A subreddit for the Breaking Bad spinoff "better Call Saul" starring Bob Odenkirk.
But I just concluded that part of the reason Chuck so stubbornly clings to the idea that Jimmy is Svengali is because of his own mental illness. I think as viewers we sort of take it for granted that Chuck has his psychosomatic electricity “thing” and that it’s not real, same even with his supporters in the show, they humor him but probably know it’s a crock, or at least not what Chuck the Doctor diagnosed himself with. I think he’s so determined to be right because he knows he’s seen as mentally ill by most people.
Ok roast me. But I’m just pointing out that we all talk about what a dick Chuck is and the various reasons for that, but we don’t ever seem to remember that he’s got a legit mental illness, probably because the show still paints him as being as capable as ever, albeit wearing a space blanket and working by lantern. But he’s not.
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
I don't think he knows that people think he's mentally ill. I think he thinks people worship him and that they should. Chuck doesn't really allow people to disagree with him and defiantly believes he's always right. He desperately says "I'm not crazy" in a famous scene.
Chuck had a multitude of issues. One of which was a belief that he was allergic to electricity. This caused him to store bacon in a camping cooler and not leave the house. He claimed it was real and for all intents and purposes it was real for him. But his allergy to electricity isn't really causing the majority of his problems.
His real issues were much more serious. He treated people with disdain, acted pious and above everyone, took zero accountability for his own mistakes and poor judgements, he was excessively punitive with prejudice and pushed away everyone who was willing to help him. This is a personality disorder, and it's a bad one.
These are real problems. And these things have nothing to do with his relationship to electricity and everything to do with how he treated the people in his life.
Yes to all of this. But I mean, deep down, does Chuck actually know that he’s not quite right? He does a helluva job convincing himself and everyone else that it’s a “medical” issue, and even though no one really believes it, they believe him. Because he’s Chuck who can argue his way out of anything. I just thought it contributed to why he tries so hard to discredit Jimmy. I mean to him, discrediting Jimmy is child’s play.
In that confrontation with Jimmy and Kim after the Mesa Verde switch, he seemed to think that all the evidence he needed, all the evidence anyone would need, is “I know my brother.” Jeez he’s a lawyer and a damn good one! He must’ve realized somewhere in there that that wouldn’t be enough, but he didn’t.
Anyway the point I’m trying to make is kind of subtle and I’m not sure I’m explaining it correctly. Mostly I’m saying that maybe he was so insufferable because he knew that something inside him was wrong and he didn’t want anyone else to see it.
Do you think that there might be some undisclosed and undiscovered trauma in Chucks very recent past? Because I think you're absolutely right - at a subconscious level I think Chuck knows that there's something wrong with him. It's just that it manifests itself as physical rather than mental, and he somehow knows that it's displacement on some level. And so he is struggling and lashing out. Almost as if his wife leaving him has created a fear of intimacy (perhaps that is the trauma?) and now his mind is doing whatever it can to keep him away from relationships - business, familial, social, etc. - and what better way to do that than claim you can't go basically anywhere anyone might be. And if they come to you (family/Jimmy) - drive them away! And this dichotomy disturbs the rational part of him mind to the point of insanity. Or at least insensitivity. And when shown proof of all of this, he'd rather exit than exist.
Yes I do that that’s the essence of what’s wrong with him. I think his divorce destroyed him, frankly, but someone like Chuck can’t admit weakness. That’s so imbedded into his psyche that he doesn’t even know he’s hurting, but he IS hurting, hence the “physical, medical” condition. It’s the only avenue his body has to purge itself.
Jimmy and Chuck aren't the best when it comes to choosing coping mechanisms, are they?
I agree with this. One of the big unanswered mysteries in BCDis what pushes Chuck over the edge into this electricity allergy thing. This a very complex man. We don’t see his separation from his wife and how that affects him. I don’t think we were given a hint on why they broke up, although we can see that they are on pretty good terms afterwards.
I think there is a little insight about his divorce when she comes for dinner and he has a moving company replace the appliances... He's obviously trying to win her back.
He flies into a rage when she takes a call from her conductor who is telling her the orchestra she's in got booked on a major tour. Chuck had a jealousy problem I'm thinking.
Chuck fails at every argument we see him make for 3 seasons. Discrediting Jimmy blows up in his face so I'm not sure it's exactly child's play for him. He gets bested by Jimmy at his own game more than once.
I don't understand where these omnipowerful ideas about Chuck originate. It's like some weird headcanon that doesn't really exist on the show. We see him take an L for the entire time - an entirely conscious decision by the creators of the show - and it actually serves a really important purpose for the entire story of Saul Goodman.
Well I think it’s more that Chuck was written to be understood as omnipotent, at least at one point, not that he necessarily is now. And yeah, at one point he could’ve run circles around most people and he usually still can, but Jimmy’s bested him time and time again. At one point he bested Jimmy no sweat.
Chuck was written as Rockstar Lawyer. The past tense of that is kind of what we see happening. So that plus the mental illness makes him dig in his heels even though he’s making himself look ludicrous by doing so. Most people don’t know Jimmy like he does, so it begins to look to others like he’s nuts and goes off the rails for real.
I think many people including myself judged Chuck primarily on face value. That is, how we see him behave to others on the show in real time. If that's the way you value people then Chuck isn't going to be very likeable.
If you take the few details we get about him being an early academic and having success at being a partner in a corporate law firm and make that his personality profile then that's fine, until that gets used to excuse the way he behaves towards people and the real time presentation of his character gets missed or ignored.
I don't care that he was a valedictorian or whatever when he's shitty to Ernie. But I guess some people do.
The other thing that I feel barely gets mentioned about Chuck’s mental illness is that Chuck’s symptoms and him secretly blocking Jimmy from joining HHM match up pretty much one to one, timeline-wise.
I think people get distracted by the fact that he divorced Rebecca around the same time, but I think a huge argument can be made that Chuck’s mental illness stems from his subconscious guilt about betraying Jimmy.
Case in point the finale of season 3- he appears to improve, says the most hurtful thing possible, then completely deteriorates.
I really like your post, in my latest rewatch I’ve been reflecting on how sick this man is. He’s clearly a formidable professional (or was at some point), but he's not a self sustaining individual and I’d argue that what’s brought him this low is his inability to admit his own shame.
I think you said it a lot more clearly than I did. Definitely the S3 finale is a big clue.
If Chuck is a dick, what is Jimmy?
He’s got better emotional intelligence, but that and being in the wrong side of the law are about the only things that distinguish them from each other.
Constantly being on the wrong side of the law, ending up with an 86 year prison sentence, and being complicit in murder are pretty damn big “the only things”…👀
Well yeah, but those “little things” add up to damn big things. Chuck’s only real difference from Jimmy is that he was always on the right side of the law. He’d do anything, scorch anyone, if it helped his purpose and wasn’t illegal and served his definition of “right”. He may not have set out to hurt anyone, but he’s very low emotional intelligence. To him, right and wrong are legal definitions and if anyone gets hurt so be it.
Hey, if you see blatant, repeated criminality as the equivalent…ok.
If Chuck is a dick AND Jimmy is a dick, then Chuck is a dick, too.
Chuck took Jimmy on in court…Jimmy committed felonies against Chuck…
Surely there’s being a dick and BEING A DICK…
It was a bar review actually. Jimmy wasn't charged and Chuck made himself look like a dick and got booted from his own firm.
"This is what a DICK looks like" - Howard.
A baller, man!!
It's not the worst theory in the world. Insisting to himself and everyone else that he's truly allergic to the byproducts of electricity because the alternative is realizing people think he's nuts and maybe having to come to the same conclusion himself. That's also not really a Captain Obvious either. It's less apparent than maybe you think.
I also think there's more, though. I always thought that Howard fed into Chuck's psychosis, and that Jimmy's ability to always continue to succeed, despite not doing things Chuck's way, always ate at Chuck. In Chuck's mind, there was only one proper way to succeed in law, and anyone who followed a different road could only fail, yet here was Jimmy, his own flesh and blood, contradicting Chuck's high-and-mighty view of the world.
So, there was the push of Howard enabling Chuck and the pull of Jimmy's success that drove Chuck to be so vindictive towards Jimmy.
Jimmy HAS acted like Svengali. Jimmy has led and corrupted Marco, Kim, Mike, Walt and Jeff into becoming worse people.
Chuck is not wrong about this. It is a big part of what makes Jimmy dangerous as a person.