‘Better Call Saul’: Bob Odenkirk Calls Jimmy’s Latest Scam ‘Unhinged’
As Better Call Saul nears its finale, Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) is ramping up his criminal action. Even Odenkirk considers his latest scheme “unhinged.” The penultimate episode, “Waterworks,” showed Jimmy at his most outrageous.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Better Call Saul episode “Waterworks.”]
Odenkirk was on a Television Critics Association panel on Aug. 10. Here’s why he thinks Jimmy is now unhinged, and what he hopes for him in the Better Call Saul finale. The Better Call Saul finale airs Monday, Aug. 15 on AMC.
Before the ‘Better Call Saul’ finale, Jimmy got unhinged
The episode before “Waterworks” showed Jimmy, as Gene Takovic, get rich guys drunk, drug them and rob their house of their passwords and accounts. In the penultimate Better Call Saul, Jimmy robbed one mark alone and he almost woke up.
“The crime regarding getting these rich guys drunk and stealing their private information, that was the round of Jimmy/Saul scamming that was just unhinged,” Odenkirk said. “It had no purpose at all outside of grinding that itch to do something crazy and to take it to the limit and I think to get caught or to crack up. And so, you know, I feel bad that he made that choice, but I will say this. I feel wonderful and excited and thrilled about what the writers came up with regarding the finale.”
Why Bob Odenkirk feels bad for Jimmy going into the ‘Better Call Saul’ finale
Odenkirk can still have empathy for his character. “Waterworks” showed Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn)’s end of their phone call. She told him to turn himself in. It seems like Jimmy rebelled before the Better Call Saul finale.
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“I felt bad for him, you know?” Odenkirk said. “It’s maybe not a great instinct, but you want your character to do the right thing. And the more he did this, the more I wanted him to pull back or see what he was doing. And you know, it’s just not what this job is or it’s not really what you want to see as an audience member.”
Jimmy’s spiral reflects an Oscar-winning movie
Odenkirk understood that Jimmy had to spiral further and further before the Better Call Saul finale. He likened it to the movie that won Nicolas Cage his Oscar.
“You wanna see somebody go deep into their craziness,” Odenkirk said. “And in this case, he just kept going. And at a certain point, he was driven by self-destruction. I thought a lot about that movie, Leaving Las Vegas, this most recent round of Jimmy’s scam that included Marion and the characters with the shopping mall crime and how he was just gonna take that until he cracked it.”
