It is possible that Kim struck the heart of the matter – remorse – but is it the order in which that remorse is presented that really matters, or maybe it’s something else …
“ All is foreseen, and freedom of choice is granted” is written in the Mishnah, the Jewish oral Torah.īut before we all crowd together for the walk of atonement, we get a foreshadowing scene where Kim arranging the notes for Jimmy’s appeal: “ Take a look,” she says to him, “ The problem might’ve been starting with remorse”, maybe it’s better to start with “t he law, plans, then remorse“. So here we all are, finally ready to hear Jimmy asking for forgiveness, kneeling before the panel, demonstrating the sincerity they so needed to see in him and pleading for atonement. And why? Because he was not sincere, because he did not express remorse for his brother, because he did not ask them for atonement. Jimmy has every reason in the world to repent and atone– he hurt his brother, his own flesh and blood, he was suspended from the bar following his actions and the hearing committee chose to prolong the 1-year suspension. The denial of atonement in the law-abiding polished world of HHM means politely shutting the door in your face, but in the criminal world the shutting of the door is proverbial and is as final as it gets, a single bullet in the head delivered by Mike in a dark, dark desert.Īnd last but not least to arrive at our Bureau of Insights is the hero of the day, our very own Jimmy. Here in this world, in the real world, once you make a mistake, “ Nothing you can say or do will make anyone trust you again” as Mike says to him, in slightly different words than Jimmy, but with the same underlying message – there is a mistake -> there is remorse -> but there is NO chance of atonement. Surely Mike can understand and forgive, let him see his wife at least, it’s true love for God’s sake!īut Werner does not understand that this is not the magical world of Inigo Montoya, this is the ruthless world of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. When Mike catches up to him at last, Werner is sorry, of course, for the damage he caused. He ran from his job to meet his wife for a few days, but it was, after all, for a just cause, true love, for true love is the greatest thing in the world ( Except a nice MLT-a mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomatoes are ripe).
The second person to reach the Insights desert is the tragic hero of the season, Werner. Here comes Jimmy to the rescue to explain how the real world works: in the real world they dangle the carrot in front of your face, telling you that there is a chance, that there is hope, but the truth is that in the real world, behind the beautiful masks and the shiny offices on the 35th floor, they will never forget the mistakes you’ve made, they will never let you enter their glamorous and phony world, because if they did what would that say about them? That they are not perfect, that mistakes are permitted, that you can repent and atone, but in their eyes they are perfect, they do not make mistakes and there is no atonement for mistakes and there never will be, not for Christi and not for Jimmy. Our geek inevitably loses, there is no scholarship in her future, for her the gates are shut, but why? The outcome? the Shiny Happy Students win the scholarship as had been effectively decided before they spoke a single word – Christy aside, they were all successful and perfect, so why spoil it by choosing someone with genuine substance? The first one to arrive at the insights desk is Christy Esposito, one of a convoy of high school students, from whom the only impression we glean is from their appearance – suave ties, fashionable shirts, neat hairstyles – and NOT from what they have to say – In fact we don’t hear any one of them speak a complete sentence, and we soon learn why.Ĭhristy, like all the other students, wants to win a HHM scholarship, but she comes clad in a somewhat scruffy dress, sporting an unflattering hairstyle, and worse than those a mistake of her own making- shoplifting but hey, she regretted it, she even wrote an essay on how that mistake sparked her interest in the law and how a career in law could give her the chance to atone for that mistake. Not as shown to us by society and religion, this being the preserve of losers as we shall see, but insight into how mistake, remorse and atonement work for,or rather are manipulated by, the winners. Insights on the nature of winners and losers but more than that on the nature of mistake, remorse and atonement.
#Index of better call saul s03 full
The long-awaited finale of Better Call Saul’s fourth season was not a shocking, amazing, or even particularly exciting episode, but it was one full of insights.
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