SPOILERS
Midway through the episode, I had a few thoughts about Chuck. Wow, they're really going hardcore making him irredeemable. Wow, what is he doing to his house? That was so far beyond any destruction he had previously done, I felt like they were totally jumping the shark with his mental illness. But then, considering how things ended, it does feel suitably apocalyptic in retrospect.
A couple things still nag at me, though. I sort of wonder why Chuck so freely and carelessly destroyed his house if he still wanted to live at that point. Also, burning to death is one of the absolute worst ways to die. (In this case, I don't think he can count on being asphyxiated first.)
This episode was stuffed full of Jimmy redemption. All of his content with Kim was "save the cat" on steroids. I bought it — those scenes were well played — but it does seem strange to push all of that into one episode after having no idea what their domestic life has been like (at all) recently.
More problematic — Jimmy conned those old ladies last episode with no visible remorse, all the way to the end. He even witnessed the consequences and didn't bat an eye. I genuinely don't understand what changed his mind. The things he did last episode (which was even called "Fall") were supposed to push him further towards Saul-ness. But now the writers have reversed that progress and also redeemed him an extra step or two. Seems like a waste.
One might even argue they're jerking around the character to achieve plot goals. I wouldn't go that far, but it does seem like they hit the "abort" button and decided to keep Jimmy fully likable for a while longer. In this episode, Jimmy made enormous sacrifices, apologized to Chuck, humiliated himself in front of the old ladies and Chuck, blanketed Kim with love and support (he even wanted to feed her), and continuously expressed all kinds of remorse that came out of nowhere. I mean... they really used the brute force method here.
This reeks a bit of Walter's completely unearned partial redemption at the end of Breaking Bad. I continue to feel the heavy hand of the writers moving the pieces around on the board. I don't listen to the insider podcast, which I thought would prevent me feeling that way, but it has not.
Just need to end on a positive note (because I still enjoyed this). My favorite moment of the episode was Gus looking at Nacho after the ambulance pulled away. His spidey sense was definitely tingling.
Actually the extended standing ovation for Chuck was the best part. Amazing scene.
