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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Hi, I'm Saul Goodman. Did you know that you have rights? The Constitution says you do, and so do I. I believe that until proven guilty, every man, woman, and child in this country is innocent. And that's why I fight for you, Albuquerque! | „ |
| ~ Saul Goodman's most famous quote and introductory line. |
| “ | It's all good, man! | „ |
| ~ Jimmy McGill to Kim Wexler after revealing both that his tribute to Chuck McGill was a complete lie and that he'll not be doing business under the McGill name, as well as the root of his alias' name. |
| “ | I'll tell you one thing: you've got the right product. Anything that gets the DEA's panties in this big a bunch, you're onto something special. And I would like to be a small and silent part of it. Food for thought, yeah? So, if you want to make more money and, uh... keep the money that you make? Better Call Saul! | „ |
| ~ Saul offers to become Walter White's lawyer. |
James Morgan "Jimmy" McGill, better known as Saul Goodman, is a major character in the crime drama series Breaking Bad and the titular main protagonist of its prequel series Better Call Saul.
Once a charismatic con artist, he decides to abandon his past to become a lawyer as well as a businessman, just like his brother and eventual archenemy, Chuck McGill. However, his life would get worse at every turn, whether through his brother killing himself; becoming affiliated with the Cartels; gaining trauma from various events; or his wife, Kim Wexler, leaving him. Deciding to hide his trauma, insecurities and loneliness rather than facing them, Jimmy becomes "Saul Goodman", a corrupt lawyer who becomes Walter White's most important ally, playing a crucial role in his rise as a drug kingpin by introducing him to bigger players as well as keeping him out of prison.
Once Walt's empire comes crashing down, Saul escapes to Nebraska and becomes Gene Takavic, sadly reminiscing about his previous life while remaining paranoid that someone will find him. After a cab driver called Jeff recognizes him, Gene takes the opportunity to go back into the criminal lifestyle by teaming up with him and becomes Viktor St. Claire, a cruel man who scams people out of their money. However, Jeff's arrest sparks a chain reaction leading to him being caught by the police; despite having the opportunity to go to prison for only 7 years, Jimmy willingly confesses to his crimes, raising his sentence to 86 years.
He was portrayed by Bob Odenkirk.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
Background[]
- After a thief gave him a Darwinistic lesson on "wolves and sheep", an eight-year old Jimmy started stealing cash from his father. According to his older brother Chuck, his father lost $14,000 in total, though this likely includes people and decisions separate from Jimmy.
- Ever since he was young, he was a con artist known as Slippin' Jimmy who was regularly scamming people into getting money through mentions such as "slip-and-falls" or tricking people into exchanging money for fake Rolex watches.
- He produced fake IDs for his classmates so they could buy alcohol.
- He defecated down a car's sunroof on top of at least two children, feeling no regret for this event and blaming it on everyone but himself, at best claiming it wasn't his finest hour.
- He used the fact his brother is a successful lawyer to get out of jail for the aforementioned "Chicago Sunroof" incident, even trying to convince his brother to find loopholes in the law for him.
- In a flashback from Season 3, he escaped with Marco after they committed a crime and helps him escape from two police cars.
Better Call Saul[]
Season 1[]
- He enlisted two skateboarders to pull an injury scam on the Kettleman family to win them back. This plan would fail very badly and accidentally led them to meet Tuco Salamanca, who ended up breaking their legs.
- He pressed the exit button instead of paying 9 dollars for parking, and when Mike prevented him from entering the next day he assaulted him.
- He accepted a bribe from the Kettlemans so they would not get arrested for their crimes.
- He stole Howard's logo for an ad to promote his office, and while he does agree to take it down, he also makes sure that the sign gets into the news by bribing a worker to fake a fall from that bridge and pretend to save him.
- He helped Mike by spilling a cup of coffee on one of the investigators so he could pocket his notebook to avoid prosecution for the murder of the two policemen who killed his son.
- He sent Mike to infiltrate the Kettlemans' house to steal their stolen money so he could use it to blackmail them into taking Kim's help.
- He returned to his home town to run scams with his childhood friend Marco, one of which included tricking a woman into having sex with him by lying that he was Kevin Costner.
- He regretted that he and Mike didn't split the Kettlemans' stolen money instead of returning it to the Attorney General.
Season 2[]
- He took things at the hotel at the expense of other customers.
- He convinced his girlfriend Kim Wexler to scam a guy called Ken out of his money, although it could be argued that Ken deserved it for his unpleasant nature.
- This was the first step that would cause a domino effect leading to Kim's fall to villainy.
- He granted legal fraud for a client of Sandpiper Crossing, which put the company Davis & Main in a negative light.
- He helped Daniel Wormald get off and avoid jail time by making him take an embarrassing fetish video.
- He and Kim scammed engineer Dale Gibson into writing a phony check.
- When he learned he would lose his signing bonus if he resigned from Davis & Main within a year of employment, he started behaving obnoxiously at work to get fired so he could keep it, including wearing flashy, colorful outfits, bringing a loud blender and splattering his smoothie on coworkers, giving cleaning instructions in a Mexican accent to a Hispanic janitor as if he didn't speak English, not flushing toilets, and playing the bagpipes in his office.
- To keep Kim's clients in the Mesa Verde case he broke into his brother's house, took important papers, and disrupted the office address, which damaged the representation with the HHM offices. Even if one can argue it was fair game against Chuck for his involvement in getting Kim removed from the Mesa Verde job, what Jimmy did was downright criminal, unlike what Chuck did to provoke it.
- In addition, he indirectly caused the destruction of his brother's name, while trying to track down Jimmy, threatening a printer worker and finally passing out.
- He bribed a printer worker to cover his tracks from Chuck's investigation.
Season 3[]
- He spied for Mike at Los Pollos Hermanos, though he finds nothing.
- He broke into Chuck's house and destroyed one of the confession tapes that admitted his role in the forgery of the Mesa Verde documents while losing his temper at Chuck.
- He met with Dr. Caldera, who brought him together with Huell Babineaux to sneak a phone into Chuck's private pocket.
- When Chuck accused him of doctoring the Mesa Verde files, Jimmy found himself on the losing end of the case, and knowing that he will get disbarred from law practice if his brother is victorious, Jimmy essentially took Chuck down with him by orchestrating an elaborate scheme that ended with his mental illness being exposed to the bar, leading to Chuck going through a villainous breakdown right in front of them. Even if one can argue that Chuck deserved it, Jimmy's manipulation pushed the bounds of legality for personal gain.
- He caused the insurance company of Chuck to double the premiums of HHM, which almost led to HHM financially collapsing. This forces Howard to make Chuck retire, which he reluctantly agrees in doing. This indirectly causes Chuck's suicide, since losing his career led to his mental illness returning, though Jimmy didn't intend for that part.
- He staged a slip-and-fall con to get money from a guitar store. Even if the store broke a promise to Jimmy that they would buy advertising he gave them for free, Jimmy was still conning the law for money.
- Even during community service he helped criminals, through means such as intimidating a supervisor with legal action if he won't let a man see his alleged wife and kids.
- He ruined the reputation of an innocent old lady named Irene by alienating her from her friends in order for her to speed up in paying his part of the Sandpiper cash settlement, since he was the only "friend" she now had left.
- However, his goal was only to speed up the lady's involvement and when her friends do not return to her, he made up for it by coming out as a crooked man in front of her and her friends, which leads to all of them reconciling.
Season 4[]
- He shared with a guy called Ira to steal a prized figurine from an owner who tested it for work and even reversed the owner's car to help Ira escape, originally trying to participate in this with Mike, only for Mike to refuse.
- He started selling drop-phones to criminals as a way to make cash while he's suspended from practicing law for a year.
- He terrified three juvenile delinquents and threatened them with death so they won't mess with him again. Even though the three had mugged Jimmy earlier and arguably deserved it, Jimmy's actions went beyond self-defense.
- He got Huell out of jail by claiming he is a hero back in his home in Coushatta.
- He and Kim scammed their way into letting Mesa Verde, which Kim works for, get a larger branch in Texas.
- As a mirror image of his situation, he tried to degenerate into a crime a girl named Kristy Esposito, after the HHM employees did not give her a scholarship because she shoplifted in the past.
- He tried to go back to being a lawyer without feeling remorse for his crimes, let alone promoting them which he seems intent on changing his name to "Saul Goodman."
Season 5[]
- He almost intervened for Kim in a deal with a client. What's more, she used it to pressure the client to take the deal.
- He announced a 50% off criminal justice day, which encouraged criminals to break laws without reckoning.
- He bribed an elevator worker and engineers into orchestrating an "accident" so that he and Suzanne Ericsen could be stuck in an elevator for twenty minutes and discuss plea deals for his cases.
- He worked with Lalo Salamanca to make Krazy-8 a DEA informant and keep him out of prison so Lalo can have another pawn in his war against Gus Fring.
- Once Howard offered him a job at his company HHM, he started pranking and angering him out of pure spite, including throwing bowling balls at his car and hiring prostitutes to cause a scene in front of Howard's friend Cliff Main.
- He carefully orchestrated things so that his client, Everett Acker, could stay in his house by staging things like swapping numbers, staging contamination, discussing the pettiest and smallest state laws, and faking an image of Christ on Mr. Acker's fence, among others.
- He made fake TV commercials to threaten Mesa Verde to do what he wants and to give him 4 million dollars where he accused the bank of funding terrorism and the founder showing his bare genitals in public, among other equally-outrageous accusations.
- Worse still, Jimmy's actions here affected Kim's job and may have pushed her to resign Schweikart & Cokely.
- He represented Lalo for murder and helped him collect the money needed to release him from prison. Though he had mixed feelings, Jimmy is still responsible for this due to his attempt to attract customers of Lalo's type, in addition to the fact that he kept the money given by the Cousins on Lalo's behalf.
Season 6 (Episode 1 to Episode 9)[]
- He joined Kim in completely ruining Howard's reputation by staging him as a drug addict who has sex with hookers without paying them and accused an innocent judge of being corrupt and working with Jimmy, and while the two claim it's for the greater good to get the money needed to help the little guy, it's clear they do it for fun.
- In addition, after trying to put a drug-like tobacco bag at Howard's where Kevin prevents him from entering the hotel, due to the history of both of them, he presents Kevin and the hotel staff as antisemites in order to get in, even though he is not really Jewish.
- He also tricked the Kettlemans a second time so they can help bolster the argument that Howard is doing drugs, with him and Kim then blackmailing the couple to not press charges against them.
- During his attempt to fake a picture of a referee, he asked his player to come while he is working and if the boss fired him, he promised to sue him.
- He put Francesca in a scam and offered her more money when she reveals standards.
- He took the crime journal of Dr. Caldera who retired from the field.
- He is indirectly responsible for Howard's death at the hands of Lalo as his and Kim's actions caused him to barge into their house, with Lalo following soon afterwards and shooting him.
- On Mike's orders, he kept claiming Howard killed himself by drowning in the ocean so the truth won't be found out.
- While Mike asked him and Kim to lie he actually relied on the lie they themselves made up to tie the knot.
- It was also said that HHM almost closed down and lost most of its employees after Howard's death as a result of his actions.
- He tried to prevent Kim's feelings of regret and self-redemption, although his intention was to help her as well.
- Unlike Kim, the divorce only made him closer to working with criminals.
Breaking Bad[]
Season 2[]
- Once kidnapped by Walter White and Jesse Pinkman so he can protect their employee Badger, he casually stated they should kill Badger instead of trying to keep him safe.
- And it doesn't help that earlier before he was kidnapped, he sexually harassed Francesca. Although at first, he seems to have genuinely wanted to walk her home, the latter makes a remark on her sensitive bodypart once she refused his offer, which makes it creepy.
- He kept Badger out of prison using Jimmy In-And-Out, a guy who will go to prison for you in exchange for money.
- Upon seeing a golden opportunity in Walt to make lots of money, realizing he's the infamous Heisenberg that is known for his pure meth, he joins him and launders his money, and overall it is clear Walt would've ended up behind bars or dead by the end of the year if Saul wasn't saving him.
- Although he initially claimed that he helped Walt and Jesse after they threatened to kill him, he himself admitted that he helped set up Walt's empire willingly after some time.
- He introduced Walt to Gus, so that he could better distribute his meth, causing a huge domino effect which Saul was aware of and helped in, being on Walt's side.
- Because of Saul's idea of introducing Walt to Gus, Walt saw Jane Margolis, Jesse's girlfriend, as a threat to their plans and let her die of a heroin overdose, which later led to a plane crash that got 167 people killed after Jane's father got distracted while giving coordinates, meaning Saul is indirectly to blame for this disaster. After hearing about it, he only cares about the money he could make. He further makes more commercials based on it.
- When Jane died, he sent in Mike to remove any evidence of Jesse's involvement, although it was mostly to help Jesse.
Season 3[]
- He encouraged Walt to forget about his wife's betrayal, maybe making him try to act against Carmen and in response get dismissed.
- Under Jesse's orders, he meets with Jesse's parents and their lawyer, to buy a house that they are selling, he presents them with a lowball offer of 400,000 dollars. When they refuse, Saul reveals he knows they illegally failed to disclose that the house once contained a meth lab, threatening to file a lawsuit against them that would reveal this and ruin the sale, if they don't agree to his clients offer. Jesse's parents agree to Saul's deal out of fear.
- He made Mike bug Walt's house in case his wife Skyler tried to do something.
- He actively tried to convince Walt into continuing the meth business each time he tried to leave, and doesn't do it only when there's someone else he can make money off.
- He tricked Hank Schrader into thinking his wife Marie is at the hospital to get Walt and Jesse out of trouble, even involving Francesca for that.
- When Jesse threatened to ruin Hank's life and expose Heisenberg's true identity, Saul implies he's fine with getting him killed by claiming he and Walt might need to discuss options if he doesn't calm down.
- He and Walt almost got Jesse arrested when he wanted to kill the Rival Dealers for revenge against Tomas, although their main goal was to keep Jesse from being killed.
Season 4[]
- He and Skyler tricked Walt's former boss Bogdan into letting them purchase his car wash by claiming the water is full of contaminants, so that Walt could better launder his drug money. And so that Walt could use the car wash as a front to cover the fact that he is a drug lord.
- He sent two of his men to intimidate Ted Beneke into doing his taxes, which led to Ted tripping and becoming paralyzed. To be fair, Ted was committing criminal acts to avoid tax evasion.
- He helped Walt poison Brock Cantillo, a child.
- While he later claims he didn't know what was gonna happen, earlier on he stated he didn't know "the kid was gonna end up in a hospital", so at the bare minimum, he still had awareness Walt was going to do something terrible to a child.
Season 5[]
- When Gus died and Walt picked up his empire from its ruins, he suggested several places to not only launder money but also to produce meth.
- He introduced Walt and the other employees to Todd Alquist, which caused Walt to start working with him and his uncle and his neo-Nazis.
- When Hank discovered Walt is Heisenberg, he proposed killing him.
- When Jesse went rogue after discovering Walt poisoned a kid, Saul claimed they should kill him.
- After Heisenberg's identity was discovered by the public following Hank's death, Saul escaped Albuquerque under a new identity of "Gene Takavic", but not before instructing Francesca to get rid of any evidence.
- He refused to show remorse for the crimes of the Empire in running away with Walt, only for breaking his knee during his time as "Slippin' Jimmy".
Better Call Saul 6x10 - 6x13[]
- Realizing Jeff needs some excitement in his life, he gave him a chance to join "the game" by training him into being a criminal.
- He distracted the security guards at the mall from Jeff's thefts.
- He made Jeff rob the mall that Saul/Gene works at, as a way to blackmail him into not revealing his identity as Saul Goodman. Although to be fair, it can be considered karmic given how Jeff previously intimidated Saul when they met for the first time.
- It's shown he tried to return to Albuquerque to get some of his money back, only to realize he lost it all.
- Following a bad phone call with Kim, he became "Viktor St. Claire" and alongside Jeff and Buddy, drugged people and then robbed their houses by getting info from their credit cards and the similar.
- While starting out with people who had it coming, he eventually went for innocents, including a guy with cancer.
- Once Buddy refused to rob the guy with cancer, he decided to do it himself, almost killing the guy by smashing his head with an urn containing his dead dog's ashes inside, only stopping when the man fell asleep.
- Their fraudulent entanglement caused the police to arrest Jeff, while Gene managed to escape in his stead.
- When Jeff's elderly mother Marion realized Gene is Saul, he almost strangled her before realizing how far he's gone.
- Ran from the police and after being arrested, he manipulated his prosecutors into giving him a sentence of seven years despite his countless crimes, only stopping and deciding to serve a proper sentence after hearing Kim confessed to her crimes, deciding to do the same.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He's easily one of the most tragic characters in the franchise, as he had to grow up with a neglectful brother and a naive father who let himself get fooled, lost his father at a young age, never knew that his mother's last words were calling out to him, is clearly traumatized by several life events, is responsible for both his brother and father's deaths, had to watch several people die with his own eyes, had to live with the fact his own brother hated him due to believing that their mother liked Jimmy more than him, lost everyone and everything he ever had as Jimmy McGill, and it's clear Saul Goodman is a façade he uses to hide how broken he is as a person, and works 24/7 so he won't get even a second to think about the trauma and things he lost, and to give himself meaning while having essentially nothing. There's a reason he adopts so many aliases; he has major identity issues and has had them since he was a child, to the point of abandoning Jimmy McGill as his true self for seven years. He gets even more sympathetic as Gene, as he's shown crying over losing his previous life, being constantly paranoid that someone will find him, and no longer having anything to distract him from his traumas.
- This includes incredibly sympathetic insecurities, as he is extremely hard on himself, feels like Jimmy McGill was nothing more than the loser brother of Chuck, constantly needs validation and tried to gain Walt's approval the same way he tried to gain Chuck's, and feels like he doesn't deserve Kim, blaming himself whenever something bad happens to her.
- Before "Saul Gone", he was On & Off, having several Pet the Dog moments and many moments that were worthy of admiration, which include but aren't limited to:
- He took care of his reclusive brother for almost 2 years, buying him ice, groceries, supplies, and newspapers, and was initially horrified by his death. He also saves him and gets him to the hospital when he passes out at the copy shop, which risked incriminating himself.
- He prevents the brutal murder and torture of 2 skateboarders by Tuco by narrowly convincing him they only deserved broken legs, risking his own life in the process, as Tuco is highly volatile. Afterwards, he drives and wheels them to the hospital.
- He anonymously warns the Kettlemans on a payphone when Nacho begins scoping out their house over fear for their safety.
- He was instrumental in building the Sandpiper Crossing class-action lawsuit, which was to prevent elderly folks from getting overcharged. He also did elder law beforehand.
- Although it was due to monetary gain as well, Jimmy was rather affable to his clients and showed a level of compassion for them, and a sense of pride in helping them.
- While he alienates Irene's friends from her to speed up the settlement, Jimmy regrets this and publicly humiliates himself by "accidentally" confessing to scamming and despising old folks during a speech, thus bringing them back together at the cost of his reputation and a quick way to make millions, which also forces him to close his firm with Kim.
- He was also genuinely saddened after learning that one of his clients, Geraldine Strauss, passed away, which was also in-part due to repressed guilt over Chuck and mourning his more good-hearted self earlier on.
- Although it was due to monetary gain as well, Jimmy was rather affable to his clients and showed a level of compassion for them, and a sense of pride in helping them.
- When Sherry offers to return her share of the money the film crew made because Jimmy is struggling, Jimmy declines and says she's earned it.
- He proves very loyal to his friend Huell, and does an elaborate scheme that creates the illusion of him as a hometown hero to force the prosecutor to offer a plea deal when he's arrested.
- He cared about the fish he had in Kim's apartment and told Lalo to stop tapping his tank because it disturbs it.
- He effectively saves Jesse's life by falsely telling Mike his whereabouts while secretly hiding him in Lazer Base, even though this put himself at risk due to Mike threatening to break his legs and kill him.
- He visits Walt and asks him not to kill himself.
- He defends Skyler's decision to give Walt's money to Ted Beneke and tries to convince Walt to turn himself in so the DEA won't make Skyler their scapegoat.
- He acts as a middleman for Jesse to provide financial support to his ex Andrea and her son, Brock, via weekly payments allowing them to go to a safer neighborhood. Later he encourages Jesse to go talk to her.
- He gives Francesca money after Walt's empire collapsed, purely out of his good heart.
- He is quite mischievous and a textbook example of a comic relief, being created for the sole purpose of making Breaking Bad more lighthearted since the original comic relief of the show, Jesse, was becoming a darker character and began facing trauma. Saul gets tons of comedic moments throughout both shows. Also some of his pranks are more lighthearted and not meant to be taken seriously, like making prostitutes cause a scene during Howard's meeting or being as annoying as possible at Davis & Main to get fired.
- Most of the time, he's genuinely affable and polite to people, especially as Jimmy and even in his Saul Goodman persona; while he loses that as Viktor St. Claire, he quickly recovers following his arrest.
- He has a sense of honor as he would never betray a client, and always tries to give them the best advice he can for their own sake.
- He has standards, as he was upset that his actions led to a child being hospitalized, even attempting to resign as Walt's lawyer because of it. He showed disgust at how Fred Whalen was killed by Lalo despite not being "in the game,” and how indifferent Lalo was to the victim's family. He was also horrified at Howard's murder and even cried about it.
- He has deep love for his family, Kim, and his friend Marco:
- He cried at his dad's funeral and felt bad when realizing he missed his mother's final moments.
- He undoubtedly loves his brother Chuck despite their very toxic relationship. He was truly guilty over his brother's death even if he lied about it. He eventually confessed his major role in his suicide and while confessing it, he genuinely called him "the incredible lawyer" and "the most brilliant guy [he] has ever met", showing that he still has a level of respect for his brother, no matter what. He called what he did to Chuck "criminal," and that he took an opportunity to hurt him when he should've tried even harder to help him. All of this circles back to the way he took care of and supported him at the start of the series as well due to his limitations.
- He constantly did anything he could, including risking his own career, to help Kim, even sabotaging Mesa Verde's documentation to win them back as her client. At one point, he was willing to give up his life so that Kim would be safe by having her follow Lalo's instructions instead of him. Kim divorcing Jimmy is him losing last source of meaning in his life, thus serving as the ultimate catalyst for his transformation into "Saul." Despite this, they rekindle in the finale, with Jimmy taking the fall for her legally.
- He genuinely cared about his friend Marco, being very affable to him and had fun scamming people together. When he was about to die, he tried his hardest to save him from his heart attack and was deeply saddened by his death so much that it served as another one of the catalysts for him transforming into Saul Goodman, since, after his death, he admitted to Mike that he regretted not taking the stolen money with him instead of taking it to the IRS.
- He shows clear remorse for a lot of his actions, one clear example being over manipulating Irene into destroying the friendship she had with the residents of Sandpiper Crossing, to the point that he turned his mic on so that they could hear his dark intentions, so they could turn against him. His voice is also audibly breaking during his final confession when he talks about the victims of Walt's crimes, but most particularly Howard's death and how he hurt Chuck.
- After spending most of time being On & Off due to his aforementioned admirable moments, he ultimately redeems himself by confessing how big of a role he played in Walt's rise to power, being sentenced to 86 years in prison, as he rekindles his relationship with Kim.
Trivia[]
- Saul Goodman is an unusual example of an Inconsistently Heinous character, as his crimes are relatively standard, but stands out only because of helping someone even worse than he is in a way that's too important to ignore.
- Saul is the second and current icon of the Proposals Needed template, replacing Balthazar Bratt.
- Saul Goodman and Walter White are the Only Breaking Bad characters to be both Inconsistently Admirable and Inconsistently Heinous
External Links[]
- Saul Goodman on the Villains Wiki
- Saul Goodman on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki
- Jimmy McGill on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
- Saul Goodman on the Moral Ranking Wiki
- Jimmy McGill on the Heroes Wiki
- Saul Goodman on the Breaking Bad Wiki
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