Why Kim Resists:

Kim does not resist Howard’s advice because she is evil, nor because she falsely believes Jimmy to be good; she resists it because she falsely believes HERSELF to be good. Howard is not simply a Powerful Man who is attempting to exploit Kim’s actual Goodness; Howard is a GOOD Man who is offering her an opportunity to RESTORE her FORMER Goodness, but because the temptation to “feel good about herself” is greater than the drive to BE Good by a rational standard, and because the former offers far more fringe benefits than the latter does, Kim yields to the temptation.

It is no coincidence that Howard, Chuck, Rich, and Kevin all appear to be allied in opposition to Jimmy; even though all of these Powerful Men have had their fair share of rivalries and fallings-out amongst one another, they can all see Jimmy for what and who he is, and since they are not allied there is no reason for them to treat him as a scapegoat. Ergo, there is no reason for Kim to deny their conclusions, that which she already knows, about him. Were there no standards by which to judge Jimmy or were there no evidence that Jimmy had violated such standards, then Jimmy would be innocent by default, yet in fact all of these characters, including Kim and Jimmy, have pledged themselves to such a standard from the very beginning: “It’s the Law, and it’s enforceable.”

Kim spites Howard at the end of Season Five not because he is trying to exploit her good nature on behalf of a partisan enterprise. Rather, Howard’s appearance forces her to confront the fact that she is no longer the Good Person she once was. Normally, a person like Kim would take the first train out of hell on the road to recovery, and she would be more than happy to let Howard be the train conductor. Yet by this point Kim’s relationship with Jimmy has grown too powerful.

While John Teti misunderstands Kim’s superiors, he understands Kim and Jimmy all too well, especially with regards to their codependent relationship. Kim makes Jimmy feel good about himself; in exchange Jimmy makes Kim feel good about herself. This arrangement worked when Kim also retained the power to restrain Jimmy’s criminal activities. This additional benefit was not a fringe benefit for Kim; it was a service to society, consistent with their practice. Yet as Chuck lost his grip upon Jimmy, as Kim had to go to greater and greater lengths on Jimmy’s behalf, as Howard lost his grip on the legal community, as Rich became a commodity and as Kevin and his company began to predominate, Jimmy’s criminal power grew to unknown proportions, and Kim lost both her ability and her will to restrict him, preferring the excitement of the romantic con.

So it was no longer that the two professionals made one another feel good about each other; a third step was introduced: Kim makes Jimmy feel good about himself, Jimmy uses this as an excuse to commit criminal activity, and Kim feels good about herself only by contrast with Jimmy’s consequent descent into corruption. Jimmy falsely believes that Kim still has the power to restrain him, so he uses her as a safety net and as an excuse for corruption; meanwhile, Kim refuses to play the part of a safety net, but she falsely believes that she can remain a Good Person even as his enabler and conspirator.

Rich, Kevin, and especially Howard see this, to varying extents and in various ways, but Kim denies this to be so, since her codependent relationship to Jimmy continues to make her feel Good about herself. By portraying Howard as the egoist and making him the enemy, she preserves the illusion that she and Jimmy are “using their powers for Good”; even though Teti knows that this is a delusion, even he defends her by pretending that she IS still Good even when she blatantly breaks bad and Howard is actually a witness. Howard’s role is to offer redemption and cleansing to Jimmy; Jimmy spites him. Howard offers the same assistance to Kim, recognizing Jimmy’s influence and intuiting (correctly) that Kim severed ties with Rich and Kevin because “Jimmy had something to do with it”. In fact: both Kevin and Rich insulted Kim’s “autonomy” by criticizing her relationship with Jimmy; this “autonomy” would be the perfect alibi for remaining with Jimmy, except that Jimmy IS autonomy. That which Jimmy represents for Kim is autonomy, and the only reason that Kim is still with Jimmy is that she equates their codependent relationship with autonomy and freedom. Even as Kim tells Howard that she makes her “own choices” for her “own reasons”, she is defending Jimmy, in spite of what she knows to be true.

It is by this point too late for Kim to contain the force of Saul Goodman, and Kim knows this. Kim joins Saul because she cannot beat him; Kim stays with Jimmy because only by so doing can she keep Saul on her side, yet this does nothing to restrain his evil; it empowers it. When any other man tells Kim to do something about him, to “help” Jimmy*, she knows that a path thus proposed can only lead to the dissolution of the relationship. It means that the gambler must give up gambling, admit to the fallacy of sunk costs, and withdraw from the addictive lifestyle. Just as Walt’s addiction to crime is represented by a lucrative “gambling” addiction, Kim’s addiction to Jimmy and Saul is represented early on as Gambler’s Fallacy, i.e. “Sunk Costs”.

The temptation is too great to resist. In spite of her natural predisposition towards Goodness, and owing to the moralistic pride and “self-righteousness” that comes WITH that predisposition, Kim chooses to feel Good instead of being Good. Saul has, in fact, secured the perfect servant via the illusion of freedom. Running from the Devil she knows, Kim falls for the one she does not.

[({Dm.R.G.)}]

 

*Howard has not even yet seen the full extent of Saul’s malice, and Kim, having seen more of it, is probably even more frightened to switch sides.