Better Call Saul: Saul Gone - A Complete Analysis

[Music] hello everyone and welcome to my breakdown and analysis of the better call soul season finale so gone this video will contain spoilers for breaking bad el camino and of course better cool soul however if you've already seen them or don't mind the spoilers then we can begin the episode begins with a very enigmatic scene where a camera pans across the hangar where we see a bunch of suits and it finally stops at one of the coat hangers swinging this of course is meant to reference the future of of what possible outcome gene could have at the end of the show what missing item of clothing of course being the prison jumpsuit being the final outcome for jean however the suits aren't just any old random suit they are suits from each season possibly referring to the moral decline of jimmy mcgill we then get an opening shot of the episode being in color that being a flashback to the season 5 episode 8 bagman episode where we see jimmy sing a well of water and he rushes towards it after drinking as much as he can he sits down and talks about the 7 million they have in cash and why they couldn't just run with it this piece of dialogue reminded me a lot of the conversation back in the season one finale where jimmy was talking about why they couldn't have just run off with the kettleman's money it shows how morally bankrupt as a person jimmy has become that without thinking he wants to just run off with the money which then starts the discussion of the theme of the time machine this episode so asked mike about what he would do with the time machine and where he'd go after some careful thought mike talks about how he'd go back to the day he took his first bribe but before that he was thinking about going back to the day maddie was shot however he corrects himself into thinking that he could have stopped a whole lot more and decides to go back to the day he took his first bribe it's extremely sweet and heartbreaking seeing mike still wanting to go back and do anything he could to save maddie the amount of regret he has for the road he's gone down and the path he's taken is depressing to say the least when mike asks all what he'd do soldier says that he wouldn't take his million invest into warren buffett's company of course the soul is deflecting the trauma he's gone through and hiding it through his soul persona he of course has many regrets he wishes he could change but he's not ready to talk about it yet so instead he chooses to go back to make it all about money mike himself even questions if that's all he'd do to then saw replying what else the two then get back up and start walking again as the screen cuts to black and the title card plays one final time in its distorted fashion [Music] the show then cuts back to where the last episode ended which was marion finding about gene's real identity as soul goodman as gene tries to drive away maron gives a description of the car to the operator as jean arrives home he's packing everything he gets his cardboard box with the money inside of it and then takes the burner phone with him gene then goes on the run and ends up in a dumpster trying to call the disappearer so he can change his identity again one last time i would say that this is seoul's rock bottom him hiding from the police in a dumpster his belongings scattered everywhere while he desperately tries to call the vacuum repair service the police then catch him hiding in the dumpster and just like that gene is caught and arrested i'm honestly glad that this whole episode wasn't spent with him on the run from the police instead it goes back to the roots that the show was based upon the law once he's in the station he stares at the officers watching his commercial and then makes a phone call to the cinnabon asking for his co-worker to handle some work for him and that they'll be needing a new manager we then cut to gene and a cell pacing back and forth saying this is how they get you almost if they cannot fathom that this is how the almighty saw goodman gets caught he was probably wanting to get caught sooner or later and hope for his end to be a great one but instead he's found in a dumpster at his last breath pathetically trying to call the vacuum repair service one last time he then glances over at a message that has been scratched on to the wall talking about how his lawyer will kick the cops asses gene maniacally laughs at this possibly reflecting on who he once was maybe even seeing the irony in the situation that he is now one of those people who is now in jail instead of on the outside this sparks the idea in his head to call oakley so then he pounds on the door asking for another phone call he calls oakley and when oakley answers it is shown that he now has his own firm while this is established in the episode breaking bad i'm glad that we get to see bill again after all this time gene convinces oakley to represent him as advisatory council and when bill asks where jean sees this ending gene replies with him being on top like always we then cut to seoul and cuffs walking down a hallway when it cuts to a familiar character that character being marie if you don't know who marie is she's from breaking bad and you should probably watch the show to find out a bit more but it does do a good job at explaining who she is and why she's here this reveal was very surprising and very unexpected but at the same time i loved seeing her back her being back kind of adds some closure to her character after all the [ __ ] she'd been through we then cut to seoul being told that the counselors are going to be pressing for the maximum charges however they make him a deal that being one of 30 years sentencing however soul doesn't seem to be bothered by the sentencing that much in fact he is more or less focusing on other things it really shows how he knows he's gonna get out of this one again the same as the other times before seoul then asks for marie to be brought in and marie tells him that saul being found at the dumpster is a fitting demise not only because he's a garbage person but also because he's referred to as a cockroach throughout the show so him being found in the dumpster is is quite fitting metaphorically marie then guilt saw it by telling him about hank and steve and while i never personally cared too much for the characters of hank and steve gomez this piece of dialogue did hit me hard looking back and seeing what walter did and how soul aided him and damaging so many people's lives is just honestly heartbreaking to watch soul then tries to defend himself by trying to paint himself out to look like the victim saying that he was forced to work for walter and that he was never safe and worked for him out not out of loyalty but out of fear this is something that is not exactly wrong there were a lot of times where soul did things for walt because he was simply terrified of him and i can't believe him when he said that however bob odenkirk's acting is just so convincing so you can never really tell when he's doing something for show or if soul actually means it it's always hard to tell but it turns out this was just a story for soul to give him a better look in front of everyone like saul says it only takes one to believe his story and you think jurors are going to buy that one all i need is one sullen goes on to have this smug look on his face saying that apparently the guy he's up against has never lost a case and he says it in such a way like it's a challenge to him like this will be the first case he will ever lose marie is shocked and demands the ban not to negotiate with seoul however they proceed with it anyway we then cut back to seeing a list of souls demands a lot of them being completely out of this world and the cherry on top for his ego for fun he demands a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream every week of course this is the same ice cream that seoul is eating in the season 5 episode 50 off and is then seen again being eaten by a swarm of ants in the intro for season five titled the guy for this it's attention to detail like this that not only makes me appreciate this show a lot more but also shows the amount of time and care they put into writing these episodes not a single detail is missed by these writers and you can see how meticulous they are in trying to write this ending of course they refuse but the amount of demands that got accepted are insane to me and just shows how good soul really is he knocked his sentence down from nearly two life sentences to [ __ ] seven years a feat that no one but so goodman could ever accomplish and while the demands are being read out him you can just see the smug look on his face laying back hands behind his head not a care in the world he knows that he slipped out of trouble again and that he's going to get away with it one more time we then get a flashback to granite state which was the most theorized flashback that walter would be appearing in now i would like to talk about why this flashback works for people who have never seen breaking bad before and for the people that have now let's dissect this for the people who haven't seen breaking bad this scene is a great introduction to walter white as a character of course we already got an introduction to his character in the episode titled breaking bad but that was more or less a flashback meaning to symbolize that saul was making the worst mistake of his life and was becoming a bit like walter y as well the same mistake that jean does at the end of the episode it's supposed to draw parallels to gene and saul making the worst mistakes of his life and his flashback is supposed to represent that not only does it show the person responsible for gene takovic but it also shows a very short time frame on how much walter has changed since we last saw him and the first flashback he is kind of already [ __ ] up but you can tell he isn't the monster he is he's only beginning to transform but in this flashback you can see how much he's changed he's turned into a monster an inhumane terrifying cruel monster the flashback also gives us context for gray matter the company that walter worked on and these flashbacks kind of give us a bit of context to the character of walter white sure the flashbacks don't give you much if you are a new viewer but they help you give an idea of an introduction to his character and how everything plays out during breaking bad especially if you haven't seen the show or aren't planning to it even shows that during the breaking bad timeline he still hasn't opened up about how he truly feels jimmy is still deflecting his emotions through his soul persona and it's shown that only until this episode he's opened up about it now let's take a look at things from the perspective if you have seen breaking bad now everyone who has seen the entirety of breaking bad knows that this is a granite state flashback the flashback takes it place a few days later after the events of ozymandias and while saul was trying to sleep walter is up trying to fix the heater this scene reminded me a lot of the breaking bad episode fly walters constantly distracted by this fly in fact he should be focusing on more important things but instead gets distracted by this fly the fly is kind of a thing to distract himself from his relationship with jesse falling apart and the fact that hank is hospitalized and that he's on the brink of death with gus of course there's a lot more to the fly episode but that'll be discussed more in depth once my breaking bad essay is finished and before you ask yes it's almost done i'm almost finished editing the third season so the video should be out soon but as i was saying this was very reminiscent of the fly episode walter trying to distract himself by getting distracted by meaningless things around him and this time why walt is distracting himself is because of the events that took place after the episode ozymandias seoul then talks to walt about time travel while then goes on like a redditor explaining how time travel is impossible he then argues with so a little more and then realizes that seoul is talking about regrets so walter then tells him his regrets not after um patronizing him a bit just as what was about tell him his watch comes into focus the watch that jesse gave to walter for his birthday that being walter's true regret him ever teaming up with jesse is his biggest regret the amount of lives he's ruined from him deciding to break bad was not worth it and i think he realizes this however he does not want to accept it because of his pride and ego is still there now more than ever he then goes on to talk about grey matter and his contribution to that he then asks saul about what his biggest regret is soul is hesitant to answer at first but he finally then answers his answer is very strange that being of a slip and fall that eventually led him to having bad knees of course this isn't actually his biggest regret and the episode will reveal what his biggest regret is near the end of the episode walt then reacts this in the most confused way possible almost as if he's stunned a slip and fall yeah that's how i put myself through bartending school right then followed by him saying so you were always like this this causes jimmy to go into a sort of reaction that is best described as some kind of depression he then slumps over back into bed and the flashback ends there we then cut to seoul on a plane he then tries to talk to bill about kim bill explains that she confessed to all of it and that not only she confessed the police but also to howard's wife cheryl at this moment i think soul changes his mind about what he has to do although you never really know the exact point as to when soul changes his mind on properly turning himself in but this is probably the scene where it's pretty implied that soul changed his mind about the sentencing to provide further evidence to back up my theory after bill goes to the restroom saul says that he has evidence for the hamline case which we later learn is not true he was just saying that so he could get kim over in court and then cut back to kim back out her game with her mundane life like we saw back in waterworks except this time she's getting off work early to apply for some volunteer work for the lore clearly she's trying to get back into the work she enjoys until she gets a phone call from an old work associate saying that soul is going to confess to some things about her in court of course that gets kim's attention and plans to go to the court we then cut back to seoul and handcuffs with the song all things are possible by the harmonizing four playing in the background now as we all know breaking bad and better coastal love to have meanings to their music and this one is no exception the song of course is referring to how all things are possible and we really don't know how things are going to go down and that really anything could happen at this time we don't really know whether or not seoul will betray him or whether he's going to help her we really don't know what's even going to happen at this point with this music we get a badass scene that that being saw walking to the court never before has a court entrance been so badass the whole scene is kind of shot like a western film which kind of makes a lot of sense a lot of shots from breaking bad have looked kind of westerny as well so the fact that the scene is kind of shot like a western makes sense the whole scene isn't about jimmy's crime sure that might be the focus to everyone but the shot is specifically focusing on kim and jimmy this is kim and jimmy's story it's about their relationship this whole scene is masterfully shot and is probably one of my favorite scenes in the entire show then the music grows silent we focus on kim and we see her tapping her feet we've been shown this a few times throughout the series and of course it's a sign of her nervousness jimmy then sits down and murders to himself it's show time of course this is a reoccurring line throughout the show mostly throughout season 1 and then the court scene begins of course throughout the whole entire episode jimmy never listens to oakley in fact he's mostly just there just because jimmy wants him to be there and then while the judge is talking to the others bill writes him a note saying not to do anything and that the judge usually listens to the bargains jimmy then stands up and interrupts the courtroom talking about everything he did even admitting he's contradicting the story that he gave to the other people the judge then interrupts him to go talk to his counsel and saul refuses at this point hilariously bill tries to leave the case and of course the judge says no i found this scene to be hilarious a thing that i'm really happy about is how the show doesn't lose its comedy it always keeps the comedy and drama present and it never drops it for the sake of melodrama soul then goes under oath saying that he's going to tell the whole truth of what actually happened and this speech is just incredible he goes on to exclaim that walter white would have been nothing without him that without him he would have been arrested or dead within a month a call back to what mike said during medical souls breaking bad episode speaking of which soul changes the story saying that he wanted to leave to work for walter white saying that he loved every second of it once he's done the court kind of goes into chaos but while that happens jimmy looks back at kim and kim gives him a look of approval or maybe even joy she slightly smiles only slightly and it cuts to black this whole courtroom scene is definitely in my top three medical soul scenes everything in the scene is perfect the writing the acting and definitely the cinematography before we move on to the next scene we should probably talk about the elephant in the room which that being the scene where soul talks about his regrets and by that i mean the stuff where he mentions about chuck i feel like when he mentions chuck this time it's not a performance or anything it's his true feelings coming out and truly regretting what he did sure chuck was an [ __ ] but jimmy definitely was in some way indirectly responsible for his brother's ultimate demise we then see jimmy talking about chuck the camera cuts to an exit sign above jimmy this of course is in reference to chuck but i feel like it has some true symbolism for it like how one of my viewers pointed out that it was symbolism for chuck seeing jimmy finally confess i also like how jimmy manages to prove chuck wrong and that he'll never change jimmy did finally succeed in changing he faced the consequences for his actions in the most beautiful and poetic way possible i mean so kind of hinted at his own ending when he mentioned to walter white about facing the music with his head held high stay face the music hey i mean how much time have you got left you walk in with your head held high you'll be the john dillinger of the metropolitan detention center how bad is that and you bring a barrel full of drug money maybe that soothes some troubled waters maybe they let your family stay in the house after all the house predates the criminal enterprise and to be honest if walter did ultimately do that i feel like the damages he caused to his family and the ultimate reign of terror would kind of be mended just a bit not fully but of course that wouldn't fit into the gear of walter white so that sets for leah into gear it makes me wonder more now if gene was truly spilling his heart back in nippy or if that was just him putting on an act personally i still can't decide but i'm leaning towards more that jimmy is actually feeling guilty about all the things he's done in life of course i don't think i'll ever be able to probably pinpoint in the show whether jimmy saw gene were merely putting up an act or were genuinely venting about their feelings when we cut back to a final flashback that being one of the man himself chuck and i have to admit this chuck flashback gained more hype for me than the breaking bad cameos ever did it was nice to see michael mckean again doing his thing and beautifully playing chuck the ungodly noises that came out of me when i saw him again was something that no human would should ever have to listen to and of course they didn't bring chuck back for fan service it also carries the narrative and a deep and emotional way to this finale we see chuck talking to jimmy about how jimmy doesn't have to do this and that he can always get someone else to do it that being how jimmy's taking care of him every day instead of focusing on his law practice jimmy then goes on to talk about how chuck is his brother and that he would do the same for him chuck asks jimmy if he wants to talk about things and discuss things between brothers jimmy declines thinking that's going to be another lecture about chalk being hard on jimmy for screwing up chuck replies that that wasn't what he had in mind chuck continues saying that if he doesn't like the path he's taking then he can always turn back now this reference a lot of things the first thing that this references is the bad choice road philosophy that the show loves bringing up and two when jimmy says that chuck hasn't changed the path he's on jimmy is being a lawyer for his brother he never really wanted to be a lawyer for himself he just wanted to be a lawyer to impress his brother and to finally get the approval he wanted so when chuck says that they can talk about it if jimmy doesn't like where he's going he's inviting his brother to sit down and talk things over with them jimmy declines and walks out of the house and that is the exact point that i think jimmy would travel back to if he had a time machine to this particular moment a moment where he could have cleared the air with his brother and would have saved himself from causing so much trouble and future when i realized this when watching the episode for the first time i began to cry a bit the fact this is the moment that jimmy would want to go back to is so beautiful and sad from a storytelling perspective to think that if only jimmy sat down with chuck and had that heart to heart that jimmy so desperately needed jimmy would not be where he was right now and that is probably the most tragic thing about this show about how orc could have been avoided if jimmy accepted the help i want to stick on the scene too much and drag out the video but i think that this scene deserves all the respect it got since it pretty much drives everything full circle with jimmy's arc and his relationship with chuck yes i know later on in the episode when jimmy's arc fully comes circle but this one also brings closure to jimmy's arc and i don't think i'll be seeing the show the same after this finale when i inevitably re-watch it at some point chuck then grabs the book titled the time machine by h.g wells truly ending the time machine side plot of the episode more of a theme but also kind of a side plot showing jimmy's true regret and then the scene ends there if i were to say what scene of medical store is my favorite this would definitely crack my top three purely because of how amazing it is also just to jump back to the song all things are possible in a sense i think the usage of the song is supposed to symbolize the even change as possible despite what chuck or us the audience thought jimmy was able to finally change in the end and that is probably the best resolution to his story we then cut to a scene on the bus where jimmy is kind of staring off into the distance while on the bus and while the scene i'm talking about coming up has been deemed by a few people to be cringy i strongly disagree it sets up not only do the prisoners have an undying respect for jimmy but i also think that symbolizes that even if seoul has gone back to jimmy jimmy will always have a piece of soul with for his whole life no matter how much he tries to change his old wife is always gonna stick with him in some shape or form i honestly found the scene to be quite cute almost as a thank you for saul for all the work he did helping his clients get off scot-free you can tell at first he's kind of embarrassed by it but you can soon see that he starts liking it and even finds it a bit endearing of course i do think that there's a bit of jimmy's ego seeping through him one final time but the fact that people find the scene cringy is very weird to me the fact that no matter how much jimmy changes he's always going to be known as soul is quite depressing to me the scene comes to a close with all the prisoners on the bus chanting better call swords as the guard tries to shut them up one last final thing that i thought was very beautiful which was to the judge him saying that he's his name is actually jimmy mcgill not so goodman mr goodman sit down and stay seated the name's mcgill i'm james mcgill i found it very beautiful and pretty much made me cry at that moment as well this episode made me cry a lot but i found it very beautiful and just amazing him finally going back to the name jimmy mcgill a name that he never wanted to be associated with and that he always wanted to be associated with saul goodman for his whole life is definitely something that makes me feel a lot after all the events of breaking bad and bitter cool soul that moment definitely feels earned and satisfying anyway back to scene it then cuts back to almost what looked like a cinnabon scene but is actually taking place in the prison i thought it was going to go back to be some kind of flashback to the gene timeline maybe some really important detail we left out but no it was just a really good fake help that got me for a second the dough mixer is actually bread being swirled around not cinnabons i suppose this could be a reference to how monotonous the prison might become for jimmy or maybe how similar he finds prison at times to his old cinnabon job but i think its main purpose was just to be this neat little call back to the cinnabon era the guard then tells jimmy that he has a visitor here for him jimmy then gets the visiting room and we see kim and her first words are hi jimmy i had no idea that two words could be so powerful and could break me so emotionally but here we are those two words mean so much to me and i'm sure it means a lot more to jimmy as well all the trials and tribulations kim and jimmy have gone through together all that kind of culminates in one scene one spectacularly perfect scene kim then offers jimmy a cigarette and they then walk over to the far end of the wall to smoke it as the lighter flickers you can see the flash of light that is the flame of the light that is used to light jimmy and kim's cigarette i think it's cool that the only time the show briefly has color into jimmy's black and white world is when it's something that he's nostalgic of the tape from the pilot episode that being seoul's old commercial reminding him of the fun he had being saw of course the second time color came into the show was in the penultimate episode which was last episode where again seoul's commercial is playing where jimmy reminisces for a second of the good old days and finally we have the cigarette not the cigarette itself but the flame that is used to light the cigarette is the only thing colored which could symbolize kim being the light of jimmy's life or the colored flame could just represent how fun jimmy is of that memory from the pilot episode of them smoking together in the parking lot of hhm and of course the shot is referencing the shot from the pilot episode which is very poetic in a way which brings everything together one last final time they even brought back the song from that scene well more of a remixed version but it's still kind of the same except in a reversed kind of way kim then mentions how jimmy got his sentence extended from seven years to now a massive 86. but it kind of shows how jimmy would rather spend the rest of his life in prison being jimmy than going back into society as seoul jimmy then jokes with the lion saying but with good behavior who knows kim lost probably knowing that at this stage that is impossible for jimmy also was i the only one making connections between jimmy mcgill and jimmy in and out you know that one guy who faked being heisenberg so brandon wouldn't have to go to jail back when saul was first introduced the whole prison thing very vaguely reminded me of that the scene then ends and and opens with kim walking out of the prison and as she's walking out we see jimmy doing finger guns at kim kim then stops for a moment and she has a look at jimmy the shot then widens showing just how far apart kim and jimmy really are and in a sense showing them in two different cages showing that kim and jimmy are both imprisoned in their own lives and kind of trapped it's very poetic and very beautifully shot in general kim ultimately doesn't give finger guns back to jimmy because to jimmy if the finger guns represent a kind of new hope to him maybe maybe um as a kind of form that he has his life turned back around but for kim they remind her of that one time where she broke bad the one time where she slipped and ultimately doesn't do them back she then walks away but when she does she gives jimmy one last glance over her shoulder as she walks further and further jimmy slowly gets further and further away ultimately being concealed by the prison wall and then the credits roll and that's how you do a [ __ ] ending to a show now there are a lot of theories on the ending and it's obviously meant to be left open for interpretation which is why i'm going to be saving some of my theories and personal views on the episode for my full season breakdown of medical soul season 6. there's a reason why i didn't try to theorize or dive in too deep into this episode than what has already been discussed of course i tried to add a lot more than that but again i'm trying to save at least some material from my upcoming video as the episode ends we then see the coat hanger scene once again except this time we can see the final outfit which is the prison jumpsuit jimmy's arc and transformation has finally been completed and his story is now over it truly is a satisfying conclusion to the end of an era showing that after all the lies deceit manipulation and all jimmy at the end of the day did change and become a better person and now doesn't have to live his life behind a mask anymore this whole show is kind of a love story but i think people are kind of wrong when they say it's only a love story sure it's partly a love story but the story is also about change too how anyone can change no matter how big they [ __ ] up no matter what you've done everyone can change and i think that message in itself is very powerful and emotional if someone were to ask me whether felina or solgon is better i'm definitely choosing sul gone the sogon episode is literally saul being left behind as jimmy's persona and only jimmy remaining well maybe a piece of soul remaining while i do like felina i do have my personal issues with it and while that will be covered in my breaking bad essay that's coming out soon i might cover for lena sometime in the near future and my thoughts on it but for now that's the wonderful conclusion of the breaking bad universe quite a ride it has been the amount of emotions this show has made me feel is second to none to any other piece of media that i've ever experienced the final thing i should probably mention is the credits scene where the entire cast and crew of medical soul is thanking the viewers i found that moment to be extremely nice and wholesome while writing this i'm definitely feeling the emotions of the finale hitting me now since when this first aired it hit me but i knew that more emotions were going to hit me once i finally processed that this show was over and now that it has i'm broken that will never get a show this good in a long time or maybe even ever so thank you peter gold and vince gilligan for this fantastic series and i'm going to miss it a lot so thank you peter gold and vince gilligan for this fantastic series and i'm going to miss it thank you for watching if you've made it this far into the video i truly appreciate it i was kind of conflicted on making an analysis for this episode but i let you guys decide i was probably going to make the video on this episode regardless of what the poll turned out to be since this episode is a work of art and deserves its own video but you guys thought that this episode deserved a video of its own too so i'm glad and before i end off this video i think you all want to know what is going to come next i know this isn't the end of me making videos on the breaking bad universe but i just wanted to say it anyway bravo vince and bravo peter

Channel: Introverted Robot

Views: 86,832

Keywords: better call saul, breaking bad, bob odenkirk, better call saul finale, saul gone, howard hamlin, rhea seehorn, patrick fabian, tony dalton, better call saul season 6, better call saul review, better call saul season 6 review, better call saul analysis, finger, kid named finger, better call saul saul gone, saul gone analysis, saul gone review, better call saul saul gone ana, better call saul ending, saul gone ending, saul gone reaction, saul gone walter white, walter white

Id: 7y7PCpX7WZQ

Length: 34min 47sec (2087 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 03 2022