Better Call Saul: S5, Episode 6 (Wexler V. Goodman) - Patreon Version
Added 2026-02-04 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
Comments
Hi Everyone! Just want to say that I love and appreciate all of your analysis! It's a treat to come here and read the comments after an episode, and reflect on everything.
Chandra
2026-02-06 21:31:59 +0000 UTCChandra is correct: Jimmy is emotionally childlike. I've said this before, but I think the origin of all of Jimmy's issues is that Chuck blamed him for killing their father when Jimmy was a kid. He has never emotionally grown up beyond that point, and is unable to deal with guilt and shame as a result. Chuck's death reopened this wound, and pretty much everything Jimmy does in the second half of the series is the result of his suppressed guilt over driving Chuck to suicide. I think the whole point of Jimmy's character is that he is designed to be the inverse of Walt. This will become clear once you can look at both series side by side in their entirety. Walt always has to be the man, while Jimmy always has to be the baby. Walt has a pathological need to feel powerful and in control, and to take all credit and glory, even for his horrible crimes. Jimmy has a pathological need to be coddled and validated and is always seeking to avoid responsibility. Walt says "I did it all myself! No one else! It was all me!" Jimmy says "I didn't do it! Someone else did it! Okay... maybe I did do it, but I didn't really mean it!" While Walt internalizes everything, Jimmy externalizes everything. Walt is so entrenched in his grandiose inner monologue that he can’t hear anyone else’s perspective. He spent years stewing in resentment towards Gretchen and Elliot, seething with fantasies of power and revenge that were invisible to everyone around him. On the surface he seemed like a mild-mannered nerd. No one saw his inner capacity for darkness until he snapped and suddenly unleashed it on the world. I think part of the reason the other characters’ attempts to reason with him fail, is that he’s already been having these arguments in his own head for years; Walt has already built a fortress of self-justifications around himself before the series even began. Jimmy seeks constant pleasure and stimulation and thrills in an effort to escape himself, because he can’t bear to be alone with his own thoughts for even a single second. As soon as the music stops and the curtain falls, thoughts of Chuck will creep back in. So Jimmy has to keep the show constantly going. Jimmy lacks a strong inner identity and sense of purpose, and is completely dependent on external validation for his self esteem. He has empathetic impulses, but no moral compass or principles. He has short term desires, but no long term life goals or plans. Jimmy has an abundance of personality, but a dearth of character. While Walt is all monomaniacal ego, Jimmy is weirdly egoless and impressionable. He frequently copies other characters, internalizes their values and adopts their goals as his own. He moved to Albuquerque because Chuck told him to, and spent ten years more or less doing whatever Chuck told him to do, until he realized Chuck had betrayed him. He became a lawyer because Kim was becoming a lawyer. He went into elder law because Kim told him to. He went into criminal law because Kim was doing it. He frequently repeats entire lines of dialogue other characters have said to him as if they are his own words. Multiple times in the series, he literally begs other characters to tell him what to do. Walt is a bland exterior masking a deep dark interior, whereas Jimmy is all loud, performative, colorful surface, masking an empty, rudderless interior. I don’t think Jimmy is a psychopath; He does have real emotions, and he doesn’t really want other people to suffer. But he just has emotions and appetites and impulses, he doesn't have a real core identity.
Francesca Langer
2026-02-06 01:50:14 +0000 UTCRemember the ending of the episode, and then go back and watch some of Chuck's worst dialogue about how Jimmy would leave so much damage in his wake, and always be so completely apologetic about it, but would still think things were OK because the ends ALWAYS justify the means. Chuck was an asshole. But he wasn't wrong about Jimmy.
pawpaw72546
2026-02-05 00:50:00 +0000 UTCI will just wait to see both of your final opinions on all the characters... at the end of the series.
Tommy
2026-02-04 23:47:14 +0000 UTCGreat discussion at the end! In the context of Chuck's view of Jimmy, Jimmy's actions aren't really surprising here. They fit a long pattern of breaking things then begging for forgiveness like a child. Kim's decision at the end is pretty surprising, though. I think it's because the life she leads and what she actually WANTS are pretty different. It's a tug of war. The Kim she presents herself to be would break up with Jimmy here, but the real Kim deep down knows Jimmy got her what she wanted. So she thinks "He had my interests in mind. He cares. If we get married, he won't have to deceive me again." It's classic toxic relationship stuff.
N.T. Stars
2026-02-04 23:04:06 +0000 UTCI think Bob plays Jimmy's inner conflict extremely well, considering the amount of show-don't-tell they do in this series. It's all in his performance, not the lines he's given to read.
Max Hassam
2026-02-04 20:58:27 +0000 UTCChuck's final rant to Jimmy: "Jimmy this is what you do. You hurt people over and over and over; and then there's this big show of remorse-" "It's not a show!" "I know you don't think it's a show. I don't doubt your emotions are real. ... In the end, you're gonna hurt everyone around you. You can't help it, so stop apologising and accept it, embrace it." I think Jimmy thinks only about the next win. So often his schemes are successful in the short term but have disastrous consequences down the line. And yet he keeps doing it. After getting a win against Howard, he says "God, I'm good" then his face changes. I believe that it's not because he felt bad about what he did, but because he remembered that "the beautiful play" he'd been working on had been cancelled and he decided he wants to keep doing what he's best at. Jimmy does it for the love of the game, whereas Kim still has some sort of just cause for doing it (and it is worth remembering that much of it was her idea). But I think Jimmy also misses having a scam partner. He and Marco would play adversaries for a common goal (the coin scam) and so that's what he did with Kim. But Kim wants a partner she can work in tandem with and so it blows up in Jimmy's face. He probably expected her to be a bit upset but definitely thought he could excuse his way out of it. As for Kim's final idea, people take it back to the intro scene about her having a toxic relationship with her Mom and how some people can be sort of addicted to toxicity in relationships. I agree with Jordan, I think she just can't bring herself to end the fun & intrigue that is being with Jimmy. He's addicted to the con. She's addicted to him. And he has nobody except for her.
Max Hassam
2026-02-04 20:57:02 +0000 UTCRe: the ending, Kim is not ready to let go of Jimmy - she loves him despite, or frankly because of all the chaos. This kind of flip-flopping is toxic 101. This was kind of implied all the way back in the first episode with her cleaning up the trash can he was kicking in the parking lot. This is the style of love that Kim knows, which is what the teaser revealing her mother was an alcoholic is trying to show, imo. Fantastic ep! This next run is absolutely peak stuff.
Helly R
2026-02-04 19:15:35 +0000 UTCThis show just wouldn't work without someone as great as Rhea Seehorn playing Kim. Bob Odenkirk is just ok as an actual actor, but she manages to walk that line of not only being believable, but doesn't overplay things to the point of leaving him in the dust. It's such a fine line to walk and she does it flawlessly.
Kenton Kruger
2026-02-04 19:02:11 +0000 UTCJimmy's/Saul's character is debated Jordan V. Chandra. His moral compass is askew, very compassionate but thrown off by a 12-year old's selfish mentality.
J J
2026-02-04 18:13:01 +0000 UTC
