A Better Call Saul star is opening up about whether he thinks Saul Goodman was truly redeemed. A show about the crooked attorney from Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul shows the eponymous character's journey of self-discovery as he evolves from Jimmy McGill into the slimy Saul Goodman. Eventually, the show puts him behind bars as he finally faces consequences for everything he did and everyone he hurt.
While the ending of Better Call Saul sees Saul permanently return to his original identity as Jimmy, the stain of his deeds remains on his shoulders. In an interview with CinemaBlend, Patrick Fabian, who played Howard, gave his perspective on Saul's redemption and whether Better Call Saul's ending was enough. Check out his quote below:
"I’ll tell you what, I have a lot of feelings about that, both personally and professionally, but I think story-wise, without a doubt, yeah, Jimmy and Kim did have it wrong. They just did. And the only good that comes of it is that since I was literally laid at their feet as the manifestation of unintended consequences of your actions, even though it took a while, at the end, Jimmy makes a choice in jail to spend the rest of his life in jail and do the right thing, as opposed to scamming the system one more time. And in that moment, he regains his humanity. Any humanity that he lost along the way, that he was giving away all through the storyline of Breaking Bad, I believe is redeemed by him saying, ‘I can’t let Kim take the fall and I’d rather spend the rest of my life in jail.’ And in that moment, I’m like, “Oh, redemption is possible even for somebody like that.’ So I guess it’s working, and you can’t ask for a better exit for a character, so I got no complaints."
Was Saul Goodman Truly Redeemed?
Considering everything that Saul Goodman does over the course of Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, it can be hard to say that the character ever truly redeems himself. He harassed and ruined the careers of women, suggested murder, worked with the Mexican cartel, and directly caused Chuck's death. For such a horrifically amoral character, redemption seems practically impossible, especially considering the horrors that Walter White's empire wrought.
Better Call Saul is an anti-hero crime drama, so it makes sense that neither Saul nor Jimmy are particularly heroic. Yet his final moments in the show actually do feature Saul gaining a conscience. He steps up, confesses his crimes, and saves Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) from taking the fall for his own horrific criminal acts. It is a moment of redemption for Jimmy that shows that his morality has not completely fled him.
However, Chuck and Howard are still dead, largely as a result of Saul Goodman's actions. While Jimmy may have protected Kim from law enforcement, he still had a hand in their deaths, even if he regrets it. Jimmy and Kim's scam implicating Howard works too well, and, while Jimmy does eventually try to improve himself, whether his Better Call Saul redemption succeeds is up to each individual viewer. Fabian may have forgiven him, but not everyone will.
Source: CinemaBlend