The finale of season six (and swan song) of the American television series Better Call Saul (BCS)—the critically acclaimed and commercially successful prequel to Breaking Bad—aired Monday 15 August. It was, consistent with the entirety of BCS (and especially the last two seasons) a remarkable achievement. Together, the two series might be the finest franchise in the history of American television. By virtually any measurement—writing, acting, directing, production values, narrative cohesion—both shows were consistently brilliant. My interest in writing about the finale of BCS, however, is to highlight the powerful moral conclusion that emerged in the development of its central characters, James M. McGill (a.k.a., Saul Goodman), and his ex-wife, Kim Wexler. And reader beware: this column contains comprehensive spoilers.
As I wrote in this space on 11 July, by the midpoint of season six, Wexler had arguably superseded Goodman as the central character of BCS. She certainly was the enthusiastic force behind one of the central narratives, bringing Goodman along somewhat reluctantly toward the shocking (albeit unforeseen and unintended) murder of attorney Howard Hamlin, whose career they had conspired to destroy. And I contended that Wexler was the darker moral character of the two, moving from relatively harmless mischievous grifts to malicious calculated evil actions. The second half of season six, and in particular the final episode, redeemed both characters in surprising but not implausible ways.
Wexler, having resigned as an attorney, absconded from New Mexico to central Florida, taking a mundane position writing product copy for the website and catalogue of a lawn water sprinkler company. Her new existence—in which the most important decisions were between Miracle Whip and mayonnaise, vanilla or strawberry ice cream, or Red Lobster for a birthday meal—was lifeless, flat, and tedious. The monotony of the dreary, insipid conversations of her friends and colleagues symbolized the descent of her own soul. She resided in a metaphorical Hell of her own volition.
But, after a surprising telephone call from Goodman—six years after their divorce and Wexler’s flight to Florida—Wexler decided that she could no longer suffer under the weight of the death of Hamlin, even though she was only indirectly (and arguably at that) responsible. She returned to New Mexico and unburdened herself of the entire scheme to the district attorney and Hamlin’s widow, without regard to whether or how it might affect her liberty or fortune. Having confessed her sin, she entered a self-imposed purgatory, volunteering as a file clerk in a dingy, overworked free legal clinic.
In the meantime, Goodman (hiding in Omaha, Nebraska under the alias Gene Takovic), had begun an elaborate identity-theft grift, returning to the life of crime that had led to his downfall in Breaking Bad. Indeed, in a flashback, Walter White says to Goodman, “so you have always been like this”, leaving the latter in stunned silence. But, having become intoxicated by the success of the Omaha scheme, Goodman made a series of errors that led to his arrest and extradition to New Mexico—and the beginning of his redemption.
Drawing upon his skill and experience as a highly effective (albeit criminal) attorney, Goodman successfully negotiated a remarkable plea agreement. From a list of felonies calling for potential sentences of life imprisonment plus more than 190 years for conviction on a long list of felonies, Goodman agreed to 7.5 years for a guilty plea on one crime. During the negotiation, he also gave the government false information implicating Wexler in his crimes (the details of which were leaked to Wexler by a sympathetic prosecutor) to induce Wexler to return to New Mexico for the hearing on the court’s approval of the plea agreement.
But having seen Wexler in the courtroom, drawing the episode and thus the series very near its conclusion, Goodman experienced a conversion. The scene itself calls to mind a similar scene in The Godfather Part II, and it’s difficult to think that showrunner Peter Gould did not have it in mind. In TheGodfather, mafia soldier Frank Pentangeli was prepared to testify before a U.S. Senate committee (in exchange for immunity from prosecution for Pentangeli’s own crimes) about the crimes of mafia don Michael Corleone. Fearing Pentangeli’s testimony, Corleone flew Pentangeli’s brother to Washington, D.C. from Sicily, and had him ushered into the hearing room. Seeing his brother from across the room, Pentangeli became frightened for his brother’s safety, and thus recanted and contradicted his earlier sworn testimony regarding Michael Corleone’s many crimes. Thus, of course, Pentangeli’s own plea agreement was revoked by the government, and he faced prosecution for his own confessed crimes. But his brother was flown safely back to Sicily. Pentangeli took the full brunt of his crimes for the love of his brother.
While the dynamic is somewhat different, the presence of Wexler in the courtroom seems to have had a similar effect on Goodman. Eschewing the advice of his lawyer and the admonition of the judge—and reverting to his given name, James M. McGill—he gives a complete and undiluted confession of his full, voluntary complicity in the crimes of Walter White, repudiating and contradicting his own prior sworn statements from the plea negotiation. This confession included his indispensable collusion in building Walter White’s drug empire and his abetment as accessory-after-the-fact to the murder of two federal agents. McGill, like Wexler before him, confessed his sins without regard for the potential punishment. And he admitted that he had lied about Wexler’s alleged complicity, clearing her of association with his crimes in Breaking Bad. As a result, McGill was sentenced to 86 years in the maximum-security prison he had expressly negotiated his way out of in the plea agreement he subsequently renounced.
While Wexler seemed to be the driving force in the scheme to destroy Hamlin in the first half of season six of BCS, McGill’s crimes with Walter White in Breaking Bad (all committed after Wexler had left for Florida) were indeed far more serious than Wexler’s offenses. Thus, the justice that is meted out at the end seems proportionate to their relative transgressions. And, indeed, the final scenes of Better Call Saul illustrate the disparity. Wexler comes to visit McGill in prison (posing as his attorney), where they share a forbidden cigarette in the interview room. Then, as Better Call Saul(and thus the Walter White saga) closes, Kim walks freely from the prison, presumably back to her legal aid purgatory. And Jimmy watches her depart from behind the bars of the prison yard, from which he will never emerge.
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