‘Better Call Saul’s’ ending is more gray than great 

“Better Call Saul” (which wrapped Monday on AMC) masterfully overcomes its prequel problem early in Season 6. (SPOILERS FOLLOW.) It chronicles the tragic downfall of Nacho, the terrifying rein of Lalo, and the one bit of cleverness that allows underdog Gus Fring to outsmart Lalo. Even when we know a character’s fate, it’s thrilling to see how things play out. 

The stage is set for “Breaking Bad.” 

Cheer up, sleepy Gene 

Then – for the last four of the season’s 13 episodes — showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould settle into the Gene timeline, which takes place after “Breaking Bad” and is in black-and-white. The show gets fittingly depressing as we see Gene (Bob Odenkirk) – formerly Saul, formerly Jimmy, sometimes Victor – in hiding as a mustached Cinnabon manager in Omaha. Also filmed in gray, Kim (Rhea Seehorn) is a printer-supply saleswoman in Florida. 

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There’s a tragedy to their days because Jimmy and Kim’s brains move fast and these jobs move slowly. And, of course, because they’re apart despite their love. But as purposefully downbeat as episodes 10-13 are, there’s a low hum of tension: Theoretically, Jimmy and Kim could be caught by the authorities at any time. Also: Maybe they have a trick up their sleeves. 

Con games are in their blood, after all. Jimmy in particular can’t turn off the old Victor & Giselle itch. He recruits dimwitted neighbor brothers to help him rob a mall store. “Nippy” (10) is a particularly great hour of midlife ennui. Gene chats with security-monitor-watcher Frank (“Parks and Recreation’s” Jim O’Heir) about Cornhuskers football as the 2010 season unfolds. It’s the middle of the night, the mall is empty, and Gene doesn’t truly even like football. 

When Gene breaks down crying in order to distract Frank from the monitor showing Gene’s partner in crime, he’s acting. But on some level, his confessions about having no one and nothing to live for is honest. 

The writers’ long con 

Helping all six seasons of “Better Call Saul” break away from the prequel problem is the Jimmy-and-Kim love story, as Kim is not in “Breaking Bad.” I expected them to live happily ever after, perhaps with the gray changing to color in the final shot.  

Perhaps they’d get a place on the sea with that Sandpiper money. Perhaps “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” would play in an upbeat reprise of its darkly comedic use in the episode called “Breaking Bad” (11). (In order to sell his genuineness in a con, Gene must sing the song at karaoke.) 

As “Saul Gone” (13) reveals, Jimmy and Kim don’t live happily ever after – at least not in the traditional sense. Jimmy uses his superb lawyer skills to negotiate his prison time down to seven years. But it turns out, that’s merely to show he can do it. In the courtroom, he purposely negotiates it back up to 80-plus years, in order to swear to Kim’s innocence under oath. 

Throughout the Gene episodes, I figured Kim and Jimmy were working some sort of long con to end all long cons. In retrospect, those knowing glances between the pair were a case of Gilligan and Gould conning us. 

It takes two, baby 

Gould writes and directs a finale wherein Jimmy will live out his life in prison, but he’s satisfied because Kim is free, and he has re-earned her respect. Some will see it as a beautiful, artistic, bittersweet end.

I don’t think the events ring true to Jimmy’s character. Plus, it promotes a retrogressive view of women. Throughout “Better Call Saul,” Jimmy pulls Kim back into the con games when she wants out and Kim pulls Jimmy back in when he wants out. They are equal partners. In the finale, Jimmy takes action; Kim is passive – the tired old gender roles. 

Additionally, I linger on the question of how bad Jimmy and Kim are. Through the years, analysts of “Breaking Bad” have reminded us how bad Walter White is – and his cameos in “BCS” further remind us – but to me his overriding trait is he’s desperate to help his family. 

I see Jimmy (and Kim, once she joins the narrative) as even more decent people than Walter. They want justice in the world – not always in the legal sense, often in the moral sense. Jimmy and Kim con people who give them raw deals, or who are generally bad people.  

How bad is Jimmy, really? 

Gilligan and Gould don’t see Jimmy like I do. I think this might be a failure to adjust for Odenkirk’s charming yet human and vulnerable performance. As with Walter’s lonely demise in “BrBa,” the final message of “BCS” is strikingly pro-law-and-order, even though the series’ premise is built on the ineffectiveness and corruption of the justice system. 

I don’t like it. I wanted a happy ending because I like Jimmy. He doesn’t directly kill anyone, does he? I don’t care that he broke the law; I’ve already forgotten the ways in which he did. 

But I don’t regret taking the journey. We’ll be discussing and analyzing the overall “Breaking Bad”/“Better Call Saul” saga as long as television is a medium. Maybe someday someone will convince me why the ending is brilliant. 

IMDb top 250 trivia 

• My opinion is in the minority. “Saul Gone” is tied as the highest-rated episode of Season 6, at 9.9. Sharing that high mark is the midseason finale, “Plan and Execution,” which boasts that gripping ending wherein Lalo’s activities overlap with Howard’s confrontation with Jimmy and Kim. 
• Topping “Breaking Bad” (No. 2 with a 9.4 rating) in the IMDb rankings would’ve been impossible, but “Better Call Saul” made a fair try at it. It ranks No. 47 with an 8.8 rating.