scenario

Sometimes people in shock describe the situation as being outside their body looking down. When Kim saw Howard murdered in front of her eyes, she was in shock. She wasn't thinking, she was following orders. She did what Lalo told her to do. She did what Mike told her to do. She wasn't capable of making a decision. Six years later and she still haunted by PTSD. She has a difficult time deciding if Miracle Whip is a good substitute for mayo or strawberry vs vanilla. Gene told her to confess and she just obeyed because she knew it was the right thing to do. Everything that tormented her hit her on the bus. She spent the last 6 years totally numb trying not to feel the pain and it finally hit her.

No drama and low maintenance. She knows what to expect from him. He cares about her. He's not a huge catch but he's far from the worst. She wants stability and no surprises. She'll get that from him.

I think Kim is still suffering from PTSD she got when she saw Howard die. Soldiers sometimes suffer from it decades after they get out of the war.

They probably used Ask Jeeves because it doesn't exist anymore. They didn't want to promote an existing brand unlike they did with miracle whip.

She wants to fit in and lose herself in the crowd. In that circle she needs a boyfriend. He's a local who demands very little from her. She doesn't feel like she deserves much better. She also doesn't want to be bothered looking for anyone else. He's there. He's reliable. And he's comfortable.

My guess is that he was the first person who asked her out and didn't ask any questions. He was comfortable. He didn't stress her or demand too much from her.

Besides Jimmy, they've only seen one person that could be considered friends. They're around. The accept the new Kim. She has people around her she can talk to. She feels comfortable. She's really never had anything like that before.

Agreed. She may not be convicted of anything but she admitted it freely. She's not going to be a lawyer. She probably doesn't want to because that was her path to destruction last time. She has to win at any cost. The only way she can win is not to play the game at all.

I wonder if Miracle Whip paid them any product placement money. They got a hell of an ad there.

Despite everything, Kim still loves Jimmy. Not what Jimmy has become but old Jimmy in the mail room. The Howard scam is what caused her life to crash to the ground. The flip side of I'll responsible for myself is that she tends to feel responsible for things she shouldn't feel responsible for. She's the force behind the Howard scam. If she confesses, she's also taking Jimmy down for something she did. She doesn't like Saul at all but she lives in Florida now and he's no longer her responsibility. She was wracked with guilt over Howard but didn't want to take Jimmy down for something she did and was doing her best not to even think about it. I'm sure the police asked her questions but she really didn't know anything about the events that happened after her and Jimmy broke up. I doubt anyone asked her about Howard or Lalo. When Gene called her, she knew that the Jimmy she knew was dead. He told her to confess so that gave her permission to do what her conscience has been whispering to her to do for years. Jimmy's gone. She doesn't have to protect him anymore.

I think that Kim her whole life has had intellectual support but no emotional support. Jimmy gave her emotional support which she desperately needed but he also activated the demon inside her. She wanted to please him and he wanted to please her and the way both of them did it was scamming. But the scams had to be bigger and bigger to be meaningful to her and eventually it went too far. In Florida, she has no intellectual stimulation or support at all. But she has a lot of emotional support, actual friends, and a sense of belonging she never had before. She's found an emotionally safe place and she's terrified to let the old Kim out again because that road leads to disaster for her. The women there also seem similar to her mother but without the evil streak.

That voice on the inside of people telling them right from wrong was trained into you when you were too young to remember. No one breaks good for themselves. It's a combination of everything trained into you since you were little. People aren't born with a knowledge of what their society considers right and wrong, its trained into them when they are too small to object. People always want to please the group. Human's are a tribal species. Everyone wants to please the people around them. It's part of our nature. The problem with Jimmy, IMO, is that he got conflicting messages when he was little and turned to others to straighten it out. And he still got conflicting messages.

I sympathize with Kim. She has lost all self esteem. She is now incapable of making any sort of decision. IMO. Whenever she gets in a situation where she has any sort of power at all it goes to her head. She's terrified now of making even the simplest decision because that might be the one that releases the monster in her. I'd bet she's with the first guy who asked her out. She probably doesn't even like him. She has so low a self esteem she doesn't feel she has a right to say know to anything at all. She's just bland and lifeless now. I don't have any problem with the people around her. They are good people. It's Kim whose such a weak woman who used to be so strong.

The way that Gene's been acting, it wouldn't surprise me. He found out she'd doing fine and is remarried so he tells the authority everything he could about her to ruin her happiness.

Whatever happens to Gene, it must be something which was set up before hand. It must flow naturally. Marion killing Gene in self defense or defending her boy I can see. Marion is actually the last Salamanca that was never mentioned before would not be.

Jimmy's behavior is not listed as an addiction but his behavior is a great deal like someone who does have one. There are a lot of things that aren't technically listed as addictions but some people behave as if they are. The sports fan that loses his job because the game is more important than his job. Or the religious fanatic whose religious beliefs are more important then their children.

People do what they believe is "good" because they've been taught that. The Salamanca's are all ruthless evil people. And they are all like that because they've been taught to behave like that since they were little. That's their version of "good". What's good and what's bad is decided by the people around you when you are little. The environment around Jimmy and Kim when they were little encouraged their behavior. Jimmy is like a drug addict or an alcoholic. They know what they need to do but it is very difficult. Kim moving in was like two alcoholics moving in with each other and living in an environment soaked with alcohol. Temptation everywhere and everyone around him encouraging him to drink. Kim knew the only way she was going to get better was to move away from the temptation, twice. The idea that Jimmy is where he is because he didn't hold himself in enough regard to change is just blaming every addict who couldn't find the strength in themselves to change. There's a difference between sympathizing with Jimmy and excusing his awful behavior. Saul deserves a long, long prison sentence for all the damage he did to society. I find Jimmy's character interesting because even with all the temptations and roadblocks in his path, he still had a chance to change. He still wanted to change. That's why I find Lalo's character boring. He's a sociopath whose been taught since childhood to be evil. He has no realistic chance to change.

I don't believe in the "Self Made Man." Everyone is a product of both their own inclinations and their environment. Jimmy's inclinations pushed him towards a life of crime. Good intentions won't change that. His parent's loved him but did nothing to steer him away from the path he's on. Everyone else in his life either didn't really care or pushed him towards the bad path. There's a justification and there's an explanation. There is a difference. Jimmy is 100 percent responsible for the path he's on. But, when the environment pushes you toward that path, its not easy to change. We only have a glimpse of Kim's environment. Her mother pushed her towards the bad path but we don't know anything else about her life. We do know she was a bit of a goody two shoes when younger so something was pushing her towards a good path. So there may have been a good influence in her life as well as a bad. We'll probably never know. The problem with the Self Made Man meme is that when everyone is 100% responsible for their actions and nothing else matters, there's no incentive to change. Person A's parents are multimillionaires and he went to the best school and an ivy league college and got millions from his parents to fund his start up. Person B grew up in the slums with a single parent who worked 4 part time jobs to make ends meet and he rarely saw her. And he can barely read and write because the school he went to is so bad. And all the successful people he's met are criminals. Then the logic goes. "Why should Person A do anything to help Person B? No one helped person A. They did it all themselves without any help from anyone else. Person B's got no one but themselves to blame."

But the writers have to destroy the last bit of good in Jimmy before the end. The show is a classic tragedy and it can't end with puppies and unicorns. They don't have enough time to save Gene. Kim realized the error of her ways and has a chance for redemption but Saul is doomed.

Self-Esteem isn't helped when your own brother who you idolized calls you a POS to your face. The only thing that's gained him self-esteem in his whole life is the scam. He tried to go his brothers path and be a lawyer and was told he was a monkey with a machine gun. Jimmy wanted to be a respected lawyer. His own inclinations AND everyone around him pushed him to be a sleezeball lawyer. Ultimately its his own damn fault he is where he is but it didn't help that no one around him helped him to break good in his entire life. He couldn't be what Chuck was. He didn't have the talent or inclination for it. But he could have had a nice quiet practice in elder law with a lot of help and direction. He'd always have the urge to scam but he could have kept it in check if Kim didn't have exactly the same urge.

He's not close to her but he's closer to her than he is anyone else. As depressing as it is, she's as close to a friend that Gene has. He thinks he's got her number. He's underestimating her. Jimmy or Saul would never do this but Gene has nothing to live for and he's gotten sloppy. What about his childhood partner in crime whose name I've forgotten.

As good as Jimmy is at manipulating people is, he is terrible at picking the people he relies the most on emotionally. He loved and idolized his brother who hated him and thought he was a good for nothing criminal. He loved Kim with all his heart and she was the absolute worst woman in the world he could choose. His best friend as a kid was a criminal. He's been in hiding for months and hasn't made a friend. He's friendly with his workers but not friends. He manipulates the guards but they aren't his friend. He manipulates all his victims but they aren't friends. He manipulates Buddy and Jeff but they aren't his friends. Carol Burnett's character is the only people who he's gotten the least bit close to. She's his only thing close to a friend he's got now. It would make sense that he'd be brought down by a friend since he has a habit of choosing bad one's his whole life.

I never really cared about repentance and redemption. I care that people learn to be productive members of society. People are a product of both who they are and their environment. Jimmy and Kim are both warped. But the were perfectly capable of living a normal productive life in the beginning. But they made poor decision after poor decision and no one they cared about steered them in the right direction. The Salamanca's are evil because their family teaches them to be evil from the start whether or not they were born that way. Nacho had a good environment and good role models but the lure of easy money was too much for him. Ultimately he was killed by greed. He knew pretty quickly he was going down the wrong path but was too afraid or greedy to change his path. I have no idea. The idea doesn't really interest me. I just think an offhand comment by a known liar doesn't mean a whole lot against the idea.

My friend once asked my why I liked to reread books. This is why. With well written books, you see things differently or notice different things every time you read them. BCS is the same way. BCS is a character study. And Saul's decline is fascinating to me. There really aren't many character studies on TV. Character studies are too slow for most people and you have to really watch and remember little things to really get them. BB was both a character study and study in violence. Different people got different things out of it. BCS is almost pure character study.

At this point, we have no idea. I think Saul will say anything he has to to anyone to get what he wants. If the truth will do but he thinks a little lie will be just a little bit better, he'll lie. So if there's a theory that is backed by some evidence and the only thing really against the theory is some off hand comment Saul said, I take what Saul says with a grain of salt.