Better Call Saul: How Jimmy McGill Evolves

i know what you were what you are people don't change you're slipping jimmy [Music] what makes a man change each one of us are on our own individual path but the beauty and complexity of life is that we don't know where this path we're on is going to lead us we have aspirations expectations plans but we are also prisoners to circumstance you may have it in you to become so many different types of people but as each of life's many tests are thrown at you with every decision that's made the options slowly narrow down to make you the precise version of yourself that exists today did these experiences make you who you are or simply reveal who you were all along better call saul as a story about ambition and morality and whether an individual can overcome their vices to escape their fate because while most of us worry about a plethora of unknown problems that could one day be our undoing it's far more likely that we will not be struck down by a brand new issue we've never encountered before but the same demon we could never quite overcome testing us again and again and again jimmy mcgill wanted to change his life he wanted to get on the straight and narrow and earn his brother's respect he was never book smart but had a way with people easily earning the affection of anyone he encounters but he's prone to taking shortcuts and bending the rules and while that helps him to rise the ranks higher and faster it also guarantees that his eventual fall will be much steeper and more destructive so let's examine how and why jimmy mcgill evolved and devolved over six seasons of better call saul during their childhood chuck and jimmy's father ran a local convenience store the whole town loved their father he was the personification of good and never saw evil in anyone growing up in that store watching his father work taught jimmy the benefits of being personable but it also taught him the downsides of being too trusting as every grifter and scam artist in the area would come into their store and take advantage of him even when jimmy tries to warn his father he's being scammed he was such a soft touch he would then feel guilty for ever doubting the person and reward them even more as a child still adapting to the rules of this world this makes jimmy unconsciously look up to the deceitful grifters because they're winning these exchanges and that makes the lessons he learns from them more useful to survive there are wolves and sheep in this world again out which one you're going to be and jimmy immediately puts those lessons into action by stealing some cash from his father's too this small decision influenced by someone succeeding by taking a shortcut opens a mental door that maybe stealing is okay in small amounts as long as you can get away with it but actions have consequences and the store begins to go under so jimmy's older brother chuck takes a look at the books and discovers fourteen thousand dollars was missing intuitively he knows what happened and blames jimmy but his father refuses to see the bad in anyone and says it could never be his jimmy the store would soon close and their father would die just six months later this creates an immediate tension between both brothers chuck now looks down on jimmy as a lying cheat who deserves to be punished despite the world so far letting him away with it as a result chuck puts all of his faith in the rule of law seeing that without it good people get hurt whereas jimmy believes his father's business closed because he was a soft touch that everyone took advantage of not just him so chuck begins to thrive playing by the rules he was always academic and his meticulous attention to detail makes him a highly successful lawyer whereas jimmy is just a people person and spends his years having fun pulling low-level scams with his best friend marco going by the nickname slipping jimmy and occasionally saul goodman the reason scams are so tantalizing to jimmy is that it's all about outsmarting the system authority figures in his life like chuck undermine and dismiss him at every turn so he wants to prove to himself that he's just as smart and capable as them and by letting the victim think they're screwing you over in the process the scams feel somewhat morally acceptable but by engaging in this activity it consistently reaffirms a dog-eat-dog mentality inside jimmy and an obtuse reward system that makes honesty and rules mere obstacles in the way of getting what he wants and unfortunately for jimmy he's excellent at scamming people in the same way chuck knows the letter of the law jimmy sees the meticulous details in how to manipulate and persuade which is a trend in vince gilligan's writing that whether it's cooking meth or pulling off a scam the characters are maximizing their talents for the highest reward all of this irresponsible behavior inevitably leads to jimmy being arrested and suddenly he needs his brother to get him out of trouble but chuck has never let go of his resentment for what jimmy did to their father and therefore demands jimmy commits to fully changing his life to not make a fool out of him in this moment jimmy chooses the righteous path leaving the scamming life behind him and moves to albuquerque to work in the mailroom of chuck's firm hhm this is where the story essentially starts and jimmy is trying to build an honest future as a lawyer trying to suppress his vices of scamming and motivate it by earning chuck's respect in this stage jimmy is mostly doing everything right he may not be completely interested in the legal profession but he likes working with people becomes friends with kim and in order to rise the ranks and earn his brother's respect the right way he secretly studies with a correspondence school and passes the bar now this is critical because if chuck had rewarded jimmy for his actions maybe it would have opened up a whole new reward system where everything clicks into place he could date kim practice law alongside his brother and do good honest work if you believe in rehabilitation that is but chuck doesn't believe in rehabilitation he believes in punishment and deep down feels jimmy will be back to swindling and taking shortcuts in no time he's proud jimmy isn't being a criminal but doesn't see him as worthy of being a real lawyer because he sees something in him he won't let go of as his father paid the ultimate price for his willful blindness so he secretly tells howard not to hire jimmy as a lawyer in their firm because he can't be trusted this decision changes everything for jimmy rather than being where he felt he belonged and hard work paying off he has to go it alone as a public defender and similar to walter white he quickly discovers that even though he's doing everything right and by the book now he's not getting rewarded for it he's compensated with embarrassingly small chicks and working out of the back of a nail salon becoming a lawyer was supposed to increase his opportunities but he's stuck in the same cycle now feeling like as much of a prisoner as the criminals he's helping and this is key because for most public defenders constantly being around criminals going to jail would terrify them into obeying the law whereas for a former scam artist like jimmy he doesn't look at what they did wrong he looks at why they got caught and how he could have got away with it further tempting him to try something similar himself so jimmy starts bargaining with the world with chuck cooped up at home with health issues he can get away with bending the rules in order to get honest work so he's doing something wrong in order to get to do something right in his mind that's quite noble given the alternative he tries to manipulate the kettlemans into hiring him as their lawyer but that only leads him into an accidental brush with the cartel where his co-conspirators pay the price with broken legs but jimmy like always doesn't personally feel the full weight of consequences for his actions and when he tries to do the right thing and protect the kettlemans from the cartel by warning them they're in danger they still dismiss him as the type of lawyer guilty people hire no matter what he does he's constantly being told he doesn't belong in this role that he's not good enough and then they offer him a bribe he's put all this work in to get them as real clients while he's struggling financially and now he's being offered an illegal reward persistently being tempted away from his righteous path he takes the money at first but ultimately gives it back later so the kettlemans can cut a deal with the state if they return all the stolen money so we can see jimmy is doing everything in his power to stick to his word and not let chuck down until they both work together on building a class action lawsuit worth millions of dollars and chuck convinces jimmy to hand the case into his firm to do it properly this should be the moment that jimmy is properly rewarded he's taken some risks he's done some questionable things but he stuck to the most righteous path he could and finally getting a proper job at hhm will make it all worthwhile except yet again howard says they want the case but not jimmy and it soon comes out that this isn't because howard hates him but because chuck doesn't trust him even though they built this case together even though jimmy discovered the case to begin with chuck will never take him seriously as a lawyer you're not a real lawyer and slipping jimmy i can handle just fine but slipping jimmy with a law degree is like a chimp with a machine gun this revelation punctures the brother's relationship and showcases how deep the layers of resentment and distrust run and when someone isn't fairly rewarded for something don't be surprised if they retreat to what they know they do best hence we see jimmy regress back to pulling scams with marco again as at least marco believes in jimmy's ability describing him as the miles davis of scams but once marco passes away from health problems jimmy is left without an accomplice job or support system so now we see jimmy enter stage two he's no longer trying to build an honest career he's trying to suppress his vice to just a hobby and he's motivated by kim jimmy starts season 2 debating quitting the law entirely now that he's no longer trying to prove he can be a straight shooter to chuck he's giving himself permission to bend the rules in his favor chuck was the main reason jimmy tried to obey the law it was his way of restraining himself and phoning in a conscience about the rules i know what stopped me you know what it's never stopping me again when kim tries to talk him out of quitting and to take a job she got him at davis and main hhm's partner jimmy reveals what he's really good at and makes her his new accomplice in scamming ken at the bar they have such fun together that it reignites a romantic relationship this shifts jimmy to wanting to please kim someone that knows both his good and bad parts and still respects him so he takes the job at davis and maine but despite wanting the perks of being an employee he doesn't want a boss due to his lifelong conflict with chuck he doesn't want any authority figure really so he begins to push the limits by filming sleazy commercials to pull in business without their permission he then lies to him that his boss cliff approved them which lands her in trouble at hhm and she's demoted to dock review chuck tries to warn kim to stay away from jimmy informing her of how jimmy used to steal from their father's store that he doesn't mean it but he just ends up hurting everyone around him my brother is not a bad person he can't help himself and everyone's left picking up the pieces but is it true that jimmy can't help himself or is it that people like chuck or the kettleman's don't give him a real chance to become a better man jimmy decides to leave his job at davison maine and go into solo practice as that way there's no one overseeing his work and manages to convince kim to turn down a great new job offer to do the same they can work side by side but still not be actually practicing partners as kim may like occasionally scamming as a hobby with jimmy but she takes her work seriously either way kim is one of the first people to ever take a huge leap of faith for jimmy they're both investing in the idea of one another's future but when chuck steals kim's biggest client mesa verde jimmy can't stand to see the person who doesn't believe in him stealing a hard-earned opportunity from the person who has taken a leap of faith for him it feels like an injustice so he takes revenge by changing a tiny but crucial detail in all of the documents the address so chuck will be caught out in court and meltdown which he reliably does as both brothers know one another inside and out chuck always sees the worst in jimmy and simultaneously believes he's always right and to tell the truth he is as chuck perfectly pieces together exactly what jimmy did how he did it and why he did it he knows slip and jimmy's tactics and he proves himself right by getting jimmy to confess on a hidden recording device by seeming as if he had lost his mind and now wants to quit the law over making such an embarrassing mistake essentially chuck weaponizes jimmy's remaining affection for him showing that he values his legal reputation and just never being wrong more than his own brother he's never been a people person his own parents preferred jimmy despite his shortcomings even when their mother was on her deathbed and jimmy left to go get a sandwich she didn't call for chuck who waited by her bedside she wanted jimmy and he was so bitter to not have his loyalty rewarded that he never told jimmy that she woke up with him as her final thought subconsciously he wants the world to know he's the better brother in every way and not only gets jimmy suspended for defrauding kim's client but sets him up to break in and destroy the tape recording so he can get him arrested because the only other time jimmy was willing to turn his back on his deceptive ways was when he was arrested and desperate for help so chuck says this is his best chance to change even though they both know he doesn't truly believe he can so what jimmy hears is that his brother thinks his only chance at not being a crook is to stay perfectly still working in a mail room he shouldn't be allowed to climb any higher because he can't be trusted but chuck fails to realize that setting him up having him arrested and suspended from the job he worked so hard to get just to impress him wouldn't make jimmy obey the law on the contrary like a scorned lover it would make him resent it and defile it as a form of revenge against him this is what slides jimmy into stage three where he's just trying to keep his head above water desperate for any kind of work he can't get caught breaking any loss because he's on probation and he's motivated by not losing kim he sets up a new tv commercial company on a shoestring budget using the name saul goodman a name that he hasn't used since he scammed people so we can see that he's gradually reopening that mental door but no matter how hard he tries to play it straight the world keeps pressuring him and taking away other possibilities his sides short change him and he's left with nothing so he starts fighting back threatening to sue people once he's reinstated as a lawyer as a means of taking back control of his life as the very threat of it is the only power he has to hold on to he's using being a lawyer as a weapon rather than a badge of honor jimmy just wants to stop losing and prove his brother can be wrong about something so he manages to break chuck on the stand by proving to him that his health issues his alleged allergy to electricity is all on his head humiliating him in court in front of his peers is the ultimate revenge and when he discovers his malpractice insurance will more than double because of his suspension he guides them towards the legal transcripts of being exposed on the stand ensuring his brother's insurance will skyrocket too unaware of the domino effect he's triggering as once chuck's firm discover his insurance will skyrocket howard pushes him out of the company he built for good so with nothing and no one left he burns down his house with himself in it but his final words to jimmy would be both vindictive and prophetic in the end you're going to hurt everyone around you but the truth is you've never mattered all that much to me as much as others expect jimmy to feel a great loss he buries his feelings and masks them with bitterness it's as if he wants to prove that chuck never meant that much to him either even after he's gone in many ways chuck has been dead to him for a long time ever since he broke his heart by rejecting him and saying he'll never be a real lawyer ever since he betrayed him got him suspended and arrested as a means to control him but no one wants to hear that chuck didn't mean that much to jimmy and just to get his license back he has to pretend that he really wants to do right by the legacy of the name mcgill by being a good and honest lawyer because in their mind that's what a good honest forgiving person would feel but the moment they approve his license jimmy decides to officially change his working name to saul goodman earlier when kim had seen saul's commercial for the first time she was shocked and jimmy tried to reassure her that it's just a name it's just a name but a name means a lot jimmy had spent a decade trying to earn his brother's trust and respect back hoping to practice under his last name as a sign of quality but now he wants nothing to do with him he wants the name mcgill to die with chuck so he can start a new legal legacy based solely on his way of doing things no more rules no more restrictions no more trying to please anyone else this is a critical moment that officially lands jimmy into stage four he'll work for anyone who pays the most offering not just defense but help to criminals he's happy to bend the rules in and out of work and he's motivated by the idea of how high he could fly [Music] his first move assault goodman is to offer a 50 discount to all non-violent felonies incentivizing criminality for his own self-interest howard offers him the job he always wanted at hhm as a peace offering for what happened with chuck which jimmy rewards by throwing bowling balls at his car he still resents howard for acting as a conduit for chuck rather than deal with his grief he wants to prove he can still be bigger and better than everyone who held him back just being around jimmy slowly starts turning kim over to the dark side too as if chuck was right that he is a destructive vortex that sucks in everyone around him kim may be professional at work but she likes to come up with ways to screw over her bosses behind their back and jimmy enables her every step of the way but even when she tells jimmy to cancel one of their plans he promises he will to her face and then rug pulls her in person to get the payout he wanted it seems as if there are two sides to him now jimmy mcgill and saul goodman and there's nothing this alter ego won't do for a paycheck and an ego boost inevitably jimmy crosses paths with the cartel again having played ball with them before and he's asked a simple question you want to be in front of the cartel now for anyone sensible the answer would be no but jimmy has spent so long earning the bare minimum as a public defender and being undervalued and dismissed that why not chuck never took him seriously the kettlemans never took him seriously and howard is now only pretending to take him seriously out of guilt there's a defining moment when howard places jimmy on a scholarship board set up in chuck's name they're reviewing the applications and jimmy notices that all the other board members outright dismiss one potential student because she has a blemish on her record despite her growth and excellent grades they simply label her as the shoplifter proving to him that these people never forget once you break the rules they'll never let you in their inner circle so he advises her you don't need them they're not gonna give it to you so what you're gonna take it you're gonna do whatever it takes do you hear me you're not gonna play by the rules you're gonna go your own way you're going to do what they won't do you're going to be smart you're going to cut corners and you are going to win the higher you rise the more they're going to hate you good good you rub their noses in it you make them suffer because you don't matter all that much to them so what he could easily be saying these words in the mirror to himself as chuck never let him stop being slipping jimmy in his mind and when he says you don't matter all that much to them it shows us that this is the real message that stuck with jimmy from their final exchange making him want to prove that he can mean a lot to the legal system whether it's for good or bad when howard confronts jimmy about the job offer and throwing bowling balls at his car jimmy blows up in his face taking all of his frustrations out on him as if howard is this king maker who gets to decide his fate or how high he can fly the job offer in itself is a condescension presuming that this is the best he could ever do so he rejects it but by doing so in such emphatic fashion jimmy permanently closes himself off from a series of options and by acting like he's this magically connected powerful guy he has to live up to that reputation and that means working for the cartel and the first thing they want him to do is act as a bagman by going to the desert to collect seven million dollars in bail money which jimmy thought would be a quick and easy drive but it turns into a war zone that would have led to certain death if it weren't for mike this harrowing near-death experience leaves jimmy shaken and in doubt of every decision he's ever made in life and mike helps him see something he's always been in denial about we all make our choices and those choices they put us on a road you think about getting off but eventually you're back on it what mike is describing is the reality that it's very difficult to escape a certain kind of fate when you begin to engage in shady illegal activity this is a natural cycle once you begin reciprocity with unethical people once you do them a favor they do you won back and around and around it goes and as others hear about it they label you and disassociate from you further limiting your options to shady types of people this theory is immediately confirmed when jimmy returns to work and discovers all of his colleagues want nothing to do with him as they discovered he scammed the court to help the cartel this should be a clear-cut sign to turn back and repent but every decision closes certain doors and opens others while jimmy should decide to end his relationship with organized crime to keep himself and kim safe we can't forget that he knows these people never forgive a mistake and therefore will never let him back in no matter what just like chuck they don't believe people really change maybe the world as a whole doesn't once you're known as someone slippery or criminal it's almost impossible to shake and now that he's earned this reputation as the cartel lawyer lots of low-level criminals specifically want his help so saul goodman's business is booming this places jimmy at a crossroads he could turn back to safety or keep going down the road that's welcoming him in with open arms the road of destruction the only one who could get jimmy to realistically turn back is kim as he'll do anything to keep her safe but sensing that jimmy might break up with her to protect her kim redirects his attention towards howard who recently tried to warn her to stay away from jimmy for her own good he can see through what she's doing but this is another test of character and from his perspective the world isn't offering him any good alternatives do you really want to go back to being a broke lawyer that no one will forgive anyway do you really want to lose the love of your life or continue having fun together messing with howard serves as the perfect distraction from all the trauma they've experienced and they never feel more bonded than when they're working together to take down someone they both dislike so they go about destroying howard's reputation step by step until he's completely humiliated and calls into their home to confront them face to face at the exact time melalo salamanca reemerges and shoots him in the head they both ignored chuck's warnings they both ignored howard's warnings and now the results are undeniable jimmy's life as slip and jimmy would have likely resulted in him in jail jimmy's life working in the mail room at hhm would likely have resulted in him feeling dissatisfied and suppressed but this version of jimmy practicing as a lawyer with a bone to pick with his law hailing brother leads to nothing but destruction he facilitates criminals he pedals and lies it's all just about money and it went from the trauma of seeing others get killed in the desert to seeing someone you know get murdered in your living room and although they both narrowly survived this dangerous situation there was no way for kim to forgive herself so she quits the law no longer believing she's worthy of it and divorces jimmy no longer seeing the good man in saul goodman which converts jimmy to stage five with kim as the last person of meaning in his life now abandoning him he has nothing to live for but his work mirroring his brother chuck except instead of upholding the rule of law saul goodman abuses it mocks it and finds ways to sneak around it he's motivated solely by money and while working for walter white he doesn't just bend the rules but becomes a complete criminal until it all comes crashing down around him and he has to go into hiding as gene takovic for the rest of his life working in a cinnabon in omaha this is the clearest opportunity he has to go on the straight and narrow the risk-reward ratio of getting caught isn't worth it and he could prove to himself that chuck was wrong that he can change that he isn't slip and jimmy but because his life is so colorless and meaningless that once he gets made by a cab driver he could run away and start over again under similar circumstances but that's not enough for him it's never enough for him he wants to assert some control over his life again and the way he does that involves breaking rules and scamming people this is the pattern of jimmy's life the never-ending cycle that he tries to stick to a righteous path but because of either something he was born with or someone that influenced him along the way he can't resist temptation chuck was the best at something and jimmy has this internal need to consistently prove to himself that he is too so he starts his new life as a con artist and thief which is working like a charm right up until his colleague refuses to rob a cancer patient and jimmy can't let this one just get away maybe it's too vicariously get one over on walt maybe his ego just won't let him turn back or maybe a part of him wants to get caught but he goes back and once he's trapped contemplate smashing an urn over the back of his victim's head to escape this is the darkest moment in his journey now willing to enact violence on others for his own benefit helping all these criminals throughout his career has chipped away at his soul he enabled them and they enabled him this is the road mike warned him about it starts off as a shortcut to get you where you want to go but quickly turns into a fast track straight to hell all of this leads to jimmy getting made again and arrested by the police for someone that spent his life in and out of court sometimes wearing a suit sometimes wearing a jumpsuit it seems that this fate was unavoidable he got so used to negotiating other people's prison sentences that the idea of a prison sentence is naturalized to him and simply avoiding one himself became a game a game that he's still exceptional at as he manages to negotiate his sentence down to a measly seven years until he hears that kim confessed to her involvement in howard's death setting herself up for an expensive civil lawsuit from his ex-wife and in his last phone call with her she recommended he turn himself in this shows that kim is stepping up and taking responsibility for her actions she can't run away from herself and hide in a series of lies which is what jimmy has done his entire life he's finally lost faith in his own ability to change for the better that no matter how many times he's given the chance to stick to the honest and righteous path he waivers and that's because he never personally pays the full price for his actions he always shirks responsibility or convinces someone to give him one more chance maybe he is just slip and jimmy the guy who can't resist an opportunity when he sees one so with kim as his witness he purges himself before the court by going against his sworn testimony and laying out everything he's ever done wrong even some things that aren't crimes finally throwing himself at the mercy of his brother's altar the legal system the law is sacred imprisoning himself for 86 years but freeing himself from the weight of his guilt this is the moment he earns back the name james mcgill the name's mcgill i'm james mcgill no longer wanting to be tainted with the persona saul goodman but while jimmy is responsible for his own decisions other influences in his life made choices for him too what if chuck had simply supported his brother and tried to nurture him into hhm what if other law firms didn't look at the blemishes on his record as irredeemable or permanently closed doors in his face these small choices we all make collectively place individuals on a road some find it easy to turn off others find the courage to turn back but for jimmy mcgill he just kept accelerating forward as everyone kept telling him he's the type of guy to keep driving he asked mike and walt what they would do if they had a time machine they both had clear answers of the moment they would go back to to help them avoid this fate but the tragedy for jimmy is that there isn't just one clear moment there are dozens maybe hundreds it could have been all the way back in his father's store or in hhm or even in his brother's kitchen if he had just stayed and talked about other potential paths but he didn't and he now has a lifetime of memories to sift through haunted by the prospect that maybe he wasn't lying to the world when he said he could change maybe he was always lying to himself chuck never believed he could change but in court jimmy proved him wrong and right at the same time because he really did change by finally accepting that he never would [Music] if you enjoy content like this and want to see more of it please do consider supporting me on patreon as it really does make a difference to how much content i can pump out or if you can't afford that then simply like the video subscribe and leave a comment down below to help the algorithm do its thing

Channel: Just an Observation

Views: 1,436,003

Keywords: better call saul jimmy mcgill, better call saul evolution, better call saul how jimmy evolves, better call saul how saul goodman evolves, how saul goodman evolves, how jimmy mcgill changes, how saul goodman changes, better call saul character study, breaking bad, better call saul, bob odenkirk, better call saul character arc, better call saul psychology, just an observation, better call saul finale, better call saul retrospective

Id: zn9-inB_f0Y

Length: 33min 58sec (2038 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 31 2022