Better Call Saul

Why would he have wanted Nacho dead? That makes no sense.

Because Nacho is the only one who knows who is or what he's been up to? And Nacho is not in Breaking Bad.

Who he is.

I mean, who knows? Why did Mike rob the truck before attempting to kill Hector? And like I noted, Nacho told him Hector had moved on and no longer was threatening him, so why start shit?; surely if Hector wanted his family (or Mike) dead he could have done it.

Yeah but how would Nacho explain how he knows Mike without implicating himself? Also if Mike wanted Nacho dead he could have just shot him at one of their secret meetings.

With respect to Mike wanting Hector dead, it may be as simple as he doesn't like anyone having leverage on him and certainly doesn't like anyone threatening his family. Nacho isn't going to say anything about his involvement with Mike because, as he stated, they'd both be dead. And Mike has been pretty fair and cordial with Nacho, all things considered.

Mike wants to kill Hector because he isn't the killing sort of person, paradoxically. He left the driver alive, and then found out it's the sort of criminal enterprise where people get killed as an example when their shipments get hijacked. Hector kills loose ends, and knows about his granddaughter. So he's going to kill Hector.

Just seems a little too "Death Wish," because, again, Hector could have easily killed Mike's family by now, or threatened them again, or whatever, but we haven't seen him do that. So why would Mike keep stalking him and planning to kill him? Seems a little too short game for him, and petty. But who knows, clearly he doesn't kill him.

curious -- what leverage did mike have over nacho at that point?

was referring to Mike knowing about Nacho's "side business" with the pill guy, etc. Mike could conceivably rat Nacho out to Tuco about that (w out necessarily implicating himself, after all he was just there as pill guy's body man). Nacho had every reason to just kill Mike, which is why he considered reaching for his gun, and at that point it came down to who could kill who first, and Nacho didn't like his chances. That's how I read it anyway.

and yeah damn this show is so good

The tape recorder seems obvious in hindsight and is as a plot twist, but it's entirely believable that Jimmy would fall for it given that Chuck's psychosis over the course of the episode was 100% genuine. That's the thing, Chuck knew that he could rely on Jimmy's essential good nature and fucked him over for it.

The course of the rest of the episode, I mean.

You couldn't not feel for chuck in that hospital but man, what a cunt. I think Kim was right on the money last week: hate chuck, like jimmy, feel sorry for both

Although she may regret saying that "you made him like this" part in front of him, if theres one thing jimmy doesn't need it's an excuse to behave badly

I realize people have to do what feels right when sitting with a dying relative, but Jimmy going to get food and take care of himself and his brother when they'd been sitting by their mother's side was a completely reasonable thing to do! And I didn't get the feeling that Chuck refused to leave because of wanting to stay with his mom as much as it was the "right thing" to do given his by-the-numbers system of obligation and responsibility. If he was really doing it out of love or as a duty to his family, he would have told Jimmy about her speaking.

that scene is still irritating me

chuck is just pathologically incapable of developing himself outside of being the best lawyer man and declaring himself in the right

The thing we don't know much about just yet is the collapse of Chuck's marriage (and whether Jimmy played any part in that).

I have the suspicion that's going to be incredibly awkward to watch

not sure it's relevant but I could see them coming back to it, this doesn't really seem like a show that leaves a lot of loose ends lol

Ernesto covering for Jimmy was a great moment.

Be interesting to see what Chuck does with that tape, since we know Jimmy doesn't get disbarred/convicted

GIMME JIMMY!

sort of get the feeling that something involving the legal system is going to go down with that tape, considering jimmy eventually changes his name and also his practice specialty

Gonna enlist mike (with whom he barely interacted this series) to help him pull a switcheroo, then use chuck's now-court-established mental health issues to discredit him

The tape recorder was a little like the end of every episode of diagnosis murder, where dick van dyke tricks the murderer into confessing and then barry van dyke comes out from behind a thing (he's been hiding behind a thing the whole time)

While I'm sure there's some truth to Chuck's overall perspective on Jimmy, I'm doubly sure that it's heavily colored by his perception that Jimmmy was the favored son and how unfair that was in light of Chuck trying so hard to do everything right and Jimmy being the fuckup that he is. No one should give Jimmy a shot because it's unfair that someone who refuses to follow the rules should be at all favored. It's just not fair! Unexamined notions of fairness and what is and is not deserved are dangerous in the hands of someone like Chuck, who's highly intelligent and knows how to wield the law like a weapon.

They were so wise in casting comedians in these roles. The upside down scene of Chuck on the emergency room table as the doctors are shining lights in his eyes, sticking stuff in his nose and ears, holding him down... it was so humiliating to even watch that it a funny guy might have an easier time being comfortable in that role than a thespian of the stage.

While I'm sure there's some truth to Chuck's overall perspective on Jimmy, I'm doubly sure that it's heavily colored by his perception that Jimmmy was the favored son and how unfair that was in light of Chuck trying so hard to do everything right and Jimmy being the fuckup that he is. No one should give Jimmy a shot because it's unfair that someone who refuses to follow the rules should be at all favored. It's just not fair! Unexamined notions of fairness and what is and is not deserved are dangerous in the hands of someone like Chuck, who's highly intelligent and knows how to wield the law like a weapon.

― You're A Peein' Youth In Asia (Old Lunch)

Good analysis, very apt thematically!

Is a covert recording like that even admissible evidence?

Chuck believing he has real health problems while taking advantage of the fact he looks batshit crazy to other people is some crazy-ass manipulation

Is a covert recording like that even admissible evidence?

I don't think so, but I'm not entirely sure.

My money is on Chuck using the tape as leverage to get Jimmy to change his name. Chuck is THE McGill in the ABQ legal scene, and in his estimation, having his brother practicing law with the same last name reflects poorly on him.

That tape will be the driver which gives rise to Saul Goodman.

depends if it's a single-party consent state

very informative document: https://www.mwl-law.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/LAWS-ON-RECORDING-CONVERSATIONS-CHART.pdf

Gonna enlist mike (with whom he barely interacted this series) to help him pull a switcheroo, then use chuck's now-court-established mental health issues to discredit him

good a guess as any

OL v otm about Chuck's motivations. Everybody likes Jimmy better, it's not fair!

What happened at the beginning? I think my dvr missed something as the first thing I saw was Jimmy walking into the hospital and Chuck saying their mother was gone.

Chuck and Jimmy were by their mother's bedside, the implication being she was going to pass away sometime soon. Jimmy said they need to eat, they should go get a sandwich. Chuck refuses to leave his mother's side, and Jimmy headed out to get sandwiches. Their mother woke for a moment, saying "Jimmy... " to which Chuck responded "it's me, mom. Chuck," at which point she repeated "Jimmy..." and then died.

Yeah, I had to watch on demand because my DVR did the same gahdamn thing. Another in a long string of fails, Comcast.

same here! comcast. fuckers. must have been some issue

i figure mike's plot is supposed to feel a bit death wish, he has the skills and the icy exterior but isn't quite yet the hyperrational and calculating crime guy he becomes.

hope jimmy gets him to snipe that utter bastard chuck

Jimmmy was the favored son and how unfair that was in light of Chuck trying so hard to do everything right and Jimmy being the fuckup that he is. No one should give Jimmy a shot because it's unfair that someone who refuses to follow the rules should be at all favored. It's just not fair!

http://17rg073sukbm1lmjk9jrehb643.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/prodigal3.jpg

L-R: Chuck, Everyone in the world but especially their parents, Jimmy

The tape recorder was a little like the end of every episode of diagnosis murder, where dick van dyke tricks the murderer into confessing and then barry van dyke comes out from behind a thing (he's been hiding behind a thing the whole time)

Chuck's swoon looked like typical syncope (fainting), not a stroke or a seizure. He hit his head hard enough to get a concussion but that's unlikely to be fatal. The forces involved weren't enough to produce a skull fracture and epidural hematoma, or even a contusion / subdural hematoma.

Harder to sort out the neurological status in Chuck's case because even without a specific brain injury, he can be very drowsy / encephalopathic just from his usual (psychological) hypersensitivity to EMR. Would be no surprise if he doesn't wake up for awhile even if the scans and other testing are OK. But he should recover.

― Plasmon, 15. huhtikuuta 2016 17:57

I thought was kinda funny that this is pretty much exactly what happened, the doctor even used the word syncope. I guess we should always trust the specialist in the house.

On a more general level, I really like how this show puts so much attention to detail and avoids a lot of the accepted movie/TV cliches, which having Chuck die from hitting his head would've been. Or how they showed Mike calibrating the sniper rifle like it should be done, instead of just taking it from the case and starting to shoot right away, which is how it typically happens in audiovisual fiction. There are still some absurd things happening in the show, but they result from human behaviour, the technical details are almost always correct.

Xp ha I think I did see that but forgot about it

in some ways what BCS is about at heart (and you can say the same thing about Breaking Bad) is the nature of premeditation. They really like you to see the unseen.

I did roll my eyes a bit when the doctor suggested they needed a CT because Chuck might have had a stroke -- strokes rarely cause loss of consciousness at onset, and when they do, the patient doesn't wake up a minute later. Also they could've cleared his C-spine clinically since he was awake and lucid by that point, the scan isn't really needed if he isn't having neck pain, especially given such a low impact injury.

But it's fair to say that the scans are standard practice in cases like that, and Jimmy is completely reasonable in feeling there'd be a risk of forgoing them.

The ER trauma bay scene was very realistic, I wonder if they used real medical staff for the dialogue, or at least to write it.

The show's also done a great job of handling Chuck's psychological condition, showing the suffering is very real even if there's not anglicized reason for it. His ability to rise above his symptoms at least temporarily when he really needs to is a common feature of similar cases I've seen. I often say as a neurologist that it's the patient's best performance (for Chuck, something like the meeting where he helped retain Mesa Verde) that points to their underlying neurological diagnosis (in Chuck's case, he's normal), even though patients tend to define their conditions (understandably) by their worst moments and the prolonged or recurring nature of their suffering.

* a tanglible, not "anglicized" -- thanks spellcheck

Plasmon I always appreciate yr expert input on this kind of thing!

Yes, you deserve a medical consultant credit for sure.

Plasmon, you should listen to the BCS podcast (ep 210) where Gilligan and his co-writer for this episode talk at length about their Medical consultant's advice both during writing and on set. Interesting stuff.

btw i know nothing about medicine and the whole stroke suggestion made me roll my eyes too.

Or how they showed Mike calibrating the sniper rifle like it should be done, instead of just taking it from the case and starting to shoot right away, which is how it typically happens in audiovisual fiction. There are still some absurd things happening in the show, but they result from human behaviour, the technical details are almost always correct.

― Tuomas, Thursday, April 21, 2016 6:54 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Fun fact: All the through the scope shots were actually filmed through the actual rifle scope. no long lenses. no effects.

I was just thinking earlier that a real bare bones, TV Guide-esque summary of this season could easily make BCS sound like the most boring show on earth. "Jimmy makes a commercial. Mike watches people from afar and almost kills some people but doesn't actually kill anyone. Chuck has an episode after he mistakenly believes that he made a clerical error."

much as i enjoy the show's methodical pace and personal intrigue etc i did feel this was somewhat lacking and a little abrupt as a finale :/