Final synopsis of 'Better Call Saul': Sick Burn, Chuck (2023)

Come onBetter call SaulHis hero's final meeting with Walter White is fast approaching, and this season many viewers (including your neighborhood flashback friend) have been speculating weekly and with increasing excitement about what will happen by then to make Jimmy McGill Saul Goodman . Is Saul Mall simply the final stop on Jimmy's gradual but inexorable descent? Does the voice of her inner demon win after something disastrous happens to Kim, who serves as Jimmy and his partner's conscience?

This week it looks like we have our answer, and it's one we already had. As Kim said to the audience at the bar where Jimmy defeated and humiliated Chuck on his own hallowed playing field, everything you are about to witness boils down to the story of two brothers.

And here they are, in the final opening of season three. Two little boys, a young Chuck and a young Jimmy, are sitting together in a tent in the backyard. Chuck (played by a teenager, Gabriel Rush, whose impression of Michael McKean is all too accurate) reads Mabel aloud by the light of a gas lamp, in a moment that speaks of both a true bond and an unhappy future. It's not hard to see how the dynamic between these guys will change in the worst possible way as they become men, which conflicts them. But now we have Chuck's assurance that everything will be fine.

A title card later, and we pick up where we left off last week: with Kim, shaken and bruised and wrapped in a large arm cast. Jimmy immediately takes on the role of janitor (no wonder, a role he comes almost as naturally as a con man): collecting legal documents scattered in the wreckage of Kim's car, convincing her to drink Gatorade, to make her coffee in the morning. In general, he seems more hurt than she is, and even with a broken arm, self-sufficient Kim can't handle such tenderness.

"You don't feed me, Jimmy," she says. "There are limits that we do not cross."

Meanwhile, at HHM, Chuck sits at the head of a table surrounded by his co-workers. Confident and magnanimous, he suggests leaving ugliness behind and moving on, "leaving the past behind". But Howard doesn't accept it; After cleaning the room, he accuses Chuck of selfishness and treason and presents him with a check for $3 million drawn from their personal accounts, the first of three that bought out Chuck's stake in the company.

"You won," he says, but Chuck certainly doesn't seem to feel like a winner even before Howard spins the knife, puts him at the head of the entire company, and announces his departure, effective immediately, right now. . (Side note: Clever camera work in this scene makes it appear like Chuck's response to this final humiliation is to fly over the railing. Um.)

Jimmy did not witness this scene, but he must have heard of it, and old habits die hard; Soon he's knocking on Chuck's door just to make sure his big brother is okay. But when Jimmy enters the house, he's shocked: the lights are on, the music is playing, and Chuck is not only fine, he's completely indifferent to Jimmy's concerns, regrets, or apologies.

"Jimmy, that's what you do. You hurt people. You will end up hurting everyone around you. It's not your fault,” Chuck shrugs. And then, after opening the wound, he pours in an ocean of salt.

"I don't want to hurt your feelings, but the truth is, I never cared about you that much," he says (and officially removes "You're a Virgin Who Can't Drive" from his No. Hollywood). This is the most heartbreaking blow Chuck could have delivered to his little brother, and it's the first step in a long and horrific descent.
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That night, wide awake and scared, Chuck goes downstairs and flips all the switches in the fuse box. But the next day, he discovers his desolate new home is still getting electricity from an unknown source. What follows is a reflection of the equally captivating and silent scene that started this season ofBetter call Saul, when Mike Ehrmantraut (who was completely absent from this episode) dismantled his car in search of a tracking device; This time it's Chuck who destroys his beloved home. Unscrew all lightbulbs, pry up all exit signs, pry up all drywall and wood. But where Mike's methodical refutation ended with an epiphany and the problem solved, this scene ends with Chuck, wide-eyed and sweating, smashing his electric meter with a baseball bat.

Cut to Chuck in his shadowy house to Nacho in his shadowy car watching Hector Salamanca pull up at his father's upholstery shop. A previous visit ended badly when Hector taunted Nacho's father and made a threatening statement, "I don't trust him," which sounded more like a death sentence than anything. But this meeting of the masterminds of the crime has a double surprise for guests: Gus Fring, accompanied by Juan Bolsa, who wants to remind Héctor that he is no longer responsible for the drug transport. And Hector, sensing his authority is more despised than bad news, interrupts him mid-speech, clutches his chest, takes his pills, and then falls flat on his face. Of course we knew this was going to happen one way or another; We also know that he will survive to become the geriatric villain ofbreaking Bad. But a surprise: the man who saves Héctor Salamanca's life? Gus Fring, rushing to revive, casts a sideways glance at Nacho, who has a strong I-know-what-you-done smell.

Meanwhile, Jimmy feels just as bad as we do about how he ruined poor Irene Landry's life last week, but not only can't he convince his friends to take her back, he needs to do something decent, with the cooperation of an old pal ( hi Erin!), a chair yoga extravaganza and a hot mic. Unlike his last confession, this one is intentional, but it will cost him something: Irene and her friends jeopardize the deal and spread the word like wildfire that he cannot be trusted. While he and Kim clean up the office, Jimmy throws his Rolodex in the trash.

"I'm going to need a whole new business model when I get my driver's license back," he says, which is ironic because he's never looked quite like Goodman like he does now. But depending on what happens next, that moment won't last. Because on the other side of town, Chuck sits in the middle of a room that looks like it was swept away by a tornado: a trembling man, wrapped in mylar, surrounded by the remnants of his comfortable life. A flashlight, like the one Jimmy once read, rests precariously on a pile of rubble. He's looking at it, and while he's looking at it, he kicks the stack. Sometimes a dozen times, as often as necessary. It eventually falls off.

And everything burns.