Summary
Kim Wexler wasBetter Call Saul’s answer toBreaking Bad’s most polarizing character, Skyler White, and the comparison between the two made me appreciate Skyler more. OnceBetter Call Saulsettled into its premise, Kim took on the same role that Skyler played inBreaking Bad. InBreaking Bad, when Skyler finally became aware of her husband’s secret double life as a drug kingpin, she became the show’s moral compass. InBetter Call Saul, Kim played the same role in Jimmy McGill’s life as he slipped further and further into the criminal side of criminal law.
The Skyler hate amongst theBreaking Badfan base always struck me as misogynistic. It follows an ugly pattern of audiences celebrating their murderous male antihero while despising the female love interest who questions the morality of his actions.Breaking Badfans had no problem with all of Walter White’s killing, but they were up in arms the moment Skyler expressed second thoughts about his meth empire.Barryfans had no problem with Barry Berkman being a professional assassin, but they hated his girlfriend Sally for pointing out his toxicity.Better Call Saulmade me appreciate Skyler even more.
Whereas Skyler was horrified by Walt’s crimes, Kim is intrigued by Jimmy’s
As the character arcs progressed inBetter Call Saul, Kim went down the exact opposite path to the one Skyler went down inBreaking Bad. InBreaking Bad, Skyler was never on board with Walt’s meth business. Initially, she trusted that he knew what he was doing and that he would only sell drugs for as long as it took to earn the money he needed to pay off the family’s debts and cover his own cancer treatments. But when he kept piling up cash long after that figure had been met,Skyler was dead against Walt’s life of crime.
Kim went the other way. When Jimmy first started bending the rules to keep his clients out of jail, Kim immediately expressed reservations. When Jimmy kept breaking the law, Kim decided she wouldn’t stop him from doing what he was doing, but she didn’t want to hear about it, so she wouldn’t be legally liable. But as time went on and Jimmy’s schemes got more elaborate,Kim eventually became enticed by the thrill of rule-bending. Kim famously “broke bad” in the final season as she and Jimmy teamed up to ruin Howard’s life (and ended up going way too far).
Kim made Skyler look normal by comparison
ThroughoutKim’s arc inBetter Call Saul, the show always made it clear that the way Kim perceived Jimmy’s schemes was not “normal.” She enjoyed the thrill of the cons as much as he did, which is why they were bad for each other. This doesn’t make Skyler worse in hindsight; it actually highlights how natural her behavior was. When she found out her husband was the meth king of Albuquerque, she wasn’t excited, like Kim inBetter Call Saulor Karen Hill inGoodfellas; she was horrified – and that’s the right way to respond.
Jimmy and Kim encouraged each other to keep taking the schemes further and keep conning their targets out of more and more. For them, scamming people was an expression of love – but the show never treated that as a normal, healthy relationship. Eventually, they were going to take things too far and get a reality check, and that happened in the bleakest way possible whenthey unwittingly got Howard murderedright in front of them.This made Kim finally realize how far gone she was, and how bad she and Jimmy were for each other.
Kim came to the same realization that Skyler eventually came to: that she’s in a toxic relationship and needs to get out. The only difference is thatSkyler didn’t have to get one of her colleagues killed to come to that realization. Skyler knew from the get-go that Walt’s life of crime could only end in tragedy, and she was called an annoying nag for trying to point that out before it was too late.
Despite receiving two nominations, Rhea Seehorn never won an Emmy for playing Kim Wexler.
Jimmy & Kim’s Story Was Completely Different From Walter & Skyler’s
While there are similarities between Kim and Skyler as characters, their respective relationship arcs were completely different.Jimmy and Kim had an actual love story: they fell for each other, they bonded over their shared love of classic cinema and the art of the con, and their eventual breakup was devastating. Skyler, on the other hand, was essentially Walt’s prisoner. If there was ever a time when they truly loved each other, it was long before the events ofBreaking Bad. They were miserable in the pilot episode and it only went downhill from there.
After seeing how monstrous her husband had become,Skyler desperately wanted to get out of the marriage, but Walt ruthlessly manipulated her into staying with him. As soon as Kim wanted to leave, as heartbroken as Jimmy was, he let her leave. But when Skyler wanted to leave, Walt forced his way back into the house and blackmailed her into letting him stay. Jimmy and Kim’s relationship was toxic because they egged each other on to do unscrupulous things, but Walt and Skyler’s relationship was toxic because of a hideous cycle of emotional abuse.
Kim and Skyler are both three-dimensional, human characters
Kim and Skyler are two ofthe greatest characters in theBreaking Baduniverse. While I can’t imagine anyone would argue that Kim is one of this franchise’s best characters, I could see some pushback on putting Skyler in the same category. But they’re great characters for the same broad-strokes reason: they’re both three-dimensional human beings. Gus Fring and Mike Ehrmantraut and Huell Babineaux are all terrific characters that exist in the pulpy genre world, butKim and Skyler feel like real people with real flaws and real vulnerabilities.
It’s easy to see how Kim got swept up in the thrill of Jimmy’s cons – his elaborate schemes do look like a lot of fun – and it’s easy to see why she felt the need to take drastic measures and completely reinvent her life after those cons cost one of her closest colleagues his life. And thisBetter Call Saularc reminded me why Skyler was always against Walt inBreaking Bad; she similarly felt the need to take drastic measures after being traumatized. If fans can love Kim, then it’s time they finally forgave Skyler.
Better Call Saul
Cast
Better Call Saul follows small-time lawyer Jimmy McGill as he navigates the legal world to make ends meet. The series, set six years before his encounter with Walter White, chronicles Jimmy’s evolution into Saul Goodman, with notable interactions alongside fixer Mike Ehrmantraut.
