Better call Saul

[PerreaultForever]

2 hours ago, Cascade Youth said:

So does Gene WANT to be caught?  Like Raskolnikov?

Unless they are just saving money 🙂 I'm going to assume the black and white implies a lack of colour in his life, i.e. unhappiness. 

[Cascade Youth]

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

Unless they are just saving money 🙂 I'm going to assume the black and white implies a lack of colour in his life, i.e. unhappiness. 

Unhappiness about what though - contrasted with the color scenes of Jessie asking who Lalo is, and Saul saying “he’s no one” - maybe he wants to be known, he doesn’t want to be buried in some random cemetery (the grave in the desert image), but rather, wants to be recognized as an accomplished criminal?  Maybe he was secretly delighted that the police are still after him but bummed that his trail had gone cold?  
 

Or again, does he secretly want to be punished like Dostoevsky’s criminal?  The black and white = good/evil, law/order etc.?  

[PickaPecaPickles]

6 hours ago, Cascade Youth said:

Unhappiness about what though - contrasted with the color scenes of Jessie asking who Lalo is, and Saul saying “he’s no one” - maybe he wants to be known, he doesn’t want to be buried in some random cemetery (the grave in the desert image), but rather, wants to be recognized as an accomplished criminal?  Maybe he was secretly delighted that the police are still after him but bummed that his trail had gone cold?  
 

Or again, does he secretly want to be punished like Dostoevsky’s criminal?  The black and white = good/evil, law/order etc.?  

Whatever happened with that phone call to Kim definitely sent him down a self-destructive road.  Seems as if he may not have anything to live for now, and while I can't see him wanting to get caught, I can see him going out a la Thelma and Louise.

[nfreeman]

Yes — a happy ending seems pretty unlikely.  I think the consistent moral of this show and Breaking Bad is that consequences are inevitable.  

[shrader]

1 minute ago, nfreeman said:

Yes — a happy ending seems pretty unlikely.  I think the consistent moral of this show and Breaking Bad is that consequences are inevitable.  

And messing with people with cancer leads to your downfall.

[PerreaultForever]

11 hours ago, Cascade Youth said:

Unhappiness about what though - contrasted with the color scenes of Jessie asking who Lalo is, and Saul saying “he’s no one” - maybe he wants to be known, he doesn’t want to be buried in some random cemetery (the grave in the desert image), but rather, wants to be recognized as an accomplished criminal?  Maybe he was secretly delighted that the police are still after him but bummed that his trail had gone cold?  
 

Or again, does he secretly want to be punished like Dostoevsky’s criminal?  The black and white = good/evil, law/order etc.?  

My take at this point (although the last two episodes might reveal some info that changes it) is the B&W is because his life is empty and as I said, the obvious metaphor lacking colour, because he was addicted to the life, the thrills, the money and power it brought, and now that it's all gone he has nothing and finds he can't live without it. So in the end he will do something foolish and come to an end from going after that thrill/life rather than settling for a lesser boring anonymity. 

So maybe as a viewer it'll be ambiguous and you can take it as a suicide of sorts or a Dostoevsky type resolution, but I think it's just addiction. He simply can't live without being Saul rather than Jimmy or Gene. It's who/what he is, even if it's a fiction he created.

I just hope they give us a little more on how Kim left. It's a little unsatisfying at this point if she just "left" without more details. To me anyway. Everyone else we already know how they ended from Breaking Bad. 

[shrader]

I feel like we're digging a bit too much into any reason for the black and white.  It's a pretty common practice to use that for flashbacks and this is a unique spin on that.

[triumph_communes]

On 8/2/2022 at 11:59 AM, nfreeman said:

Yes — a happy ending seems pretty unlikely.  I think the consistent moral of this show and Breaking Bad is that consequences are inevitable.  

That’s a viewers wet dream. People don’t want to believe criminals can actually be happy in the long term and leave on their own terms. 
 

Kim would be the exception, having dipped her toes in and then getting away. It’s not right if she gets away unless she’s the one to turn Saul in. 

[nfreeman]

So I heard on a podcast that the title of the next episode is "Waterworks," and since Kim now works at a sprinkler company...it seems likely we'll see Kim again.