the fly is playful, yet demonic

1-800-R-U-WEXING

This scene of Kim and Chuck is an underrated one in my book. Regardless of Chuck possessing an inclination to doubt Kim’s autonomy like the other men in her life and having criticized her supposed bad judgement when it came to Jimmy before, he showed a commendable amount of understanding and empathy toward her disappointment of having put her trust in the wrong place. Kim, being a woman as territorial of her independence and confident in her own choices as she was, still couldn’t deny that Chuck was somewhat right about Jimmy recklessly getting her in trouble. Him extending a helping hand of promising to talk to Howard about getting her out of doc review when he didn’t have to was a true diplomatic move on his part and also showed that he would uplift talent and drive when he saw it, at least when he deemed it deserved. I think there’s a lot of recognition happening here, and him opening up to her about his humble background while discussing the man who had exasperated them both, two things that Kim could relate to A Lot, was a nice ruminative bonding moment between them.

telling kim that story was also a rotten move on chuck’s part because we eventually see (in a later episode) that jimmy went above and beyond to help chuck repair his relationship with rebecca, and in turn chuck makes a point of telling kim what a loser scumbag his brother is (and he tells her this when she’s asking about HER career! none of these men ever make these conversations about HER!)

as early as the 90s mailroom flashbacks we see kim notice to how chuck speaks to jimmy, and it’s clear that she’s put off by it. she sincerely dislikes the way that chuck treats his brother. as much as kim respects chuck, and wants his respect in turn, she definitely gleans from this conversation that chuck has long-standing and somewhat irrational distaste for his brother that doesn’t sit right with her. i don’t think that chuck’s “my brother left you holding the bag” came through to her as being sincere or a show of camaraderie. she was denied an opportunity to talk about herself and her career, and was instead subjected to chuck clearly trying to poison her against jimmy instead of helping her because she’s a good lawyer. and, again, chuck’s account of what jimmy did was DEFINITELY biased and inaccurate, and you can see a touch of doubt on kim’s face—passed off as politely reacting—while he told it.

jimmy may be a fuck up, but he’s an underdog, and she knows that howard and chuck treat jimmy like they do because he went to a lesser law school and they see him as a lesser lawyer and they never moved past their image of him as a criminal. and all of these things are antithetical to kim’s own belief systems. as much as her love for jimmy is unreasonable and emotion driven, there are aspects of her love for jimmy that are completely grounded and understandable. and the issues she takes with how chuck treats jimmy are the same issues she contends with throughout the entire show, because the way chuck treats jimmy is a microcosm of the entire legal community. and she chafes and chafes against it until eventually she just breaks bad. and sure, jimmy was part of that. but being a poor girl from the middle of nowhere who went to a regional school and had to work through law school set her apart from her peers her entire career, and she sees herself in the way others treat jimmy. and this scene is another moment where someone tries to empathize with her by distancing her—and themself—from jimmy, and they miss the mark completely because they just don’t understand her at all.

I miss her.