- This article is about the character. For the Better Call Saul episode, see Marco (episode).
Marco Pasternak is Jimmy McGill's longtime friend and fellow scam artist from Cicero, Illinois.
History[]
Background information[]
Marco was Jimmy's closest friend in Cicero and attended high school with him ("Slip"). They would often extort money from people through various scams. In one of their scams, Slippin' Jimmy (using the alias "Saul Goodman") works with Marco to trick others into trading cash for fake Rolex watches ("Hero").
After Chuck McGill helped secure his brother's release from jail, Jimmy stopped by a local bar to say farewell to Marco. He tells Marco that he’s moving to Albuquerque to work in the mail-room at Chuck’s law firm. Marco bemoans Jimmy’s decision, arguing that the move is a waste of Slippin’ Jimmy’s talents – but Jimmy’s mind is made up, and he leaves to Marco's disappointment ("Marco").
Following Jimmy's leaving, the two friends did not stay in touch much and Marco eventually started working for his brother-in-law as a standpipe installer, a job he clearly despised.
Season 1[]
After suffering a nervous breakdown while ranting to a bingo parlor about the state of his life, Jimmy returns to Cicero for a sabbatical and is reunited with Marco. The two friends decide to return to their old ways of scamming people again.
After a long week of successful scamming, Jimmy says that he needs to go back home to his clients but Marco tempts him to stay. The concern for his elderly clients, Chuck, and a job offer from the law firm of Davis & Main in Santa Fe sways Jimmy to return to New Mexico. Marco begs Jimmy to pull off one more scam using the last fake Rolex watch, to which Jimmy reluctantly accepts. During the scam, Marco suffers a heart attack and his final words are telling Jimmy that the week they just had was the best one of his life. Marco then passes away.
Receiving Marco's pinky ring from his mother and remembering his last words, Jimmy ultimately decides not to take a job with Davis & Main, as he no longer feels obliged to "do the right thing" ("Marco").
Season 3[]
In a flashback, Jimmy and Marco break into the McGill family's abandoned store in Cicero, Illinois. Jimmy retrieves an old metal Band-Aid box from the ceiling tiles, from which he retrieves his childhood coin collection. He finds an Indian-head penny that he hopes to use in a con game. Jimmy explains that he hid his collection after his father tried to give back a rare George Washington half dollar. Marco expresses genuine remorse for Jimmy's parents losing their store though Jimmy doesn't and he goes on to say that his family were better off not owning the store, saying that his father was only popular because he was too generous with money and implies it was his fault for its eventual closure (completely ignoring his own role in its demise). As he and Marco leave, Jimmy takes the Band-Aid tin with him ("Slip").
Personality and traits[]
Marco was shown to be a dedicated con artist and overall a man who sincerely enjoyed the thrill of scamming people, and somewhat seemed to have a poor moral compass in general as shown when he questioned Jimmy if his job as a lawyer meant he was scamming elderly people for their money. In spite of this Marco is also kind as he expressed genuine remorse for Jimmy's parents having to sell their small corner store and even used money obtained from one of their scams to buy a round of drinks for everyone at a bar.
Jimmy McGill with Marco during his final moments.
He was a good friend and practically another brother to Jimmy and in some ways was the complete polar opposite of Chuck with respect to their treatment of Jimmy, due to the fact that while Chuck utterly despised his brother for being a conman and a crook, Marco was shown to respect and praise Jimmy for his con artist skills and looked up to him for it as well. Although not as skilled as Jimmy, Marco was also a great scam artist and appeared to be highly sneaky and clever. When Jimmy was forced to leave Chicago and Marco behind, Marco reluctantly started to lead a normal life as a standpipe installer though he clearly did not enjoy living this way of life and even revealed to Jimmy that he had almost nothing of importance in his life except their scamming endeavors.
During the last week of his life Marco clearly enjoyed being able to scam people again with Jimmy, and with his dying breath revealed to Jimmy that the week they had was the best one of his entire life.
Appearances[]
Better Call Saul[]
| Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ✔ | ✔ | |||||||||||
| Season 2 | |||||||||||||
| Season 3 | ✔ | ||||||||||||
| Season 4 | |||||||||||||
| Season 5 | |||||||||||||
| Season 6 |
Trivia[]
- Marco is one of 7 charters to have an episode named after him. The others are Saul Goodman, Max Arciniega, Nacho Varga, Rebecca Bois, Kim Wexler, and Nippy.