RoyalTea

image of all the wanted photos (spoilered for size)

CPA-ESQ.

Yes he did - it is the guy on the wall Second from Right - Bottom Row.

CPA-ESQ.

I like that Saul gave back the money - it adds to the payoff on when he breaks bad and becomes a criminal.

However - all of that money was not there. They bought a huge boat, and even if it is not paid off, they had to have used that money for some living expenses (like a down payment and the boat payments). Therefore, the city would not get their $1Million back, and would not be missing exactly $30k.

But taking the 'bribe' was always a lose / lose for him.. They were flaky and definitely would rat him out when they were questioned. So I guess it gave him some working capital to drum up some business.

However, he could have kept that money and said when the couple fired HHM and wanted him to be their lawyer - he refused, and they are making slanderous accusations because he refused to take the case. No one is going to believe those lying thieves - and the prestigious HHM and Kim can back up his claims.

RoyalTea

On the Better Call Saul Insider Podcast, Vince Gilligan said that the guy in the bathroom was a teamster. He was also used as an extra in Breaking Bad (as a guy at the junkyard who helped build the magnet).



He did not say anything about him being in one of the wanted pictures. I think if they were the same guy, Vince would have said that.



The ears and the eyebrows of wanted poster guy and bathroom guy look different.

RichC2

Just a quick update on the ratings for this series. It's still doing better than the first 4 seasons of Breaking Bad and is roughly inline with Season 5A. About 2.7m viewers, 1.3 in the demo during Live showings - it's doing well.

Matt925

Plus! (Rewatching the episode), she didn't just lose the clients, but they went to Jimmy who is clearly costing Hamlin sleep at night, and he knows/thinks something is going on with jimmy and kim. Seems like a totally reasonable scenario to me.

Matt925

^^great ratings news. Hope this lasts 4-5 seasons, with a planned ending.

CRM114

Thats what I thought too. IT's not like the Kettlemans were going to bring in a large cash flow to the firm.

It's an example of the writers including a detail that is ridiculous and unbelievable; the biggest of which being Walter White not having health insurance as a public school teacher. Ridiculous.

Decker

WW did have health insurance but it was like an HMO and they couldn't go to the best oncologist because he wasn't on their plan. That happens every day. There were plenty of implausible things on that show. Having a crappy group-insurance plan isn't one of them.

RoyalTea

Walter White had health insurance.

He did not cook meth to pay for treatment. He cooked meth to make money for his family (and spoiler alert because his in-network doctor said it was terminal and Walter White believed that treatment was useless and he was going to die.

His wife (and his sister in law) suggested that he go to another doctor that was outside his network because they thought he was getting money from Gretchen and Elliot. So he did use meth money to pay for treatment but only because he didn't want Skyler to know that he refused the Schwartz' money. But he had health insurance.

CRM114

Public schools don't have crappy HMO's.

Walter White paid the medical bills with his meth money while Skyler thought the former partner was paying.

It was weak writing. No one in a public school employed as a teacher is going to be struggling to pay medical bills while still employed and covered.

RoyalTea

way to miss the entire point of the show.

Walter White was miserable. His doctor told him he had cancer and was going to die. Walter White's reaction was "you have mustard on your shirt."

He didn't struggle with his own mortality. He wanted to die. He wanted to keep this a secret from his family. He wanted to spend what little time he had left making some money to leave behind after he died (something that he accepted as inevitable).

The fact that you think he was cooking meth to pay for medical bills because he wanted to live makes me think you were watching a completely different show.

RichC2

Yeah, it was about having enough for the family to survive once he was gone. Sure, hitting the $4000 - $8000 annual for his insurance to take effect probably cost some, and not all cancer drugs are covered by insurance (just had to deal with that situation in real life for a family friend) but the bigger emphasis was always on him providing for his family since he essentially had jack shit.

RoyalTea

Agreed.

I don't think Hamlin was punishing her for losing clients. He was punishing her for losing clients to Jimmy/Saul.

If the Kettlemans walked away from HHM and went to any other lawyer in the greater ABQ area, no problem. The fact that they went to Jimmy McGill was what pissed Hamlin off the most.

starseed1981

Ugh. This show is so damned good.

Neil M.

His motives for cooking meth changed as the series went on.

RoyalTea

disagree. I think his motives were always the same. I think it just took him time to admit to himself (and eventually Sklyer) what those motives were.

keep in mind that when he first got the cancer diagnosis, he non-nonchalantly told the doctor he had a mustard stain. His life was so empty that being told he was going to die was less annoying to him than a stain of mustard on his doctor's shirt. And when the "oncology dream team" (doctors that he never wanted to see, and was only going to because he didn't want to tell his wife that he never took the Schwartz's money) told him the good news that the cancer was in remission, he wasn't relieved that the cancer scare was over and he could go back to the life he loved, he was pissed off (he punched the towel dispenser) because he thought that meant he had to go back to the life he hated and that he just lost the "excuse" that cooking meth was somehow the noble option.

CRM114

If I thought what you typed, I'd agree. Its not surprising that you misinterpreted something yet again.

RoyalTea

You typed "Walter White not having health insurance"

You could not possibly be more wrong about that.

CRM114

Yeah, OK. I guess he actually didn't need Schwartz' money and I imagined all of that. Enough. You are building upon subtlety, nuance, and interpretation of the script that just was not there (unless you parse words and imply intent and meaning).

RoyalTea

Yeah, the subtlety of Walter White punching out the towel dispenser after getting told that his cancer was in remission is just a figment of my imagination.

Why do you think he did that?

BrewCrew

Well that can go back to the thought that his motives for cooking meth changed as the series went on. From what I recall the stuff with Schwartz was season one and the remission was toward the end of season 2.

RoyalTea

when he first started cooking meth, he said he did it for his family. towards the end of the show, he said he did it for himself because he liked it and it made him feel alive. I think that his motivations were always that he did it to feel alive and it took a while for him to stop trying to justify it that he was doing it for his family.

He had insurance. He probably even had good insurance (pure speculation on my part, but the fact that he had a son with cerebral palsy probably gave him extra incentive to pick the best health care plan possible every year during his school's open enrollment period).

The Schwartz's offered Walt a blank check book in case he needed any financial help. Marie told him to seek out the "oncology dream team" which was not covered by his network. Skyler thought that Walt had the Schwartz's blank check to pay for this out of network health care. At this point, Walt basically had two choices: tell Sklyer that he told the Schwartz's to stick their blank checkbook up their ass and go to a different oncology office that his insurance did cover, or use meth money to pay for the "dream team."

So, yes, Walt did use drug money to pay for his health care, but I don't see how anybody could watch this show and come up with an interpretation that Walt cooked meth because he had no insurance and needed to come up with a way to pay for treatment. If that was the case, he takes the Schwartz's money and that's the end of the show.

Walter White did it to raise money for his family after his inevitable death. "Heisenburg" did it to feel alive. But I think he was always "Heisenburg."

JZ1276

Walter started the meth business to take care of his family after he was gone. Yes, he used the money to pay his med bills. When it got to the point that he had earned more than enough money to keep his family comfortable, he kept going. Why? Because he liked doing it. Look at the final episode where he was going out of his way to get whatever money that was left to his family even though they wanted nothing to do with him. Don't see how anyone can argue that.

BuckNaked2k

The relationship between Jimmy and Kim still perplexes me. Were they romantically involved at some point, or is Jimmy just attracted to her? Could she possibly be a family member, or does Jimmy just respect her as a fellow attorney?

She revealed that HHM put her through law school. This is very unusual, as there are so many new JDs every year, firms don't need to waste their money on tuition. The only time this happens is when a well-respected paralegal already inside a firm gets put through law school to get a JD. A little 'inside baseball', but I am really curious about how these two know each other since they seem to be so far apart professionally.