Better Call Saul Review: Something Beautiful (Season 4 Episode 3)
There has been some question during this season of Better Call Saul whether we are still watching James McGill, or whether he has completed his moral decay into Saul Goodman. After viewing Better Call Saul Season 4 Episode 3, “Something Beautiful,” I have an answer.
He’s Saul Goodman.
James McGill, though not a pillar of morality, is a caring person. His love for his brother and Kim Wexler, among others, knows no bounds. But that’s not who we see on this episode.
Saul Goodman reads aloud the final words from Chuck McGill without an ounce of emotion. Kim cries, and Jimmy (Saul) just shrugs the whole thing off.
Saul Goodman recruits someone to help him pull one over on a hapless copier salesman with marriage troubles.
Saul Goodman, the attorney with a moral compass just slightly different from the United States criminal justice system, is slowly taking over the character fans once knew as James McGill.
To watch a character like Jimmy slowly slip from his desire to be a moral upstanding attorney-at-law into the morally flexible criminal in Breaking Bad has been one of, if not THE, most compelling journeys to play out on television in recent memory.
It hurts, too. It hurts because we know that Jimmy is perfectly capable of being a moral, upstanding guy, and yet he repeatedly chooses the opposite.
“Something Beautiful” was a significant milestone on the journey toward Saul Goodman. It becomes clearer the further this story goes that Chuck’s death had a profound impact on Jimmy, and as some have predicted, it wasn’t a positive one.
Jimmy’s descent into Saul and the profound impact that’s had on him and his loved ones, is only one-third of the episode’s content. Another third is devoted to Kim Wexler and her life as a lawyer without Jimmy, and her permanent role as counsel for Mesa Verde
Kim’s issue is a larger, more sweeping one that most of humanity can relate to: Do I want this? Do I want this bank’s expansion to be my entire foreseeable future?
Anyone with a job that they aren’t passionate about asks the same questions all the time.
A few stray thoughts:
- The final third of the episode deals with Gus Fring, and reminds the Breaking Bad fans watching that he’s a force to be reckoned with. We all remember that Walter teamed with Hector to have him killed….perhaps that was justified.
- I may have shrieked with joy when Gus went to meet with Gale Boetticher. My darling Gale Boetticher. My star. My perfect silence.
- Also, Gale singing the periodic table song is probably the most Gale thing he could do.
- Watching this show as a Breaking Bad fan is a delightfully rich experience, but it IS disconcerting to think about how some of these characters will eventually meet their end.
- I didn’t realize how much I would miss Howard until he sat out for an episode.
What did you think of this episode of Better Call Saul? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Better Call Saul airs Mondays at 9/8c on AMC.
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Nick Hogan
Nick Hogan is an experienced podcaster and writer (particularly on media topics), who loves discussion and analysis of TV and is always looking for new shows to watch. He is also a parent who loves buffalo wings, blowing raspberries, and his beloved Cincinnati Reds.