Better Call Saul Season 6, Episode 13 “Saul Gone” Review: How To Live With No Regrets
Greg Ehrhardt, OnScreen Blog Columnist
I often tell my friends I have few if any, regrets in my life. Saying this is partially true; my goal in life is to live regret-free, and I sometimes achieve that, getting better at it as I grow older.
The reality is that saying this to friends is part of my performance. I want to give off a vibe that I make my choices with no regrets. It makes me feel confident in myself, that I know who I am, that I am comfortable in my own skin, and that I don’t mind showing that skin to the world.
But this is a lie.
The truth is I have more regrets than I can count.
The series finale of Better Call Saul, Saul Gone, had me thinking about this. The episode shows Jimmy/Saul/Gene asking other characters in flashbacks what they would change if they had a time machine. Walter White, of course, hits the nail on the head; asking the time travel question was absurd, a cover for the real question of what you regretted the most.
The big idea of this episode is, of course, “How to Live with Regret,” but what is brilliant about this concept is that Jimmy is entertaining time travel at all. You see, time travel, assuming it wasn’t absurd, is a cheat. You make a mistake, and then, with the help of time travel, you don’t have to live with the mistake. You can live as if it never happened!
That is entirely consistent with Jimmy McGill’s ethos. Cheating in life is fine if it reaches a goal that you consider “good.” Jimmy did this for the entire show’s run, ruining his brother’s and Howard Hamlin’s careers.
As Chuck warned anyone who would listen, a law degree would arm Jimmy with the tools to cheat as much as he liked, with stakes much higher than the scams he would run with Marco. Chuck warned that Jimmy would be “a chimp with a machine gun” with a law degree.
But this wasn’t quite right. A chimp has no idea what to do with a machine gun. The chimp is dangerous, but the damage would be so indiscriminate that there wouldn’t be any evil attached to it.
No, the danger of Jimmy with a law degree was worse than a chimp with a machine gun:
1) He was smart enough that he knew what to do with a law degree and how to make the system bend to him (see him finagling with ease a 7-year prison sentence for his litany of crimes)
2) He had axes to grind
Jimmy wasn’t a chimp with a machine gun; he was (metaphorically) a serial killer with a sniper rifle.
Ultimately, with that kind of power, to take down people’s lives and careers with just a little bit of planning, that was something he could never ultimately resist, even working in Omaha, Nebraska, as a Cinnabon manager.
That’s why Jimmy put himself behind bars for the rest of his life.
He hurt so many people in his life. He was ok with most of it, mainly because he buried it six feet under his Saul Goodman persona, but he couldn’t live with the regret if his actions put Kim Wexler in permanent trouble.
The realization that the only thing he could do to keep Kim safe was to put himself in jail forever is emblematic of what makes Better Call Saul a special show. Breaking Bad is an all-time great show, but Walter White dies a hero, which runs fairly contrary to his entire character arc up until that point. Everyone is capable of redemption, of course, but Walter’s redemption was a quick ascent up after such a long way down.
At first glance, Jimmy also seems to go through a similar quick redemption path, but I don’t think this is the correct interpretation. Yes, Jimmy was pushed into Slippin Jimmy/Saul Goodman by people who couldn’t accept him in normal society. But Jimmy made a lot of bad choices during this series (even if for “good” reasons), and he was indirectly responsible for two innocent people dying prematurely.
Jimmy is no hero, and I’m not even sure he’s an anti-hero. He’s a villain who, at the end of the show, realizes what Chuck and Howard already know: he’s a danger to everyone around him, and he will never stop. He was seconds away from ruining poor Marion’s life.
Jimmy’s stated regrets to Mike and Walter were about not making enough money. Jimmy always wanted more—more money, more clients, more prostitutes, more everything.
“More” is a way to bury your regret (ask any hoarder), while leaving innocent people in the wake of self-destruction.
Finally, in the series finale, Jimmy said, “Enough.”
Ultimately, that’s how you live with regret. You can never change the past; you can only use the past to inform the future.
Some people can change. If you can, awesome.
But some people can’t change. If you can’t, steer clear of the people you love (or people, period).
Chuck was right and wrong about Jimmy. He was right in that Jimmy would never change.
He was wrong in thinking Jimmy would never recognize he was a danger to others.
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I’m not sure where Better Call Saul ranks in the TV Pantheon, only to say I am certain we just watched some of the highest quality TV you will ever see for a long time. A show by adults, for adults, with exquisite attention to detail, and characters who understood how to act as well as be fun to root for or against. I don’t think its fair to compare Better Call Saul to Breaking Bad, because Better Call Saul doesn’t exist without the filmmaker’s experience in making Breaking Bad. If Better Call Saul was the first show made in 2004, this show wouldn’t be as good as it is now. They needed their reps.
I’ll just say for now, we had 12+ seasons of amazing television in the same universe. Shows can barely make it to 3 seasons these days. So, in the end, a big thank you from this fan and writer, for showing how it is possible to make TV like an independent artist, but be entertaining as heck all at once.
It will be a long time before we see that combination again.