What Saul’s Time Travel Question Means (& What He Would Change)
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Thought Jimmy McGill’s preoccupation with time travel in Better Call Saul‘s final episode was strange? Here’s what his quantum questioning really means. Have you ever pondered what you’d go back and change if time travel were possible? Bob Odenkirk’s Jimmy McGill certainly has, and Better Call Saul‘s series finale (“Saul Gone”) begins with a flashback to when he and Mike were stuck in the desert during season 5. With new conversation topics at a premium, Jimmy asks Mike where he’d go first if they used Lalo Salamanca’s money to build a hypothetical time machine.
Mike picks the day he first took a police bribe. In a second flashback set toward the end of Breaking BadJimmy poses the same question to Walter White, who chooses the day he left Gray Matter. On both occasions, Jimmy avoids giving a proper answer back. He tells Mike that he’d pull the old Back To The Future Part II sports almanac trick to become rich, then tells Walt he’d stop his younger self damaging a knee during an ice fall. Both men are surprised by Jimmy’s lack of meaningful answer – especially since he asked the question.
The ever-astute Walter White deduces Jimmy’s time travel thought experiment is really a question about life regrets. Though he begins by asking Mike which period of history he’d most like to visit, Jimmy’s conversation exposes how these key Breaking Bad figures would change the course of their respective lives. Albuquerque’s celebrity lawyer may have a passing interest in Mike Ehrmantraut and Walter White’s deepest regrets, but Jimmy raises the topic because he hides a secret regret of his own – something he desperately wants to get off his chest, but isn’t quite ready to admit when Mike and Walt ask.
Saul’s Time Machine Question Is All About Chuck
In Better Call Saul‘s last-ever flashback, Jimmy McGill visits his brother Chuck in the days before season 1, and as the younger sibling leaves under a cloud, the camera pans down to reveal Chuck is reading H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. This same book reappears in Jimmy & Kim’s apartment during Better Call Saul season 6 (“Carrot & Stick”) and in Saul Goodman’s Breaking Bad mansion (“Wine & Roses”). It’s heavily implied that after Chuck takes his own life in Better Call Saul season 3, Jimmy treats the book as a memento of sorts.
This association between Chuck and The Time Machine explains why Jimmy becomes so preoccupied with changing the past. Whatever nonsense he spouts about Warren Buffett or painful knees, Jimmy desperately wants to go back and change the moment he caused Chuck’s death by ruining his career. Since that fateful day, Jimmy has stubbornly refused to emotionally process Chuck’s passing, maintaining a stony coldness that would look like he didn’t care to the casual observer. Jimmy still declines to admit Chuck’s death is his greatest regret during Better Call Saul season 6’s finale flashbacks with Mike and Walt, even though his “time machine” question proves it’s constantly on his mind, and he’s desperate to come clean.
Only in Better Call Saul‘s final episode does Jimmy McGill speak these words aloud. During a stunning courtroom confession, Jimmy finally accepts responsibility for Chuck’s death, and his closing line (“…and I’ll live with that“) shows a man confronting his inability to change the past. There is no H.G. Wells time machine that’ll bring Chuck back; there’s only the immense weight of guilt that Jimmy McGill has spent the past three seasons of Better Call Saul ignoring.
But the McGill wormhole goes deeper still. H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine represents regret in Better Call Saul‘s final episode, and while Jimmy’s regret is his brother’s death, Chuck owning The Time Machine hints that the older sibling might harbor some of his own – namely his inability to meaningfully connect with Jimmy. The McGill brothers’ final scene is brimming with misunderstanding, miscommunication, and missed opportunity. They both love each other, but they struggle expressing it. If Chuck were given the keys to Better Call Saul‘s fantasy TARDIS, maybe he’d go back and tell Jimmy an honest “I love you.”
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