Description

S'all good, man! ## Personality James Morgan "Jimmy" McGill, better known by his professional alias and business moniker Saul Goodman and later Gene Takavic, is an American criminal defense lawyer, scam artist, and convicted criminal who is serving an 86-year sentence at ADX Montrose. Originally from Cicero, Illinois during his career as a scam artist, Jimmy moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he worked as a lawyer, and later resided as a fugitive in Omaha, Nebraska before being caught and apprehended in a federal prison at Montrose, Colorado. During his law career, Jimmy embraced his tendencies as a former scam artist and, after becoming a dedicated and effective criminal lawyer, he began to represent criminals while he himself became increasingly involved in the city's criminal underworld, all the while slowly losing his morality along the way. Despite his flamboyant appearance and mannerisms, Saul was a highly competent lawyer who was able to solve problems and find loopholes in order to protect his clients. His business name, "Saul Goodman," is a play on the phrase "it's all good, man." with his buddy Marco. Jimmy hit rock bottom when a particularly sordid incident led to his arrest, but a dismayed Chuck was able to get him off the hook for all the charges. Faced with serious consequences for once, this was to be a major turning point for Jimmy, after which he decided to clean up his act and move to Albuquerque to take up honest work at his brother's firm. He originally worked as a mailroom clerk at Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill (HHM) alongside Kim. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the partners, Jimmy studied via correspondence courses, gained a law degree from a diploma mill and eventually qualified as a lawyer. Jimmy then immediately applied for but was denied a position as an Associate attorney at the firm by Chuck and his partner Howard Hamlin. As a result, Jimmy quit HHM to set out on his own as a solo practitioner, working from a tiny makeshift office in the back room of a nail salon, After toiling for a long time on thankless public defender work, dead end cases and will-writing, Jimmy got his first big break with a class-action lawsuit against a retirement home chain. Jimmy worked together to build the increasingly complex Sandpiper case with Chuck, who persuaded him to refer the case out to HHM. For a second time Jimmy pushed for the chance to work for HHM and was again blocked by Chuck. Incensed, Jimmy resolved to burn the case to the ground rather than give it to HHM, and considered quitting the law altogether and returning to his old ways. However, after the sudden death of Marco, Jimmy was brought back to the fold by Kim, who persuaded Howard to recommend Jimmy for a job as an associate attorney at Davis & Main, HHM's co-counsel on the Sandpiper case, which Jimmy reluctantly accepts. Jimmy stubbornly rebelled against the corporate culture at the firm, clashing with the partners and was eventually fired by Clifford Main. Jimmy then established his own law firms; first with Kim at Wexler McGill and later establishing Saul Goodman & Associates. Jimmy was devastated by Chuck's revelation that he greatly resented his brother and believed him to be completely unfit to be a lawyer, which led to Chuck preventing Jimmy from being hired by HHM, later proceeding to create a majority of the obstacles Jimmy faces early on in his career, beginning Jimmy's rivalry with Howard, and causing Chuck to become unintentionally largely responsible for turning Jimmy into the criminally-inclined lawyer that he later becomes.Jimmy is successful at exposing Chuck's resentment of him in court along with suggesting that he might have a mental illness, though is suspended from practice law for a year after Jimmy fabricated Mesa Verde Bank and Trust documents. During his suspension from practicing law, Jimmy worked as a cell phone salesman at CC Mobile, where he began to use the nickname "Saul Goodman" again. Jimmy initially used it as an alias while performing scams alongside his close friend Marco Pasternak, and later makes use of it as the alternate identity for the high-energy pitchman in television ads he produced with his film crew at Saul Goodman Productions, and when he began a business reselling prepaid cell phones on the street. Jimmy then decided to practice law under this name, believing the McGill name was buried and not wanting to be seen as "Chuck's loser brother". During the period of his law license suspension, Jimmy's side business caused him to inadvertently become involved in the Albuquerque drug business as an associate of Mike Ehrmantraut and a legal representative for Lalo Salamanca, with Jimmy subsequently receiving a lot more criminals seeking his services as a result of him being Lalo's lawyer.subsequently receiving a lot more criminals seeking his services as a result of him being Lalo's lawyer. Jimmy and Kim got married in 2004, with Kim also becoming Jimmy's confidant to gain spousal privilege. Despite Jimmy and Kim's unconditional love for each other, Kim left him and Albuquerque after one of their schemes goes horribly wrong, stating that they are bad for everyone around them, with the couple divorcing later that year. Following Kim's departure, Jimmy began to fully embrace his criminal Saul Goodman persona as a coping mechanism, fully immersing himself in his work and criminal activity. Saul became a local celebrity in Albuquerque through his flamboyant advertisements for his services on television through commercials, and began to maintain extensive connections within the criminal underworld, serving as a go-between connecting drug distributors and other criminals-for-hire. He was also reluctant to be associated with violence or murder unless absolutely necessary. In 2010, after his association with Walter White's drug empire was revealed to the public, Saul was forced to retire from his law career, going into hiding in Omaha for several months, living as a fugitive under the alias of "Gene Takavic", a manager of a Cinnabon in Omaha. He was eventually caught by the authorities and imprisoned for 86 years in a federal prison after finally accepting himself as Jimmy McGill, and began enjoying notoriety among his fellow inmates for his past life as Saul. overall charts Jimmy's transformation from a struggling defence attorney into a dedicated and effective criminal lawyer. Jimmy is introduced as a struggling attorney, often forced to defend clients in loser cases and overall barely makes ends meets, and to make matters worse, his highly successful lawyer brother Chuck, is mentally ill and Jimmy takes it upon himself to care for his brother. Despite this, when he first introduced Jimmy is nowhere near the person he will eventually become and is a kind and caring person who desperately wants to be successful and put his lawyer skills to good measure. He has good relations with most of the people he knows notably Kim and Chuck, and with the exception of Howard Hamlin whom he despises.In spite of this, it is gradually revealed that Jimmy is truly more conman than a lawyer, and throughout the series, it is shown that Jimmy has been a crook from an early age, in which he stole from his kind father's corner store, eventually resulting in its bankruptcy and his father's death and engaged in multiple con games in order to steal money from unsuspecting victims. It was only after being arrested for defecating through a sunroof and facing serious charges that Jimmy gave up his life as the master conman "Slippin Jimmy" and moved with his brother to Albuquerque. Jimmy has never expressed any signs of remorse for his con artist past, nor the damage he inflicted on others, notably his father and overall enjoys the thrill of tricking people and furthering his own interests. Jimmy's relationship with his older brother Chuck was one of the primary catalysts for his transformation into a criminal lawyer. Chuck was shown to despise his brother for his manipulative and delinquent ways, and took every opportunity to sabotage him in order to prevent him from becoming a successful lawyer, as he knew that Jimmy would always be a conman and resort to unethical measures to get his way. However, Chuck's attempts would only fuel the fire and would push Jimmy closer and closer to his true criminal nature.Throughout Better Call Saul, Jimmy eventually transforms from a struggling attorney focused on doing the "right" things into a master manipulator and reverts back to his conman persona. He is shown to be willing to resort to whatever measures necessary in order to gain clients and to ensure that his clients, who are complete criminals, avoid arrest such as manipulating police, fabricating evidence and even stealing from his clients for blackmail purposes. Despite this, Jimmy still uses his manipulation skills for good as seen when he saved two of his comrades from being murdered by Tuco Salamanca by talking him down to breaking their legs instead and also sabotaging his brother Chuck's files in order for Kim to get her clients back. Regardless however, Jimmy is vain, arrogant and selfish. He is completely focused on his own interests and is willing to ruin people's lives in the pursuit of his interests. For example, he turned an old woman's friends against her just in order for her to settle on a large case and receive his cut. Mostly, he proves his brother's mental illness in court in order to get off easy following being arrested and charged as a result of Chuck's actions, even through he was truly guilty in the manner. Jimmy is also spiteful as well as seen when he deliberately revealed his brother's mental illness to an insurance company for revenge for his actions, and this would eventually be the one of the primary catalysts leading to his brother's tragic suicide. Following Chuck's suicide, Jimmy seemed unmotivated, being borderline annoyed by all the people expressing their condolences at Chuck's funeral, and was completely dismissive of Howard's theory (which unbeknownst to him is the truth) that Chuck committed suicide once he was forced out of HHM. Despite this, Jimmy felt enough remorse to repair his mistake with his client by purposefully exposing his actions in a way that repaired the woman's friendships and presumably destroyed all of his own credibility with his clients in the process. However by the fourth season of Better Call Saul, Jimmy is shown to be even more cruel and non-caring as he shows barely any remorse for his older brother's tragic suicide, despite the fact that he is partly responsible and happily allows Howard to feel all the guilt over the situation; in a way following his brother's advice to no longer feel remorse for his actions and embrace who he is. Jimmy is shown to be willing to resort to even more extreme measures to get his way such as threatening three teenage thieves with death if they interfere with his drop phone service and feigning remorse for his brother's death simply to get reinstated as a lawyer and gleefully mocking the panel afterwards to Kim. After being caught following his months on the run and faced with the harm that he's caused, Jimmy embraces being James McGill once again, shedding forever both his Saul Goodman and Gene Takavic personas. As Jimmy McGill, he owns up to his crimes, even though it turns a seven year prison sentence into an eighty-six year one, effectively condemning Jimmy to spend the rest of his life in prison. Jimmy also finally shows remorse for what he did to Chuck and for causing his suicide, the guilt of which Jimmy had previously ignored and buried.Jimmy is also known for his intelligence, cunning, and manipulation. He's a criminal lawyer who's willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals or protect his clients. He's also a former scam artist who earned the nickname "Slippin' Jimmy" for setting up "slip and fall" accidents. Jimmy McGill, also known as Saul Goodman, has a flamboyant appearance and mannerisms. For example, Better Call Saul costume designer Scott Bernstein described Jimmy's style as "showy" and "detailed". He noted that Jimmy's shirts are made of Sea Island cotton and feature mother of pearl buttons. Bernstein said these details were intentional and indicate that Jimmy is serious about his plans.