What separates Jimmy McGill from Saul Goodman? The answer to this becomes clear near the end of Season 4, Episode 4 - "Talk."
Jimmy meets Ira, who mentions that he uses a new cell phone for every job. Jimmy then has a flash of inspiration, so he returns to CC Mobile and paints on the glass:
This may seem like just another clever scheme, which it certainly is. But it is more than that.
Jimmy deliberately decides to market his services to criminals, in particular. Yes, he has already passively found himself helping some bad guys through legal jams. However, his CC Mobile move is perhaps the first time he deliberately set out to aid lawbreakers.
He now has the specific aim to help criminals evade detection. This gets to the root difference between Jimmy McGill and Saul Goodman.
Who is Jimmy McGill? He is a criminal, a thief, con-artist, you name it.
Who is Saul Goodman? He is a consultant for criminals.
When Jimmy chooses to market his services to criminals, he takes one leap closer to becoming Saul Goodman. He will settle his identity crisis when he successfully combines the resourcefulness of Slippin' Jimmy with the risk-reducing detachment of a lawyer.
As a lawyer who is primarily a resource for criminals, he can have all the fun and stimulation of scheming, lawbreaking, and getting away with it, but with substantially less risk.
No more lame legal gigs like Sandpiper, in which he pretends to be something he is not. Rather than leave Slippin' Jimmy behind, Jimmy will mature into Saul: an expert advisor for others who are even dirtier than he is.
Look at this scene when Saul casually bumps into Hank. He is not exactly the Jimmy we know. Saul acts bullet-proof, confident, and unapologetic. That's because the law can't take him down. They can try to take down his clients (often unsuccessfully), but he feels nearly untouchable.
Think about the typical scenes from Breaking Bad in which Walt and Jesse meet with Saul. Doesn't he typically give forth a "wise counsel" vibe? That's the whole point of his name, which refers to the phrase, "It's all good, man," and his slogan, "Better Call Saul!"
Recall the scene in which Jesse first suggests that he and Walt hire Saul. Jesse sees Saul as a guru who can expertly defend and aid criminals, and even calls him a "criminal lawyer."
Saul is not a criminal, per se, but he can help others become better criminals. Saul is their buffer from the law. Yes, he was already heading down this road, but I don't think he was conscious of this trajectory until now.
When he learned about Ira's cell phone habits, he explicitly realized that there is an art and science to lawbreaking, which he will become expert in. Watch as Saul explains money laundering to Jesse. He practically sounds like an engineer.
Just wait until he gets that legal license back.
Submitted August 30, 2018 at 03:57PM by saulcast https://ift.tt/2N19KKW
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