"You get lift belts and gloves. You use them. Rules are rules." Is Mike Erhmentraut a good man? The instinctive answer is yes. Even though he does bad things, he feels like a good man because
he has a code of honor. "Me, personally I was hired to do a job. I did it. That's as far as it goes." He takes responsibility and
holds himself to high standards, "He wasn't in the game." and this allows him to retain
some integrity, some decency, in a world of necessary evils. "The lesson is, if you're going to
be a criminal do your homework." Yet if we look honestly at his actions, the answer to the question
“is Mike a good man?” is clearly no. That code of his allows him to murder, to serve bad men, and to take part in
violent, damaging crime. "Don't make me beat you till your
legs don't work." The Mike of Breaking Bad may be
attractive to us in many ways, "Be nice, nice. Let Wendell in there. If Wendell doesn't eat, nobody eats." but he’s a doomed man, who made his bed
a long time ago and has no illusions about how dirty his soul is. While the difference between Breaking Bad Mike and Better Call Saul
Mike maybe a little subtle to pick up on at first, “You want to talk about that?” “Not particularly.” "You wanted me to talk. I talked." the prequel’s slower,
more expansive exploration of an earlier Mike’s
psychology illuminates how he becomes
that hardened criminal and what it costs him. The tragedy of Mike is
like the man himself: understated and quiet, but deep. Along the way down his slippery slope, he allows what’s human and feeling in
him to be gradually snuffed out. "All wrapped up in your sad,
little stories, feeding off each other's misery." And his tale is a warning. As tempting as it is to cut off
all emotion and become the perfect, efficient machine, this is the road to darkness. "Well perhaps in the future,
you will consider working for me." “Could be." Before we go on, we want to talk
about this video's sponsor. Skillshare is an online learning
community where you can learn everything from video editing to business strategy,
coding or lucid dreaming. They offer twenty-five thousand online
classes from famous teachers at the top of their field. And right now, Skillshare is offering
our viewers two months' access to all their classes for free. So click the link in the
description below to sign up now. Better Call Saul is the story of
Jimmy McGill’s descent into becoming Saul Goodman, "Did you know
that you have rights? Constitution says
you do, and so do I." but the second layer
to this story is the degradation
of Mike Ehrmentraut. So why do show creators
Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould choose to make Mike
the other central character? Sure, when we meet them
in Breaking Bad, they’re kind of a business duo. “Is this a good or bad thing?” “Suit myself? You want me to suit
myself? I'll suit myself to his face!” “It's a bad thing” and viewers might wonder how these
opposing personalities ended up professionally intertwined. "The rules for parking validation
are actually pretty simple. Most people get it on the first try." "Well, you'll be pleased to know
I have the requisite stickers." "Well, be still my heart." Yet the real reason for making
this series about both of them, is that Mike’s journey is
an important mirror of Saul’s. Both characters have a good man within, and they have to fall, morally, to get where they are in Breaking Bad. Better Call Saul tracks the mystery of
how and why they gradually lose what’s human inside them. "I am so lucky I have this letter. God, I could see the Matrix, you know? I was invincible. I could dodge bullets, baby." In Jimmy, the transformation plays
out through his social interactions and performances of emotion, "And then there's this show of remorse." "It's not a show." "I know you don't think it's a show." because he has such an
expressive, extroverted nature. "So I just went off on this flow, you know. I had this energy going
through me, it was like improv or jazz and then BOOM I sent the hook in." But behind Saul’s flair for
elaborate drama, minimalist Mike is our window into the deeper truth
of this spiritual decline. In him, we see the tragedy of a man’s
moral corruption in clearer terms, because it’s expressed in action. By the end of Season 4, Jimmy has adopted his philosophy
of what it takes to be a “winner,” “Remember, the winner takes it all.” and Saul Goodman is well and truly born. “S’all good, man.” Earlier in the season, Jimmy’s lack of
a response to his brother’s death raises questions of whether he’s
in denial and will eventually have to face a grief he’s avoiding. "Well, Howard, I guess
that's your cross to bear." "So I'm gonna make some coffee
if you want some." Over time, though, it’s revealed
Jimmy doesn’t have this grief. "You were right. It was all about Chuck,
this whole time." He made a decision to leave behind the deeply emotional person
we met in Season one. Continuing to feel for the brother
who didn’t love him became too exhausting, and being emotionally
sincere just didn’t work out for Jimmy, "You do realize you just
confessed to a felony?" "Yes. But you feel better, right?" the harder he tried to be straight
and good, the more and more he got kicked around and punished for it. He’s learned that faking it
is easier and more effective. And, when he’s called out
on being insincere, "Some members of the committee
found you somewhat... insincere." the solution he finds isn’t
to be more honest. It’s to become a better,
more convincing liar. "I'll never be as good as Chuck. But I can try." "Did you see those suckers? That one asshole was crying,
he had actual tears." This darkening of Jimmy’s spirit is echoed in Mike’s Season 4 plot overseeing the German construction crew who are building the meth lab where Walt
and Jessie will eventually cook. This story happens mostly underground, in secret, representing how
Mike’s emotional evolution is the private, under-the-surface version of what Jimmy experiences
out in the public world. Mike concludes the season by
killing the head of the crew, Werner Ziegler, a man he genuinely likes
and respects, that rare person who’s actually become his friend. “Never this long away from home.” “To home.” “Yeah.” Yet by this point Mike has
become Gus’ man. So, in his mind, his fondness
for this man and his desire to help him are irrelevant. "I thought I would come back
and my friend Michael would be very, very angry, but in time,
he would understand and forgive." What he’d like to do just
doesn’t factor into this equation of ironclad consequences. "It was ever up to me." While it may not always be obvious
how Mike’s and Saul’s stories align at any given moment, what we’re seeing
happen in their parallel plots is, essentially, both of these men turning
off their emotional faucets. "Well, look at you. You're in so much pain. Why are you putting yourself
through all this?" "It'll be a story. An accident." Each comes to the conclusion that it doesn’t work to indulge the messier,
emotional, human sides of themselves. They begin to abandon warmth, softness
and mercy, to cut that piece out. They make the decision to feel less,
or not to feel, at all. Jimmy’s rejection by his brother, and the establishment that his brother
represents, causes him so much hurt that, eventually, he just doesn’t want
to engage with that any more. For Mike, it’s even more extreme. His heartbreak and guilt over
his son’s death is unimaginable. "Broke my boy. I broke my boy." After that, he just starts
shutting himself off. He tries attending group therapy
sessions with his daughter-in-law, but he’s not capable of dealing with the
enormity of what he feels about his son, “I hadn’t thought about Matty all
morning, and they weren't just minutes. There were hours where I didn't
think about him.” and the cop in him fixates instead
on rooting out a fraud in their midst. “Because that dead wife
he's always talking about never existed. The guy's story changes
every time he tells it." It’s safe to assume Mike has
never been a guy who was wearing his heart on his sleeve,
or very in touch with his emotions "Everyone sounds like Meryl Streep
with a gun to their head." still, we can sense
those emotions do run deep. "No one expects you to wear a
hair shirt for the rest of your life." "Same goes for you." Over the course of Better Call Saul
we’re watching that feeling in him get softer and weaker,
like a flame that’s flickering "Is there no other way, truly?" until in Breaking Bad it’s locked up,
inaccessible. Not dead, but a passenger who has
no say in where the car is driving to. "The problem is, the boss
doesn't like it." In a way, it’s pretty easy to understand and relate to their
choice to turn off the emotional tap. Think about what it's like to digest our modern world's
daily onslaught of bad news. You see a story about someone
losing their home in a wildfire or a hurricane, about how many lives
have been lost in a bombing far away from you, or in yet another
appalling shooting. Certainly many of these stories
will move you to intense sympathy for the victims, as they should. But then, maybe, there’s a day
when you have a lot going on, and something in your brain decides
you just don’t have the time or the emotional fortitude
to feel what you ought to feel about the latest terrible story. You shut yourself off to it, because it’s just too much
to feel it right then. This is even more tempting when it comes to trauma
and pain in your personal life, because it's so much more acute. "Every night you were drinking
yourself unconscious like you were the only one who lost him." Turning off the tap seems the smart
thing to do. It’s self-preservation. It’s just not practical or useful
to suffer all the time. But Better Call Saul seems to be telling
us that this is the wrong choice. It’s saying, don’t numb yourself. Don’t cut off from your grief
and your rage and your misery. Hold on to the messy sincerity. Because what this story illustrates
is when you shut off that faucet, you lose something of great value,
and you never get it back. There’s something aspirational
about Mike. On one level, of course, we know
we shouldn’t be like Mike. We can probably find a better role model
than a man who’s been a dirty cop, a murderer and a fixer
for major drug dealers. These are not career goals to adopt. But there is a lot to emulate
in Mike’s philosophy and behavior. He has a rare self-discipline
and work ethic. "This business requires restraint." A refreshing lack of BS
and no-nonsense attitude. "I'm going to need some kind
of assurance." "I assure you that I can kill you
from way over here, if it makes you feel any better." He’s comprehensive, patient,
and excellent at his job, and it’s hard not to admire someone who’s
such a perfectionist about their craft, "I'm on your books as
a security consultant. If I show my face at your warehouse,
it makes for a better cover story." whatever their field may be. "You got duplicate routing numbers on
cargo, surveillance camera blindspots on the north and the east side of the floor,
inventory documents that are going into the trash instead
of being shredded." He schools other criminals around him
about how to behave more honorably and intelligently in their business. "All I call tell you is, you guys aren't
half as smart as you think you are." But the problem with Mike very much
comes out of what’s so strong about him. He epitomizes an idea we see in quite a
few stories about crime and antiheroes, best articulated by The Wire: “A man’s gotta have a code.” that if a man has a strict set of
rules he lives by, this makes him moral, or at least more moral than
the others around him and therefore excused for his sins. "But if you make a deal with somebody,
you keep your word." Mike himself uses this kind of
logic to justify his choices "I've known good criminals and bad cops. Bad priests, honorable thieves." He takes comfort in his self-discipline,
his pragmatism, the idea that he can still be a relatively
good version of a bad man. “You're now a criminal. Good one, bad one? That’s up to you.” This is a fallacy, though. A moral code isn’t the same as morality,
if that code accepts immoral behavior. Nor does clinging to rigid personal laws always lead to
a decision that feels right. Werner broke the agreement. So per Mike’s code,
this warrants killing him. But on a human level, this person
also invites forgiveness. Werner wasn’t betraying his employers;
he just really wanted to see his wife, "You really want to see your wife?" "More than anything." "Then finish the job." and cracked under the pressure of
being holed up for so long without her. "For what it's worth, I believe him. It's about him wanting to see his wife,
clean and simple." Mike has contracted himself to
interests that don’t take into account human concerns, “I'd go another way." "That, I know." "That'd be a mistake." "This discussion serves no purpose.” which means he’s no longer free
to bestow clemency. "I go back now,
I go back in the morning, what difference can it make?" "It’s not gonna happen." So this is the fatal mistake Mike makes,
when it comes to his soul. He gives up control. "Mike, you don’t have to do this." "Yeah, unfortunately I do, Walter." A human being can make an exception,
but a set of rules can’t. And what we see happen in Mike, as he
comes under the employ of Gus Fring, is this gradual evolution into a machine. "What the hell am I doing here?" "I don't know. It's not my call. I just do what I'm told, and now you're going to
do what you're told." For so long he’s an independent agent. He refuses deals from
some very scary people, "Respectfully, I'm
gonna have to say no." "You sure about that?" "I am." and only does what feels right for him. "Pass." "What? Why?" "It's not for me." After starts serving Gus,
he no longer has a choice "Let me speak to Mr. Fring,
I will explain everything, I will make him understand." "You're not gonna talk to Fring." "If I could just talk to Gus,
I know I could make him understand." "No." "I'd like to talk to Gus!" While his thorough, painstaking nature
is what makes Mike so impressive, this potential for automaton-like
precision and regularity is also his downfall. "Moral of the story is,
I chose a half-measure when I should havegone all the way. I'll never make that mistake again." By fixating on the desire to
become perfectly efficient, which is what draws him to Gus
and makes him similar to Gus, he loses his humanity, and his ability
to respect humanity in others. "So what, is this going to
be a regular thing now? Meth cooking and corpse disposal? Jesus." "Just grab us a spare barrel, Walter." As a small mercy to Werner, he pulls the trigger himself, which is a human, noble act. "Her questions will be answered?" "This you swear?" "This I swear." And we can feel how taking the life
of this person he cares for, to fulfill a contract to his boss,
costs him. It takes a toll. It’s a crucial moment in his tragedy
and his downward trajectory. "There are so many stars
visible in New Mexico. I will walk out there,
to get a better look." If we look forward to Breaking Bad, we see a hard person who shrugs off
the fact that his colleague shot a kid for no reason, "Which leaves option three. We keep him on payroll. I vote three." even if he doesn’t particularly like it. "The next time you bring a gun
to a job without telling me, I will stick it up your ass sideways." And as we watch Mike
in Better Call Saul, we can’t help but think of
what we know of his ending. He dies at the hands of
a man he despises. “Shut up the f--[BLEEP] up
and let me die in peace.” He works hard to leave his granddaughter an inheritance
that will make her secure. But he fails “Mike was no dummy. But every time he tried to
get his nest egg to his granddaughter, it ended up in Uncle Sam's pockets.” It was all for nothing. Mike’s goal of providing
for his family sounds a lot like Walt’s justifications for his actions. "I've got cash I can't spend. Two hundred thousand dollars. If anything happens to me,
my family will never see it." "If, for any reason, that my children
do not get this money, a kind of countdown will begin." Mike’s motives are wrapped in
a little less BS and he’s certainly not secretly driven by ego and pride. Still, he is deluding himself, by thinking, as Walt does, that
he can somehow do all this bad stuff and compartmentalize it, while
keeping his family separate and safe. He believes his code can save him
from sinking too deep, from becoming like the low-lifes
he can’t stand in his line of work. "You know how they say it’s been
a pleasure? Well, it hasn’t." But nobody gets out of this unscathed. And the ultimate lesson in Mike’s story
is that however attractive it is to become that efficient machine,
however smart it seems not to engage with the messy irregularity of feeling,
making this choice is losing the battle. "I'll take care of it." "Are you sure?" "Yes." Because when we kill off that chaotic,
imperfect part of ourselves, we destroy our connection to
the rest of the human race. "You know what happened. The question is, can you live with it?" This video is sponsored by Skillshare,
an online learning community we love. With over twenty-five thousand classes
taught by seasoned pros, Skillshare has a class on
pretty much anything you could want. You can develop your creativity through a class on calligraphy,
graphic design, or writing. You can learn to succeed in business with classes on how to make it as
a freelancer, market a podcast or become an Instagram influencer. You can use it to master
new technology through classes on web design, coding, and data science. Or you can bring that extra flare
into your lifestyle, sharpen your knife skills, learn paper making, speak Spanish, or let Elizabeth Weinburg, an award-
winning photo journalist teach you everything you need to know
about photo editing. Right now, Skillshare is offering
our viewers two months' access to all their videos for free. Just click the link in the
description below to check it out today.
Excellent analytic video essay. The best job I’ve seen of tracking the parallel character arcs of Saul and Mike.
All the videos those
guysfolks put out are really good.I really appreciated this one. Felt like they articulated the tragedy of Mike’s arc super well imo
that channel has some decent content, but they make their videos too long and they ramble on about off-topic things too much that it makes me lose interest, half that video isnt even about mike lol