The Emmy-nominated actress takes you inside Monday’s captivating, heartbreaking, game-changing episode.
How long could she keep compartmentalizing those Jimmy schemes and those pro bono dreams?
All the way until the ninth episode of the final season, as it turns out.
Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler on ‘Better Call Saul’.Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television
Jimmy was trying his darndest to follow those orders, but Kim couldn’t shake what had happened.
What they hath wrought.
Which is why that she felt the need to blow up hers.
Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler and Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman on ‘Better Call Saul’.Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television
When did Kim come to her devastating decision?
What becomes of her?
Catch your breath and read on.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First, congrats on the Emmy nomination(s).
The universe feels right now.
What did the longtime swell of fan support leading to this Emmy voter validation mean to you?
This reception and support for both my character and my performance it’s just been incredibly touching.
I was extraordinarily touched.
It was very sweet.
Kim remains in quiet shock after Lalo killed Howard in front of them.
But when she snaps out of it, she makes drastic changes.
After risking her life for Jimmy, Kim is ending this partnership.
I do think it’s open to interpretation, as the show so often is in the best way.
People are going to interpret certain moments quite differently.
But forme, I thought it was a bit of both.
And subconsciously, it was this thing of, “I can’t live in this skin anymore.
I don’t know what to do.”
And if it’s not me, it’s us."
I think it was more about self-loathing and then “How do I figure out how I got here?
How do I unravel this knot that is tiedsotightly?”
She went at it with very big swings, to mix metaphors.
Her decision to leave the law is maybe even harder to swallow.
Wasn’t there some penance to be done in representing the little guy?
I think you hit the nail on the head.
What about these clients that need you and the work that you could do for them?"
And that obviously is a very dangerous way to be going about practicing law.
[Laughs] The decision to not practice law is horribly tragic.
And I don’t disagree with her.
In that moment where she is, she does not deserve to pass legal judgment on people anymore.
She’s exacting a pretty serious punishment on herself and seems to have asked herself some really hard questions.
Jimmy, meanwhile, is in denial, and he just wants this to blow over.
He is incapable of self-examination.
To feel that you gotta atone, it is pushing him further off the cliff.
For her, it certainly doesn’t look like she’ll be fine.
She said, “A small town.”
But it meant a lot.
And I think that she thinks she deservesnothingnow.
And it’s tragic.
And I think that’s where she is in that moment.
There’s just no light anymore.
And like you said, “There’s no light anymore.”
It is pretty dark for her.
And she even tells him, this has nothing to do with not being in love with him.
She is in love with him.
I don’t think she [thinks she] deserves to be in love.
She doesn’t deserve anything…
I can’t say if we see her again.
So there was no telling when somebody wrapped, or what that meant in the story sequentially.
And it was a terrible punch to the gut when I had to play it.
[Laughs]
The breakup scene is the most emotional moment we’ve seen between them.
We’ve never seen them say “I love you” before this episode.
And when Jimmy says it to her, it’s loaded, it’s desperate.
That end “What is that honesty?”
It’s a challenging scene.
[Co-executive producer] Ann Cherkis wrote it beautifully and [executive producer] Michael Morris directed it.
Where it is a hot argument.
Where it is defensive.
Where it is quiet.
What are the dynamics?
When is it loving?
When are you trying to let somebody off the hook versus pinning them to the mat?
What do these two different dynamics look like?
She cannot stand to be in her own skin.
It isn’t that she’s saying he’s faultless.
But she’s saying, “There’s no way back for what you and I have become.
We hurt other people.”
And she even says, “On our own, we’re okay.
We’re not perfect.
We definitely both made mistakes.
But together we ignite something.”
There’s an admission that “Was that the glue that was holding us together?”
Everybody should pull pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and be responsible for your own stuff.
And now she’s in this horrible mess and who did she become?
So it was very challenging figuring out those dynamics.
It was going back and forth.
And you see Saul saying, “Don’t do this, don’t do this.”
It was hard, but became really a group success together.
Or are they just bad together?"
And that the answer is, “It’s all of the above.
We are inherently who we are plus the sum of our experiences.
We cannot be one or the other.”
He came back really feeling like he didn’t want to hold the crew back anymore.
It wasn’t about ignoring it.
And then… you said goodbye to Kim and Jimmy.
And then we said goodbye.
And, yes, that was hard.
We could afford very little because they haven’t been showy about their emotions prior.
“The train has left the station.”
