Major heartbreak for Jimmy McGill in “Pimento” — “the man” keeping him down isn’t Howard Hamlin, but rather Chuck McGill, the big brother he idolizes. With just one more episode left in Better Call Saul’s first season, Emmy-winning Breaking Bad alum Thomas Schnauz, who wrote and directed “Pimento,” talks with Yahoo TV about how the Saul writers feel about Jimmy, the truth behind Chuck’s illness, pimento sandwiches, the character inspired by The Big Lebowski, and the new “direction” Jimmy takes in the season finale.

Congratulations on the episode, which is yet another fantastic one, but heartbreaking for those of us who have fallen in love with Jimmy.

We knew people would hopefully like the character. I don’t think any of us were prepared in the writers’ room for how much people would actually love this character, given that they know who he is in the future as Saul Goodman, but we’re very pleased.

Do you find yourselves feeling that way about him?

Oh yeah, absolutely. He’s a real underdog, and you root for him. And it wasn’t even intentional. We didn’t decide in the beginning, “Let’s make this character an underdog.” He’s trying his best. He’s genuinely trying to be a good person and keep the promise that he makes to his brother. The flashback we saw in episode three where he says, “Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.” He does. He gets his crap together, and he becomes a very good lawyer.

View photos

That is what makes Chuck’s betrayal so heartbreaking, not just that Jimmy did get his act together, but that to him, emulating Chuck was the highest thing he could do. It was the biggest level of success he could reach for, and he did it, and now to be rejected is just crushing.

Being a good person is one thing, but being Chuck’s equal, Jimmy learns, is absolutely a whole other ball of wax. He discovers that there is a jealousy his brother has for him, that people like him. He makes people laugh. Where Chuck has dedicated his whole life to the law and studying and being the best that he can and being really, really good at it, here comes his brother who was a screw-up and almost in jail in Chicago. He comes along and puts together this amazing case. He’s going to have an office next to Chuck’s. Chuck thinks, “No, that’s not going to happen… You can’t do it that easily. You have to dedicate your whole life to this kind of thing and not just come waltzing in and make friends and then all of a sudden, ‘Here I am, I’m your equal.’”

Related: 'Better Call Saul' Recap: 'What the Hell Just Happened?'

It’s funny that’s how Chuck sees it. I think those of us who see Jimmy as an underdog and how determined he is, how he doesn’t let any of the many indignities he faces on a daily basis in his pursuit of his career keep him down, don’t necessarily. Chuck thinks all this comes coming easily to Jimmy, but from another perspective, nothing has come easily to Jimmy.

Oh no, no. He’s crawled through dumpsters. He was out in the desert and his life is threatened. He’s living in the tiniest office ever. Who knows if Chuck is even aware of his living conditions right now? What I like about the final scene that I had so much fun writing is that a lot of the stuff that Chuck says, the law is sacred, and you’re Slippin’ Jimmy, and you’re a chimp with a machine gun… we know what the future is, we know Jimmy becomes Saul Goodman. The question is, was he always going to become Saul Goodman, or did Chuck’s actions turn him into Saul Goodman? I think that’s open for debate. I would never want to answer that question one way or the other, but I think, hopefully, some people in the audience will hear Chuck and say, “You know what? We know who Saul Goodman is, and Chuck might be right about this. Maybe being a lawyer is not the best thing for this guy,” whereas another half of the audience are going to think, “You know, he’s really trying his best, and he is a good lawyer.”