<em>Better Call Saul</em> "Klick" Recap: Making Nixon Proud

AMC

Last week on Better Call Saul, Mike got a job done, Kim accepted a truth, and Jimmy tied up loose ends. This week, Jimmy helped his brother, Mike got some advice, and Chuck did some remodeling. Let's talk about the season finale, "Klick," below.

"I Woulda Made Nixon Proud:"Midway through the season, Jimmy tried to puncture Chuck's smug sense of superiority and get him to admit he's just as damaged as his brother, yelling, “Come on down Chuck, roll around in the dirt with me." And after Chuck endured a pretty nasty head injury at the end of last episode, Jimmy got his wish. It turns out that the strait-laced, fussy Chuck might be a better con man than even Slippin' Jimmy. "You finally got me where you want me," Chuck spits at Jimmy while recuperating from his fall, but once he clicks stop on that tape recorder, it's clear Chuck is the one who has his little brother where he wants him.

When did Chuck decide to entrap Jimmy? Was it when Jimmy got the temporary emergency guardianship over him? Was it when Ernie said he called Jimmy to come to the 24 hour printing place? Or was it when he woke up from his self-induced catatonia and saw Jimmy sitting there, just as Chuck was sitting next to their mother as she died in the cold open? This season showed time and again that Jimmy really does have Chuck's best interests in his heart—at his core, he wants to be a caring, attentive, kind brother. He wants to make his big brother proud of him.

Jimmy's first priority has been looking after Chuck—every time he's around him, he slips into caretaker mode, asking him if he wants tea and peppering his speech with endearing terms like "buddy" (both in the past and present). It's the reason Jimmy sprints across the street to the printing place and takes charge of the situation when he sees the fall; he isn't worried about the ramifications for the Mesa Verde situation and his legal sabotage. Jimmy isn't Saul—he still has human attachments. As co-creator Peter Gould told People last week, "Jimmy at this point doesn't seem detached from the consequences of his actions. He seems fully engaged and especially in that last scene [where Chuck falls], he seems kind of worried about what's going to happen to his brother. I don't know if we've seen him lose his soul."

But Chuck wants to be right more than anything. As Bob Odenkirk told EW, Jimmy "never meant to put his brother’s life in danger, that’s for sure. But I think he underestimated how important it was to Chuck that Chuck be right. I think he underestimated how important it was to Chuck to just be the smartest guy in the room. I mean, it’s practically life and death for Chuck that he be the smartest guy in the room, and that no one take that away from him, ever, not even an ounce of it."

So Chuck takes advantage of Jimmy's love, handing in a resignation letter to HHM, erecting a foil fortress (his Fortress Of Foilitude), and using guilt to draw out Jimmy's confession. "I don't know what you are if you're not a lawyer," Jimmy says to him. "You can retire when you're 99, giving closing arguments to Judgebot 3000, which will run on electricity by the way."

There's too deep of a schism here now, one which draws on years of resentment and jealousy. We heard about the roots of it when Chuck told Kim how Jimmy stole $14K and ruined their father's business, and we see it in the cold open as their mother says Jimmy's name before dying. Chuck has never forgiven his fuck-up brother Jimmy for being so damn loved.

And that's what Chuck plays on to finally draw out the truth: "It was me. I woulda made Nixon proud," Jimmy admits. "It all went down exactly like you said, I mean exactly. I doctored the copies, paid the kid at the shop to lie for me, it is insane how you got every detail exactly right. So you can relax, okay, because that brain of yours is chugging along at 1000 percent efficiency." Chuck already knew that, but he doesn't understand the why—he thinks Jimmy wanted to humiliate him.

As Vince Gilligan put it on Talking Dead, Chuck may be completely right (Jimmy did do all those bad things, and really messed with his mentally ill brother's already troubled brain), but we still side with Jimmy—because just like Ernie, who voluntarily lied on his behalf to Chuck, we like Jimmy more. Ultimately, the only reason Jimmy confessed was to make Chuck feel better. Chuck cares more about outsmarting and outmaneuvering his brother than whether or not he goes to jail for a felony.

And suddenly something snaps into place: Chuck has the same narcissistic personality as ABQ's legendary meth cooker. He may have a different set of resentments than Walter White, but Chuck has a similar bitterness that has been building up inside him and is now coming out like bile. No wonder Saul Goodman would one day be so attracted and patient with a personality like Walt's—yes, he was attaching himself to a very lucrative money train, but he also reminded him of his big brother. Neither Walt nor Chuck really appreciated him as much as they should have. And Jimmy stuck it out with both of them far past when he should have.

Fring's Back? Speculation ran wild last week that The Chicken Man himself would make an appearance in the season finale after fans rearranged all the episode titles from season two and came up with the anagram, "Fring's Back." And after all the hype and eager anagramming...he sorta maybe did? But not in the flesh?

After Mike learned that him ripping off the cartel had inadvertently led to a good Samaritan being killed and buried in the desert, he was determined to not let it happen again with the truck driver—and even if that was a secondary consideration, he definitely wanted to put an end to Hector Salamanca, and any threat he could pose to him or his granddaughter. After getting in some rifle practice with Lawson the gun dealer (the only Better Call Saul spinoffs I want: private eye procedural Mike & Lawson, Competent Outlaws For Hire, and courtroom reality show Honorable Judge Judgebot 3000), Mike set out to the desert to assassinate Hector. It was the tensest scene in the episode, and had the vivid Breaking Bad overtones: gorgeous arid vistas, roaring crickets, and all faraway action being viewed through the scope of a rifle (this episode, not incidentally, was directed by Vince Gilligan). Then things start to go wrong: Nacho stands right in front of Hector; the driver is killed; the crickets abruptly stop, and suddenly Mike's car is honking in the distance. When he gets there, he sees a note on the windshield with one word: "DON'T."

Even without a spotlight episode like last season's superb "Five-O," Mike's story was much more exciting this season. His brushes with the Salamancas provided a complimentary parallel narrative to Jimmy's story; it was both a chance to bring back old BB actors, and a visceral rush that elder and banking-related law just...couldn't quite provide. But while Jimmy McGill feels like a distinct person from Saul Goodman at this point, Mike is mostly just Mike—except he's not a stone cold killer yet. As Gilligan said on Talking Dead, Mike noticeably hesitates shooting Nacho to get to Hector. Even after everything he's experienced this season, he's still engaging in half-measures, and we all know how those turn out.

So it makes a lot of sense that he'll get over that hump via his association with the ruthless, methodical Gus Fring next season. And even if it didn't see pretty clear from all the hints—How many other people could have left that note? Who else could earn that cliffhanger?—Gould basically confirmed it on Talking Dead: "That would be an amazing coincidence," he said about the episode title anagram. "We underestimated the brilliance of our fans...[Gilligan and I] both thought no one would put it together until we pointed it out."

(Interestingly, Bob Odenkirk told EW of Mike's story here, "Mike got lucky. Hard to believe that Mike needed to get lucky, but he did. It’s hard to believe that Mike almost made a big mistake.")

Episodic Rankings For Season Two:
10. "Gloves Off" (Episode 4): In which Mike picked a fight with Tuco and Kim got demoted because of Jimmy.
9. "Bali Ha'i" (Episode 6): In which The Cousins threatened Mike and Jimmy serenaded Kim with showtunes.
8. "Switch" (Episode 1): In which Jimmy pulled a con with Kim and got a new job.
7. "Amarillo" (Episode 3): In which Jimmy made a commercial and Mike got dragged into the underworld.
6. "Fifi" (Episode 8): In which Kim fought for Mesa Verde and Jimmy sabotaged Chuck.
5. "Inflatable" (Episode 7): In which Jimmy embraced colorful suits and got fired from his job.
4. "Cobbler" (Episode 2): In which Jimmy introduced us to the term "Hoboken Squat Cobbler."
3. "Nailed" (Episode 9): In which Jimmy, Chuck and Kim cleared the air.
2. "Klick" (Episode 10): In which Chuck finally outsmarted his brother.
1. "Rebecca" (Episode 5): In which Kim saved herself.

The Honorary Huell Babineaux 'What The Huell Else' Section:

• Some of the most inventive camera shots of the episode came from Chuck's perspective in the hospital—the upside-down shot, perfectly capturing Chuck's confusion and frustration, was particularly memorable. There were plenty of other jarring shots that ultimately made the hospital trip feel more like an alien abduction.
• My one disappointment with the episode is the minimal amount of Kim screentime we got. She only appears in two scenes, most notably in the hospital waiting room when the two catch Jimmy's commercial (which is definitely Saul-esque) on TV. She beams as Jimmy describes himself as, "a man who says what he does and does what he says." She seems to have forgiven Jimmy for the Mesa Verde sabotage, even after Chuck's accident.
• And Jimmy of course references her when he explains to Chuck why he messed with the files: "She worked her butt off for Mesa Verde," he said. "Kim deserves Mesa Verde."
• Hey! No one asked Aaron Paul this week whether he's making a cameo on Saul! This is progress!
• And finally, here's a season wrap-up from AMC: