I have a modest prediction for the beginning of season 6, and it has to do with the goldfish. While it’s a fool’s errand to predict even where these amazing writers will take us 1-2 episodes in advance, I can’t get this idea out of my head.
The goldfish first appears in the episode 305 (Chicanery) as Jimmy needed a pet to schedule an appointment with Caldera. It also features prominently in: the montage in the Wexler-McGill offices where Jimmy contacts each of his clients and explains to them about his “brief sabbatical” (306), when Jimmy drops his guilt onto Howard (and goes to feed the fish, which happens a decent amount through series 4), part of the something stupid montage in 407, and when Lalo taps on it in 509. Please let me know if I’ve missed any other important scenes featuring our star goldfish!
To me, the goldfish (and its tank) represents the compartmentalization of the “good” things about Jimmy – a bit vague, but I’ll explain. It has been associated with Chuck, Jimmy’s elderly clients, and of course, Kim. In 305 and afterwards (post -fish acquisition) , Jimmy stops taking care of Chuck/their relationship is broken and loses his elder law client base (due to both his suspension and his ploy to restore Irene’s friendships), two experiences that involve Jimmy’s natural and somewhat nurturing nature. These losses and the pain of his broken relationship with Chuck extinguish (both directly and more indirectly) Jimmy’s clear opportunities to take care of people and connect with his “Jimmy side”.
Non-trivially, the event that breaks Jimmy out of his late-third season spiral (due to pressure from expenses) is Kim’s car crash. Those “nurturing” feelings return, and Jimmy tries to make amends- which only serves to further burn those bridges he had with Chuck ("yOu dOn'T mEaN aNyThiNg To mE") and all the elders (Lantern, 310). In 401, when Howard tells Jimmy about the insurance, that breaks him and he flees emotionally, tossing the burden of guilt onto Howard, and goes over to feed the goldfish. By avoiding and compartmentalizing that pain that is linked to all that is beautiful about Jimmy, he is only able to exercise those nurturing instincts on a comparatively trivial goldfish, in a small contained tank.
It’s important that the goldfish tank moves to Kim’s apartment. By this point in the early parts of season 4, she is all Jimmy has left to care about. He likes to do things for, and because of, people (cons too- for Kim, because of dislike for Howard or Kevin). The tank is the brightest thing in the apartment amid the dark shadows of season 5.
Lalo’s invasion of the apartment is such an amazing scene because while it does put Jimmy and Kim in danger heading into season 6, that scene is all about Kim’s development. I would love to see whether or not Lalo tapping on the fish tank was specified in the script (it helps with blocking because Mike can then see him in the window) ~ Lalo has subtly threatened Jimmy by mentioning Kim's visit, and is doing so here too. Finally (whew sorry this is long), I’ve gotten to where this whole idea started. When I watched the scene and saw Lalo tapping on the tank, and then watched scary Kim’s transformation in 510, I felt like that tapping was a (metaphorical) provocation in a way. Like a “will the real Kim stand up moment?”. For Jimmy it clearly awakens the protective, nurturing instinct in him, and I really think he was on the verge of breaking up with Kim the next episode (when he had those two separate duffel bags- again!- next to the bed). But, and this is the subject of a whole other post, I think it really provokes Kim. By having to lie under the highest of stakes (and getting away with it), Kim’s is now desensitized to comparatively mundane moral roads. She now knows, and thinks, she can drive anywhere. The writer’s brilliance shines through again here- they continually create situations where Kim must enter the intoxicating gray to help or protect herself, because of her proximity to Jimmy ~ even when she knows the "truths" about the bullet holes/ the switching of the numbers. And she keeps winning in the gray- the cons, the bar hearing with Jimmy, Mesa Verde, fooling Lalo.
Finally, I come to my modest prediction. I think that when Kim and Jimmy return to the apartment from their brief holiday at the beginning of season 6, the goldfish will be belly up. Jimmy is always the one feeding it – he was missing for two days! Kim was stressed the heck out and distracted, Jimmy is shaken up and distracted, the fish gets menaced by Lalo, and then they flee to a hotel for two days. It’s got to be starved. Thematically, the death of the goldfish mirrors what is happening with Jimmy’s soul (i.e. Kim at this point). Jimmy didn’t kill it (Kim makes her choices too and we all don’t mean to kill our goldfishies + they don’t live that long anyway), but he really hasn’t been taking good care of it.
Yeah, it’s a small thing, but I think it could come to pass and could be a muted, yet still significant, opening that foreshadows the season. Like a calm before the storm – Jimmy and Kim come back and- oops the goldfish is dead… ☹ Lalo is coming.
edit- for clarity/typos and added an episode number for reference**
Submitted May 18, 2020 at 05:48PM by usedToHabituation https://ift.tt/2TfhniD
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