Better call Saul: The Tragedy of Becoming Saul Goodman

Better Call Saul: The Tragedy of Becoming Saul Goodman

I. The Central Question: Who Are You When Power Is Watching?

At its core, Better Call Saul is not about crime or law. It is about identity under hierarchy.

Jimmy McGill does not fall because he lacks morals. He falls because every system he enters—law, family, love, and eventually the cartel—demands that he accept a role already written for him.

The genius of the series is that it shows power not as a single force, but as layers. 

And at the top of those layers sits Don Eladio Vuente—rarely seen, almost never threatened, smiling in the sun while others bleed beneath him.

Jimmy’s tragedy is not that he becomes Saul Goodman.

It’s that in a world ruled by courts, cartels, and kings, Saul is the only identity that survives.

II. Jimmy McGill: Cleverness Inside Systems

Jimmy is not a gangster by instinct. He is a system player.

He thrives where:

Rules exist

Appearances matter

Outcomes can be manipulated

As a lawyer, Jimmy learns quickly that the law is less about justice than performance. Judges, firms, and institutions behave like courts in the old monarchical sense: hierarchy first, fairness second.

This is why Jimmy never truly fits. He lacks pedigree. He lacks sponsorship. And most importantly, he lacks protection.

Robert Greene’s Law 5: So Much Depends on Reputation works against Jimmy long before it can work for him. His reputation precedes his competence.

When Chuck denies him legitimacy, Jimmy does not rebel — he adapts.

Adaptation, in this world, is the first moral compromise.

III. Chuck McGill: Institutional Power as Fate

Chuck McGill represents lawful authority in its purest form. Credentialed, respected, and insulated.

Chuck doesn’t merely oppose Jimmy — he defines reality for him.

“You’re not a real lawyer” is not an insult. It is a verdict.

Chuck believes institutions protect society from chaos. What he fails to see is that institutions often function like cartels themselves — rewarding insiders, punishing outsiders, and disguising dominance as ethics.

Chuck violates Law 1: Never Outshine the Master, not by being eclipsed, but by refusing to allow Jimmy any ascent at all.

In doing so, he drives Jimmy toward a different hierarchy — one that does not pretend to be moral.

IV. Saul Goodman: Reputation as Armor

Saul Goodman is not ambition realized — he is disillusionment weaponized.

If Jimmy cannot be respected, he will be useful.

If he cannot be trusted, he will be necessary.

This is the beginning of Saul’s alignment with the cartel world, where morality is irrelevant and value is transactional.

Saul’s brilliance is understanding Law 11: Learn to Keep People Dependent on You instinctively. He does not dominate. He solves.

But usefulness has a ceiling. And above that ceiling sit men who do not need Saul — they merely tolerate him.

V. The Cartel Revealed: Law With Blood Instead of Paper

The cartel is not chaos. It is order without illusion.

Where the legal system cloaks power in procedure, the cartel strips it bare. At its apex sits Don Eladio, beneath him Juan Bolsa, beneath him the families, beneath them the enforcers.

Jimmy slowly realizes something terrifying:

The cartel is more honest than the law.

There are no promises of fairness. Only obedience, profit, and survival.

This is where Saul Goodman truly belongs — not because he is evil, but because he understands hierarchy.

VI. Don Eladio Vuente: The King Who Does Not Move

Don Eladio is not violent. He does not scheme obsessively. He does not need to.

His power is static.

Eladio does not chase control — control orbits him. His presence turns chaos into alignment. The Salamancas perform for him. Bolsa manages for him. Gus earns for him.

This is power at its highest expression: authority so complete it no longer explains itself.

Robert Greene’s Law 1: Never Outshine the Master governs every interaction around Eladio. Everyone knows where they stand.

Everyone — except Gus.

VII. The Salamancas: Power as Spectacle

The Salamanca family represents emotional power — dominance fueled by rage, pride, and fear.

Hector commands through terror

Tuco through unpredictability

Lalo through charm layered over violence

They are tolerated because they enforce the cartel’s will visibly. They are allowed excess because excess reminds others who rules.

They are Eladio’s dogs — dangerous, loud, and replaceable.

Their philosophy is simple:

Power must be seen.

VIII. Lalo Salamanca: The Perfect Predator

Lalo Salamanca is the cartel’s most refined weapon.

He combines:

Intelligence

Patience

Emotional control

Lethal decisiveness

Unlike others, Lalo understands Law 33: Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew. He studies fear. He listens.

For Jimmy, Lalo is the first man who makes the law irrelevant. No argument, no loophole, no charm can protect him.

Lalo teaches Jimmy the final rule of power:

Cleverness fails where violence is patient.

IX. Kim Wexler: Discipline Meets Reality

Kim believes in earned authority. She climbs slowly. She absorbs humiliation. 

She trusts systems.

Lalo shatters that belief.

Her confrontation with him proves she is brave, intelligent, and composed — but bravery does not equal power. Only position does.

Howard’s death is the cartel’s verdict on Kim and Jimmy’s illusions:

You were never players. You were collateral.

Kim leaves not because she stops loving Jimmy, but because she understands the truth:

Power corrupts not through temptation, but proximity.

X. Juan Bolsa: The Administrator of Violence

Bolsa is the cartel’s middle layer — the bureaucrat.

He values:

Stability

Predictability

Profit

Bolsa understands that violence must be managed, not indulged. He believes systems protect those who respect them.

This is why he underestimates Gus — and why he dies.

XI. Gus Fring: Power That Waits

Gus Fring is the cartel’s greatest contradiction.

He is patient where others are emotional. 

Invisible where others perform. He violates no rules — except the most important one.

He plans to replace the king.

Eladio tolerates Gus because Gus is profitable. Eladio humiliates Gus because humiliation reinforces hierarchy.

Eladio’s fatal error is confusing obedience with submission.

Static power decays.

Dynamic power adapts.

XII. Mike Ehrmantraut: Order in a Corrupt World

Mike believes rules make violence acceptable. He enforces structure so others can sleep at night.

But structure does not absolve sin. It only distributes it efficiently.

Mike’s tragedy mirrors Jimmy’s:

He trades conscience for clarity.

XIII. Saul Goodman: Court Jester of the Cartel

Saul is not respected by the cartel. He is tolerated.

His job is not power — it is absorption. He absorbs risk, blame, and chaos so others can remain untouched.

This is survival, not success.

XIV. Gene Takavic: After Power, Only Silence

Gene is the ghost of a man who outlived kings.

Chuck is dead.

The Salamancas are dead.

Eladio is dead.

Gus is dead.

Only Jimmy remains.

Survival without identity is its own prison.

His final confession is not redemption — it is self-recognition.

For the first time, Jimmy chooses truth without leverage.

XV. Final Lesson: Power Always Wins — But At a Cost

Better Call Saul is not a morality tale. It is a hierarchy tale.

It teaches us:

Systems shape identity

Power rewards patience, not virtue

Survival is not victory

Don Eladio ruled because he was comfortable.

Gus rose because he was patient.

Saul survived because he was adaptable.

Jimmy McGill lost everything because he wanted to be both loved and free.

In a world of courts and cartels, that is the one role no system allows.