In Better Call Saul, it’s all fun and games until someone gets a visit from Mike
Rhea Seehorn makes her stellar directorial debut in a Kim Wexler-intensive episode
TV Reviews Saul
If you’re going to start your directorial career with an episode of TV drama, you could certainly do worse than “Hit And Run.” Saul star Rhea Seehorn not only helmed a Kim Wexler-intensive story that necessitated her directing herself much of the time, but she also included a pair of memorable shots that forecast where several of the characters find themselves by episode’s end (even if one of them is clueless about the danger that surrounds them).
#OperationHumiliateHowardHamlin is proceeding along unabated, while Howard is spending time on his therapist’s couch. (Business is up at HHM, but all is not well between Howard and wife Cheryl.) As Howard begins telling his therapist about a dream he had, the camera goes to a blurry shot of the back of Howard’s head. But that’s not the beginning of a dream sequence, and that’s not actually Howard’s head. It’s Jimmy, in full H.H. cosplay (right down to the deep tan and Hamlindigo Blue knit tie), sneaking around outside the therapist’s office, where Howard’s NAMAST3-ed Jaguar is parked. Jimmy looks up and over his shoulder to see Howard through the window, confirming Fake Howard is free to put his plan in motion.
Meanwhile, we move to another shot, this one of the back of Kim’s head and her iconic ponytail. She’s at a café, moving her chair around and looking over her shoulder to set her place at the table just right. She hides her cellphone on a shelf underneath the table and begins a nervous toe tap, when Cliff Main arrives. As they’re catching up and beginning a discussion that Kim hopes will convince Cliff to partner with her on a project that will allow her to do more pro bono work, she surreptitiously texts a message to Jimmy. Soon, she and Cliff are startled by a car speeding by. The driver stops a short distance away; the passenger door opens, and a woman is pushed out, cursing about the driver owing her money. He speeds away, as a shocked Cliff asks Kim, “Isn’t that Howard?”
Why, no, Cliff, it isn’t. It’s Fake Howard, in the real NAMAST3-mobile, from which our future favorite Breaking Bad Crossroads Motel regular Wendy is shoved. That planting of cocaine (baby powder) in Howard’s golf club locker was the prequel to this ruse, designed to add more doubt in Cliff’s mind about the stability of his Sandpiper Crossing case partner.
The stunt is successful, but after Kim drops off Wendy back at the Crossroads, she picks up a tail. She and Jimmy are giddily recounting their multiple wins with the ploy—in addition to the Howard element, Cliff seemed ready to go full speed ahead with the pro-bono project Kim pitched to him. She asks Jimmy if he ever feels like he’s being followed, because she does. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth,” Jimmy tells her. Does that mean he thinks they’re wicked? No, it’s just a turn of phrase, he says (actually, it’s from the Bible, Proverbs 28:1), and he tries to reassure her she’s only questioning her feelings about the scam and thinking she was followed because they got away with it.
Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen, but Kim’s gut instincts turn out to be more reliable than Jimmy’s Biblical knowledge. She confronts a pair of guys sitting in a car across from the El Camino diner, which has become her de facto office for pro bono clients. The car dudes neither confirm nor deny their purpose there, but when she returns to the El Camino, a guest awaits her at the counter: Mike! It’s their first official meeting, and all those cars that have been following her (all the way back to the one that tailed her and Jimmy from their last meeting with the Kettlemans) are courtesy of him. He drops another bombshell: Lalo is not dead, despite what she heard. He may be planning to approach her and Jimmy, Mike says, so these cars will continue to be a presence. She wants to know why Mike tells her this and not Jimmy. “Because I think you’re made of sterner stuff,” he tells her.
A shaken Kim later meets Jimmy at a strip mall where he is excited to show her the office space he wants to rent since Mrs. Nguyen kicked him out of the salon, and he has a pocket full of retainer money from the flood of clients that want “Salamanca’s guy” to represent them. She’s hesitant, confirming he got all these new clients because of the cartel connection. Plus the place is dirty, smelly, and there’s a toilet sitting right in the middle of the office. But Kim, who doesn’t share Mike’s chat with Jimmy, quickly stops being buzzkill. She points out the office is near the bail bond offices, the jail, the courthouse, and Taco Cabeza, so Jimmy should go for it. All that’s left is to secure the giant inflatable Statue of Liberty, and he’s set.
Kim, meanwhile, is looking over her shoulder as she and Jimmy head off to Taco Cabeza. And she’s not the only one who’s got Lalo on the brain.
This beautifully shot episode opens with a pastel-clad couple riding their bikes through their neighborhood. After a break to drag a nearby home whose owners have painted it “tomato red,” the couple arrives home—a darkened home that harshly contrasts with the sunny day they were just enjoying—where a living room full of computer monitors show cameras trained on the house across the street: Gus’s house.
When Gus arrives at his residence later that day, the sun illuminates his entrance a sliver, and then it fades to darkness once he’s inside. We get our first real glimpse at his full residence—his lair—and his routine, as the camera follows him. The tour reveals his bulletproof vest and gun strapped to his leg. Also, his home is multileveled, with moving bookcases and secret hidden doors, a downstairs passageway, and people milling around, not greeting or acknowledging Gus in any way, even as he passes right by them. After making his way through the labyrinth and up a flight of stairs, Gus arrives…inside the living room where the bike riders with the pastel sweatsuits entered earlier. Mike’s there, and they study that same set of monitors. Mike has men on the job all over town, 18 hours a day, he tells Gus, despite not even a “sprinkle” of Lalo’s presence in town. “Lalo Salamanca is alive,” Gus insists.
Gus, like Lalo, has a compound. His consists not of a ranch in Mexico, but of two suburban houses connected by an underground passageway. Gus, like Kim, is terrified by the prospect of a visit from Lalo Salamanca. While Jimmy, for the moment, remains blissfully ignorant of the menace that may be heading his way, Gus and Kim know. And they’re looking over the shoulders for the monster behind them.
Stray observations
- Mr. and Mrs. Ryman, the bike-riding couple from the opening, are played by real-life married couple Kirk and Joni Bovill.
- The criminals love him, but Jimmy is the scourge of the courthouse now that Bill, Hannah, the Beanie Baby-loving contract counsel administrator, and the security guard all know he’s “Salamanca’s guy.” Deputy DA Bill isn’t content to just snub his one-time frienemy, either. He makes sure Jimmy knows he knows Jimmy scammed the court and put the “murdering cartel psychopath back out on the street.”
- On the other hand, while everyone else may be dealing with his consequences right now, it was a lot of fun seeing the playful side if Jimmy front and center. His pitch to the courthouse administrator (the always fantastic Nadine Marissa) with the graduation cap-wearing owl Beanie Baby was a bust, but this line and Bob Odenkirk’s delivery of it(“I can’t use a pen, I have no opposable thumbs”) is going to make me giggle for a long time.
- Special shoutout to one of the clients loving that Saul is promising “speedy justice for you”: Spooge (David Ury), the memorable meth addict who robs Skinny Pete (and whose head meets the business end of an ATM machine) in the Breaking Bad episode “Peekaboo” (season 2, episode 6). And remember, it’s just Spooge, not “Mr. Spooge”; you can dispense with the formalities as far as Spooge is concerned.
- Now that Kim seems likely to get Cliff’s support for her pro-bono efforts, does she still need to get Jimmy’s Sandpiper settlement so desperately? If not, doesn’t that mean she will be forced to admit to herself that she’s really trying to ruin Howard’s reputation just because she doesn’t like him? Will she be able to continue breaking bad, or be able to live with herself, if the consequences of that plot go further than she expects? Like maybe Chuck-level consequences? With Howard’s marital woes on top of what Kim and Jimmy have planned for him, his life could spiral downward very quickly.
- I don’t think Jimmy bought Wendy that case of root beer he promised her.
155 Comments
Best scheme ever. From Jimmy’s Howard hair to the hooker getting tossed out of the car, to the sign falling over at the end—-non stop laughter.I keep going between Kim getting offed, leaving, or going to jail, and this week seemingly hinted at the first one unfortunately.But again, that might just be misdirection, as is usual for this show.
I felt like Mike’s “You’re made of sterner stuff” was foreshadowing, I just can’t decide what it was foreshadowing.
My gut feeling since season 1 has always been that Kim doesn’t die, but I also have never bought into the notion that she’s hanging just off camera throughout Breaking Bad. Especially given what’s unfolded this season and last, my guess is that she has to skip town for some yet unforseen reason (maybe involving their scheme against Howard, or Lalo, or both) via “the Disappearer.” So when Mike said that to her this episode, that was my same reaction—it’s a little foreshadowing for her life on the run.And maybe it’s the hopeless romantic in me, but I think she and “Gene” will reunite in the present.
My gut agrees with your gut. My gut is also telling me that Kim never meets Walt and Jesse, so it would seem either Kim goes into witness protection involving Lalo (and NOT dying!) … or Kim gets the slammer due to something involving Howard. However with a returning Walt and Jesse in the back half of the season, it could give the writers some leeway to retcon a bit here and there. “A bit” I stress. Probably just in the margins. Depending too on whether Walt is around for some extra plot, and not just a doom-signifying cameo.
I think it’s really interesting what we know Saul DOESN’T ever know.In BB, Saul has apparently learnt that Lalo is alive, but has NOT learnt that he is dead (which presumably he is, since it’s hard to imagine him hanging around yet never taking any part in anything that happens in BB). Although Saul in BCS has reasons to be afraid of Lalo, I don’t think there’s enough connection between them to make him automatically assume that anyone trying to kill him must have been sent by Lalo. He also currently has no particularly reason to blame Nacho for anything, unless he picks a name at random. So presumably Saul at the very least learns more about what’s going on, and possibly even meets and double-crosses Lalo again. On the other hand, Saul apparently never finds out that Nacho is dead, which is information that everyone on the cartel side now has. So how does he end up knowing enough to blame Nacho, but not enough to know that the cartel already know that Nacho is dead?
[or wait, I guess Lalo could be in prison? That would explain him sending people rather than coming himself, I guess. But also: why is Saul afraid of Lalo specifically, and not the cartel in general – why wouldn’t Lalo share any concerns with his family?]I do like the way that most of BCS’ plot seems to be not just a prequel for BB in general, but to specifically be a prequel to explain a few lines of originally random dialogue in one scene…[it’s also mind-blowing to remember that this show was originally meant to be a half-hour case-of-the-week comedy… and then was meant to have Jimmy go full Saul after just one season…]While I’m at it: could someone remind me what the hell Jimmy thinks is going on with Mike!?
Agreed. We have to meet Ed at some point this season. If we are going to see Walter and Jesse, we have to see Ed because Saul already knows about him at that point. I think it’s totally plausible that Kim uses his services and disappears to the Omaha area, which is why Saul picked it. Of course, since both have disappeared and don’t know each other’s new identities, they don’t know who to look for.
Not to be a downer, but with Robert Forster dead, I don’t think they’re going to do some awkward thing to act as if there’s a meeting. I think we can assume that Jimmy meets Ed at some point during the intervening years between Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad.
That’s entirely possible, but I think Forster might have one more surprise us. The man worked through brain cancer to complete El Camino. I’m betting he recorded enough audio to stitch together a few more phone calls for the final season of BCS.
I like this idea, but if Kim is from Nebraska it would seem to be quite a risk to go back there with a new identity.
That could pose a problem, though maybe not a big as it may seem. She was from a small town on the Kansas/Nebraska line and doesn’t really seem to maintain any ties with her family. I’d say she’d be safe as long as she didn’t make her way to her hometown.
In theory, a LOT of stuff has to happen between now and when Walt shows up in a few episodes. By which time in the BB world Saul’s office is up and smoothly running, he’s got ads blanketing TV (people treat him as a minor local celebrity), he’s met Ed, and he’s hired Mike as a semi-full-time PI seemingly without realising that he’s also Fring’s top lieutenant.
I have long thought that she’s going to eventually be in the market for a Hoover Max Extract Pressure Pro 60 filter.
And maybe it’s the hopeless romantic in me, but I think she and “Gene” will reunite in the present. She’s definitely tracking him down, IMO.
I read an intriguing speculation that Kim might end up accidentally killing Howard. Figuring that Saul was behind this latest “prank,” Howard goes to confront Kim, who is unraveling from paranoia over Lalo, and Kim fatally shoots Howard, mistaking him for Lalo. Kim then either calls the vacuum guy or is arrested for manslaughter.
I can’t help but wonder if it was a coincidence that Gene ends up in Kim’s home state.
Whats really interesting is doesn’t Jimmy/Saul call exactly where he will end up? I’m pretty sure he says something about ending up “managing a cinnabon in omaha” well before he actually goes to the vacuum man.
I believe it’s Kim that Gene sees when he’s on the phone with the cleaner
I think her being off camera the whole time in Nebraska with Jimmy would be unsatisfying. While he’s a fun character, he’s a pretty awful person, both in Better Call Saul and (especially) Breaking Bad. If he gets a happy-ish ending, I think that has to come with a significant amount of suffering, not a swell life with his wife in hiding.
I don’t think I can handle this show having a completely bleak ending. It’s bad enough knowing Mike’s going to get shot by that tighty-whitey-wearing dipshit!
I wonder if there are subtle references to Shakespearean tragedy in this episode? “Sterner stuff” is from Julius Caesar (“Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”) And Kim is wearing earrings shaped like daggers, which made me think of Macbeth (another tragedy with ambition as a theme). Both plays involve assassination (connecting to the character assassination in this episode?) and of course Kim and Saul as a conspiratorial couple.
You might also have detected Kim’s “Dorothy” arc. Remember when she just went a few feet out of the “Land of Enchantment” when her car got stuck in the sand and she had to push it off, that was a close call. (Land of Enchantment is New Mexico’s nickname or such, it’s under the license plates etc.), I’ve noticed it before and I realized I wasn’t alone either. Funny how she is from Nebraska but right on the border of Kansas on top of it all.
Hard for me to buy Jimmy continuing his jovial clown persona from BrBa if Kim is murdered due to his actions in BCS. Gotta think that would certainly crush his spirit.I don’t know what they’re going to do with her on the show. I’ve even entertained the idea of revealing her long conning Jimmy for half the Sandpiper money as payback for the Mesa Verde call center fiasco. Doesn’t work though. I think she has to just leave, money or no. Anything worse, Saul Goodman can’t exist.
Marrying Jimmy is a long way to go for a long con.
Forever my favorite Mr Show sketch
It’s a facade…he’s also a nervous wreck who has a drawer filled with Xanax from his “chiropractor”, by season 5 of BrBa he’s in complete meltdown most of the time.
I think at this point if Kim goes down, it won’t be because of Jimmy’s behavior. The show’s been pretty clear that she’s the gas at this point, and he’s the brakes.
Unless it’s an extreme coping mechanism. Act as Saul. Be Saul. Feel none of Jimmy’s pain.
Yeah, but what if Jimmy with his spirit crushed is just flat-out, meth-king-consigliare Saul?It’s not that simple, because we’ve also seen Gene, who is Saul with his spirit crushed. But I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that BB-era Saul may have been harbouring a fair amount of pain, guilt and despair beneath his glossy exterior. [I remember BB-era Saul as being considerably nastier and colder than BCS-Saul has ever been so far…]
Hard for me to buy Jimmy continuing his jovial clown persona from BrBa if Kim is murdered due to his actions in BCS. Gotta think that would certainly crush his spirit.I don’t know what they’re going to do with her on the show. I’ve even entertained the idea of revealing her long conning Jimmy for half the Sandpiper money as payback for the Mesa Verde call center fiasco. Doesn’t work though. I think she has to just leave, money or no. Anything worse, Saul Goodman can’t exist.
His hair really did look good.
I’m very curious how they caused the sign to fall over with perfect timing like that. I’m sure something was CGI’d out.
Dont be too sure, remember “pizza on the house” was accomplished in 1 take, lol.
I’ve got another abstract theory to lay down for Kim’s future:Rather than her being tangled in the web of all these power players, Kim turns out to be the puppeteer. Jimmy/Saul becomes a dubious success under Kim’s tutelage, and Kim collects a stash of cash from the operation and moves on to bigger and better things while Jimmy moves on to the Omaha mall Cinnabon.
I like everything up until the Cinnabon theory—-unless we’ve been purposefully and completely misled regarding Jimmy’s future, he appears to be depressed and completely alone in the Cinnabon “flash foward” segments.I think no matter what happens, whether Kim is the puppet master, she leaves him by some way at some point (death, jail, just leaving). Or maybe he leaves her to protect her from the cartel, etc.
I mentioned this in one of the other reviews, but it would not surprise me at all if we get a scene set right after Saul’s mock execution by Walt and Jessie in the desert. He tells her the story and she sees the potential to make money and nudges him towards visiting Walter at the high school to continue their relationship.
That may have been the original plan…but I find it difficult to believe that the writers will be able to bring themselves to kill her character off at this point.
You have to admit, it would be a ballsy move though.This is not a story that probably has a happy ending.Hey, maybe Kim cheats on Jimmy with Jesse or Walt, when they show up this season, lol.
Hey, maybe Kim cheats on Jimmy with Jesse or Walt, when they show up this season, lol.
No, his step-dad has to show up so she can fuck him. In Breaking Bad he tells Walt that his second wife cheated on him with his step dad.
I had the opposite emotional reaction. I have no objection to the scene, which was well done as always. (And Jimmy dressed as Howard was a nice gag.) But I’m finding this plan far less fun than a lot of Jimmy’s hijinks, which I think is the point. Its only purpose is cruelty. Jimmy and Kim want to take Howard down because he dared to think he was better than Jimmy, which he is. Again, I have no objection to this from a story perspective — this season was always going to be pretty bleak. But it’s not as enjoyable as watching Jimmy describe the “Squat Cobbler.”
Oh I know—the overall intent is cruel, but I just meant it was hilariously planned and executed.
My bf brought up the possibility that she is the first one to use the services of the ‘Vacuum’ guy and has to disappear at some point. I told him other than the actor – Robert Forster – being deceased, he may be on to something. Maybe we meet someone who runs another end of his business??
I’m usually leaning towards Kim leaving/having to leave rather than getting killed, because like others have said, it is probably unlikely that Saul Goodman continues on if his actions were responsible for her death.But her leaving and not coming back (however and why she does it) would seemingly fit “post-BB depressed fast food Jimmy” flashforwards nicely.
They’re not gonna kill her, you idiot
Saul in BrBa isn’t operating like someone whose wife was murdered
to the sign falling over at the endthis was road runner / tunnel painted on the wall level of comedy
Show some respect — that’s not just some hooker. That’s WENDY!
the whole plan doesn’t make any sense. using the real car while he’s at the doctor gives him an easy way to show he’s being framed. next step is “who wanna frame me?” from there to “wait, you were with Kim while this happened?” is a minute. it’s just so dumber than any other Saul’s scheme. cannot cope with it
Jimmy has a point. Who does move a cone?
Anybody who drives an Audi.Another Useless Douchebag Inside.(looks at aging Audi in driveway)Confirmed.
Audi driver. Second confirmation. But this time it was a BMW. An even bigger sign that the driver is a self-centered asshole.
Burn My Wallet?
It wouldn’t be portable if you weren’t meant to move it.
Imagine if it was the KEN WINS plate, that’d be an interesting twist. Total self-centered douche by outward appearance, but visits a psychiatrist on the regular.
Audis are the Unix of cars.
Should’ve tried a lawn chair.You can start a war in some places by moving a lawn chair.
Especially if that chair is at a snow cleared curb
Yep. Here in Philly, traffic cones are a joke. Using your lawn furniture to “save” a parking space is treated more respectfully.
I live in the suburbs, but know so many people in the Northeast and have seen the lawn chair thing for years!
A turd.
A turd would move a cone or a turd would have worked better?
Fucking lawyers.
would have been less risky to have someone park their car in his place and move at the last minute. wouldn’t have trusted a cone
I live in Philadelphia. Moving a traffic cone to create a parking space is just another day, here.
As a Chicagoan who has suffered through my entire street calling “dibs” on every single parking space for multiple blocks with cones, lawn chairs, etc. for like 6 weeks straight because they shoveled the snow out of a spot once, I can confirm that “I am the one who knocks”…over the cone and takes the spot.
Chicagoans
Real talk: Jimmy has significantly improved his Howard cosplay since the first time we saw it. I had to see him a couple of times to be sure it actually was Bob Odenkirk.
Mrs. F.: “He wears a clip on tie! His whole life is a fraud!”
Lol, honestly, yea. That kinda cut me deep
I was shocked at that revelation as well!
I believe he’s wearing the clip-on as a safety measure so he can’t be grabbed by the tie. I’m pretty sure I remember he straightens his tie a lot of BB and BCS and it looks like a real tie.
It’s the same reason Gus has half a closet of drab yellow shirts, when we see him wear much nicer clothing in other contexts. The clip-on tie and yellow shirt sends a signal to the world that Gus is a more of a middle-management type who did well for himself than some kind of business genius.
And the Volvo station car.
Those Chelsea boots on the other hand: I want them.
Comment on another discussion site is that around the neck ties are a hazard if someone tries to grab/harm/abduct/kill you. Person grabbing a clip-on would be startled and fall back, losing balance…giving you time to escape. Or pull your gun from its ankle holster. So, maybe Gus is careful, not tacky.
If that were true, you’d think he’d wear clip-on ties in his interactions with other criminal figures. But he doesn’t — the last thing he does before dying is straighten and tighten his tie, and you can’t tighten a clip-on tie.
Had a buddy who worked at Ford back in the day. He was a manager and wore a tie on the factory floor but it had to be a clip-0n for safety reasons.
Yes. New Special Agents are told to always wear a clip on while making an arrest in a suit.
OR OR OR he always wears clip on ties so there’s nothing around his neck.I saw a behind-the-scenes vlog of Emirates flight attendants recently, and they all wear clip ons so they can easily get it out of the way in an emergency.Of course, Gus does adjust his tie right before he dies…
So the Bike-Riding couple work for Gus too? Cause they seem to be real residents, based on their Homeowners regulations convo. They’ve been undercover WAY too long!
They must be. At first I thought they were just neighbors who Gus might have bought out their house to be in this situation, but there’s no way he would be able to do something like that. He had to have planned the whole “compound” out before either of them purchased their respective homes. Talk about a long-term planner, that Gus!
I’m guessing that their routine was a drawn-out Fake Out for the audience, the better to have the big Reveal in the Control Room. Well played, Ms. Wexler!
Westworld style robots. That’s what he does with his meth millions.
Even meth kingpins and their minions can’t avoid HOA bullshit.
Is there any possibility Gus doesn’t control the HOA
Zero. You know the HOA meetings are catered by him too.
Now we’re gonna neec a Gus prequel that explains how he built that residential compound. No way that tunnel excavation waa disguised as a little extra compost.
The Rymans suck. Fuck HOAs. Enjoy your tomato red house, whoever you are.
I liked that color!
It really was kind of a nice color. For that style of house and the look of the landscape, it actually worked pretty well imo.
I don’t love that color, but when we saw that house my wife and I talked about how whoever owns it got a nice fresh paint job from the production company
It was a CGI paint job!
Who else thought for a second that Noho Hank showed up in the car following Kim?
I haven’t even started Barry yet and that was my first thought.
I thought it for a second and now that second has turned into hours:
yes
That would’ve been the greatest TV crossover since the Laff-A-Lympics. I would’ve celebrated with babka. Maybe two babka.
OK, it wasn’t just me.
Greatest crossover ever
Ditto here. It was clear pretty quick that it wasn’t him (and that would be weird stunt casting) but I almost (sans any evidence, of course) feel like they cast that guy specifically because he resembles Anthony Carrigan, maybe as a nod to Barry.
Yup, it did look like him.
I thought it was the cab driver (Don Harvey) who Gene met at the mall.
“I’m like super excited for this stakeout.”
I definitely did. I’m glad someone else mentioned it
100%
Can someone please tell the new recapper that we read the AV Club for more than a literal summary of the episode we just watched? I’m used to more insight and better writing for the top shows.
Mrs. Potts has huge shoes to fill, but she’s gotten better than her first review IMO. You can read Donna on her substack if you want, we’ve kind of been over this.
what, a lazy synopsis doesn’t add to the conversation?
I know that wordy summaries have de rigueur around this place for a while, but to lose Donna for this, and without a word of mention over her parting . . . such a shame.
Oh get over it
You just did.Besides, the best part of any AVC article is the comments. Or at least it used to be.
Look, if we wanted something with more insight we would be over at Rolling Stone reading Sepinwall’s recap.
Meh, I just come here and go straight to the comments anymore. Much more interesting and insightful.
Where have you been. That incarnation of the AV Club, of blessed memory, died years ago. Everytime I visit this site now, which is rare, I ask myself why I bothered.
“Hamlindigo Blue knit tie” heheh. I love that Howard has an iconic look. While I’m not thrilled about their plot to destroy him (I find him oddly sympatheic), the length of these schemes have been quite something to watch unfold. Even the need to reposition the parking sign was harrowing. Really great direction from Seehorn. It falling just as Howard drove away was also a nice touch.I also liked following Gus at home, a wordless scene that a) even without context, tells you everything you need to know about this character. 2) with context, actually makes him make more sense, given the life he leads. In the back of my mind, I’ve always wondered how someone so careful, with such contentious relationships, could just walk around so cool, like he isn’t concerned about attempts on his life at all times. Turns out… he is.
I watched some clips from back in Breaking Bad. Gus seems a bit more positive and upbeat there, at least sometimes (e.g. the sequence where he invites Walt over for dinner); in BCS he’s just grim menacing gloom all the time.
That’s true. His public face was quite pleasant to help hide the facade. But I guess that’s because at that point in the timeline, he was sitting pretty.
Yeah, and BB is 4-5 years after BCS, too, so certainly things could have changed: several years of relative peace in the ABQ drug trade could have gotten Gus to relax a bit.
Just the sight of Jimmy Howard gave me my best laugh in weeks.
Reminds me of, “Hey, you’re not Kevin Costner!” . . . . “I was last night.”
Please, Mr Spooge is my fathers name.Just can just call me Spooge.
That’s just such a hideously apt name for a late-career meth head.
The last scene scared the fuck out of me
y
Really not digging the destruction of Howard. It’s just mean-spirited.
I’m not sure I really get Kim’s mentality this season. I’ve understood it in past seasons, she clearly gets excitement out of the schemes and she also justifies taking advantage of bad people as a step towards helping the poor and unfortunate folks eaten up by the system.But going after Howard like this makes no real sense as he’s repeatedly shown to be an all-around decent guy. It makes me dislike her as a character for the first time since the show has started and I’ve started to worry as much about Howard’s fate as Kim’s.
I think we’re meant to feel that way. Howard didn’t treat her well when she was at HHM but he was very generous and professional when she left. I think since she went all-in on Jimmy, she has to keep Howard a villain in her own mind to deal with the guilt she might feel over how she was able to secure Mesa Verde as a client (due to Jimmy’s fraud) and what happened to Chuck.
I think it goes back to him not “doing the right thing” by Chuck and buying him out when it was clear Chuck was incapacitated. Dick move, but probably in the best interests of the firm from both reputational and financial perspectives. And he probably thought he was giving Kim a teachable moment, even if it was also pretty much a dick move / power play. But generally he’s a pro and right about cases, the firm’s business, and people.
He may be a good guy in general, but he did screw her when he didn’t have to, for things that weren’t directly her fault.
I think you’re maybe remembering S2 a bit incorrectly. Kim directly tells Jimmy that she vouched for him and convinced Howard to use his friendship with Cliff to get Jimmy a job. So she is directly responsible for Jimmy having the job on Howard’s recommendation.And then when Jimmy airs that ad for the Sandpiper case, Kim takes some of the responsibility to shield Jimmy instead of telling Howard and Chuck the truth – that she didn’t know Cliff hadn’t approved it. Now maybe the punishment was too severe but Kim definitely deserved to lose some amount of trust from Howard.
He had the nerve to advise her that Jimmy was bad news. That seemed to be what set her off.
I’ve been confused these last two episodes. I don’t know if I missed something. Last week, Kim asked Jimmy if he wanted to be a rat, with all the forcefulness of a hammer. And now she’s seeing how his life is going—filthy, smelly, with criminals—and she seems disappointed. She can see where they are diverging. But she told him not to take the deal with the DA! Did I misinterpret that?? By him not taking a deal, Jimmy is being shunned and has to take up with the criminal element and become Saul. I’m missing something, right?
Yeah, I’m not sure what they’re going for here. If there’s one character on that show that I don’t want to be fridged by contrived bullshit, it’s Kim Wexler.
All-around decent guy? Watch the earlier fucking seasons and pay attention this time to his interactions with Kim
I don’t think being cold at work or upset with employees who have let him down makes him a terrible person. Certainly don’t think him freezing out Kim justifies what Kim and Jimmy are conspiring to do to him. I never said he was the best person, just decent.
I see this partly as something Kim is doing as a way to “keep up” with the new and evolving Saul Goodman, who seems to be becoming more and more okay with being a “friend of the cartel”. I first felt that vibe when Jimmy warns Kim near the end of Season 5 “Kim, doing this, it’s not you. You would not be okay with it, not in the cold light of day.” to which she responds “Wouldn’t I ?”. The sunk cost fallacy is at play yet again – she sees Jimmy gradually moving towards a place she probably never imagined herself being in before and she either has to give up on him – probably the right move – or she has to try and follow along with him as much as she can bring herself to.
Me either. Their behavior is sociopathic imo.
I think Ms. Seehorn’s direction may have tricked both the reviewer and most viewers, because Howard mentioning his wife is purposely played as something insignificant in the opening scene and it only gets a passing mention in this review. However, I’m pretty sure this is the first time we find out that Howard actually has a family, and that’s a pretty big deal. If you want to pick any scene that’s likely foreshadowing something, that was it.
I think you’re right. We’ve pretty much only seen Howard in work-mode, and he clearly works very hard to keep his family’s business a success, despite countless setbacks over the course of the series, many of which were caused by Jimmy and/or Kim. Now that we know he’s also got a closed-off wife at home, this revelation that he’s frequenting prostitutes and using drugs could have awful effects on his not-so-great home life. I feel bad for Howard.
I think it’s telling us that Howard’s a more vulnerable person than Kim and Jimmy know. They’ve been clear that they don’t intend this scheme to ruin him, and they probably expect the unflappable Howard to bounce back quickly, with people quickly forgetting some troubling rumors about him. But his life is actually pretty sad.
He’s very vulnerable. So much so that after this, he goes back in time and kills Cliff Main’s wife by tossing her off a boat and ends up being arrested by Keith Mars.
That’s not Keith Mars. Sure, it looks like Keith Mars’ body, but by that point his mind has already been overwritten by Traveler 001.Besides, I think Howard was already pretty much broken by that whole dandelion fuel obsession period…
As amusing as it is to scoff at clueless Howard and his “NAMAST3″ license plate, he’s been coming across as a far more sympathetic figure than Kim or Jimmy. Even if he’s motivated mostly by guilt, I give him credit for suffering property damage and public embarrassment at Jimmy’s hands and still being willing to hire him. Howard at least wants to make amends and achieve some measure of reconciliation and healing, while Jimmy and Kim are mired in petty revenge fantasies. And we see now that despite Howard’s immense privilege and beneath his complacent veneer, he’s also just an ordinary human being, dealing with his own share of pain.
If Mike already knows Jimmy and Kim well enough to observe Kim is made of “sterner” stuff than Jimmy, then you could argue Howard almost definitely has that same understanding of the difference between the two. Howard has offered reconciliation with Jimmy because he sees both the pain and potential hidden beneath the “clown” persona, whereas he was harder on Kim back in the early seasons cause he likely has some sort of “bullshit” detector going off with her. There is still a lot to be learned about Kim’s backstory going into these final episodes…
Howard is, for want of a better phrase, grinning through the pain. We already knew that he feels regrets about not hanging out his own shingle and having to play the part of his father’s son every day. Now we know that he also feels stuck in his family life. He’s powering through his life on an optimistic nature and as much generic positive thinking as he can summon up (namaste!) It’s pretty sympathetic. Everyone on this show contains multitudes.
I agree, this is a significant detail. Kim and Jimmy have justified their war on Howard by saying he’ll only suffer a “career setback.” They see their actions as affecting only his professional life. But there’s a real possibility that their shenanigans will end up breaking Howard’s (already strained) marriage. If that happens, Kim and Jimmy will have gone way over the line, not only violating Howard’s personal life, but involving an innocent party as collateral damage. The “something unforgivable” they’re trying to foist on Howard may be about to bounce right back in their faces.
Actually they have already gone way over the line from a professional standpoint. But what may be next could get into something illegal and certainly worthy of disbarment in the real world.
Best way to watch this show:1. watch episode2. read av club reviews3. watch episode again and see a hundred things you didn’t notice the first time4. thank all the reviewers that can somehow focus on the smallest of details
Why is everyone so worried about Lalo? I’m sure if he comes after Kim, she can just give him another stern lecture.
I agree with the praise for Seehorn’s direction. This show is always a visual feast, and there was no inconsistency on her watch, which is notable in her first directing job. But the bar for this show is so high that this episode felt like a significant letdown after the tension/excitement of the last several episodes (this season and the end of last). They can’t all be bangers of course, but this one was honestly kind of boring and it didn’t feel like much of consequence took place (by typical standards). Even #OperationHumiliateHowardHamlin wasn’t that exciting. And as much of a respected veteran as Ed Begley is at this point, these days his acting is excruciatingly wooden. It’s hard to watch his scenes and not think he’s mentally incapacitated. I would have given it a B.
For me this was by far the best episode of the season, and felt like a return-to-form.THIS is the “real” BCS for me, the Jimmy/Kim show – they’re the best characters, the best actors and the most intriguing story. The cartel stuff is nice but it was never the strength of the show – there’s much better shows out there for that kind of stuff, down to BCS’s embarrassing Spanish accents, mediocre action scenes, the fact that nobody can ever die because they’re all on BB, and don’t get me started on the cousins who are somehow even more ridiculous here than they were in BB. Nacho was a good character (superbly acted by Mando) but always felt like a side quest that somehow took over the main ordeal.BCS was always best at character development and emotions and I’m glad those things are taking the focus again. I was afraid the final season is going to be just a bunch of faux climaxes and action scenes, it’s good to know the character stuff is still around. It was a beautiful episode, while still maintaining the dread and paranoia feeling that hangs over the show (particularly in Lalo’s shadow over everything, but also because of how uncomfortably cruel the Howard plan is).
That was kind of Ed Bagley’s character in the short-lived “Blunt Talk,” – a guy with dementia.
I have a lot of sympathy for Howard this season (and really in every season). He’s trying to be a nice guy, he sure didn’t deserve a lot of what Saul has already done to him, but…he DID treat Kim abysmally. She may be focusing on that, and who can blame her…?I think Gus’ clip-on tie was a perfect touch. Despite his obvious-to-us wealth, he dresses like a manager/owner of a fast food chicken chain. Also – I know Gus isn’t one to get his hands too dirty, but if you are ever in a situation where it’s possible someone might try to hurt you? you don’t wear a noose around your neck….
I agree about Howard. He is an interesting character, a slimy countenance that hides a sincere and decent enough person. Also, he did pay for Kim’s Law School tuition and waived repayment which she seems to have forgotten.Never wear a real tie when about to enter an arrest situation or other type of physical confrontation. (per SOP)
Kim is going to jail. Don’t know how, don’t know why, but I’m convinced she’s going to the slammer. Maybe she and Gene get to reunite in the end?
Only reason I’d doubt that is that from what we’ve seen of Jimmy, he’d be working night and day on a scheme to get Kim out of jail, and you never really got an inkling that he was preoccupied in BB. Been a while since I’ve rewatched so I could be overlooking something.
There’s a scene in Breaking Bad where Walter is walking toward’s Gus’s house to confront him about something, and he phone rings. It’s Mike, who tells him to “Go Home, Walter.” Now we get an idea of where Mike was when he called, and how he knew where Walter was going.
I also believe Jimmy is far too casual in BB to have lost Kim.