Better Call Saul‘s midseason premiere is the bloody beginning of the end
"Point And Shoot” is a thrilling lead-up to the beloved series' finale
TV Reviews Better Call Saul
Viewers have long wondered why Kim Wexler never appeared in Breaking Bad. Death, we have feared, would be the only thing that would separate the McGills, right? But a clearer picture has shaped up as a real possibility over this final season. And it’s a heartbreaker.
But first, let’s backtrack. Jimmy and Kim’s plan worked. They humiliated Howard and ikely forced a premature settlement in the Sandpiper case—even if it may mean Jimmy’s share of the loot will now net less capital for Kim’s startup firm. But, as Howard pointed out in his big, final, truth-bomb-dropping speech in the mid-season finale, that wasn’t really the point of the couple’s cruel vendetta against him. They tortured him, both of them, for the fun of it.
But who’s having fun now?
With Lalo casually killing Howard like some annoying, easily-rid-of collateral damage, Kim and Jimmy were left to deal with the most clever of the Salamancas. And he didn’t want explanations about what Jimmy did or didn’t tell anyone about the trip to the desert or representing Lalo’s legal affairs. He wanted access to his true, ultimate enemy: Gustavo Fring.
And he had, in true Lalo style, a simple, cleverly crafted plan to get it: He would hold Kim hostage, while Jimmy was sent off in his car, with a gun and a camera in the glove box. Jimmy was to knock on Gus’ door, and when he answered it, Jimmy was to unload the gun at Gus and take a photo of his dead body. It’s like one of those party-game questions that pose how far you would go to protect your loved one. Would you kill someone to save their life? Lalo was betting Jimmy—so lucky to be with a woman like Kim, to begin with, as Lalo tells him—will go for it. Jimmy flips the deal around, though, and convinces Lalo to hold him in the apartment with Howard’s dead body, while Kim is given the assignment to go murder a stranger and make it back with photographic evidence within 60 minutes.
Jimmy’s not being a weasel, of course. He pleads for Lalo’s sign-off to send Kim on the task and for Kim’s agreement to go and save her life—or at least have the chance to. When he looks at her and begs her to be the one to make the kill, he really just wants her to leave their home, to get away from Lalo and the gun he’s holding on them. Maybe he thinks she’ll come up with an alternative plan along the way. Maybe he thinks that to save him, she’ll make it to the house and commit that unforgivable assignment. But the look in his eyes when he peers into hers, desperately asking her to go, says that he thinks there’s a good chance he’s saying goodbye to her forever—and that he’s at peace with that decision.
Kim gets to the house, Gus’ compound, and is stopped by Mike and his men before she can do any damage, and before Lalo and Gus can have their inevitable showdown (more on that in a minute). But for Kim and Jimmy, the damage—more collateral damage—is done. They both survive Lalo’s second dangerous visit to their home, which, this time, has been left covered in Howard’s splattered brains and a huge pool of his blood. Home, and the recent events it hosted, is never going to feel like home again.
But the McGills are hoisted by their own petards. It’s not just about the aftermath of Howard’s death and its physical stains on their apartment. Mike and his men work that out quickly enough. It’s about Kim and Jimmy having to go right back to their daily lives. They have to live with the fact that Howard wouldn’t have even been at their apartment if he hadn’t come to roast them, to let them know he knew every single nasty thing they had done to him, knew how long and how much effort it took for them to plan it, and knew what truly disturbed motivations inspired them.
They now have to live with themselves and each other, and I’m not sure that will be possible, the living with each other part. We still have five precious episodes left before the series ends, but we may already have the crux of what happens to Jimmy and Kim and the reason for the Kim-less years ahead. How could anyone, even the two individuals who pulled off the things they did to Howard, go forward with their life together, knowing what they, together, have wrought? And let’s not forget: Jimmy still isn’t aware that Kim knew Lalo was alive. She didn’t trust him enough to have that information. That confrontation is inevitable and inevitably devastating.
And there should be plenty of time left to focus on a possible marital collapse, because two of the best villains in the Better Call Saul/Breaking Bad universe collided, and only one is left standing (though much worse for the wear). Gus unloaded his gun into Lalo in the meth lab under the laundry, just where we suspected something big would go down when Gus hid his firearm at the construction site in “Black And Blue.”
It’s sad to lose such an entertaining, charming baddie, especially with several episodes still remaining, but Lalo’s intent on filming the lab to present proof of Gus’ schemes to Don Eladio led to a worthy face-off. Gus felt free to spit his tirade at the camera (he addressed Eladio as “you greasy, bloated pimp”), sure he was going to kill Lalo or die himself if he didn’t. Lalo, meanwhile, was just as certain he would emerge victorious from the lab, video in hand. It was a satisfying end to the Lalo/Gus chapter of the cartel war, even if the brightest of the Salamancas is gone while rather hapless hotheads Hector and Tuco live to torment another day. And, of course, we know Hector will get his vengeance against Gus, who will ultimately be hoisted by his own petard by allowing Tio Salamanca to live.
Let’s end with a shoutout that brings us back to the beginning: Gordon Smith, the former Vince Gilligan assistant who created the Lalo character and wrote classic Saul eps like “Five-O,” “Chicanery,” and “Bagman,” as well as this one, does a fine job of driving home the tragedy and randomness of Howard’s death. Howard’s reputation, which he was sure he would be able to repair, is now permanently ruined. And though he had absolutely no connection to the cartel, and didn’t even suspect Jimmy had such ties, he is now buried with the man who killed him, under the future site of a huge meth lab. This episode is Smith’s final script for the series, one that is wonderfully paired with Gilligan’s thrilling direction.
Stray observations
- Big claps and a standing ovation to Tony Dalton, who certainly made his stamp on the show as Lalo. It’s only because Saul has such a deep bench of talent that he, like Michael Mando (Nacho), isn’t likely to get the Emmy nomination he has earned.
- Lalo’s description of Gus to Kim and Jimmy—a housecat who looks like a librarian—was a gem.
- That episode opening, with the men’s dress shoe floating: Didn’t you immediately know it was Howard’s, even before you saw the “NAMASTE” license plate?
- And the man most frustratingly denied an Emmy for his Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul work, Jonathan Banks (who has been nominated five times for those shows), gave a typically outstanding performance as Mike ran the three-ring circus of trying to protect Gus while also dealing with some guilt about Jimmy and Kim (and Howard). Mike had pulled the Lalo watch detail off Kim and Jimmy’s apartment, something she screamed at him about when she was at Gus’ compound. Then he got to the McGills’ apartment, saw Howard, and quickly pieced together what must have happened to him. After his men carelessly tossed Lalo into the meth lab grave, he told them to be “easy” when placing Howard’s body down there. Class act.
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One thing that has bothered me (and really, it did since the original BB run) was that it seemed highly unlikely that constantly stumbling Walter White would ever be good enough to not only get over Gus, but Mike too. This episode actually showed that both are fallible—-Gus, for getting his entire crew killed by one guy, and Mike for not realizing that Lalo is too smart to have sent Kim or Jimmy to shoot Gus in the face. He had to have known that Lalo knew that Gus would be protected. So, a moment of weakness for both.As for the rest, I hate to sound like a broken record, but my God, Rhea was bringing it in those opening scenes all the way to Gus’ house. What a performance.I think people are probably right and that Kim gets “vacuumed” but I almost wish something else happens because it would be a telegraphed play, and usually this series is not that direct about things. Just don’t kill her, Vince!Also, poor Howard, dumped into a ditch with a cartel king, lol. And kudos to Tony for a wonderfully played character in Lalo.
There’s a darker possible timeline where Kim can’t handle the trauma she’s been subjected to and is never the same women again.
She’s gonna take over the cartel
*womandidn’t realize that Kim had multiple personality disorder, you motherfucking dumb fuck.
I think it wasn’t until he heard Kim say that Jimmy talked Lalo into changing his mind that Gus knew the assassination plot was just a diversion. Lalo wouldn’t have listened to Jimmy if that was his real plan.
Pretty convenient that guard just happened to miss Lalo on the monitors.A simple “Yeah, Lalo” would’ve been nice when the guard asked Gus if there’s anything they should be looking for, instead of letting them all get shot. Was Gus so proud of his plan that he just let them get shot?
And are Mike’s guys at the lab all dead? Seems like Mike would’ve brought that up to Gus in quite a rage. I thought they’d all end up in that hole with Howard and Lalo.
And Lalo must’ve known quite a shortcut to get there so fast, even if he purposely sent Kim the long way.
I think Gus’s biggest weakness is probably that he has such a hard time expressing what he’s thinking or feeling tbh xD I’m not surprised that he didn’t say anything to his men, because he hardly ever tells anyone what’s on his mind, and I think that’s probably a side effect of him working so hard to keep his cool and live a dual life as a fast food manager and drug lord. His Composure stat is over-leveled (I’ve been playing Disco Elysium lately and that’s what it makes me think of lol)
Lalo’s triumphant twirling mustache villain trope was stretched a bit thin, considering it took just a split second oversight and his rapid appearance to set things in motion. And why Gus didn’t let Mike in on his suspicions was equally frustrating to us viewers as well. But that cathartic moment between Lalo and Gus wouldn’t otherwise have taken place, making it somewhat forgivable.
I think Fring will see both Kim and Jimmy as potential liabilities and rationalize/convince them to ‘temporarily’ go underground separately for their ‘own protection’, then have Kim eliminated without Jim’s or Mike’s knowledge. Jimmy/Gene may put the pieces together while in Omaha, but embittered by Kim’s non-disclosure of Lalo’s status, convinced himself in returning to his law practice in an even more invigorated (i.e. BB Jimmy).
yes, the convenience of the guard showing up just in time to miss Lalo was eyeroll inducing, but fortunately just a tiny moment in an otherwise stellar ep
I’m very much expecting Kim to be shown still working with Saul during Breaking Bad. It’ll be in a fun montage thing
I still see comments where people think Kim must get smoked or else she would still be with Jimmy. No way. No way Jimmy would be joking about jerking off in public the first time we see him in Breaking bad if he had just watched Kim get splattered. My pet theory is that she sent the cabdriver to find Jimmy in Nebraska. People want true love to find you in the end.
I see tons of post talking about her death in places like this and Reddit like they’ve already watched the season. She’s pretty much the second main character of the show and I like to think the writers would be a little more inventive than just killing or vacuuming her. Plus now they have a chance to do a scene or two with Kim meeting with Walt & Jesse. And yeah, I’m also hoping for a happy ending to end the Breaking Bad Saga on. I want to see the triumphant return of Slipin’ Jimmy and a reunion with Kim.
I don’t.I want Wexler to get her comeuppance of what she did to Howard. She lost the right to a happy ending.
My theory is she leaves Jimmy. She’s alive but she’s basically taken off. I don’t think she gets vacuumed but I think she does leave him. It would also explain why he chose Omaha to disappear, hoping that he may see her again.
You realize Breaking Bad has already aired, right?
That would make no sense.
I think Gus almost lost to Lalo for the same reason he did lose to Walter. Both Lalo and Walt act as agents of chaos, and Mike and Gus are both too keen-minded to detect randomness, they plan for smart moves, not weird chaotic moves. Lalo uses that chaos as subterfuge for intricate plans. Walt is just too wreckless to predict.
That was the big difference between Lalo and Walt. Lalo was a tactician, Walt was a rank amateur who had an incredible string of good luck.
Hmm, I think yes and no. Lalo is something of an agent of chaos, but he’s also a lot smarter and more inventive than I think Gus and Mike gave him credit for. I mean, his entire plan the last two episodes was pretty intricate and worked out really well. And being willing to do stuff like go all the way to Germany to track down more information about Werner and his crew. Considering how many of the Salamancas seem to be, roughly, stupid thugs, that underestimation is understandable. Plus, Lalo is an incredibly effective killer when it comes to that.
Walt was stumbling, but only at first. He was always obviously extremely smart. And his secret weapon was that he became more and more ruthlessly amoral as the show went along, surprising even Mike, who has been around the block. That was the whole point of the character.
Ehhh, he got owned by a bunch of lunkhead Neo-Nazis in the final season and was always screwing up and having to find his way out of situations really till the bitter end.TBH, the only way he avoided a bullet from Gus was by groveling and licking his boots. And Mike has always been suspicious of Walt—-after Walt set up Gus (who is very smart) to be killed in a meticulously plotted manner, its nearly unfathomable that he would meet Walt in a deserted area alone and not be prepared for things to go sideways.The only way really that the Mike death scene makes any sense at all is if Mike wanted Walt to end his life, or at least lost the will to fight against it.
Agreed.Personally, I think Breaking Bad stumbled and fell pretty bad on the landing, starting with the death of Mike. But I know I’m largely alone in that.
Coming at this a couple of years late, but I heard someone say that Gus was defeated by cunning, and Mike was defeated betrayal. I know that sounds a bit trite considering the scenes with the peephole stuffed animal and the like. But I like the idea, and the brief shot of the trees with Walt marching one way through it, then right back the other way, is the one of the better in the series. Mike essentially died because he made Walter cry.
Mike, for all his cleaner talents always fails at the big stuff. He told his son to take the dirty money. His son got killed anyway. He tried to put in a good word for Nacho and help him get out of the life. He died anyway. He befriended Werner Ziegler only see him go AWOL and having to clean up that mess. He tried to convince Jesse to walk away when he had the chance. Jesse only escaped a life of hell because of Walter. Mike was loyal to “his guys” but Lydia and Walt (with the help of the Nazi bikers) took care of them. Mike was a loving and doting grandfather but abandoned Kaley at the playground when the authorities closed in. Mike “Half-Measures” Ehrmantraut
Heh, wow, I never thought of it like that. Pretty sharp observation.
You’re right about Mike…never looked at him that way!
Someone made the point to me recently that “The more you see him [Mike] the less it makes sense that Walt got him”.I wonder if the reason Walt was able to kill him was *because* he was acting so angry and irrational. Mike knew Walt was smart, he probably got caught out by him being so rash and driven by rage. I mean, he knew of Walt’s flaws of course but he was more out of it than usual at the time.
Its amazing how you know how 99% of this is going to end but you’re still on the edge of your seat. I deadass half thought Gus was going to buy it despite being fully aware that this is a prequel.
I was surprised when the episode ended. It went really fast.
Totally agreed. A part of me also genuinely thought Lalo might just kill Jimmy and leave his body next to Howard’s even though that literally could not happen.
The whole of Breaking Bad was a dream.
It WILL be something like that if the manage to put Walt and Jesse in the next 5 episodes.
You fucking guys are crazy.
Well… Kim has the Soul Stone, so…
Same. In fact, when I first saw the shoot out, I first though that Gus’s gun was actually emptied by Lalo prior. Had to rewind to see that he emptied the bullets first.
The episode made me fear for Gus!
just further proof that having things ‘spoiled’ doesn’t effect your enjoyment of the thing if it’s actually well made.
Not at all. Further proof that misdirection is a crucial part of storytelling and yes, that it’s all done expertly well in this production. Perhaps also that ‘spoil’ is not semantically accurate in the way it’s used since finding out crucial details beforehand may not completely ruin your enjoyment of a story but still can substantially lessen it.
It’s the second episode of television I’ve watched in two days that ended with a good person getting a never-to-be-found grave and left with a soiled reputation.
At least one of those got to rock out to Master of Puppets (sad face).
Wait, when was the other… Oh! Oh.Sad face indeed.
I guess the other was Stranger Things?
Please don’t do that.
It was.
I’m a bit disappointed. In a good way, a frustrated way. Gus got shot and lost at least one man, the rest injured. Mike, still cold and all business, tells Kim and Jimmy to just go about their day as usual. I was afraid Gus’ people were going to light her up. And while they get their eventual comeuppance, I needed more in the immediate than Mike kind of feeling bad. I’m in this confusing middle space where I’m both grateful that Mike is merciful, and hateful that he helped orchestrate this volatile situation, only to botch it so terribly in the end. If Gus wasn’t such a sadistic monster, Mike would have just killed Hector a long time ago. In the preview, we can hear Jimmy, presumably trying to convince Kim, that they’ll just wake up one day and it’ll be completely behind them. But as we know, his fear of Lalo never entirely went away. He couldn’t even believe he was really dead.
I was way off in my prediction. I thought Kim would have gotten a gun as a precaution, but she was depending on Mike’s protection. I knew Gus was going to get Lalo in the lab and that he would be buried there, but I couldn’t have foreseen that he would share a grave with Howard. I hope Gus saved Lalo’s camcorder tape just so we can see him taunt Hector with it after Don Eladio and all the other Salamancas are dead.
Jimmy sent Kim in the hopes she wouldn’t go along with Lalo’s instructions. He gave up his life so she wouldn’t have to. But she really loves him. She was going to do it. If this doesn’t permanently shut down all those insane theories that she was using him this entire time, nothing will.
A common theme in BB is how both Gus & Walt were destroyed by their ego and thirst for revenge….Gus with Hector for killing his partner; Walt with Gretchen & Elliot for stealing his future as a Billionaire. Both done in by their Hubris!
That final smile. Jesus Christ.Tony Dalton used every bit of his considerable talent to bring the monster inside Lalo Salamanca to life. Just an amazing performance.
I loved everything about that smile. It was almost a sort or begrudging respect shown to Fring, and also a resignation that he went out in a blaze of glory like he always felt he was destined to.
I’m sad we’ll never see this sweet boy again
He’s in the MCU. You’ll see him again.
I’m glad they flipped the script and didn’t make him play another monster.
Like that’s the same thing
Enough can’t be said about TonyLalo is one of the WORST people ever portrayed and that’s all Tony
Damn that was good. Even though you know the outcome with Gus, Mike, etc, I was still on the edge of my seat with the Lalo story. Fantastic work by all involved.
The fact that Jonathan Banks lost the Emmy for “Five-O” to Peter Dinklage for a GoT season where he doesn’t even really do anything is criminal.
Season 5 if I recall. The season where Dinklage started to get handed less then stellar material. Even Dinklage was a bit surprised.
I read that they split the season specifically to span two Emmy years, so they’ve got twice the chance of winning this season.
Ugh, that year of the Emmys was the absolute worst. The most egregious was the Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series award, in which the worst-written episode of Games of Thrones to date (the hurry-up-and-kill-everyone season 5 finale) won out over “Five-O,” the much-lauded “Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?” episode of The Americans, and the last two episodes of Mad Men. Literally every other nominee was more deserving than the winner.
Oh my god they gave it to the Stannis dies and little gets resolved episode over Five O and two episodes of Mad Men? Jesus fucking Christ.
Well, that last episode of Mad Men was terrible so it’s not entirely wrong.
The Emmys got weirdly high on GoT near the end and seemed to lose sight of diminishing returns. But this does happen from time to time. Modern Family kept winning Best Comedy well after it was earned.
For the (unrelated) record, Frasier deserved every Emmy it won, and then some.
Yeah, I remember seeing some of those “anonymous Emmy voters speak” articles at the time, and several of them got really excited about the scale of Game of Thrones, how it was doing all this hugely ambitious, world-spanning stuff that no other series on TV had ever done. Which I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with, but it didn’t make the show’s writing any less kludgy.
Its almost a shame to lose Dalton, he was a series MVP from the moment he was introduced. But like Nachos, it felt right and now makes the last five episodes completely unpredictable. There aren’t any massive spinning plates left to guess an overall direction and I love that.
I’d say the “Gene” timeframe is still a pretty big “spinning plate.” It’s just that we haven’t visited it in quite some time. I’ve expected for a while that we’d get at least one full episode set then, very possibly the finale, but with so many episodes left I’d be willing to bet on it being multiple.
How about we just watch the end of the show and let it wash over us? Vince is smarter than any of us fuckers.
Totally agree, Lalo Salamanca was mesmerizing truly from the MOMENT he was introduced. I loved watching him.
Good episode, slightly hampered by the predictability of the events of the episode and the break between episodes. I think the choice to send Kim to Gus’ house instead of Saul was a bit puzzling. We know Mike is with Gus and will likely stop / protect Kim and we know Saul isn’t dying. So it kind of diminished some of the suspense with what Lalo may do with the person left with him. Similarly, I thought showing Lalo leaving Saul was unnecessary too.And of course, Gus wasn’t going to die either. So the showdown with Lalo, while fun to watch because of Gus’ monologue, felt a bit anticlimatic. And Lalo being offed so soon really makes me question the break between episodes. This episode seems like it would have worked a lot better if it had immediately followed the previous one. But that’s a minor gripe that won’t matter much on rewatches.But it’s hard to not enjoy an episode with such terrific acting and direction even when things are predictable. I am curious how the rest of this season goes – I assume there will be an episode or two for everyone to deal with the aftermath but then what? All of the BCS-specific characters except for Kim are dead and Gus / Mike have little to nothing left to do to get to the points they’re at in Breaking Bad. My two thoughts are either Kim can’t live with the guilt from having direct involvement in Howard’s death and his legacy / name being ruined and Saul has to make a difficult decision with her. Or the show catches up to Breaking Bad sooner than expected and we see more of a slow deterioration of Saul’s relationship with Kim play out throw time jumps.EDIT: Also going to point out that you used the phrase “hoisted by their petard” twice in this article. Just found it humorous.
The reason for the break was due to Bob Odenkirk’s heart attack. Thomas Schnauz said as much in a tweet after the part 1 finale.
Thomas Schauz in Tripwire magazine: “We broke all 13 episodes and never thought that they would air in separate runs. It wasn’t until we started shooting that it started to be talked about as a possibility. We didn’t change anything. It stayed exactly the same up through the news of AMC saying that they were going to air in two separate sections. … And all the things that happened this year with the pandemic and unfortunately Bob’s health issues stretched things out that it just made more sense for AMC to air these things in separate runs, and it just so happened that Episode 7 had this sort of monumental event happen.”
I wondered during that scene of him running down the street if that’s when it happened. There must have been a lot of running for all the takes.
They could have just as easily delayed the entire season by six weeks so they’d have no break. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that airing it like they did put them into two different award years. But anyways, like I said, that’s a really minor gripe that I don’t think matters long-term.
Saul sending Kim to Gus’s house was puzzling? It makes perfect sense, given what the characters know. Jimmy thought Kim was less likely to get killed if she wasn’t in the apartment. Saul doesn’t know he survives to become a character in a different series set 4 years later! So – for those characters at that time, sending Kim instead was exactly the logical choice.
Sure, we knew that Saul wouldn’t be dying in that apartment. But the writers subverted that lack of suspense because Lalo actually had no intention of killing Kim or Saul anyway – it was just a plot to draw out Gus.
I accept another poster’s comment that Lalo not caring if it was Saul or Kim was how Gus figured out it was him.I do wonder though if Lalo’s plan was actually to draw out Gus or not. Because he would have to assume Gus would suss out his plan and know he’d be at the landromat for his plan to work. I wonder if his plan was simpler, to just film Gus’ lab and show to Don Eladio and he “lucked” into Gus showing up.
I think your last point is correct. Hector told Lalo that he needed proof. Filming the lab from across the street wasn’t enough, he needed to break in and find where the lab was and get that evidence. But I think he knew that diverting Gus’s security teams TWICE was eventually going to lead to Gus showing up at the lab, so it worked out for Lalo.
I think Lalo said as much as he was menacing Gus.
I wonder if his plan was simpler, to just film Gus’ lab and show to Don Eladio and he “lucked” into Gus showing up.I think that’s right. He was just planning to cause a distraction so he could scout the laundromat and get the evidence he was looking for, and then, hey, Gus is here and I get to kill him now? Bonus.
Regarding sending Kim….I think the point was, by quickly agreeing to let Saul & Kim “swap” places, it showed that Lalo just didn’t CARE which one went to Gus’s house because it wasn’t a real mission…he knew no one was getting to Gus that easy! (This detail was also how Gus figured out that it was a diversion.)
Fair point.
Oh that makes sense. At the time I thought Gus was thinking “This lawyer managed to persuade a man like Lalo to change his plans? He seems like a talented man I should go into business with”. So I appreciate that different take, I think it works better.I also saw that when the episode was premiered at a festival in Tribeca, the audience thought Jimmy was being a weasel in sending Kim when the creators thought it was pretty obvious he was doing something heroic.
I thought it was Jimmy being a weasel, and I blame the difference between the creators’ impression and our own on the long break.In real time, Lalo JUST came in shot a guy in the head right in front of them. Clearly, only being in this room with a murderous madman vs getting out of this room is the only danger vs. safety consideration running through Jimmy and Kim’s heads.But we’ve had like two months to sit with it, aren’t feeling the same urgency/adrenaline the characters are (and the ep didn’t do a great job of recapturing), so it reads differently to us.I can see why the creators thought we would react like they did, but it’s a bit of a miss.
I didn’t mind the break; it was barely over a month, and when I recall plenty of shows would do midseason breaks in winter back when broadcast reigned, and that Breaking Bad basically made you wait a whole year between midseason cliffhangers…this was a cakewalk. And the short time period only ratcheted tension for me; it was just long/short enough for me to stay on the edge of my seat rather than move on.
These are some real nitpicky gripes
I pretty much said as much.
Sending Kim makes perfect sense from both the POV of the episode’s characters and viewers since her ultimate fate as the last major ‘if’ factor of a show ultimately based on how and when.
Lalo knowingly used them as a distraction, who he sent was irrelevant in his mind.
But Kim’s angry outburst at Mike in front of his men may be viewed a risk. Jimmy’s reaction if/when learns she knew Lalo was alive. If she angrily justifies her choices by blaming Jimmy’s initial involvement lead to an irreconcilable schism, etc. etc. etc.
I think a big factor in Kims deterioration is she was going to kill a total stranger. Which I think is critical in seeing her character break, and something that couldnt have happened if she had stayed. I agree is took away from the suspense, but Lalo was going to leave immediately anyways.
Wow! This was a brilliant episode. They left us with a cliffhanger a month and a half ago and had us all guessing. The only thing that worked out like I thought it would was Lalo meeting his end with Gus’ Chekhov’s Gun. Clever Chicken Man indeed.Tony Dalton’s Lalo has been a star-making performance. Well, he was already a star south of the border but now he’s getting well-deserved recognition in the U.S. Lalo Salamanca was both evil and charming—a perfect villain.I’m more convinced now that Kim will head back to Nebraska at some point. I doubt the Salamancas will give her any touble, but I have a feeling that she won’t want to stick around the ABQ much longer. Maybe she’s gotten the thrill seeking out of her system and goes to work doing legal aid in Omaha.Speaking of performances, Jonathan Banks is still killing it as Mike Ehrmantraut. This episode showcased how Mike is a consummate professional. It really brings home the fact that Mike, like many other professionals, eventually lets his guard down around an amateur (Walter White) and pays the ultimate price.
To your very last point, I know it’s been said a number of ways by a number of people (none of whom or which I can think of right now) but the gist is that the only thing that can wreck an idiot-proof plan is an idiot.
No plan is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
I’m really enjoying how Better Call Saul makes you hate Walter White, despite his absence from the story, because it drives home just how much labor and suffering and planning Walter destroyed with his petty ego trip. You kind of always got that Gus had spent an enormous amount of time and money building the underground meth lab, only for Walter to blow up the whole operation in a matter of months, but in BCS we see all the people who died to construct that thing and keep it a secret. And it’s all for nothing, because while Gus does eventually get his revenge on the cartel, he dies shortly afterwards and never really gets to rule the meth empire he planned.Walter was amateur hour by comparison. We can see why Mike held him in such contempt. But he shouldn’t have kept his back turned.
Aboslutely! Now you get why gus was so pissed by every single interaction with Walt! This idiot is actively ruining everthing everything, with no idea!!!!
“This idiot is actively ruining everthing everything, with no idea!!!!” Exactly how I feel about TFG and the U.S. democracy.
I’m rewatching BB in parallel with this final season of BCS and I just got to the part in early Season 3 where Gus puts his plan in motion to reunite Walt & Jesse, telling Mike to “do the deal” and pays Jesse and Walt each half for the batch that Jesse cooked by himself, which, essentially, is the first step towards Gus’s own downfall. If he had just let Walt leave the business altogether, or let the Salamanca cousins kill Walt, he could’ve done fine with Gale as his cook and still eventually taken out Bolsa and Eladio.
Exactly, Gus’ fatal flaw is his perfectionism, perfectly illustrated in this episode by the urgency with which he ensures that Los Pollos Hermanos won’t skip a beat despite all the recent murders around the Fring/cartel operation. Couldn’t someone open the chicken joint an hour late? That’s not how Fring works. Everything must be the best, always operating with ruthless efficiency.Gale cooks meth that’s almost as good as Walt’s. But Gus cannot allow his meth to be second best, and so he goes to great lengths to recruit Walter even as he knows he’s an amateur criminal who is dangerously unstable. At any point prior to Gale’s murder, Gus could have just cooked up huge batches of pretty good meth and made hundreds of millions of dollars. The whole operation failed because Gus needed the best meth.BCS is heightening the tragedy here because we see that Gus didn’t just hire a contractor and pick out the tiles — the lab itself is a huge risky secretive power play that many people died for over the years.
For the record, I absolutely fucking hated Walter White way before BCS came along.
For the record, I absolutely fucking hated Walter White way before BCS came along. I know what you mean. Loved Breaking Bad, have watched the whole thing twice (and probably will again after BCS finishes). But Walter? I know some people consider him an anti-hero, but to me he’s not that. Although he’s eminently watchable – I loved his slow rise to power, but that was fueled by egomania from the start (I mean, he pretty quickly amassed enough money for chemo early in the show’s run…). His cold and calculating manipulations of everyone (not just Jesse, not just Skylar, not just Hank, not just … well, it does go on) are sometimes clever, sometimes desperate (usually both) but… Walter White is definitely someone to dislike for sure…
He’s a complete piece of shit. I can’t even rewatch BB because I so deeply dislike him. I watched it all the way through the first time (including a rewatch of the whole thing before the final season), but when I tried to watch it again later I just couldn’t stomach it.
I just rewatched it for the first time since it ended and he’s way worse than I remembered. He tries to rape his wife in like the first season!
He’s just…awful. Which is why I never understood all the hate Skylar got. She’s a saint for not just fucking murdering him.
We just rewatched the first season recently, so I’m not sure which event you’re referring to; Walt becomes kind of sexually aggressive once he starts cooking but the sex scenes I recall (the one at the end of the pilot, the one in the car after the PTA meeting) seemed fully consensual. Second season maybe?
Btw just to follow up, it’s actually ep 2.01 where Walt starts trying to have sex with Skyler when she clearly doesn’t want to. She puts it down to his recent erratic behavior but she’s clearly pretty shook by it (and it’s yet another sign of Walt being the monster he really is underneath).
Oop! Yep, that’s the one I meant
I feel like you were supposed to hate him by the of BB. At that point it was clear he wasn’t doing any of this for his family. This was a guy who was bitter about leaving that company and missing out on all the success.
I hated him by the end of seasson 1. lol
I mean, it’s hard for me to be too upset that all the “labor and suffering and planning” was in service of creating a giant meth lab run by a murderous drug cartel. It’s like complaining that Luke Skywalker sucks because just think about how much “labor and suffering and planning” went into creating the Death Star before he blew it up.
Gus is kind of a benevolent despot, though. Compared to the cartel, he is honorable and fair. He treats his employees well and seeks to avoid harming civilians. He is motivated by his lifelong desire for revenge against the cartel due to his partner’s murder, and also because he seems to enjoy wearing the mask of a respectable entrepreneur in public.Even with Walt, he treats him fairly until Walt repeatedly disobeys orders and threatens the business. Gus protects him from the cartel and pays him a generous salary. There is no indication he would have killed Walt prior to the cancer taking its course if Walt had kept his head down, as Mike suggested.Exploring Gus in more depth in BCS gives us a greater respect for the genius of his operation, in particular the way he kept the underground lab from the cartel to maximize his own profits. In contrast to Walt, whose entire story takes place over exactly two calendar years, Gus is capable of long term planning and he achieves all his goals. Someone’s going to be the meth lord of the Southwest. I’d rather it be Gus than Walt. Gus earned it with two decades of meticulous planning, and Walt just kind of got lucky.
Gus is still building an enormous METH operation. There’s no benevolence there.And that’s setting aside his cold, calculating murderer side. Killing Victor, setting up Hank to the twins, etc.
ha,ha. Thats a good analogy. Yeah, they created something that is a place for creating something else that destroys people’s lives. Who cares that it all blew up despite the work that went into building it. Good comeuppance actually.
It also adds so much more pathos to the Breaking Bad lab scenes now, knowing that Lalo and Howard’s bodies are just under their feet.
I’m still not convinced that Kim can’t handle the trauma and will just leave. She pulled out the gun at the front door, she was actually going to shoot whoever answered!
I don’t think it’s trauma, it’s outright fear. Jimmy and Kim are only seeing the surface of what they’re facing with the Cartel. Jimmy’s not even convinced Lalo won’t return, despite Mike so much as telling him the man is dead.I think she’s not going to be able to handle not knowing if or when another Salamanca or some other henchman will show up at their door.
“ I doubt the Salamancas will give her any trouble…”The Salamancas don’t even know she exists. The only Salamanca who knew about her is now dead.
Exactly. They do know about Jimmy/Saul and they’re not concerned enough about him to bother with him even though we know he stays in the ABQ. I doubt very seriously that they’d bother looking for his wife, even if they did know she existed.
“And now, what to do with you” was in the previews, and I was sure it was Mike.Even watching Lalo say it, I still think it sounds like Mike.Was that an accident?
Lol it’s like from BrBa’s scene with Gus threatening Walt out in the desert. “If you could kill me…” sounded so much like Mike for some reason
Lalo losing to Gus in exactly the way that had been telegraphed didn’t set well.
Taking Lalo out of play also knocks Kim getting vacuumed or killed of the board too.
The only way either of two options come to pass is if she suddenly poses a threat to Gus or Mike. And there’s no way Saul of Breaking Bad is working with them if they had a hand in it.
I know a lots been made of Jesse and Walt coming back but can’t see a lot for them to add story wise.
Think these last batch of episodes will focus on the how’s and whys of the end Kim and Jimmy and the true beginning of Saul.
Can also see a hard tilt to the Gene timeline in the final 1 or 2.
YES!! My thoughts exactly! I talked with my husband about this episode after we watched it (like we always do), and I can’t believe that Jimmy still hasn’t made the transition to Saul yet.I am now wondering how much of Gene’s story will be told in the remaining 5 episodes. Now that Kim’s fate is looking less like death, I am wondering if Jimmy and Kim are eventually reunited in Nebraska. Gene has the Kansas City Royals lunch bag just like the night shirt Kim wears to bed a lot of the time. And even though the writers say they didn’t know where they were going with Kim’s story after Rhea really put everything into it, I can’t help but think that reference to the Royals is just coincidence.
Yeah that’s been my thinking for a while now.
Mainly because there’s no way that the Saul of BB is mourning the lose of Kim. Her death would destroy him.
My guess would be something catching up with them and that she’s in jail. And that completes his transformation.
With the Gene timeline, while I won’t call Vince Gilligan sentimental exactly, he did make El Camino to give Jesse a definitive ending. With that in mind I think that something important has to happen in Nebraska.
Jimmy got over the suicide of his brother pretty damn quick, once he decided to displace the blame onto Howard (via the latter’s misgiven belief that it was his fault).
Don’t forget that the Saul of BB is still 4 years down the line. Plenty of time for someone to process the grief of a lost loved one – especially someone who seems to be able to compartmentalize as much as Jimmy has.
If Kim is to die, perhaps that’s what causes him to finally ‘become’ Saul, and hide his feelings for Kim.
Jimmy’s relationship with Kim is quite different than his relationship with Chuck, though. I mean, Chuck’s last words to Jimmy were “The truth is, you’ve never mattered all that much to me.”
Gould has confirmed that Walt and Jesse are going to turn up at some point this season.
Also Gale turned up at the end of season 4. So I think roughly speaking that this season of BCS is running chronologically along side season 2 of BB.
With the Lalo problem solved Mike and Gus are going to be freed up to hear about and look into this crazy new blue meth that all the kids are talking about.
I agree – I think the timeline is a lot closer to BB than people realize, even judging by the phones they’re all using.
I think you are onto something. I kept racking my brain trying to think of what drama would play out for Gus and Mike for the rest of the series now that Lalo is gone. It has to be close to Walt and Jesse or at least Gus getting closer to the DEA with his “support.” I thought I read Walt and Jesse have a scene together and Walt has one without Jesse. That’s what Bryan Cranston said. I can’t remember if it was episode 8 or 10.I also think in the clip where Jimmy/Saul/ Gene is talking about “he’s not his friend” that he pays off Jeff the cab driver who made him. It’s possible he comes back after him and Gene/Jimmy has to get violent.
The guy in the mall made him, the cab driver had the Isotopes air freshener in his car.
After this episode, I think she confesses and goes to jail for Howard
I can’t believe that Jimmy still hasn’t made the transition to Saul yet.Remember that it’s only been about two months since Jimmy was reinstated by the bar and he filed a DBA to be Saul Goodman. He just opened his destined office and he hasn’t even made any TV ads for this incarnation of his practice.Saul Goodman is famous enough to be recognized by Albuquerquens. It’s still four years until season one of Breaking Bad. His reputation and infamy will be built up fast, but not that fast.
I feel like we’re looking at this the wrong way. Honestly, this season has more or less highlighted the idea that Jimmy never really did transition from Jimmy to Saul. Rather, Saul is his coping mechanism, and the torment of his life (Chuck, Howard, Lalo, Kim presumably) became easier to process under the mask. It’s all a sad clown routine, but we as viewers didn’t realize how deep the disguise went before BCS.
Yes. Like a split personality for someone with mental illness or PTSD or anothert rauma.
The last shot after the screen fades to black on this episode, is of Jimmys new (and BB) office. I’d say next episode picks up with him leaning heavy into Saul Goodman, attorney at law.
Jimmy transitions to Saul in the Breaking Bad timeline
Good call on the Royals shirt!And there are no coincidences in BCS/BB land!
I can’t believe that Jimmy still hasn’t made the transition to Saul yet.Hasn’t he? He’s not the high-energy wheeler-dealer we first meet in BB, but he has set up his office, he’s already dealing with a parade of lowlife clients, he’s operating under the name Saul Goodman, etc. Getting fully into the wheeler-dealer Goodman groove would take some time; it’s a persona that he would develop and practice, not just like he flipped a switch one day and was 100% the guy from BB we love.
I really won’t mind if the Jesse & Walt appearance is just them sitting in the background at a diner or something. In fact I don’t think those characters can be that involved with the current show, but maybe I’m over- or under-thinking the timelines.I say it each time I post – I really want Kim to be okay, and I really want her to end up with Gene. Obviously I don’t know what will happen – it’s just what I want. And one more thing…I have really liked Rhea Seahorn’s work as Kim, she’s always good. But this episode, with the shaking and the crying and the yelling at Mike and his crew… I know the Emmy nominations were announced recently, and I am pretty sure they just read “Rhea Seahorn, best actress, that’s the only Emmy we’re giving this year”.
That’s my wish too. I want Kim and Jimmy/Gene to ride off into the sunset and watch their old movies together.
I await the fan theories about Lalo and/or Howard being reincarnated as the fly from that famous Breaking Bad episode.
I like it! It was definitely Lalo!
The fucking bottle episode almost made me stop watching.
No it didn’t
It was too long, but i think ultimately was important to show Walter breaking and the connection of Jessie taking care of him for the rest of what happened after
Is there more divisive, non-finale episode in TV history? I loved, one of the best I thought. People in this very thread despised it. C’est la vie.
It didn’t bother me at all, but then I binged the show after it finished airing. I think people who were annoyed by it were annoyed not only that it’s a fairly slow bottle episode, but that they had to wait a week for another episode.
It’s an episode where literally nothing happens that affects the story– Walt almost tells Jesse something but then he doesn’t. Given that so much of the appeal of Breaking Bad was in how propulsive and surprising its story momentum could be, in the end I have to agree that “Fly” just doesn’t have anything that dramatically matters or moves the story forward.
Y’all are trying to tell me that Gus went to the trouble of all that planning just to stash a gun holding five bullets? (I should assume it was 6 bullets, but I only heard five shots, but obviously I could have missed one.) He couldn’t think to stash one with a higher capacity magazine? Yes clearly he did hit his target but that seemed more luck than anything. Also, agree with calling Tito and Tuco “hapless hotheads.” I’m kind of sorry those are all we got of the Salamancas during BB. I feel cheated. We could have had Lalo all these years. I get that the Salamancas’s “thing” is being hotheaded, but at least Lalo was charming with it and not just a straight psycho sack of shit (RIP Nacho).And big shout-out to Lyle, opening AND closing with a song, living his dream. I see you, big man.
God when I was in food service I’d have killed to have a guy like Lyle on staff. What an absolute team player. Probably speaks to how well Gus treats the Pollos staff as well, they’ve consistently been shown to be chipper and responsible.
Probably speaks to how well Gus treats the Pollos staff as well, they’ve consistently been shown to be chipper and responsible.Never forget how, after the Pollos team gets taken hostage by Hector Salamanca in order to get to Gus, Gus not only invents a plausible excuse to give to his employees but ends it with a rousing speech that causes them to stand up clapping for him.I imagine there are real-life fast food workers who wish they worked for Gus Fring.
Although I would bet the time Gus made Lyle clean the fryer, Lyle wss imagining shoving Gus’s head in 350 degree oil.We knew Gus was just dealing with his other business, but as far as Lyle was concerned it was a case of doing everything on the checklist before punching out, only to have the boss swoop in and making him say he wasn’t up to standards just to prove a point. Lyle’s no slacker! That fryer was fine!
True! Although actually I was pretty afraid for Lyle in that scene… the way it’s presented made it look like Fring was about to lose it.
when he asked if gus needed a ride to the airport i almost both cried and laughed. what a sweet man.
I was in food service. I don’t think I EVER sang the theme song of the places I worked. Certainly not when no one was looking.
There was something weirdly, bleakly hilarious about that scene with Lyle. Not Lyle so much as in the middle of everything, Gus still takes the time to call him.
I love how genuinely committed Gus is to maintaining his front operation. He really just needs to keep the lights on and sell enough chicken that the authorities won’t question the income he shows on his tax returns. But it’s not like Gus to do the bare minimum with anything. His front operation must be the best damn fried chicken chain in the Southwest and he hires only the best staff to run them. Gus meant every word he said when he called upon Lyle while getting sewn up.
Well, no, he uses the entire infrastructure of Pollos to ship meth. It’s not just about his tax return.
Yes but the actual chicken restaurant doesn’t necessarily have to be a *good* chicken restaurant. He could use the same brilliantly run meth distribution scheme with a chain of disgusting Kennedy Fried Chicken type restaurants. But the actual Los Pollos Hermanos restaurants are always shown to be clean and efficiently run, with good food and excellent customer service. Gus himself is dedicated to helping customers and cleaning every surface. It goes far above and beyond what is needed to distribute the meth.
Right? He could have had an “assistant” call Lyle!
Mrs. F. and I are always amazed at Gus’ acumen to run a successful drug biz and a successful restaurant so proficiently. He treats his restaurant staff very well.
It just proves how at the end of the day Gus is just a businessman. Whether it be a drug business or a chicken business or a laundry business, he’s going to run it like a machine. They’re all important.
And that’s what’s so compelling about Gus.He IS the fabled Protestant work ethic so many think they possess. He plans for the worst of times not just good times and thrives on a level of public decorum that’s other worldly. Sure it’s in his best interest to keep his business running normally but even a cartel killer like Gus probably interviewed and hired every single position at Pollos staff and hired them based on merit and disposition.I bet his whole staff loves working there and Lyle would probably take a bullet for him.
The actor had a nice singing voice and I love how Gilligan and Gould have givenl these actors and their characters a curtain call and allowed us fans to see these characters from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul one last time. It’s very classy. It’s like when an MLB team has clinched a playoff spot in the playoffs and everybody comes off the bench. I don’t know what I am going to do in 5 weeks or when these last 5 episodes air and it’s all over. I love this show so much.
Y’all are trying to tell me that Gus went to the trouble of all that planning just to stash a gun holding five bullets?It was Gus’ gun that was hidden in an ankle holster, anything bigger would have stood out while he was in public. It was a last resort, in case all 20 of his guys became indisposed. He didn’t even know Lalo would show up at the lab, it was a backup plan. Remember it’s been only two days since he stashed it there, so there wouldn’t be time for him to replace it with an AK47 or whatever.
His spidey sense told him that Lalo was in wait at the site. So he met the challenge betting on his ace in the hole. He even sacrificed his own dudes to give Lalo the false sense of security, which set him up. Genius!
I think the point is: Gus didn’t HAVE to plant THAT particular gun…he could have come back and planted a higher-capacity pistol.
True. I’ll allow it.
GUs stashed the same kinda “dummy proof” gun that Lalo intended Jimmy/Kim to use on him. Big revolver, no safety, preloaded. It looked like a larger calibre gun. So less bullets, but jam proof, and deadlier ammo. And yes, Gus knowingly sacrificed his body guards going in bc, it was necessary to lure Lalo into a false sense of security which allowed Gus to pull him into his trap. Ya’know, like a housecat librarian.
We couldn’t have had Lalo because he didn’t exist until 2018
I thought maybe his thinking re: the gun was that a revolver would be more reliable (no chance of jamming at the wrong moment), and he was unlikely to need more than a few bullets anyway.
In addition to what others have said, the gun in the lab is likely intended as a last resort measure anyway, in case all other failsafes have failed. If he can’t kill Lalo / the threat with those five bullets, he’s almost certainly dead anyway.
Gus probably has guns hidden at every which corner, and that was just the closest one that he knew of.
They only showed him hiding the one though. I think if he had them hidden all over they would have shown us that.
Nah, they only show the one that’s important to the story, if he hides 50, but we only ever see 1 of them for the rest of the series, then focusing on that 1 is all that really should be done if you want to tell a good story. Now obviously there is no proof he hid more than one gun, but my common sense immediately kicked and said he almost certainly did, and that thought quickly was dismissed. And don’t get me wrong, when there is a bad piece of setup or plot convenience in a story that I love, I’ll be quick to criticize, but for me this is a total non-issue.
Disagree. It’s not just the specific gun that’s important to the story. It’s the fact that Gus made a plan and what the plan is. They took great pains to show us his steps for planting this one gun. If he had planted several, they would have shown that. It says one thing about Gus if he planted one gun. It says something different about Gus if he planted 50, not to mention where would he hide 50 guns around there? It was a basically empty room with some machinery in there. Was there a gun hidden every 3 feet? Obviously no. This isn’t a show that doesn’t show what it wants to show. There’s no reason to assume he hid more than the one gun when nothing about the text indicates that’s the case.That said, I agree with others’ responses that this was basically his Alamo, and he was doing this as an absolutely last resort so planting one gun as just a hail mary and hoping for luck makes sense.
I like the Alamo analogy. It was definitely a situation where two walked in, only one would walk out.I don’t think Gus would normally carry a gun. It would be impractical for him to carry in his daily life as a restaraunteur. The ankle holster is an added precaution he took because of the extreme threat Lalo presented.
You’re free to disagree, I’m just telling you why it wasn’t even an issue with me for a second, just seemed logical and reasonable given everything we’ve seen and known.
We see him spontaneously take the gun out of his ankle holster and hide it. If it had been part of a plan, I think we’d have seen some planning or further execution of it, not a spontaneous moment.
Right, but he did this days prior and obviously in anticipation of a shootout in the lab with the lights off. Just because you come up with a plan in the spur of a moment doesn’t preclude it from being a plan.
It’s his ankle gun, designed to be used primarily as a backup weapon. Snubnose revolvers often have 5-round cylinders to save on weight and size, making them easier to conceal. It looked like it may have been a Ruger SP101 or a Taurus Model 85, both of which come in .38 Special and have 5-round cylinders.
Fair enough. Great attention to detail in the show if so. Glad to know I’m not crazy thinking I heard 5.
It’s cool that you picked up on it. I stopped counting rounds in TV gunfights long ago because they have a tendency to portray weapons as having way more capacity than they actually have. It’s another case of this show’s attention to detail.I did notice that Lalo put a fresh magazine in his weapon before he let Gus have what he thought were going to be his final words. Lalo wanted to be ready in case Gus tried to pull something, though he was probably thinking Gus would rush him and try to fight for it. Instead, loading a full magazine effectively made it easier for Gus to find his target.Gus planted the gun because he would have better odds of finding it in the dark, since he paced out exactly how many steps it was from the power cord to the loader. The darkness would give him an advantage. All he had to do was get to the loader, where he’d have cover and could shoot at Lalo’s muzzle flash.All of this on the off chance that Lalo would confront him at the Lab. Whatever training Gus had in Chile was very good and it stuck with him. Clever, clever Chicken Man indeed!
Revolver don’t jam
It’s only because Saul has such a deep bench of talent that he, like Michael Mando (Nacho), isn’t likely to get the Emmy nomination he has earned.Wait, why? Both can be nominated, and there’s 2 rounds of emmy noms for BCS. Michael Mando can’t even be nominated for next round, so even if Banks is nominated they can nom Dalton and Banks together for the final episodes. If you’re talking a win, sure that’s not likely, but I had a nom chalked up as a given.
Giancarlo Esposito is in the same category, and he and Jonathan Banks have been nominated multiple times and are likely to get nods again. Three (or four) actors from the same show in the same category is a bit much. They never nominated Aaron Paul, Esposito and Banks at the same time for Breaking Bad.
In the end, none of them got nominated this year!
Who gives a shit about awards?
I…a lot of people? I mean they’re not that big of a deal but from the reviewer to myself to the other replies to every outlet and trending social media posts, there are obviously a lot of people that do. Doesn’t mean you have to, but that’s a weird question to ask.
It’s obviously a rhetorical question, slick
How would you know?
It’s actually not a question at all; it’s the statement “I don’t give a shit about awards, and I think anyone who does is stupid” disguised as a question.
Lalo should have died last season so this season could, you know, ACTUALLY PROGRESSED. Now we have 3 episodes (barely) worth of plot stretched out into 8. I have stopped watching weekly after episode 5 and will binge everything once the series is finished. Seriously, there’s only 5 episodes to go and we STILL haven’t got Saul Goodman firing on all cylinders??? This could (and probably should) have been a show with fast-paced criminal/legal capers while peeling back the mask and showing who Saul is when there’s no one else around. We got the latter, but not the former.
Maybe you have mistaken this show for She Hulk
Patience isn’t your strong suit
“This show, one of the most critically lauded in history, should have been completely different” – Random Guy
i would certainly be disappointed if i was expecting a fast-paced ‘saul goodman’ show, but we’re in the back half of season 6 now. at this point you know what show you’re watching. it’s a slow burn character study, not joey.
You want slow-paced? We haven’t even gotten to the protracted Gene Takovic Cinnabon subplot yet.
I dunno, I’ve had my problems with the show’s pacing before for sure (season 4, my god, just dragging out everything so they could end the season on “’S all good, man”), but Lalo has really energized the show.I definitely wish we’d gotten more of Saul being Saul, though. It’s just so much fun to watch him get up to shady lawyer shenanigans.
Everybody is getting tied up in their underwear over this show. I love it, but everyone with their over thinking.
well this particular episode was pretty fast paced imo.yes the show does take its time with certain arcs & subplots. but i find the strong acting, well-drawn characters and cool-looking shots make up for it. Even in this ep, watching the tides and the shoe, while a bit too reminiscent of the teddy eyeball in the pool on BB, still was pretty enthralling imo
saul goodman firing on all cylinders was in breaking bad. you want to see 4 years of him being a dick and getting small time criminals off the hook? boring. I trust these show runners, they are the best of the best.
I could care less about seeing Saul Goodman firing on all cylinders. This is such an amazing show and I don’t want the BB-verse to end, I love that there’s five episodes left to savor.And we have no idea what’s going to happen in those five, it might be all-out war with the cartel, it might be five episodes about a fly, who knows. Can’t wait tho.
But where were the bodies of Gus’s men that Lalo killed. Didn’t he shoot at least three guys in the lab before confronting Gus?
Four, I think – good point!
They were on the winning side and Mike (and, to a lesser extent, Gus) have been shown to take care of their own. They’ll get a proper burial if not a proper funeral for their families.
Also, I think you misunderstood a key point in the plot. Lalo never thought Jimmy or Kim would actually shoot Gus. He knew Gus wouldn’t be the one to answer the door. He was just creating a chaotic diversion so he could sneak into the lab.
That’s why he didn’t care which one went to Gus’s….
Definitely. Lalo may be a psychopath but he is too smart to believe an amateur would be able to get to Gus. He chose Saul and Kim instead of some randoms because they were easy targets that would be unexpected, but would be unlikely to talk or go to the cops given their own ties to the cartel.
It’s also what I thought tipped Gus off that something was amiss. As soon as Kim mentioned Saul “talked Lalo out of his idea” Gus knew something else was going on, and that him going with Saul’s idea probably meant he didn’t care who went to the house and thus that he never truly intended for either Saul or Kim to kill him. That’s how I read that anyway.
I saw another recap that surmised the same thing. Part of me was wondering initially if Gus seeing Saul’s powers of persuasion would encourage him to use Saul as a lawyer going forward but your theory makes more sense.
Yeah, that was my original assessment: that Gus was impressed by Jimmy talking Lalo out of something, but it never sat right with me. I’m glad I was wrong.
I thought all of that, too.
Hhhah a few of us it seems. I also picked up on that and thought he decided to save him so he could use his abilities of persuasion in the future. Seems stupid thinking about it now haha.
Minor thing but Lalo tells Jimmy to just point and shoot until he runs out of bulletsEventually, Gus does it to him.
And, “point and shoot” refers to a camera. And we have two shooters with both gun and camera in the episode.
Cool, didn’t even pick up on that!
damn didnt catch that
I knew Lalo was going to die the moment he had that last conversation with Jimmy that so perfectly mirrors his introduction in Breaking Bad, but that didn’t make the episode any less thrilling.And Howard’s death being a faked suicide in sea was surprisingly dignified given he could’ve just ended up disappeared with no explanation, with it being interesting how Mike seems to be the only person in the entire episode who acknowledges that Howard didn’t deserve any of his with the final moment.
There’s nothing dignified about spending your career as a smart, reputable, dignified, and even honest attorney and having your legacy forever being that a cocaine-fueled suicidal junkie.
I wouldn’t say it was dignified at all but at least a kindness to his friends and family to provide some answer and closure (if a false one). Not the easiest thing to do when there is no body.
I don’t think dusting the car with cocaine was necessary. It sold the scenario, though, but I think all the problems Howard was having plus his erratic behavior would have been enough.
That might not be his legacy forever. Post Breaking Bad maybe they sweep the laundry lab and eventually uncover and ID his body. Then he would just be a cocaine-fueled junkie that got involved with a cartel meth empire. Oh…:(
What I like is that even 4 years later, Jimmy/Saul still wasn’t convinced by Mike’s “He’s not coming back,” and he immediately panics and starts talking about Ignacio and Lalo when Walt and Jesse take him to the desert.
Nice pickup – that was such an awesome factoid to link together.
It’s four years later that happens? Saul immediately going to Lalo and Nacho after that long is stretching believability a bit much for me.
Yeah, it seems like Saul would’ve pissed off enough people in the interim that Lalo wouldn’t be the first one he jumped to.
it was the last time he was held hostage. He went straight back to that traumatic moment when it happened again
I’m guessing it’s the first time he’s in that kind of situation since Lalo’s visit.
That seems really far fetched right now, but it’s the best the writers can do. I am pretty sure that Jimmy/Saul knows Lalo is dead this time. The guy was in his apartment and now Mike is telling him he is gone. No ambiguity there, although for the sake of BB, I guess that is what we have to go with.
I was worried about how they were going to play this off but I bought it completely.
I think Jimmy was so scared shitless when Lalo came back, killed Howard in cold blood and then sent Kim to murder a stranger, that he can’t really believe Lalo isn’t coming back. And that’s what Mike told him, Lalo isn’t coming back. He didn’t actually state the man was dead, just that he won’t be back. If I was Jimmy, I wouldn’t believe it unless I personally saw him in that grave next to Howard.
He might have been more convinced if Mike hadn’t PREVIOUSLY told him that Lalo was dead ….
Is it really four years? Seems much longer than necessary.
Uhhhhhhhhhh
I loved Mike’s face when they’re burying Howard. Mike’s a guy who never wants to involve civilians, but it didn’t work out in this case… Couple that with the fact that Jimmy and Kim had already inadvertently laid the groundwork for a cocaine-fueled suicide, and Mike has a lot to be remorseful about. Or as remorseful as his life allows I guess.
After Nacho and now Howard, I think this show has made Mike less likeable or respectable than when he was in BB. I wonder if that’s what they intended.
Great posts here, it’s good to see so many smart and thoughtful comments. Now that that’s out of the way, I felt S608 was a considerable letdown, as if they didn’t have another 5 episodes to wrap things up. All plausibility and logical plot motivations were thrown out the window, it seems.
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I was not expecting, with so many episodes still left, for the Lalo situation to be resolved in this episode. Welp so much for my theories of Lalo still being alive.
Terrific episode. One thing I want to mention is that it also fixes a slight niggle from the previous episode (one which, to be fair, I probably should’ve seen coming and I’m sure other people did). Having Howard be offed by Lalo due to circumstance isn’t exactly the most poetic moral condemnation of Jimmy and Kim’s actions – but having their actions inadvertently provide the perfect cover story for his death is brutal. No repairing the damage they did to his reputation now.
It also goes a ways towards explaining Mike’s disdain for Jimmy/Saul in the BB era. From his perspective, Jimmy and Kim might as well have been guiding Howard straight off the cliff into suicide, and they indirectly got their wish. Obviously, we as viewers know that even Jimmy and Kim didn’t want to take it that far, but intention doesn’t matter here. Consequences do, and to Mike, the consequences of their actions more or less got Howard to the same place.
Tony Dalton’s performance was flawless. He plays Lalo as a psychopathic, murdering drug cartel lord who really enjoys his job and has a laidback personalty to boot. It is very darkly humorous while remaining equally disturbing and chilling. Perhaps, it is the enthusiasm with which he approaches his job that makes his character so chilling.
i noticed some camerawork in this episode that, of all things, reminded me of nevaldine and taylor, the guys who made the crank movies. the spinning chair and the waist-level tracking shot of mike through the compound.
Absolutely one of the best and most thrilling episodes of the Walter White – Jimmy McGill universe. Even with the knowledge that a prequel provides, this was A+ top notch television watching. I was all but convinced that lovely KIm was dying, but when Lalo and Gus were in the superlab, it was obvious that the former was not coming out alive. Thanks to Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, and their team for true visual art!
I applaud Vince Gilligan for not using the usual formula resolving a cliffhanger and making us wait, he led us right into the fray. Many other shows leave things hanging for an ep or two before paying off. Not Vince, he invited us to stuff our faces at the BCS buffet. Very satisfying meal too. I also cannot think of “Breaking Bad” the same knowing Howard & Lalo are under the floor all this time.
I want to get my bet in: Present-day Jimmy was located not by the cartel but by the DEA, who are going to use Jimmy and Kim, who was sent into Robert Forster witness protection in pre-Breaking Bad days, in an operation against the cartel. Present-day Jimmy and Kim will be reunited at the end.
What a thrilling series of events this episode has brought us. I’ve been yearning for good television since the the break but I’m glad we got such a rewarding conclusion to the Gus-Lalo saga. One supremely minor takeaway that sort of conjured up some forgotten memories. It feels quite fitting for the conception of this meth lab that two bodies were buried when two bodies were found in the meth labs’ eventual demise. I can’t imagine that was ever the intention initially but I’ll personally hold on to this as the subtlest of call backs.
My theory. In the Kim shoplifting flashback, they showed her Mom’s car with Nebraska plates as they drove away. I believe Kim will be “vacuummed” & relocated to to Omaha. In the BB finale, Saul requests to go to Omaha and he hopes to be reunited with Kim.
charming baddieWe thinking of the same Lalo? (Excellently performed character but slimy and make my skin crawl is what I get, as opposed to charming.)
in-universe he was shown to be quite charming when he wanted to be.
Why did Saul think Jesse and Walt were sent by Lalo if he knew Lalo was dead?
he didn’t, the only thing that Mike said was “Lalo is not coming back”. But knowing that he said that last time, and Lalo still showed up, wouldn’t convince Saul in the slightest.
He didn’t know. He was told by Mike, but clearly he had some doubts that Mike was being entirely honest. (Lalo had been thought dead before, so…)
he has his doubts as to whether mike is being truthful on this. after all mike assured him previously that Lalo had been dealt with only to have Lalo turn up at his home. and i guess Jimmy never finds out about Nacho at all.
He didnt say they were sent by Lalo, he thought the cartel sent him because of what happened to Lalo
So, Mike doesn’t explicitly say Lalo is dead, just that he’s not coming back. But Saul’s heard that before. So he’s probably on edge about Lalo popping up for a while, and then time passes, and he kind of forgets about it… and then four years later, he gets abducted and threatened by masked goons (Walt & Jesse) and panics and thinks maybe Lalo’s been alive this whole time, oh god, did Lalo send you?!
I assume theu are now caught up w BB and theyre gonna flash back or i guess current time that scene in BCS universe. SO i assume we will be seeing WW JP in the next week episode, which would make sense if he didnt know for sure he is dead.
“Lalo was betting Jimmy—so lucky to be with a woman like Kim, to begin with, as Lalo tells him—will go for it. Jimmy flips the deal around, though, and convinces Lalo to hold him in the apartment with Howard’s dead body…”But Jimmy didn’t really convince Lalo of anything. Lalo, as Gus’s reaction made clear later, didn’t care who went on the errand, he just wanted a distraction at the house that would bring the cavalry to the condo so he could have a little time alone at the laundry building. That’s the only thing Lalo was betting on.
This episode had some great tension, but the ending kinda sucked.The problem with prequels. Obviously, we know Gus is in no danger.Lalo went out way too easily. It was anticlimactic. Obviously, we don’t know how the rest of the season will unfold, but, at this point, it feels like a mistake to get rid of him so early.And, at present, there’s nothing further connecting Jimmy/Kim to the world of Mike and Gus. So……?
How about we just watch the rest of the show? Vince is smarter than any of us dumb shits.
Yes, but that still doesn’t mean the episode couldn’t have had problems in the moment. Which it did. So full of incredible tension and suspense in the first half. And then that completely evaporated due to our knowledge that Gus can’t die, so we were just watching the clock until he turned the tables. And it wasn’t done in a particularly clever or surprising way. It was all anticlimactic and was,I daresay, an unsatisfying end to an extremely significant character.
You’re forgetting that Jimmy and now Kim know where Gus’s secret hideaway is. And in general, Jimmy is still very much involved in Gus’s business, not to mention they dumped the body of their ex-boss under their meth lab so there is still plenty to connect the three. I can see a scenario where Gus is not comfortable with Kim seeing and knowing about his operation and who he truly is and decides to want to disappear/snuff her.
“You’re forgetting that Jimmy and now Kim know where Gus’s secret hideaway is.”His house? Uh, so what?“And in general, Jimmy is still very much involved in Gus’s business,” He is? How?“not to mention they dumped the body of their ex-boss under their meth lab so there is still plenty to connect the three.”A dead body buried beneath a slab of concrete in a place Jimmy will never go. Uh, so?“I can see a scenario where Gus is not comfortable with Kim seeing and knowing about his operation and who he truly is and decides to want to disappear/snuff her.”
Okay, but that would be utterly unsatisfying and random.
I’m gonna take it from your reponse that you haven’t actually watched this show, or even BB for that matter or that you weren’t really paying attention to any of it. “Okay, but that would be utterly unsatisfying and random.”In your opinion. I and many others would find that satisfying.
I’m gonna take it from your response that you have no idea what good television is.Kim has had exactly zero interactions or even knowledge of Gus Fring until the most recent episode. Having Gus kill Kim at this late stage would be horrible writing.
I’m absolutely not gonna take that by some random AVClub commenter who posts stupid random childish nonsense like you frequently do.Anything else you have to say that I won’t regard seriously at all?
How the hell does this show turn out so good?
The 6-7th banana, mostly comic relief character on a for sure top 5 all time TV show, whose ultimate outcome we already know about, somehow leads ANOTHER all time great show.
It’s the equivalent of if David Chase had done a spin off about Paulie Walnuts and it turned out to be just as good as the Sopranos.
I don’t think I have ever felt so much tension and stress while watching a show. Rhea and Bob really delivered the “scared as shit” emotion and Rhea was amazing when Saul was telling Lalo she was the best choice. Her look, weeping, stammering, shaking, etc. was all so real it made me wonder how she got into character so well.The cat and mouse game with Gus and Lalo was great. Two great performances as well.Just an amazing episode, maybe the best I have ever seen on tv…and I thought The Americans had some incredible scenes!
Only thing I could have suggested to top it was have a few flies flying around the bodies at the end. Would have been a great way to salvage some of the hate some people have when rewatching the fly episode in BrBa
“The McGills”?Dangit, I bristled the same way every time Lalo referred to her as “Mrs. Goodman”.She’s Kim Wexler!
There’s an inconsistency between this episode and Breaking Bad. How is it possible that Gus badmouths Don Eladio in this episode but is then on good terms with him at the Breaking Bad pool party at which he poisons him?
Really? Gus only badmouths Don Eladio on a video that Lalo is recording with a handheld camcorder. Then, as you may recall, Gus kills Lalo and buries him under the floor. So obviously Don Eladio never sees the video.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Its clear theyve caught up to BB and the next few weeks i assume we will be in full BB mode.
Was that the first time they showed that Gus has a body double, when Kim pointed him out as her intended target? If so that was legitimately and intentionally hilarious
“It’s only because Saul has such a deep bench of talent that he, like Michael Mando (Nacho), isn’t likely to get the Emmy nomination he has earned.”This line makes no sense. Just because the bench is deep does not preclude nominations for at least one of these actors if not both.