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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | I AM NOT CRAZY! I am not crazy! I know he swapped those numbers, I knew it was 1216; one after Magna Carta, as if I could ever make such a mistake, never! Never! I just... I just couldn't prove it! He-he-he covered his tracks, he got that idiot at the copy shop to lie for him! You think this is something, you think this is bad? This, this chicanery? He's done worse. That billboard! Are you telling me that a man just happens to fall like that? No! He orchestrated it! Jimmy! He defecated through a sunroof! And I saved him! And I shouldn't have, I took him into my own firm! What was I thinking? He'll never change. He'll never change! Ever since he was nine, always the same! Couldn't keep his hands out of the cash drawer! "But not our Jimmy! Couldn't be precious Jimmy!" Stealing them blind! AND HE GETS TO BE A LAWYER?! WHAT A SICK JOKE! ...I should've stopped him when I had the chance! And you, you have to stop him! You- | „ |
| ~ Chuck's infamous breakdown revealing his resentment for Jimmy when outsmarted by him. |
Charles Lindbergh "Chuck" McGill Jr. is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Lalo Salamanca) of the crime drama series Better Call Saul, the prequel series to Breaking Bad.
One of two co-founders of the prestigious Albuquerque law firm Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill, Chuck was a well renowned lawyer before taking an indefinite leave of absence when he claimed to experience symptoms of electromagnetic hypersensitivity, causing him to become semi-reclusive in his own home.
He is also the archenemy of his own younger brother, Jimmy McGill, whom he deeply resents over his history as an exploitative fraudster in the past. Despite his reverence of the law, Chuck is far from above committing hateful and immoral acts in the name of keeping his younger brother away from a law profession - thus inadvertently serving as a catalyst for Jimmy's moral deterioration and eventual transformation into Saul Goodman.
He was portrayed by Michael McKean.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
- He is indirectly responsible for Jimmy's tragedy and villainy, as he neglected him throughout their childhood and refused to tell him their deceased mother's last words were calling for Jimmy purely out of envy.
- Stopped his law partner Howard Hamlin from hiring Jimmy twice even though Jimmy had been taking care of him for a long time and brought HHM a huge case when the second one happened.
- This also causes Jimmy to suspect and take revenge on Howard Hamlin, without him knowing the reason.
- He stole his neighbor's newspaper to read about his brother's actions.
- Cruelly tells Jimmy he's not a real lawyer when confronted about his sabotage.
- Shows up at meetings just to undermine Jimmy's judgement.
- Takes Kim Wexler's client, Mesa Verde, just to spite Jimmy.
- Pretends to be regretful to trick Jimmy into confessing to tampering with the Mesa Verde files so he could record him and then have him arrested after tricking him into breaking into his house.
- Fires Ernesto for telling Jimmy about the recording despite intentionally manipulating him into doing so.
- Threatens to sue Howard when he suggests he retire which could endanger the jobs of the people who work at HHM.
- Rejects Jimmy's attempt to reconcile and coldly tells him he never mattered all that much to him.
- Although he has a mental illness, he still knows right from wrong and his worst actions were caused by his ego, not out of his sickness.
- Though he has some comedic moments, they do not detract from his actions, and everybody in-universe takes him dead seriously.
- Although he claims to have good intentions by stopping Jimmy from being a corrupt lawyer, this is mainly false, as he is shown to be driven primarily by envy and spite towards his brother.
Why He Doesn't Stand Out?[]
- His personal villainy of ruining his brother's career for years, indirectly exacerbating his fall into villainy, and his threat to bankrupt HHM out of spite does manage to meet the general baseline, but beyond this he comes nowhere near the high heinous standards of the franchise. Due to this, he fails to his own brother Saul Goodman, who directly enabled Walter White's crimes and helped him avoid being arrested.
- He has standards to the law, which causes most of his division with Jimmy, even preventing himself from taking a political bribe.
- He has shown reverence for helping people within his profession, saying that Jimmy's public defender clients deserve "a rigorous defense like no other" in a flashback and helping out with the Sandpiper case to prevent adultery of the elderly by the nursing home chain.
- He is tragic since he has a mental illness which makes him hypersensitive to electricity, thereby making it seriously difficult for him to lead a normal life. His envy toward Jimmy is also driven by insecurity and disdain for his behavior which can be seen as a bit sympathetic.
- He genuinely loves his estranged wife Rebecca and cares about his parents, speaking fondly of his dad and being with his mom in her last moments.
- Despite their extremely tumultuous relationship, he has induced several Pet the Dog moments toward Jimmy without any pragmatic or selfish reasons behind them that shows he did care about him to a degree. Examples include reimbursing him for the paper he bought for him, taking care of him in a flashback in season 4, and agreeing to getting him out of jail for his "chicago sunroof" stunt before giving him a job in the mailroom, which he was proud of him for. In addition, he cooperates with Jimmy in the Sandpiper case and momentarily enjoys his company, as shown when he briefly forgets his "allergy" to electricity when going outside. He also earnestly says that Jimmy has a "good heart" at one point, only that he can't help himself, and similarly says that Jimmy does bad things non-maliciously for "almost noble" reasons during his trial.
- While he does claim that Jimmy "never mattered all that much to him," this is clearly ingenuine since he is visibly distressed afterwards, and repeats his habit of naming objects and their colors aloud in order to reduce his stress and psychosomatic symptoms before going to sleep.
- He has moments of affability, such as when he pays for the newspaper he stole or excuses himself on the stairwell when bumping into Huell.
- His death is played for sympathy as after slowly losing all of his friends, career and reputation, his last scene consists of him repeatedly kicking a table with a gas lamp on it until it hits the floor, burning him and his house.
- Even Jimmy feels some remorse over his death eventually.
- His fate also makes him a scapegoat.
External Links[]
- Chuck McGill on the Villains Wiki
- Chuck McGill on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki
- Chuck McGill on the Breaking Bad Wiki
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 /  Villainous Benchmarks
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Heisenberg's Empire The Cartel Los Pollos Hermanos Neo-Nazis Jimmy McGill's Contacts Others | ||
 Villainous Benchmarks
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Animated Features Live-Action Features Live-Action Television See Also | ||