Better Call Saul Asks: What's The Only Thing Worse Than A Lawyer In The Family?

With at least one more season of Better Call Saul yet to come, there still could be a lot of story to bring us from the guy stealing footage for a TV ad meant to attract seniors to the guy laundering millions of dollars' worth of drug money. And at the end of the season, it's starting to seem like Jimmy's going to become Saul not as a result of a detailed, well-thought-out plan, but because of the ways his errors keep forcing him to course-correct.

We started to see in "Nailed" that Jimmy's shrewdness is not always matched by his attention to detail: it takes Kim, supposedly the more ethical attorney in their shared office, needling him to make him look back over his Mesa Verde maneuver and figure out where Chuck might be able to trace his supposed error back to Jimmy -- which is where we left both brothers McGill last time. When "Klick" brings us back to the present, it's to see how that part of the story ends: with Chuck unconscious on the floor after fainting and striking his head on a table in his fall, the prudent thing for Jimmy to do -- what one imagines Saul Goodman would do -- is nothing. Jimmy knows this, which is why he hesitates. But he loves his brother, which is why he runs in to take control of the scene -- turning off lights, ordering Lance the counter guy to call 911, propping up Chuck's head. Chuck is literally in the process of trying to gather evidence that Jimmy committed fraud when Jimmy races in to do what he can to save his life. It's hard to imagine circumstances under which Chuck would put himself in danger to save Jimmy: we already know he couldn't even stand aside to let Jimmy take a job he earned because it would mean having to give up the grudge he'd been holding against Jimmy pretty much their whole lives.

What this season has done especially well with its episode-opening flashbacks is to show us Chuck's perspective on Jimmy's story, and give us a better idea of how Chuck turned against his brother. In Season 1, we saw him come bail Jimmy out of jail and basically draft him into his mailroom job at HHM -- which, on paper, was an understandable tough-love move of the sort one would expect an eminently respected attorney to make with a petty thief in his family. But in "Rebecca," the audience sees what Jimmy and Rebecca don't: that Chuck is petty, too. Chuck has, to hear him tell it, spent Jimmy's whole life watching him get out of tough situations thanks to his smooth talk and his natural charisma; it wasn't enough for Jimmy to have charmed their father into an early grave, now he has to watch Jimmy charm Chuck's own wife, too? Chuck's resentment at being overlooked by a woman is replayed in the "Klick" cold open as Chuck and Jimmy keep a vigil at their mother's deathbed. Chuck is the good son who denies himself the comfort of a sandwich, while Jimmy goes out to bow to the needs of his flesh. But does the oblivious Mrs. McGill appreciate the sacrifice Chuck has made in her honour? No: she wakes up just long enough to call for Jimmy before breathing her last. Chuck doesn't get any cosmic credit for doing things right; his only satisfaction comes when Jimmy returns and asks whether Mrs. McGill said anything, and Chuck gets to lie that she didn't.

Seeing more of Chuck's pre-Better Call Saul flashbacks also makes me curious about how his sensitivity to electricity first started. Did Chuck's bitterness over failing to outshine Jimmy in ways Chuck probably would have officially dismissed as superficial cause him, subconsciously, to create a pathology that would be both impossible to ignore, and impossible to treat?

In "Klick," Chuck's illness certainly comes back to the center of the story in a way it hasn't in a while, even displacing Kim, who's been far more pivotal this season than she was in the last. Dr. Cruz returns to try again to make Jimmy understand that Chuck's delusions are sufficiently serious for Jimmy to consider institutionalizing him but that, for now, a temporary emergency guardianship is a good idea; she explains that Chuck's catatonic state following his CT-scan is self-induced. How much control Chuck has over his responses to electricity is questionable, but there's no doubt that they are very effective in manipulating Jimmy.

When Chuck comes to again, Jimmy brings him home; even though he is Chuck's guardian -- temporary or no -- he leaves Chuck alone in a house for which Jimmy no longer has keys. This turns out to be a bad idea, since the next thing Jimmy knows, he's getting a panicked call from Howard, which sends him back to Chuck's....

...which looks very different than the last time Jimmy was there. Chuck explains that the walls of his house are just plaster and lathe, offering no protection from radio waves; he really needs a Faraday cage, but his improvised solution will have to do. Leaving aside the space blankets for the moment, Jimmy asks if he's serious about quitting HHM. Chuck mutters that he's not quitting, he's retiring. The prudent thing for Jimmy to do -- what one imagines Saul Goodman would do -- is nothing. When he was fired up to prove Jimmy's fraud, Chuck had sufficient determination to enter a copy shop -- a closed space filled with hot, noisy electrical devices. For Chuck to end up closed in his house, insulated with space blankets, receding further into his own delusions, is certainly better for Jimmy. But from what we've seen there are only two people whose needs Jimmy puts ahead of his own: Kim and Chuck. Jimmy is pretty sure it's good for Chuck to remain active as a lawyer if he's ever to return to his full capacity and lead a functional life again, and tells him so -- playfully yet explicitly arguing against his own interests to do so: "How are you gonna retire before you get me disbarred? Before you run me out of town on a rail, huh? I'll be the only McGill carrying the family name! You can't have that!" But after the Mesa Verde debacle, Chuck is convinced that he's no longer fit to practise law, and despondent about it: "I can't do the job anymore...I screwed it up. I hurt the client. I blew it, completely and utterly." So Jimmy plays his last card.

Of course the tape recorder reveal is no surprise. A child could see it coming. But my feeling watching this wasn't dread that Jimmy was incriminating himself on tape; it was pity that, after everything that has happened between them, Jimmy could still have such a big blind spot when it comes to Chuck.

When we met present-day Jimmy back in the Saul series premiere, he was all alone in taking care of Chuck: leaving his watch and phone in the mailbox outside; grounding himself before going inside; bringing him his daily rations of food and ice. Even in "Klick" -- presumably not too many hours after Dr. Cruz told him again that there's no physical explanation for Chuck's electricity allergy -- Jimmy still grounds himself...

...and not even to keep up a show for Chuck, who's not there to see it. That's how deeply ingrained is Jimmy's deference to Chuck. And that's why, for me, this season has such a heartbreaking ending: while Chuck is laser-focused on screwing his brother, Jimmy would so much rather do what he can to preserve Chuck's law career than protect himself that he hardly hesitates before telling Chuck how right he was about Jimmy's Mesa Verde caper. With any other person, Jimmy would be on his guard. He'd scan a display of blubbering self-pity for authenticity and respond accordingly. He'd assume his interlocutor wouldn't be trying to elicit a disclosure from him without an ulterior motive. But for Jimmy, Chuck is -- despite everything that's happened between them -- still his brother, someone whose respect he's craved his whole life. That's why Chuck has so much power to hurt him.

I haven't written as much about Mike's story this season because it's been such a slow burn: his entrapment of Tuco was a showy, horrifying moment, and watching him plot his revenge so methodically has been fascinating, but I do miss the Season 1 storylines that featured Mike and Jimmy together; their clash of styles always led to great comedic moments. By contrast, every interaction between Mike and Stacey leaves me tense: I know she's working him, and he knows she's working him, but I also know that after the death of Mike's son, he's letting her do it as penance.

Anyway, it's been interesting to watch Mike's code evolve along with his situation, and to see him reset his personal boundary lines. And while Mike's inability to complete his plan was as frustrating for the viewer as it evidently was for him...

...you can't say this isn't a compelling cliffhanger.

Still, what has been developed best over the course of Season 2 are Jimmy's relationships with Kim and Chuck. It was lovely to see Kim proudly watching Jimmy's TV ad and accepting the kind of lawyer he is, now that he's decided to quit fighting his instincts, even when he knows they're not always what she would want them to be. And as Kim has evolved into a polished sole practitioner with one huge client -- when she's not grifting, that is -- it's become more clear that when Jimmy makes choices to impress her, or help her, or make her proud of him, or advance her career, she both deserves it and appreciates it. After last week, we also know that if she'd been back in that living room with the brothers McGill for Chuck's silvery pity party, she wouldn't have let Jimmy fall for Chuck's sting. Will Season 3 explore how far Kim's willing to go to save Jimmy? Will Jimmy let her save him if it means destroying Chuck in the process? Will the story of Season 3 be how Jimmy is forced to choose between the two most important people in his life? Or will it show us how Saul Goodman wasn't able to hold on to either one of them?