In this follow up video essay, I expand upon the electric/natural light motif from the AMC series “Better Call Saul” by analyzing the relationship dynamics between Jimmy McGill, Chuck McGill and Howard Hamlin. I specifically analyze the final two scenes between Howard and each McGill brother. My apologies again for the black and white, distorted clips used in this video, it’s necessary to get around copyright but still use clips that assist the video essay.
Also I believe I may been speaking too close to the mic at many points in the recording, this is because I’m still learning how to get the ideal sound, my apologies if you find it distracting. Comment your thoughts below!
Images and Clips from:
“Better Call Saul” (2015-2022)
“Breaking Bad” (2008-2013)
“Black Christmas” (1974)
Sources Used:
-https://www.scribophile.com/academy/parallel-plotting-mirror-mirror-on-the-wall
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_disengagement
Chapters:
-00:00 Black and Blue (Season 6, Episode 5)
-00:45 Introduction (Jimmy, Chuck and Howard)
-5:02 Framing v. Composition
-7:09 Analysis: Chuck v. Howard (The HHM Lamps)
-17:03 Analysis: Jimmy and Kim v. Howard (The Candle)
-30:34 Conclusion (Can’t We All Just Get Along?)
Like and Subscribe today!
https://www.quentinstuckey.ca
Support this channel: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=37084869
The Canadian Copyright Act allows the use of material from a copyright protected work (literature, musical scores, audiovisual works, etc.) without permission when certain conditions are met. People can use fair dealing for research, private study, education, parody, satire, criticism, review, and news reporting. The images and video clips utilized fall under this act.
source
Chuck works for the law and Jimmy makes the law work for him – brilliantly put! Great anaylsis!
Very well done video! I never noticed this before and it makes me look forward to rewatching the show
I can’t believe you don’t have 1,000 subscribers yet – you should absolutely be making money for this video!! I just subbed & hopefully you can hit 1K sooner than later 🤞🏻
Was genuinely surprised by this analysis, I had never thought of the usage of light in BCS this way.. But it makes sense to me
Love this video! I have one thought about you bringing up Ozymandias, though — I totally agree with your analysis of a mirrored plot between Walt's lie to Skylar at the beginning and the confrontation with Skylar at the end, but I thought the significance of the confrontation at the end of the episode is that Walt tries to actually tell the truth (his emotional "I tried to save him!" in response to Skylar thinking that he killed Hank), but that he had erroded the trust between him and his wife/family so deeply that it is "too late" and he has thus reaped the dark rewards of going down a path of deceipt.
This video is so professionally edited! I was shocked when i saw the subscriber count, wishing the best of luck to you! ❤
Spoilers: Holy! Your explanation of Kim being an emotional stand-in for Chuck really helped to put his flimsy animosity towards her into perspective post Howard’s fate. Her decision to separate not only left him without an outlet for his unresolved pain, but it was a seeming rejection of the flexibility that he’d been seeking approval for from his brother. This show is one of the realist depictions of unresolved pain that I’ve ever seen. I can watch BCS analysis content for the rest of my life I think. I always learn more about these characters as I become more emotionally intelligent.
When I saw Lalo behind Howard, the few seconds before Howard realized it, I had the fleeting and disturbing sensation of the reflection of the "Strange Man" in the mirror of the cabin in Red Dead 2….
Howard is genuinely amazing, I love that he has way more hobbies than we knew of, and that he made multiple solid attempts to end the fued between him, Jimmy, and Kim. I think he's a human being who messed up, but he was a much bigger man than anyone gave him credit for. Being willing to speak with Kim on the level, after being so damn rude, his attempts to ease Chuck into a Retirement he would've loved, and even being genuinely respectful towards his friend when he was trying to help him with what he thought was an ongoing problem. I love that he was willing to Bury himself, before he was willing to bury HMM, even when Chuck was ready to.
Very interesting ideas and video! Just wanted to say at 03:45 – a person doesn’t necessarily need to go to therapy to voluntarily face their problems. But maybe you were just trying to make the larger point that Howard was one of the better people in BCS and BB, morally speaking. This may just be a semantic misunderstanding.
Why would Howard use the phrase burn to the ground while talking about Chuck I never realized that…
13:25
The real question is:
"How many checks would Chuck chuck if Chuck could chuck checks?"
34:33 This picture is so sad. This would've been the best friend group.
Jesse also voluntarily sought therapy (Badger & Skinny too), as did Skyler (though from her lawyer)
excellent analysis! I guess I am going to have to subscribe. you left me no choice. subscriber #629 much success to you and your channel going forward.
In the HHM Lamps portion, you note that the natural light contradicts Chuck's view on morality and the law in this case. Is it really a contradiction? BCS makes a point of showing that legality and morality are independent variables. Chuck is absolutely within his legal rights to sue HHM for breach of contract. In fact, he would have to avoid legal precedents and allow for some wiggle room in order to not pursue that. The law says that there are consequences for breaking a contract. Chuck in not being an enforcer in this regard would fly against his "biblical" and unwavering view of the law. Even if it is the "correct" and moral thing to do, it isn't the set-in-stone legally correct thing to do.
In that same scene, I think it is worth noting that aside from your fascinating views on the symbolism of the light sources, it may be worth noting the color psychology of BCS. The natural light is bluish gray, the electrical lights are a warmer yellow.
Traditionally, the prior symbolizes things like proverbial grayness, be it in relation to morals or monotony, both of which are common criticisms against legal professions (i.e. lawyers are evil, law is boring). The latter traditionally relates to hope or goodness, and untamed nature. Also traditionally, natural light is a bit closer to this gold color (sunlight, fire) while electrical light is more washed out.
For BCS in particular, blues and grays often represent those who are on the "right" side of things, almost always referring to the law, while criminals and the cartel wear golds, yellows, browns, etc. Bearing these things in mind, I don't think there is a contradiction here, or even the implied complement, rather it's lampshading that relationship between law and morality that Chuck is emblematic of. In the eyes of the law and Chuck himself, he is objectively correct. In the eyes of the audience and Howard, he is wrong.
I might be overthinking a single misinterpretation of a word here, of course. I just don't think it contradicts Chuck's mindset so much as reinforces it. Chuck seemed to acknowledge that morals based in law were superior to him simply because they were based in law, not because they were actually seen as "morally correct" by the masses. Like you said, he worked for the law, even if others would have bent it to do something for personal gain or "the right thing".
You bring up moral disengagement later, and I think this is where you and I have opposing interpretations of Chuck. I don't think Chuck gets corrupted or altered like Jimmy or Walt did, I don't think he changed his views on morals and bent himself to try and fit some new goal. At least, not within the events of the show. On the contrary, I think Chuck just gradually became more and more exposed. He used the law as gilding, a shiny coat to hide behind that he could use to fool himself and others that he was "good", when really he was just always selfish. That got scratched away over and over and over again until it comes to a head with the buyout, and then even he could deny it no longer.
This would be a good example of that mirroring, contrast, and contradiction. While Jimmy and Walt both get better and better at fooling themselves, each racking up victory after victory until a catastrophic failure, Chuck on the other hand reaches that ending through a constant battering. He is proven over and over and over to be wrong, punished more and more for it through hospitalization and alienation, and it isn't until he actually gets a victory that he realizes what he is. Chuck doesn't morally disengage over time, he is forced to realize he always did, and must re-engage to survive (and we know what happens here).
Love this vid by the way, I hope I see a lot more from you
P.S. use a better euphemism than "unaliving". I understand YT is hard on such things but that term is way beneath you.
Buen video, pero deberias poner la opcion de subtitulos para que esten disponibles. Quizas asi puedas llegar a una mayor audiencia. Incluso hasta los subitutlos automaticos servirian.
Saludos
I am a simple man, I see a better call Saul video essay and click
This is so insightful, I never even realised some of these parallels but you’re so right. Well done man, every time I think I fully appreciate how masterful this series is, a video like this pops up and shows that it’s somehow even better than I already thought. What a show, it’s nothing short of genius
Great video. We want more.
important point about the candle: it appears in one of the season 6 teasers with Kim reciting her lawyer's oath in voice-over — so the candle with bloodstains, and Kim saying, "…I will conduct myself uprightly and according to law…"!
Alright, first two minutes and you lost me. Unless you want to stare at a black screen there have to sources of light, you muppet😂 Sick of all these overreaching interpretations.
Shortly after season 1 episode 7 aired, I had a dream in which Chuck was Lady MacBeth, trying to wash the blood off his hands. My subconscious cracked the case: Chuck's allergy to electricity is his subsconscious punishing him for something. It didn't take long for everything to really click into place. Chuck feels the law is sacred, which means that only those who are pure should be practicing law. But what happens if a lawyer such as Chuck behaves dishonorably and thus is no longer worthy to practice law? Chuck's subconscious found an answer: give Chuck an ailment that forced him to all but quit.
The other way it could work is, subconscious guilt was hammering Chuck every time he went into HHM, but it subsided when he went home. So he eventually decided it must be the electricity in a busy office building, and his expectations built up around that. But, I prefer the more Gruochy way.
Are you kidding me? Nobody missed it
It's worth noting that Howard is strongly associated with water (wears blue, likes swimming, tries to be flexible, generally considered cool and smooth), and like you said, Lalo is linked to fire (can be helpful or destructive, and his hobby is cooking). Notice how Howard's swimming and biking hobbies can be done alone (except for boxing), but cooking almost requires an audience.
Lawyer Howard is the head of a law firm (reluctantly) and is constrained by his responsibilities, but criminal Lalo just kinda does whatever he wants, and drags people behind him.
🔥
I'm only a couple minutes into this video, but I am glad to see an essayist actually put together a coherent piece of work that doesn't focus on the obvious for once. Bravo Vince!
“Unaliving”
You are misusing the term leitmotif.
Well-constructed, well-presented, this whole thing is great. Keep up the good work
great analysis!
This video made me finally crack something that's been on my mind since my last binge watch. The coin scam in the season 1 finale that Jimmy and Marco pull isn't just some random con, The sales pitch Jimmy gives for that coin is a direct parallel of Chuck and Jimmy's different approaches to the law. One facing east toward the rising sun and looking to the past, while the other looking to the new frontier, the future, and electricity. At the end of that episode when Jimmy pauses on his way into the courthouse, the shot frames him as facing East. Then when he leaves and talks to Mike, he said picturing the money they could have split felt like staring into the sun. That was the (second to) last time Jimmy ever looked to the past.
This is such an excellent video! I enjoyed the symbolism, but I can't help but question its basis… is it that candlelight is more primal and artificial light is more modern? Because I picked up on that… and that makes it flickering poetic, much like how our fight/flight response kicks in when they arrive. Connecting primality with our fight/flight response is easy peasy, too.
But back to the candle: Seeing it flicker the second time is so mythological, it's just perfect… so ghostly. I love this show soooo much.. this was excellent symbolism… but I wish I had more context for what drew you to your conclusion. ❤
i gotta say you missed something right in plain sight. chucks death scene with the lantern or just the lanterns in general [hopefully i didnt zone out during a part where you did mention]