Better Call Saul “Rebecca”

Chuck at one point had a wife.  Said wife was played by actress Ann Cusack.  Ann Cusack also plays Annie “Starlight” January’s mother over on The Boys, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen Annie’s father on that show.

I have a new headcanon now.

So, I had some more thoughts about Chuck and Jimmy in this episode.  The two appear to be going to war with each other in a lowkey way.  Funny thing is, Chuck doesn’t really need to do much of anything about Jimmy’s current job.  Jimmy is clearly chafing under the rules, and it looks like he has a babysitter to make sure he doesn’t do anything against the rules, rules which run from the sketchy (not bribing a courthouse clerk with a Beanie Baby) to the petty (formatting a document the Davis & Main way).  Jimmy’s encounter with a prosecutor he used to deal with, a man with clear disrespect for the sort of people Jimmy used to represent while being absolutely disgusting in his envy over Jimmy’s new job clearly rubbed the younger McGill the wrong way.

Now, Kim is off to the side chugging along, trying to get back in Howard’s good graces.  Jimmy thinks he needs to fix this because it’s Chuck’s doing.  Kim figures she needs to fix it herself since it’s Howard’s doing.  Howard sure does seem to be a petty jackass sometimes.  Me?  I watched to the end and figured they were both right.  And it does seem as if Kim is probably getting out of the doghouse thanks to Chuck’s influence, but then there was the final scene with Chuck.  See, he stops to talk to Kim.  How well do he and Kim know each other?  I have no idea, but he basically tells her about how Jimmy used to skim some money from their late father’s cash register when he owned a small neighborhood store.  Chuck says Jimmy isn’t a bad person (do you really believe that, Chuck?), but he tends to get people hurt.  He’s warning Kim perhaps.

I have a question:  why did Chuck tell Kim that story?

Sure, the basic guess would be that Chuck is warning Kim so that she doesn’t get hurt by Jimmy again.  Chuck feels Jimmy is a genuine menace to anyone’s peace of mind, and while he (perhaps) loves his brother, he likewise doesn’t want people getting hurt by him.  Jimmy needs to be contained in some way.

But then, why open with the flashback to the days when Chuck was married to Rebecca?  She’s presumably not around anymore because of a divorce or something.  The episode is named for her.  I don’t know much about what happened there, but it does seem as if she and Jimmy more or less hit it off over dinner thanks to Jimmy’s general charm and a stream of lawyer jokes.  But then Chuck tries to tell one later and it falls flat.

Is Chuck…a little jealous of Jimmy?

Did Jimmy somehow ruin Chuck’s marriage?

How do the McGills really feel about each other?

I love that this show is maybe creating characters complex enough that it’s not as simple as “Chuck thinks Jimmy is an embarrassment and Jimmy is disappointed his brother held him back”.

Oh, and meanwhile…Hector Salamanca meets MIke.  Oh, and Hector can talk.  Will I get the origin of that bell he used to ring before this series ends?  Well, who can say?  I’ll just have to find out.