Why Did Jimmy Hate Howard? - Better Call Saul

why did Jimmy hate Howard Howard Hamlin is an anomaly in the Breaking Bad Better Call Saul Universe in both the violence-ridden crime world of Breaking Bad and The rigid corporate legal world of Better Call Saul most of the main characters thrive in either dishonesty or some sort of propensity towards violence in this regard Howard sets himself apart for he is neither of those things in the early episodes of Better Call Saul Howard's character serves as an introduction to the show's newly established world of legal proceedings originally meant as a foil to Jimmy's elusive duplicative ways Howard supposedly clean upstanding citizen Persona was eventually soiled and assassinated by Jimmy after he pulled increasingly outrageous pranks culminating in Howard's Murder by a bullet that was merely passing through the pranks themselves were not done in good faith no harmless pranks would ever destroy a person's whole feet of character career and personal relationships in such a devastating way although interestingly the reason they were done was never quite obvious what was it about Howard that made Jimmy hate him so much what terrible things could he possibly have committed to deserve what happened to him Howard's pranks were at the time one of the cruelest things Jimmy had done to someone that he knew personally to understand how Jimmy reached this point of being able to do this degree of Destruction to someone who wanted the best for him we are going to look at Jimmy and Howard's relationship the Dynamics and evolutions of said relationship and how they managed to enrich both characters developments Howard was initially introduced as Jimmy's foil it was a finger wagging straight laced lawyer who appeared condescending to Jimmy's more flexible approach to morality at this point Howard was often seen trying to put a stop to Jimmy Shenanigans he refused to accept Jimmy's offer for Chuck's Severance money he took what Jimmy thought he should have been his client and he won in court when Jimmy tried to make a mockery of him and his hhm's branding in each of these cases Howard was always framed as the bad guy he was the fun police it was the person that would never fail to ruin whatever plan Jimmy happened to be concocting the show's writing frames Howard as the antagonist in hindsight it's obvious that the audience would root for Jimmy in the early parts of the show on the other hand Howard functioned as a hate sink character a figure to which the audience could attribute all of their frustrations at this point Jimmy really did hate Howard or at least he didn't like the guy we understand this because in the earlier parts of the series we only saw Howard the way Jimmy saw him a perfect unlikable lawyer that had everything Jimmy could ever want who wanted nothing more than to sabotage his determined efforts to move up in the world Jimmy saw Howard as the embodiment of the legal world that kept rejecting his advances Howard to Jimmy was the personification of what stood between him and his goals however it was important that this feeling wasn't personal although Jimmy might not have realized it at the time Howard wasn't the cause of his struggle The crucial point of development in the relationship between Jimmy and Howard was when Chuck finally revealed himself to be the one sabotaging Jimmy's career this was a devastating Revelation for Jimmy as he realized he had gotten it wrong Howard had always been supportive of him and was merely taking the fall for Chuck's Sinister schemes here Jimmy was forced to realize that Howard was not the judgmental malicious person Jimmy thought him to be Jimmy felt a little regret for his actions in the way he had been treating Howard and started to see a glimpse of how supportive Howard potentially was toward his career however this was also overshadowed by the fact that he had to deal with all of these Newfound feelings after discovering how Chuck really felt about him to Jimmy that seized bigger importance although this was a step towards an amicable relationship between him and Howard Jimmy's mental anguish over Chuck and his own internal conflicts prevented this Dynamic from surviving very long this development would continue until the moment of Chuck's death ultimately this was the core issue beneath the complicated relationship Jimmy and Howard had it is interesting because neither his issue with Howard and nor his apparent resentment came from Howard himself his destructive behaviors towards Howard in the future stemmed from his extremely broken relationship with his toxic brother Chuck the moment Chuck died Jimmy felt very complicated feelings towards his brother their last attraction was a highly impactful blow that left a nauseating presence in Jimmy's psyche Jimmy wasn't done processing all of the hurtful things chuck had said to him when Chuck died Jimmy later realized that his tampering with Chuck's Insurance had something to do with it however in this highly overwhelming situation Howard came through and blamed himself for it thinking it was his decision to fire Chuck that drove him to Suicide Jimmy's anguish towards Chuck's explicit abandonment of their relationship telling Jimmy that he could never be a good person coupled with the fact that he did not want to feel guilty for his own brother's death led to an immediate attachment to the idea of Howard as the sole cause of Chuck's death if Howard was to blame for Chuck's death Jimmy could further Express his complicated emotions deep down and pin it all on Howard this was a natural development of Jimmy's way of dealing with things he had always tried to avoid having to process or confront his personal problems and Chuck's death was not any different in this context Howard was nothing more than a vessel for Jimmy's projection Howard was a stand-in for Jimmy's deep-seated resentment towards Chuck Jimmy no longer had a brother to hate but Howard was right there Jimmy could no longer Spike Chuck by proving him wrong showing him that he could be more than just a con artist but he could spite Howard Jimmy could not deal with all of these complicated emotions over feeling guilty that he indirectly drove his brother to suicide and yet not being able to deny his hatred for what his brother felt about him but Howard was there to completely shoulder the blame his actions toward Howard the nonchalant character assassination that he executed with an almost childlike Glee where his response to pushing all of his unprocessed emotions deep down making himself numb to his own capacity for empathy and authenticity this was why when Jimmy had to do his best to himself into thinking that Howard was a bad person or better yet not a person at all the more Howard proved himself to be a good person with a capacity for politeness and empathy the harder Jimmy pushed back to dehumanize him to fit his own narratives the moment Jimmy stopped treating Howard as a subhuman vessel for his Antics he would be confronted by his own guilt by the fact that he himself felt like he was the main cause Chuck was driven to Suicide this was apparent when Howard first confronted Jimmy Howard had asked what he did wrong and why Jimmy went to Great Links to inflict pain on him and he apologized this apology was responded to by Jimmy saying you kill my brother and you say you're sorry Jimmy absolutely could not even consider the possibility that he felt guilty about his brother's death because then he would be forced to face the possibility but despite all that Chuck had done and said about him he still cared about his brother enough did not want him dead this notion was simply too much hitting Howard was much easier to do Howard Hamlin was a casualty his respect for Chuck led him to be the ultimate Fall Guy every harmful decision Chuck made to harm Jimmy's career and personal development was executed by Howard despite trying to make things right Howard ultimately failed to break free from Chuck's Shadow even from Beyond the Grave this Dynamic persisted Howard was still the black sheep taking the blame for all the horrible feelings Jimmy was experiencing because of his relationship with his brother despite all this he remained true to himself he emphasized to the best of his abilities even to the people that were actively trying to ruin his life Howard genuinely tried his hardest to make amends with everyone the way Howard reacted towards Jimmy and Kim even after all they had done to him was a testament to how strong his principles were Jimmy did not hate Howard or at least the hate he felt wasn't supposed to be directed at Howard his apparent resentment toward Howard was more about himself than it was about Howard Jimmy's attempts to destroy Howard's life and reputation were simply a projection of his repressed emotions toward his brother Chuck unfortunately Jimmy and Kim's Antics led to Howard's eventual undeserved death like many other characters in the series Howard's story was one of tragedy despite trying his best to treat everyone fairly Howard's Good Nature and honest principles were rewarded with a bullet in the head

Channel: Serial Binger

Views: 12,033

Keywords: better call saul, saul goodman, breaking bad, better call saul breaking bad, howard hamlin, howard hamlin better call saul, jimmy hate howard better call saul

Id: LsIOADjiUws

Length: 8min 48sec (528 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 24 2023