Better Call Saul 2x1: Jimmy Takes the Job, and We Already Know Where He Ends Up

In the Better Call Saul season 2 premiere, Jimmy made his choice. He took the job. Put simply, "the worst part is we know where he's going from here."

Better Call Saul makes us root for characters whose future we already know

There was some worry about a light switch, because older buildings have weird electronics. It felt certain that something had gone wrong, but we don't know what it is just yet. The show has to give us some suspense so that we keep wanting to see what happens next in episode two.

This world can leave you in awe. You get so immersed, so captivated and so invested that you go a little silent and speechless. You find yourself thinking that this is fun, but begging him not to do it. They do a really good job of making us root for these characters and want them so badly to thrive and succeed. That is what makes it hard, because we know where he's going from here.

Jimmy's road had us thinking about our own wrong turns

It's a lot like life in general. We are handed a bunch of opportunities, and you wonder what would have happened if you had taken them and how different your life might have been. Here we see it unfold while already knowing the future, and that can get you a little lost in your own story, wondering whether you took a wrong turn somewhere.

That is when Christine asked whether this was "the Cinnabon" moment, the black and white reminiscing. The answer was that it wasn't quite that. There was no claim to be at the Cinnabon stage, but no claim to be at a peak either. Maybe there was a little shortcut, a little breather to restart and refresh.

It isn't only about yourself. You start thinking about other people you know too. You ask where you would be if you had taken that one job or made some other choice. It's interesting to think about sometimes, and we think the show is doing a really good job of putting that out in the open and making you wonder.

Jimmy taking the law job was unexpected

It really seemed that the opening of this season would be Jimmy totally torpedoing any law career options he had and blowing things up, so he had to start again from ground zero, and that we would then see him con his way to unhappiness and realize over the season that he wanted to go back into law. Instead, he has taken the job and he is doing the thing. Potentially, he has made the choice many of us would look back on and think, maybe that's the choice I should have made rather than trying to live for me.

The pushback was that people have to learn in their own way. What he really loved, and what he's really good at, is the con artist side. He understands those types of people and gives them a place to be defended, even though they're the wrong people. That is who he is and what excites him, because it's dangerous. He doesn't like the safe route. To him that is boring, with no challenge.

He is a great lawyer because of that ability. In the bar, before they linked up with the stock broker, he said the things he enjoys about being a lawyer, selling people and telling a story, are things he could do however he wanted without being a lawyer. That is how he convinced himself it was time to be a con artist again. It was fun while it lasted, but he realized it was not going to make a lasting impression on the girl of his dreams, so he went back to the nine to five and the boring legal work.

We will see how fulfilling that is. Maybe this season will show him realizing again that he is really miserable inside the confines of an actual law firm, because it doesn't work the way he likes to shoot from the hip.

A prestigious path may not feel right if it isn't true to who you are

That led to a point aimed at Michael. There have probably been opportunities in his life that could have been outstanding, and he didn't take them because they weren't true to who he is. Taking them would have been safe, a solid road, but they just weren't him.

The argument was that everybody has had opportunities, more than one, and it comes down to whether you took them. Even if you did and it was great, it might not have fulfilled you, even though most people would die for that opportunity. Even if something is fantastic and the most prestigious thing you could do, "if it's not true to who you are, it's never going to feel right and you're never going to be happy."

That was what this episode really brought to mind. Maybe it is the phase of life one is in right now, and that is why it lands differently. But there is a lot of solid storytelling here that can give you growth.

The mystery is how Jimmy becomes Saul, and what happens to the girl

The show is doing a really good job of making us ask questions and feel there is still mystery to how this will happen, even though we fully know the end point. That end point, really and truly, is the moment Jesse and Walter walk into his office. We don't know if that is specifically how the show ends by season 6, but we know how it ends for Jimmy and Saul Goodman.

You can see the pieces moving. The relationship with Mike is getting a little more rocky. Jimmy might potentially have to get involved, because the cops are looking into the guy with the Hummer, and that is inevitably going to lead back to Mike. So maybe Mike will need more legal help. We see the beginnings of who Saul is, we just don't know how it will filter down.

Every time we think we know how it will go, it changes. When he left at the end of season 1, we assumed he would start his own practice. Instead he signed up for this partnership because he is still chasing this girl, a girl we never see or hear about in Breaking Bad. That makes it seem like something bad is going to happen to her, because nothing good ever seems to happen in this show. We were rooting for them, and they never let us stay happy. This is not a show that makes you feel good at the end; it makes you feel so many emotions that you end up crying. They've done a great job of that, and it's irritating.

Even the light switch moment carried a little melancholy

Put simply: "even when Saul wins, there's a little bit of melancholy." The light switch moment is really interesting. He peels it off, turns it off, and there is a hold your breath moment we share with Jimmy. Did we fire the nukes? Did the whole office shut down? Nothing turned off.

The excitement, the sense that everything is hanging by a thread, gets sucked out of the moment. We see Jimmy feel it: okay, it's just boring, it's just a light switch. He could have just asked what it does. True, but he wanted to live dangerously and in the moment. He likes the adrenaline rush, and that is probably why the regular lawyer life is not appealing to him.

His brother's betrayal still stings for both of us

He was also done dirty by the one person who mattered to him more than anything: his brother. This is a familiar experience with certain people. There is one person you look up to no matter what, and you do everything you possibly can to impress them, until you realize nothing you do will ever be enough. Something inside you dies and you change forever. Their opinion of you, and the way you see them, becomes dead. You stop caring, and it shifts the way you move.

We can both speak to that firsthand. It changes the way you do things. Sometimes you do things out of bitterness, because it's the opposite of what they would want. Other times you just become a completely different person.

We're both still a little bummed out and disappointed in his brother, and that is always going to be held over him. It was easy to root for them to work together, since they seemed to have an amazing bond, and it seemed possible that his brother would die and that would crush him. Instead, the betrayal just feels rough. But betrayal in this franchise is always rough. They always find the "perfect point to like really twist the knife" and destroy our hopes for these relationships. They're so mean. We'll see what happens.

Do you think Jimmy will find the law firm job fulfilling, or will he be pulled back toward the con?