‘Better Call Saul’ season 2 finale review: Chuck McGill’s con; who wrote ‘don’t’?

The second season of “Better Call Saul” came to a close on Monday night, and the AMC show did so by answering a lot of important questions.

First and foremost, we learned the fate of Chuck McGill. After being hospitalized over the incident at the copy shop, Chuck was okay … but then went on to go further over the edge with his illness. He retired from HHM, and proceeded to basically decorated his entire home in space blankets to keep out UV rays. Jimmy eventually heard the news, and then went over to challenge Chuck about why he was throwing in the towel now.

But was this really a Chuck health scare, or was it another manipulation on his part? Chuck in the middle of his meltdown proclaimed that he made the mistake during the Mesa Verde case, which caused Jimmy to cop to fudging his numbers and ruining the case for him. He told him he did it for Kim more so than screwing over Chuck or Howard; it wasn’t a complete slight against his brother, even if it felt that way.

You could see in the whole Jimmy vs. Chuck exchange how this was going to end. Jimmy’s a weasel, but Chuck is a lion. He may sleep for a long time, but when he pounces, he pounces hard. He secretly recorded Jimmy’s whole confession, which may be all the evidence he needs, provided destroying his brother really is that big of a priority for him.

As for the Mike story, the most intriguing part of it may have been that note: “Don’t.” Who wrote it? We want to say Gus Fring just because that makes us the happiest, but we don’t quite know if that is the case just yet. We’re mostly just disappointed that Gus wasn’t a part of the story.

Was the finale better than last week’s tour de force? We’re not sure we would say that, given the first half dragged at times; yet, the second half was electric, and we definitely have a sense now that great things are coming in season 3. Grade: A-.

(Photo: AMC.)