Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for the series finale of Better Call Saul
The third flashback of the series finale of Better Call Saul is a pivotal moment within the episode and the series at large, as it addresses the theme of the episode — regrets. It also illustrates a pivotal moment in the life of Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk): the dissolution of his relationship with his brother, and altering the past or future, which is represented by the concept of a time machine literally and figuratively.
Before we are ushered away from the present into the past, we see Jimmy, who insists on being called by his given name instead of Saul, admit that not only should he have done better by his brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), but his actions regarding Chuck’s malpractice insurance. We see an exit sign looming, much like we did in the pivotal episode “Chicanery” from the show’s third season, and we are taken back to Chuck’s dark kitchen. Jimmy is late bringing Chuck’s groceries and they are exchanging typical platitudes by lantern light while Jimmy insists he will continue to bring Chuck what he needs despite Chuck’s protests that someone from the office could do it. When Jimmy mentions his derelict clientele, Chuck reminds him that they still need a “vigorous defense.” Jimmy wonders aloud if Chuck will tell him if he is doing it wrong, and tells him that he doesn’t want a heart-to-heart. Chuck tells Jimmy that if he isn’t happy with where he is heading, it is never too late to change his path.
Jimmy looks around the room. His brother had been a prominent attorney that loved to cook, but is currently suffering from major phobias, using camp stoves to cook rudimentary meals, and using lanterns as his primary source of illumination in his spacious home. A spacious home that Jimmy cannot even enter until he touches a metal pole to “ground himself.”
Jimmy points out that Chuck never changed his path. “Think on it,” he says.
“We always end up having the same conversation, don’t we?” Chuck asks.
On his way out the door, Jimmy promises he will be back tomorrow. Chuck takes his lantern and his copy of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine and exits the room. This is the same book that we see in the opening scene of the first episode of Season 6.
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Jimmy's Regret Is Final Season's Theme
In the other episode flashbacks with Mike (Jonathan Banks) and Walt (Bryan Cranston), Jimmy/Saul is the one asking the questions. When presented with solid answers or (somewhat) legitimate regrets, he follows up with pithy but paltry excuses — that he would get rich, or not have forever ruined his knee in a “slip and fall” job — and never with any answer of real substance.
A heart-to-heart chat with his little brother seems uncharacteristic for Chuck, who tells his brother in the ninth episode of Season 1, titled “Pimento,” that “Slippin’ Jimmy with a law degree is like a chimp with a machine gun,” and that Jimmy never really mattered much to him. Why is he breaking character in this scene? It goes along with the show’s theme of regret.
Jimmy’s real regret is missing his last opportunity to have a heart-to-heart with his big brother, and that he unnecessarily retaliated against Chuck by having his malpractice insurance revoked. Or even perhaps that directly or indirectly due to his actions, his brother committed suicide. This chat that never came to fruition seems to mirror many of Chuck’s conversations with Jimmy, as well as Mike’s conversation with Saul about not getting mixed up with Walt. Jimmy/Saul needs guidance if he is going to change his path and not end up like his brother or his business partners. Instead, as per usual, he takes the easy way out.
Likewise, Chuck likely felt regret in the way he treated Jimmy and realized that if he had not been so antagonistic to his brother in the past, his present would be much different. This scene illustrates that do-over Jimmy/Saul longed for: one last heart-to-heart with his brother, the one he almost had that day many years ago, and didn’t take. The one that could have altered his timeline.
The After-Effects of Kim's Decision
Although Jimmy’s full transformation into the Saul Goodman we are presented with in Breaking Bad did not take full effect until Kim (Rhea Seehorn) leaves him, the seed is planted after the dissolution of the relationship with his brother.
Jimmy longed for Chuck’s approval. Even as a kid, Jimmy idolized his big brother. When Chuck bailed him out after the Chicago Sunroof Incident and gave him a job at the law firm, he was Jimmy’s hero. Throughout and during his relationship with Chuck, we see Jimmy’s humanness: his loyalty, his work ethic, and his child-like need to please. In a one-two punch to the gut, Jimmy realizes that he is never going to get Chuck’s approval and that he misjudged Chuck for years. Chuck was no better than Howard or any of the other “dirt-bag-on-the-outside” attorneys Jimmy had come across. But after the fallout, he becomes disgusted and also begins to question if Chuck was right about him: that he could never be a legitimate attorney, he would just be Slippin’ Jimmy with a law degree. He then begins to change his philosophy on practicing law. He quits his stable job and runs hustles on people he meets in bars. He isn’t trying to help grannies leave their knick-knacks to their grandchildren or make fake squat cobbler fetish videos for a petty criminal anymore. He wants the clout and the Cadillac. He wants the money and the flashy suits. He would become everything Chuck predicted and more. He became as Jesse (Aaron Paul) described “a criminal lawyer.”
It worked for a while, until he ran out of time.
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells is regarded as a critical piece on Victorian social mores more so than time travel, but is often interpreted as a warning that if humans continue in the same manner as they are, there would be no hope for the future. This does seem to fit with the overall narrative of the final season. Kim leaves Jimmy/Saul because she cannot bear to be the person she was with him after they got Howard (Patrick Fabian) killed. She goes on to live a safe, dull life in Florida with her safe, dull boyfriend and her safe, dull job. But she cannot really bear continuing on with her secret. Gene cannot go on living in his mundane life working in middle management in Middle America, but he cannot go back to being who he once was.
He finally decides to change his own narrative.
In the spirit of Slippin’ Jimmy and Saul, he pulls one last con and negotiates a lucrative deal for himself. Then he throws it all away to exonerate Kim. He can’t change the past, but he can change the future and give Kim hope for hers. Maybe this act is in honor of Chuck or their relationship. Maybe he decided Kim was his only true friend. Perhaps he delights in proving everyone wrong. Or maybe, he decided that sans time machine, he would rather fix this moment before it became a regret. After all, we usually regret what we don’t do.
