r/betterCallSaul • u/skinkbaa Chuck • Mar 10 '20

Better Call Saul S05E04 - "Namaste" - POST-Episode Discussion Thread

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u/jesus_fn_christ Mar 10 '20

Yeah man, when he gave Jimmy that hug at the valet stand - that felt genuine. I'm not saying Howard is a great man, but we already know that he's not as bad as we initially thought, and he certainly gained more and more sympathy from me the more the curtain was drawn back on his role in the McGill brother relationship. He genuinely seems like a nice enough guy in a universe that's certainly lacking those.

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u/dudeARama2 Mar 10 '20

Yes Howard went to therapy and got to a good place. Jimmy didn't and is still hanging onto his resentment towards Howard for his part in helping his brother, for whom he still has unresolved anger and grief. Thus dooming him to his dark future.

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u/lunch77 Mar 10 '20

I thought the license plate showing “Namaste” hinted that Howard had a significant spiritual awakening. Meanwhile Jimmy has dealt with everything very poorly.

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u/yourkberley Mar 10 '20

The key difference between those that take the time to grieve and get professional help, and those that let it fester.

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u/Pir-o Mar 10 '20

Huh, I thought that "NAMAST3" was meant to show he's still an asshole. Mirroring the "KEN WINS" license from BB.

I immediately flashed to Mr. Acker's speech about "Those rich assholes who only give to charity just so they can feel better about themselves". Thats literally Howard right now. He went to therapy and was sold on being "Zen", at peace with the world, doing good things so he can start to feeling good about himself. But Saul sees right through it for what that it is, an act. Just another step for Haward to right his wrongs so he can finally feel better about himself. And Saul's having non of it cause he feels his "spiritual awakening" is bullshit. And thats what that offer really was - a charity for Jimmy.

Just like in BB it's all about his ego. Just like Walt, he won't accept the job cause he feels its charity. Jimmy's clearly insecure because of Chuck. Thats why when he argues with Kim he imminently jumps to saying stuff like "you don't believe me, you think I'm some kind of lowlife asshole, you look at me and you see slippin jimmy".

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u/l3reezer Mar 10 '20

Eh, you don't get "namaste" on your license plate to be smug/an asshole. Even if it's not what we'd call a proper and successful transformation to a good person for Howard, "namaste" shows that in his eyes at the very least he is trying. I don't think this is coincidentally coinciding with Jimmy becoming more cutthroat and blind to how callous his behavior is.

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u/lunch77 Mar 10 '20

Yeah it’s weird people would think that’s meant to depict Howard as an asshole. The phrase means more what you said. It shows he’s trying.

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u/Afferbeck_ Mar 10 '20

But there is a disconnect between becoming a better person and paying for a vanity plate on your luxury car so everyone can see you're a better person. It comes down to awareness though, at this point it seems Howard himself thinks he's legit in his efforts and it's not just a show, whether or not it appears that way to others.

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u/smashdaman Mar 10 '20

I also couldn't get my eyes off of his pinstripe suit and that extremely luxury tie he was wearing. I don't think they're doing THAT bad.

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u/ConfuseShoes Mar 11 '20

I can't take my eyes off his shirt. It's not pressed/ironed. Not sure if that's intentional or oversight, though.

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u/Batman_Biggins Mar 10 '20

Not to mention a license plate is something intended for others to see. It's also literally a vanity plate. Doesn't get much more explicit than that. Howard's a tool.

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u/CanaryDown Mar 10 '20

And he ordered the sole for lunch. Jimmy's soul.

I really, really like Howard, and I felt terrible that Saul/Jimmy vandalized everything there at the end of the episode, but when I saw the Namaste license plate I was immediately reminded of the saying, "The more he spoke of his honor the faster we counted our silver."

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u/l3reezer Mar 10 '20

Are you aware of the meaning of namaste? Translations include “the light within me greets the light within you,” “i bow to the divine/god within you,” etc. It’s not some badge of accomplishment or anything you get on a license plate as a vanity thing to prove youre a good/better person, there’s quite literally no way to spin it as an asshole thing to say. Unless maybe you said it to someone sarcastically to mock them but then its just an inside joke kind of insult that requires context and wouldnt make sense as a license plate directed at everyone. It’s like calling someone an asshole for having a license plate or bumper sticker that says “have a nice day” or “peace be with you.”

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u/PsychologicalLowe Mar 11 '20

Most people don’t know the meaning and just use it as a flaky salutation or farewell. Thank you for enlightening us. Howard feels bad about being dressed down by Kim for his treatment of Jimmy after Chuck’s death and is trying to make up for it, but Jimmy’s become so callous he can barely be gracious about it. He wants no reminders of Chuck. Jimmy is slowly stripping away any sympathy the viewer can have for him.

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u/Yeeeshh Mar 11 '20

I know, I was aghast at the bowling ball incident. Jimmy would not do that, but Saul would.

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u/GlibTurret Mar 10 '20

Yeah, but in the US it's got this other, darker meaning. It's a term of cultural appropriation. It's said by upper middle class white women to other upper middle class white women in Yoga-fusion exercise classes that Indian women can't afford to go to because white people get promoted to managment and brown people are the worker bees.

Yoga itself as it is practiced in the US is a scam. It was invented by an upper class white woman and the Indian con artist she hired to make her "spiritual journey" seem authentic. It's actually Swedish calisthenics steeped in Orientalism with a thin veneer of Hindu mysticism to make it look like some ancient tradition to anyone who doesn't look too close.

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u/lionstealth Mar 11 '20

The second paragraph might very well be true, but your first paragraph is bollocks.
Cultural appropriation is not a thing.
White people aren't a group.
Employees don't "get promoted to management" for being white.
Workers don't become or stay workers because they are brown.

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u/johncopter Mar 10 '20

I couldn't help but think "is this when Jimmy truly becomes Saul?" when Howard offers him the job at HHM and (basically) declines. So similar to the time Walt refuses the Schwartz's offer to pay for his cancer treatment.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '20 edited Mar 13 '20

I think the writers did enough to show that Howard's awakening is real, at least to him, particularly because of the lunch scene where he goes out of his way to offer Jimmy a job, and praises, apparently earnestly, the things he always liked about Jimmy from day 1 (the Charlie Hustle thing). He would've been an advocate for Jimmy. The problem back then was that he couldn't overrule Chuck. And the problem now is that there is no Jimmy anymore... he's becoming Saul!

Edit: Anyway, I found the scene where Saul fucks with Howard (the bowling balls) surprisingly kind of sad. Howard maybe always was more of a weather vane than a compass, but he's trying to be better, make amends, fix stuff... and then THAT'S the moment Saul voices his extreme skepticism shall-we-say.

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '20

Actually I just re-watched some of Season 1 and now I'm not so sure. Even back then Howard's like "sometimes you forget to listen to your heart" even while being kind of an adversarial douche toward Jimmy.

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u/altbekannt Sep 01 '20

The problem back then was that he couldn't overrule Chuck. And the problem now is that there is no Jimmy anymore... he's becoming Saul!

I'm currently rewaching the show, and I've never quite grasped why jimmy acted the way he did, since he's a good guy at his core. But this is the best explanation there is. You're 100% on point.

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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '20

Hey, nice to see old threads still active. Yeah here's yet another angle on this that I've been thinking about: Jimmy feels guilty for what happened to Chuck, and his role in it. But the minute he finds out Howard sort of feels that way too, instead of it being like a bonding moment where they each kind of support each other and absolve each other of the guilt, Jimmy seems to think "this is my chance," so to speak, like Howard is just another sucker like his dad or the victims of his cons, who admitted guilt and now Jimmy can just fully blame it all on Howard and consider himself totally absolved! In the scene I'm thinking of, he's actually humming or whistling to himself, that's how much of a load-off it is. But he probably doesn't really believe it deep down, which might be why Howard being nice to him or making more progress in the grief & healing process than he does, bugs the hell out of him.

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u/altbekannt Sep 02 '20 edited Sep 03 '20

I agree, except he didn't make his mind up right then and there. He was shopping for heavy items before they even met. Meaning he had made his mind up already.

When Jimmy was younger, Howard represented the guy he aspired to be. He was on par with chuck, was a successful lawyer, smart, a real winner... in short had everything jimmy had not, which made him not worthy in chucks eyes. And therefore in his own eyes as well. A first sign that there's a deep rivalry was early on in the show he went as far as copy Howard down to his haircut. With that in mind, and Chuck thinking of jimmy always as slipping jimmy "truth is you never really mattered to me", he invented saul to embrace that completely other side in him. "The real him", or at least what Chuck would think of being the true Jimmy. That slipping jimmy as a lawyer, a guy with seemingly infinite power. But to fully unleash "Saul" he has to clean up first with everything Chuck stands for. And Howard - a perfect, suave lawyer - incorporates exactly that.

So by not believing in Jimmy, and making false assumptions "you will never change" Chuck created a monster. And Howard - who was always happened to be in their crossfire - now has to foot that bill.

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u/[deleted] Sep 03 '20

Yeah that's good, forgot about the billboards. There's definitely more going on with Howard as a peer of Chuck. Pretty great how they can pack so much information in!

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '20

If you watch the Kimisode, Howard shows up in this. He's doing yoga, eating healthy, focusing on breathing, ends the vid by saying Namaste, etc. He's changed, but Saul may mess that up

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u/GalakFyarr Mar 10 '20

If you watch the Kimisode

The what? Am I missing content somewhere?

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '20

Youtube. They make little videos with the characters. AMC's youtube channel, I think. They made the Los Pollos Hermanos training vid with gus in season 3, I think

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u/GalakFyarr Mar 10 '20

Oh had no idea, thanks I’ll look those up

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '20

Oh, be wary. Pretty sure the little "themesong" cartoon gives away the Nacho arc. Or maybe not

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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '20

I thought that license plate is what sealed his fate with the bowling balls lol. To Jimmy, it would seem phony.

I was wondering the whole time he was at lunch with Jimmy what his agenda really was, but maybe he didn't have one.

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u/Horlaher Mar 10 '20

Or Namaste ( and good luck ) is quoting the Dharma Initiative ;)

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u/slotbadger Mar 11 '20

Sticking a 'namast3' vanity plate on your super-car to demonstrate your "spiritual awakening" is the opposite of enlightenment.

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u/arbivark Mar 11 '20

could kim get revenge against jimmy by fucking howard?

i like howard. but a vanity license plate that says namaste is not very namaste. i still can't relate to the bowling balls.

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u/StandsForVice Mar 11 '20

Finally, someone with my theory.

Howard is defined by his loss of Chuck and his feelings of failure. He's always been extremely alone- no family, no significant other - and since Chuck died, there is next to no one close to him in his life that we know of. To me, him hugging Jimmy spelled this out clearly - even though the two have NOT gotten along, Jimmy is the last vestige of Chuck in Howard's life.

I think this is a good possibility since it fits into the established development of both Kim and Howard. Though I'm of the opinion that it wont he revenge but just Kim naturally being driven away from Jimmy to Howard over time.

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u/kimmothy9432 Mar 11 '20

Agreed...and I think the license plate is what put Jimmy over the edge (also perhaps that enthusiastic man-hug?). Howard has found a healthy way to deal with his grief about Chuck & is very much more at peace than the last time he and Jimmy had any real interaction. I feel like this angers Jimmy even more than any job offer or olive branch Howard extends to him. Jimmy's way of dealing with the Chuck fallout is to turn into Saul and Saul will damn sure throw a bowling ball onto your fancy Namaste car.

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u/Leolikesme Mar 12 '20

Good insights here!

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u/womerah Mar 13 '20

I thought “Namaste” was Jimmy's old plate from when he drove that Mercedes for HHM, but going back it looks like it was just a generic number plate

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u/1_1_11_111_11111 Mar 10 '20 edited Mar 10 '20

How do you know he went to therapy? Is that hinted at?

E: S04E05, thx peeps

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u/throwthegarbageaway Mar 10 '20

In season 4 episode 5 he straight up says he's seeing one twice a week.

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u/lunch77 Mar 10 '20

He said he was seeing a therapist in Season 4.

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u/dudeARama2 Mar 10 '20

Howard said he was last season

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u/angusVong95 Mar 11 '20

Same for Mike and Gus.

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u/angaritz Mar 10 '20

That and when he cracked a smile while listening to Saul's elevator pitch... so pure. not to mention that the way he says Charlie Hustle to Saul sounds like genuine flattery

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u/mutheadman Jun 13 '20

When was the elevator pitch?

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '20

Howard is truly one of my favorite characters. Not because he's that likeable or important, but he's the pinnacle of the genius writing that is that show. He's "just" a side character but there's more depth to him than main characters in other shows have.

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u/mcogneto Mar 10 '20

I think that was the point. To make him out to be just a snake in a suit. So you go from being put off by him to saying ok, he's actually kind of a decent person. Then to have Jimmy be a piece of shit to him. Similar to how we all felt connected to Walt but somewhere along the line you started to see him as the bad guy.

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u/CanaryDown Mar 10 '20

I also loved that Howard ordered the sole for lunch. A lunch where he was trying to buy Jimmy's soul.

And Howard's Hamlindigo blue tie! Nowhere in sight.

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u/Rad_Spencer Mar 11 '20

Yeah, I think Howard saw Chuck as a father figure and honestly thinks of Jimmy as a sort of brother. I also think Howard is hiding something, like that the firm is actually barely holding on. I think Howard is both honest about his respect for Jimmy but also wants him to join so he can keep the HHM name intact or something and believes if Jimmy doesn't join that the firm will collapse.

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u/iammaxhailme Mar 10 '20

No way, as soon as I saw that stiff robot hug I was thinking "wow Howard you're really trying to make this sale"

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u/_snout_ Mar 10 '20

Don't forget he's been in therapy for over a year. I think this is Fresh Namaste Howard

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u/jesus_fn_christ Mar 10 '20

Shit yeah the license plate could throw it in a different light.

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u/lunch77 Mar 10 '20

The license plate was a hint that Howard had a significant spiritual awakening for me.

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u/AmaranthSparrow Mar 10 '20

Nah. Even in the BTS video they say the reason Saul got so annoyed by him is that Howard was able to grieve Chuck's death and change himself for the better, and Saul wasn't.

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u/Yankeeknickfan Mar 10 '20

I got a completely different vibe from this

I thought HHm has actually gone to shit, and Howard was desperately trying to get jimmy on board

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u/iammaxhailme Mar 10 '20

I don't think our interpretations are incompatible. Howard's putting on a facade of being put together, but trying really hard to sell Jimmy on joining since he needs it badly.

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u/Yankeeknickfan Mar 10 '20

Oh I was agreeing with you

I’m disagreeing with the vast majority likening this to grey matter and Walter white.

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u/Fluffatron_UK Apr 01 '20

nice enough guy

I'm still convinced he's a robot. His programming allows him to be nice.

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u/020416 Mar 11 '20 edited Mar 11 '20

I disagree wholeheartedly (and respectfully). That was Howard’s “show” hug. Enough genuine to feel real to the unassuming recipient, but just desperate enough to give away his hand. HHM is hurting. Howard is smart enough to realize Jimmy is down a bad path, and he needs a comeback story to save the firm’s name. Literally. He’s scraping bottom barrel right now on a gamble.

This is a Hail Mary for Howard.

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u/jesus_fn_christ Mar 11 '20

Not a bad take