Better Call Saul

Vandyn

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The Mike scene with the two other goons in the parking garage (great scene btw), that's
the same parking garage where Walt tried to bomb Gus' car right?
 

Chukzombi

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The Mike scene with the two other goons in the parking garage (great scene btw), that's the same parking garage where Walt tried to bomb Gus' car right?
thats what i was thinking, i also thought the park bench at the beginning was the fake heisenberg bench from BB
 

Cantatus

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I think Jimmy's biggest mistake was springing the law degree on Chuck. Up until that point, Chuck saw Jimmy as mostly just a screw-up and for good reason, and one day he just shows up with a law degree? Perhaps Chuck would've been more accepting of this if he saw the hard work Jimmy actually did to accomplish this, but he never does. He just goes from Jimmy-in-the-mail room to Jimmy-with-a-law-degree within a few seconds. And that makes it look exactly like the shortcut Chuck accuses him off despite the fact that this is something he likely put a lot of work and effort into. Because of this, it's understandable why Chuck wouldn't want to hire Jimmy immediately. HHM is a prestigious law firm that has standards, something Chuck spent most of his adult life building up.

Now, I think it's more about jealousy. Chuck can now see that this is something Jimmy is serious about, and sees him putting the work in. He's impressed that Jimmy is able to sniff out the elderly care home class action lawsuit. But this means Jimmy's star is rising while Chuck's is falling. While Jimmy is out finding multimillion dollar cases, Chuck is reading newspapers by firelight and living like he's in the 18th century. And this is what makes Chuck even worse. This isn't him protecting his firm or not seeing Jimmy's potential, but seeing that potential and actively working to stifle it.

whats fantastic is that hamlin probably would have hired jimmy if chuck hadn't told him not to. hamlin takes all the heat for chuck's stomping his brother down. fantastic writing in making everyone a bit good, a bit bad, and constantly shifting depending on your POV.
Considering the lengths Chuck went to to make sure Jimmy didn't get hired, I'd say he at least thought there was a strong possibility Hamlin would. But yeah, he's mostly just Chuck's pitbull. Everything Jimmy hates about Hamlin are likely things where Chuck was really the one pulling the strings. I'm guessing, despite being willing to do Chuck's dirty work, Hamlin isn't actually that bad of a guy.
 

Lanx

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Wow holy shit re-watch the 1st eps after watching eps9 is like a whole new light.

Chucks been out of commission for a whole year, he's calling it a sabbatical.

Jimmy gets a 26k check, he confronts Hamlin and rips it all up, he doesn't want there to be a paper trail that chuck still works for the firm or has worked for them for over a year. Jimmy is basically running on the notion that Hamlin wants to squeeze out chuck cuz Hamlin did that to Jimmy.

Jimmy can barely make ends meat and is "going under for the 3rd time" he can't support the both of them, he barely made 700 doing "published defender (pd)work", chuck says it's great experience and it's not about the money, it's about helping ppl.

Chuck also doesn't want to cash out the firm cuz he doesn't want the firm to go under, he also says this jarring statement.

"what happens to your cronies in the mailroom"

when he says that the firm might have to liquidate and 126 ppl will loose their jobs.

He's still thinking of Jimmy as a mailboy.

Also Hamlin "came over", dropped off a package and 800bucks as a check. Then he said "look at this" and it's Jimmys matchbook advertisement.

Now do we think that it was actually Hamlin who didn't want Jimmy to advertise as "James M Mcgill", or Chuck didn't want Jimmy to soil the McGill name putting it on a matchbook?

He says it's professional courtesy.

Chuck says "Jimmy wouldn't you rather build your own identity, why ride on someone else's coattails."

Look at that evil shit talk!

Chuck has basically fostered this undue hatred Jimmy has for Hamlin at every turn b/c he's ashamed of Jimmy.

Meanwhile Hamlin probably did want to see Chuck get better and just giving out a stipend so Chuck can "beat it".

And now the only reason he went back to the scheming skateboarders is b/c he didn't want the "crazy couple" as clients, but he wanted to take them away from Hamlin (b/c in a previous scene we see them goto Hamlin as Jimmy leaves HHM).
 

Hoss

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I believe it's "Public Defender", not "Published Defender"
 

spronk

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chuck is really gus imo, that will be the big season finale reveal. he's always wanted to own a chicken restaurant. Los Pollos Hermanos, THINK ABOUT IT
 

opiate82

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Another great episode. Looks like I was in the ballpark of how things were going down.

One observation I made completely unrelated to the show is I wonder what the experience would be like for someone who hasn't ever watched BB to watch BCS first then start BB? Assuming you can avoid spoilers online for the most part I bet it will end up being pretty cool. Depends on how much of post BB Saul the show ends up going into over however long it runs.
 

Lanx

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chuck is really gus imo, that will be the big season finale reveal. he's always wanted to own a chicken restaurant. Los Pollos Hermanos, THINK ABOUT IT
Well that's the hope right, that in BCS s2, we'll see Gus when he decides Mike will be his right hand man. And we see all of Gus's Chile past.
 

Div

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Well that's the hope right, that in BCS s2, we'll see Gus when he decides Mike will be his right hand man. And we see all of Gus's Chile past.
I would love if there was some time spent on Gus's Chile past. And the cartel stuff.
 

Tuco

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see it's not about wanting to be represented by Jimmy or anything like that, it's that chuck with all his snootyness along with all "his" peers and snooyness will never respect Jimmy, and Jimmy being an actual lawyer is a slight to Chucks profession.

Chuck does not see Jimmy as a brother, but as a slave/servant someone beneath him, the only difference between jimmy and the other riff raff scum is that they shared the same womb.

Chuck does seem to have 1 inferiority complex towards Jimmy, it seems Jimmy was blessed with the gift of gab, (where he says just cuz ppl like you) where chuck had to bulldoze everyone with his lawyering skills.

Chuck still thinks he has Jimmy in his pocket b/c he did him that favor, the last favor of bailing him out.
I agree 100% with your perception.

It's interesting because the show sets up the audience completely. We see Chuck as the crazy and useless old man. Everyone around Chuck reveres him completely, to the point of being intimidated by him. It's a strong juxtaposition.

We then see Hamlin who is easy to paint as a douchey pig antagonist who is trying to keep the hero down for superficial reasons. Then once it's revealed that Chuck is the reason Jimmy is being kept down, the previous episodes make much more sense.



I agree with an above poster though, there's probably a handful of law firms who can handle a case like this. If Jimmy wanted to screw over Chuck he could go to one of those. Not that HHM or Chuck needs the case to survive, but signing on to a law firm, winning a landmark case and proving that he's a competent lawyer would be the best way to stick it to Chuck.

Obviously that's not going to happen. I agree with what someone said about the propane. I think Chuck is going to blow himself up and Jimmy is going to turn into what Chuck feared would happen.
 

Tuco

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I would love if there was some time spent on Gus's Chile past. And the cartel stuff.
It'd be cool if they did a Spanish spinoff series on Gus and his time in Chile, and marketed it to a hispanic audience and made it very Chilean.
 

Mist

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Gus doesn't talk enough to be a main character.

The whole thing with Gus is that he's scary because of what he doesn't say.
 

Royal

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Gus doesn't talk enough to be a main character.

The whole thing with Gus is that he's scary because of what he doesn't say.
He wasn't like that in the scene they showed from back in the day when Hector killed his friend who cooked for him.
 

Cantatus

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Obviously that's not going to happen. I agree with what someone said about the propane. I think Chuck is going to blow himself up and Jimmy is going to turn into what Chuck feared would happen.
Chuck blowing up because of the propane is a little too on the nose for a Vince Gilligan show. Besides, Chuck has presumably been using propane for most of the time he's been sick. It's not like Jimmy runs to his house every time he needs something lit or cooked.
 

Chukzombi

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Chuck may try some hijinks with his breaker box and hilarity ensues with a leaky propane tank. Those things can leak on their own
 

Sterling

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I actually sort of like that his background is mostly a mystery. Not that I think that these guys would fuck it up or anything, just sort of prefer it to not be all spelled out.
 

Tarrant

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So I finally watched this weeks episode, good stuff. It actually seemed like Hamlin was wishful he could help Jimmy and that's why he snapped off before he reveled what happened behind closed doors. Jimmy is right, Chuck holds the keys to HHM and I think Hamlin is the business version of Jimmy, to Chuck.
 

Royal

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Hamlin seems like the handsome face and silver tongue of the partnership. Chuck is it's kick to the nuts.