A Roll of the Dice

When I decided I wanted to start writing this thing, I wasn’t quite sure what to call it— something lame like Nate’s Newsletter or trite like Thoughts from a Zoomer wasn’t going to cut it.

Why A Roll of the Dice? Well…

Modern TV seems to prioritize quantity over quality these days, but occasionally a truly great TV show manages to slip through. One such example is Better Call Saul (spoilers ahead). With top-of-the-line acting and cinematography to put most movies to shame, the show is truly a masterpiece— even outshining its sequel, in my opinion. I’ve just started the show’s final season, and am already dreading its end.

In any case, the season four finale opens up with a flashback scene— Jimmy’s instatement as a lawyer, and subsequent festivities at a bar. As Jimmy’s older brother Chuck begins to make excuses as to why he needs to leave, Jimmy convinces him to stay for one more karaoke song, ABBA’s The Winner Takes It All. Reluctantly, Chuck settles in as a tone-deaf Jimmy begins the opening verse. Gradually, though, Jimmy coaxes Chuck into a line here, a line there, until it reaches the point where Chuck takes the mic from his brother and sings the rest of the song himself. On the surface, it’s a touching scene between two brothers, as they celebrate Jimmy’s accomplishment of becoming a lawyer, and Jimmy gets Chuck to loosen up a bit.

The brothers McGill

The thing is, though… Chuck committed suicide in the season three finale. 

Also consider the lyrics that Chuck sings as he starts the second chorus—

The gods may throw the dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear
The winner takes it all

Even taken alone, these are pretty profound lyrics (despite their inclusion in an 80’s power-pop ballad). When you take into account the context of the show- especially the tragic character of Chuck and his relationship with Jimmy- the scene becomes deeper, darker, and more complex. You can watch the scene here.

This piece isn’t about why Better Call Saul is a great TV show, although I’m sure I’ll write that at some point. The point is that this scene really stuck with me, even though it’s been several years since I first watched it. The lyrics, characters, their relationships, and the knowledge of the way things will play out for all of them combine in such a way as to turn a scene of brothers at a bar into something much more profound (it’s also a great way to open the episode, which takes place on the one year anniversary of Chuck’s death).

The gods may throw the dice, their minds as cold as ice.

This line in particular really stuck in my head. While the lyric may suggest a somewhat dark, calculating force behind the metaphorical “rolling of the dice,” I can’t help but take a slightly more charitable view. While our pasts are set in stone, and can often be described in a factual way- an event did, or did not happen- the possibilities of the future are truly infinite. Compared to the cold-hard factual nature of the past, the future is an endless, ethereal sea of possibility. Why A Roll of the Dice? Because the act of rolling the dice is a metaphor for this sea of possibility. It represents chance— the chance that things will go wrong, yes, but also the chance that things will go right. In this way, a roll of the device speaks to hope itself.

A certain strain of utopian thinking that’s taken hold in our society might object here— many lefty individuals and politicians discuss social problems like they’re math problems. Solve for x, and drug overdoses, homelessness, school shootings, or whatever your favorite problem is will disappear. But human beings aren’t equations. The Bible says that “the poor will always be with us.” Dostoevsky warned that if there were ever a perfect, utopian society, it wouldn’t be long before its citizens began smashing and burning it down just so something interesting would happen. It seems fair to say that human beings will always have problems— it’s in our nature.

The “rolling the dice” metaphor has a built in defense against utopianism. After all, with an evenly weighted die, each face has a roughly 16.6% chance of facing up after a roll. The die doesn’t care what your political beliefs are, or whether you’ve bet the house on the result, or making sure 2’s show up exactly as often as 4’s. The point I’m making is that there will always be an element of chance in life. In this way, the metaphor goes beyond simply speaking to humanity’s sense of hope— it speaks to the nature of life itself. Removing elements of choice and chance from life entirely is simply unfeasible.

In The Dark Knight Rises, at one point, Bruce Wayne is held hostage in a prison that’s essentially a giant hole in the ground. Although the prisoners have cells, the doors are left unlocked, and prisoners are free to walk around. Although Bruce is initially confused— anyone can leave at any time?— without assistance from outside of the prison, the only way out is climbing an increasingly precarious path that culminates in a huge leap near the top that would kill anyone who didn’t make it. Prisoners occasionally make escape attempts, but will tie a rope around themselves to prevent dying on a failed attempt. Bruce is surprised to learn that there has only ever been one successful escape. The catch? The escapee didn’t anchor himself to the wall, meaning that the dilemma he faced was either escape… or die. No middle ground. It’s an extreme example to apply to the dice-rolling metaphor I’ve been building, but in a way jumping with the rope tied around your waist is like refusing to roll the dice at all. Possibility of failure is integral to choosing to play the game, so to speak. What happens in the movie? Well, I won’t spoil it. But from what I’ve written, you can probably guess. 

So, why A Roll of the Dice? Because rolling the dice speaks to a sense of hope. It speaks to something fundamental about life itself. And above all, it speaks to a call to adventure— a journey on which I hope you’ll join me.

***

If you’ve made it to the end, first and foremost, thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed the piece, and it’s made you think. Finally, I hope you’ll consider subscribing— I’ll continue to write about culture, TV/movies, music, and whatever else interests me. See you next time…