ShadowFacts

Ah, so his final Gene scams might have had Jimmy origins. Full circle.

He's a big prevaricator. He thought that would resonate with the skateboarders.

I can't recall what was all in the plea, but if only white collar type offenses, then that's an excessive sentence, if only because sentence lengths in multiple counts are very often set to run concurrently. On that basis I would be OK with an earlier release. However, since I saw him drug people which can lead to tragic consequences, and know he learned nothing from Howard's death in that regard, he needs to be locked up for significant years. What he nearly did to last scam victim and Marion, has shown that innocent people are at risk from him, his acceptance of responsibility for his pre-Omaha behavior in his courtroom oration notwithstanding. He's not convicted of any of that but being locked up for other offenses ends up serving several purposes.

I agree, that's not even allowed at the jail in the county where I live. I also posted earlier that I doubt the inmates would be running the kitchen freely, there is too much prospect for mayhem to break out. No smoking, either. Lots of dramatic license here. Yes, the way he was wrapping the cord around his hands doesn't suggest tying up to me. Further, he was very close to cracking the skull of his final drugged victim, if the guy hadn't fallen back asleep.

Yes. I can believe she hoped she could use the card as a piece of ID and the assumption would be she was his lawyer and they would get a better visitation set-up. What is more unlikely to me is that smoking would be allowed at all. I think that was banned a long time ago, not sure when this scene is set. They wanted to do the smoking bookend so we can suspend disbelief on this I guess. Earlier in the thread someone mentioned how Gene looked running away in his Elmer Fudd hat with his shoe box. That got me to thinking, I know we've seen Gene looking through his shoe box before, but did we see him have one in his childhood scenes? I can't remember. It would be kind of a sweet callback. But really, Gene, could you have at least put your diamonds in a sealed baggie inside the band aid box? And had a phone ready? Especially after Jeffy ID'ed him, he should have been a little more prepared. He could set up a fake store in the snow and use a stopwatch before the mall thefts, but not have at least a small backpack ready? (Nitpicking now, and always.)

Her brown hair was straight when we first saw her in Florida. By the time she comes to visit Jimmy in prison, it was structured into a kind of curly style. Not the old curly pony, but not plain and relaxed. It may signify something, but I don't know what. She's making some changes. I don't see her in a prison romance with her ex, but who knows.

I think it's good to remember that Gene was trying to run away and use his diamonds to get another shot at hiding, but he was caught in a dumpster. I only saw three believable potential endings, and I didn't need to see him killed, didn't want to see him get away again, and was happy seeing him in prison. The plotting to get there, though, was not that satisfying to me, unless it was at least partially meant to lampoon criminal justice. Then it worked better. I don't view his oration in open court as anything a scheming Saul would do, nor was it necessary for Kim. He could have said it all privately to her, or written it. He's laying himself bare, as Jimmy, I get that, I like him taking responsibility for what he did to Chuck especially, but opening himself up to the mega sentence, not necessary. It's over the top. That's just me, it's all personal preference. My take on her not returning the gesture is that last time she used it was signalling her intent to ruin Howard's reputation, and she will never use it again because of how that worked out. She's turning in her weapons. Then why didn't they indicate that in some way? It undercuts what they wrote. Amen. And he was coming off a near-fatal heart attack. What a feat.

Jimmy's twist is different from these other two you mention. There are recidivists who are comfortable in prison because the outside world is too tough, but Jimmy thrived in whatever world he was in, as he said to his co-counsel, he was going to come out on top like he always did. That was before the 86 year sentence. Walt was never going to see a prison sentence, he was going to die first. I don't think either example is groundwork for what Jimmy did. We may like to think he's going to have an okay time in federal prison, honing his baking skills and advising inmates. He's still locked up. He's not on top anymore. But I don't see a hyperbolic gesture of decency and love. That would have been something like never scamming and nearly strangling Marion and just going ahead with vacuum cleaner man. He got a sad ending and it was deserved. I don't see a grand gesture, I also don't see a great love story, I see a mixed bag of unhealthy selfish behaviors that hurt a lot of people which has now come to an end.

I believe non-violent criminals don't belong in prison for long periods of time, other types of justice can protect society as well or better. Jimmy was different from today's headline-maker by being party to homicide after the fact, wasn't he? Also, I do believe Jimmy, if he had been tried at the state level in Nebraska and he either came clean on his own or was implicated by Jeffy or Buddy, deserved prison time for that kind of offense--drugging people is pretty heinous. But there is no question, disparate sentencing is one of the worst parts of our justice system.

That is a poetic take that I just don't feel. Does he deserve a violent end? Maybe. He did choose to try to end his Salamanca association by thinking his medication trick would kill Hector, so maybe an eye for an eye in the cartel world. I don't accept that Nacho could know his father would be safe. He couldn't. In fact, we don't, since Nacho didn't exist in BB. Hector went crazy desecrating Nacho's body, who's to say he didn't continue at some point in the future to torment Mr. Varga or worse. Mike had no authority over what Salamancas did, I think his reassurance to Nacho about that was for him to maybe die a little less hellishly. Nacho was caught, he was either going to be tortured and killed, or kill himself first, he did not have a choice to accept or not accept his violent end. I see no peace there. As much as Jesse did suffer under the neo Nazis, and gave a confession to the DEA, and anguished over Drew Sharpe and other children, I can't get past that he shot Gale. That was awful.

Agreed that his own choices dictated his end. He couldn't just leave the cartel once Gus figured out what he had done to Hector, it was too late by then, so running to another country with dad and identity change was a desperation move. My reply was about the thought that Nacho found peace at the end because it doesn't look very peaceful to me to know his life is ending and he really has no guarantee there won't be retaliation against his father after he's dead. Mike likes to protect innocents but he's not in charge.

I can never see Nacho's end as bringing him peace. He tried until the end to get his father to go to Canada with him but he refused. He "accepted" his consequences because there was no other way, and chose suicide to spare himself torture. If it had been possible I have no doubt he would have taken the route of going with his father as far away as he could. His choice to try and kill Hector, be busted by Fring and all that came from that sealed his doom. His father is apparently safe but he had no assurance of that except whatever Mike said. I think trying to rewrite his destiny would have been preferable to what actually happened.

I think convincing Kim and unburdening his conscience are inextricably linked. Saul would not ever assert that what be did to Chuck was a crime, that was stunning. In doing that he was not just Jimmy, he was Jimmy laying himself bare.

My favorite moment was our defendant standing up and identifying as James McGill, followed by his aside that what be did to Chuck was a crime. Whatever resulted with Kim was secondary to me. Some of the portrayal of what is presumably a maximum security federal prison was unrealistic. Even at the county jail I'm familiar with, the inmates have a pre approved list of visitors. Kim might have been on it at Jimmy's request, and she might have pulled out her bar card as one form of ID, leading the personnel to make an assumption that got them more privacy. Or she may have intended to mislead. I know minimum and medium security prisons have inmates working all kinds of jobs but maybe not realistic here that they are operating a large kitchen where they even bake their own bread. Kind of a set up for security problems. But I overlook it because it's in service of paralleling with Gene/Cinnabon and allows us to see he's liked by the population. Just about everything about the plea negotiations, sentencing and disposition is an indictment of our system. To go from 7 to nearly 70 years is freakishly stupid. That the lead prosecutor suddenly buckles at the thought of ruining his track record when the possibility of a hung jury always exists tipped the scale too far in Jimmy's favor for me to buy. These little nitpicks didn't impact my satisfaction with the ending which I thought was appropriately sad and really the only thing short of death that would make sense to me.

I have a vague memory of some flashback of her listening to Chuck talk about something, and she looked starstruck, while she was still in the mailroom days. I think she had admiration for his brilliance and thought she would like to be like him. She has a flat affect in general, is fairly stoic, hard to read. The only times she looks like she enjoys anything very much is when pulling off something and especially after a scam, she is turned on.