Simon Boccanegra

In 5-12, she's way beyond passively knowing; she's trying to overcome Walt's resistance to murdering Jesse. "A person that's a threat to us...we've come this far. What's one more?" Perhaps understandable in the context, but still part of her arc.

You see, Cinnabon, Kim was a simple midwestern girl -- you might say a "cockeyed optimist" -- who got herself mixed up in the high-stakes game of ethics breaches and drug cartels.

Yeah. At some point it hit me that with a few noun tweaks, a great deal of what's out there in arts and entertainment, the great and the terrible alike, can be summed up by Kramer's description of the manuscript Elaine was supposed to read for her new job.

It was a story about love, deception, greed, lust, and unbridled enthusiasm. That's what led to Kim Wexler's downfall.

But much of her life focus in 2002-04 was on building a career, and later on her relationship, which ran parallel. When she's cold-calling all those people in "Rebecca" (oh, so many, many people), she addresses them warmly, like friends, but her comments betray that she's been out of touch with some of them since school, and others she met once when networking at some lawyerly event ("We met at that ABA mixer last year. Yep. Bourbon shots. That was me"). Even Paige, the prospect who ultimately comes through for her, is clearly an acquaintance rather than a close friend. Kim says in her end of the call "I thought we hit it off as well!" (Maybe the "we" is a third party that Paige introduced her to, but I don't think so.) In Florida, her context is different. Establishing herself at the sprinkler company couldn't have been as consuming. So she has more of a social life...such as it is.

When I recently watched some highlight episodes from the earlier seasons, one of the ones I watched was "Lantern." We remember it mostly as the one with Chuck's tragic exit, but it's also the one after Kim's car accident. In retrospect, I thought it was significant that when they were discussing the accident, she said, "I could have killed someone, Jimmy," What is his reply? "Yeah, yourself!" She then says she crossed three lanes of traffic and doesn't remember any of it. He starts talking about how she was taking on too much because of him (at this point he's been suspended for a year and cannot carry his share of the financial load), but he's got a plan to fix things. Kim: "You didn't make me get in that car. This was all me. I'm an adult. I made a choice." That isn't to say Kim's a superior being and Jimmy's a terrible person. Clearly, it's more complicated than that. But the writing even this far back had Kim as the one to think more beyond the concerns of the two of them, the (sometimes bad) choices Kim makes weighing heavily on her, and Jimmy saying exonerating things in an attempt to preserve the status quo. That conversation about the accident is practically a dry run for his trying to talk her out of quitting the law and trying to salvage their relationship in "Fun and Games."

Rhea talked about that in her EW interview. "Well, we shot a couple of different iterations —- including ones where she shoots finger guns back at him. It was very small and not animated or with a smile, but still — in the end, Peter decided that it looked too much like they were saying, "Kim is back in the game," and we really didn't want to give that impression. That moment between them, to me, is much more about the acknowledgement of their bond, that is still there, and the part of their relationship that was true. "It's very purposely left to interpretation of exactly like you said. Is this him just saying, "Man, we had a great run and it's okay"? Or is it him saying we're still great together. And we could still do something together. We could still legally do something together. [Laughs] I took it to mean that he was saying, "I still believe that we have a relationship." In whatever capacity that is. Even though the finger guns are representative of the beginning of this horrible downfall scam with Hamlin, for me, in the moment — because he does it in a very different way — it felt like, "There is still something great about us. Not everything about what we were together is bad. There's something great about the two of us together." And I took her look to him to be an acknowledgement that it's true, even though she's not ready to say what that means."

Don't forget all-grown-up Kaylee. Maybe she's followed her father and grandfather into a law-enforcement career.

I read Straight Man around the time it was published, and I think it's an inspired choice for an open-ended television series in the 2020s. A satire of life in the academic world will be even more fruitful ground now than it was in the late '90s, and Odenkirk seems like perfect casting for the central role. Now I just want to know who's going to play "Orshee." (A male colleague of the protagonist's, who replies "Or she!" any time someone says "he.")

Rhea Seehorn on playing Kim again in the future: "If they want to do one, I will do it! As far as I know, they have said that they want to take a break from this universe for a while. But yeah, if we get to do it, I hope it's not, like, 80-year-old Kim. I'd like to do it while I'm still a little spry — but I'll do it whenever they want to." https://ew.com/tv/better-call-saul-rhea-seehorn-on-series-finale/

Thanks, both. It had slipped my mind that Saul exited Breaking Bad with a fair amount of time on the clock. Saul availed himself of the Disappearer's services in spring 2010, and the mall heist was going on in October of that year, with Marion initiating the arrest in December. Now I wonder how far forward in time we went in "Saul Gone" with the sentencing, Jimmy acclimating to life in Montrose, Kim's visit. I don't think all of that could still have been in the same month. I took her somewhat different look in the prison visit to mean some amount of time had elapsed.

Not even. His references to "two years ago" were to when he was abducted by Walter and Jesse. The entire Breaking Bad era was 2008-10. The final episode of BB took us as far as September 7, 2010 (recall that we saw Walter marking birthdays at the beginning and end of the series, with another in the middle). The football games Jimmy-as-Gene discussed with the security guard at the mall were played in October 2010, and the phone conversations with Francesca and Kim took place on Jimmy's own 50th birthday (November 12, 2010). Edited: Others reminded me that Saul disappeared from Albuquerque in spring, and one late BB episode covered a six-month time period. He kept his nose clean in Omaha until fall of the same year.

Breaking Bad's "Felina" was a good, solid conclusion overall, but I found it rickety in some of its plotting. I've commented recently that I can be forgiving of those ingenious-plot stories in which everything has to go just right, and everything does go right because that's what the story needs to happen, but Walt's plan for taking out all the white supremacists really pushed it. Also, I am sure I remember a lot of carping that night (I didn't join in this part) about Jesse's escape, similar to what's being said now about Kim: he should have been arrested and done time, his driving away was a feel-good copout that provided no #justiceforGale, etc. Maybe people have mellowed on it with re-watches, or maybe it's attached itself to the three episodes before it as one big "finale of Breaking Bad," but a lot of people did consider it a good-not-great episode, or worse, when it was new. Sometimes these big episodes that come freighted with expectations get underrated or overrated in the first-day takes, and we need to see how they settle. I thought "Saul Gone" (which I've seen once) was better than "Felina" (which I've seen a few times). But I reserve the right to change my mind.

From the Word of Gould: "I love the fact that you think it’s a happy ending when you have one character in prison for a very long sentence and the other one who’s under threat of a giant civil action. So yeah! Look, the fact that you think that that’s an optimistic ending means a lot. Our question really became, 'What is the right ending for this guy? What is the right moment to leave him? What is the right moment to leave Kim?' [...] "I think we just wanted to be honest. We don’t really think about it in terms of 'This is a happy ending' or 'This is a sad ending.' Our fervent hope is that it’s a satisfying ending. We’re just trying to think about what could really happen to these characters and what would they do in the circumstances and how would the world respond to what they do. It’s interesting because we don’t usually think in terms of 'a happy thing' or 'an up thing' or 'a down thing.' Certainly looking back on it, rhythmically, both these characters have gone through some terrible setbacks and they both kinda lost themselves and lost the lives that they built. My mother used to say, 'Where there’s life, there’s hope.' I guess in the end I subscribe to that." https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/better-call-saul-series-finale-explained-interview-1235199278/

No, that was legit. They bunked together briefly at The Disappearer's place, late in the run of Breaking Bad.

Yep. "Me on top...like always," he had predicted to Bill Oakley. And then we saw him not doing so badly in prison. It's still prison, but he can have as comfortable existence there as one can.

Eighty-six years?

I thought she just meant she presented her old bar card and they believed at the prison she was his attorney. Which she wasn't. His or anyone's.

I found it an elegant and satisfying finale, even if some story points pushed the limits of credulity. I see what Seehorn meant when she said it was respectful to fans. There was even a bit of fan service, with Kim and Jimmy's callback to their parking-garage smoking in the first episode. I have a long history of disappointment with series finales, even some that were generally well received (Cheers, Mad Men), but I liked this one. I'm relieved the Anna Gunn listing on the IMDb page was incorrect. I didn't care to see Skyler again, and Marie was a better story choice anyway.

If you're curious about what The Secret Language of Relationships (Goldschneider & Elffers, 1997) has to say about that pairing (well, I was): Jimmy was born in "The Week of Charm," and Kim in "The Week of Acceptance." Their best combination is supposed to be "Work," while their worst is "Love." The relationship is summed up under the title "Hard Decisions." "These two can do well as partners in a variety of endeavors. Their activities are usually well grounded in the here and now and have particular relevance to the times in which they live...these partners want to affect the family, social or commercial environment around them in a meaningful way and to change things for the better...traditional astrology predicts friction and stress in their relationship, but also dynamism. This can certainly be the case—there will be few dull moments in this relationship...Love affairs and friendships in this combination are usually intense and committed. Affairs can be highly passionate, friendships devoted...They often combine their marriages and their working relationships, with relatively good success. Their relationship gives them an unusually high capacity for commitment, as well as tough pragmatic attitudes and the ability to see things through. To understand how strong these pairings are, one has to look at them over the long run, since they can be expected to feature a lot of ups and downs..." Hmm! I doubt G&G were consulting astrology tomes when deciding when their characters would be born, but that's pretty good. I mean, a lot of it fits, and it's not so general that it could be just as much about Tony and Carmela, or Ross and Rachel.

...on which "Jesse Pinkman" lost the Showcase Showdown in 2000.

We also have to keep in mind that while the idea of Better Call Saul was discussed between Odenkirk and the producers as early as the production of "Full Measure" (the finale of season 3 of Breaking Bad), the show didn't formally go into development until 2013. It's apparent they went through the Saul scenes of Breaking Bad (including many written when Breaking Bad was a presumed standalone series) and determined that some things would be "canon" and were good starting points. The references to Ignacio and Lalo in his first appearance became very important; long-term story was retrofitted to that. But perhaps not every utterance from him was something they wanted to follow through on, and the glib, untrustworthy nature of the character (as he was in Breaking Bad) gave them some cover on continuity. Gilligan has (modestly?) admitted in a recent interview that he and Peter Gould tend to plan no more than a few feet in front of them. That isn't everyone's process, but it works for them. I don't think, for example, that when people five or six years ago were asking "Is Kim gonna die?" they had yet decided. They just knew they had to extricate her from Jimmy's life in some way in the final season, and as they mapped out the story, a path became clear.

I was looking at something I wrote to a friend during season 5. The relevant portion: "In the first episode of Better Call Saul, Jimmy is furious to see his prospective high-profile embezzlement clients, the Kettlemans, meeting with Howard. He takes out his anger on an HHM waste can, overturning it and kicking it, and then joins Kim outside; she's smoking. He wordlessly "borrows" her cigarette, establishing intimacy. They exchange only a few words; he asks "Couldn't you just...?" and she interrupts, "You know I can't." Then she goes back inside, and we see in the long shot that she's cleaning up after Jimmy. She rights the waste can and puts the bag back in it. "That was fine character setup. In 5-4, she's the one who wants to sweep up the glass from the mess they made in the parking lot the night before. Jimmy's counsel is just not to worry about it; the building will take care of it. That's what you pay rent for, he says. I wonder if this is all a clue to how things will turn out. The biggest difference between Kim and Jimmy is that when she has an ethical lapse, she wants to "straighten up." Sometimes it isn't even her own lapse; it might be Jimmy's. Jimmy sometimes wants to "straighten up" (as when his scheming for a quicker settlement turned that old woman's friends against her), but not as reliably, and less and less often." Well, I may have been on to something. Mixed results.

Both of their DOBs are visible in the episode "JMM," when they are presenting their information to get married. Jimmy was born November 12, 1960. Kim was born February 13, 1968. In the main part of BCS in 2002-04, he's in his early forties; she's in her mid thirties. In the black-and-white world of fall 2010, he's soon to be 50 and she's 42. The Kim DOB syncs well with the two teen-Kim flashbacks we saw from 1983 and 1984. Jimmy got a later start than Kim in their profession, of course. Rhea Seehorn landed the role of Kim at 41, so (like Aaron Paul in Breaking Bad) she was always playing somewhat younger, and as the seasons went by and in-show time moved more slowly than real-world time, the gap widened. But she's always been convincing, in my opinion. Interestingly, her character in the final season of Veep (which ran concurrently with BCS) also seemed to be younger than Rhea herself. Chuck's gravestone had him born in 1944. We were told (in Howard's dictated obituary) Chuck was his high school's youngest-ever graduate in 1959. That was a year before his brother was born in 1960. Chuck's timeline was always a bit glitchy. At times, the description of the McGill brothers' relationship in Jimmy's early life didn't seem to go with a 16-year age difference, and at other times it did. The kids playing them in the tent in "Lantern" don't look that far apart. And I have no idea what Chuck was doing for the entirety of the '60s. He graduated high school in 1959, but he said he was in "college" when Jimmy was working at and stealing from the family store, and we saw the start of the theft in a flashback dated 1973. Then Chuck was doing a clerkship when he came home and tried to get the books in order. Then he started his own law firm in 1980. Even in the most meticulous series, sometimes it's best not to dwell too much! Or maybe Chuck's wild times in his lost decade of the '60s will be the next spinoff. I hope that isn't boring for anyone. I love this stuff.

Rhea Seehorn's acting was good in the shuttle breakdown scene, but I think what makes it stand out to us so much is (1) we've never seen Kim break down in this way and (2) we're projecting onto Seehorn's expressions everything we know from years of story leading up. We feel we're in Kim's head. It is definitely the kind of scene that wins nominations and awards, but chances are, if Seehorn were asked, she might not feel that was even the most difficult scene she's had to play this season. I'm not surprised to hear she nailed it on the first take, and the second one was just because VG always likes to have another take. It's an illustration of how writing and acting work in concert in the best circumstances. I remember the director David Lowery talking about a scene in his film A Ghost Story that was visually and emotionally similar to Kim's shuttle scene. Rooney Mara is shown driving away from a house in which her character had a lot of history (good and bad); now she's moving on with her life. The camera stays on Mara's face for a long time, no words, just the musical score. Lowery didn't want Mara to try too hard to indicate everything going on in the character's mind, because the audience will do a lot of the work. They had been on that journey with her.