TV Retrospective: "Better Call Saul" - Season 4

Scene from Better Call Saul

The audience for the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul are a patient crowd. While everyone knows where Saul Goodman, formerly known as Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), will end up, nobody is sure how he got there. Over the course of the previous three season, Jimmy has been flirting with antihero status in the face of his do-gooder brother Chuck (Michael McKean). However, there hasn't been an outright shift into Saul Goodman: the ABQ huckster who is a "criminal" lawyer. Over the course of its fourth season, things felt like they escalated quicker than it had in the past, finally pushing Jimmy into situations that would require him to be the corrupt yet lovable man who will come to dominate skeezy ads and eventually work with the likes of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. While the previous three seasons have required strong patience that was more emphasizing character development, here is where things finally shift and the name "Saul Goodman" finally gets mentioned. It's been a long road, but this season has been all the more rewarding because of the wait.

In the previous season, another noteworthy character was introduced to the series: Los Polos Hermanos restaurant owner/drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). Many alluded to the fact that this would be connecting the dots to the present underground meth lab a lot quicker than things had in the past. In fact, the world of Breaking Bad is starting to look more and more familiar this season, especially with the untimely passing of Chuck in a fire that starts the episode. With Chuck gone, who does Jimmy have to be faithful to? What's keeping him from, ahem, breaking bad? There is of course his loyal girlfriend/lawyer pal Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), but there has to be more than that. With her recovering from an injury over the season as well, the season is spent in a period of wounded recovery. In the case of Jimmy, it's an added reality that he can't be a lawyer anymore due to complicated reasons.

There's a lot on display to suggest that his season-long challenge to become a lawyer again is his first challenge as Saul Goodman. There's even allusions to this spread throughout those moments when he's not fighting parole boards for his job. To kill time, he works at a cell phone store, selling the idea that his burner phones aren't being monitored by the government. He sells to people on the street, even performing thuggish behaviors to protect his territory. If there's anything that becomes clear, it's that Jimmy is finally becoming territorial, getting a lesson in how to communicate with the streets in ways that would benefit his career. It's more satisfying, risky, and fills him with purpose. While Kim is a straight arrow, he feels free to redefine his persona in some of the series' best moments. While Jimmy has been a compelling force, especially as "Slippin' Jimmy" where he weasels his way out of problems, it feels like he has grown into a smooth con man, capable of so much more. To show that the connection to Breaking Bad is getting closer, there's even an outright callback scene to a season four episode of that series where Saul is about to entire witness protection.

As much as the show is a compelling force for Jimmy/Saul, it's just as fascinating to watch the world around him change. It's still unclear what the breaking point is between him and Kim, but it feels like it's getting closer. There's a sense that this career change will lead to something drastic, though her unconditioned love will make that eventual fall a bit more tragic. It all makes sense, especially since Jimmy feels like he lied to everyone in order to get back into the good graces of everyone. In the case of the opening sequence of "Winner" where he sings ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All," he lays out the idea that maybe you have to play dirty to win. He had in the past. Considering that the end of the season sees him able to have a new start, the name change makes sense. He's able to appeal more to an urban market while removing his connections to his brother, whom he didn't like to begin with. This is the severed tie with his past that has been coming, and Kim may or may not be willing to put up with it.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world is starting to take shape. The show has predominantly separated time between Jimmy and Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), the latter of whom has quit his job as a parking attendant. However, the show is now about the world that Mike inhabits, not just as an errand boy for criminals, but as a potential partner for Gus, who is starting to form connections with the Mexican drug cartel, most notably Tio Salamanca (Mark Margolis), who becomes unable to talk throughout the season and introduces his iconic communication device: a bell. There's even talk about creating an underground meth lab that Breaking Bad audiences will definitely recognize, along with its cook Gale Boeticher (David Costabile). While these are at times more exposition pieces of what's to come, it's exciting to see the connective tissue getting closer, even if it means that the time period is getting a lot closer together.

But how much longer will these two shows remain separate? The answer is unknown, especially given that it's taken 40 episodes just for Jimmy to transition into Saul. There's a lot of room to wiggle through the early days of these characters as Gus establishes a drug ring in ABQ and Jimmy forms a following with his criminal lawyer shtick. There's also the other stories that need to be resolved before the show can truly say goodbye, such as Jimmy's relationship with Kim, which is inevitably going to end... but how? The dread now feels stronger than ever that it's going to be through some careless decision that will rank among the franchise's saddest moments. This character reinvention may seem like a great idea now, but what happens when you can't turn back and that this is what you have to do? There's probably going to be a discussion of ethics in the season to come as well as some fun Better Call Saul ads.

Better Call Saul has been a more meticulous show than its predecessor, but it has been done with a satisfying reason. It's about character more than getting to the heart of reason. Because the audience has spent so much time and years with Jimmy McGill, the shift to Saul Goodman feels a bit more earned while also having a bit more tragedy in it all. This is the path he has always been wanting to take, but hasn't had the freedom to do so. He has only flirted with disaster in the past, but now there's a lot left to wonder about. Will he be involved with Gus' growing drug operation, or will there be some other demise that turns him into a hardened and bitter man? There's a lot still left to answer now that the main question has been answered as to how he became Saul Goodman. The only question now is how long it will take to get there and will the ride still be as satisfying.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5