TV

"Trust Sol" ended her life the way she started it: faithful to herself and her heroes

The last episode of "Trust Sol" carried an impossible load of expectations: it was required to tie up the branching story of the entire series with one of the greatest finales in television history hovering over it.

She was up to the task with a beautiful, brilliant, tender and heartbreaking finale

Ido Isaiah

08/17/2022

Wednesday, August 17, 2022, 1:12 p.m

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share by email

• Share in general

• Comments

  Comments

Promo for the last episodes of "Trust Sol" (AMC)

Throughout her life "Trust Sol" allowed the characters to guide her.

This is a series in which, despite its name, Saul Goodman almost did not appear: it strived for the particular character we knew in "Breaking Bad", and did so with thoroughness, patience and grammar.

Even when the final season came, even though the hero had already changed his name, he still wasn't in the mindset we first met him in.

Accordingly, the sixth season started with many pots on the fire.

She had to finally show how Jimmy McGill finally became Saul Goodman, explain what happened to all the characters not in "Breaking Bad" - Kim, Nacho, Howard and those - jump into the future to finish Gene's story with Taxi Driver, connect all the necessary threads to the parent series, and tie this whole story together with one of the biggest finales in television history hovering over it.

It is not certain that this season - the only one with 13 episodes, while its predecessors were content with ten - will be remembered as a good one in the history of the series.

Undoubtedly, fewer episodes could have been devoted to the sting operation against Howard, and perhaps also to Gene's heist project with Jeff.

And yet, along the way, she provided record after record after record.

Every V that was required to be marked became the climax, and thus it positioned itself as the season that includes the most unforgettable moments.

Nacho's death, Howard's murder, Lalo's final battle, Kim twisting the knife in Cheryl's heart, the breakup.

The sting operations also yielded wonderful images, such as Sol's visit to the country club, the throwing of the hatchet from the car in front of Cliff Maine's eyes and the increasingly smaller sinbon on the plate.

Loyal to her quiet way.

Bob Odenkirk, the last episode of "Trust Saul" (Photo: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

Now the end has come and with it a bunch of almost impossible expectations.

"Trust Sol" is required to close not only its own story, but that of the entire universe, and it does so in the shadow of the beloved, bombastic and satisfying ending of the parent series.

Nevertheless, true to its quiet and organic way, "Trust Sol" did.

Her ending may not be perfect: Marie's speech was far too contrived, although it was good and reasonable to see her in that position.

Even in Jimmy's speech it was possible to give up a moment here and a moment there, like when he turned to the prosecutor and asked "Did you catch that?".

Nevertheless, the final chapter tends towards perfection.

Brilliant, beautiful, tender and heartbreaking.

Please rewind

In the first few minutes of "Trust Saul", back in 2015, we saw the protagonist Gene Tacubik, ex-Sol Goodman, ex-Jimmy McGill, coming home from a day's work at Synbon and watching his old commercial tapes.

In his black and white world, this reminder of his good life was reflected from the screen on his colored glasses.

A reflection of his ends.

Every season the quality of the openings of "Trust on Sol" has decreased.

To begin with they were old video quality, but like real tape, watching them too often wears out the reel.

The openers, each focusing on a different accessory associated with Saul Goodman, corresponded with those advertisements.

We've been hinted that Gene watches the tapes until they're already drooling.

In the last episodes of the series, this wear and tear reaches the point of no return: the opening stops in the middle, a blue screen takes over the frame.

And then comes the most interesting thing - at the end suddenly a sign of recording starts.

Weeks before the finale - which aired today (Wednesday) on Hot, Yes and Cellcom TV and will also arrive on Netflix tomorrow - the series hinted to us that Sol Goodman was going to record a new story.

More in Walla!

Creator of "Trust Sol": "The ending of 'Breaking Bad' is so perfect, it's dangerous to try to repeat it"

To the full article

It was the most obvious - one might even say expected - end that could be expected.

Indeed, many viewers speculated that Sol would end up in prison, and that along the way he would take the blame for Howard in order to try to help Kim.

Part of that prediction came from the fact that we've already seen endings in this universe, and Trust Sol probably wouldn't want to rehash Walter White's death or Jesse Pinkman's successful escape.

Another part stems from the understated nature of the daughter series, a work that never tried to be a larger-than-life action drama, and that much of its life took place in or around the court.

And despite the good guesses, like almost everything in this series - which, by virtue of being a prequel, apparently much of it is known in advance - the ending was also done in a surprising, smart and exciting way.

In an interview with Walla!

Culture of the co-creator of "Trust Sol", Peter Gold, who wrote and directed the last episode, he said: "Everything else in this series is very different from 'Breaking Bad', so the ending is also completely different from that of 'Breaking Bad'."

However, despite the distinct differences between the endings of the two series, there is still a basic similarity that connects them: the hero's soul-searching just before he gets what he deserves.

In both cases he comes to his senses, gets down on the ground and admits his mistakes to the people who were closest to him - and it's as satisfying as anything else.

In the case of Jimmy McGill there is something more, sad and gripping.

This is also the first time that he directs a look at the conscience that for years thundered in him, the injustice that he ran from, the grief that consumed him: the death of his brother Chuck.

More in Walla!

"Trust Sol" season 6 episode 12: The tears flow by themselves

To the full article

Too contrived speech.

Betsy Brandt as Marie, the last episode of "Trust Saul" (Photo: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

The winner takes all

"I tried. I could have tried harder. I should have"

(Jimmy on Chuck in the courtroom)

Three flashbacks interwoven throughout the finale, and they are perfect.

All three personalities who are hosted there must be in the last episode of "Trust Sol".

Two of them were and remain an essential part of her since the beginning of her days, the third is the character with whom this whole world started 14 and a half years ago, therefore he must be injured even when everything closes.

But much more than that, the use of forays into the past is simply exploitative.

This is surely the last time we will see each of these three, and each of them gets a final scene that beautifully refines their character.

By the way, the flashbacks go back to key points in Jimmy's life to show us another, critical layer, which he had hidden inside without us knowing, and at the same time shed light on what ultimately outlines his moves now.

At the beginning of the first episode of the last season, when the authorities were packing up Saul Goodman's eye-popping mansion, one of the items lying there was the book "The Time Machine" by H. J. Wells. An episode later we saw it again on the bedside table on Jimmy's side. As requested , the viewers tried to analyze the meaning to try to understand what the creators are implying to us here, if the book is related to the plot and the sad climax. This may also be part of the matter, but the last episode emphasizes that first and foremost it is an emotional item, one that Jimmy returned to in his mind over the years. As required by his tremendous repression, he did so in a way that only scratches the surface, but when the whole picture becomes clear, it betrays the intensities of pain that were always trying to come out and were silenced by him.

More in Walla!

"Trust Sol" season 6 episode 11: The visit we didn't need

To the full article

was uprooted.

Jonathan Banks as Mike, the last episode of "Trust Saul" (Photo: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

contempt.

Bryan Cranston as Walt, the last episode of "Trust Saul" (Photo: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

"Nothing you would change?", Mike told him with his clueless face, reading the situation exactly.

"So you've always been like this," Walt told him scornfully.

The first scene took place about a year after Chuck's death, in the final stage of Jimmy and Mike's forced journey through the desert, the eighth episode of the fifth season.

The second scene took place seven years after Chuck's death, when Walt and Sol were waiting at the vacuum cleaner man's hideout, the period of "The State of Shame", the episode before the end of "Breaking Bad".

In both cases, Jimmy's mind wanders to the idea presented to him by the "time machine", and in both cases he chooses superficial options that indicate his lowest characteristics.

There are so many things that we know, that we have seen with our own eyes, that Jimmy did and certainly wants to fix.

The theft of the money in his youth from his father's coffers.

His contribution to his brother's death.

The exercise that resulted in Howard's death and the breakup with Kim.

All the horrible things he did with Walter White and brought them both to this place, just before they were forced to leave everything they knew for a new place with a new identity.

But just like the same Walt in the same situation - moments after he abandoned his colleague to the Nazis, caused the death of his brother-in-law, strangled his own wife, rolled on the floor with his son and kidnapped his infant daughter - Sol also does not direct a glance at the truth.

Only finally, after he confesses in court, do we get to see the third flashback.

This time the visit to the past hints to us that of all the many possibilities for morality in Jimmy's life, in this particular small moment lies his greatest regret.

The fact that if he had behaved differently during it, everything might have been different, at least in his opinion.

More in Walla!

I waited so long for this series and in the end I couldn't even survive it to the end

To the full article

asking for closeness.

Michael McCain as Chuck, the last episode of "Trust Saul" (Photo: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

What a beautiful performance by Michael McCain, infusing Chuck's familiar pomposity with tenderness, vulnerability and a request for closeness.

The scene probably takes place shortly before the beginning of the events of the series, sometime in 2002, about a year before Chuck's death, when Jimmy was trying to establish his private practice.

When Chuck suggests that Jimmy talk about his cases, Jimmy, a fight mod, automatically gets defensive and tells his brother that he's just picking on his faults.

Chuck, in response, also stiffens, looks at the ice that his brother brought and says: "I hope you didn't steal it from an ice machine of a roadside hotel."

A statement that naturally only strengthens Jimmy's intention to go.

But in this conversation there was a sentence that has accompanied him ever since, apparently.

Shortly before Jimmy left, Chuck asked his brother for advice: "If you're going in a direction you don't like, there's no shame in going back and choosing a different path."

In response, Jimmy snaps at him again, and Chuck says in submission: "In the end we always have the same conversation, huh?".

It's a scene so small and so big, one that threatens to explode with multiple meanings.

The fluctuation in their conversation reflects the relationship between the two on one foot - one step forward, two steps back - and the raising of hands at the end is the circle in which they will be trapped until the tragic end.

A circle that Jimmy would be left alone in for years to come, its walls closing in on him until he finally broke through.

After Jimmy leaves on time, we see that on the counter next to Chuck is the book The Time Machine.

At some point he probably lent it to his brother, and throughout all the years of Jimmy's suppression and rejection, the book remained with him as an unconscious reminder, a sentimental relic, a longing to return and make amends.

Chuck's ghost was always there and haunted him.

He begged his little brother to stay and talk.

Jimmy preferred to go.

More in Walla!

"Westworld" makes signs of striving for the end.

Thank God

To the full article

Does not look at the truth.

The last episode of "Trust Saul" (Photo: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

"My name is McGill, James McGill"

"Go in with your head held high, be the John Dillinger of the Metropolitan Correctional Facility"

(Sol Goodman tries to convince Walter White to turn himself in, "The Country of Shame", "Breaking Bad")

For almost seven years Jimmy indulged in distractions that helped For him not to think about his part in Chuck's death.

He turned Howard into the embodiment of his own conscience, silencing him with all his might.

An enmity that led to a series of tragedies that made him finally become this empty character, this comic relief, Saul Goodman.

Just like his partner in crime, as he now admits, Jimmy ran away.

She actually did it, moving to Florida, while he stayed in Albuquerque and abandoned what made him human.

But their fate was similar and equally sad.

So when he discovers that Kim has confessed to her initiative about the events that led to Howard's death, the change is immediately evident in his face.

A look of complete surprise.

And when Oakley later tells him that Kim is in trouble due to the civil suit by Cheryl, Howard's widow, Jimmy's immediate response is "No!"

Quiet.

If it seemed that he was throwing Kim under the wheels of the bus, already in this scene we can conclude that this is not the case.

Not even when earlier he decided to confess to Howard - it is likely that in the first place he did not intend to drag her into this matter.

Just as Kim's escape was the inspiration for Jimmy's escape, so her confession, including the consequences, is the inspiration for his confession.

At the end of the conversation on the plane you can almost see the gears moving in his head.

In a brilliant move he has just managed to escape the punishment he deserves, landing the prosecutors for seven years in a nice and comfortable correctional facility.

But after he redeems himself as Sol Goodman, he decides to redeem himself as Jimmy McGill.

Recording on the old tape.

As he once did, in front of the Albuquerque Lawyers Committee, he gives a speech that pulls the rug from under everyone's feet, which surprises Kim, but this time he does it knowing that he is the only one who will fall.

In the past he made up his feelings about Chuck's death, this time he finally confesses the truth, including to himself.

Things that should have been said years ago are out in the open.

In very typical "Trust Sol" fashion, this is a words-only climax, and they inflict the full force of judgment on Jimmy.

More in Walla!

Declining Generation: 'For All Mankind''s Ambitious Journey to Mars Encounters Human Mediocrity

To the full article

inspiration.

Ray Seehorn as Kim, the last episode of "Trust Sol" (Photo: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

always fire

Kim herself was already on the right track.

Even before she heard about Jimmy's arrest, her guilt trip had managed to bring her out of the shell she had dug herself into for the past six years.

She decides to volunteer at a legal aid center, a first step - probably one of many - in her return to the profession she rejected in the past.

Like the similar layer in the fates of Walt and Jimmy, there are also parallel lines between Jesse and Kim, as their scene together in the previous episode hinted.

Both were the second most important in their respective series, both managed to redeem themselves while the hero received a heavy punishment.

One can also assume that Jimmy's confession will help Kim add and move in the right direction, to be herself again.

When she comes to visit him at the Montrose Penitentiary - the "Alcatraz of the Rocky Mountains", 2000 km from Florida - everyone calls him Sol, including the warden, but he is clearly Jimmy. Even on the bus there it is clear that he is not too impressed by the sympathy of his colleagues, And even in his work in the prison kitchen, he is free of the mannerisms that were Saul Goodman's bread and butter. When he goes to meet his lawyer and discovers to his surprise Kim, she does call him Jimmy.

More in Walla!

"Frod": no matter how much nudity there is, this is a clearly unsettling series

To the full article

There is still some color.

"Trust Saul" (Photo: screenshot, AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

Film noir.

"Trust Saul" (Photo: screenshot, AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

He is expected to spend 86 years there, yet he seems at peace with himself.

As in the first episode of the series, he and Kim lean against the wall and share a cigarette.

When she lights the fire, the flame emerges from the lighter in color, and remains so even as it burns red with each puff of the cigarette.

Once what colored the black and white of Jimmy's life was nostalgia for his days as Sol Goodman.

Now that he is reluctantly known by this name by everyone, the color in his life comes from what he shares with Kim, a moment that will serve as a reminder of all the times he shared with the love of his life.

Kim and Jimmy both pay for their actions.

She will still have to deal with Cheryl's civil suit against her, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Nevertheless, in the most important ways they are free.

They reclaim their identity, redeem their souls and allow themselves to move on.

It's not a happy ending but it's a perfect ending.

• culture

• TV

• TV review

Tags

• Trust Sol

• Breaking Bad

• TV review

• Peter Gould