‘Better Call Saul’ Season 5: Is Kim Addicted to Jimmy? Rhea Seehorn Thinks So!
Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) is one of Better Call Saul’s most provocative characters. She’s not in Breaking Bad so fans are worried she doesn’t survive the prequel. She’s also arguably too good for Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk). Season 5 will test Kim and Jimmy even further.
Seehorn spoke with reporters in a roundtable interview on Jan. 16 about the new season of Better Call Saul. She thinks Kim and Jimmy have an addictive relationship. You’ll see when Better Call Saul returns Sunday, Feb. 23 at 9 p.m. on AMC.
Rhea Seehorn says Kim has changed in four seasons of ‘Better Call Saul’
When we first met Kim on Better Call Saul, she was a hopeful associate at Hamlin, Hamlin and McGill. She expected to become partner one day, but when Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) made it clear he wouldn’t make her partner, she partnered up with Jimmy in spirit, if not in practice.
“It’s so cool that they are not the same people they were in Season 1. Kim is not at all the same person she was in Season 1 and none of us are. They do allow those evolutions in this season. They really started to dig and Kim’s character, that idea of how you can’t just keep still on the outside. There’s a lot of darkness and a lot of humor that came out. She still does love this very strange, isolated life where he’s the only person she takes the mask off in front of, which I think is part of the addiction in that relationship.”
Rhea Seehorn, Better Call Saul roundtable, 1/16/2020
Kim and Jimmy are perfectly matched on ‘Better Call Saul’
Whatever Kim and Jimmy have is no accident. Jimmy’s a schemer and con artist, but Kim is not his mark.
“She’s not being snowed by him,” Seehorn said. “That’s not an interesting thing to watch and it’s definitely not an interesting thing to play. But, it’s partially what she brings to the table too. Something that I love for myself as an actor is yes, she’s reactionary to him and there is this relationship element to that, but she also has her very own demons.”
Rhea Seehorn says Jimmy allows Kim to be obsessive
Kim Wexler is definitely a Type A person. She uses it to serve her clients well on Better Call Saul, but she also brings it home to Jimmy.
“This obsessive compartmentalizing, the need to control everything, the need to put out fires constantly, self-reliance that become inability to accept help that would drive you to the grave eventually, I see all those as addictive things too,” Seehorn said. “To think that you can rework everything if you just work hard enough, things’ll be okay is its own obsession and addiction. He has that element to him and the two of them together sort of feed off that.”
Kim is also addicted to letting her guard down
Kim puts on such a composed front at the office, in the courtroom and basically anywhere in public. For all his faults, Jimmy is the only person who sees the real Kim on Better Call Saul.
“You can become addicted to you’re the only person I can be myself in front of,” Seehorn said. “I’m trying to hold my sh*t together 24-7 outside, and here I can try to be funny, be vulnerable and make an ass of myself.”
That all sounds endearing and wholesome, but Seehorn say it can be dangerous too.
“Then the darker part of that is to reveal that she’s not perfect and that maybe she does question some things and maybe she does cut some corners and how does that make her feel?” Seehorn said. “So that’s the addictive element I’m talking about. Who does she have if she doesn’t have him? She has herself and she has always only allowed that, but now she lets someone else in and I think that’s addictive.”
