To say that Jimmy McGill has a lot on his plate going into Better Call Saul Season 4 is to say that the sky is roomy. His professional and personal lives collided more disastrously than ever when his brother Chuck perhaps intentionally succumbed to his obsessive behaviors in a house fire in Season 3's finale. And it sounds like Chuck's death will be an uncomfortable albatross hanging around Jimmy's neck when Season 4 kicks off. (As opposed to a comfortable albatross?) In a new behind-the-scenes video, star Bob Odenkirk and the show's other producers talk about that impact.
Bob Odenkirk: How Jimmy copes with that, with Kim and the whole world of people around Chuck, is going to be a lot of what starts Season 4.Peter Gould, Co-Creator: Jimmy McGill has his own unusual way of dealing with the death of his brother.
If I had to make an impulse guess, I'd say that Jimmy's unusual way of coping will involve doing something entirely self-destructive that puts him at even bigger odds with anyone around who might be trying to help him, assuming those people are still left. (Obviously, Kim counts.) The AMC video shows glimpses of Chuck's funeral, and though nothing perverse goes down, that event would provide the kind of all-eyes-on-Jimmy stage where he could publicly rid himself of a few personal demons in most awkward ways. Something tells me he won't be rekindling any warm feelings with Patrick Fabian's Howard Hamlin.
Despite the contentiousness that clouded the siblings' relationship, Jimmy managed to maintain his shreds of dignity partly because Chuck was there as a professional monolith keeping him from veering too far off the beaten path. But with Chuck dead, Jimmy is now allowed to take on the next stage of his downward spiral into Saul Goodman-ness, for better or worse. And as we already know, nothing will pop up to permanently stand in his way.
Of course, as producers Melissa Bernstein and Ann Cherkis put it, Jimmy's ways of dealing with his brother's death could very well be more internal than external.
Melissa Bernstein: There's a lot of complicated emotional factors involved, and a lot of obstacles to him coping with Chuck's death.Ann Cherkis: This season is so psychological. It's what's going on in his head.
One would hope that Kim would be enough to keep Jimmy's head above mentally troubling waters, but she doesn't quite deserve all that pressure. And the AMC video makes it sound like Kim will possibly start to drift away from Jimmy a little bit in Season 4. Kim starts to figure out what she wants for herself more and more, and as star Rhea Seehorn herself put it, that means having to withhold things from Jimmy that she might not have before. And, understandably, those relationship fissures will add further pressure to Jimmy's tea kettle of a brain.
Check out the whole behind-the-scenes video below, which also digs deeper into Mike's burgeoning relationship with the deadly Gus Fring.
Better Call Saul Season 4 will debut on AMC on Monday, August 6, at 9:00 p.m. ET. Check out the Breaking Bad crossover theory that Bob Odenkirk likes best, and head to our summer premiere schedule to see what else is on the way.
