Better Call Saul [S2 EP 9] | Full Length Reaction!

And oh yeah, Saul is a great guy isn't he. That would be the Saul who advocated to Walt to murder Hank and Jesse, to money launder a meth kingpin for financial gain, and to use the law as a way to make serious bank.

Saltire

Yet Chuck acted within the confines of the law and outplayed Jimmy and Kim. Thats the nature of that world; whereas Jimmy committed a felony against his mentally ill brother, to get the win. Chuck is an arsehole, and has deep - understandable - issues with his brother; but he didn't deserve to be humiliated.

Saltire

And Jimmy got into the law for the wrong reasons, something he admits in the first episode of this season. He doesn't have love or respect for it, its merely a tool for him to get what he wants. He isn't about justice, he's about himself. One thing that Chuck prided himself on in his life, was his regard for the law, to be the fine upstanding brother, yet doesn't get anything back for it. Then his younger spoilt brother gets all the adulation despite being the prodigal son. And Jimmy is charismatic, where Chuck is dry, factual and abrasive. Its understandable why he feels the way he does about him, especially now that Jimmy then treads on his toes, "slipping" into law - into Chuck's world - and immediately wanting to be treated as Chuck's peer. I'm not fond of the way Chuck treats Jimmy at times, but I can understand him totally.

Saltire

"A chimp with an uzi" - yep thats what Jimmy is starting here with his lack of respect for the law, and he puts his brother's health in danger. What a guy... So Chuck is kicking Jimmy while he's down, yet that's not what loveable Jimmy is doing to his mentally ill brother. Of course not... ;) Actions have consequences. Jimmy and Mike find that out this ep. You are wrong her V; Chuck is a dick, but he didn't do anything wrong, not really and he acted within the confines of the law. Jimmy went way over the line committing a felony to get one-up on his brother and Howard, and to get Kim set up. Speaking of Kim, I like that when Jimmy puts the light out, we can see Kim in the dark, whispering into Jimmy's ear about covering his tracks. First serious sign of Slippin' Kimmy. God I love her!

Saltire

What Jimmy did was dirty, yes. But Chuck went out of his way to take something away from Kim. Something he didn't even need. And Jimmy got it back. Meanwhile, Chuck has problems of his own that he refuses to address. He makes everyone in his life jump through hoops for him, because he's too proud to admit that he's mentally unwell.

Joe Blankenship

I wish... I would love to take a single day just for this. BUT yesterday I spent late at night watching 4 episodes and finished the first season! My morning allowed me to do so, but it isn't usually that merciful. lol

Daniel Almeida

All the heavy stuff is discussed quite well and in enough detail that I needn't add my two cents about that. The car Mike was driving when he took down the truck doesn't matter. He got a beater car for the job - no paperwork or anything to tie Mike to it. Mike was back in his Chrysler that very day.

MertzRocks

Binge, bro... BINGE! (lol)

MertzRocks

I've heard that opinion of Stacey quite a lot but I never really got it. I feel like it's a pretty harsh and cynical way to view her character. She only really starts asking Mike for help and money after he repeatedly offered it to her and she was hesitant about it for a long time. If she really was that manipulative, she wouldn't have shunned Mike for that long who clearly wanted a relationship with her and Kaylee. But she thought he wasn't being honest with her about Matty and the circumstances of his death (which he wasn't) so she didn't want to indulge him. Which seems pretty emotionally honest to me. I don't know, is it really "playing" him if she only accepts what he offers again and again? The one thing I'll say is that she's possibly being somewhat naive, maybe not wanting to see the truth because she never seems curious where Mike, a supposedly retired cop who works as a parking booth attendant, gets all that money from. And he already confessed to her that he was a dirty cop so she might go into this with her eyes open a bit more and start questioning how he gets all this money. But I think she's just extremely stressed. She's a recently widowed single mom, having to process her grief while caring for Kaylee and working (seemingly, based on her scrubs) as a nurse, which is itself a pretty stressful and quite low-paying job. So I tend to cut her a lot of slack. The scene with the supposed bullet-shots that never happened, honestly I just chock it up to some form of grief/PTSD and insomnia. I don't think she was lying that she heard the gunshots, she was just severely anxious and overstressed.

Christophe Schannes

Yes, very well put. Chuck might often be right in the letter of the law but he definitely has issues honestly expressing his jealousy of Jimmy (even just to himself) and it comes out in petty, vindictive and, like you said, cowardly ways.

Christophe

Ok I might end up deleting my original post because I kind of regret the way I expressed myself. I do stand by my opinions but I was probably somewhat unnecessarily rude and dismissive of V, and I apologize for that, I know you can see Chuck's perspective and it was just an emotional reaction in the moment. But I do want to clarify that I'm not rooting for Chuck here or basically in any other instance. I do think that in this particular moment, he is the one that is slightly more in the right of the 2 brothers and think that Jimmy is also acting like an entitled asshole by making this decision without Kim's consent and then gaslighting both her and Chuck by lying about it as if they're not smart enough to see what's really going on. But absolutely, Chuck is an asshole. He's petty, vindictive, resentful of Jimmy's successes and will go to extreme and ridiculous lengths to take him down. And I definitely loved Kim's takedown of Chuck as much as anybody, he needed to hear that and she's absolutely right that Chuck's lack of faith in Jimmy is one of the main reasons that he's like that in the first place. I just like to play devil's advocate in favor of Chuck just because I feel like people are often too heavily favoring Jimmy in this argument and refuse to look at it from Chuck's perspective as well—which again, I know that V does do that, just watching this particular scene was frustrating to me. Because Chuck, as hatable as he is, is often spot-on about Jimmy. I mean, he was obviously 100% right here about everything that Jimmy did and Jimmy was the one lying. It's amazing that we still instinctively side with Jimmy because even though Chuck is right, we don't want to give him this win because he's such an asshole about it and we feel like Jimmy's heart is at least in the right place. Anyway, second rant over, like I said, I might delete this whole thing, just wanted to apologize and clarify that I do not actually support Chuck 🙈

Christophe

Definitely disagree with a lot of this. At this point in the show I think the writers intend for the viewers to be on Jimmy's side despite all the ethical issues around his actions. Chuck comes off incredibly hateable and has almost no redeeming qualities other than "respect for the law". Who the heck is rooting for Chuck here? He's terrible

Sinkus Binkus

I have not seen the show before so none of this spoilers, just reasoning. I'm thinking Mike goes to try to find that Good Samaritan's body to give it a proper burial and maybe so their family can know their fate. Maybe even cover the costs of the funeral as an anonymous donor or something. What gets me about the Mike situation is that his daughter-in-law is playing him. We saw Mike sit outside her house all night then the next morning she calls him saying there were shooting throughout the night. I'm wondering if Mike's son was pressured by the daughter-in-law to take dirty money too; and that's part of the reason he got killed. Idk how much she is playing him but I don't like it. You're fine thinking the way you do about Chuck. He is an abuser. He is controlling (refuses to let Jimmy succeed in any way that he doesn't approve of), narcissistic (he is upset about his reputation, mind you), arrogant (doesn't recognize Jimmy's law degree because of the pedigree of the school he went to), and a hypocrite (he tried to entrap that clerk after he didn't get the response he wanted, a Jimmy tactic). Since Chuck is okay bending the rules when it means throwing his brother into prison for being embarrassed in front of clients, it means he doesn't have a problem with Jimmy's tactics. He has a problem with Jimmy. There is so much trauma between these 2. Chuck wants Jimmy punished, for everything, but will settle for this. Chuck wants Jimmy to suffer consequences because Chuck believes that Jimmy always gets away with everything. But we know Jimmy's life. Does it look like he gets away with everything? Chuck is the kind of guy that refuses to believe that there are multiple ways to achieve the same thing. Jimmy has the gift of gab, the silver tongue. Its no different than someone being born with great genes and goes through life getting far more than others because of their good looks. Or being born into a wealthy family. But because Jimmy sacrificed his time to care for Chuck for how ever long, means that Jimmy isn't as bad as first impressions would lead you to believe. Jimmy did the only thing he could for Kim, for people. He doesn't care about his reputation that much. He cares about results and helping people that struggle helping themselves. So he's a weasel, so he's a conman. Those people have a purpose in a society, too. They grease the wheels and open doors of opportunity. They always say to have an exit plan/strategy. Jimmy is the exit plan. People like Jimmy create exits. Exits for people trapped in a rigged system. Everyone argues over the method. Jimmy isn't even a conman anymore (except when Kim wants to get kinky). He sabotaged his brother, yes. His brother needed to drop a peg or 2, eventually. Waving his credentials around in front of a copy store clerk as if it gives him some kind of legal authority over people. Chuck's condition is psychosomatic and he refuses to treat it. Meaning he is repressing something and lying to himself about it. What we do know is that he is repressing something about Jimmy. I believe it has exactly something to do with the things Kim said to Chuck. Chuck wants Jimmy punished but dances around his own desires, covering them up with lawyer logic. Chuck rationalizes his desire with legalese. Only now, he has Jimmy committing a felony that, currently, can't be proven, and his reasoning is because he was embarrassed, professionally. How awful that someone with a massive case of psychosomatic delusion, that he is refusing to treat, slip up in a legal proceeding, one time, in front of a client that he personally couldn't stop himself from poaching from Kim. All because Kim joined up with Jimmy. He wants Jimmy to fail so horribly and to face the consequences, that he is going out of his way, ignoring his health, to entrap a clerk, just for one shred of hearsay against Jimmy. Now, I'd like to say that this incident should get Chuck into treatment, but his firm would probably step in and enable him even more, ...if it wasn't for the embarrassing moment, recently. These 2 things should be used to force Chuck into treatment. Probably not going to work that way, though.

TJ Bigelow

Chuck has a strong respect for the law and his own code of ethics but, at the end of the day, he is a self serving and spiteful person. Jimmy is very flawed and morally grey, but unlike Chuck, he is a good person where it counts. In regards to the gaslighting, Chuck doesn't deserve any empathy.

Sinkus Binkus

Chuck just never gave Jimmy a chance. Chuck denied Jimmy a career at HHM after he went clean for 10 years in the mailroom and with law school. Now I know that the problem isn’t that he didn’t hire Jimmy. He’s well within his rights to do so, and his concerns about his brother are understandable to a degree. The problem is HOW he went about it. Instead of just being honest with him about it, and yet promising/trying to actually help him (like he should’ve done as his older brother), he lies to Jimmy’s face, pretending to be supportive while secretly hiding behind Howard like a coward and getting him to put roadblocks in his way. (To say nothing of what poor Howard had to deal with) And the way he revealed his true feelings towards Jimmy when he was exposed? Who wouldn’t be devastated if they were in Jimmy’s place? It’s one thing to not hire somebody, but that’s normal, happens all the time. But when someone you idolized and looked up to your whole life, turns out to be your real enemy all along, and secretly hates you? That’s one of the worst feelings that anyone can go through. I'm not defending Jimmy's actions nor am I trying to paint him as a saint but Chuck is partly responsible and Kim was right...she sees right through him. Chuck's accusations of Jimmy always get muddled with his jealousy... but Chuck never figures out how much his jealously is causing him to hurt is brother. It's easy to think Chuck is right if you just have BB Saul in mind. But BCS Jimmy is nothing like Saul... so at the time Chuck is way off the mark. His claims of wanting to help him, and doing it for his own good, also ring hollow because he didn't notice, or chooses not to see, how muck Jimmy changed and is trying to be a good person. And how much pain and suffering he was willing to endure to bring Jimmy down, and ultimately he wasn't successful and Jimmy ends up being a worse person.. Howard could see how it was destroying him and tried to subtly steer Chuck into a more positive direction. Ironically, all Chuck proved about himself, is that he was no better than the very brother that he looks down on.

Joe Lazarus

wow you nailed that intro! ;)

Biri

I am understanding the fundamentals of their relationship! You also have to realize it’s very difficult to give the full depth of my thoughts and opinions within scenes lasting a few seconds - hence why I was speaking so much. :) it’s almost impossible to to explain every detail of each thought I have in regards to a relationship in a very small amount of time, as well as explain my understanding in depth to where it’s not just me reiterating things everyone knows! I understand how Chuck feels and thinks, but in the moment when you first experience the events occurring between them it’s impossible to sit and process it. It’s momentary, after each episode I sit and contemplate the dynamic and their relationship, and how each interaction and moment can possible deepen or break their bond more!! This makes the show for me. In the ending of the video I explain that I understand where Chuck is coming from but it doesn’t necessarily mean I have to fully agree with it. :) I don’t exactly agree with either character, that’s the beauty of this show. Everything is open to interpretation and personal opinion! I’m very family oriented as an individual so my opinion sides more with Jimmy who cares for his brother blindly because that’s how I am. But I have experienced situations and people very similar to Chucks position in my own personal life, so I do understand much more than initially viewed!! I apologize if it came across any differently. :)

VKunia

I completely agree!! This is the best way to describe their dynamic:)

VKunia

I completely agree :) their dynamic looks to be constantly shifting and brings more intensity to the show - in such subtle ways :)

VKunia

LMAO

VKunia

I absolutely agree with your opinion on Chuck, I think Chuck just want Jimmy to quit the law and Kim to leave Jimmy and he is trying very well.

Elikos_176

Christophe

Stop posting BCS or I'll never catch you up! 😭😜

Daniel Almeida

Technically she did quit, but in actuality she was forced out. They left her no choice. She single-handedly acquired Mesa Verde for HMM, and in return they treated her like shit and made it obvious that she had no future there.

PureGonzo

HHM didn’t need Mesa Verde. Chuck would never have even left his house to try to get them back (after Kim RETAINED the client that SHE single-handedly acquired) until he found out that Jimmy was now working with Kim. Chuck’s entire existence is essentially living for the sole purpose of keeping Jimmy down and undercutting his career at every turn, all because deep down Chuck is unhealthily envious of Jimmy.

PureGonzo

"Mesa Verde is rightfully Kims". Really? How is that a thing? Kim worked for HHM. As an HHM employee, she brought a client to HHM. Mesa Verde was an HHM client. Kim quit and tried to take Mesa Verde with her. Chuck and Howard tried to keep Mesa Verde with HHM. Chuck and Howard did it better.

TGrimace

Kinda crazy watching you try and justify jimmy’s horrible gaslighting by basically saying chuck “brought this on himself”. Also how exactly did chuck “steal” mesa verde from Kim? Chuck didn’t employ any underhanded tactics or lie to convince them. They had a choice and they chose HHM. Anyways..love your content 🫡

Omar

I love how neither brother isn't necessarily wrong in their way of thinking but they aren't right either. They are perfect enemies for each other.

JeremyOnDeck

that waitress offered mike to shovel her driveway, but i think she'd prefer to get plowed ;)

Dale Diaz

Was not expecting that ending. Can't wait for the next episode

Golden Claw23

The story of Jimmy and Chuck is the reason I love this show so much. Every actor in it keeps elevating the series each scene they are in. I truly go back and forth with which show is my favorite in this world. Fantastic.

panacamanana

Its Magna Carta time Edit: It's also Nailling time, too

MrAlexSan