Better Call Saul: How Jimmy McGill Evolves

This video essay analyzes how Jimmy McGill evolves over six seasons of Better Call Saul, starring Bob Odenkirk, written by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, and distributed by Sony Pictures Television. This analysis will help you to understand the complete character evolution in psychological detail over five stages.

FAIR USE NOTICE:
This video may contain copyright material; the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is made available under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made "fair use" for the purposes such as criticism, comment, review, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that otherwise might be infringing. All rights belong to its owners.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro/Childhood
5:45 Stage One
10:40 Stage Two
15:39 Stage Three
19:03 Stage Four
27:08 Stage Five/End

Music used:
C Major Prelude by Bach
Eureka by Huma-huma
Falling Rain by Myuu
Beethoven's 7th Symphony (Public Domain)
Groove by Drew Banga
&
(Vivaldi) Winter mvt 1 Allegro non molto
(Vivaldi) Summer mvt 1 Allegro non molto
(Vivaldi) Summer mvt 3 Presto
by John Harrison with the Wichita State University Chamber Players
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
*The original work has been modified with basic fades, cuts and loops*
&
"Purrple Cat - Lullaby" is under a Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) license
&
Funeral March (by Chopin) by Chopin (Youtube Audio Library)
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

#bettercallsaul #bettercallsaulseason6 #breakingbad

[tennenyt]

Just realised Chuck was always saying how he's going to beat his illness and that everyone needs to be patient with him but never gave that same luxury to Jimmy

[guldmattbb]

I love how, at first, all we wanted to see when the show started was for Jimmy to become Saul Goodman. But by the end of it all, we wished he would’ve stayed Jimmy

[corbinmarkey]

I want to point out something about the, "Jimmy leaving his dying mother's bedside to go get a sandwich" thing: he and Chuck had been there for a while, and he left to go get them both some food after failing to perk up Chuck by recalling a memory with their mother that he recounted with rose tinted goggles, causing things to get a little tense.

It's a tiny thing, but crucial. Jimmy wasn't being flippant about his mother's state, he was doing something quite thoughtful which wound up blowing up in his face. A pretty common theme for him.

[swissidol]

“He really did change, by accepting that he never would.”

What a profound way of putting it.

[fiction]

I like the parallel that Breaking Bad was about Walt becoming someone who deep down, he truly always was whereas Better Call Saul was about jimmy slowly losing who he truly was, an actual good guy with a few bad habits.

[henryaggerate]

Howard’s job offer was not insincere or condescending. Howard and Jimmy bore similar pain: weight of personal responsibility for Chuck’s suicide. Unlike Jimmy, Howard did the personal work to overcome his grief and be a better person. Howard was genuinely trying to make amends. Jimmy can’t tolerate seeing Howard achieve growth while he’s getting cartel kingpins off of murder charges, which is why he broke down and shot lightning bolts at him

[Amandi_Pirate]

After watching this show's finale I felt that the message was: "it's never too late to change". Even if your whole life you were someone, you can always try to be somebody else. Even in the last minutes of the last episode of the last season.

[fuzeall]

You’re telling me a man just happens to evolve like that? No! He orchestrated it. Jimmy!

[dlxmarks]

Regarding the McGill family store, $14K in late 1970's money would be about $65K today. I firmly believe the writers made the amount that high to indicate that Jimmy couldn't have stolen all of it and Chuck was assuming the very worst of his brother. Short of a bad drug or gambling problem, what would a teenage Jimmy have spent that money on that wouldn't have been immediately obvious to everyone around him even if he stole it over a 6 year span?

[psychomoth]

To me, Jimmy truly started his downward spiral when he drank the cucumber water that was for customer only.

[odeegrotsniffer]

Chuck damned his brother. No one digs their way out of hell alone. Chuck put his foot in Jimmy's face and pushed him right back down.

[glanni]

The wild thing is, Chuck didn't kill himself right after being pushed out of the company, but after he burnt his bridge with Jimmy, who genuinely wants to get closer to Chuck again after Kim is injured in a car accident (which reminds him of what's important).
Chuck was even using electricity again, to Jimmy's astonishment.
I'm not saying being pushed out of the company wasn't a major reason for his end, but pushing away Jimmy for good left him all alone, even more alone than when he was at home for 2 years straight.

[TheRoyalGuardian]

Jimmy McGill is one of the best written characters in television history. He's actually my favorite of all time.

[belinskiparadox]

I feel like the saddest part is that no matter how hard Jimmy tried, Chuck never gave him the benefit of the doubt. I genuinely believe that Jimmy would have been able to take a righteous path if Chuck didn't keep standing in his way

[Whaddayamean]

Kim's arc is just as fascinating. Because unlike Jimmy, her true nature is the prim and proper, cross every T and dot every I, bright attorney. One of the most promising Howard's ever known, in his own words. But she slowly loses herself in Jimmy's world of shortcuts and cutting corners. Eventually she's the one taking the reigns in the Howard plot and the results are devastating. So both Jimmy and Kim are constantly fighting their own natural urges out of love for each other. It's a twisted but beautiful love story at its core. What a great show.

[alancastillo]

Your character analysis are not only accurate and insightful, but also well-paced, sharply written and unexpectedly poetic in some ways. Some of the best analysis on YouTube in my opinion. Great job again!!

[gaslightgatekeepgirlboss]

The funniest thing about both Jesse and Jimmy is how all these tragedies could literally be avoided if Walt/Chuck patted them on the back and said "good job sport!" but those two just had such colossal egos that they couldnt💀

[Wilderness-Will]

This is the single most worthwhile analysis of this character I've ever seen. Thank you for doing what you've done here.

[cesare]

I love the part where Chuck saying
"Have some more chicken, have some more pie it doesn't matter if it's boiled or fried"

[ozthebeeman]

21:03 I never thought that Howard only offered Jimmy the job out of guilt, Howard always respected Jimmy and knows from experience that Jimmy is scrappy and creative he's the kind of guy to bring in the big bucks to get things done fast and to find good opportunities also he's colourful to say the least. Howard was at a point where the company was on the verge of falling over, and Jimmy was the only one who told him what he actually needed to hear. At that point, Howard was determined to keep the company, and he needed someone like Jimmy. That's why he offered him the job. At least, that's how I saw it