Lantern (''Better Call Saul'')

Teaser

In a flashback, a young Chuck reads The Adventures of Mabel to a younger Jimmy in a tent outside their family's house. The camera zooms in on a lantern as Chuck continues.

Main story

Jimmy visits Kim in the hospital, where her broken arm has been put in a cast. After she is discharged, the two return to the site of her car crash and Jimmy picks up her scattered Gatwood Oil papers. The following morning, Jimmy feels partly responsible for her accident because she took on a second client to keep their office open during the suspension of his law license. Kim replies that she alone is responsible, and expresses guilt at the possibility that she could have killed someone by falling asleep at the wheel.

Chuck promises to abandon his breach of contract lawsuit against HHM if he's allowed to keep his position with the firm. Instead, Howard presents a Chuck a check for his share of the partnership. Chuck believed HHM couldn't afford to pay him $8 million at once, but Howard has used money from his personal savings to raise enough to buy Chuck out. Howard criticizes Chuck for putting his personal vendetta against Jimmy ahead of the firm's needs, but then praises Chuck profusely as he informs HHM's staff of Chuck's immediate retirement.

Hector attempts to bribe Nacho's father Manuel to allow him to use Manuel's upholstery shop as a front for Hector's drug business. Manuel demands that Hector leave, but Nacho reminds him that saying no to Hector could place their family at risk, so Manuel reluctantly takes the money. Francesca presents Kim with get-well gifts from her clients and Kim tells Francesca to cancel her meeting with Gatwood Oil and postpone her other appointments. They rent movies at a Blockbuster store, which Kim watches with Jimmy while staying home from work.

Jimmy tries to make amends with Chuck but Chuck tells Jimmy it's in his inherent nature to hurt everybody around him and that he was never all that important to Chuck anyway. Chuck later shuts off the power to his house, stacks all his appliances outside, destroys the walls of his house and removes the wiring in an attempt to find out what's making his electricity meter continue to run. Unable to find the source, he finally destroys the electricity meter itself.

Jimmy checks on Irene, expecting her friends to have forgiven her after she agreed to accept the Sandpiper settlement. To his shock, Irene's friends still don't trust her, because now they think she'll do anything to get on their good side. His attempts to take the blame himself make Irene's friends respect him more and her less. He finally stages an argument with Erin Brill, his former D&M colleague, in which he "accidentally" admits to the tricks he played to get Irene accept, which vindicates Irene to her friends.

Nacho plans to ambush Hector in order to protect his father. Before he can act, he's required to take part in a meeting between Hector, Gus, and Juan Bolsa. Bolsa says that because Salamanca family trucks have been attacked, their routes for smuggling drugs from Mexico to the U.S. are not safe, so from now on Gus' organization will handle the cross-border smuggling for both Gus' operation and Hector's. An enraged Hector collapses and unsuccessfully attempts to medicate himself from the bottle in his pocket. As Mike advised, while Hector's bodyguard's are calling for an ambulance, Nacho takes the fake nitroglycerin capsules from Hector and replaces them with the real ones. Gus seems suspicious, but says nothing.

The next day, Jimmy and Kim move out of their office space. They apologize to Francesca for laying her off, but she says she will be able to return to her job at the Motor Vehicle Division. Kim insists that Jimmy keep his contact list, despite the fact that his admission to tricking Irene has guaranteed the end of his elder care law practice. That night, Chuck sits in his wrecked house with several books around him. He intentionally kicks his gas lantern off a table and starts a fire, but makes no attempt to leave the house.

Casting

This episode marks the final regular appearance of Chuck McGill. In the final scene, when Chuck appeared to commit suicide by kicking the lantern off his table and burning his house down, speculation arose over whether or not the act was actually fatal. However, McKean confirmed in an interview with Collider that Chuck is indeed dead, stating:

"It seemed like this was kind of the end of Chuck’s chapter in the life of Jimmy McGill-slash-Saul Goodman. It’s almost like the rock and a hard place — they can’t be too comfy together for too long or else you have to ask, what is the point of having Chuck? If Chuck is the person that Jimmy cared for and took care of, and who transformed into his antagonist, and then transformed into this wreck — this person who has no choice but to try and fix himself and has no tools for himself — it seemed like a logical step."^[1]

Ratings

Upon airing, the episode was watched by 1.85 million American viewers, and an 18-49 rating of 0.6.^[2]

Critical reception

The episode received a great deal of critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, it attained a 91% rating with an average score of 8.79/10 based on 11 reviews.^[3] Terri Schwartz of IGN rated the episode 9.5/10 stars, saying "Better Call Saul pulled off a fantastic Season 3 finale that perfectly balanced its storylines and brought a big lesson to Jimmy's doorstep. With some hugely impactful moments that were both incredibly emotional and long-awaited by fans, "Lantern" proves that Better Call Saul is better than it's ever been with Season 3."^[4] Alan Sepinwall of Uproxx praised the final scene, remarking "the focus was primarily on sending off Chuck, and the finale did it right, in painstakingly painful fashion."^[5]