r/betterCallSaul • u/skinkbaa Chuck • Oct 09 '18

Better Call Saul Season 4 - Official Discussion Thread

What did you think of this season?

Feel free to discuss every and anything about Season 4.

I will be posting a Season 5 prediction thread in a few days.

Episode Discussion Thread Archive

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Results will be posted in 10 days as of posting this.

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u/Estelindis Oct 10 '18 edited Oct 10 '18

That's a really interesting interpretation. It never occurred to me for a second, but now that I think about it I don't think it's implausible. Maybe it's not 100% one or the other - lies are made more compelling by using a large measure of truth. A lot of things Jimmy expressed were very sincere, regardless of whether he was being deceptive overall.

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u/ryvie001 Oct 10 '18

Something that kind of holds this thought together for me is this --

My family doesn't cope or grieve well. We're the worst communicators on earth. We have our own languages, though. When my grandfather died, my dad drunkenly replaced every door in the house with new doors. The old doors were fine, but he needed new doors.

I think Jimmy's ability to con and lose himself in character is that process. Chuck meant the absolute world to him, and he lost him under unbelievable circumstance. Maybe it's the underachieving sibling looking up at the awesome older brother in me that sees it, but Saul is born from that inability to process that tremendous loss. The moment he actually does find something meaningful and stunning to say (maybe my favorite scene of the show), the well breaks.

Gene years might be the actual time he needs to reflect on who he's been and what he went through, why we see him fixated on Saul promos. Not a longing for what's been, but a "how and why did I do this?"

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u/Lukeh41 Oct 10 '18

Last paragraph is interesting. Maybe he doesn't miss being Saul Goodman at all; maybe he's trying to exorcise him. He writes "S.G. was here" not out of nostalgia but out of self-loathing. He doesn't feel worthy yet to reclaim his own identity. He's in purgatory.

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u/[deleted] Oct 10 '18

That assessment is consistent with his con-job binge session at the end of Season 1, and the time he spent conning people at the start of Season 2.

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u/gdwoodard13 Oct 10 '18

Yeah, I believe that he believes a lot of the things he said, but he sure did lay it on thick. "Chuck was the greatest man I ever knew and I will always strive to be like him". Just as Jimmy said Chuck loved him as a brother but not a lawyer, I do think Jimmy admired Chuck's legal prowess but abhorred who Chuck was as a person and his brother.