Better Call Saul Season 6, Episode 7 Review "Planning and Execution": Choosing Your Destiny
Greg Ehrhardt, OnScreen Blog Columnist
“Planning and Execution” is the episode where Better Call Saul truly left its mark as a unique show worthy of consideration of the GOAT conversation without any comparisons to its more famous (and more watched) family member “Breaking Bad”.
“Planning and Execution” will draw comparisons to the famous “Ozymandias” episode from Breaking Bad, and in truth, it was almost as good, but it is distinct for one main reason. In “Ozymandias”, the audience knew far less what was going to happen, and were curled in fetal positions as the worst possible scenario was playing out at warp speed that we were helpless to stop.
In “Planning and Execution”, the audience knew what was coming although the details of HOW it would happen were murky for the last few episodes. Yet, the devastation of the episode hit just as hard, maybe even harder, knowing that Howard was no match for their evil machinations.
Ultimately, whether the audience knew “the how” of the plan beforehand was irrelevant; Jimmy and Kim made it clear they were going to humiliate Howard in the worst way possible, kicking a man when he was down, and it all happened according to their plan at a similar breath taking speed to “Ozymandias”. The scene left the audience’s heart breaking for Howard and their lungs gasping for air at the same time.
Worse yet, the key to the episode were the cutaways to Jimmy and Kim listening to the whole thing on their phone. We knew they would enjoy this, but would either of them feel remorse? It seemed Kim already chose her destiny, but how would Jimmy feel? We knew he was sorta dragged into this by Kim from the start, and especially tried to bail on this when he discovered the judge had a broken right arm that almost foiled the plans.
James McGill, Kim Wexler
As fate would have it, you couldn’t even power a lightbulb for a second on the amount of remorse they showed when the plan came to fruition; they kissed passionately (and probably made love), completing their heel turn in dramatic fashion after ruining an innocent man’s life.
And it was that moment where the audience felt like Skylar White in Ozymandias, helpless in the street, by herself, screaming in the air.
There’s no coming back for either Jimmy or Kim. They are full fledged villains of the show now.
There’s a few big ideas in this episode; one is certainly about how to deal with paranoia (both Howard and Lalo are correct in their paranoid conspiracy theorizing, but only Lalo handles this well to achieve his goals).
But in further processing this episode, I was struck with some similarities to the overall arcs of Anakin in the Star Wars Saga. Anakin, as we know, came from humble beginnings, and was thought to be a great Jedi who would bring balance to the force, but he ignored the destiny chosen for him to make the force even worse.
Kim Wexler also came from very humble beginnings but worked her way up through school practically by herself to become, in Howard’s mind, one of the brightest young minds he ever encountered. Like Anakin, Kim could have brought balance to Jimmy McGill’s life and helped him to get on the straight and narrow, while living out a fulfilling law career of her own.
She chose a different destiny, to embrace her personal dark side, to the point of now she’s getting an erotic thrill from ruining people’s lives.
Worse yet, Kim and Jimmy are more dangerous than ever together, as Howard pointed out in his final minutes on Earth, much like Anakin needed Palpatine to enhance his powers and become truly terrifying in the galaxy.
Confession time: in my youth, I liked to play pranks on other people, oftentimes mean spirited ones. The pranks weren’t particularly grand in scale, but I enjoyed them because it meant I made an impact on someone’s life, even though it was a negative impact.
One time in school, I decided to play a prank on a younger sibling of a kid I did not like. It was a simple prank; I would go into her desk after school, grab a book, and hide it in school in an unused desk in a separate classroom. That was it, and there was no purpose in it other than just being mean.
How did I know the prank worked? I wandered into the school hallway the next day, and I happened to run into the sibling crying her eyes out to the teacher, wondering how she could have lost the book. She was inconsolable. She didn’t know how, or why it happened. What did she do to deserve this, I remember her screaming.
And my heart sank. I felt awful, sick to my stomach.
The next day I returned the book to her desk.
I never pulled another mean spirited prank again, because while I was flirting with this type of destiny, I decided I couldn’t live with the ramifications on others.
And that’s what will keep me up at night when thinking about Jimmy and Kim. I was waiting to see Jimmy or Kim’s remorse, when it became clear that there would be no remorse because they chose this destiny, even Jimmy. We’re not convinced Jimmy is as all-in to this destiny as Kim, but we know one thing for certain about him: he wants to be loved. Kim loves Jimmy because he’s a master of this lifestyle, and Jimmy will probably do anything to keep being loved and accepted.
Jimmy feels his destiny was chosen for him by society; he wanted to be legitimate, but Chuck and to a lesser extent, Howard, put up barriers the size of the Great Wall of China to keep him out of legitimate society.
In a way, life would be better for Jimmy and Kim if they swapped bodies. Kim would have seemingly thrived with no expectations for her destiny, no thirst to become legitimate. Jimmy would have jumped at the opportunity given to Kim to fulfill his legal dreams, to become legitimate.
Such as it is, we don’t choose the life we are given. We can only choose where this life will take us.
Jimmy and Kim were both dealt bad pre-flop cards. Life, as in poker, gives you a chance to win even with 2-7 off suit.
Some people bluff with charisma, winning pot after pot, knowing that it’s all part of the game, and the other players don’t mind because it’s just a game.
Some bluff because they rejoice in suckering you out of your money, and they don’t want just your money on the table, they want your money in your savings too.
Jimmy and Kim are these players, and they are quickly finding out that not only does no one want to play this game with them, but it can only invite similar players to their table (like Lalo).
As for what happens next? Who knows, now is not the time to think about that in my opinion. Now is the time to grieve over the destinies Jimmy and Kim could have had, versus the destinies they chose. The destiny they chose is one where Chuck takes his own life in disgrace, and Howard is left in a pool of his own blood caught in the middle of the consequences of the McGill’s choices.
Their lives, their choice.
May we choose differently.
Previous columns on Better Call Saul:
"Axe and Grind": Is Kindness a Weakness?
"Black and Blue": The Long Game