Better Call Saul ***Spoilers***

Yes, personally I would like to see that. But I am pretty sure that is a difficult option for the writers team - between whether we will see Jimmy did the right thing as a lawyer (resolving the whole Saul thing + made up with Kim), or he somehow got away (again) as the old 'slipping Jimmy'. Very tough call.

Glad they did what they did though.

Weeks ago I was talking to my wife about BCS and how it will end for Saul. I was saying there has to be closure, and the best closure for him regarding the BB universe and how everyone else was killed or got away - would be prison.

I didn't want him getting away with it and starting a new identity - that would be just back to S1E1 again with Gene in the cinabun, now it would be Mike in Starbucks or whatever ...

So I was really hoping he'd end up in prison - for life.

But now as I was watching the episode and I saw the scam he pulled that said he was in fear and terrified of being killed by WW , I thought wow .. did not see that coming, and I started rooting for him again ...when he had them to 7 years I tought that's what he'd do and we'd get a CODA at the end "10 years later " and see him back at what he does best - ambulance chasing lawyer ...

So I was a bit disappointed with that ending, even though it is a closure ending, him back as a lawyer just leaves it open to endless seasons/spinoiffs etc.

But let's be honest, Saul would not have passed on that 7 year sentence - for 80+ years ... in the worst max security hellhole - no f*cking way.

Should have made it so, there never was a 7 year deal ....

A little underwhelmed if I’m being honest but a good finale none the less

Breaking bad still number one for me but I doubt there will ever be a spin off show of the quality of BCS again !

To be honest I love the fact that they concluded it properly and genuinely wrapped things up, and with no bitter taste for the audience. Not enough of that these days. So a good finale on that basis.

However, having now seen the finale I do question a little the flow of the whole season in the Gene era.

The episode where he transitions to Saul was so beautifully done. You could almost feel the pain of his loneliness as soon as it concludes the fact that he was now Saul (with Kim gone). Definitely a runner to be the final scene of the entire series.

But now it’s making the post-BB phase look more like an epilogue that they had too much time for.

I agree that they needed to close it off but I would rather it spent more time on Jimmy “Breaking Good” than messing around with all the Gene stuff. Feels like the writers tried to start something but had to wrap it up too quickly.

I would prefer if they gave us a more emotional and meaningful reason for him getting his closure and wanting to take responsibility for a change.

Perhaps a nicer way to play it out is that he gets arrested almost immediately after trying to become Gene. And they work it out from there in perhaps 2 episodes.

Spoiler here for a fairly old movie:

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If anyone has seen the movie Flight, there are parallels but I thought that movie handled it better by taking it to a level where he could just not tell one more lie after the lengths he had taken it to. Something like that would have worked well in BCS with more time given to it.

On Jimmy’s u-turn in court. As well as the redemption idea. Was it to take the limelight off Kim?

In the hope Kim would now be left alone or at least treated lightly.

The self sabotage reminded me how he felt guilty about Irene and his Sandpaper scheme. Then wrecked it at his own cost. To ‘do the right thing’ and ‘put things right’

I don't think his confession could do much to negate what was happening to Kim. She signed a confession fully detailing her own involvement. Even though no criminal charges were going to come from it, Howard's wife could sue her. Regardless of what Jimmy said in court, the fact he was going to prison and would have had no assets to go after means Howard's wife still could have gone after Kim.

It's possible Kim's lawyer could argue that Jimmy bore more responsibility and played up his confession and that Kim merely got swept up in his actions and turned her life around after whereas Jimmy didn't, or maybe Howard's wife herself might think that and decide it wasn't worth bringing a case against Kim, but I think that would still have been true whether Jimmy took the 7 year deal or the full sentence, as Kim's confession came before Jimmy's capture/arrest.

Jimmy's u-turn was more about his own need to confess. Maybe it might slightly help Kim, but I don't think it was a defined reason for doing it. I think the fact Kim confessed and was owning up to what she'd done (like Jimmy challenged her to do but didn't actually think she would) was the spark that caused Jimmy to finally realise he needed to drop Saul Goodman and finally change his own path.

He turned his back on Saul when he put the shirt and tie back on the rack in the mall store I think. Allowing Marian to press the alarm was another key moment, he knew that was the end of Gene too. The moment he realised he needed to get back to being Jimmy was the hysterical laughing when he saw the prison graffitti.

He deliberately dressed as Saul for the court so he could publicly and sensationally take him down. Kim being there was a huge bonus for him but not the main reason he did it.

😂😂

Is this the end for the Breaking Bad world? I wonder if there's anything else they could do.

Likewise. I really enjoyed reading the insights on this thread. There were so many subtle things I would've missed had it not been for this thread. Cheers all!

I would say Gould/Gilligan are wary of over egging the BB/BCS universe stuff. They have made their money and the vibe I get from them is they are not in it for the money.

I feel they would only do something if they felt it was artistically worthwhile as a long term series.

Caught up with this last night (and amazingly managed to avoid any spoilers).

Not sure how I feel TBH. Jimmy coming clean and accepting his punishment when he had a fantastic deal on the table seems at odds with him then later accepting/embracing that he IS Saul in prison and effectively becoming king of the place. Um.. Fair enough - it's probably the most fitting end for the character I suppose.

Likewise, Kim accepting him as who he is (and using her own scam/invalid ID to get in) after the call a few episodes back seems a bit of a stretch to get them together for a smoke. Is she now going to start looking for thrills again too? She still remains the character I was least interested in/bothered about (which was a bit of a pain when the whole show became "what becomes of Kim" in its later stages).

The flashbacks - while I won't quite call them filler and it was nice to see those actors/characters one last time, they could have just been left out altogether and nothing missed IMO.

I dunno... I still think that BB was the superior show and BCS was held together by (predominately) Mike a lot of the time and while the Hector/Mike/Gus backstories were certainly highlights, again did we really need them? Certainly a lot of the tension and drama is taken out of it by knowing how they end up.

Overall I'd say it was a good show but all too often suffered from the creators love of unnecessarily drawing out of mundane events or sequences. The OTT gushing from some fans and overanalysis was a bit much at times too - I don't even mean this thread, but the likes of YT videos breaking down these things into excruciating details and overthinking it all. Just takes away from the ability to just watch the show if that makes sense?

So, decent finale to a decent show, but not one I could see myself rewatching TBH.

Just on the possibility of continuing on the BB universe.... Someone suggested it already, but I would definitely prefer a spin off focusing on Mike's early years and how he tangled up in corruption and became who he did rather than a series on Kim. So much possibilities with the Mike series, whereas one on Kim would get boring very quickly as there's limited enough scope for her character. Cue the backlash.... 😁

Better Call Saul was always going to attract "Breaking Bad did x, y & z" type comments. In the end its all nonsense, if people didn't enjoy BCS they didn't have to watch it and any measured analysis would tell anyone that the two shows complimented each other very well indeed in the end.

Like most people I thought a show about Saul Goodman was going to be some kind of legal procedural with goofy comedic elements featuring characters from Breaking Bad, instead it was every bit as good as the show that birthed it even of it wasn't following every narrative beat of BB often to the displeasure of some fans.

For all the arguments about whether it lived up to Breaking Bad or if it was too slow or whatever, there's nothing as good as it out there and now it's over there's nothing to replace it.

Oh no, you definitely couldn't have Jonathan Banks (brilliant and all as he is!) in the role - you would have to cast a new, younger actor. You'd have to go back to before he took his first act of corruption back in 1974, so you'd have to case someone in their 20's. Imagine the plots and storylines you could have given what we know now about police corruption in the major US cities back then? You could run something like that for the 30 years it took to get up to the BB era! 😜😂

Last day of shooting 😥

Great show, some great characters. Lalo and Mike the standouts for me. I love Don Hector too I must say. Seasons 4-6 are every bit as good as BB imo. Having said that I found the final 3 episodes a slog personally. Was happy with the closure though