#bcs speculation

fully expecting gene to walk into that house to find either a dead body or a medical emergency (thinking back to walt and jane and feeling sick)

marion getting the internet for the first time feels like a plot point — dreading her seeing something on the internet among the cat videos that’s about saul goodman and recognising him as gene, especially after her suspicious look towards the garage

Kim expressed her desire to be Atticus Finch, writing wrongs and defending innocents against injustice (her literary criticism on this point I’ll leave for now...). And when we see her at Mesa Verde in 4x03, I think it might be too simplistic to say she feels trapped... rather, she’s walking around inside someone else’s dream. Kevin’s worked for years to make his dream a reality, and if Kim stays to help him do it, she realizes it’s going to take years of her life, working flat out as she’s done for the past few weeks, and it will only get her to Kevin’s dream. Some people might be okay with that, so long as it lets them live comfortably, or make a name for themselves, but that’s not Kim. She wants more, she wants to walk inside her own dream.

Her request that Viola take her to court hints that she might be looking into doing defense work, as Jimmy had at the start of season one. That would take her closer to her own dream of being an Atticus, defending those who otherwise couldn’t be defended. And she’s one to seek justice, which isn’t always “winning.” Remember the Kettlemens, to whom she explained that the best outcome for a client isn’t always to win, but to get the best possible outcome. And for them it meant facing up to the facts of what they’d done, and accepting the inevitable consequences, even if she was able to soften the blow for them. But Kim’s dedication to justice, a fair shot for anyone, no matter who they are or what they’ve done - clash very tellingly with what she know about Jimmy’s later actions.

Jimmy-as-Saul is also a sometime defense attorney, but he’s the opposite of the Atticus Finch stickler for justice as idolized by Kim. He’s mercenary and cynical, eager to collect as much money as he can as fast as he can, and slapdash in his efforts to get the best possible outcome for his clients no matter whether he has to bend the rules or the truth. These are the things Kim would and could never do, even as she tries to give her clients the best defense she can give them. Saul on the other hand is giving the best defense that money can buy - and money can buy a lot more from Saul than it can from Kim.

So it would be interesting, though upsetting, to see them travel these parallel paths, Kim dedicated to the truth and justice, Saul dedicated to the art of extracting the most money possible by getting his clients out of the consequences of their actions by any means necessary. And possibly then seeing in Kim all that he hated in Chuck - this ideological adherence to the sacredness of the law, at a point where he’s so hardened that he can no longer see the pure desire for justice behind it.

So I’ve been thinking about this too, anon, and here are my speculative thoughts for what they’re worth.

I don’t honestly think we’ll see Kim break bad the way Saul does. While it’s been fun to see her do petty scams, we always see her draw the line at actually hurting people, even when they deserve it. Ken Wins is the only guy she really put the hurt on, but he could obviously afford to pay for that zafiro, and he’ll be fine. Dale was a jerk for hitting on her when he’s not single, but she never cashed his check. There are lines she won’t cross, and when she hits that line, she’s going to be out of there.

That said, I also don’t think she’ll die. I’ve said it before, but there’s a spark of hope left in Sad Cinnabon Gene that lets him keep going from day to day, and lets him express himself minutely by carving “SG” into the wall and yelling at the kid even if he was scared of the cops. I think that if Kim were dead, he wouldn’t be able to do even those small things.

Something awful does happen between Kim and Jimmy, and I think it’s going to cause them to leave each other. But I am having serious thoughts about how carefully the show has set up that Kim is from Nebraska (or Kansas but near Nebraska). It’s not a coincidence that she’s from the state that Gene ends up in. I am increasingly thinking that whatever does happen to Kim, it’s going to cause her to go back to her hometown or somewhere in its vicinity, possibly to start up her own firm if she can.

Does that mean they’ll meet in Omaha? Will there be a redemption somewhere in there? Does Jimmy/Saul even deserve to be redeemed? I don’t think even Vince and Peter know that yet, but the deliberate storytelling they’ve exhibited so far makes me think that we’re at least going to see Kim in GeneTime.