‘Better Call Saul’: Fans Think Kim Wrote Jimmy the Letter From Chuck, But Bob Odenkirk Says No Way
There are plenty of mysteries on the critically acclaimed series Better Call Saul. As we dive into Season 5 and the Breaking Bad world inevitably draws closer, fans finally get to experience criminal lawyer Saul Goodman in all his glory. Now we know exactly how he transformed from Jimmy McGill into his alter ego, and we’re even getting a sense of why he did it.
But even though the transformation has happened, there are a few lingering questions left over from Season 4. There’s a fan theory that Kim Wexler secretly wrote the letter from Chuck before his death. Could it be true?
Chuck and Jimmy McGill had a disastrous relationship
Calling Jimmy and Chuck’s relationship “complicated” would be the understatement of the century. Even though they were brothers, Jimmy constantly struggled to live up to his brilliant older sibling’s legacy and no matter what he did, Chuck always looked down on him. Not that Jimmy was totally innocent, either. These two made each other miserable even when they weren’t trying to.
Chuck had his own demons and eventually committed suicide by setting his house on fire at the end of Season 3. But sometime before he did, he wrote Jimmy a letter telling him exactly how he felt. Chuck’s former partner Howard Hamlin gave Kim the letter to give to Jimmy along with a pathetic $5,000 inheritance from Chuck’s sizeable estate.
Fans think Kim destroyed the original letter and wrote a new one
After all the drama Chuck and Jimmy had been through, the letter was surprisingly benign and even a bit flattering. “Nothing will ever change the fact that we are brothers — flesh and blood,” Chuck writes in the letter. “And though we are very different people, I want you to know how much I respect what you’ve made of yourself in these last few years… for all the problems we’ve had, I’m glad we share the name McGill.”
As Jimmy reads the letter, Kim becomes more and more emotional while he remains unaffected. By the end, Kim is crying and Jimmy seems confused by her reaction. Some fans think Kim’s breakdown proves that she had to replace the letter to protect Jimmy’s feelings. But Bob Odenkirk insists that’s not the case.
Bob Odenkirk says the letter was really a ‘weird f*ck you’ from Chuck
During an interview with TV Line, Bob Odenkirk said there’s no way Kim swapped in a counterfeit letter in place of Chuck’s real words.
“Yeah, that’s crazy. I don’t believe that for a second,” Odenkirk said. “I don’t think Kim wrote the letter. I think that’s what Chuck wrote a few years before, and it’s just pro forma bullsh*t that Chuck was spouting to the world.”
He went on to explain that the kind words in the letter were actually a subtle insult meant to drive Jimmy nuts and paint Chuck as the “benevolent brother” and a victim of Jimmy’s shenanigans, as usual. Odenkirk further described it as a “weird f*ck you” from beyond the grave.
Why was Kim crying when Jimmy read the letter?
If Kim didn’t write the letter, then why did it make her so upset, fans wonder? It’s probably because she witnessed so much of the drama between Chuck and Jimmy. Plus, she loves Jimmy and can see how he’s pretending not to care even though she knows deep down he does. That’s why she gives Jimmy the recommendation to go speak with a therapist.
There’s one more critical piece of proof to prove Kim didn’t write the letter. Since Jimmy never knew the letter existed, she could have just thrown it away without replacing it and handed Jimmy his check with nothing else. That would have been a lot less complicated than forging a letter.
