Mega Buzz: What's the Deal with Chuck's Disease on Better Call Saul?

Michael McKean | Photo Credits: Lewis Jacobs/AMC

Little has been said on Better Call Saul about what exactly is ailing Jimmy McGill's older brother Chuck.

Though there have been clues -- including Chuck (Michael McKean) freaking out about Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) having a cell phone in the house and Chuck's space blanket-aided encounter with the power lines last week -- Monday's installment will offer a much more clinical definition of Chuck's specific affliction when his newspaper-robbing routine lands him in police custody and, eventually, the hospital.

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However, the biggest question remains: Is Chuck's illness real or all in his head? "It's definitely real to Chuck," co-creator and executive producer Peter Gould tells TVGuide.com. "Chuck is maybe the smartest character on the show, and yet, he's trapped by this condition. How real his condition is, and where it comes from, those are all things that unfold during the season."

And although Jimmy perhaps seemed to mock Chuck's illness in the past, Monday's episode shows a much softer side of Jimmy as he wrestles with one doctor's tough love. "He idolizes his brother and feels great, great sympathy for the condition his brother has," Odenkirk says. "It's a frustrating condition because it's very hard to fix it. He's feeling terribly for his brother." Adds Gould: "It's a reversal for [Chuck] to have to rely on Jimmy in any way, and I think it really turns their relationship upside down."

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