Starchild

I love the change in her hairstyle as dramatic shorthand for changes in her life. Presumably, since she had the courage to fake her way in to see him privately, those changes are positively enhacing her battered self-esteem. Like continuing to work at the legal free clinic. I think it's telling us that whatever happens, Kim will eventually be ok. Agree to disagree. I consider the quality of both shows to be on par. To me they feel like one show. I already own BB on Bluray, and I'm hoping this one will come out on HD disc as a full series as well. (So many shows seem to release only SD discs now.) This was like a call-and-response. Two miserable creatures who lost each other in a dark forest, seeking to come back together. Kim's confession, her call, told Jimmy what he needed to do to make it right with her. He set up a situation that would have her witness his response (perhaps she would have been subpoenaed if she hadn't come willingly). And then, he confessed to things she didn't even know about (assuming he never told her about Chuck's insurance thing). She knew then he was sincere, and they came back together (as much as they could).

I am very slightly sad there wasn't, at minimum, a passing reference to searching the site of Gus' lab again. I think with Kim's and Jimmy's statements, and a knowledge that there was a site owned by an involved party that was under construction at the time, it's only logical to presume that Howard's body might be there. It's worth looking, i'd think.

I suspect so. At first he thought to save his son. Then he changed his mind and thought to also save himself.

I was one who mentioned the fact that this story about lawyers had relatively few courtroom scenes, but believe me it was not a complaint. It actually underscored that this show was more about character than plot. As for the band-aid box, as soon as he put it aside still open I knew what would happen. Even before he picked up a phone in that packaging style that no one can open without their hand slipping at least once.

I think if I were Cheryl, I wouldn't waste time trying to get money I don't need from someone who doesn't have it, especially if they had offered atonement. But I would follow her life, and do everything I could to ensure she never practiced law again. Howard at least deserved that.

This is an interesting perspective, that over the years he moved from Jimmy, to Saul, to Gene. And at the end he moved backwards from Gene, to Saul, to Jimmy. I love the parallelism in this concept. I'd even argue that at that moment with Marion, he almost crossed a line into some 4th version of himself, a version willing to commit violence, to kill. But he took a step back. The reversal back to Jimmy started then.

Not to blow my own horn, but I did predict they could end up in a landfill, and it looks like that's what will end up happening. :)

She was at her worst with Jimmy. She broke one last rule to say goodbye to him. I don't think that means she's back on bad choice road again.

Perfection. There is nothing about that finale that disappointed me. Favourite exchange: "What was that with your brother? That wasn't a crime." "Yeah it was"

Since we can only offer speculation on the topic, it's also possible that Saul threw that out there as a reputation-enhancer. A surface-level, off-the-cuff statement to say "don't worry, my advice is sound, I've been doing this for decades." Of course, anyone digging into his background could uncover that as a lie, but he's banking on his client accepting it at face value.

That's our Saul!

lol Peter, buddy, let us help you. You're gonna have to find a way to live with this :)

I thought Curie was comparatively brilliant.

And it doesn't hurt to pick one that would discourage most people from digging any deeper.

I'm thinking that at the time the line was written, it was to underline Saul's sleaze, that he'd even compromise his own identity for personal gain.

Exactly. The way I see it, in the BB/BCS universe, the showrunners and the audience have a strong respect and trust for each other. That has led to all of us cooperating in both the giving and receiving of the stories. G&G are willing to give us snippets and hints of plot and character, trusting us to take those and form the bigger picture. And the elements can be formed in multiple ways for individual audience members to assemble that portait with different colours and positions, but still arrive at the same general place. And on our side, we're willing to live with the blank spaces and occasional mild collisions, to make allowances, guesses, each of us filling in the blanks to suit our own tastes, because we recognize this as art.

Additionally, why would anyone tell the intimate truth about themselves to a criminal, especially one they'd just met? Saul is doing the smart thing, what most of us would do, using elements of his life in dealing with others, but shrouding them for self-protection. I can buy that.

That's what happens when you get more information about someone. That's all that's happened here. When we didn't know Jimmy, we took the line about his wife screwing his stepdad as true. Now that we do know the guy's damage, we can reframe that as a lie, one among many he uses to protect himself from people knowing him too well and therefore having the opportunity to wound him.

Invariably, someone somewhere would have said that Jimmy suddenly knows about sports, and I wish they'd have shown us some of that lol I don't think it has to be a retcon. Saul may have chosen the name from his slippin' past, but considered it a bonus that it sounded jewish, thereby enhancing his "appeal"

Exactly. Inherently unfair. That's Viktor. With a 'k.' ;) Those are the names they used in their early scams together. Brother and sister, Viktor and Gisele St. Clair.

It seems that the better quality a property is, the more we discerning viewers are willing to forgive/overlook. Their obvious care for it, and their clear respect for us, earns them our trust and indulgence. I can't think of another showrunner I've trusted more than these guys. My willingness to accept mostly unavoidable inconsistencies is directly proportional to the love they demonstrate for the show(s), their respect for the audience, and their attention to detail.

At least the Oscars approach fair. Like the Tonys, even the Grammys, the entire performance is evaluated and assessed against others' entire performances. Of the EGOTs, only the Emmys look at a small portion of the performance (one episode out of the whole season) and compare against tiny slices from other shows. It's very often apples to oranges and quite unfair. Even if just one episode is submitted for consideration, some voters have seen the entire season and likely vote based on everything the nominee has done that season. But many don't watch a lot of TV (or so they claim), and even if they did, no one has time anymore to watch more than a small portion of the really good stuff that's out there, so they truly only have those single episodes to judge on. I'm not a fan of single episodes to judge season-long performances in television.

We probably never will know the exact details of how Saul learned about Gus, or exactly how much he knew. BCS's previous episode had that scene between Saul and Mike where they referred to "he who must not be named" so we can infer that Saul tried poking that bear at some point and Mike told him to keep Fring's name "out your fuckin' mouth." I expect that's the last we'll hear of it.

The "member of the tribe" line was in BB. About a minute into this

He did, something about his clients wanting "a member of the tribe."