[9.5/10] They got me. They really did. I believed that Saul would do it, that he would find a way to lie, cheat, and steal out of suffering any real consequences for all the pain and losses he is responsible for. I believed that he would trade in Kim's freedom and chance to make a clean break after baring her soul in exchange for a damn pint of ice cream. I have long clocked Better Call Saul as a tragedy, about a man who could have been good, and yet, through both circumstance and choice, lists inexorably toward becoming a terrible, arguably evil person. I thought this would be the final thud of his descent, selling out the one person on this Earth who loved him to feather his own nest.
Maybe Walt was right when he said that Jimmy was "always like this." Maybe Chuck was right that there something inherently corrupt and untrustworthy in the heart of his little brother. This post-Breaking Bad epilogue has been an object lesson in the depths to which Gene Takovic will stoop in order to feed his addiction and get what he wants. There would be no greater affirmation of the completeness of his craven selfishness and cruelty than throwing Kim under the bus to save himself.
Only, in the end, that's the feint, that's the trick, that's the con, on the feds and the audience. When Saul hears that Kim took his words to heart and turned herself in, facing the punishments that come with it, he can't sit idly by and profit from his own lies and bullshit. He doesn't want to sell her out; he wants to fall on the sword in front of her, make sure she knows that he knows what he did wrong.Despite his earlier protestations that his only regret was not making more money or avoiding knee damage, he wants to confess in a court of law that he regrets the choices that led him here and the pain he caused, and most of all he regrets that they led to losing her.
In that final act of showmanship and grace, he lives up to the advice Chuck gives him in the flashback scene here, that if he doesn't like the road that his bad choices have led him, there's no shame in taking a different path. Much as Walt did, at the end of the line, Saul admits his genuine motives, he accepts responsibility for his choices after years of blame and evasion. Most of all, he takes his name back, a conscious return to being the person that Kim once knew, in form and substance. It is late, very late, when it happens, but after so much, Jimmy uses his incredible skills to accept his consequences, rather than sidestep them, and he finds the better path that Kim always believed he could walk, one that she motivates him to tread.
It is a wonderful finale to this all-time great show. I had long believed that this series was a tragedy. It had to be, given where Jimmy started and where the audience knew Saul ended. But as it was always so good at doing, Better Call Saul surprised me, with a measured bit of earned redemption for its protagonist, and moving suggestion that with someone we care for and who cares of us, even the worst of us can become someone and something better. In its final episode, the series offered one more transformation -- from a tale of tragedy, to a story of hope.
(On a personal note, I just want to say thank you to everyone who read and commented on my reviews here over the years. There is truly no show that's been as rewarding for me to write about than Better Call Saul, and so much of that owes to the community of people who offered me the time and consideration to share my thoughts, offered their kind words, and helped me look at the series in new ways with their thoughtful comments. I don't know what the future holds, but I am so grateful to have been so fortunate as to share this time and these words with you.)
EDIT: One last time, here is my usual, extended review of the finale in case anyone's interested -- https://thespool.net/reviews/better-call-saul-series-finale-recap-saul-gone/
[8.4/10] I'd speculated about how Kim would depart Jimmy's world. I feared she might be killed. I thought she'd get fed up with his misdeeds and leave him over that. What I didn't expect was that it would be spurred by a moment of self-recognition born of a terrible tragedy. Kim still loves Jimmy, but she recognizes that they're "poison" together, that they get off on the joint cons, and that when they do, people get hurt. She is one of the vanishingly small number of people in this franchise to recognize that she's on a destructive path and take drastic action to stop it. It's one of the most unexpected, but ultimately satisfying ways to have her exit I can imagine.
And it puts her in good company. Jimmy is as horrified by what happened as Kim is, but he can envision moving on, he can picture maintaining this life despite where it led them, he can see forgetting this some day. Kim can't. It's the same way Gus cannot forget his former partner Max, someone he loves, whose memory lingers with him when he gazes into Don Eladio's pool and holds him back from continuing to flirt with the handsome waiter who chats him up over a glass of a wine. It's the same way Mike cannot forget his son, which leads him to tell Nacho's father the truth about what happened to his child.
Mr. Varga shrugs off Mike's promise that justice will be done, recognizing that what he's talking about is vengeance. He declares that vengeance is a cycle that doesn't stop, and we know from Breaking Bad that he's right. Gus hasn't beaten the Salamancas or Don Eladio. Mike hasn't completed his tour of duty so that he can retire and spend time with his granddaughter. Jimmy can't avoid crossing paths with the cartel again. They're all in this now, and their victories bring them no peace, only pull them deeper into the muck of this, and closer to their ignoble ends.
But Kim breaks away. She cannot forget, but she can act to stop this from happening again. Her final scene with Jimmy (for now at least) is more quietly heartbreaking than explosive and dramatic, but that suits the gravity of this. And in her absence, Jimmy is free to become Saul, as an indeterminate time jump to the man in his huckster faux-finery confirms. The last thing holding Jimmy back is gone. Saul Goodman is here. He can't stop. And despite the woman in his bed, the bedraggled secretary on his phone, and the crowd of people in his waiting room, he is alone.
EDIT: If you'd like to read my usual, longer review, you can find it here -- https://thespool.net/reviews/tv-recap-better-call-saul-season-6-episode-9/
Natalie Holt deserves an Emmy for her amazing pieces in Loki.
goddammit Jerry... or was it Larry? Terry?? Garry!!
nolite te bastardes carborundorum
"Don't let the bastards grind you down"
I found the story of Zima Blue a kind of catharsis of the concept of artificial intelligence, which at the same time scares us and excites us. A simple robot cleaner who initially evolves thanks to his master, emancipates himself from him to become a more than sentient being, an artist able to touch the highest peaks of creativity. A worlds explorer, who reaches a level of consciousness and knowledge of the whole universe comparable to Dr. Manhattan. Until the epilogue, which I personally find brilliant, the absolute sum of an intelligence...
As someone who complained about the confusing timeline in season 1, I felt personally attacked.
sobbing HE CANT KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH IT!!
(by "he" I mean Vince Gilligan and the rest of the cast and crew and by "it" I mean making this show so consistently high quality)
Ugh. After last week's excellent episode, this was a major step down and makes me reconsider following this series. The writing was atrocious, with every other character quipping at the worst of times. (Worst offender: Sharon Carter quipping "Blam" after blowing Happy's head off.) Not only that, but the third act turn hangs on a supremely illogical and shitty character decision.
This, to me, is an example of what happens when the MCU "formula" is handled by bad writers. You get this illogical mess that thinks it's way funnier than it is. Hope this is the low point of the series and not a sign of things to come.
Easily one of the most uncomfortable watches of the year. A test on your patience, empathy and digestion capabilities. Such a personal story, straddling a very red line that divides trauma and unnerving the viewer. Undecisive about whether liking it or not, but I applaud the boldness.
Permission to call this genre "satire/hell" moving forward.
Surreal experience this episode, probably stuck with me and changed me more than any of the other love death robots episodes. It was almost hypnotising at times, genuinely creative and abstract depiction of a deadly dance, two intertwined characters and the pillaging/greed of foreigners in an unknown land. The range of emotions you go through here are interesting. It really is a masterful little piece that puts you on edge.
What a great start the new season, really enjoyed this episode. The amusement park scene was a riot, I laughed so hard. Still one of the best shows out there.
This was an incredible episode. Gene is a machine. the way he said we are done. Just like Walt! When he told the story of the guy with cash as big as a Volkswagen. Lol BB in a nutshell!
Loved it.
This was a good show, and I liked this idea of "endless trauma" that they're going with, but I can't help but feel like I liked it much better at the beginning than this final episode
It starts with a punch, and it ends with a fade
Well, that was unexpected. But some hints got their explanations: the strange seizures of Sugar, the fact that he can knock back literally litres of liqour without getting sloshed, that debriefing when he was chastised for registering his feelings, that talk "We just observe."
To be honest, I expected some kind of awkward international spy ring who "just observe" because... why, exactly?
I see a kind of wild game the show's creators played:
1. A classic detective noir, if finished like a proper detective story, would probably have left a dry reception, like "Okay, we've seen this 100x times."
2. Secret spy ring or a shady organization... Just observing? Yeah, right, thanks for nothing.
3. At least, this is a twist that's not everyday for a detective noir.
Let's see how our PIA's story unfolds.
