any accusation makes them all the more despicable. Together, Kim and Jimmy are a force to be reckoned with, considering they can talk themselves out of murder suspicion at the cost to a grieving wife’s suffering. The writers always find a way to write themselves out of corners in the most compelling and devastating ways.

And it only becomes the catalyst for something more heart-breaking because now that they’re in the clear, Kim gives a kiss to Jimmy in the basement parking garage which feels completely sour. This is followed by the announcement of her retirement as an attorney in the middle of a motion hearing. At this point we can only dread what’s coming next. Since the beginning of Better Call Saul, fans have been begging the question: “When are we going to get Saul Goodman?”. Many even considered this a criticism of the show’s slow burn in general. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould imagined they can get there by the end of the first season, but they realized how ripe Jimmy McGill’s character was for exploration. It would be criminal to gloss over the story potential of Jimmy McGill’s character for the sake of appeasing impatient Breaking Bad fans so they expertly used that impending tragedy and anticipation as the source of tension. The exploration of the ‘how’ proved more fascinating than the destination. Kim’s decision to leave Jimmy is the final nail in his coffin before Saul Goodman (as we knew him from Breaking Bad) can be introduced.

Kim and Jimmy’s relationship has always been paradoxical. Their very first scene of them alone in the series’ pilot features just one brief exchange of dialogue: (“Couldn’t you just…”/”You know I can’t.”). They are both wild, polar opposites but strangely compatible. The closer you put them together, the more prone they were to combusting, and that only added to the show’s intensity the more it progressed. Every time Kim chose to stay with Jimmy after she had every reason not to, we awaited worse circumstances that would cause her absence. Before we knew it, they were more or less on the same page with one another, but it’s at the cost of everyone around them. Howard was right in how soulless she became and her final deception to Cliff and Cheryl proved that. In the end, Kim is the only one who recognized the severity of her actions and is willing to take accountability. She has stronger willpower than Gus or Mike in coming to terms with that. She’s willing to walk away from a fulfilling career and a loving marriage, in the effort to change.

For Jimmy, this was a long time coming, but no less surprising. Throughout the hour, Jimmy was dead-set on accelerating the trauma and grieving process. His child-like turn of phrase “Let the healing begin” feels devoid of spiritual substance like it’s a material item to cross off on a shopping list. For Jimmy, he has already pushed the blame of Howard’s death on the obvious villain, Lalo Salamanca. Jimmy still carries the pain but in an unhealthily internalized manner. For him, this hardship is as easily replaced as the HHM garbage can. Like nothing happened. Kim knows better than to see how this can only fester and grow ugly over time. It’s one thing for Kim to leave Jimmy in the pursuit of the moral high ground, but when explaining why she never told Jimmy of Lalo’s survival, she admits that if the Howard scam was called off, it would lead to a break-up regardless. This means that there was a spark in their relationship that was missing outside the thrills Jimmy had to offer when they broke the law. In many ways, this feeds into Jimmy’s criticisms of Kim back in the rooftop confrontation in season 4’s “Wiedersehen”. Kim was enjoying the fun and games, but without that, Jimmy’s a loser. This may obviously be construed from his point of view and not be the full truth, but Kim acknowledging the likeliness of a break-up in the event her obsessive scam against Howard was called off, does say a lot.

The abrupt transition from Kim zipping the suitcase and ripping the tape off-camera to a sleazy Saul Goodman waking up next to some random prostitute is gut-wrenching. Journey’s “Anyway You Want It” playing from the alarm clock serves as a ‘fuck you’ to the portion of the audience who complained how Jimmy’s transformation wasn’t going fast enough. This is what many viewers always wanted, but are they happy now? Jimmy going full Saul Goodman is the equivalent of Gus cutting any brief moment with himself short. They both choose to bury themselves in their work instead of pursuing their personal issues in healthy ways. Saul spending the Sandpiper money on an extravagant mansion and turning client after client at any cost can be seen as either a coping process after Kim breaking his heart or revenge against her. By having his face plastered over every billboard in town and flooding the airwaves with television and radio ads, he’s showing her who he’s become. He is once again raising one big middle finger to the world as he becomes a monster in his own right. “Let justice be done, though the heavens fall”, first quoted by Chuck in “Chicanery” is used again in this final scene by Jimmy before we get a head-on shot of him sitting in his classic Saul Goodman office. Jimmy, like Mike, may very well be misconstruing the concept of revenge as justice. Something he’s willing to pursue at any cost. Jimmy’s resentment of the upper establishment has grown over the course of the series, but after Kim leaves him, he’s completely unhinged.

Where is Kim at this point? What point in time are we even in? It feels like it’s roughly before the events of Breaking Bad but awfully close. The fact that there’s four episodes left, it’s hard to tell what story we can expect to be told. “Fun and Games” can easily serve as a finale, but there’s still a few questions to consider going forward. Has Kim’s decision to leave proven beneficial for her? She always seemed to have issues of her own when it came to distancing herself from her past. If she’s not with Jimmy or a practicing lawyer, who is she? And finally, is there redemption for Jimmy McGill? Regardless if they ever meet again, can Jimmy turn his life around, post-Breaking Bad? Also how will the flash-forward into the Breaking Bad era serve the Better Call Saul story? We are now in uncharted territory.

Other thoughts:

-At Howard’s workplace memorial, Rich Schweikart mentions to Jimmy and Kim that this is probably the last time we’ll see HHM, as they are downsizing and changing their name. Very foreboding now that we’ve witnessed the flash-forward.  I’m going to miss all these lawyer characters.

-In the scene when Mike is rummaging through his closet crawl space, the same score by Dave Porter is played which was used back in season 2’s “Gloves Off”. The scene it recalls is when Mike’s face is mysteriously pummeled, later revealed to be the work of Tuco Salamanca’s fists. In that episode, Mike did everything he could to avoid killing Tuco in order to complete the job for Nacho. At the time, Mike was doing anything he can to avoid being the person he feared he was. To bring that specific score back after so much destruction that’s occurred since then, especially before Nacho’s father puts him in his place, is quite fitting.

-If you rewatch the very first scene of the series as Gene works in the Cinnabon, listen to the song “Address Unknown” by The Ink Spots. Initially the song served the premise of Saul Goodman being relocated to Omaha, Nebraska with a strange identity. Now it can very much be interpreted as Jimmy missing Kim and hoping to find her again. The song is essentially about the long aftermath of a break-up.

What did everyone else think?