#whateverrrrr im going to have feelings abt my fav fictional ex-attornies

[arugula2048]

if I choose to read deep enough into this I can further position Mike as a parallel to Kim's mom (telling her why he's telling her Lalo's alive vs "I didn't know you had it in you") and both bailing her out. Mike kiiind of being like the mirror universe Chuck to Jimmy? The version that can work with him, even be a good partnership with him. Altho tbf past a point, I can't tell when Jimmy's trying to work his charm vs him doing tricks to try to gain respect from his older brother-esque/conduit figures.

ohh the fucking. parallels between mcwexler and the kettlemen. The Kettlemen are so good to each other and so bad for each other just like McWexler. Without all the scheming and guidance (and sometimes "guidance") by Jimmy and Kim they would've run themselves into the ground in miliseconds with the not taking the deal, trying to plead innocence, staging a runaway and trying to camp it out. They're strong-armed into taking the deal and still later, older and greyer yet none-the-wiser, still running scams because they didn't learn their lesson and it's so gratifying (paralleling Kim's "I didn't tell you because I was having too much fun."). They're strong-armed into stopping again, by McWexler in good cop-bad cop style. And in the end they still stay with each other for their kids and for each other, because thick and thin, they love each other so goddamn, life-ruiningly much. Assholes to the world, but even in s1 when they were at peak hateableness, Betsy was genuinely heartbroken over Craig(? whatever) going to jail.

The difference between those couples is that Jimmy and Kim were much smarter, much smoother, and they made it so much further than the Kettlemans, but they couldn't escape the same endpoint. And Kim loves Jimmy but she's so much wiser that she chose to walk away and not try to "leave this behind" to start over somewhere else as Jimmy said. Because look at where that got the Kettlemans, poorer and worse off, still lying for fun and profit, dragging the remains of their reputation through the mud as they got suckered by the bigger fish.