OT: that’s all folks! Better Call Saul series finale (spoilers!)

Yeah, there was no way Saul was going to get an actual happy ending. He's proven over and over that he's legitimately an awful person. He is, however a good lawyer, so finding a way to get that recommended sentence was appropriate I think.

Hard not to wish for more finale fireworks, but anything different would have felt a bit contrived.

Fantastic show, it's been a blast to follow.

I agree.  Going out with a bang would probably due the show a disservice.  He did what he never did which was tell the truth (lie to save Kim excepted), and made peace with Kim and gained her respect given the massive temporary reduced sentence.  

This is how the show needed to end.

Saul and Kim are the two main characters in that story line to not die in the end too.

Many emotions and trying to process as well. Jimmy/Saul finally coming clean and saving Kim in the process. The scene in the desert was like the scene in El Camino with Mike. Saul was all about the money while Mike wanted to make things right which he told Jesse you can't. So much to process with this episode.

Too many processes on this post. Sorry I'm drunk again.

From a Rolling Stone interview with Peter Gould:

To your mind, do you think what Saul does in the hearing will get Kim out of legal trouble with Cheryl?

"No, I don’t. I think that Kim is on her own journey, and I think he knows that. He does feel bad about what’s happening with Cheryl. But I don’t think Kim would like it if Jimmy pulled some maneuver that protected her from Cheryl. He doesn’t save her; she saves her. They’re done with saving each other by this time. What he sees is that she had the courage to face what she’s done. And she did something that I don’t think Jimmy/Gene ever thought she would do, which is not only to turn herself in, but actually to sit across from Cheryl Hamlin, who they both lied to disgustingly, and be 100 percent truthful."

I loved the series but the ending felt too contrived. Saul was a hardened criminal. He'd have taken the 7.5 years and found another way to at least try to get Kim to stop hating him.

Phenomenal show with a satisfying ending. 

The most important character in the BB universe was Badger. If he doesn’t sell meth to that skinny undercover, who knows what we would have missed out on

I couldn't tell or didn't notice but was Marie wearing purple?

I think Kim is the only person Jimmy ever truly loved but I can't see him giving up that 7yr sentence.

Nice touch with them leaning on the wall sharing a cig, like old times. They only needed a waste basket to kick.

Basically a story of redemption, Jimmy finally "Broke Good"

I am so very sad that our time in that universe is over. I want more

I'm going to go against the grain a bit here, and say that what Jimmy did was an act of repentance, however he understood that at the time.  As noted in one of the comments, I'm not sure what he testified to in the federal court really shielded Kim from civil litigation, but we'll never know.

I do, however, have a bit of a problem with the idea that the federal attorneys would bargain down to 7 years on the threat that all Jimmy/Saul needed was one juror.  They had a laundry list of charges, and a boatload of evidence.  Jimmy/Saul might have been able to get a juror to hold out on some of the murder-related charges, but I can't picture any jury voting "not guilty" on every single charge.

I absolutely love the writing in this universe...just phenomenal and FUN!

The whole time machine angle was fun - Mike telling Jimmy "its all about the Money". Hank telling Saul "you've always been this way". Lastly the flashback to Chuck where Jimmy could have avoided it all just by staying back and learning from Chuck. 

Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul were great in their own ways. Fun, Smart, and full of little hommages to previous/future episodes. I will miss this universe.

I thought the last several episodes were kind'a slow, but they needed to be.  They told the story of people who fled a fast paced, dangerous life for something less than that.  A life in hiding, more or less, is a slow, plodding, safe routine - and it can never be more than that.  So it makes perfect sense to slow it down.  Saul caught the bug and schemed again, and that was his downfall.  He got out of it with that plea, because that's always what his mouth could do.  But he couldn't take it that Kim was in criminal jeopardy so he gave himself up for her.  The only reason he came clean in the courtroom is because that is the only way anyone would have believed his story that Kim was not involved, thus getting her out of trouble with the law.  Civilly, she's own her own - just as she would prefer it.

I would've liked to have seen Jimmy giving legal advice to inmates along with the bread making.  But the show ended the way it needed to - a lifelong criminal in prison, and his otherwise law-abiding sidekick safe from prison but facing civil backlash.

Here's why the ending was perfect in my mind. You see two different times in Jimmy/Saul's life where he asks the time machine question. Then you see where that question originated from, the interaction with Chuck. Chuck gave Jimmy the advice he needed to hear, but wasn't ready for - if you don't like the path you're on, you can always change it. You don't need a time machine for that. On the airplane, Jimmy was finally ready to take his brother's advice. He changed his path, even though it meant he'd never see the outside of a federal prison again. 

Everyone seems to think Jimmy has reformed himself. After all this there are still some suckers out there huh? He wanted to look good for Kim and loves doing the absolute thing he shouldnt do "Its showtime". He is the same ole Jimmy. 

Great ending and a great show. I love calling out the stinker episodes in the show it makes the good ones that much sweeter.

*Walt Voice* A slip and fall? I loved it. 

Chuck asking Jimmy to consider taking a different path if he doesn’t like where he's going before picking up a H.G. Wells’ book The Time Machine was terrific.

For me, both shows are about 2 people (Saul and WW), who could not achieve success within the ordinary confines of societal norms. WW, because he didn’t/couldn’t stay with Gray Matter, Saul because he hated people like his brother that could use talent/family connections to achieve success in the acceptable way.

both chose to be very successful in ways that are unacceptable in the moral universe the show inhabits and both had to face the consequences. However, both also got to go out on their terms in their personal ‘blaze of glory.’ Saul in courtroom after first besting the feds on his deal, WW got the bullet.

I was hoping he would end up in jail. Not all the characters have to die.

But here’s a question for any mgolawyers out there: why would the gvmt give him the 7 year sentence when they have a mountain of evidence for multiple crimes? He can’t cry that he was coerced by WW when he was still scamming people in Omaha

Really good ending. Not the level of fireworks we’re used to seeing with the BB finale, but I don’t think VG was going for that kind of ending.

I have to say, this reminded me a little bit of watching Vader coming back from the dark side. You just think Saul is so far gone and he can’t possibly find any semblance of redemption. I was so sure he was either going to escape and live life alone in a new identity, or his attempt at throwing Kim under the bus (if he actually tried to do it) would backfire on him really badly. But in the end, he finds the one thing that brings that brings him into the light (Kim) and comes back to it. When he tells the lawyer his name is Jimmy, you knew that once and for all, Saul was finally dead, much like Vader had died and Anakin finally came back at the end of ROTJ. He isn’t really redeemed per se, nor is he a good person, but buried beneath all the scams and all the bullshit was a guy who still had a good heart, and all he wanted was the love and respect of his dead brother an ex wife.

In the end, I don’t think Jimmy feared going to prison. He had to know that he was getting locked up with tons of guys he either defended, or were friends of guys he defended. In those last few scenes you could tell he was liked and respected in prison.

Only thing I wish we saw is the central moment that allowed Jimmy to come back. It seemed like it kind of came out of nowhere. It seemed like at the start of the episode he was hellbent on getting out of this, so what forced him to change his mind? And then did Kim know the whole time that Jimmy was going to exonerate her, or if not, what information did he claim he was going to use against her?

Either way, great ending to a great show. It wasn’t BB, but it was a worthy successor that stood on its own merits.