So much of theBetter Call Saulfinale was TV magic.
And more importantly, geez, the lead singer of Spinal Tap was singing ABBA!
The finale followed with memorable setpieces and a spine-tingling master plot.
Credit: Nicole Wilder/AMC
Ever since Chucks fiery death, youve been waiting to see Jimmyreact, somehow.
And Chucks absence this season made the elder brother omnipresent, a shadow Jimmy couldnt quite escape.
But it seemed like he could.
Grief was outsourced all around Jimmys circle.
Kim (Rhea Seehorn) choked up hearing Chucks final letter read aloud.
Howard (Patrick Fabian) wept from guilt, pondering his role in his old partners suicide.
Even ambient personalities acknowledged Chucks passing.
Outwardly, Jimmy floated along.
Jimmys legal practice was just one brotherly namedrop away.
Instead, Jimmy praised his offshore alma mater: Go Land Crabs!
The emotional avoidance stung.
We got that, for a few seconds, maybe.
Jimmy sat alone in the HHM parking garage, weeping.
And Jimmys other actions in the episode formed a dark, delirious joke about easy catharsis.
He made a show of mourning at Chucks grave.
He paid for a Chuck memorial so he could pretend-cry in front of Albuquerques finest lawyers.
That one ahole was crying, Jimmy laughed afterward.
This was high-level storytelling, crafted with deconstructive precision by writers Thomas Schnauz and Peter Gould.
The season 4 finale was his best trick yet.
He was the most brilliant man I ever knew.
Ill never be as respected.
Ill never be as good.
These truths were always useful, a layer of honesty pointing toward the big lie.
The con worked so well, it even fooled poor Kim, Jimmys unwitting ally.
Or, well, she wastryingto be his ally, helping him become an attorney again.
At moments like this,Better Call Saulis complicated enough to suggest tripolar motivations underpinning its characters actions.
She didnt stand out in the crowd and she had a shoplifting charge on her record.
They are never, ever letting you in, Jimmy told her.
So beat them at their own game, he advised, and break the rules if you have to.
You make themsuffer, Jimmy told her.
Remember: The winner takes it all.
Yeesh, even Jimmys imagery trended Towerful.
Theyre on the 35th floor?
Youre gonna be on the 50th floor.
The winner takes it all, ALL.
In a scarily unexpected way, it seemed to complete the notional origin story element of this series.
And then he walked outside to inquire about a professional name change.
The McGills are dead.
Long live Saul Goodman.
And then, lord help us, the superlab.
Gus was one of the great antagonists of TV history, and now hes a cartoon of looming tension.
The dissonance works for some viewers.
If anything, this finale hit a new ratio for sheer extremity.
Lalo is the latest Salamanca grotesque, another vision of sneering criminality.
And he has what the opening chyrons ofBattlestar Galacticawould refer to as a plan.
The problem wasntjustWerner, but Werner didnt help.
And he ultimately felt like a pawn put in place for Mikes journey.
Now he was killing some lovesick German smarty in the middle of nowhere.
Mikes bigBetter Call Saulintroduction featured double murder in cold blood.
Hes a TV character with a sniper rifle.
The gradation is elusive.
Did anyone doubt Mike would do it?
Then, the real kicker.
Gus in the superlab, talking to Gale (David Costabile).
Even in its late period magnet-heist/train-robbery grandiosity,Breaking Badmaintained a meticulous attention to detail.
A lot has changed since then.
Kim Wexler has evolved into one ofTVs best characters.
Gustavo hates Hector, loves narrating that hatred to Hectors hospitalized face.
The Cousins are really good at killing people.
Mike looks sad whenever he bloodily cleans up Fring messes.
Gales stoked,stokedto be here!
I feel like weve been talking about thisforever, the plucky scientist said about the soon-to-be-superlab.
He wants to get to worknow.
Where doesSaulgo from here?
I could believe anywhere, which is part of the fun.
Lalos arrival might be the final circle-back-around to Sauls first introduction inBreaking Bad(Lalo didnt send you?)
implying a climactic fifth season.
Everything seems on the table.
A monochromatic season in the Gene-verse?
Kim time-jumping and show-skipping over toThe Good Fight?
So the show has successfully uncovered Jimmy McGills tragedy behind Saul Goodmans comedy.
But theres a reverse effect as it digs deeper into the malevolent forces that poweredBreaking Bads dark spiral.
