From sketch comedy to comic relief to lead in a prestige drama, there's nothing Bob Odenkirk can't do. With Nobody, the 2021 one-man army action thriller in the mold of John Wick, Odenkirk cemented himself as an action star. Fresh off his acclaimed run on Broadway, playing Shelley Levene in a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, Odenkirk is returning to his role as Hutch Mansell, the mild-mannered family man who is brought back into his old profession as an assassin, in Nobody 2, which releases on August 15.
Three years after its stunning finale, Better Call Saul remains Odenkirk's crowning achievement as an actor. His performance as Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman was worthy of multiple Emmys, and the send-off to his character, who debuted in Breaking Bad's second season in 2009, was even more powerful than you can imagine. In a recent interview with Collider, Odenkirk revealed that Jimmy's final interaction with Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) in the series finale not only tied together a tumultuous relationship but also hid a painful truth beneath the surface.
'Better Call Saul's Finale Sees Jimmy McGill Pay for His Crimes
The final stretch of Better Call Saul, crescendoing into the shocking death of Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian), fast-forwards to many years later, following the events in Breaking Bad, with Jimmy, living under the new identity of Gene Takovic, in hiding following the collapse of Walter White's (Bryan Cranston) meth empire. Shot in black-and-white, these sobering episodes also track Kim, once an upstanding attorney who got sucked into Jimmy's illicit practices, who is now living in Florida under a new identity. She shuts down Jimmy's attempts at reconnecting and is only interested in hearing her former husband confess his sins.
In the series finale, "Saul Gone," Jimmy admits to all of his crimes and moral wrongdoings at his trial in front of Kim, including his culpability in the suicide of his brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), and his enabling of the notorious criminal known as Heisenberg. During his last hurrah in a courtroom, Jimmy is sentenced to 86 years in prison. Upon conclusion of the trial, Jimmy and Kim share a cigarette against a wall, a tradition going back to their days at HHM, for one last time.
In an eerily romantic and heartbreaking scene, Jimmy and Kim pass each other a lit cigarette in his holding room. Kim remarks on the fact that he could've bargained his way down to a seven-year sentence, but Jimmy, stripped of all the boisterous charm of Saul Goodman, realized that he needed to take the road of repentance. Taking responsibility for his actions is exactly what Kim wants, but part of her feels melancholic about the reality of the Slippin' Jimmy that she once knew, who always had a scheme to get out of any ordeal, dying in that courtroom.
Bob Odenkirk Breaks Down Jimmy and Kim's Final Scene in 'Better Call Saul'
Image via AMC
Image via AMC
Image via AMC
Image via AMC
Image via AMC
In his interview with Collider, Odenkirk examined his approach to this powerful scene and the suppressed emotions that enhanced the sobering moodiness of the final cigarette break. "I believe he fully accepted responsibility at the end in a way that he never, never, never did before," the actor said of Jimmy's accountability, while adding that his rash inclination to accept his 86-year sentence came out of his love for Kim and wanting to show repentance before her.
"I’m so thankful that they gave it to that character, because I did feel in the course of the show that he had the capacity to analyze himself and to critique himself and to learn about himself," Odenkirk continued. His praise of the character's emotional depth attests to the brilliance of co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, who turned the comic relief of Breaking Bad into a tragic Shakespearean anti-hero.
The closing image of Better Call Saul will go down in the history books as one of the medium's finest moments. In the prison yard, where Jimmy has fully embraced his Saul Goodman persona, he and Kim get one last glimpse at each other through a fence. Before Kim walks away for good, Jimmy fires off finger guns, evoking his "It's all good, man" catchphrase with the sullen demeanor of Gene Takovic.
Despite confessing to all his crimes, there's still a fraction of Saul in Jimmy that will never fade away, especially now that he is recognized as the criminal lawyer for the most notorious drug kingpin north of the border. The finger guns are also another perverse romantic gesture, as Jimmy assures Kim that, deep down, he'll always be the complicated but charming man she fell in love with. Odenkirk's stillness and muted charisma in this scene perfectly capture the downfall of a con artist who thought he could get away with everything, only to watch his entire world crumble in cataclysmic fashion.
These final quiet moments between Jimmy and Kim, according to Odenkirk, represent his character's desire to prove his former wife wrong. According to the actor, Jimmy is saying this to Kim with his eyes: "You doubted me. You thought I couldn’t do this. You thought I wasn’t strong enough," he said, interpreting the character's thought process, referring to his deemed lack of accountability for his actions. "Watch how strong I can be. You were wrong about me. I can be stronger than anyone you’ve met," Odenkirk continued. On the flip side, he suggests that Jimmy is trying to make Kim feel bad for not believing in his integrity.
Bob Odenkirk Reflects on the "Gift" of 'Better Call Saul'
"What a gift I was given," Bob Odenkirk told Collider, reflecting on the emotional grandeur and weight of Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, the role he'll be most remembered for. What separated Better Call Saul from its predecessor was that you rooted for Walter White's villainous transformation, while you prayed that Jimmy McGill would find a way to settle down and not break bad. Although Odenkirk nailed delivering the rapid-fire dialogue and zingers in Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul allowed him to thrive in a more nuanced, subtle mode. Some of Odenkirk's highlights revolve around his ability to repress rage, sadness, and anxiety while maintaining his bravado appearance.
Somewhere beneath his proclivity for cutting corners, bending the rules, and exacting vengeance on parties that aggrieved him, Jimmy had a decent streak, demonstrated by his longing for affection and approval from Kim and Chuck, the two people who prevented him from veering too far into the deep end of immorality. Once these figures were out of his life completely, he resorted to working with the devil incarnate in Walter White. Better Call Saul will be missed, but we can never forget the profound impact it left on all of us for six seasons. Most of all, embarking on the journey of Jimmy McGill to Saul Goodman to Gene Takovic changed Bob Odenkirk's life forever, and the decades-long arc cemented his status as an extraordinary actor and artist.
