Tear Jerker / Better Call Saul

"He put me up on a pedestal, and I had to show him that I was down in the gutter with the rest of 'em. Broke my boy. I broke my boy. He went to Hoffman, he took the money, but he hesitated. Even looking like you're doing the right thing to those two meant that he wasn't solid, that he couldn't be trusted. I got Matty to take the money and they killed him two days later. He was the strongest person that I ever knew. He'd have never done it, not even to save himself. I was the only one... I was the only one who could get him to debase himself like that, and it was for nothing. I made him lesser. I made him like me, and the bastards killed him anyway."

— Mike Ehrmantraut, "Five-O"

Peeling back the comedic layers of Saul Goodman has never been more excruciating to watch, with Better Call Saul revealing just how much of his past has affected him and the people he loves.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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In General

• Peter Gould confirming the core tragedy of the series.
  And always the question we were asking ourselves and beating our heads against the wall trying to answer was, how does this guy become Saul Goodman? What we started with was, what is the problem that becoming Saul Goodman solves? And I think what we realized gradually, especially in season 4, was that the problem that becoming Saul Goodman solves is, “I don’t want to be Jimmy McGill anymore.”
• Season 6A reveals that a lot of Saul's cemented traits (the flashy colors, the office, the "I'll fight for you" first line he says in show, the fancy car) were encouraged by Kim. Jimmy's way Beneath the Mask but Kim is everywhere in Saul Goodman.
  Odenkirk: The duality of Kim is one of the things that provokes Jimmy, leads him on, frustrates him, but helps him [with a] vision of being Saul. And in a strange way, he probably feels closer to her when he’s playing that role because he knows how titillated she is by it. So in a way, in his desire to be close to her, he wants to be that guy that she is delighted by.
• Chuck and Jimmy's feud. As Kim explained, with their parents both dead, they are each other's last family left in the world and both are torn by how much they simultaneously hate and love each other. Especially how both interacted in Season 1 until Chuck confesses his resentment of Jimmy and Jimmy trying his hardest to detach himself from Chuck, the person he wanted to be a lawyer to make him proud. It gets worse in "Saul Gone", as Jimmy realizes that he ran to Walter White to recreate his broken childhood relationship with his brother, and a pre-show Chuck has a brief moment of seeing Jimmy as not terrible, asking if he can stay and talk. Sadly the damage has already been done, Jimmy rebuffing because he assumes Chuck just wants to tell him what he’s done wrong. Every opportunity they ever had to actually talk was ruined, and it could have been so different.
• Jimmy, Mike, and Gus begin at a somewhat high position in this series, Jimmy trying to make something of himself, Mike trying to move on from his son, and Gus acquiring a major victory over the Salamancas and for Los Pollos Hermanos, and the latter two establishing the drug empire as we saw it in Breaking Bad. Anyone who's watched the original series first will already know that the drug empire will collapse like a house of cards when Hank eventually gets wind of it and the employees brutally killed by the Neo-Nazi prisoners, Gus will end up dead during the moment of his 'supposed' final victory over the men who took Max from him, Mike will be killed by Walt when attempting to flee the DEA and leaving his daughter-in-law and granddaughter with nothing since all the money he tries to leave them gets seized by law enforcement, and Jimmy himself will initially be widely successful as Saul Goodman, but eventually get ruined when Walt's criminal activities are exposed to the world.
• The flashforwards at the beginning of each season. Jimmy is all alone, with no friends or family to contact. He constantly lives in fear of being caught by the police. He has an incredibly menial job to go to every day. He barely speaks a word to anybody. And at the end of the one for Season 3, he just suddenly collapses from stress.
• The season 6B teaser is very bittersweet, showing the usual places of the show in black and white to the tune of Fred Neil's "A Little Bit of Rain". This is before Jimmy repeats Chuck's line "let justice be done, though the heavens fall", and it transitions into... full Saul Goodman mode (combover and everything), picking out clothes.
• Though subtle, the title screen themselves contain an ever-present bittersweet tearjerker reminder of the looming inevitability of the future for all the characters involved in the show, Jimmy especially. The title screen, like the flashbacks of the 'good old days' that Jimmy vicariously remembers the series through, is brightly lit and awash with colour, but gradually throughout the seasons it starts to fade out, the colour bleeding away into Deliberately Monochrome as a symbolic reminder that every step Jimmy takes on his journey into becoming Saul Goodman inevitably leads to his current pathetic life as Gene, devoid of all meaning or purpose and riddled with paranoia.
• The AMC Twitter account put together a little fanvideo of their own, glitching like it's one of Gene's videotapes from Kim and Jimmy's marriage, to his pleading "I love you" and her crying "I love you too, but so what?", to Saul transparently pushing her away with "have a nice life, Kim".
• Gould’s detailing Jimmy’s perfect fantasy world, where he feels safe and looked after with Chuck and Kim by his side:
  Gould: Jimmy's dream world is that Chuck leaves HHM and the three of them have an office in the sky, in this glass tower, and Jimmy has Chuck all to himself and has Chuck's love and respect, and he’s got Kim's love and they all get to practice law and Jimmy's kind of the happy baby.

Season 1

Uno

• The first episode opens with a glimpse of Saul's life after Breaking Bad. He is now working at a Cinnabon in Omaha, he has become paranoid to the point where he thought one of his customers was going to kill him, and he drunkenly watches a video tape of his commercials.
• Jimmy going through a series of bills all demanding that he pay immediately when he's broke and blew his only chance to make some money by trying 3 clients together instead of separately having assumed he would be paid 3 times the regular price.
• Jimmy and Chuck argue over Chuck being broke, and Chuck does some Stepford Smiler niceties until it heats up and he yells that he’s going to get better like none of this ever happened. After that outburst, they both sound like they’re going to cry.
• Jimmy’s not allowed to use his actual name for his practice because it’s too similar to HHM. Not just his wavering plea to Chuck “whose side are you on?” but Chuck utters some Dramatic Irony, “wouldn’t you rather build your own identity?”
• His meltdown after he found out the Kettlemans went to HHM instead of him.

Mijo

• Jimmy being forced to watch as Tuco breaks the twin's legs, expressing anguish and horror at the pain he has inadvertently caused as well as fear that the same fate could still befall him.
• Jimmy vaguely explaining the medical bill to Chuck, feeling that the medical bill represents a "good thing," simply because he did manage to save the twins' lives even if it cost him and them dearly.
  • Jimmy thinks his brother is disappointed over the medical bill, but it turns out Chuck is upset he brought the cell phone into the house. This reveals how far Chuck had slipped.

Nacho

• Seeing Chuck in the beginning of the third episode. Seeing him go from a confident successful lawyer to the shell of the person he once was is heartbreaking. Especially now that the roles are reversed in that Jimmy is the responsible one of the two due to Chuck's mental illness.
• After starting out blasé and confident, when Chuck starts to leave, Jimmy panics and begs, promising he'll do whatever Chuck wants if his brother saves him from this. The genuine disappointment Chuck has in Jimmy is palpable (and Jimmy will eventually make a fool out of him), and Jimmy pleading that he'll do anything is painful knowing that Chuck will take advantage and use this as Jimmy "owing" him.

Hero

• Chuck, suspicious of his brother, rushes straight into the exposure outside just to grab the newspaper. He reads the paper and wraps himself deeper in his blanket, knowing full well that his worst fears about Jimmy are confirmed.
• The look on Jimmy's face when Betsy Kettleman calls him "the kind of lawyer guilty people hire". Keeping in mind that he left a very lucrative confidence business behind and actually dragged himself through law-school (which is nothing to sneeze at in its own right) to become a by and large honest lawyer working his ass off just to stay afloat and support his brother, it's not hard to imagine that this is the moment that truly sets him on the path to becoming "Saul Goodman", a caricature so perfectly and thoroughly defined by that very sentence.
• Jimmy taking his first step to becoming the corrupt Saul Goodman by taking a bribe from the Kettlemans. After calculating how he can make it all appear legal, he morosely notes "On this rock, I will build my church."
• After his phone call with Kim regarding the safety of the Kettlemans, he whispers solemnly to himself, "I'm no hero."
• Jimmy pleading with Chuck to take off his tinfoil blanket/cape while they talk is equal parts cringe humor and this. He tries to be understanding of Chuck's condition - which is confirmed to be entirely in his head in the hospital when the doctor turns on a machine that Chuck can't see (but she and Jimmy can) to see if he has an "allergic reaction", and Chuck doesn't react - but he's unable to look at and talk seriously to the brother that he looks up to so much whilst he is wearing something so ridiculous. It'd be like talking to somebody you admired for their intellect insist on wearing a tinfoil hat so that people can't hear their thoughts, you'd know they'd gone mad.
  • Jimmy later voices the concern that every time he screws up, Chuck's "condition" gets worse. So it's possibly Jimmy wants Chuck to take the blanket off not because it's ridiculous, but because Jimmy views Chuck wearing the thing as a condemnation.

Alpine Shepherd Boy

• Dr. Cruz very gently calls Jimmy out on how his taking care of Chuck is really just enabling him, and as it tries to sink in, he asks Kim what she would do, putting her on the same pedestal as his brother.
• Jimmy promising Chuck that he'll be good like he's a kid with big Puppy-Dog Eyes is a hard level of Dramatic Irony.

Five-O

• Mike chewing Stacey out for reporting the police, which led them to investigating Mike. What's sad is that Stacey has good reasons to do so, having longing for justice for her dead husband, and Mike is clearly taking his anger out on her. He does later atone by explaining the full extent of what really happened.
• Mike breaking down over having convinced his own son to betray his principles for nothing.
  I was the only one that could get him to debase himself like that. And it was for nothing. I made him lesser. I made him like me. And the bastards killed him anyway.

Bingo

• After Jimmy gets the Kettlemans to go back to HHM after sending their money to the DA, he goes back to the office he was going to buy, but can't due to putting his money with the Kettlemans'... and proceeds to have an even worse meltdown than he did at HHM back in "Uno", ultimately driving him to tears. And his breakdown occurs in the very office space he hoped to save for Kim.

RICO

• The silent scene of Howard destroying Jimmy's dreams of working as a lawyer in his brother's firm, right after the beautiful scene of his surprising Chuck with his passing the bar. Watching this scene with foreknowledge of the next episode just bites even more.
• Jimmy's hopeful prodding of Chuck to say he's proud of him is heartbreaking enough even without the Rewatch Bonus. Chuck doesn't exactly hide his disgusted, horrified expression well.

Pimento

• Jimmy's reaction to Chuck suggesting that they have to take the case to HHM. Chuck is right, but his fantasy of being a Crusading Lawyer with his big brother is slipping through his fingers.
• The horrible revelation why Howard forbade Jimmy from working at the firm. It was Chuck's doing. He didn't feel Jimmy was really up to the commitments of law.
  • Not only that, but for the ultimately petty and obviously biased reasons he states in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech where Chuck essentially says that the amount of effort Jimmy puts into trying to be an honest lawyer is worthless just because he has a bad past and a law degree from a disreputable school.
    Chuck: You're not a real lawyer.
    Jimmy: I'm what?
    Chuck: You're not a real lawyer! The University of American Samoa, for Christ's sake!!?? An online course? What a joke! I worked my ass off to get where I am. And you take these shortcuts and you think suddenly you're my peer? You do what I do because you're funny and you can make people laugh? I committed my life to this! You don't slide into it like a cheap pair of slippers and reap all the rewards!
    Jimmy: I thought you were proud of me...
    Chuck: I was! When you straightened out and got a job in the mailroom, I was very proud.
    Jimmy: So that's it then, right? Keep old Jimmy down in the mailroom. He's not good enough to be a lawyer.
    Chuck: I know you. I know what you were, what you are. People don't change. You're Slippin' Jimmy! And Slippin' Jimmy I can handle just fine. But Slippin' Jimmy with a law degree is like a chimp with a machine gun! The law is sacred! If you abuse that power, people get hurt. This is not a game! You have to know...on some level, I know you know I'm right. You know I'm right.
  • The fact that Jimmy seems to be fighting back tears in this scene.
  • The line "I thought you were proud of me" hits REALLY HARD, considering the fact that after he was bailed out by Chuck, he started to take after him as a role model and would have actually been just as good as Chuck had he not been barred from working at HHM.
  • Made even worse by Jimmy's tone of voice during that line; at that moment, Saul Goodman wasn't talking. Nor was Jimmy. But an emotionally CRUSHED kid who wanted to make his brother proud, only for it to be crushed by the brother's own jealousy and resentment.
  • You also kind of feel bad for Howard, even though he was kind of a prick, but the reveal that everything he was doing was him following Chuck's orders and he genuinely respects Jimmy as a lawyer even though they don't work together all that well.
• Kim's candid advice to Jimmy to take Howard's unfair deal, knowing that Jimmy had suffered too many financial woes and the real reason Jimmy will never get anything more. Kim's voice breaking almost to tears when Jimmy snaps.
  • It's even worse knowing that Kim once worshipped Chuck just as much as Jimmy did, back when they were both working in the mailroom together. Learning how much her idol hates his younger brother, and how it's caused Jimmy to go through so much unnecessary hardship just further grinds down the already Broken Pedestal Kim had for Chuck, and how genuine her pity for Jimmy is.
• Despite a few missteps along the way, Jimmy has truly gone above and beyond the call of duty to make it, not only as a good lawyer, but a moral one. This is a guy who is willing to go dumpster diving in order to retrieve paper work to help his elderly clients. Compare him to what he'll be when he becomes Saul: he'll be a guy who eagerly jumps at the chance to work with drug dealers. Now consider the implications of learning that Chuck has been the one keeping him from getting forward: The reason Jimmy fell so far is all because his brother thought he wasn't good enough to be a decent lawyer, even though he clearly was. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.

Marco

• Jimmy's mental breakdown during the bingo game in "Marco." Walking himself (and the audience) through the painful series of steps that led him to Albuquerque, all while Chuck's betrayal is fresh in his mind... a heart-wrenching image of a man starting to believe he'll never be anything more than Slippin' Jimmy, despite his (mostly) honest efforts at reform. He genuinely wants to be good, but isn't getting the support he needs to do it, and it's destroying him.
• Jimmy apologizing to Kim and her embrace.
• Marco asks about Jimmy's mom, and Jimmy has to say not just that she died, but the funeral was in Chicago and he couldn't see Marco because Chuck had a big case. Marco's really hurt, Jimmy would rather talk about anything else and the scams begin again to fill the awkward silence.
• In Chuck's final and sole scene in "Marco," Chuck curiously spies Jimmy's car outside. He has his hand on the knob, as if ready to go outside. He hesitates and ultimately does not go through with it. Word of God is that Chuck is sorry to have hurt his brother but is too prideful to admit it.
• Everything about Marco's death. Jimmy came back to blow off some steam, and wound up spending a week with Marco scamming people like the old days. And just when Jimmy is talking about leaving, Marco convinces him to pull one last Rolex scam... only for Marco's health to screw him over.
  Marco: ...this was the best week of my life...

Season 2

Switch

• Season 2 starts with a flash-forward to Jimmy's present situation. While doing his normal routine at the Cinnabon, he accidentally gets himself locked in the mall's garbage room. There's an emergency exit, but he can't open it because it will set off an alarm and he can't risk getting the police involved. Someone eventually opened the other door for him, but it's scary that Jimmy has to live in fear not only of hitmen, but also unwanted police attention. And when he eventually leaves, the camera slowly zooms in on a "SG was here".
• Jimmy takes a break from the snotty midlife crisis to confess that his whole life has been to try and make Chuck happy, and bend over backwards to try and please Chuck. Kim points out that him quitting the law is exactly what Chuck wants, and while he denies it, so much of Jimmy (and Saul much later) is still to do with spitefully appeasing his brother.
• Jimmy's assumption that he has to take the Davis and Main job for Kim to consider having a future with him. Chuck making him think he had to be a certain thing in order to get love really fucked him up. His eyes are red, the hand gestures are more frantic, and he can hardly get words out.

Amarillo

• Mike's daughter-in law is shown to be growing paranoid.

Gloves Off

• After Kim is "sent to the cornfield" a second time due to Jimmy's actions, she outright rejects all his attempts to help, having finally lost all faith that he can do anything but make it worse.
• While also heartwarming because ultimately doing it for Kim, Jimmy offers to make all of Chuck’s dreams come true; get Kim out of the cornfield and he'll quit the law. But he also makes it about his already fragile identity ("no more Jimmy Mc Gill esq. poof! Like he never even existed.") and his and Chuck's toxic relationship, reassuring him he can ruin Jimmy's life and get off scot free. Even Chuck sounds a little freaked at how manic his brother is acting.

Rebecca

• The reveal of the source of Chuck's animosity for Jimmy becoming a lawyer: his years of Stealing from the Till at their father's store eventually forced him to sell it, wrecking his dream and leading to his death six months later. Making it worse is that the man was Too Good for This Sinful Earth and to the end refused to believe that Jimmy was responsible for it.
  • Inflatable makes the truth worse in retrospect: Jimmy did steal money from the cash register, but it stemmed from how his father, being the gullible man that he was, was a virtual ATM to conmen and grifters, as he never could see past their blatantly obvious sob stories. Jimmy tried to protect his father, but his efforts were rebuffed. Concern turned into resentment and an angry Jimmy started stealing from his father as well. Chuck only saw the end result and blamed Jimmy for everything. While Jimmy was guilty, he was not the only cause of the tragedy.
• After Kim does a heroic amount of work to dig herself out of Doc Review by getting Mesa Verde into HHM, Howard basically shits on all that effort by leading her on through the deal and then declaring that he'll put someone else on the case. You can practically see her heart breaking when Hamlin leaves her alone in front of the firm.

Bali Ha'i

• Jimmy's insomnia montage. Especially when he tries channel surfing, going through a Chia Pets commercial, C-SPAN quorum, American flag placeholder footage, and finally finds out that Davis & Main has completely changed Jimmy's commercial back to the swirly nebulousness of their first ad.

Inflatable

• The Mood Whiplash of the hilarious montage of Jimmy making himself intolerable to work with, followed by his tearing up as he explains to Cliff that he really did want to be a good by the book lawyer, but just couldn't overcome his natural inclinations. Jimmy clearly feels guilty about essentially extorting money out of Cliff, who has been nothing but good to him. However, Jimmy cannot give back the bonus money, so he has to be an utter jerk to Cliff so Cliff fires him.
• While also sweetly taking responsibility for it, Jimmy admitting that he'll do change himself, go as low as possible, to receive love from someone, especially when it's Chuck or Kim.

Fifi

• Kim's disappointment after Chuck steals Mesa Verde from her, when she'd been so excited that she'd managed to win them over.

Nailed

• Mike learning that an innocent bystander was killed due to his campaign against the Salamancas. He silently gets back in his car with a look of pure My God, What Have I Done?. According to the commentary, Mando as Nacho was starting to tear up as he tells Mike this, and it goes to show how trapped the character is already feeling.
• Jimmy watching Chuck collapse in the copy shop of an EMS attack, and unable to intervene lest he be exposed.

Klick

• The opening with the death of the McGill brothers' mother.
  • Only Chuck is around for her actual death, and her last words are her asking for Jimmy. Chuck feels so betrayed and hurt by this that he doesn't even tell Jimmy.
  • Jimmy only left because he was hungry and wished to get something to eat. He even pointed out to Chuck that not eating anything wouldn't do him any good, and even offered to buy him something. Rather than be grateful to Jimmy's gesture, Chuck seems more annoyed than anything. Jimmy's reaction to his mom dying while he was getting some food is devastating.
• Chuck wakes up after his concussion and sees his brother, who looked after him yet again and still refused to have Chuck committed and then proceed to bash as he planned all of this. Chuck's claim of love for his brother seems more and more hollow.
  • Chuck refuses to hear Jimmy out when he tries to explain to him that he had no intention of committing him, and he just wanted to make sure Chuck would be okay. Chuck keeps drawing his own conclusions on people and situations that he refuses to listen to them.
• Ernesto comparing the past of him and Jimmy with the now: "I miss the mail room."
• The scam Chuck pulls on Jimmy is pure heartbreak in a cup. He outright uses his brother's very real concern for his own and Kim's well-being, while refusing to note the spirit of the testimony that was recorded. He's so fixated on nailing Jimmy to the wall on the details, he's blind to the emotional damage his obsession is doing to everybody.
  • Jimmy's exasperation of his brother to not let go of it as his condition is clearly what should matter most.
    Jimmy: I thought you would finally accept it as a mistake and move on but no! Wishful thinking!

Season 3

Mabel

• Jimmy tries burying the hatchet with Chuck as they take down the space blankets off of the walls, just trying to talk about happier things and what not... only for Chuck to point blank say he's not going to forget what Jimmy did and that he will pay. Keep in mind, Jimmy has yet to learn of the tape recorder.
• The commentary for the episode talks about how Jimmy really should leave the brother who keeps hurting him, but if you've grown up with someone like that, then it's not easy.
• Chuck actually lets himself be endeared with the memory of his five year old brother and the nightlight he was obsessed with, before turning cold again. As he knows very deep down that he had something to do with that sweet kid turning cynical so fast, putting him down and still considering him an easy target up to being a lawyer, there might be some regret associated with it.
• Ernie winds up being completely shocked and confused after accidentally listening to the tape, even more so after Chuck tells him to keep it secret. What's worse, it seems like Chuck planned for Ernie to hear it.
• The captain of the military base calling off Jimmy's bargaining as he still manipulated him for his ends. Showing like with Cliff that even Jimmy's most innocent cons still do hurt people.

Witness

• Jimmy getting outright rejected by Mike. He’s been desperate for this guy's approval and friendship since at least "Cobbler", and Mike seems aware (and frustrated) that he's being used as a replacement for Chuck.
• "For this, you destroyed our family, are you happy now, for what?! For nothing!" Context: Jimmy, after learning from Kim (who learned from Ernie) about the tape, Jimmy decides to drive over to Chuck's... and he is pissed. That line was delivered after Jimmy broke open the drawer holding the tape recorder and yanked out the tape.
  • Subsequently, there's Jimmy's initial reaction: he slumps down, absolutely shattered that Chuck was faking his breakdown... but forces himself to see the rest of his clients, since he still has a job. Then, while Kim is telling him about how she's going to try and handle the situation, he's removing painter's tape... using the technique Chuck showed him last episode. When Kim leaves, and he realizes what he's doing, he rips the tape off of the wall, and... well...
  • It's subtle, and he deserves it, but Chuck looked genuinely afraid during this whole scene, especially given the implication that had Howard and the investigator not intervened when they did, Jimmy would've attacked Chuck right then and there.
  • It's mentioned in an off the cuff manner, but as Jimmy reveals during his rant, Chuck's wife, Rebecca, left him.
• Ernie decides to go to Kim and Jimmy's law office and talk to Kim about the tape, clearly worried about Jimmy while at the same time worried about the legal implications. What's worse, it seems that Chuck intended on that to happen.

Sunk Costs

• Ernie being fired by Chuck for the crime of being Jimmy's friend.
• "Here's what gonna happen. One day you're gonna get sick - again. One of your employees is gonna find you curled up in that space blanket, take you to the hospital, hook you up to those machines that beep and whir and...hurt. And this time it will be too much. And you will die there, alone."
• Kim is already completely wearing herself out, as she's sleeping in the office with files piled up, and having to go to the gym just to shower, do her hair, brush her teeth and change into her work clothes. Then she gets the news that Jimmy was in jail, and she's genuinely upset that he didn’t want to give her more trouble by telling her.
• With Chuck's offer of Jimmy not going to jail in exchange for disbarring himself (and ultimately caring for Chuck again), Jimmy got the extortion he wanted in "Gloves Off". And he's ready to give up despite everything he said at the beginning until Kim turns it into a heartwarming moment and is on his side.

Chicanery

• In the flashback, watching Chuck's relationship with Rebecca disintegrate because he was too proud or too afraid to reveal his EHS to her after he slaps her cell phone out of her hands. As Rebecca angrily leaves, Chuck would very much rather keep quiet than try to save his marriage.
• Sure, Chuck most likely deserved it, but seeing Jimmy deliberately provoke Chuck into a nervous breakdown in the middle of the hearing right in front of Rebecca, and hearing Chuck finally vent all of his frustrations against Jimmy in the open is simply heartbreaking on all levels. Any hope of reconciliation is completely gone after this.
  • Jimmy might have orchestrated all of this to escape disbarment, but having his older brother (who he looked up to in happier times) viciously insult him in front of everyone and list all the fine points why he hates his younger brother must hurt at some level.
  • Additionally, the look on everyone's faces by the end of the hearing: mixtures of bewilderment, embarrassment, and pity. Jimmy hates what he's just done. Chuck is aware his career is over, Howard knows how bad this looks, and Rebecca sees just how troubled Chuck is. Jimmy has likely saved himself from being disbarred, but no one has really won anything.
  • When Kim tells Jimmy that Rebecca will hate him after this, Jimmy sadly agrees. Jimmy doesn't really want to go scorched earth on Chuck, but the betrayal is too much for him.

Off Brand

• When Rebecca asks Jimmy to help her talk with Chuck, Jimmy refuses, completely swearing off Chuck. Rebecca then realizes that everything Chuck said about Jimmy is true and sourly notes that Chuck at least has mental illness as an excuse to explain his actions, while Jimmy has none. The look on Jimmy's face seems to indicate that he completely agrees with her assessment 100%.
• Tuco assaulted a guard in prison and stabbed an inmate, almost certainly turning his minor sentence into a major one, meaning that the terror Mike's family went through was for absolutely no reason.

Expenses

• Kim is starting to show unease over how she and Jimmy took down Chuck. She snaps at Paige, who had read the transcripts and had enjoyed how the hearing played out, and later asks Jimmy if there was any other way to handle the situation with Chuck (which Jimmy shoots down).
  Kim: (to Paige) As far as I'm concerned, all we did was tear down a sick man.
• Jimmy is in such dire financial straits with his commercial gig that, in order to convince the owners of the guitar store to buy his package deal, he agrees to shoot the first commercial for free. As such, he winds up having to pay his crew out of pocket. Jimmy then proceeds to sit down in the parking lot, opting against taking the bus back, just broken.
  • The make-up girl tries to give Jimmy back her share, only for Jimmy to insist she take it.
• What convinces Mike to help Daniel with his deal with Nacho? Hearing from Anita (from Stacey's support group) what happened to her husband (he went hiking one day, only to vanish), which reminds him of what happened to the Good Samaritan that Hector killed.
  • And a Fridge Tearjerker too, if you consider Mike's ultimate fate in Breaking Bad will be just like Anita's husband and the Samaritan.

Slip

• When Jimmy and Marco break into the abandoned McGill store to retrieve some coins, Jimmy reveals that he feels nothing but bitterness and contempt over his father's honesty, since he believes that's what led to the failure of his business.
• Upon finding the body of the Good Samaritan, the first thing Mike sees is the Samaritan's wedding ring, revealing that he had a family that has no idea what had happened to him (and maybe Mike suspected as much, since he was using a metal detector to find the body - what metal tends to be on a corpse but personal jewelry?).
• In some ways, Kim completely turning on Howard, even if the latter is being an ass through Passive-Aggressive Kombat.

Fall

• This episode presents both McGill brothers at their absolute worst. Chuck's pride isn't dented at all, and instead of swallowing it when Howard and their malpractice insurance company recommend he retire, he instead doubles down, preferring to burn down his own firm if it means getting in the last word. Meanwhile, Jimmy, desperate for money, socially manipulates his own clients into turning another of his clients, Irene, into a social pariah through no fault of her own. By the end of it, Irene is an emotional wreck due to being shunned by her friends, all thanks to Jimmy's greed.
• Jean Effron's performance as Irene is heart-breaking; this poor, kindly old woman has lost her friends, who were more valuable to her than the money.
  "They're so cold. When I walk past them, they stop talking. I-I-I hear them whispering when they think I'm not there. It's just so - It's so cruel. And I don't even know why!"
• Howard's "Reason You Suck" Speech to Jimmy. Unlike Chuck's speech back in "Pimento", this time Howard has every reason to think of Jimmy as a greedy, conniving, and two-faced cheater, and it's clear that from the tone of his voice that both McGill brothers have pushed him too far.
• Howard falling out with both McGill brothers as opposed to being friendly with them back in the Season 1 finale is a tearjerker in and of itself.
• In addition, Kim pushing herself past her limits by trying to take on two clients at once, resulting in her overworking herself and crashing her car due to fatigue.
• Nacho admitting to his father that he is working for Hector, and warning him that Hector will approach him to take over his business. He begs his father to follow Hector's instructions. Feeling betrayed, Nacho's father effectively disowns him. While Nacho was expecting this outcome, it's still heartbreaking to see him quietly leave under his own father's furious glare.

Lantern

• Jimmy trying to make amends between Irene and her friends, and finding out that getting them back together isn't as easy as tearing them apart. In the end, he's forced to admit his fraud to them, permanently burning that bridge.
  • As Jimmy is packing up his things from the office, Kim places his Rolodex of his elderly clients into a box... which he promptly chucks in the trash, since there is no way he is going to still have that client base when he is allowed to practice law again. Kim promptly places it back in the box, just in case.
• After Kim is discharged from the hospital, Jimmy basically tells her that he's giving up his half of the office.
• Howard deciding to pay off Chuck's share of HHM out of his own personal funds. It goes to show just how dedicated Howard is to protecting the firm, as well as how fed up he is with Chuck.
  • Chuck never really wanted the money, he just wanted to come back to HHM and become the powerful Charles McGill again. Howard's actions gave Chuck his 'win', but also denied him his last chance of coming back to the firm, and thus any hope of regaining his dignity after all the humiliation he has suffered. You can see how torn up and furious Howard is throughout all this, but he still allows Chuck a graceful exit.
• He may be scummier than Gus and Mike but it is possible to feel a tad sorry for Hector Salamanca as he has his Villainous Breakdown over being cast aside by Don Eladio and Juan Bolsa even though the Salamancas gave Eladio's cartel their best enforcers and paid for the mansion.
• From Chuck to Jimmy: "I don't want to hurt your feelings. But the truth is you never mattered all that much to me."
  • Which is a straight up lie, otherwise Chuck never would have gone through the effort of keeping Jimmy out of the law profession. So he either said this to finally cut ties with Jimmy for good, or he maliciously said those words to deliberately hurt Jimmy. According to McKean, it was both, Chuck legitimately feeling like his life can't revolve around his brother anymore, but also to hurt Jimmy so bad that he never comes near the door again, and taking some power in managing that.
  • He also tells Jimmy that he should just give up feeling remorseful as hurting people is what he does. Jimmy makes a few feeble responses that he can actually change, but is reduced to Stunned Silence in the end. As shown below, even Chuck knows he went too far, and the season six episode “Fun and Games” cements the idea that Saul Goodman is fucking with the law out of spite for his dead brother.
• Not long after Chuck says that, he has a hard relapse into his illness. He falls back so hard he tears his house to pieces trying to find some unknown source of electricity. At the end, he ends up killing himself by burning down his house.
  • What makes this even worse is that Chuck is the only one that knows his and Jimmy's mother's last words. Now that Chuck is dead, Jimmy will never know.

Season 4

Smoke

• It was inevitable, but: Jimmy has to learn of Chuck's death secondhand from Howard, rather than the police contacting him directly. And despite Kim relaying to him that the emergency workers ruled that Chuck died from smoke inhalation, Jimmy (without even saying it) knows that it was the fire that did it.^note Though this is debatable as in most fatal fires, smoke inhalation and suffocation is the cause of death, but Jimmy most likely wouldn't be accepting that in his state.
• Howard breaks down in tears as he reveals he blames himself for Chuck's suicide. In the process, he unknowingly reveals Jimmy's own role in pushing Chuck toward his relapse (the insurance hike), but Jimmy still holds such a grudge over their years of sabotage that he coldly piles the guilt on, while Kim just looks on in shock.

Breathe

• Kim tears a new one to Howard over the matters of Chuck's estate and the revelation he shared with her and Jimmy last night over Chuck having possibly committed suicide. She accuses Howard of only wanting to hurt Jimmy further by forcing him to rummage in the house where his brother allegedly set himself on fire, handing him a $5,000 check from Chuck's will (which Kim points out is the amount you would give to someone when you want to cut them out of your will without a legal proceeding), and offering a spot on the board for a scholarship that Chuck would've never allowed for his brother.
  • The worst part is, Howard's concerns and divulging of his guilt may indeed have been genuine, but now Kim believes that his only motive was to unload all of his guilt onto Jimmy, and she storms out leaving Howard despondent.
• Even though Nacho succeeded in protecting his father's business from the Salamancas, he has still lost the respect of his father, who can't even bear to look at him anymore, and leaves the bribe money out for his son to take, even after Nacho insists he can keep it. The only thing he asks Nacho is when his life of crime will end, to which Nacho can only respond, "I'm working on it."
  • Unfortunately, his attempts to step away from the criminal underworld are rendered null completely when Gus, having realized what Nacho did, murders Arturo in front of him and blackmails Nacho, ending the scene with the words, "From now on, you are mine."

Something Beautiful

• Nacho might have escaped Hector, but now he's stuck as The Mole against the notoriously ruthless, nigh-unstoppable Cousins at the behest of the almost impossible-to-fool Gus Fring. Throughout the episode, he's put through no shortage of physical punishment and it's clear his criminal career is going to be forcibly extended, and will be more dangerous than ever.
• Kim breaks down in tears as Jimmy reads through Chuck's final letter. The fact that there are several possible reasons for her tears is further proof of what a woobie she is.
  • It gets worse: Kim's rant to Howard about how Jimmy would react to getting that letter was completely off the mark: not only is it clear that it was written back when Jimmy was still working the mailroom, but Jimmy has completely written Chuck off by this stage, and as such doesn't react at all to the letter. That $5,000 check Kim was particularly angry about? Jimmy is perfectly okay with it; he had a feeling he would be cut out of the will in this manner, and the money can pay off his credit cards at the very least. Kim practically has an emotional breakdown over that letter... but Jimmy simply does not care.^note About the letter; he is concerned when Kim runs out of the room in tears, but that's because he cares about Kim.
  • The letter itself is a sad read, as it demonstrates how much respect and pride Chuck had for his brother back in those days, and all the things that happened since then that changed that. The worst is at the end when he expresses his hope that Jimmy reads the letter and thinks of him as his brother who was always in his corner. Not only is Jimmy completely jaded and unmoved while finally reading it, but Chuck through his own jealousy and manipulations is the one largely responsible for causing Jimmy's current state and shattering that image of himself.
    • The line "You can't imagine the joy on Mom's face. I can honestly say I never saw her happier than she was on that day." takes a dark turn when you recall Chuck's inner resentment that Jimmy always seemed to be considered the favorite in their parents' eyes, and the flashback where their mother's dying words were to call out for Jimmy, ignoring Chuck who was actually there to watch her die.

Talk

• Watching Matty Ehrmantraut as a little boy engraving his name in concrete poured by his father, knowing what becomes of him later.

Quite a Ride

• The Flash Forward: Saul tearing apart his office as he preps for meeting with Ed the Extractor.
  • It's also worth noting Saul's state of being: he's frantically gathering what little he has from his office, very clearly almost breaks down in tears when giving the title drop, is left hanging when he tries getting Francesca to hug him, and noticeably hesitates when calling Ed.
    Saul: Well, I guess, uh... (voice crack) that's it. (chuckles) Quite a ride, huh?
    Francesca: (scoffs)
    Saul: (inhales; tries to speak; holds arms out for a hug)
    Francesca: (emotionless) Yep. (grabs trash bags)
• Jimmy meets Howard in the bathroom at the courthouse and Howard looks absolutely broken. He reveals to Jimmy that he has been suffering from insomnia and sees a therapist twice a week, out of guilt over Chuck's suicide.
  • Jimmy actually asking Howard "What's eating you?" when he sees that state that Howard is in and the look on Howard's face that follows.
  • Jimmy gets rid of the therapist's phone number immediately afterwards. Seeing Howard's sorry state makes him want to avoid facing his own emotions after Chuck's death, which means his lingering feelings are just left to fester inside of him.

Pinata

• Jimmy learns that Mrs. Strauss, his elderly client who he did a will for way back in season 1, and who he used as part of his Sandpiper Crossing ad, has passed away. After learning the news, he's later seen watching the VHS tape of that commercial.
  • To make matters worse, he has to find out through a relative calling him to ask about issues regarding the will (while informing him that her memorial was a week ago), and Jimmy has to tell him through clenched teeth that he's not practicing law anymore and can't help.

Coushatta

• Werner reveals to Mike that his father was one of the engineers on the Sydney Opera House. And he hates the fact that building Gus's new basement in secrecy is something that is nothing short of an amazing engineering feat, but the world will never be able to know about it.
  • And then you remember what becomes of it in several years' time.

Wiedersehen

• When Jimmy is denied his reinstatement, it leads to the moment that this entire season was building up towards: Jimmy and Kim's blowup. When Jimmy rants about how the the interviewers denied him due to not being "sincere", Kim realizes and explains to Jimmy that it's because he did not mention Chuck in the slightest; they were looking for some sign that he was remorseful that he had died. Jimmy (already upset over being stuck in Chuck's shadow) isn't happy. But what truly makes this scene hard to watch is when Jimmy, in the heat of the moment, turns on Kim: he not only accuses her of viewing him as the kind of lawyer guilty people hire, but he also accuses her of only using "Slippin' Jimmy" for nothing more than cheap thrills. Kim, in turn, not only (rightfully) calls out Jimmy for relying on her too much to help bail him out, but when Jimmy accuses her of "kicking a man while he's down", she hits him with this. (Though they make up soon after.)
  Kim: Jimmy, you are always down.
• Jimmy thinking he’s only good enough to sleep with but not for any actual commitment. He’s being a projecting asshole to Kim (who for her part will only admit much later that she really does have too much fun) who thinks the world of him, but two divorces that both cheated on him - plus Marco who adored him as much as Kim does, but Jimmy just thinking all he wanted was a bit of fun too - will do that to a guy. Chuck using him as an excuse to ruin his marriage, assuming Jimmy is a Serial Homewrecker, doesn’t help either.
• Lalo's reaction to seeing Hector's crippled state for the first time. For one moment, he isn't the cold, psychopathic crime lord, but a man who looks like he's about to cry at seeing the father figure who raised him barely able to function anymore.
  Lalo (in Spanish): Oh God.

Winner

• The episode begins with a flashback to Jimmy being sworn in as a lawyer for the first time, and right there is Chuck to support him, and celebrate with him afterwards, and get him to bed safely when he drinks too much. Jimmy successfully gets Chuck to have fun at the party while he'd previously been stiff and later gushes over how happy he is that he's now a lawyer like his big brother, joking that they should change the name of the firm to HHMM. It's a tragic display of brotherly love, considering the usual state of their relationship (which "The Winner Takes It All" is startlingly appropriate for) Gilligould called it the happiest they've ever been together, and Bob described how Jimmy was delighted because he really thought he was on the way to getting his brother’s love like he's always wanted.
• The script makes sure to point out that once upon a time, Jimmy was full of hope and promise, thinking he'd have a fresh start.
• During the scholarship board scene, Jimmy tries to appeal to the board to give the scholarship to a girl who decided to pursue a career in the legal system after being caught shoplifting once, arguing that she has a unique perspective to offer and may need it more than the model students who are already set for success anyway. He obviously sees a lot of himself in her, but despite his pleas, she ends up being rejected, painfully reminding him that all it takes is a single mistake to be judged by others for life.
• The speech he gives to her where he projects like it’s a team sport, giving her frankly terrible advice and including the line “you make them suffer, because you don’t matter all that much to them”, showing just how badly effective Chuck’s last words to him were. To quote Bob, he’s talking to his younger self who naively thinks Chuck at least has his best interests at heart, and telling said younger self to not trust him as Chuck will never actually save him.
• For all the crocodile tears he's shed over the previous seasons to ends both comedic and dramatic, watching Jimmy break down into genuinely despondent, broken, downright ugly sobbing in the solitude of his piece of shit car is nothing short of haunting. Even Bob Odenkirk remarked this is the moment that Jimmy McGill well and truly "dies."
  • The script directions make it so much worse:
  His brother is gone. Burned to death. And Jimmy is alone.
• Kim's horror at Jimmy revealing he was faking his entire performance for the board about how he shouldn't read Chuck's letter and mocking them as fools for buying it, completely oblivious to how he's naming her as another one of those fools, and is scared there's nothing left of the man she loved as he walks off to become the openly Amoral Attorney Saul Goodman.
  • And it gets worse: the reason why Jimmy managed to trick the board into reinstating him was because of what Kim had told him: Jimmy was viewed as being insincere because he didn't mention Chuck in the slightest.
  • While the speech was one of his “use real emotions for dishonest ends” moments, Jimmy’s “he loved me in his own way” is heartbreaking, knowing that he both wants to believe that as he still wants Chuck’s approval more than anything, but also really does feel like Chuck was telling the truth when he said Jimmy never mattered to him. Plus the Call-Forward to Saul’s “deep down he really loves me” repeating Mike’s line about what wives say.
• Werner's realization of what is going to happen to him, and his conversation to his wife on the phone after. He has to angrily snap at her to make sure she safely returns to Germany, knowing these will be the last words he'll ever say to her.
• Mike's last scene with Werner is utterly heartbreaking. Mike's placid facade immediately breaks down as he tearfully asks Werner what his end-game with running away was. Mike is clearly beside himself with regret for not properly informing Werner about what the stakes of the job are, and why Gus was so adamant about keeping the operation secret. The realization that Werner can't come back from this weighs heavily on Mike's shoulders.
  • Within that scene, another especially sad moment is Mike's voice quavering as he tells Werner to call his wife. Even for someone as hardened as Mike, the emotional toll of it is too much for him to handle.
  • Despite having made multiple rash, emotionally-driven decisions to reach this point, Werner is calm and collected as he and Mike take one last walk together. And then Mike shoots him in the back of the head.
    There are so many stars visible in New Mexico. I will walk out there to get a better look.
    • And the only reason why Werner chose to walk is because he knew what Mike was about to do.

Season 5

Magic Man

• Kim is growing ever more distraught at seeing Jimmy turning into "Saul Goodman". What's worse, even though she turns him down when he suggests another (well-meaning) scam, she then has no choice but to use it to scare her idiot client into taking a deal. She understands that it's the only way to save him from ruining his life in prison, but she's still very acutely aware that she's compromising her integrity.
• Mike is still clearly shaken from Werner's death and his role in the man's death. As he sends the German team home, one of them is so angry about it that he tells Mike that Werner was "worth 50 of you" before taking off in disgust. Mike takes the blow in stride and goes about his duty. Later, disappointed that Gus is showing so little empathy, Mike tells Gus to keep his "goddamn" retainer fee, what respect he had for the crime boss is destroyed.
• In the middle of having lunch, Gene gets found by Jeff again, who gets in his personal space, forces him to miserably croak out his “better call Saul” Catchphrase with police nearby, and treats him like a newfound personal wind up toy, saying he’ll “do better next time”.
• Jimmy tells Kim that he can’t go back to being “Jimmy”, Chuck’s loser brother, and “Saul” is his fresh start, showing her this is as much about self loathing as making a quick buck.

50% Off

• After having to kill Werner, Mike goes into a Heroic BSoD far beyond anything we've seen from him before. Which just gets worse when he has to babysit Kaylee, who innocently starts pressing him about her father. When she gets to asking if he was a good cop just like Mike, he finally snaps and screams at her, and even when Stacey returns he still hasn't calmed down and just curtly says she's locked in her room on his way out.
  • What makes this such a downer is that Kaylee has been the one person in the series that Mike would sacrifice anything for and he unknowingly crushed his granddaughter's ideal image of him being the stern but loving grandfather. This is also the first time that viewers at home has seen Mike react negatively to Kaylee in any way, which makes the scene that much harder to watch.
• Howard making an honest and sincere effort to bond with Jimmy, but Jimmy is too obsessed with propping his status up as "Saul Goodman" that he brushes him off.
• Nacho begging Gus and his men to leave his father alone and living with the knowledge that if he fails in providing Gus what he wants, not only will he be ratted to the Cartel but his father will also pay the consequences with his life. This drives him to extremes to get into Lalo's favor by risking arrest when he has to race against time to pilfer the drugs before the police do.
• Jimmy is dragged back into the world of the Cartel unwillingly when Nacho forces him to get into his car.

The Guy For This

• Mike is continuing to spiral, to the point that he demands that the bartender at the bar where he and Werner drank take down a photo of the Sydney Opera House (which Werner's father worked on).
• Kim's bad day. First, one of her court hearings goes south, then she's forced to ditch her pro bono clients' cases to deal with a homeowner who refuses to leave his house that's about to be demolished to make way for a new call center. None of her attempts to sway the man are successful.
• Nacho tries to get his father out of town by arranging for his father's business to be bought for more than it's worth, something Manuel coldly turns down.
  • Nacho is so, so quiet and reticent in this scene. He hurriedly shuffles off his tweaking girlfriend, and nearly mumbles to his other girl, Amber, that this is his father. He shrinks into himself as his father takes in his apartment—lavish by his father's standards—with a huge piece of modern art of a car, knowing his father knows he only has it because he's a high-level drug dealer. He solemnly takes in his father's impassioned insistence that he face up to what he's done and turn himself in without a word in his defense.

Dedicado A Max

• The episode's title refers to a memorial Gus has set up for his murdered partner, devoted entirely to helping people. And after staring at the fountain where the dedication is written with a heartwrenching expression, he admits to Mike that he knows full well none of it makes up for his evil actions.
• After four and a half seasons of toeing the moral line but making sure to stay on the right side, Kim is finally broken and fully joins Saul in the mud, refusing to take the easy out Rich offers her and continuing her efforts against her former friends at Mesa Verde purely due to her wounded pride at not getting them to back down.

Wexler v. Goodman

• In spite of the above point, Kim tries one last time to toe the line, and asks Jimmy to not go through with their intended plan in order to get Mesa Verde to leave Mr. Acker alone. Jimmy, after making sure she's sure, agrees to do so... only we soon learn that Jimmy had lied directly to Kim's face, as he goes through with it any way^note producing a series of commercials of citizens supposedly "affected" by Mesa Verde's poor treatment of them, and accusing Kevin's father of infringing the copyright of a photographer in making the bank's logo. And although Jimmy got the deal they wanted, and he explains he lied as to protect her^note Rich was (rightfully) suspecting Kim's role in Jimmy's shenanigans in the previous episode, and if Jimmy got caught somewhere along the way, Kim would probably have to testify concerning his actions; by keeping Kim out of the loop, and invoking genuine anger from her at the meeting, she has deniability, Kim is pissed over being made a patsy of Jimmy again.
  • What's worse is that Jimmy doesn't realize what Kim meant by "again", as she was referring to his scene at his reinstatement hearing.

JMM

• Before Jimmy is about to make his defense to get Lalo out on bail, he looks across the room to see Fred Whalen's family in tears. Everything goes quiet as we see him sport an expression of regret◊. The moment is shot as an out-of-body experience, with Jimmy keeping the whole situation in mind before ultimately deciding to face the judge to let a violent murderer roam free.
• After the trial, Jimmy observes the family from a distance. Their reactions to the ruling say enough.
• Jimmy tearing Howard a new one in the main lobby, humiliating himself just shows how far down the Saul Goodman path he is heading. And how like Chuck he's acting.

Bagman

• Jimmy gets caught up in a shootout after nearly getting killed, and cowers by his car while men drop all around him. When he watches one of the bodies get run over he makes a noise that’s like retching mixed with a sob, and after Mike finds him, realising he’s in shock and telling him to breathe, he starts to cry for real.
• Kim feeling like she has to go see Lalo. Mike is right in that it gets her more "in the game", and she does it because she believes Jimmy is either about to die, or dead already and she just wants to know where the body is.

Bad Choice Road

• Thanks to his experiences in the desert, Jimmy has PTSD that he never really recovers from, admitting the only reason why he didn’t just lie down and die was because Kim was there, triggered by Kim getting pulp on her shirt from the juicer (because it reminds him of the shoot out) shrinking away like a scared animal when he accidentally breaks a cereal bowl, still feeling like the blood on his shirt is there, and sounding like he’s going to break down crying when he’s asking Mike if dealing with guys like Lalo ever actually gets easier.

Something Unforgivable

• As nasty a guy as Lalo is, the rest of his house staff are innocent, and are all murdered in a hit on him that didn't even succeed. It's hard not to sympathize a bit with the man as he marches off to get revenge.
• Kim finally breaks bad with no turning back as she commits to destroying Howard's life in petty revenge for his being slightly condescending to her. Making it worse is that she tries to justify it by saying the money it will bring in will go to good causes, which must have brought up some bad memories when Saul met Walt.
• Jimmy eventually gets to the point in his visit to Mike, crying that if anything happened to Kim he doesn't know what he'd... The implication being that if she died, he'd follow shortly after. ^note Odenkirk outright said that if anything tragic happened to Kim, then Jimmy wouldn't even be able to carry on as Saul.

Season 6

Wine and Roses

• As terrifying as the Cousins are, watching them believe that Lalo is dead and they're looking at his corpse is surprisingly sad to see. Leonel in particular looks downright heartbroken and covers the corpse's body with his suit jacket out of respect, while Marco leaves him a calling card from the Angel of Death. It's also easy to view their reactions to his "death" as feeling like they failed him, as the Cousins were the first of the Cartel to genuinely trust Nacho, who they now know to be a traitor.

Carrot And Stick

• Jimmy's reaction to Kim ruthlessly shutting down and countering the Kettlemans over their attempt at blackmailing Jimmy for tricking them into unwittingly spreading lies about Howard. It's clear that he is having regrets over sending Kim down the same dark path he's walking as Saul Goodman.

Rock and Hard Place

• The death of Ignacio Varga.
  • To add a highly bitter pill to swallow for Breaking Bad fans who have seen the whole series and are now watching this show until now, everyone else present at the scene are definitely not biting the dust this time. Gus, Hector, Mike, Bolsa, The Cousins, Victor, and Tyrus are all guaranteed to survive here. That leaves the horrifying conclusion that there was no way that Nacho was going to survive this ordeal.
  • On the other hand, there's something incredibly eerie about the fact that, discounting Nacho since he dies here, everyone in this scene is dead by the end of Breaking Bad, with some of them even killing each other. In the end, there's no one left to remember the tragedy that happened here, with only the blue flower and the bloody glass piece serving as a marker.
  • Even though he knows that Nacho had no other choice but to die, Mike is still saddened by the fact that it had to be that way.
  • Nacho's final goodbye to his old man was particularly poignant. Manuel can sense that something odd was going on during their phone conversation, but not enough to be aware that this was the last time his son would speak to him.
  • Given Saul's attempt at deflecting blame towards Ignacio in Breaking Bad, it is all but certain that Jimmy will never know about his death.
  • According to Michael Mando, Mike thinks he's failed another son figure in Nacho, and tries to make up for it with Jesse.

Axe And Grind

• The flashback to Kim's childhood shows she stole (according to Word of God) just to get her mother actually punishing her, only to have Mrs Wexler be actually proud of her for stealing. It also turns the earrings and necklace she always wears into a Tragic Keepsake, as she still on some level cherishes the moment.
• Howard painstakingly creates a latte-art peace sign on a cup of cappuccino, which he presents to his wife. Her reaction to this gesture of goodwill? Complete indifference, which she drives home by thoughtlessly pouring the drink into her travel mug, destroying the art. The subtle look of devastation on Howard's face as she does so is absolutely heartbreaking. This becomes Harsher in Hindsight as, given the next episode, this may be the last time they see each other.

Plan and Execution

• During Howard's conversation with a new HHM intern, the intern points to a portrait of Chuck and asks who he is. After getting his answer, the intern then wishes that he could be as renowned as Chuck someday, while Howard quietly laments that maybe there are more important things. It's sad to see the legacy of Chuck, one of the most brilliant lawyers in the country, be reduced to such a footnote only a year after his public breakdown.
• Just four episodes after Nacho's death, it's time for another one: the death of Howard Hamlin.
  • After a sequence of humiliations that force him to settle the Sandpiper case, Howard pays Kim and Jimmy a visit that night, giving them a punctual "The Reason You Suck" Speech, mentioning that his marriage has completely deteriorated and that his reputation with his colleagues is basically screwed, while clearly struggling to hold it together. Just when you think Howard's situation couldn't possibly get worse, Lalo shows up and puts a bullet straight through his head without ceremony.
  • Even after everything that had just happened to him, Howard still thought highly of Kim and Jimmy's abilities, and just couldn't wrap his head around why they had gone after him with such vicious and premeditated cruelty, or what he had done to warrant that treatment.
  • When told by Jimmy and Kim that he'll be okay, Howard affirms that, saying that he's bounced back from worse. Howard wasn't done yet, he was fully ready to turn it all around again, despite everything that's happened to him. The most optimistic man in the world who was convinced that he still had the rest of his life to fix what has been broken had that chance cut short by a madman.
  • Let's also not forget that Kim and Jimmy's entire campaign against Howard was an attempt to make him out to be some kind of drug and hooker addict. He even states in this scene that there will be whispers about how he is an addict. The fact that Howard died without even having a chance to clear his name and that he will likely be remembered for his fake addiction, is just heartbreaking.
  • After Lalo walks in, Jimmy and Kim spend a moment staring in shock, but then Kim desperately starts trying to get him to turn around and leave. As smugly apathetic as they were before, they clearly didn't want him to die, but by that point, it was already too late.
  • What makes this death stand out from all the others we've seen is that after six seasons of being a main character, with his own series of trials and tribulations to overcome along the way, all of it is completely undone in less than a minute. It's similar to Drew Sharp's death in that it happens so damn fast there's just nothing that can be done, but this time around, it's someone we've spent years with being killed so offhandedly, just because of a terrible spot of bad luck.
  • Additionally, while it's easy to forget in the middle of all the other horrifically sad parts of his death, it also means that there's no way for him to make up with his wife, assuming that she'll even care once she hears the news.
  • According to the writer/director of the episode, Thomas Schnauz, he believes that Howard's last interrupted sentence wasn't him pleading for his own life - he didn't even realize his life was in danger. In his drunken confusion, he thought that Jimmy and Kim were the ones in danger, and his last impulse was to try to de-escalate the situation to protect them. (This was, again, right after they'd enacted a plan to ruin his reputation and make him miserable.) His last moments were surprisingly, but pointlessly, noble.
  • Much like Nacho's Dying Curse to Hector a few episodes prior, Howard asserts he'll be okay but Jimmy and Kim won't be. He's right about the second half, as Jimmy will become the slimy Saul Goodman and then the pathetic Gene Takovic, while Kim will be reduced to an Empty Shell leading an unremarkable existence.
• As Howard lays it down on Jimmy and Kim, mentioning how terrible his life has gotten up to that point, Jimmy visibly shows guilt after Howard mentions his deteriorating marriage while Kim continues to keep a straight face. That Kim managed to fall that low faster than Jimmy ever did on his road to becoming Saul Goodman is just depressing.

Point and Shoot

• Howard's car is driven to a beach several states away in order for his death to be staged as a suicide, while Howard himself is unceremoniously buried in the same grave as his killer under what will become the floor of a meth lab. And the only person in the room who seems to sympathize with the undeserved calamity visited upon Howard is Mike.
  • As part of the staged suicide, Howard's wedding ring is left on the dashboard of his Jaguar. One wonders if Howard's wife, who had been treating him coldly leading up to now, will feel any guilt for her perceived role in his death without knowing the truth. Or how Cliff will feel, considering he genuinely thought he was helping Howard get out of a drug problem.
  • Howard was, at worst, a little stuck up as a person but he was ultimately a good man. Now his undeserved legacy will be as a whoring drug addict who blew up a major class-action lawsuit and then killed himself.
• Kim crying as she's told to go shoot Gus Fring (it is heavily implied and confirmed by Word of God that Jimmy can't leave her Alone with the Psycho), both she and Jimmy thinking this will be the last time they ever see each other.
• At the end of the episode, Kim is despondent and doesn't even look at Mike the whole time, instead staring off into the distance. Unlike Jimmy, this is her first time witnessing a murder and being in a hostage situation, and it shakes her to her core.
• Kim and Jimmy's looks of shame as Mike confirms Howard's death will be put down to cocaine-influenced suicide. Their actions indirectly led to an innocent man's death and his legacy being irrevocably tarnished, and they know it. Their fun and games are over, their relationship is all but over, and any sense of justice left in Jimmy or Kim truly died that day. And they now have to go about their day straight after, as if nothing happened.
  • You get the impression that any respect Mike had gained for Jimmy over the course of the series died that night, explaining his more hostile attitude towards Saul in Breaking Bad. Jimmy and Kim's antics resulted in a married man who wasn't in the game losing his life, being buried next to his murderer (underneath the lab where eventually, Walter White will supply Gus’ drug empire) and Howard will forever be smeared as a drug addict whose antics led to a massive class action lawsuit falling through. Suddenly, Mike not trusting Saul with his money makes a lot of sense.
• Jimmy tips over the chair he's tied to and is forced to lie next to Howard's corpse. At first, he struggles and tries to yell, but eventually just lies there before Mike finds him: helpless, crying, and exhausted. He's at least more present than Kim is in the final conversation, but still has to be reminded to talk.
  • The framing of the scene as Jimmy is laying on his side looking at Howard's body is reminiscent of how Gus is forced to look at Max's corpse or when Walter breaks down upon Hank's death. Howard may not have been Jimmy's lover or family, but he was a good man who tried to give Jimmy the benefit of the doubt and, if not a friend, was friendly. Now after all that time spent on a plot that unexpectedly ended in murder, Jimmy must look at Howard's lifeless eyes knowing he did this to him.

Fun and Games

• Mike goes to Manuel Varga to finally tell him that his son is dead, offering his sincere condolences and promising that there will be "justice" for Nacho's death. Mr. Varga coldly rejects his sympathy, saying that Revenge Is Not Justice, that nothing can bring his son back from the dead, and that Mike is no better than the criminals he works for.
  Mr. Varga: What you talk about is not justice. What you talk of is revenge. It never ends. My boy is gone. (in Spanish) You gangsters and your "justice." You're all the same.
• We learn that, far from being Chuck's lasting legacy, HHM will be downsizing, moving to a different office, and rebranding its name as a result of Howard's "suicide", likely negatively impacting the careers of everyone working there. Jimmy started out the series wanting to do his brother's name proud in the firm. Now, his actions have caused it and everything Chuck did to become a faded memory rather than the lasting legacy it could have been.
• Gus has a deep fondness for David; a sommelier he meets at a restaurant but when David eagerly runs off to show Gus a bottle of wine Gus realizes that there is no place for David or any personal relationship in his life and he leaves.
  • Worse, as noted by a Youtube commentator, this scene actually underlines how, despite all his eventual victories over the Salamanca family and the Cartel and coming within inches of actually winning, Gus's life to reach that point was one devoid of any true happiness or camaraderie for years of effort, especially since it all turned against him at the eleventh hour. Gus emerges triumphant from his tribulations in Better Call Saul, but his eventual fate casts a somber overtone of his clear melancholy over the life he clearly wishes he could have, if not for his vendetta over Max's death.
  Angel City:...A lot of people would argue that Gus got the better of Hector even he was ultimately killed by him with the surprise suicide attack. Afterall, Gus did slowly and systemically eliminate all of Hector's loved ones either directly or indirectly. He ruthlessly terminated everything Hector loved including family and close friends and then tormented him by gloriously boasting of his victories in front Hector's crippled body. He intentionally tortured him psychologically knowing that Hector was powerless to do anything about it. But this scene in a way shows that Hector actually got the better of Gus in a weird way. Here, Gus could have easily experienced what it was like to love again. He could have invited this man, whom he was clearly flirting with, back to his place for some courtship and romance but he ultimately refused because he was afraid that it would make him lose sight of his ultimate life long mission, revenge! You see when Hector killed Max, he basically ruined Gus' humanity forever. Gus was so distraught by the death of his friend/lover that he eventually embarked on a lifelong journey of vengeance. This included sacrificing any remnants of happiness. Everything Gus did moving forward was to slowly and carefully exact revenge against the man that caused him so much pain. He did all of this in exchange for any actual joy that he could have had. Even though this was what Gus ultimately wanted and planned for, deep down he was miserable because revenge was the only motive driving his existence. While he ultimately did get to avenge Max by brutally destroying Hector's life, he spent a long and arduous journey to get to that point and it was devoid of all the joys that a normal human being could have experienced along the way: love, companionship, sex, hobbies. In a way, Hector actually defeated Gus for life.
• Howard's funeral wake at HHM contains several portraits of photos taken of him on vacations and athletic events like triathlons while sporting a big smile in each one (in Real Life, these are actual photos of Patrick Fabian on his Instagram). These few glimpses into the happier times of his non-professional life manage to make this situation and the circumstances of his death all the more tragic.
• As Jimmy and Kim walk up the stairs to talk to Cheryl, the camera focuses on them setting down their glasses of water next to a mug. That mug is similar to the one Howard used to make the cappuccino for Cheryl in "Axe and Grind" which she then dumps into her travel mug. It's a subtle way of showing that Cheryl feels guilty as hell at this icy interaction with her husband being one of the last, if not the last, time she ever spoke to him.
• There’s a depressing irony in Jimmy admitting (to placate, yes, but still true) that he hated Howard because he thought the other guy had the respect of Chuck when he didn’t, not knowing that Chuck treated Howard awfully too. If they could have just talked about that, all this mess might have been avoided.
• Kim gaslighting Cheryl, bringing up that "she would have known" and by extension her failing marriage with Howard. Cheryl runs off crying, and Kim clearly feels like this was her own Moral Event Horizon.
• The fact that Howard's wife is the only person to openly question the official explanation for his death. That, plus the photos depicting him pursuing various physical activities by himself, heavily implies that Howard was even more Married to the Job than Chuck was and had no close friends outside of work. Besides his therapist, there was nobody else he could confide in who might have been able to defend his reputation.
• Kim giving up on being an attorney and subsequently breaking it off with Jimmy hits you like a truck. What's worse is Rhea confirming she knows full well Jimmy is always going to absolve her, and Kim feels like she doesn't deserve anything, not him, nor the job she loved so much.
  Jimmy: No, Kim, you make me happy! We make each other happy...how can that be bad? Hey...I love you...
  Kim: I love you too... but so what?
  • Even after she tells him about their Destructive Romance he just doesn’t understand and like a desperate little kid he says he’ll change however she wants him to. No matter what she's actually telling him, all he hears is that he's ruined her.
  • Jimmy’s Freak Out when he learns that Kim has quit her law career. Being a Motor Mouth is nothing new for him, but he’s never sounded so close to hysteria before, trying everything he can think of to undo this, and how he thinks wanting to climb out of your skin as a trauma response is “natural”.
  • What stops Jimmy from begging is when Kim finally admits Mike told her that Lalo was still alive, and then withheld the truth from Jimmy. The hurt expression on Jimmy's face is not so different from back when Chuck confessed to hindering Jimmy's law career. He realizes he really has lost another person he genuinely loved.
  • The whole scene calls back to Howard affirming that despite everything the couple had done to him, he'd be OK, and would eventually recover, whilst both Kim and Jimmy were just fundamentally broken people on the inside who would only spiral downwards due to their own self-defeating natures. Whilst undeserved, his death was also mercifully quick and Howard was killed before he ever processes that he and not Jimmy or Kim, was the one in danger from Lalo. In contrast, Jimmy and Kim would then spend the rest of their lives haunted by that moment, to the point that Jimmy eventually devolved into Saul as part of a coping mechanism and Kim just gave up everything she'd been working for her whole life and broke up with a man that genuinely made her happy and loved her. Howard's swift passing was a comparatively kinder fate compared to Jimmy and Kim's in the end.
• The very next scene gives us the moment the show was building towards for seven years: Jimmy McGill becoming Saul Goodman. The episode suddenly flashes forward to find Saul (not Jimmy, Saul) being the sleazebag we’ve known him to be in Breaking Bad, even when he’s behind closed doors. And that’s when it truly clicks: Kim leaving truly was the last nail in the coffin for James Morgan McGill, and without her, Jimmy ceases to be... and so too does the timeline for the series cease being the prequel to Breaking Bad.
  YouTube Commenter: Six seasons we've been waiting for Saul Goodman. Now that he's here, I think I speak for all of us when I say I want Jimmy McGill back.
  • Not to mention that this scene retroactively makes all of his appearances in Breaking Bad that much more tragic, knowing that his overconfidence and sleaziness were coping mechanisms for his trauma and depression. He's even seen taking Xanax, a medication that helps treat anxiety and panic attacks.
  • The fact that in a way, this is the true final act of the show. Everything after almost feels like an epilogue, similar to how "Ozymandias" was the true finale of Breaking Bad. Jimmy and Kim’s story ends with the consequences of their actions coming back in the messiest way possible, before they break up, and suddenly the only thing stopping Jimmy from fully becoming Saul Goodman is gone from his life. The story of Jimmy and Kim ends with Kim finding out just where her ‘Bad Choice Road’ led her, and Jimmy proves Chuck right from the grave and loses everybody. He becomes the criminal lawyer, Chuck and Howard are both dead, Kim left him, Mike lost all his respect for him, most of his former colleagues despise him for his involvement with the Cartel, and in five years, he’ll meet Walter White - who will eventually destroy his life as Saul. While he and Kim get to start fresh again in the finale, that's a long way off.
  • Bob confirmed he was playing Saul wanting the commercial as loud as possible as a way to get Kim’s attention.

Nippy

• After the death and despair of the last three episodes, this one is more of a breather with Gene being thrown a bone, but there's still an undercurrent of melancholy with how he'd so much rather be Saul again, even making a veiled reference to ignoring his actual dad.
• When Jeff falls flat on his back, Gene looks horrified and his eyes already glisten with tears in a way that isn't just "the con has gone wrong". The Insider podcasts confirmed he was thinking of Marco and his death.
• In order to distract Frank from the monitors for longer, Gene suddenly breaks down and opens up about having no wife, friends, or anyone to love him. How much of it being genuine is up to viewer interpretation (Word of God said Jimmy and now Gene will bury hard truths deep down, and can only bring them up when he needs something), but it's hard not to feel bad when Gene mentions his late brother and suddenly pauses, going from hammy to painfully quiet.
  Gene: If I died tonight... no one would care. What difference would it make? (...) My landlord would pack up my stuff. It'd take him three hours. And Cinnabon would just hire a new manager. Gene who? Poof! I'd be gone. I'd be a... a ghost. Less than a ghost. I'd be a... a shadow. I'd just be... nothing.
• The end with Gene having some newfound happiness, but he still considers a tacky shirt and tie combo, before putting it back with a pained expression. He knows deep down he can’t be Saul anymore, no matter how much he wants it.

Breaking Bad

• The Once More, with Clarity scene of Saul's introduction in Breaking Bad from his perspective, now knowing everything that Jimmy has gone through, and how he has very good reason to be terrified and begging anywhere but the desert. His PTSD surrounding Lalo getting brought up again is partly what spurs him on to seek Walt out, needing a distraction from the trauma of getting kidnapped for the third time, and the always there heartbreak over Kim, and making the same sort of stupidly self-destructive choice he’s made in the past and will again.
• Kim is working the Soul-Sucking Retail Job she vehemently didn’t want back in “Inflatable”, and was so scared hearing about Walter’s downfall/his lawyer going missing that she called Francesca to ask if Jimmy was even alive. Still Insecure Love Interest after all these years, Gene seems surprised that she asked for him.
  • The last call between Gene and Francesca underlines how much the latter has been overwhelmed by the events of Breaking Bad. Francesca is now a bitter woman who is still under the DEA's eye and, apart from the cash left directly to her, has no access to money in case she needs to restart a new life, differently from others who have done much worse. While she tells Gene about Kim's call, she then hangs up without a proper goodbye. Gene is now alone, the last moment of his life as Saul Goodman having been a sad phone call with his secretary, whom he could have treated much better, as he seems to realize when it's too late.
• Whatever happened in his phone call to the place where Kim Wexler apparently worked now, Gene ended his call in anger. You can’t help but feel bad for him. As a result, Gene goes back to Jeff, picking worse scams that involve drugging and breaking into people’s houses, the writers confirming as self-destruction and making yet another identity to shove his issues down.
  Schnauz: Now, he's a whole other creature entirely. He's not quite Saul, he's not Jimmy. He's the guy who's drugging people and stealing their money. But he thinks it's what he needs to do. It's the tools that he has.

Waterworks

• The episode opens with The Reveal of where Kim was in the Breaking Bad timeline — she divorced Jimmy and moved to Florida. While he tries to put up a laid-back facade, it's clear the decision to separate is tearing him to pieces.
• Kim’s mundane, boring life in Florida, making herself small and agreeable, with a mediocre boyfriend in comparison to how much fun she had with Jimmy. And as much as people made Glenn's "yep"s into a meme, she was so active in her sexual relationship with Jimmy, but here she's just... there, not even making a sound.
• Kim writes out a confession about what she and Jimmy did to Howard Hamlin and presents it to the district attorney and Cheryl Hamlin. However, it is unlikely to accomplish much. There is no corroboration to Kim's story because all the physical evidence is long gone and all the witnesses are now dead; as such, the DA might decline to prosecute Kim. Without the publicity of a large trial, Howard's reputation remains as tainted as how Jimmy and Kim made it. Finally, six years after his murder by Lalo, Howard's body has still not been found, and any possibility of finding his grave underneath the superlab anytime in the near future has also been buried with the deaths of Mike and his crew. For Cheryl, all that happened was that an old wound was opened up again and she still will not get any closure. And for Kim, she breaks down in tears, almost screaming in despair.
  • According to Rhea ^note who everyone in the show declares Kim expert, and the originator for most things with her, this is Kim’s first breakdown in her life that she hasn’t managed to shove down with booze or smokes, and she’s crying about everything; Howard and Cheryl and not getting punished, but also the Dark and Troubled Past she hasn’t processed, the pitiful existence in which she’s ended up, the death of her relationship, the guilt she has in how Jimmy became Saul, and whatever the fuck Gene is doing.
• When Kim pulls into the courthouse to make her confession, she sees that even Mike's old ticket booth is gone, replaced with a dumb mindless computer that spits out tickets without a word. It's such a little thing but it really drives home how everything fell apart in Albuquerque, how all the characters we've been following all these years are either dead or scattered to the winds. It's depressing.
• We hear the phone call from both sides, and Gene selfishly wants Kim to yell at him ("show that she has a pulse"), she tells him - partly projecting - that he should turn himself in because his life must be pitiful, and he loses it. She hangs up the phone, glad he's alive, and he splinters himself into a new identity while she martyrs herself with Cheryl.
• Saul signs the divorce papers, trying to be cruelly flippant towards Kim as possible (almost certainly believing that he never meant that much to her, and trying to repay the favor), and she finally sees the shitty coping method for what it really is. When Jesse asks her if this guy is good, meaning lawyer skills, she tells him "he was when I knew him", already missing her Jimmy.
• While ranting to Kim over the phone, Gene mentions how Gus, Mike, and Lalo are all dead then adds an "apparently" in Lalo's case. Even after all these years and on top of everything else, he's still wracked with paranoia that Lalo is out there, somewhere, and could come back to kill him at any time.
• Viktor threatening and terrorizing poor Marion with a phone-wire garrote to not call the police after she finds out who he is. When she sobs out an "I trusted you" it causes Viktor to vanish back into Gene, who then completely breaks and simply flees the house as she uses her Lifealert to call for help. It's such a sickening reversal of what Jimmy was like at the start of the show, happily helping senior citizens and wanting to be a lawyer to stick up for the little guy, that it's heartwrenching. This really is the end of the line and even Gene can't deny it anymore.
  • He’s also painfully self-destructing. Kim can already tell, slipping out that after the phone call he might not be alive anymore. Word of God is that he’s trying to get caught, and even as Saul, he automatically moves in the way of a falling pillar.

Saul Gone

• When Jimmy asks Mike about the one thing he would change in the past, Mike initially tries to answer with the day he got his son killed, but then answers with the time he took his first bribe. For all the resources and skills he gained as a dirty cop and a criminal enforcer and no matter how much he accepts it, he still regrets ever becoming a criminal in the first place.
• Marie's reappearance is absolutely heartbreaking as it's clear Walt's death and Hank's body being found did nothing to help her come to terms with what happened and she needs to see Saul behind bars to feel some kind of justice has been served. When it looks like the prosecution will plea bargain instead, she begs them not to cut a deal.
  • Similarly, one of the people in the public gallery during Saul's trial is Blanca, Gomez's wife. This is the first time we see her on-screen, and it's while she's watching the trial of the only man she has left to blame for Steve's death. One can only hope that Jimmy's confession and indictment brought the poor woman some closure.
  • Just the fact that even after everything Walt did in "Felina", everyone still believes he was the one who murdered Hank and Gomez (or at least directly ordered Jack's gang to kill them). Walt will forever be known as the bastard who murdered his brother-in-law and his partner. Yes, he's guilty of many horrific crimes, but it still is heartbreaking that he's posthumously burdened with one he didn't commit, especially considering how he was readily willing to trade everything to save Hank's life.
• While Walter is still in denial about the truth behind his leaving Grey Matter, buried deep within all that pride and ego, he still wishes he could have stayed with the company he founded. It may be a selfish confession, but considering that this is Walt at his worst, it's surprising he even bothered to spill anything to Saul.
  • Saul's reaction to Walter saying that he was "always like that" after telling him his false regret, showing that Jimmy's still in there, hurting and wanting to come out and tell the truth.
  • The fact that he also had a hopeful smile that faded when Walt echoed Chuck, that he was still hoping for some kind of love even after everything Walt did to him and what he's seen the guy do to other people.
  • The way Walt treats Saul in general during the flashback. He's just a complete and utter asshole to the poor guy for no real reason, jumping down his throat for asking a simple hypothetical, blatantly insulting him to his face, and going on self-important diatribes about how superior he clearly sees himself as being. It’s painfully obvious that Saul probably used to think of Walt as a friend or at least an associate, but here he gets it rubbed in his face that Walt only ever saw him as a useful tool at best and a contemptuous bottom-feeder at worst. Some of it is even evocative of how Chuck used to talk to Jimmy towards the end of his life (like demeaning his past as a con-man and skills as a lawyer), except worse since Chuck at least had salient points and still did genuinely love Jimmy underneath it all despite his many issues (both with himself and his brother), whereas Walt just does it to be as pointlessly cruel as possible.
  • According to Odenkirk, Saul eventually realized that he was chasing after this guy’s love and affection because Walt reminded him of Chuck, making his line in "Problem Dog" ("Could I at least get an attaboy?") miserable in hindsight, and he’d unintentionally recreated the bad parts of when he was a kid.
  • Saul isn't the only one lying either - when pondering what his greatest regret is, Walt pointedly glances uncomfortably at the watch Jesse gave him and cringes with barely-concealed horror before awkwardly segueing into his past with Gray Matter. Bear in mind, this flashback happens maybe a few days or so after Walt gave up Jesse to Jack and the neo-Nazis, and, as far as Walt knows at that point, has probably been killed. It also further contextualizes Walt's later decision to leave the watch —and his regrets — behind on the payphone after deciding to go down in a final blaze of glory against Jack's crew while righting his wrongs as best he can in "Felina".
• After years of pushing any kind of PTSD down, Jimmy admits that he really was terrified and retraumatised by Walt and Jesse kidnapping him. Turns into heartwarming as he also mixes this with responsibility, explaining that ultimately doesn't matter due to how many lives he's ruined by working tirelessly for Walt.
• When Jimmy tries to talk about Howard's death, he literally can't get the words out - all he can say is, "What happened to Howard Hamlin?" before his clear PTSD catches up with him and he has to change the subject. It's clear that even years later, he's still traumatized and angry at himself for what he caused that horrible night.
• The pre-show flashback, right after the already painful scene of Jimmy admitting he should have tried harder with Chuck, of him picking up groceries for his brother and Chuck saying he really doesn’t have to do this. Even more tragically, Chuck tries to connect and talk with Jimmy about his clients, but Jimmy is far too used to his brother looking down on him and the moment passes. It's very heavily implied that this is Jimmy's real "if I had a time machine" regret, as looking back it's obvious that this moment could well have been the point that set off the events of the series - if Jimmy and Chuck had just sat down and talked out about Jimmy's clients and his approach to the law, it's entirely possible the two could have connected properly for the first time in a while and started on the path to working out their issues, allowing Jimmy to become a great lawyer under his beloved brother's tutelage instead of Chuck continuing to sabotage Jimmy's career and Jimmy responding in kind and descending to increasingly unscrupulous means. It really stings to realize just how much everything could've gone so much better if Jimmy and Chuck had just taken that opportunity to hash things out. The scene ends with Chuck, his rivalry with Jimmy set in stone and his only companion being the lantern that he'll eventually kill himself with, slinking back into his dark and empty house.