Better Call Saul goes full Breaking Bad in a desert odyssey directed by Vince Gilligan
TV Reviews Recap
I know it’s on brand for me, but I can’t help myself. “Bagman” is biblical, through and through. The desert, where almost all the action takes place, is where Moses endured the whining weakness of the Hebrew refugees who followed him—just as Mike endures the whining weakness of this windbag shyster in way over his head. And it’s where Jesus meets Satan. If the cousins aren’t pure evil in Gilligan’s New Mexico, I don’t know what is. Vince Gilligan (who directed this episode) puts the camera right behind Jimmy’s head when he meets them, so they stand on his shoulders, like twin devils who banished the angel from the picture.
But “biblical” is too specific a reference. This is mythological stuff. Archetypal.
We’ve all been looking for the moment when Jimmy becomes Saul, and there have been many such moments so far this season, all related decisively to Jimmy making a choice—changing the name on his law license, handing out free phones with his number on speed-dial, playing Kim’s foil in the Acker case, blowing up the meeting with Kevin. And he makes the choice that sends him to the desert, a classic Goodman gamble. Lalo baits him into it by too-blithely letting him off the hook at their jail meeting, cleverly appealing to his greed and his vanity at once. Then Jimmy characteristically overstates the odds in his favor in a devastating scene with Kim, telling her he’ll scram the moment anything looks fishy (yeah, right) and that he’ll practice “security through obscurity.”
But what happens to him in the desert isn’t something he chooses. He gets himself into it, but once the bandits show up, he is simply driven by events, farther and farther from anything he can control. It is a descent into hell—and it ends with a resurrection. One man dies in the desert, and another emerges from the tomb.
You could make a cogent argument that Saul drives into the desert, but is gradually chipped away during the long walk until nothing of him is left. The man who wasted some of his water cleaning his shoe now has to save his piss as hydration of last resort. His schemes to relieve himself of the load of the $7 million—bury it, drag it, “work smarter not harder”—prove foolish, exposing his bravado to Mike’s laconic certainty. The guy who screamed “Yo soy abrogado!” to deflect automatic rifle fire a day earlier, now walks into the road to draw that same fire, without a word to Mike. Driven beyond his usual craven survival and dominance instincts, he invites death to end the ordeal. And he does it after Mike shuts him up with a speech about what keeps him going: the people he loves. “I do what I do so they can have a better life,” he spits. “When it’s my time to go, I’ll go knowing I did everything I could for them.”
This is the most Breaking Bad-like that BCS has been in a long time. Talking this episode over with Noel Murray after we watched it, I realized that as distinct as it appears, it’s also the culmination of a whole season of setting up character through action—the defining genius of the Gilligan shows. Mike arrives at his peace with working for Gus because of what happens to him: yelling at Kaylee, picking fights with the street toughs, getting patched up in the desert. That’s what’s behind that whole speech. And Jimmy got here because of the way his actions have boxed him in. When Lalo shows him the door, he literally can’t see how to take it. What’s on the other side, that kind of quasi-legitimacy he’s promised Kim, is the real unknown territory. Getting that starter home is tough when you’re springing hookers who want to pay in kind. Like a lot of con men, he doesn’t dream of stringing along little scores and making a business out of it, but pulling off the big one and rolling around in the cash. The only direction he can see to go, that has a chance of getting him what he wants, is deeper.
Finally Jimmy seems to accept that he cannot keep Kim quarantined from his work as Saul Goodman, which is looking more midnight black than merely shady. His job in the desert is not to escape a bad dream and return to reality, but to take care of his business so the monsters don’t show up at Kim’s door. When he walks into the road with the space blanket glinting on his head (as if he’s cosplaying Chuck McGill), it’s a sacrifice.
But once that truck flips behind him, the guy who opens his eyes isn’t Jimmy anymore. When he rises to his feet, he’s an outlaw—strapping the duffels across his body like bandoliers, swigging his own piss like it’s something he’s been saving for a special occasion. The Jimmy that was trying to skirt along the edge of cartel business has been burned away. The Saul that is going to outlast everyone, “la cucaracha” like Lalo says, is what’s left.
We’ve been thinking of Saul as a con man, a fast-talking shyster, a man who wields the law like just another scam. But maybe Saul is the iron core of Jimmy McGill—the part that isn’t going to stand for being sidelined and patronized. Saul is the part of Jimmy that won’t play along and take the L. The part that, when pushed far enough, decides to stay and fight rather than save his own skin. The part that hangs up on Ed at Best Quality Vacuum in the flash-forward. And if he believes Mike that Kim’s in the game now (not just “game-adjacent,” as he tries to spin it), that might be the part of him that finds a way to save her.
In other words, for the first time this season, I have a glimmer of hope that Kim might make it. Now that’s a resurrection. Happy Easter, everyone.
Stray observations
- Of course, Kim herself will have something to say about that. As we saw at the Mesa Verde conference table, she is not into being saved. Mike imagines her calling the cops, like wives are prone to do, but he doesn’t know her. She does something far more dangerous by going straight to Lalo and trying to gain leverage over him by telling him what she knows — who he really is. Oh, full disclosure. You are a harsh mistress.
- Kim plays the real honesty card, staring in Jimmy’s face and saying right out: “I don’t like this. I don’t want you to do it.” And he brushes past it. The problem with fake full disclosure is that you can’t insist on the real thing without acknowledging that what you’ve been doing ain’t it.
- So many unusable containers. The Subaru, full of holes. The World’s Second Best Lawyer (Again) mug, perforated. The jug that the red SUV driver had with him when Mike flipped his car, destroyed. Only the Davis & Main bottle still holds water (or the bodily-fluid equivalent). That, combined with Howard’s interrupted lunch with Clifford Main, makes me think that we have another date coming with that firm before the season is out.
- Jimmy echoes any number of organized crime figures since 1969: “Big mistake discontinuing the thousand dollar bill. These would have been so much lighter.”
- Tony Dalton continues to delight. In his scene with Rhea Seehorn, he radiates joy as he diagnoses the situation: “You’re his wife, and you loooove him!” What she has to tell him is secondary to what her coming down there at all tells him: Jimmy’s not going to take the money and run — “not without you.” And when Jimmy, characteristically underestimating how much money is a lot of money to this guy, asks for a hundred grand, he chirps “Done!” and goes back to reading about the Los Pollos Hermanos arson.
- Jimmy searching for a cell phone signal is a telling moment — Saul’s whole life is based around those phones, and it’s a measure of how far he is from that life that they’re useless. And in a twisted way, the bags of money are the same: useless in the desert, since you can’t eat ‘em or drink ‘em or make a shelter out of them. They do nothing but drag you down. Yet the only way to save yourself is to bring them along.
- “There has never been more than 50 bucks in an Esteem in the history of Esteems.”
370 Comments
Oh god Kim is going to get murdered. Mike saying she’s now in the business and that whole Lalo scene feels like either a tip of the hand or flat out trolling. Oh my god this episode had me on edge. For a moment I thought the writers were going to have Kim be the driver at the end. Damn you writing team for making this show feel like being stuck in a sauna.
I really, really hope not. The show can be dark at times but I think it would be a little bit idiosyncratic with the overall tone of the show and with Saul Goodman’s overall persona in Breaking Bad. Then again, this is the best show on TV and one of the reasons it is (imho) better than Breaking Bad is that it has been pretty much impossible to predict so far.
It would be darker then usual but the seasons have been progressively going in that direction so its not out of the question.
I think Kim may be the one hunting him down in the flashforward. That would be interesting. Instead of getting murdered, she lost her law license and is coming back to get even.
I agree and that is my reason why I never thought kim would be murdered. The Saul we saw on BB and what he have seen to date would be a totally beaten man if Kim died, not the crime lawyer gangster. Plus, I really do not see how he would continue to do business with them if they killed Kim.
Because like the man said, “It’s not about what you want. Once you’re in, you’re in.”
I really, really hope not. The show can be dark at times but I think it would be a little bit idiosyncratic with the overall tone of the show and with Saul Goodman’s overall persona in Breaking Bad The show killed Chuck, hardly what a light hearted show would do?Kim visiting Lalo was simply bone headed decision for someone so smart. And Lalo was pissed she knows his business.
It speaks volumes about the quality of the writing that a prequel show is hailed as unpredictable, despite knowing exactly where the two main characters end up (aside from Gene).
It speaks volumes about the quality of the writing that a prequel show is hailed as unpredictable, despite knowing exactly where the two main characters end up (aside from Gene).
I initially thought Kim might be driving out into the desert to find him, then when I realized it was the same vehicle from before I figured Mike would shoot the driver so they could drive out in that car. Instead they didn’t even manage to get any water.
Exactly what I thought.
Agreed. I was expecting he stops, Mike pops him, they steal the car. I think Saul was too.
I thought the same thing, that Mike would shoot the driver when he stepped out to get Saul so they can have the vehicle. Problem was, the driver was intent on simply running him over with the truck.
I don’t think that spectacular car crash was what Mike had in mind. He had a real “well crap” look on his face right after he realized the results of his shot. I think he was trying to take out the driver, but instead probably hit the front tire. Shooting at a moving target is not easy.
Agreed. I’m sure he would’ve liked to use the car to get the hell out of there after the driver was shot.
I’ve never thought BCS was the kind of show that would kill Kim. I might start to reconsider after tonight
I started to reconsider, but if Kim were to be killed on Jimmy’s account, he’d be a far darker man than we see in BB.
I think at the absolute worst, she’s the first to get vacuumed.
That shot of Lalo looming over Kim from behind is one of the scariest things I’ve seen in a while
Yeah, I was surprised to read that this episode gave Donna hope for Kim instead of the opposite. I hope she’s onto something.
On the other hand, Kim might go full on Bonnie to Saul’s Clyde and do something truly gangsta before the show is over. Maybe she doesn’t die at all, hell maybe she ends up “breaking bad” so hard Saul has to leave HER – In the Gilligan ABQ-verse, death isn’t the worst thing that can happen to someone.
My gut feel is that Jimmy and Saul are different sides of the same coin, without one consuming the other. We only ever met Saul in BB*, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Jimmy didn’t exist, just that we didn’t see him. Saul was/is/will be the face that deals with lowlives, Jimmy is the one that goes home at night. He already has enough experience to loathe the cartel guys personally; given the way they treat him and each other, how much would he really care about what they did to each other? Maybe the fact Walt & Jesse didn’t shiv Badger actually *appealed* to him on some level? *Though you could argue that shades of Jimmy came through after Walt put his poison cigarette plan into operationWhether Kim is there or not is another matter. Her death is a no doubt a possibility, but the Saul we meet in BB doesn’t seem to me like a guy carrying the deep, scarring loss of his one true love (although betrayed by family, absolutely). There are other options; maybe she gives up her ambitions in order to remain part of Jimmy’s unseen life. Or maybe Jimmy “uses Saul” to get her out of his life for her protection, manufacturing an exit that gets her off the cartel radar, at the expense of their lives together. I don’t particularly like either of those branches- its hard to see this resolving without one tragic “break” or another- but they seem more plausible to me.But given how my gut feels work out with Gilligan productions, put your money on none of the above.
Ha! I love it
I think most people have been worried about Kim for the entire series, simply by the fact that she’s not in BB. That, and whatever Gene is desperately trying to hide from in the season wraparounds.If Mike’s speech resonated with Saul at all, he may end up sacrificing a future with Kim to protect her.
I think we all know what Gene is desperately trying to hide from.
do we ever see Lalo in BB? Does Kim get the goods on Lalo, turn DEA/FBI evidence to get him put away and winds up in witness protection? That would be reason we never see her in BB. If she was killed in Saul I just cannot picture the original Jimmy/Saul from BB being the same guy. Kim’s death would ruin Jimmy/Saul and I could never see that original character being that blithe & funny.
In episode 2.08 of BB (“Better Call Saul”), Jesse and Walt kidnap Saul, and he asks in a panic if “Lalo” sent them. We never meet Lalo in person in BB and I don’t think he’s ever mentioned again in BB.
He also tried to shift the blame to Nacho, who we also never saw in BB.
He also says “it wasn’t me it was Ignacio [Nacho]” and that “I’m a friend of the cartel” in Spanish.
Aw, damn, you beat me to it.
That would explain Hank and Gomie appearing in the series, beyond fan service.
saul mentions lalo and nacho as cartel guys he knows (when walt and jesse drag him out to the desert with a bag over his head, saul suspects that his abductors are either lalo or nacho).
When we first meet Saul in BB, he has been taken out to the desert by Walt and Jessie. When Saul is on his knees with his back to W&J (thinking he is about to be whacked), he asks them if “Lalo” sent them.
do we ever see Lalo in BB?Nope. Saul mentions him in a panicked fit when he’s first accosted by Walt & Jesse, though; it’s the only time in the entire original series that we ever hear anything about Lalo or Nacho.
I could see that….a “Casablanca” ending. Given Jimmy’s love of classic movies, he could put Kim on that plane.
That’s a thought. The reason she leaves is that he intentionally drives her away as a way to protect her, so she won’t end up as one of those many, many bodies out there in the desert outside ABQ.Jimmy would have to do something completely outrageous, like bring home a hooker or something—an act so repugnant that she’ll have no choice but to run for the hills.We know from El Camino that Ed’s customers can choose where they want to disappear to—Walter was a special case. That being the case, why did Jimmy pick Omaha, when someplace more sparsely populated like Alaska, Maine or Manitoba would make more sense? And why did he decide to stay after Ed basically agreed to move him again? Maybe because that’s where she is.
I got a different vibe this episode. Kim seemed to realize the target she put on herself by coming to Lalo. Likewise, Mike’s conversation seemed to show Jimmy the danger he was putting Kim in by being a friend of the cartel and telling her about his business. At some point, Jimmy has to learn about Ed the Vacuum Salesman. Is it because he helps Kim escape with a new identity so that there is nothing that can be used against him as he continues his Saul Goodman ways? Might having to send Kim away also make him a bit more callous as Saul would later become because know the crooked lawyering and making money is all he has? He’s got to make that choice count for something now after paying that price of shuttling Kim away.
There’s also still the matter of Francesca having to take a phone call from Saul at November 12 3:00 pm. I’m starting to wonder if might be Kim related and a way for him to check in with her or pass on information about his or her whereabouts. Maybe the call isn’t from Saul but from Kim. An agreed on time to communicate and he’s hoping to use Francesca as an operator between the two.
Digging all of your predictions, etc. Last night was the first time it donned on me that Ed the Vacuum Salesman might just be Kim’s way out.
Kim escapes to what? If she doesn’t have the law, what does she have? I think she could live without Jimmy, but without being a lawyer? I’m not so sure.
I think Saul learns about Ed through Nacho. I think Nacho already has an arrangement with Ed—the only thing holding him back from disappearing to Manitoba is his father.The idea that Kim used Ed to disappear to Nebraska and is living under a different name, one Jimmy doesn’t know, is even more heartbreaking when you think about it. He knows she’s living maybe a matter of minutes away from him, but he has no way to find her without putting her in danger.
Could be. Nacho is the only other character right now that I could see being used to lead Saul to knowing about Ed. IIRC, Saul seems to throw blame at Nacho for betraying the Cartel or Lalo when first introduced on Breaking Bad. If so, Nacho would probably need a new identity to survive something like that. However, with his father’s situation, I don’t think that will be the path for Nacho. If something happens to his father then I think he just goes out for revenge instead of fleeing. Likewise, I don’t see his father joining him or taking the option to “disappear” also to stay safe based on what we’ve seen so far. If the father stays, I think Nacho will want to stay around to watch out for him no matter what. That’s why I’m leaning now to Kim as the more logical choice of needing to disappear and having less roadblocks to making that choice. But it’s all speculation and I could be totally wrong. The show does try and throw curveballs to keep us viewers from knowing what the end result will be so maybe there’s something even better planned ahead.
True. They love getting us to chase red herrings.
Yeah, I think you’re spot on with Kim getting vacuum guy disappeared. That seems to strike the right balance of personally devastating, forcing a hard end to their relationship, while also letting her get out alive. Also makes a ton of sense as how Saul would know that guy.I’m less sanguine about Jimmy and Kim still having contact post-disappearance, at least on a regular, arranged basis. Not to say this series can’t end with them meeting again in the post-BB timeline.
Kim is effectively Jesse Pinkman–an innocent caught up in a partner’s terrible misdeeds. If he lived, why wouldn’t she? It’d be unjust for her not to survive.
Even if that’s true, she might still end up a slave trapped in a Nazi desert prison for six months. Or an equivalent thereof.
I don’t think anyone would ever characterize Jesse Pinkman as “an innocent”: He was maker and dealer of meth long before he got involved with Walter White.
thanks for that insight … you give me hope
Hmmm, Jesse was far from innocent when he first came across Walt on that fateful day. He may not have gotten into the game so deep to lead him into Nazi abduction, but he was already a criminal that most likely would have been arrested (by Hank) and jailed for a long long time.
Jesse would have eventually been caught, or died as a result his drug use. Or he might have grown up and gotten clean. But I doubt he would have become the sort of criminal they throw up roadblocks for.
I’d argue that neither Jesse nor Kim are “innocents” but your parallel is a good one.
I’m hoping it’s more like Kim breaking up with him because he gets in too deep, but then showing up to reunite with Gene is the series finale.
We can only hope.
Possibly. BCS hasn’t been as dark and heavy as BB. Kim getting offed would be the thing that bridges the gap in the tone of the two shows. That said the Saul we see in BB doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who unwittingly gets his wife whacked by the Mexican Cartel. I would think that would destroy him . . . making him more “Gene the Cinnabon Manager” than “Saul the BB Court Jester.”
Him being forcibly separated from her (whether by vacuum or by prison) would fit with Saul’s BB persona as a cynical, personally abrasive guy with a disdain for deep emotional connections with women.
I have been on the Kim “disappears” theory for a while and see a tie in to Gene somehow. It seems her death would be too much an obvious choice that I do not think the showrunners would go that way. (For those saying “but Forster died how can they do this” -Um, the scene(s) could have been filmed before he died and/or since his character is alive in the future events can still be implied)
Indeed. Robert Forster knew his days were numbered and still worked to the end, making an episode for Amazing Stories, El Camino and recording scenes for BCS. I’m sure he would have left enough takes in the can for Gilligan and Company to do some editing and make a few more telephone calls happen. Maybe even a few scenes for the series finale when it comes.
“Jimmy Goodman”? You’re a pussy.
I agree. Why would Saul continue to deal with the Cartel, even through intermediaries, if they killed his wife? Even for him, there wouldn’t be enough money in the world.
It is also quite possible that he really is just a cockroach and doesn’t really care about anyone that deeply. I’m not sure I would consider Saul and Kim’s romance one for the ages but UMMV.
I don’t see it. I think most of us have been assuming that Kim gets killed or leaves Jimmy or goes off to fight for good and truth and justice, but I just get the vibe that she’s going to break bad herself, and make Jimmy seem like an amateur.
Gilligan is dark, but I don’t think he’d be that dark. I think we’ll be seeing the end of Lalo way before the end of Kim.
Maybe I’m mis-remembering, but I thought Saul mentions in BB that he and his ex-wife have “an arrangement”.
Problem is he has been married twice before Kim.
I don’t remember that, but I’m kinda hoping he did say that.
Me too.
saul has 3 ex-wives.
i haven’t watched BB in a long time but is there any reason why saul and kim couldn’t still be together then? i don’t remember him talking about his ex-wife but besides whatever he says when he’s with clients is it possible she’s still in the picture somehow? it’s not like they introduced every characters spouse on the show.
No, I think what will be even darker is when Jimmy has to cut her totally out of his life to save her.
A nice twist to the series might be that Kim goes into witness protection somewhere – not even known to Jimmy – while Jimmy/Saul becomes a narc and remains a narc all the way through Breaking Bad. The bittersweet ending of the series might be that they’re both in hiding: Kim in a federal program & Jimmy in the vacuum repair program … neither knowing how to get a hold of the other.
I don’t think so. Better Call Saul is a showcase for how much Gilligan has evolved since Breaking Bad. Kim is the anti-Skylar, proof that he can write strong female characters (well, one). Killing her off would be a step backwards and invite comparisons to Jane’s fate, which is frequently used as an example of “fridging”.
Oh god Kim is going to get murdered.I really don’t think so. If he had ended up getting Kim killed, it would have had a more ominous effect on Jimmy’s psyche than what we saw in BrBa.
Instead, I think Saul will end up doing what he did with the Sandpiper residents; he’ll expose a sample of the real ugliness to Kim so that she will be repulsed and leave him, for her own good.
What a gorgeous episode, a series highlight. I’m disappointed it wasn’t titled “Cucaracha” after Lalo’s monniker for Saul (because now he’s 100% Saul, amigo del cartel).
Goodbye, little Esteem. You were…an import. When they pushed it over the cliff I couldn’t help but think of Sam Raimi’s Oldsmobile. The shot-thru “2nd Best Lawyer” coffee cup was the cherry on top.
The show is on fire. Getting better with every passing season.
I was yelling to get the lawyer mug before Saul grabbed it. Poor thing.
Him making sure to get the mug was such a great character moment and something most shows would ignore. They’d have the character “forget” the mug just to play the sadness/metaphor of it being gone later.
I almost thought that was going to happen. The camera would pan down and it’s still there. Thankfully that didnt happen.
I think Kim preparing the mug for Jimmy was the quintessential Kim moment – caring enough to lovingly customise her gift to him, but in the service of a joke at his expense. Like a loving mother, caring girlfriend and sarky best mate all in one.
Sound the TrumpetsRaise the Draw BridgeDrop the Oldsmobile
And the RV, of course.
Make sure to check out Alan Sepinwall’s review/write-up over at Rolling Stone. His and Donna’s are the only reviews I religiously check out after the episode finishes.
Nice tip, thank you 🙂
I’ll lay odds he buys the white Cadillac with the $100K.
He’s going to need a ride.
Thing is, the Saul we see in Breaking Bad isn’t more than Cartel-adjacent. A true cartel lawyer wouldn’t be doing the penny-ante work we see is Goodman’s stock in trade.
At least the Winnebago in BrB got a romantic song sendoff.
I like how Lalo reacts when realizes Saul is married to a babe
– Saul was definitely getting jumped, but the first jeep coming in was a great moment. Made better by Saul waving him to pass him.- But Kim speaking with Lalo was the real “oh shit” moment for me. I actually said out loud “no, Kim”.
The Saul wave to pass was truly laugh-out-loud funny.
After that scene I completely couldn’t get on board with the mocking music being played as Mike and Saul kept trekking through the desert. When the car appeared at the end I couldn’t stop myself imagining Lalo as Joffrey, Saul as Sansa, Kim as Robb, and the desert the setting for Joffrey’s planned wedding feast.
But who were those guys? Obviously not with the Salamancas (unless they are a rogue faction) and not with Gus.
In the opening, when the Twins visited the shop to collect their money, one of workers called someone. Those guys are just criminals working on their own, but could be associated with the cartel, that just want to steal the $7 million, kill Saul and make it look like Saul ran off with the money.
The amount of cash in that shop means it *had* to be Cartel, not just affiliated – the $7 million the Twins took barely dented the amount of money being stored. I was wondering if Lalo was having Saul killed to cut off a loose end. That said, I think you’re absolutely right that the call from the beginning was why the robbery happened.
I’m talking about the actual guys holding up Saul. They were the ones called by the worker at the shop. They could work for the Twins and just looking to steal, or they just hired guns. It wouldn’t make much sense for Lalo to kill Saul before he’s bailed out of jail.
The shop was run by the cartel.But some guy who works at the cartel’s shop might know a few guys who’d like to know where $7 million is going to be…It’s the mafia version of insider trading…
Yeah, this to me is the obvious answer. It would be a pretty easy heist; it’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s not a huge amount of money for the cartel, and the story (the attorney ran off with the money) is plausible. Kill Saul, tow the car somewhere remote and dump it in a ditch, problem solved. I’m sure Lalo would be pissed, but at the same time, it costs him a day and the equivalent of $10 in cartel money, so he’d get over it. Would he put out some feelers for Saul? Probably, but eventually, when nothing turns up, he’s got a lot of more pressing matters, so life goes on.The only question I had is why they sent so many guys. You’d probably want to keep this on the down low to extent that you can, so having a dozen guys in on a job that required two or three people is a bit baffling.
The guy at the chop shop on the phone was calling in a tip to those guys.
Credited as “mercenary.” Saul assumed they were “enemies of the cartel,” and he knows a little more than I do, if not enough. Maybe it’s our introduction to the knowledge that there are other players we haven’t been exposed to.
Me too. I follow Rhea on Twitter, and it took every ounce of will power not to tweet at her, OMG what have you done??! But I didn’t want to spoil West Coast viewers.
She inserted herself into the game, even as Saul was saying she wasn’t. If she dies, it’s going to be a fucking nightmare.
All that thirsty desert walking, less than a week from the annual airing of The Ten Commandments. Someone get me a screencap of Charlton Heston squeezing the last drop of water out of that tiny skin.Was this a bottle episode? Almost all the action takes place in one location, if you count that interminable desert as a single location.
You know, outside of the Kim-Lalo meeting, I think it was.
And the garage and the apartment.
Technically, bottle episodes are one location for the purpose of saving money. Desert location shoots are expensive.
It was a pee-in-a-bottle episode.
Suhwwwish! 🙂
Every episode is a bottle episode if you make your bottle big enough.
This episode was like a mix of 4 Days Out and Dead Freight. If you see a tarantula in the Vince Gilligan world, bad things are going to happen.Also, was I the only one looking to see if there was a pair of pants floating by at any point? (I have no idea where we are now in the Breaking Bad timeline and if that would have lined up but it would have been cool)
Too early for the pants, I believe we’re still years away from Walt entering the picture. Plus they already dropped that easter egg in Ozymandias.
They’re also about 4 hours south of where the pants were.
Good point.
*will be
That’s at least 4 years in the future…
For a show whose universe’s future we already know so much about, I now have absolutely no idea what’s in store for these last fifteen episodes. Though I’d be very surprised if Lalo isn’t still around for the final season. Seems a little early to kill him off.The big question is where the Gene timeline comes in and starts getting more screen time. I’m fascinated with where they go with that. Maybe we might see him again before this season’s over?Can’t speak for Kim’s fate, though Donna’s observation at the end of this review is an interesting one.
Saul mentions both Lalo and Nacho in his first scene in BrBa, so it’s probably a pretty safe bet that they both live to the end of this series (although I suppose they could die but just without Saul’s knowledge).
Only that Lalo might have sent Walt and Jesse and that it was Nacho, not him, that betrayed Lalo. So they could both be dead, especially as Gus told Hector he was the lady Salamanca. When the gunmen arrived but before the shooting started, I said to myself, ‘oh, so Lalo thinks Saul helped Nacho run off with his $7m and leave him stranded in jail, where he’ll eventually escape and secretly be killed by Gus.’ But apparently not. Are we to assume that the perpetrators in this episode are Salamanca higher-ups and that the cousins didn’t get permission to take the bail money? I may have to watch the opening scene again.
No, no, after the cousins left with the money, there was a random guy in the garage that made a phone call to tip someone off about the money being moved.
I think the gunmen were from a rival gang looking to score an easy $7 million. Simple as that. As mentioned upthread, both Gus and the Salamancas have reasons to want that money to make it safely to the courthouse.
I think the crew who attacked Saul in this episode might have been Espinosas. They’re the rival organization who Fring’s people framed for killing Arturo and shooting Nacho in season four and then the twins decimated their hideout.
I can’t believe I never noticed this at the time, but ‘lady’ is meant to be ‘last’. Lol at my mistake.
He says “It was Ignacio!” – which means Nacho could be alive OR dead (to Saul’s knowledge) at that point.
Didn’t know about the Lalo Breaking Bad connection, that’s cool. Though, as the Breaking Bad Wiki reminds me, Gus told Hector in Breaking Bad that Hector was the last living Salamanca, so that would imply that Lalo has died without Saul’s knowledge.
Ah, I spaced on that too. So, likely he dies, but without Saul’s knowledge, at some point before this series ends.
I think Gene has to have the last episode in full, right? A la Breaking Bad? I also suspect that the November meeting he mentions to Francesca (in the other, little discussed flash forward) will be crucial. I think he’s going to see Kim or something about her.
Maybe After BCS there’s entire series for Gene and we get to check-in on Jesse Pinkman now and then.
15? Have they announced Season 6 at a 13 episode order?
I wouldn’t say this one was bad, exactly, but it was definitely a season if not series low. All that time in desert added so very little, mostly Saul and Mike acting just like you’d assume they would, just like you’ve seen similar characters act in “stranded” episodes of other shows. And what was up with Mike’s “I’ve got people” monologue? Banks delivered it great, of course, but the sentiments were so banal and cliche, not at all what I expect from BCS.Certainly some key things happened in this episode (glad it made somebody hopeful for Kim’s chances), but overall it was about 15 minutes of plot tossed into a 60 minute sack.
Kill yourself.
Yeah, its a weird one for me. At the point when Jimmy began dragging the bags and it went too commercial, I was feeling tense from the episode but then I reminded myself that they survive because Breaking Bad happens later. Yet, to the show’s credit, I sucked into the moment and wanted to see how they’d survive and get out of this situation.The fact that there was only one guy in the truck and it was the same guy who fled before felt like a bit of a copout. That guy didn’t go back and get help? There weren’t more people around to avenge the loss of life and get that 7 million? Now the threat is over of being hunted and they just have to survive to civilization? Kind of a weird ending to it all.
I will say that I was surprised earlier when Mike was the one who had been doing the shooting. I thought it was the Cousins. I thought it was a case that they gave Jimmy the money to make him the possible bait and then followed from a safe distance to ensure he got back safe. I thought it was Gus’s men making a play for the 7 million and the Cousins were taking them out only to find out they are some other third party and it was Mike who had been doing the shooting.
lol
I liked the episode, but I agree that Mike’s speech was a bit flat. I had similar thoughts about the “revenge” conversation between Mike and Gus a few episodes ago. It was a bit trite for this show.I also think the pacing was a bit slower than it needed to be in this episode, but I think that’s because I knew that neither men were going to die in the desert. After awhile I just started thinking to myself, “Okay, let’s get this moving.”
This is has been a consistent problem that I’ve had with the show – the pacing. I like it fine, but with only 10 episodes in a season, these events didn’t need to be an entire episode.
Not only one of the best episodes of this show, but one of the best episodes of television I’ve ever watched. This is one for the record books. I was riveted the whole time.
It was really good for sure. I was maybe a little less engaged than I would’ve liked to be, because while the prequelness of this show so often works in it’s favor putting Mike or Saul into life and death scenarios is the one time the prequelness works hard against it. IMO
Yeah, I hear ya, but you don’t have to die, y’know, to go through hell.
Fair point. I guess I just mean it deflated the shootout a bit.
In the beginning of the episode, Kim got a piece of mail and seemed crestfallen by it. Does anyone know what this was or what its significance was?
Was she crestfallen by the mail, or that she immediately realized Jimmy had decided to be a “friend of the cartel”?
I just looked at that moment again. We actually can’t see her expression while she’s looking at the piece of mail. The cresftfallenness happens when Jimmy says he has “business news”.
You’re right: The two are simultaneous. However, this is a show that doesn’t really do incidental information. If it’s in there, it’s integral somehow.
I think it might have something to do with the Bond for Lalo as right after that she approached Jimmy about his pulling off getting the Bond option for Lalo. It seems like that is how she learnt that he did it.
I interpreted it as a bank statement showing the 100k being deposited but that would’ve been the world’s fastest bank statement delivery.
Maybe so. I took it similarly to Mike seeing the Sydney Opera House photo. I certainly didn’t understand the significance of that until I read Donna’s synopsis after, i.e. it seemed to be an Easter egg for the eagle-eyed.
Excellent catch on the similarity to Chuck’s space blanket.
Indeed! It was a very Chekhovian element. After Mike a) told Saul no shiny things, then b) produced the shiniest thing, I knew the space blanket would be used again. But I didn’t expect intentionally—I thought it would unwittingly give them away to the last gunman. The way Vince did it was better, needless to say.
I caught that immediately that he didn’t want to wear it. Bad memories and all.
Well, that’s also why Jimmy was visibly moved and refused to take the blanket in the cold desert night.
Saul realized it too. That’s why he refused to take one when Mike offered it to him the night before.
The McGill boys commit their suicides wearing metal blankets.
Also, the last shot makes it look like a shed skin. Another symbol of Jimmy’s rebirth as Saul.
I’m usually not one for the blatant foreshadow, but when Jimmy poured the water on his boot (ok, a little part of me was a bit resigned to the fact that FOR SURE this was gonna go bad) I actually mumbled out loud, “Oooh, this is gonna be good.” I was strangely cool with the fact there would be no more shuckin’ and jiven Jimmy for the rest of the episode.
Also, that chuckle Mike does to himself when it fully soaks in that Jimmy told Kim anything, how stupid it was to do in that line of work, and that Jimmy really is a 100% green clueless dolt….that was fucking gold.
Flanders! My socks feel dirty, give me some water to wash them!
This is the crucible episode, I mean even the preview showing him with serious sun damage is going to probably cause him to start up the spray tanning and darkening his natural hair color which you know matches his overly tanned skin.
Just an amazing episode from the structure, pacing, and the many different elements at play.To start with an excellent action shootout, move into thriller mode, and end in the survival genre so deftly, it was smooth as butter craftsmanship. It’s no surprise that Gilligan directed this, and while not a “bottle episode” this might be the closest thing we get to “Fly” from Breaking Bad. An episode coincidentally helmed by another master of direction in Rian Johnson.“Now you ask me how I keep going? That’s how.” Mike’s monologue to Saul in the desert is sure to go down as one of the iconic scenes to define the series in years to come. Jonathan Banks and Bob Odenkirk bringing their A game as usual.
Having mentioned it in my post in here as well, I’d forgotten Rian directed ‘Fly’! I knew he did the flat-out masterpiece ‘Ozymandias’ and one other that season, but yeah, that one totally slipped my mind. It’s weird to think about how that bottle episode was really only done because of how over budget they were at the time, but it was directed by someone who is now as famous and acclaimed as Rian Johnson is now. How times change.
See also the Russo Brothers making their start in Community and how far they’ve come in that time!
If I was reminded of any BB episode, it was another favorite of mine, “4 Days Out”, which also saw its two leads stranded in the desert.
I’d agree that it definitely had connections to “4 Days Out” as well. I guess what made me think “Fly” was the direction of both episodes, and the metaphor of the fly itself in that episode as compared to the searching bandit that Mike and Saul deal with in this one.
For me, the difference between this episode and Four Days Out, Fly, and Ozymandias is that I had no idea what was going to happen in those episodes. Once Mike showed up it was pretty clear how it was all going to play out. I don’t think we needed an entire episode for that, particularly with only two episodes left.
I got more of a “Four Days Out” vibe, I guess from the being stranded in the desert stuff. Or Ozymandias, from the scenery.
This reminded me of BB for the pacing of the storytelling- any other show would have them out of the desert in a scene or three. But BB, and BCS here, turns that into half an episode or more. As the difficulty of the situation rstches up you better setttle in because we’re gonna see every last detail of what it takes to get out.
No short cuts, no hand waving, no montages to gloss over anything- you’re gonna see what it takes to walk across a desert and take out an armed pursuer. Nobody does television like Vince Gilligan.
One thing that’s kind of bothered me about the whole series in regards to Mike and Jimmy—-(and bear in mind I haven’t watched Breaking Bad since the finale), but did we ever really get the impression that these two had been through hell together (and not just this week’s near-literal hell)?Maybe somebody who has watched the series more recently can reply.
You’d think they’d be closer, right? Bonding experiences, lol. I’m willing to say the shows skirt the line, just barely being able to get away with Mike and Saul’s shared history, thanks largely to the nature of both their jobs (and Mike’s overall tendency to keep his distance from people and his life private).
Mike doesn’t mix business with pleasure. No more business-pleasures, Jimmy.
You’re right, but there’s also time for some separation to occur between them, too. And Mike’s disgust at Jimmy for his complicity in forcing Kim into the game could be the wedge to do that, especially if (please, please no) something awful happens to Kim down the line. Perhaps even at Mike’s hands/Gus’ involvement.
I’m pretty certain Kim is going to be killed at some point (heck, i thought she was toast back in the car accident a couple of seasons ago), but I think it will be by the Salamancas, not Gus/Mike.Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll turn on Jimmy completely and leave forever. But I still think this is all leading up to her painful death.
I recently rewatched it and it was very jarring to see Mike threaten Saul to give up Jesse’s whereabouts. Saul in BB always acts some level of terrified of dealing with Mike and it really never plays as two guys who came up in the game together. They will either have a falling out of some kind and still work together due to circumstance or else we just have to accept a major retcon as the price to pay for one of the greatest spinoffs of all time.
Hmm, now that you reminded me of that, maybe they WILL have Mike kill Kim—-that would fit right in with having Saul/Jimmy scared of Mike in BB future.Thanks for the reminder.
these are terrible predictions you made lol. hard disagree
Jimmy’s best quote about his Esteem was in the very first episode:“The only way that entire car is worth 500 bucks is if there’s a 300 dollar hooker sitting in it.”
The kicker: after all of Jimmy’s whining, and posturing, and bag-dragging bullshit, it’s Mike who fucks up the Hail Mary. And he knows it. Those few seconds of Banks sobbing after that second shot flipped the truck are golden.
He cried? Man, I missed that.
because it never happened…
I agree that this episode felt very BB in its pacing, tone, and even dialogue. Mike’s speech in particular reminded me of his appeal to Walt in “Half Measures”—basically, either you’re in, or you’re out, there is no in between. (In this case, “in” means having the mental resolve needed to drink your own urine.) It’s always a pleasure when little echoes of BB pop up unexpectedly in BCS.
Really pushing Mike’s magical hypercompetence to the farthest edges of plausibility for this one. I’m a team player and I’m always on board for suspension of disbelief, but there is a fine line between serving your story and resorting to a cheap, lazy out.
It’s not unbelievable. Mike’s got military history and years of being a cop behind him.
It has to be obvious by now Mike wasn’t just military, but a member of Special Forces. He’s a sharpshooter, trained in survival and quick strike martial arts. He also has the mental toughness and discipline to put aside discomfort and pain.
He’s got the same attitude Jesse Ventura had in Predator: “I ain’t got time to bleed.”
It was pretty much confirmed that Mike was a Marine sniper in Vietnam. He had that conversation in episode 210 with the gun guy about his familiarity with the Remington 700/M40 and talked about the original wooden stocks warping in the wet jungle. That’s a Marine Corp specific rifle.
Well, it did take him two whole shots to get the guy at the end.
And he failed at what he was actually trying to do, which is to take out the bandit so they could steal his truck and his water. Flipping the car instead might’ve looked badass, but it was completely counterproductive.
Yeah. Didn’t even get a sip of water out of it.
His goal was to take him the fuck out so he’d stop chasing them and as a result not kill them. Would’ve been nice to get a truck and some water out of it, too, but having the bad guys be dead was much more important.
That made me crazy. Either Mike or Saul should have been smart enough to plan it so the could get the would-be thief’s car. If Saul dropped the money bags once he was “spotted” and ran off the road, the driver would have absolutely stopped the car to grab the loot. Then Mike could have picked him off fairly easily, and he and Saul could have driven home in air-conditioned comfort.If the writers didn’t want that to happen because they were enamored with Mike and Saul walking the whole way, fine, but at least lampshade it a little. . . SAUL: Pretty good work, huh?MIKE (growls): Would have been better if you told me what you were planning on doing first. Maybe I could have figured out a way to shoot him without killing the car, too. (beat) Well, pick up the bags.
The point was killing the people in the truck. Period. Mike wasn’t sitting up there with his rifle saying, ‘Watch me flip this truck and destroy it! It’s gonna be so rad!’No. They were under all the pressure in the world to just make that truck go away, and the way to do that was killing the people inside it. Period. Time was an issue, Mike’s ability to make a clean shot on a quickly moving target was an issue, the rapidly decreasing space between them and the truck and the people inside it who wanted to KILL THEM was an issue, all of it. Like I said, the truck and the water would’ve been nice, but it would’ve been a cherry on top of the sundae that was killing the people inside that truck that they didn’t manage to get. None of this has anything to do with being ‘smart enough’ to get their truck for themselves. It came down to killing them or being killed. All there is to it. I realize this series is much more about outsmarting your opponent than it is about killing them, but there was simply no time for that. Yet another reason why this episode blurred the line between itself and Breaking Bad, because Breaking Bad was ALL ABOUT killing your enemy.And yes, the point of all of it was to make them both walk through the desert. That was the journey. That’s what they had to endure, and they’re still not even done with it by the end of the damn episode. Donna laid it out far better than I ever could in her recap.
I still don’t buy it. Mike saw there was only one guy left in the truck. If Saul had ditched the bags, Mike would have only had to wait maybe another 30 seconds. The driver would have gotten out of the car to grab the cash, giving Mike would have had a much easier shot at a basically stationary target, and then he and Saul would have had a ride out of the hellish desert.YMMV. But my mileage is riding in a stolen car, and yours is walking dragging 175 pounds of currency. ; )
I’d have to watch it again, but I think I saw another person in the truck. But since we’re supposing, let’s suppose the truck stops, one guy gets out to get the bags, Mike takes him out, and the guy still in the truck (most likely the driver) floors it and takes off. So now the other guy in the truck knows where they are AND still has the truck. Given the circumstances that actually happened, Mike and Saul did what they needed to do. It’s a bummer they didn’t get the water and the truck, but hey, at least they’ve still got plenty of piss to go around. And the money.I am very tired of typing the word ‘truck’.
I also saw a passenger in the truck…
Yeah, I swear I did, too. I need to watch it again. If there was a second passenger, I’d bet money that they put them there to avoid the ‘Why didn’t Saul just dump the bags?’ question.
Also, in that situation, you’re making Saul commit the cardinal sin – walking away from the money. If ANYTHING goes wrong and they lose it, they’re done for. Say there are two other guys in the truck that Mike didn’t see, and they get ambushed as soon as the truck stops. Say there’s one other guy in the truck, and he gets out and starts shooting at the spot where Mike is hiding, where they’ve already seen one shot come from. Even if he doesn’t hit Mike, it would still be enough to give them a better chance of getting the money and driving away. Or hey, worst case scenario – Mike keeps missing, and the truck just runs right the fuck over Saul, the money bags break open and end up scattered all over the damn desert.
You’re widening the window for error in your alternate version of how things went down. And I maintain that getting the truck and the water was not what Mike ‘was actually trying to do’, as a previous poster stated. What he was actually trying to do was kill them. Period.I see what you’re getting at, but as Booker T & The MGs put it, time was tight. They thought on their feet and did what they had to. And it worked.
Saul’s mind was baked and he was exhausted. Maybe the day before he would have thought to drop the bags and run, but he was in f*ckit mode.
How the hell did that car end up flipping like that, anyway? What did he load the rifle with, explosive rounds?
Probably hooked the wheel when the body fell over.
Perhaps being shot made the driver slump onto the brake at 100mph?
Try driving an SUV or jeep at 80 plus mph on dirt and then without braking turn the wheel suddenly.I’ll bet dollars to donuts you get a similar result as in this episode.
Presumably, he hit the driver in the head or heart, causing instant death and making the driver jerk the wheel hard to the right. That’s how cars roll and flip in accidents. Drivers over-correct when steering. In this scene, there was an explosive piston rig placed within the truck to make it flip over harder. Those rigs have been around since the 70’s at least.
Presumably, he hit the driver in the head or heart, causing instant death and making the driver jerk the wheel hard to the right. That’s how cars roll and flip in accidents. Drivers over-correct when steering. In this scene, there was an explosive piston rig placed within the truck to make it flip over harder. Those rigs have been around since the 70’s at least.
Agreed, I was totally confused by that, he’s firing a long-range sniper rifle and that causes a car to explode and flip like it hit an IED? Ridiculously exaggerated and totally unnecessary.
Not that hard to roll an SUV:
I was wondering what that was about. I thought they were gonna wait until the guy stopped at least. Saul could have stayed visible but far away from the road so the guy couldn’t easily shoot him from the car.
Yah, I was gonna say he managed to kill the guy but also destroy anything useful.
What? Mike had to shoot the guy. It was a coin toss whether the guy would slump over the steering wheel, lift his foot off of the accelerator and come to a stop or just slump sideways while turning the steering wheel and roll over. Mike could not control that.
Sure, I don’t disagree. I’m the one arguing that Mike wasn’t displaying “magical hypercompetence,” after all.Nevertheless, the hoped-for goal of Jimmy’s desperate plan was to draw out the bandit and have Mike shoot him specifically so they could drive his car back to civilization. If Jimmy has decided he can’t go on trekking through the desert any longer and he has to take drastic measures to put an end to his torment, killing the bandit only helps matter if it results in Jimmy not having to trek through the desert anymore.
That’s what happens when Mike is super dehydrated.
I thought it would be Gaff, the cartel sniper from season 4 of Breaking Bad
It did at the start, but Mike wore down as the episode went on. I can suspend disbelief that Mike can get into position quick enough and is a good enough shot to ambush the guys (plus his line of “I’d have brought more guys” nods to the lack of realism). So pass there, but I can understand the frustration and criticism.
But after that, the desert takes it toll on Mike. He’s thirsty, tired, and can’t/won’t carry the money. He’s prepared and practical, but Jonathan Banks does a good job of selling a hint of fear and desperation in his eyes as he’s looking at the water. And after he misses shooting the guy in the truck and being able to drive to safety, Saul’s the guy pushing Mike forward by walking.
May be going a step too far here, but I think that super-hero Mike and beat up Mike is a bit of a comment on Mike’s justification and motivation to Jimmy, that’s it’s all to take care of his family. That’s Walt logic. Jimmy too, hell all too human. I’m fine if they leave Mike at that level of family man mob enforcer and just let him MacGyver shit and be a good at being a criminal. Sucks that’d mean less Kerry Condon, but the Mike character journey throughout the earlier parts of the season didn’t really land.
Mike does dance on the edge of “Mary Sue” territory sometimes, and the number of bullet/knife wounds he has “shrugged off” in BB and BCS makes that worse, but I think this episode does a fine job of demonstrating that Mike knows his limitations (“I can’t carry this money myself”).
The problem is that Johnathan Banks is visibly aging in front of us, and there’s nothing to really do about that but sing the MST3K theme song.
All that only to be killed with a lucky shot by some petty twat of a failed chemistry teacher.
In this episode more than any other was I thinking that. All the actual gunfights and violence Mike survived and he gets taken out by Walt. And then Walt has to act like a pussy about it to really rub the salt in the wound.
I think of it similar to Omar’s demise on the Wire. Kills, robs, and puts in place all sorts of violent drug dealers and muscle, but ends up getting killed at close range (which would never happen usually) by a little hopper in a corner store.For all of one’s glory/bravado/badassness, death comes how it comes to all of us.
I realize they left this kind of detail out to streamline the story, but the nitpicky head scratcher for me is why Mike didn’t have more water in his vehicle to begin with, or take what he could from the shot up cars. He had to have known that there was a decent possibility he would be walking home if he had some kind of mechanical problem, let alone bullet through the alternator. Given the choice between the weight of a big old handgun and ammo or water, you’d carry water. I can’t blame the writers for leaving it out, though.
Mike is a trained military sniper. Even with skills degraded by age, he was up against a bunch of street thugs. He had what appeared to be a match-grade high-powered rifle with a very good scope, a concealed position far enough away to make their return fire basically useless and they helped him out by staying relatively stationary and allowing him to pick them off one by one. Ever wonder why the newspapers always have those dramatic photos of shortstops turning double plays? It’s the easiest shot to get—you just set up the camera, aim it at second base and wait for the force play. That’s pretty much the same thing Mike did. He reconned the road earlier and figured out the best spots for an ambush and simply waited to see a bunch of vehicles converge on the same place as Jimmy’s Esteem carried the most money ever carried in the history of Esteems.
Seriously though, Mike’s ultimate loss to Walt required Mike instantly losing about a million brain cells after having previously been built up as a mastermind.
I loved the look of disgust/loathing that Saul had when Mike offered him the extra space blanket, associating it with his dead brother.
To me, Mike and Saul in the desert kinda seemed like Gilligan was making an homage to ‘Pine Barrens’ in The Sopranos. As ‘Fly’, one of my Breaking Bad favorites, is also a bottle episode, that doesn’t really seem that far-fetched – of course, this is anything but inconsequential to the plot, but still.
I was expecting to see Anton Chigurh appear next to the car.
Friendo….
I thought this whole, “millions in bags”, “Last stand” shootout and the Mexican-American border stuff was very much like, “No Country for Old Men”. The only thing missing was the dogs.
Tonight was the final episode of Better Call Saul as Saul & Mike died stranded in the desert. It turns out it’s not a prequel to Breaking Bad! The B&W “flashforwards” were merely the hallucinations of a dying lawyer.
Jimmys Ladder
Maybe it’s the Jalop in me but I found the scene where Mike knew exactly where the ambush was at and the fact that he decided to take the Suzuki esteem as the getaway car with barely a cursory inspection and not a new Jeep even if he couldn’t fix all the flats and no checking for supplies in any vehicles to be a bit naive. It made for good theatre though.
I buy the no supplies aspect a bit- look at how cavalier he was with the water, not to mention the meet itself. But 30 miles of bumpy dirt road in that thing! I was positive that car was going to break down before he got to the cash.
Well, he knew where the ambush was because he was following Saul with a tracker he placed in Saul’s fuel cap.
Indeed, that why he put it in the bag.
Thank you! I knew the fuel cap thing was a callback to something, but I couldn’t place it.
Had to scroll too far to see the gas cap mentioned.
Wow. Amazing. I really appreciate the theological references/comments, Donna. I keep thinking we are waiting for a Saul/Paul moment, and maybe we are there? If Saul gets blinded briefly by a flash of light in the beginning of the next episode, that would be interesting.Other things – fuck, poor Kim. She saw the mistake. Such great subtle work from Seehorn. The good thing, I think, is that he doesn’t know her real name. Recall she kept the name Wexler (of course). I think that may keep her alive before this is over.Who WERE those bandits? Rogue players we never knew about before the shop owner called him? He’s gonna get killed, huh?Mike’s speech was amazing and felt perfectly timed. I suspect the writers room knew this was a moment for him. A man that stoic couldn’t break except for in that scene. Emmy reel, right?Early on, a criticism from some was that BCS was focusing too much on the cartel/Gus/Mike plot and it didn’t blend. I always thought the point was to tell thematically linked stories about different characters (Saul/Kim/Mike/Nacho/Gus) and let us connect. Now, I think it’s something else – we needed to see Saul to get to this point here. And we needed to be ready for the screen violence and mayhem. So, for Jimmy/Saul, the cartel story was a necessary prelude in addition to being a compelling story on its own.Did anyone else think it was a tad off character for Jimmy/Saul to not consider obtaining backup?
Jimmy’s still somewhat naive at this point. He honestly didn’t think there would be a problem.
The moment he was cavalier about taking an Esteem 30 miles down a desert road I knew he was in waaay over his head.
The worse possible vehicle, terrible clothes, even worse shoes, little water, no hat. It’s like Jimmy has not lived in New Mexico for years.
I wondered who the bandits were too. I’ve forgotten if there is an offscreen mention of a war going on with the Salamancas? That was obviously not Gus trying to create an illusion for some kind of complicated scheme. They were clearly going in expecting the possibility of big trouble, possibly because they knew the cousins were involved, so this wasn’t just a chance encounter. They were also awfully methodical in their followup pursuit for a bunch of low level randos.
If it was the Salamancas who thought Saul was compromised somehow, that would be an odd way to deal with it. Maybe a rival gang is at work, although it seems clear from Lalo’s relaxed attitude and the amount of cash in the counting house that $7 million is a drop in the bucket, and going after something personally connected to Lalo would be an act of war.
Our two known criminal factions, the Salmancas and Fring’s operation, both wanted that money delivered safely. Between that outgoing call from the shop in the opening, and Lalo mentioning that unspecified “rivals” make the Twins unsuitable bagmen, I think we’re dealing with an as-yet (and probably permanently) unnamed separate band of criminals.
I think it might have been the Espinosas. Fring’s people framed them for killing Arturo and shooting Nacho in season four and then the twins decimated their hideout.
I wonder if the car with the blood-soaked seats in the opening scene is the result of the same bandits intercepting a prior money pickup.
We’ve never seen Jimmy carry a weapon. Why would he start now? He’d convince himself it was a milk run.
In my world, a backup is a person, not a gun…
Yeah, was Huell busy or something?
Lalo will easier find her identity. He knows “Saul” really has the initials “JMM,” he knows they’re both NM Bar members, and legally married to each other.
I don’t think Jimmy could hold him off forever, but just long enough. There’s something to the whole (1) her having no middle name and (2) her not taking his name. Details like that on this show are always going somewhere.
Maybe he’ll murder Kimberly Jane Wexler, wife of Joseph Martin Moore, and that will be the last straw for Kim!
You’re joking, but I actually have an easier time seeing that. 1) this show zigs when we think it will zag. 2) you rightly point out that he has NO accurate name for Jimmy or Kim. He knows Saul Goodman and Kim Wexler. (Nacho does know Saul’s real name, though – that could be tragic.) 3) I think Lalo can trace Saul as far as to his firm. I’m not sure he’ll even dig up the apartment.
So, yes, I could see Lalo trying to have the wrong person murdered and that inspiring deep guilt in Jimmy and Kim. The title of the last episode is “Something Unforgivable”. Ponder that.
I didn’t notice if he did get her name, but he definitely knows that “Saul” is the pseudonym of a JMM. We also know that Saul never becomes the ranch-owning “friend” he hopes to become, even if Mike does continue to throw a little work his way. I’m starting to think things may not go smoothly.
For sure. I think we agree that Lalo will burn Jimmy. My point is just this – Lalo won’t get to Kim in time. I think the presence of confusion about real names will be the thing that keeps her alive, but she still flees.
The amount of lawyers in Albuquerque is a small community, especially someone with lots of pro bono time like Kim.
Didn’t Lalo previously make a sardonic “You wouldn’t get it” to another character? When was that?
That really reminded me of last years Joker down to how he pronounced it. Could be just my imagination though.
I let out a “Whoa!” at the shot of the car turning over behind Saul. Hey, Hollywood movie studios: let Vince Gilligan direct a Western. I loved the time lapse desert photography.
I thought Lalo accepting Saul’s refusal to pick up the money was too easy and that he would threaten Jimmy’s loved ones, but, no, as per the tragedy, Saul changes his mind himself for cash. I’m intrigued that because of his great ordeal he might think twice about being Saul now, even if we know he gets there at the end. But maybe he doesn’t somehow get as bad as his performance in BB would suggest. Of course, this is all dependent on what happens to Kim, and with her now being in the cartel’s business, there are a few interesting ways her story could play out. I’ll say it again: it would be unfair for Jesse to survive BB but Kim not to survive BCS.
Like all watching, I was yelling, “You’re gonna tear the bags!” before Saul tore the bags.What was the song in Saul and Mike’s walking montage?With that hat and glove, Mike looked like Freddy Krueger. Which fits since this was Jimmy’s nightmare of an ordeal.
Ok, when that riff started I said to my wife “That song was probably pretty expensive” thinking it was Eminem’s “My Name Is” but he just sampled it, and it was Labi Siffre’s “I got the”, the riff/portion from the show starts 2 minutes in:
Replying to myself, but just wanted to add that this song is a real banger and also that I dig that the musical supervisor(s) for BCS have a love for 70s-type funk riffs. This track from the episode where Mike gets back the Kettleman money has been my wake-up alarm on my ipad since that episode aired 5 years ago.
Never heard the song before & prob wouldn’t normally like but now I love it!
I turned to my wife and said, “Thousands of people in their 30s just realized that Eminem hook was a sample.”
I was one of those (and I’m in my late 40s!). Just wasn’t familiar with the original but have now been listening to Labi’s stuff, so thanks Thomas Golubić.
It’s one of those things that quite well known over here, for the novelty that Chas Hodges, out of cockney folk duo Chas n Dave, is one an Eminem record (he plays bass on I Got The…).
Labi Siffre – I Got The…
Song was Labi Siffre – I Got The… notable for being interpolated as the basis for Eminem’s My Name Is.
The song was apparently “I Got The…” by Labi Siffre. I only recognize it from being sampled in “My Name Is” by Eminem.
Same here. I didn’t even realize it was a song before Eminem used it.
Yeah I was confused thinking Eminem was about to start. Would have been one of the weirdest song choices in the shows history. I’d much more expect a Spanish acoustic version of “My Name Is…”
Lalo: Saul’s cute, but I think he’s married to Kim, hehe.
I immediately recognized the sample from Miguel’s “Kaleidoscope Dream,” but I thought, that doesn’t make sense either thematically or chronologically. Then the song kept going and realized that it was also the sample for “my name is.” And while chronologically it could work thematically it made even less sense.
“Kaleidoscope Dream” is a far better song IMO. I never got why so many of my friends in high school loved “My Name Is,” aside from the fact that it’s catchy in the most annoying way.
It’s times like this I remember the last line of the theme song for Bryan Cranston’s previous show.
Life is unfair?
“Life isn’t fair.”
Still, I think that just like Gloria Gaynor, Kim Will Survive.
Reminds me of the end of the ‘King Was In His Counting House’ episode of Dad’s Army. Man travels across a barren landscape in profile unconsciously streaming important cash notes behind him out of their container, followed by a slower man desperately pursuing him yelling ‘Mr Mainwaring (in this case Goodman), all your money’s falling out!’ Also of the episode ending where they had to trek back along the railway line and pick up all the rifle bolts.
Considering how on point Mike is about literally everything I’m surprised he didn’t talk about how the bags would tear. Something like “A bag made of that material carrying that much weight will tear a hole big enough for the cash to fall out in the next 0.72 miles.”I guess that’s how dehydrated Mike was at that point, so dehydrated there was one obscure thing he wasn’t on top of as well as he missed one shot. Mike was so dehydrated he was almost a normal mortal like the rest of us.
And don’t forget that Mike is not exactly a spring chicken!
He often does the “if they don’t listen I can’t force them” approach. Who learns by being told anyway?
He did say “that isn’t going to work” when Saul started to use that method and also pointed out the loose bills, so he knew. I think at that point he was kinda fed up with the whole deal so was willing to let Saul fuck up on his own. .
Hey, Hollywood movie studios: let Vince Gilligan direct a Western
I feel stupid for never thinking of this before considering BB looks like and has several Western motifs in its run. Now that you mention it, I absolutely need to see Gilligan give his take on a classic Western
His favourite movie is The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
That makes sense.
Too bad there was a The Magnificent Seven remake only a few years ago. That remake was good, but I wonder what Gilligan could have done with it.
That could have been good. I was trying to think of other potential Western remakes that would work but I think it would be best to let Gilligan come up with his own original tale. Though the way Hollywood works, a “new” Western would never get greenlit. It’d have to be a remake of something popular to even get a meeting.
Oh… the spacesuit walk. It was Saul’s ultimate con, so far, huh? He tricked the mark into thinking he was an easy target just like the scams he pulled with Marco, except that ended in gunfire. Also, I wonder how the Saul who railed at Howard feels about his powers now?
Saul not using his lightning powers during the shootout is a huge plot hole.
“It’s Mike!”“It’s gotta be Mike, right?”“This is totally Mike.”“Damn, Mike!”That was me when the ambush of the ambush scene came around. Yup, it was Mike. Swooping in like old-ass Batman. In broad daylight, no less.In a way, this episode reminds me of Breaking Bad’s ‘Fly’. Not a whole lot actually happens, but man, the meaning behind what does happen weighs a whole lot heavier. Kim revealing her identity to Lalo. Mike going full-on killer. Saul making the trip through the desert and coming out the other side as something wildly different, and not just a corpse with a mouth full of piss. No one makes a trip like that with that much leaning against them and that much at stake and emerges unchanged. Saul still seemed a bit hesitant to become a full friend of the cartel before he went into the desert, but now that he’s out, I’m not sure. I’m not sure he’s going to be so easily bought off for a measly 100K now.Two to go.
It was remarkable watching Saul briefly pause when the Mylar blanket was offered, as he realized he’d rather freeze than be any more like Chuck than he has to be, only for that very same thing to be their only real shot at surviving the desert.
Haven’t finished the episode yet just came here to say AAAAAAGGGGGGH KIM THAT WAS LITERALLY THE DUMBEST THING YOU COULD’VE DONE!!!! MIGHT AS WELL HAVE JUST CALLED THE COPS, AT LEAST THE COPS PROBABLY WON’T MURDER YOU!!!! AGGGGH!Lalo if you touch a hair on her head, I swear to fucking god.
By miles the best episode of the season and a likely destined for the shortlist for best of the series.
“Directed by Vince Gilligan”Your Honor, Exhibit R for why the other people involved with the show will never be on Vince’s level, and why the series hasn’t been as good without him. The part that, when pushed far enough, decides to stay and fight rather than save his own skin. I have to disagree with this. First, I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive at all. Second, if anything Jimmy increasingly pushes the hardest when saving his own skin. Your following example about how Gene hanging up on the vacuum guy is notable because I think we’re going to see that Gene is going to save/resurrect Jimmy. I think Gene cooked up a way to free Jimmy, make amends with whatever happened with Kim, and make a mockery of the legal system while he does so. Jimmy may be capable of being a piece of shit, but I’d enjoy at least one low-level dirtbag getting a happy ending out of the Breaking Saulverse. The rain falls upon the just and the unjust alike… even in the arid Land of Enchantment.Alternate episode titles: “Four Days Out with Mike,” “Four Days Out with SlippyJ & Easter Island Head,” “Four Days Out & a Whining Baby,” “Breaking Jimmy,” “Jimmy Does a Piss-Take”(British rebroadcast title)On one hand they really hammered the whole “Jimmy might regret this” thing with the water before and after he got stranded, on the other hand I think they really wanted us to know and dread what was coming for Jimmy.I’m going to detail my point in another post, but Mike fucked up a lot in this episode. Sorry, Mikeyboys.The fuckin’ details in this episode! Look, I’ll admit that I’m human so I’m prone to confirmation bias, but the level details just don’t seem to be as on point when Gilligan isn’t making the show.We only see after, but when Lalo kicked his feet up on the table (in Jimmy’s face) he slipped off his prison sandals first.Jimmy made fajitas. Later on his skin got burnt like sizzlin’ fajitasOkay, Vince. Open the show with a Cadillac (with blood all over it) to begin the episode where Jimmy sheds the last of his… Esteem, will you? Will this get a slap of white paint followed by a re-gifting to next episode’s Saul in order to calm him down? On the other hand, I’ve read that leasing expensive auto’s is one of the best ways to clean money, and Saul’s got six dusty figures to clean coming up. (j/k! I know he’s going to acquire interest in a nail salon and a lazer tag parlor).It appears Mike is familiar with the .38 Snub. Back when he popped Walt in the face for trying to set up a “meeting” with Gus while he had the same weapon in his pants, I figured that Mike knew what he was doing only because he was a corrupt ex-corrupt-cop. While I think that’s true, this retcons a bit of extra Mike experience where he’d be intimately familiar with how it would appear while concealed, change the way someone moves, etc.When they (literally) ditch the Esteem, they have plenty of momentum built up to push it over without any trouble. Jimmy stops to get his bottles, and now they don’t have enough runway to push it over without it getting stuck. This is my favorite detail of the episode.They never show Jimmy retrieving the D&M bottle, but since we never see it in any of the shots of the front seat of the Esteem (and the interior looks like Jimmy tries to keep it clean and clutter-free), I’m thinking that it got stuck/wedged deep under one of the seats (due to the comprehensibility of the plastic) which is why Jimmy never threw it out.All the iconic and symbolic objects of the future Saul and the past Jimmy that he comes across in the desert: Davis & Main bottle (which he literally pissed in, as he once figuratively pissed on the namesake), the space blanket, “World’s 2nd Best Lawyer,” The Esteem, having to hide his gaudy watch and pinky ring, his burner phone failing him, This week’s classic film reference, “Lawrence of Arabia.”
I could see that there was still a little water left in the D&M bottle when Jimmy was about to take a piss. So here’s the burning question: Would you drink that water before filling it or leave it in there so that if you have to drink it, it will delute some of the bright orangey-yellow terribleness? So what did Jimmy choose? Since he held out so much hope that he wouldn’t have to drink piss, I’m guessing he drank the clean water.Fun fact: Your body can actually reabsorb much of the water content in your bladder if you don’t pee. No muss, no fuss… no taste. The one downside is that you have to resist the painful urge to pee no matter how bad it gets. The thing is, though, based upon the vast breadth of Mike’s survival knowledge, I’m pretty sure Mike knew this already. Sometimes I get the strangest feeling that Mike really just doesn’t like Jimmy very much.My first thought when Jimmy was held up was hoping that he thought far enough ahead and swapped the cash in the duffel bags for Walter’s dirty laundry, and that the gang that was stupid enough to steal from Salamanca’s would also fail to check the bags before driving off.My second thought was, “boy, Jimmy’s going to need a new car.”My third thought was “How does Mike hit arteries carotid, heads, and hearts and couldn’t hit the tire of the thief that got away?My fourth thought was “Mike?!? Why aren’t you checking under the hood before you start it!” More thought than the panic’d Mike gave, evidently, although I was under slightly less stress.As fun as tonight’s Esteem slam was, it’s no, “The only way that entire car is worth 500 bucks is if there’s a 300 dollar hooker sitting in it.”
On one hand they really hammered the whole “Jimmy might regret this” thing with the water before and after he got stranded, on the other hand I think they really wanted us to know and dread what was coming for Jimmy.
Yeah, I liked this moment a lot. Sometimes things feel on the nose but when I talk to others I’m often surprised how many people completely miss moments like these.
This is a really good review.
Vince has said before that he loves to take easy things and make them difficult, so this was right up his alley. If a character thinks something will be a piece of cake, you can bet calamity will ensue, and its this very Coen-esque approach to these stories that make for some of BB’s and BCS’s best episodes. For me personally, it’s the little things that make the difference in this one. The cronies playing around while they clean up blood in a car seat. All the ways the license plate ends up getting used. The foil blanket that triggers so much baggage. Gobsmacked by this episode.
I’m not worried about Kim dying, that seems to be below this show’s writing. I *am* worried that the reason Saul doesn’t have Kim around is that Saul disconnected from her to protect her. Lalo doesn’t seem to be around in BB, so assuming he’s dead or missing, Saul might have shifted everything to do with the cartel onto himself – only Lalo & Mike know of Kim now, and Mike’s not gonna tell.
This episode is the most terrified I’ve been watching a show from the Breaking Bad universe since Ozymandias. Especially the second half, once it became clear that Kim was going to know he was missing. I started imagining all sorts of scenarios: they finally get back and find out she’s been killed, she goes to prison after telling the police what she knew (which is what I think the shot of her in jail before the Lalo reveal)was intended to float as a possibility, and I was even on edge with the episode’s final moments, because I was so scared for her that I didn’t register the way the car was speeding to hit Jimmy and thought, ‘what if Kim found out where he was and came looking, and it’s her that Mike shoots?’ I scrutinised the car and its plate, freaked out at the slow pan round it, and freaked out when Mike removed the plastic bag, thinking ‘what the fuck is that?’ I hope to oh God oh Christ (to quote later Jimmy in another desert) that Lalo accepts Kim’s line about spousal privilege and doesn’t immediately have her murdered out of fear she’ll incriminate herself anyway and tell the police. But even if he does accept it, she’s still likely to be co-opted into becoming siempre an amiga del cartel as a precaution. That’s a hard road for anyone to walk down, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to. Then, even if death doesn’t await, prison well might. After all, the way Saul will later come to see certain criminal cases, ‘someone’s going to prison’. And it’s not even a question of who, because we know Saul doesn’t. To paraphrase the ghost of Nate’s dad in Six Feet Under, you’re in the game now, Kim.
I couldn’t find the original quote to properly paraphrase at the time. ‘You’re in the game now, Kimmy girl, whether you like it or not.’
My only gripe with is this review is that Jimmy knew he was using himself as bait when he walked into the road. He specifically told Mike to “get that thing ready.” before his space cape walk.
Obviously…. Why is that a gripe?
Because the review implied that Jimmy just wanted to get it over with and die.
Obviously what? She misinterpreted Saul’s plan as some kind of I give up suicide attempt. That’s my gripe.
Ah okay, I gotcha now. I misunderstood….I thought you were griping about what Jimmy did, not the reviewers mistake. I agree.
Np, I didn’t proofread my original comment, so it is very confusing.
It was a bit of both-a lure and a NMFTG moment.
Three big and symbolic losses in this episode as part of the transition to Saul: the salmon shirt, the mug, and the Suzuki. Everything that was Jimmy was destroyed in that scene. It was the metaphorical death and end of old Jimmy McGill.
I also was so sure Kim would survive through BCS, but then she went and saw Lalo. They know she exists now, and that’s leverage they’ll have over Jimmy
forever Mike’s right, now
she’s in the game.
Still hoping that she leaves him instead or disappears her to Omaha, hence why he went back there.
You forgot the most important one: Chuck’s Space Blanket!
In case anyone’s wondering, $7M in 100 dollar bills weighs between 150 and 175 pounds.
Yeah, Jimmy shouldering those, and then even just dragging those, means he’s a chrome-plated badass compared to Mike. That’s a really impressive feat of strength.Or just the show pretending those bags were lighter than they would actually be in real life.
Still possibly the most realistic depiction of the weight of 10s of thousands of bills. Normally, you see that much in a single briefcase, carried in one hand.
AMC posted some great behind-the-scenes videos on their Youtube channel. The second one in particular is awesome.
I count seven rolls, which would tie Casino Royale’s world record, would it not?
After five seasons of Kim owning about 1/3 of the show, can we stop fantasizing that she is simply a naive, agency-free fridge corpse, there to make Jimmy so sad that he hardly changes at all between now and BB?
IF she dies, and I still do not believe she will, it will be on her terms, not a knock on the door because Jimmy screws up while she’s taking pro bono cases and managing land disputes.
Minor correction: An Esteem is a Suzuki,not a Subaru. What a great episode.
What a fascinating episode – poor Kim.
I’m not going to lie – when Lalo said “I’m gonna need you to pick it up,” I thought he meant Saul would have to pay the bail. As in “picking up the check.” It literally never occurred to me that he meant Saul was going to literally pick up the money. I’m not too bright.
So did I. Made for a “…OH!” moment for me while watching tonight.
Yeah Jimmy was going just write a $7M check.
One thing I’m really looking forward to seeing next episode is how Jimmy explains his survival to Lalo. There’s a bunch of dead bodies in the desert and nobody is going to believe that Saul Goodman executed a bunch of well-armed goons and hiked across the desert all by his lonesome. And he can’t bring up Mike, for obvious reasons, so I’m very curious to hear what kind of bullshit he’ll spin to explain it.As for Kim: I wonder if part of her endgame involves the vacuum shop? That maybe things escalate so badly that the only way to keep her safe is to get her away from Saul and make her disappear. I was originally thinking that perhaps that would be Nacho’s fate- that the only way he and his father are getting out from under Gus & The Salamancas alive is being snuck out of New Mexico- but now I wonder if maybe Kim is going to get the vanishing act. And it could be a big part of Saul’s tragic arc, in that he gets the choice to leave with her and decides not to because he can’t admit defeat and give the grift up.
My guess: he will tell Lalo that the hijackers started fighting amongst themselves, and shot each other over the money.
Dumb dumb dumb and super dumb what Kim did visiting Lalo. What the heck is she thinking. Jimmy warned her, to stay out of it. That pretty throws out any chance for a happy ending for her.And that Mike saying she is in the game now that seals it. Lalo was pissed she is being told his business. And this is a Lalo who has been all happy go lucky, his anger showed with his meeting with Kim..
God I hope you’re wrong, but I’m not sure you are.
It’s all Jimmy’s fault. He agreed to her deal that he had to tell her everything knowing full well that there were certains things thst she should not know for her own protection.
Wait, are we sure that Mike wasn’t sent by Lalo to find him? That seems more likely than Gus at this point. Saul really doesn’t have much of a relationship with Gus at this point.
Mike is the same guy who refused Don Hector’s bribe and sent Tuco up the river. Why would Lalo give him a call?Gus sent Mike. He couldn’t care less about Saul. He cares that the money gets to the courthouse so Lalo can make bail. Once Lalo’s out in the open, Gus can deal with him.
“Wait, are we sure that Mike wasn’t sent by Lalo to find him? That seems more likely than Gus at this point. Saul really doesn’t have much of a relationship with Gus at this point.”Wait, what? You must be a watching a different show than every single other commenter. I think it’s safe to say that Mike was NOT sent by Lalo. Thanks for the laugh.
Replying to say, yeah, that was dumb, but then I was also really baked when I wrote that.
I’m confused why Lalo would send Jimmy into the desert with no protection or backup plan in case something went wrong. Did he really have that much faith that Jimmy could fight his way out alone if things went sideways? Or that he’d be able to retrieve the money later if it was stolen? Seems reckless.
Mike’s “why I do what I do” speech felt significant for Saul moving forward—up to this point, Slippin’ Jimmy/Saul has been another side to Jimmy’s coin. His machinations and cons were almost a reflex, something he couldn’t help. He never questioned the reason. Kim never questioned the reason. This is who Jimmy is—he lies and plays the system. He can’t help it. And even though he’s increasingly been willing to embrace this side of himself, it has always eaten at Saul a little bit. Look how irritated he is at Howard’s conscience, how inconvenient Kim’s morality is to him. But now, with all this money rolling in, now that he’s deep in the game with no easy way out—now he *needs* a reason. And he found one. An excuse, just like Walter White had— “family.” For Walt it was never about family, but he needed to tell himself that to justify himself. Jimmy was almost the opposite; he never needed an excuse because no one was ever really in danger. But now Kim is in danger. She’s in the game, too. And he needs justification to hold onto.
It’s a bit difficult to connect Saul’s shocked reaction to finding out Mike works for Gus in Breaking Bad based on what he’s seen of Mike in the past couple of episodes.
Lalo is going to fire Jimmy and hire Kim as his lawyer, or something like that. That would present an opportunity for her to be away or dead by the time Breaking Bad starts.Or does Lalo use her as leverage against Jimmy and ends up – you know -because of something Jimmy does?
Indeed. Criminal organizations like Lalo’s doesn’t like having too many people knowing about their business, which is why Mike declared her to be “in the game.” If Mike knows, he would sure damn well tell Gus about it to maintain leverage over Saul, the same way they have over Nacho with his father.Lalo is likely doing the same thing here with Kim, which would be very worryingly indeed.
Yo soy “abogado”.
I just realized that Mike took the gas cap from Saul’s car because that is where he historically likes to hide tracking devices.
They showed the tracker in his bag as well.
It’s interesting to mention that Saul is the “iron core” of Jimmy. When a star fuses itself to iron there is nothing left it can fuse so it goes supernova. As the star goes from burning hydrogen to helium, helium to carbon, carbon to silicone(or whatever the next step), then iron, it gets less efficient and harder keep the star going. Where am I going with this? I don’t know, it just sounded interesting.
Stellar Nucleosynthesis is where everything that we are comes from (except for the hydrogen). We are made of star dust (plus hydrogen).
*“Yo soy abrogado!” That’s abogado. *Mike shoots down Jimmy’s stupid ideas (walking at night, dragging the bags) with contempt. But then Jimmy has the one inspired idea that allows them to triumph over the guy stalking them. When they walk off after that, they’ve changed positions, Jimmy leading and Mike following.*There’s an odd focus on feet in this episode.*Jimmy really did seem to go through some sort of death and resurrection in this episode. It’ll be interesting to see who he is after this.
There’s an odd focus on feet in this episode.
Directed by Quentin Tarantino?
Catching the end of the Lalo-Kim scene on repeat, I saw a shot of Kim sitting down, with Lalo standing behind her by the door, stretching out his arms. He looked like a cross for a second. If that was a intentionally symbolic shot, and makes one think of Kim as Jesus, than maybe her fate isn’t to die. I hope so.
The shootout is reminiscent of no country for old men the trucks the landscape even the tree might shelters under.
The dogs were absent.
Subaru full of holes? Do you mean Saul’s Suzuki Esteem?
“Yo soy abrogado!”He exclaimed “Yo soy ABOgado!” – literally, “I’m a lawyer!”
“Yo soy abogado.” – “I am lawyer.” Yes, it can mean “I am a lawyer” as in “I work as a lawyer” but it really sounds uncouth.
“Yo soy un abogado.” – “I am a lawyer.” “Yo soy el abogado.” – “I am the lawyer.”
Saul dragging the bags of money was perfect foreshadowing of the end of breaking bad, pushing the barrel of cash in the desert.
What a superbly directed episode. Tho I do wonder how an episode using the twins might of panned out, instead of Mike. I was almost convinced it would be them, covering their tracks. I guess it makes sense that Mike/Gus represent the extreme professionalism side of things while the twins/Lalo opt more for recklessness.
Can the experts here help me with something I must have missed: Why is Lalo being held on $7M bail? He was picked up because he resembled someone based on a compromised witness statement. We know the charges are correct, but how does the court?
Innocent unbtil proven guilty is an idealized concept. Judges know that some defendants are very, very likely guilty without a trial based on their history. The judge had to give Lalo bail to abide by the law but he didn’t want him out of jail. He thought that $7 million would ensure that Lalo would stay in jail but his constitutional rights for due process would be met.
He’s a foreign national accused of a very serious crime. He has a huge incentive to just go back to Mexico so it’s unlikely he’d be given bail at all
It’s still him in the security footage, even if they have the wrong name. He still had a gun in the car. They know he likely did it, even if they know some of the evidence may get thrown out.
still holds water (or the bodily-fluid equivalent)Just for the record: drinking one’s own urine in a survival situation is extremely controversial. The mainstream (no pun intended) view is that it offers psychological thirst-slaking but physiologically it gets you into a vicious circle: you excrete a lot of salt in the urine, which the body then wants to get rid of through urination, which requires water… It also contains whatever other wastes and breakdown products from the ordeal thus far (which has probably also run up the salinity) that were processed out by the kidneys. It can be used to soak clothing for evaporative cooling, though.
Indeed. I argue that the first content of urine could helps if it is quite clear and doesn’t contains as much waste since it is also water. It should only be used be for life-threatening situations. After that, stay away from drinking additional urine because they would contains far more wastes each time and would be destructive to your body.
Would be good to have 2 drinking containers, one with water and one with urine. Drink alternatively might helps.Good to plan ahead and do research before going on expedition or trip. Bad shits can happens and plans like these could be matter of life and death.
I really enjoy your recaps/reviews. They are well written, engaging, and entertaining. So please, for the love of god, just don’t write about the cars in the show at all. BCS does some great things with vehicle casting, including—bizarrely—what seems to be a product placement deal with Mitsubishi. And while I’d love read more content regarding the automotive choices in BCS, I can’t abide car talk from someone who thinks a 442 is a Plymouth, or an Esteem is a Subaru. “Whereof one does not know, thereof one should not speak.”
I don’t see Kim being murdered or maimed. I think if that had happened, it would have broken Jimmy. I don’t think he would have become the Saul we see in Breaking Bad.I hereby confidently predict that Kim makes it out alive.
I think Kim leaves in the near future because Jimmy is ignoring her concerns.
Yeah I get tired of people saying “oooh Kim’s gonna die horribly” etc. At this point that would be the obvious, predictable route so I’m hoping they come up with something more interesting
I’d be surprised if for no other reason than we feel really close to the Breaking Bad timeline. When we’re introduced to Saul there, he doesn’t strike me as somebody who’s still struggling with having consigned the love of his life to a gruesome cartel death. I think part of Kim’s arc is going to be growing up and putting her teenage rebelliousness to rest.
I can see Kim needing a Hoover MaxExtract PressurePro model 60 before this is all over
I’m on the train that Kim is going to be forced into the “nuclear option” and Jimmy is searching for her or got a lead on her in the flash forward. I can’t imagine she dies and we still get the Jimmy we got in BCS.
Mike made an unfathomable decision.He was driving a big pickup truck in perfect condition, he is a car guy, he saw that awful Suzuki. Instead of telling Jimmy to drive ahead and he would follow, he got in the darn Esteem.
What?
Oh, yeah! If he didn’t do that, the episode would have been over quick.
If he didn’t then they couldn’t get stranded and take their little hike through the desert.
There was a shot of Mike looking back at his truck and seeing fluid pouring out under it. The truck wasn’t an option.
Oh, well. Not exactly sure how that happened. In any case, Gilligan made sure that the most unlikely set of circumstances conspired to get those two to trek together.
The dozen guys shooting wildly might have had something to do with it.
You missed the part where Mike’s truck was leaking all it’s oil from the oil pan because the last bandit shot it before fleeing.
“My cousins are gonna meet you there with the money. Nine AM. You’ll like ‘em! They’re good boys!”Yet another great line casually thrown out there for our consideration. The writing in this series is so good that even what should be throw away lines in conversations get your attention!
HOLY HELL YOU GUYS
I just was rewatching the episode – thirty seconds in? Mike was there at the carshop/money laundering sopt when the cousins showed up to get the loot.
Incognito with his stupid hat. And not only does he walk away with his head down when they pull in, but he takes a phone out to make a call.
Wow, one full day later after this review goes up, the Kinja comments for this episode are finally appearing for me (for the record, in Windows 10, Firefox browser).I understand that whoever’s running the AV Club at this point wants to maximize ad revenue by having some user engagement in the form of comments, but doesn’t want it to be a priority to actually maintain the commenting system properly. Because putting eyeballs on those ads is what’s really important. But this is just embarrassing for the site. What a spectacular shambling shitshow all this is.
Hey, does anyone remember Leonard Pierce? He got kicked from here as a contributor when he gave a comics roundup review in which he presented pre-publication hype on some comic as his own review, but then people found out that he couldn’t have possibly seen it, so that was that and he was out.At the time, I thought it was the right call, although I did feel bad for him. I suppose I still have to grudgingly admit it was the right call. But the passage of time and the decay of this website is making him look better and better, if only in comparison.
This was a top 5 (top 3?!) episode between both shows and El Camino. What an incredible journey. Jimmy went into the desert, Saul came out. Saul is the survivor, he’s the Cucaracha. Jimmy had a line, Saul doesn’t anymore. What a beautiful piece of work.
Not even close.
Not to be weird, but what was that nudity warning for?
Not a Subaru, a Suzuki. And also, the Jimmy McGill movie reference was there too, when he said “I’m walking here” as he set out to sacrifice himself. The last vestige of Jimmy we’ll see, I expect.
“The desert, where almost all the action takes place, is where Moses endured the whining weakness of the Hebrew refugees who followed him—just as Mike endures the whining weakness of this windbag shyster in way over his head.“Do you have any conception of how anti-Semitic this is?!?
No it’s not and I’m Jewish. Its biblical fact the Jews moaned and groaned while following Moses through desert. One interpretation of the reason for 40 years to get to not to far in the Jordan Valley was letting the old generation, that knew the comfort of being slaves (compared to wandering), die out so the new gen would only ever know freedom
It’s not anti-Semitic IceHippo. Even if Donna weren’t Jewish (which I’m guessing she is), this is just scripture with a bit of edge to make it work in a review of a tv show. Not to mention it’s timely.I really hate spurious claims of anti-semitism. It makes people take those claims less seriously when they are valid.
Indeed. Criticizing the seemingly never changing party governing Israel was the normal thing to do until Mike effin Pompous Pompeo. I hate bringing in politics, but that poster did first.
Indeed. Criticizing the seemingly never changing party governing Israel was the normal thing to do until Mike effin Pompous Pompeo. I hate bringing in politics, but that poster did first.
Honestly I cried a little when Jimmy pulled the second best lawyer cup out and it had a bullet hole in it.
Those bandits got off lucky. If they had tried that earlier with the cousins around… Oh man! They would have been fucked!
Do you guys think it’s just a coincidence Kim is from Nebraska & Gene lives in Nebraska?
I was wondering how Mike found Saul. Then Mike takes the gas cap… Gilligan, you magnificent bastard.
I really don’t think Saul was marching out to the road as a sacrifice — he was ready to die before that. He knew exactly what he was doing (hence him telling Mike to “get that thing ready”) and what I figured Mike would have already thought of — take out the driver and use the truck to get home. Saul was acting as bait in a trap. The fact it didn’t work out is pretty classic Gilligan storytelling, but the intention wasn’t to go die. Mike’s speech worked, or Saul would have just stayed down (as if Mike needed to prompt him to, at first). Saul thought of a way out and tried to take it.
Just wanted to ask if you noticed that right after the terrifying twins leave the garage with the cash, they show a man mostly in the shadows making a phone call and saying something like: I got something for him if he’s still interested”. Are we to assume he’s the one who tipped off the other cartel about the money transfer in the desert? And does anybody know who he was?
Random thought, but when is BCS nominally set? The cousins’ Porsche seemed pretty anachronistic.