Rhea Seehorn Explains Kim Wexler’s ‘Catatonic’ State, Parking Lot Kiss in ‘Fun and Games’
Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 9 reveals a lot about Kim Wexler. In an interview, Rhea Seehorn, the actor who brings the role to life, pulls back the curtain on Kim’s “catatonic” state in the episode. She also explains the kiss she shares with Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) after Howard Hamlin’s memorial. The moment was brief, but the kiss carried a lot of weight according to Seehorn.
[SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers ahead for Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 9.]
Kim Wexler becomes ‘casually cruel’ in ‘Fun and Games’ episode of ‘Better Call Saul’
In Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 9 “Fun and Games,” Jimmy and Kim follow Mike Ehrmantraut’s (Jonathan Banks) orders from the previous episode, conducting their lives as they normally would. This includes attending Howard Hamlin’s (Patrick Fabian) memorial at the HHM office.
Kim has an awkward but telling exchange with Howard’s wife, Cheryl (Sandrine Holt), lying about a time she claims to have seen Howard doing drugs in his office. Her lie reveals she’s still committed to the elaborate scheme she and Jimmy made up to destroy Howard’s reputation, despite it getting him killed.
As Seehorn explains it, this is the moment Kim realizes she has gone too far. “Well, I think there’s certainly mental steps going on even prior to the memorial service, but you see that she’s almost catatonic in her suppression and shock and doesn’t know what to do,” Seehorn told Collider.
She added: “There’s some fake [it] until you make it and just keep taking a step forward. But I do think the memorial and what she says to Cheryl is the turning point for her of, ‘This is what I’m capable of.’ It isn’t over with the fact that an innocent person just died very much because of things that she put in motion. She has become casually cruel.”
Seehorn says Kim saying, “You were his wife. You would know,” was unnecessary. In her mind, Kim only said those words because she knew Howard and his wife were struggling with their marriage.
“The twist, the dagger, in that moment is so… it’s just so casually cruel, and she is alarmingly good at it, and I think there very much is a realization in that moment of, ‘I can’t be this person. I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this. What is the punishment due? How do you move forward?'”
Rhea Seehorn, Collider
Kim and Jimmy’s kiss after Howard Hamlin’s memorial foreshadows their breakup
Later in the parking lot, Jimmy tells Kim the worst of Howard’s death is over and they can finally move forward. Kim doesn’t say anything, but leans in to give Jimmy a kiss. Then, Kim gets in her own car and drives off abruptly.
“Jimmy, to some degree in the parking garage, when he says, ‘Well, that’s it. The worst of it’s over and now we can begin the healing,’ he still believes that they can find light, that there’s still enough about them that’s good, individually and together, that it outweighs the dark,” Seehorn explained. “Kim is utterly eclipsed in that moment, and I don’t think she blames him.”
For Seehorn, that kiss was the moment Kim realized she had to do something to stop herself from hurting another innocent party. “… She loves him, and realizes in that moment what she later has uttered, which is [their love for each other] doesn’t matter,” she said. “It just doesn’t matter anymore how much they love each other.”
Kim Wexler’s fate is finally revealed in ‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6 Episode 9
Many fan theories said Kim Wexler would die in this season of Better Call Saul. That’s still entirely possible, but it’s not the fate that played out in season 6 episode 9.
Instead, she uproots her career and her personal life. Kim gives notice to the bar about resigning as a lawyer and breaks up with Jimmy. The episode concludes with Jimmy fully embracing the Saul Goodman persona.
Will we learn more about what happened to Kim after she and Jimmy broke up? There are only four episodes left — tune in to Better Call Saul on Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET.
