Better Call Saul Finale: Saul Gone
Sep. 15th, 2025 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerSaul Gone is the finale of the Better Call Saul series. I finally watched it a few nights ago after pausing right at the end of the series for four months. This episode is interesting because it features Jimmy being at the height of his Saul Goodman persona, the swashbuckling lawyer who's about to get his own sentenced greatly reduced, and then, on the spur of a moment, throwing the Saul Goodman persona away and taking full responsibility for everything he did. That makes the title "Saul Gone" a double entendre. Saul is both gone away to prison and gone away as a persona.
Jimmy is at his swashbuckling best as Saul after he's apprehended by police in Omaha, where he was foolishly and pointlessly committing thefts. After being extradited to Albuquerque, federal prosecutors there read him a list of the crimes they have ample evidence to prosecute him for. "Life plus 90 years," the lead prosecutor says as he tots up all the likely sentences. Then he offers Jimmy a deal of just 30 years in a plea bargain to avoid trial. It would seem Jimmy will be lucky to see freedom again before he dies of old age.. Uh-oh,... "Better Call Saul"!
Swashbuckling as Saul Goodman, Jimmy tells the assembled prosecutors and victims' families that he, too, is a victim. He recounts the night he first met Walter White and how Walt kidnapped him, took him to the desert, and made him kneel in front of an open grave with a gun to his head. I'm a victim, too, Saul explained, asserting that everything he did from that point forward was in fear of being killed if ever he refused Walt.
The lead prosecutor sees through Saul's story. "You expect a jury to believe that?" he sneers. Saul responds that it takes just one juror [to believe a story and give him a mistrial]. Saul taunts the prosecutor about his unblemished record— having never lost a case, would he want to lose this one? He exploits the man's ego. And after a long night of negotiation, he's whittled his plea bargain down to just 7½ years.
Jimmy's well crafted plan goes out the window when he gets to court. He sees Kim Wexler sitting in the audience area— and he recognizes that the plea bargain story he's told the court would jam up her up. Apparently he's lied about her involvement in Howard Hamlin's death— though exactly what lies he told happened off screen. He begs the judge to address the court. He starts his story from earlier in the episode about Walter White holding a gun to his head over an open grave in the desert... but then says that everything he did after that, he did willingly.
The court room becomes a zoo with Jimmy's co-counsel demanding the record be stricken, the prosecutor demanding he be allowed to continue speaking, and the judge demanding order. But when it's all done, Jimmy's told the version of the story that has him taking responsibility for things. Including driving his brother, Chuck, to suicide. ("That's not even a crime," his co-counsel chides him.) "And my name's McGill, James McGill," he concludes. Saul's gone.
Jimmy is at his swashbuckling best as Saul after he's apprehended by police in Omaha, where he was foolishly and pointlessly committing thefts. After being extradited to Albuquerque, federal prosecutors there read him a list of the crimes they have ample evidence to prosecute him for. "Life plus 90 years," the lead prosecutor says as he tots up all the likely sentences. Then he offers Jimmy a deal of just 30 years in a plea bargain to avoid trial. It would seem Jimmy will be lucky to see freedom again before he dies of old age.. Uh-oh,... "Better Call Saul"!
Swashbuckling as Saul Goodman, Jimmy tells the assembled prosecutors and victims' families that he, too, is a victim. He recounts the night he first met Walter White and how Walt kidnapped him, took him to the desert, and made him kneel in front of an open grave with a gun to his head. I'm a victim, too, Saul explained, asserting that everything he did from that point forward was in fear of being killed if ever he refused Walt.
The lead prosecutor sees through Saul's story. "You expect a jury to believe that?" he sneers. Saul responds that it takes just one juror [to believe a story and give him a mistrial]. Saul taunts the prosecutor about his unblemished record— having never lost a case, would he want to lose this one? He exploits the man's ego. And after a long night of negotiation, he's whittled his plea bargain down to just 7½ years.
Jimmy's well crafted plan goes out the window when he gets to court. He sees Kim Wexler sitting in the audience area— and he recognizes that the plea bargain story he's told the court would jam up her up. Apparently he's lied about her involvement in Howard Hamlin's death— though exactly what lies he told happened off screen. He begs the judge to address the court. He starts his story from earlier in the episode about Walter White holding a gun to his head over an open grave in the desert... but then says that everything he did after that, he did willingly.
The court room becomes a zoo with Jimmy's co-counsel demanding the record be stricken, the prosecutor demanding he be allowed to continue speaking, and the judge demanding order. But when it's all done, Jimmy's told the version of the story that has him taking responsibility for things. Including driving his brother, Chuck, to suicide. ("That's not even a crime," his co-counsel chides him.) "And my name's McGill, James McGill," he concludes. Saul's gone.
