Better call Saul

[PerreaultForever]

2 hours ago, Cascade Youth said:

So does Gene WANT to be caught?  Like Raskolnikov?

Unless they are just saving money 🙂 I'm going to assume the black and white implies a lack of colour in his life, i.e. unhappiness. 

[Cascade Youth]

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

Unless they are just saving money 🙂 I'm going to assume the black and white implies a lack of colour in his life, i.e. unhappiness. 

Unhappiness about what though - contrasted with the color scenes of Jessie asking who Lalo is, and Saul saying “he’s no one” - maybe he wants to be known, he doesn’t want to be buried in some random cemetery (the grave in the desert image), but rather, wants to be recognized as an accomplished criminal?  Maybe he was secretly delighted that the police are still after him but bummed that his trail had gone cold?  
 

Or again, does he secretly want to be punished like Dostoevsky’s criminal?  The black and white = good/evil, law/order etc.?  

[PickaPecaPickles]

6 hours ago, Cascade Youth said:

Unhappiness about what though - contrasted with the color scenes of Jessie asking who Lalo is, and Saul saying “he’s no one” - maybe he wants to be known, he doesn’t want to be buried in some random cemetery (the grave in the desert image), but rather, wants to be recognized as an accomplished criminal?  Maybe he was secretly delighted that the police are still after him but bummed that his trail had gone cold?  
 

Or again, does he secretly want to be punished like Dostoevsky’s criminal?  The black and white = good/evil, law/order etc.?  

Whatever happened with that phone call to Kim definitely sent him down a self-destructive road.  Seems as if he may not have anything to live for now, and while I can't see him wanting to get caught, I can see him going out a la Thelma and Louise.

[nfreeman]

Yes — a happy ending seems pretty unlikely.  I think the consistent moral of this show and Breaking Bad is that consequences are inevitable.  

[shrader]

1 minute ago, nfreeman said:

Yes — a happy ending seems pretty unlikely.  I think the consistent moral of this show and Breaking Bad is that consequences are inevitable.  

And messing with people with cancer leads to your downfall.

[PerreaultForever]

11 hours ago, Cascade Youth said:

Unhappiness about what though - contrasted with the color scenes of Jessie asking who Lalo is, and Saul saying “he’s no one” - maybe he wants to be known, he doesn’t want to be buried in some random cemetery (the grave in the desert image), but rather, wants to be recognized as an accomplished criminal?  Maybe he was secretly delighted that the police are still after him but bummed that his trail had gone cold?  
 

Or again, does he secretly want to be punished like Dostoevsky’s criminal?  The black and white = good/evil, law/order etc.?  

My take at this point (although the last two episodes might reveal some info that changes it) is the B&W is because his life is empty and as I said, the obvious metaphor lacking colour, because he was addicted to the life, the thrills, the money and power it brought, and now that it's all gone he has nothing and finds he can't live without it. So in the end he will do something foolish and come to an end from going after that thrill/life rather than settling for a lesser boring anonymity. 

So maybe as a viewer it'll be ambiguous and you can take it as a suicide of sorts or a Dostoevsky type resolution, but I think it's just addiction. He simply can't live without being Saul rather than Jimmy or Gene. It's who/what he is, even if it's a fiction he created.

I just hope they give us a little more on how Kim left. It's a little unsatisfying at this point if she just "left" without more details. To me anyway. Everyone else we already know how they ended from Breaking Bad. 

[shrader]

I feel like we're digging a bit too much into any reason for the black and white.  It's a pretty common practice to use that for flashbacks and this is a unique spin on that.

[triumph_communes]

On 8/2/2022 at 11:59 AM, nfreeman said:

Yes — a happy ending seems pretty unlikely.  I think the consistent moral of this show and Breaking Bad is that consequences are inevitable.  

That’s a viewers wet dream. People don’t want to believe criminals can actually be happy in the long term and leave on their own terms. 
 

Kim would be the exception, having dipped her toes in and then getting away. It’s not right if she gets away unless she’s the one to turn Saul in. 

[nfreeman]

So I heard on a podcast that the title of the next episode is "Waterworks," and since Kim now works at a sprinkler company...it seems likely we'll see Kim again.

[PerreaultForever]

On 8/5/2022 at 9:58 AM, nfreeman said:

So I heard on a podcast that the title of the next episode is "Waterworks," and since Kim now works at a sprinkler company...it seems likely we'll see Kim again.

and she cried her eyes out on the bus so there you go, fitting title. 

I am mixed on the Kim feeling guilt/remorse angle. She started with a conscience but over time she really started to love it and was a female Jimmy so idk, I guess the idea is she lost her way under his influence. Kind of a trite female victim storyline that is overly common these days. I think it could have been more complex and interesting. 

 

[Cascade Youth]

5 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

and she cried her eyes out on the bus so there you go, fitting title. 

I am mixed on the Kim feeling guilt/remorse angle. She started with a conscience but over time she really started to love it and was a female Jimmy so idk, I guess the idea is she lost her way under his influence. Kind of a trite female victim storyline that is overly common these days. I think it could have been more complex and interesting. 

 

Yeah I agree.  She was the one driving the anti-Howard crusade and it was never really made clear why she hated Howard to such a degree, and now the script is flipped and she’s the one feeling remorse.

[PickaPecaPickles]

8 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

and she cried her eyes out on the bus so there you go, fitting title. 

I am mixed on the Kim feeling guilt/remorse angle. She started with a conscience but over time she really started to love it and was a female Jimmy so idk, I guess the idea is she lost her way under his influence. Kind of a trite female victim storyline that is overly common these days. I think it could have been more complex and interesting. 

 

I think they've shown tidbits of her past so that one can see her as not necessarily a victim of Jimmy.  Specifically, that flashback as a child stealing from a store, then watching her mom con the manager.  Certainly Jimmy pulled out that aspect of her persona, and it was all fun games to focus on Howard who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.  The traumatic experience of his death ended it, but then had to live with it for the next 6 years or so in almost a catatonic state.  Jimmy's call brought it all back which forced her need to resolve it somehow.  At this point, I don't know how she can go on? 

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, PickaPecaPickles said:

I think they've shown tidbits of her past so that one can see her as not necessarily a victim of Jimmy.  Specifically, that flashback as a child stealing from a store, then watching her mom con the manager.  Certainly Jimmy pulled out that aspect of her persona, and it was all fun games to focus on Howard who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.  The traumatic experience of his death ended it, but then had to live with it for the next 6 years or so in almost a catatonic state.  Jimmy's call brought it all back which forced her need to resolve it somehow.  At this point, I don't know how she can go on? 

I hear ya, but I still think it was a little inconsistent with what they'd set up earlier in terms of her personality and character. Jimmy certainly brought out that side of her earlier on, and there was some reluctance at first, but then later she was almost like a Lady Macbeth driving him on and exuberantly getting into things, enjoying it. 

It's not a huge thing for me in terms of the show as a whole, but I'd have preferred a different ending for her. Something more anti-hero. 

[K-9]

Loved how Saul became the one who knocks when he showed up at Marion’s back door. The loaf of “white” bread on the counter leaving no doubt he has broken bad. Glad he stopped himself from strangling Marion with the phone cord, so maybe there’s a glimmer of hope for him. I wonder if he will take Kim’s advice and turn himself in. 

[Weave]

I hate that my OCD leads me to click on this thread every time there is a new post.   Don’t watch the show, but my head won’t allow me to have a thread go unread.

[shrader]

2 hours ago, Weave said:

I hate that my OCD leads me to click on this thread every time there is a new post.   Don’t watch the show, but my head won’t allow me to have a thread go unread.

 

And what is it that makes you comment on it?😁

[PickaPecaPickles]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I hear ya, but I still think it was a little inconsistent with what they'd set up earlier in terms of her personality and character. Jimmy certainly brought out that side of her earlier on, and there was some reluctance at first, but then later she was almost like a Lady Macbeth driving him on and exuberantly getting into things, enjoying it. 

It's not a huge thing for me in terms of the show as a whole, but I'd have preferred a different ending for her. Something more anti-hero. 

There's still time.   

[nfreeman]

I think we’ve seen the last of Kim and the last episode will be Jimmy/Saul trying to escape, then getting caught and coming to terms with his crimes.  

[spndnchz]

Didn’t this end ,like, 2 yrs ago?

[Eleven]

28 minutes ago, spndnchz said:

Didn’t this end ,like, 2 yrs ago?

Next Monday

[spndnchz]

So now it’s one per week? What day Monday?

[Eleven]

3 minutes ago, spndnchz said:

So now it’s one per week? What day Monday?

Umm?  The Monday part of Monday?

All I know is I read something saying the series finale is Monday.

[spndnchz]

Wise ass

Lack of comma. 

[shrader]

It seems like the practice of commenting on a thread about a show you don't watch is alive and well around here.

[triumph_communes]

Great series. Little lackluster of an ending so far in my opinion.