In the Better Call Saul season 2 finale recap, Jimmy finds out just how low Chuck will stoop to get over on him and Mike takes aim at Hector Salamanca seeking revenge…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Sibling rivalry runs deep on Better Call Saul, but no one could have anticipated the true disdain that flows through the veins of Chuck McGill when it comes to his brother Jimmy.
From birth, Chuck watched Jimmy go down a path of depravity as a small time con artist, constantly putting his own needs above those closest to him. Whether that meant ripping off his own father, which eventually led to his business shutting down or committing fraud like it was a bodily function, Chuck just couldn’t stomach watching his brother screw up over and over and over again and never really pay for his actions.
To make matters worse, Chuck was the picture of perfection when it came to his own upbringing. He was the kid getting straight A’s, graduating early and then flying through law school with a surgeon like attention to detail. He was the kid every parent would love to have — except his parents always seemed to favor Jimmy more. At least in Chuck’s mind anyways.
It all culminated when Chuck and Jimmy’s mother was on her death bed years ago and her two sons sat by her side in her final moments. When Jimmy insisted on leaving to go get a sandwich, Chuck refused to leave his mother’s side as he broke down in tears.
And when Mrs. McGill finally woke up, the only word uttered from her frail lips was Jimmy.
Chuck’s soul was crushed because no matter what Jimmy did wrong, he always got away with it and somehow his parents loved him more. Chuck’s held onto that angst for years and now it’s finally boiling over.
For all his shortcomings, Jimmy really has tried to become a (somewhat) better man, but as he found out at the tail end of last season, no matter how hard he ran, Chuck was always there secretly turning the treadmill to a higher notch so his brother could never catch up. Now in his most vulnerable moment when Jimmy just wanted to comfort his brother, Chuck was running a con on him.
With that said, let’s recap the season 2 finale of Better Call Saul titled “Klick”…
Who’s Your Guardian?
Seconds after Chuck passed out in the copy shop and smacked his head on the desk on the way down, Jimmy watched in horror from across the street. His victory lap over his brother turned into a three car pile up with his brother taking the brunt of the damage.
So Jimmy rushes across the street to help his brother, calling 911 and ordering the ambulance to come get him. At that moment, Jimmy was no longer concerned about his plot unraveling, he was just a sibling caring for his older brother.
At the hospital, doctors insist on strapping Chuck down and putting him through all sorts of tests — the kinds that require all kinds of electricity — and he sits squirming on the gurney like a lab rat just trying to gnaw through his restraints. Finally, the doctors stop working on him when Chuck insists on saying they don’t have his permission to conduct these tests.
Dr. Cruz (played by Clea DuVall, who returns from season one) sticks by her original diagnosis that Chuck’s electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a mental condition and nothing physically related. But to ensure that he didn’t hurt himself worse than what can be diagnosed by a routine exam, she needs to run a CAT scan and other tests that Chuck simply won’t allow.
Jimmy tries to convince his brother that these tests are necessary but Chuck is still enraged at his brother after the entire Mesa Verde address scam unfolded. In fact, even in his fragile state, Chuck starts to put together the timeline for his accident to the moment when Jimmy arrived to help him. Chuck believes that this was all one big set up and Jimmy bribed the clerk before sitting across the street just waiting for him to arrive. Of course, Chuck is absolutely correct but Ernie — Chuck’s assigned assistant from HHM — says that he actually called Jimmy and asked him to come to the copy shop out of worry for his employer.
Chuck still isn’t buying it, but Jimmy is covered. When he asks Ernie why he lied, he tells Jimmy that over the past few weeks Chuck has been plotting to take his brother down and he wanted to help because they were friends.
Finally, Jimmy is forced to take control of the situation by getting a judge to issue a temporary guardian order so he can make medical decisions on his brother’s behalf. Jimmy orders the tests for his brother — the good news is, nothing is wrong with him physically.
The bad news — Chuck fades into a self-induced catatonia as a result.
Don’t
No matter how many times Nacho tells Mike to let his grudge against Hector Salamanca go, he just can’t live with himself knowing that the cartel gangster made him eat shit after their altercation over his psycho nephew Tuco a few weeks back. Mike tried to get his revenge by taking down one of Hector’s transport trucks coming across the border from Mexico but rather than turning the cops onto his operation, he accidentally got a good Samaritan killed as a result.
So now Mike is resolute in taking Hector down once and for all.
Mike visits our old friend Lawson (from Breaking Bad fame) to pick up the sniper rifle he nearly purchased when the plan was to kill Tuco instead of just framing him to end up in jail. Mike takes target practice with one goal in mind — to sit on a rocky overpass nearly a run down shack where Hector conducts business in the desert until he can find an open shot to bring down Salamanca once and for all.
On the day of the planned assassination, Mike parks his car and sets up a position exactly one kilometer away from his target — thus the title of the episode “Klick” (military term for one kilometer). Mike sits and waits for Hector to come into the clear and he nearly gets his shot after he watches the Salamanca crew execute the driver from the truck he hijacked a week ago.
Just when it looks like Mike will find his mark, Nacho steps in front of Hector and stays there until the entire crew goes back inside again. Time and time again, Mike takes his aim and contemplates shooting through Nacho just to get to Hector, but he just can’t pull the trigger. He even thinks about taking out another of Hector’s nephews, but that wouldn’t truly get the job done.
A moment later, a car horn is sounding in the distance.
Mike picks up the rifle and rushes back to his car with a revolver in hand, wondering who has now tampered with his vehicle in an attempt to stop the assassination attempt. When Mike arrives at the car, he finds a tree branch propped between the car seat and the horn. Mike removes the branch and then spots a note on the front windshield with one simple word writing on it — don’t.
Mike looks around but doesn’t see anybody around. Who honked the horn and who left the note? Well it was all but confirmed on Talking Saul following the episode that the person responsible for stopping Mike from killing Tio was none other than Gustavo Fring!
It seems all but a certainty that Gus Fring will be appearing on Better Call Saul season three and as even further proof if you take all the first letters from the titles of the 10 episodes this season and move them around the words spell out — Frings Back.
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready to welcome Gus Fring (played by the wonderful Giancarlo Esposito) back into our lives when Better Call Saul returns in 2017!
Your Word Against Mine
Chuck’s catatonic state only lasts for a matter of hours before he wakes up and Jimmy explains that he’s physically fine and set to go home. Jimmy’s temporary order will be released and Chuck can return to his darkened home with nary a bit of electricity flowing inside.
Back at the new offices, Jimmy is reaping the rewards of his timely placed commercial that aired during the latest episode of Diagnosis: Murder with a slew of elderly “clients” like Fudge telling the world that they wanted a lawyer with moxie to help them out so in unison they all shout — gimme Jimmy!
Well the front room of the new law firm is packed with seniors but Jimmy’s busy day is interrupted when he gets a call from Howard Hamlin asking if he had a hand in the letter he just received. It seems Chuck sent Howard a letter of resignation/retirement saying that he was walking away from the law firm forever.
Jimmy rushes to his brother’s house where he finds Chuck taping up mylar sheets all over the inside of his living room to block out the sunlight and any other electrical radiation that may seep through the walls. Chuck is despondent and believes that he’s operating less than himself thanks to the disease he’s been inflicted with, otherwise why would he make a mistake as mundane as the address that cost HHM the Mesa Verde bank account.
Seeing his brother in pain both physically and mentally forces Jimmy to come clean — he confesses to Chuck that every piece of his carefully laid out plot to switch the addresses on the Mesa Verde files was true. In fact, Chuck was like a forensic detective with how accurate his description of Jimmy’s deception to switch out the paperwork while he was laid up sick in bed. Jimmy even confesses to paying off the copy clerk to lie to his brother before he returned to gather evidence.
Chuck wonders if Jimmy is just saying all this to take away this terrible burden he’s been feeling ever since the Mesa Verde hearing went down the toilet.
Jimmy: “I am saying it to make you feel better. I sure as shit wouldn’t be telling you otherwise! Yes, it’s the truth”
Chuck: “You go to such lengths to humiliate me?”
Jimmy: “I did it for Kim! She worked her butt off to get Mesa Verde while you and Howard sat around sipping scotch and chortling. Hamlin, Hamlin and McGill. More like Scrooge and Marley. Kim deserves Mesa Verde. Not you, not HHM, she earned it and she needs it. I did it to help her. I honestly didn’t think it would hurt you so bad.
“I thought you’d just say ‘oh crap I made a mistake’ and go on with your life like a normal person but oh no! Wishful thinking!”
Chuck is aghast after hearing Jimmy’s confession and also relieved to know he wasn’t crazy. He asks Jimmy if he knows he just confessed to a felony and he responds in kind but then tells his brother that it’s ultimately just Chuck’s word against his.
After Jimmy leaves, Chuck lifts up one of his space blankets to reveal that he set up a tape recorder to get audio of that entire conversation. Everything was a ruse — from the mylar film that was covering Chuck’s house to his letter of resignation to Howard’s call to Jimmy — he laid out an intricate trap and his brother waltzed right into it. It was a subtle reminder that Jimmy may be the con artist in the family but his brother is truly the evil genius.
These are the lengths Chuck is willing to go to destroy his brother. This is no longer sibling rivalry — this is Cain and Abel and we all know how that story came to an end.
Better Call Saul returns for season three in early 2017!
