Jimmy tangles with some familiar adversaries, and Better Call Saul's big bosses pull the strings
TV Reviews Dean Norris
A key tension on Better Call Saul stems from the characters’ positions as insiders or outsiders. Chuck was the ultimate legal insider, and he spent a frankly insane amount of energy trying to keep Jimmy on the outside. Even when Jimmy was part of HHM, or later dealing with HHM as a full-fledged member of another firm, Chuck had to make sure everyone knew he wasn’t in the inner sanctum, not really in the same profession at all. Then when Jimmy and Kim struck out on their own, building their own practices, they embraced that position of outsider. But that’s an precarious place to live. Outsiders don’t enjoy the same security as insiders; much less flows to you through the institutional structure. You have to hustle for everything you wind up getting.
And therein lies the problem. You build yourself a home, and then you find yourself inside it. Turns out it wasn’t your position in somebody else’s firm that was trapping you. It was the very notion of a firm — a practice — a professional identity. The ditch you dig to get the juice flowing becomes the bed you have to lay in. Or maybe the grave where you lay forever.
There’s a lovely Aristotelian unity of time to the structure of this episode, or at least until the last act. We begin moments after “50% off” ended, with ants swarming Jimmy’s sadly-discarded ice cream cone, and Jimmy nervously eyeing the gun stuck between the front seats of Nacho’s car. He meets with Lalo and gets that wad of cash (“seven thousand … nine hundred … twenty … five?” Jimmy bullshits through mental math, underestimating severely what a drug lord might be willing to pay). Next morning he’s at the lockup prepping Domingo for his starring role in Lalo’s plan to set up Gus, and when Hank Schrader (HANK!) and Steven Gomez (STEVE!) show up to squeeze his client, he swoops in to stage-manage the little play. The DEA’s willingness to walk away, and demands for tangible results, lead to some tense moments and improvisation, but ultimately Jimmy manages to carve out a good deal for Domingo — something Lalo couldn’t be bothered to care about. After reporting the box office receipts to producer Lalo (interrupting his dirt track time) and finding out that his fee was more in the nature of a retainer (nothing good comes of a retainer on this show), Nacho drops him off at the same spot, with a mound of ants dismantling the decayed remains of the cone. Twenty-four hours from “Jimmy can be his own boss, for a treat” to “when you’re in, your in.”
Overlapping with the ice-cream bookends is another repetition — in fact, taken together, they form a synchysis. In the middle of the 24-hours of Jimmy’s Salamanca gang journey, he comes home to find Kim on the balcony, waving a beer at him. She’s looking forward to a day when her interns are taking care of Mesa Verde and she gets to devote all her energy to where she can do some good, not just protect the interests of the powerful. But Rich demands her presence in Tucumcari where a homeowner named Acker (Barry Corbin!) is the lone holdout blocking the construction of the planned call center. After delivering an ultimatum and getting summarily ejected from the property, Kim comes back later than night, trying to make it possible for Acker to have a win while satisfying her bosses. But she can’t lift herself out of the structure that employs her, that she’s embedded in, that renders her unquestionably Acker’s adversary — no matter what private gestures of solidarity and humanity she makes. Working within the system means you end up driving the steamroller that crushes the little people. And at the end of that second day (in the middle of which Jimmy has been dropped back by the cone), Kim comes home to beers on a balcony with Jimmy. Twenty-four hours from toasting justice, to flinging bottles at the parking lot like antisocial teenagers.
And we’re not quite done with the reflections. Nacho’s father shows up at Scarface Apartments, where he’s reluctantly welcomed inside by his son who is none too proud, in the moment, of his giant modernist art or barely-dressed lady friends. The elder Varga has gotten an offer for the shop, more than it’s worth, and he knows Nacho is behind it. “If you want to run, run,” he throws it back in Nacho’s face, “but me? I will not run away.” The next night, Kim is out in the New Mexico desert trying to get Acker to vacate the premises, also by offering more than her firm would want her to give — their maximum offer, extra help finding a new place, even her assistance in moving. She gets vulnerable, recounting how her mom used to roust them in the middle of the night, one step ahead of the landlord, barefoot in the cold, to show that she understands his attachment to his home. “If we’d found a house, I’d never have wanted to leave,” she admits. But it doesn’t matter how humane Kim and Nacho’s motives might be. Both of their targets respond by digging in. Nobody likes to be managed and herded, even for their own good. They’ll chew their own legs off rather than succumb to the trap.
Right now it looks like all our main characters are bought and paid for, chained to their masters — Kim to her meal ticket Mesa Verde, Jimmy to Lalo Salamanca, Mike to Gustavo Fring, and Nacho (uneasily) to both sides of the Eladio operation. We can see how they chafe under those unhappy obligations. What wiggle room will they try to create for themselves? How will they try to protect those they’re putting in danger? And whose reaction to their powerlessness — from broken beer bottles to broken arms — will rebound on them the hardest?
Stray observations:
- Love the ant visuals in the cold open, but the squishy-crunchy sound effects are ewwwwwwww.
- Leave it to Jimmy to punch up Lalo’s idea of using Domingo to sicc the feds on Gus. He creates a whole theatrical experience, complete with surprise twists. Krazy-8 is no slouch as an actor, either, nailing his lines (with Jimmy listening to his monologue at the end of the scene like an anxious director in the wings) and rhubarbing his way through the staged conflict in front of the DEA.
- It’s in that elaboration, too, that Jimmy tries to find a little room to protect Domingo. He insists to Hank and Steve that Domingo has to be their personal confidential informant (“you don’t pass him around like a venereal disease”). If Krazy-8 runs into any trouble, Jimmy has a direct line to the DEA to get him out of it. And to Lalo, Jimmy insists that this private CI arrangement means Domingo can’t be thought of as a snitch. To Lalo’s incredulous question “what do you care?”, Jimmy answers with rare honesty: “He’s my client; I’d like to keep him alive.”
- The only thing Nacho can do to help Gus is to tell him about Lalo’s plan and what the feds now know. But Gus can’t change the drops or even retrieve his money; anything he does different will alert Lalo to the existence of a leak. He’s going to be out a bundle of cash, and worse — seemingly unbeknownst to Gus, somebody will have to get arrested or Domingo’s deal is off. And if he’s out enough cash — if the heat cuts into the cartel’s earnings — Lalo will get exactly what he wants, a chance to argue to Don Eladio that Gus is a liability.
- When Hank complains that Marie (MARIE!) makes him take expired yogurt out to the trash the moment the clock strikes midnight, Steve reveals that he once ate an expired can of vanilla frosting “and I’m still here.”
- Before Mike unloads on the unfortunate young men who see him as an easy mark, he demands that the bartender take a postcard of the Sydney Opera House out of his line of sight — an indication that his guilt and anger over Werner Ziegler (who talked about his engineer father helping to build that structure) is taking its toll.
- “I’m gonna spread my legs like this. To finish me off, why don’t you give me a swift kick in the balls?”
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Holy shit, Rhea Seahorn. All the Emmy’s, goddamitt!! All. The. Emmy’s.
I felt bad that she had to go against that poor old man, but goddam I LOVE IT when Rhea goes into ballistic mode. Remeniscent of that scene where she told off Howard a couple of seasons ago.
Yeah, I loved that scene too. Unfortunately in that scenario, the poor old man lost all of trust in her once she shown her full colors. She was too little too late in trying to make amends.The show is becoming more and more like Breaking Bad and I dread the day when Wexler and Nacho and few others are ousted from the show by whatever dark fates that have in store for them…
He signed a lease and it had a buy out clause. Yeah it sucks but he signed it. He’s being offered the value of the home plus $18,000. He can accept or wait for the sheriffs to come take him out. It’s not the big mean old bank. If he’s pissed at anyone it should be himself for not reading the lease and believing it actually meant what it said.
Eh I mean he’s not wrong that they’re just forcing him out so they can make more money that they don’t need. They may be within their rights but the decent thing would be to just let him live.
The last holdout is in a unique negotiating position. They could force him out with bulldozers but if he was smart he’d threaten to call the media and wrong another quarter mill out of them.
This is the kicker though. You’re right, he signed a legal document and should be required to meet his obligations. But we all know, corporations and rich folks sign stuff all the time and often aren’t held accountable in court. They break contracts all the time or renegotiate deals, fail to pay off loans, tie others up in court for years until they give up. Maybe this old man is finally saying, you lawyers do this to everyone else, why can’t I do it to you.
What’s it like to have no soul and just mindlessly follow capitalism?
Acker’s claim of “adverse possession” was either stupid or duplicitous. You can’t sign a lease and then claim “squatter’s rights” after acknowledging that someone else owns the land.
I know! Has she been nominated yet for this role? And if so, why not? I feel like this show is extremely underrated. I don’t live in the US though, maybe more people are into it there?
She hasn’t been nominated. It’s nuts.
fuck yea man– cannot be overstated or said too often. Girl is an acting force of nature.
There’s something about Nacho’s pad that seems so communicative. It’s the sort of place that someone in his shoes is supposed to aspire to … but that nobody—NOBODY—can actually enjoy living in. He’s so palpably a prisoner there.
All darkness and echos in the indoor shots there.
Kind of an echo to Jessie Pinkman’s party crib with the crazy sound system.
You could say the bleak nature of their existence makes them both d-d-d-d-d-digital animals. Freaky folks.
Need to get themselves an 808 this or an 808 that
The two women crashing at Nacho’s apartment are off putting to say the least
Amber seemed okay. The other one was a disaster. To be fair, though, Nacho doesn’t seem like a fun dude.
The interesting thing to me is that the Asian girl was clearly displaying Meth-bender behavior, not coke, but other than the meth that was mixed in with the deliberately stepped-on bricks, they’re not dealing it yet.
Yes, they’re dealing crystal meth. They were selling meth down the drainpipe. That’s why they referred to it as ‘glass’ multiple times. They didn’t cut coke with bad meth; they cut good meth with bad meth.
So those two guys that were driving around in the previous episode weren’t on meth?
Yeah there seems to be some confusion over this. They were defs on meth, and asking “where’s our glass”, but the packets still contain coke-looking white powder.
I love that he’s considerate and experienced enough with tweekers to have a dedicated shelf of harmless amusements for when they start to do things like dismantle the remote.
Eh…I’d be nice to them too. The asian girl really was hopped up on meth in an almost cute way.
Eh…I’d be nice to them too. The asian girl really was hopped up on meth in an almost cute way.
The one on the couch was fu#kin HOT!!
Yeah, they really lived up to the brief of “give a young guy two beautiful womena and a giant beautiful apartment, only make it unbearably depressing”. Of course, Nacho’s refusal to open any curtains or turn on the lights isn’t helping.Sadly, it’s all rather unrealistic – most mid-level drug dealers are actually trapped in penury and live with their mothers, apparently. The system isn’t set up to make Nacho rich, it’s set up to move all the money through the system to Don Eladio…
Sadly, it’s all rather unrealistic – most mid-level drug dealers are actually trapped in penury and live with their mothers, apparently. The system isn’t set up to make Nacho rich, it’s set up to move all the money through the system to Don Eladio…Nonsense. #1, in case you haven’t noticed, Nacho, is very close to the top of that chain…he ain’t mid-level. #2, that apartment isn’t a huge deal, and would easily be something Nacho could afford. I’d guess he makes about 3 grand a week.
I’m no expert, but the author of the book “Gang Leader for a Day” thought his subject (a Domingo level guy, I would guess) made about what a chain retail manager would (no benefits tho). Nacho is a step up from that and we’ve seen him do side hustles. Seen from the outside, it’s actually a modest house in a modest neighborhood. The interior really isn’t large or lavish, just a bit gawdy. I think it might be fairly realistic. I think we were meant to be seeing it through Nacho’s eyes, who is embarrassed at how it looked to his father.
The shot contrasting Nacho’s father walking away from the home in the sunshine and Nacho sitting alone inside in his dismally lit kitchen was fantastic.
That was my thought the first time I saw it—Brutalist Architecture, only Modernist in the sense that it was designed in the mid-20th Century but lacking any kind of warmth. It was designed for a look, and the people who were supposed to live in it weren’t even an afterthought. His living room definitely looks more like a common area in a prison than the main room of a domicile.
Agreed. Love the pop art – Vroooom! – on the wall though, it screams “escape!” while also echoing Jesse’s last moments in BB. We can but hope for Nacho…
I love that piece though. It has real “wall power” hahahaha
That Modernist painting on Nacho’s wall of a speed car kicking up dirt wasn’t an afterthought either considering the last scene with him and Jimmy watching Lalo gleefully speeding around a homemade racetrack while getting the details his plan against Gus must be a success – VROOM! That, along with his words of warning to Saul which were apropos, “Once you’re in, you’re always in” considering he was desperately trying to tell his father the same and get out before he let his pride cost him his life.
There’s a great podcast in the UK featuring retired footballer Peter Crouch. One episode was about footballers’ houses, and he told a story about going to look at a house he was thinking about buying, currently occupied by another footballer. This millionaire in his early 20s was living in two rooms of an almost entirely unfurnished mansion, sleeping on a mattress on the floor with an empty coke can next to it.
Yeah Duff Mckagen tells the same story about other rock stars he knew, said he saw it over and over. The dude in one room of a mansion, TV sitting on top of the box it came in, eating nothing but microwave mac and cheese. Just that joyless, mindless going through the motions that some people do when rich
Ants on ice cream, feasting on the remains…cool photography for the sake of cool photography is one of the great things about this show.
I always get ice cream before this show starts. That backfired this time.
I always get ants before this show starts. Ditto.
Yeah I sat down to have dinner and was like welp
I almost always have ice cream before this show too. But the ant had me wising I had raisins as my topping for my ice cream
There’s meaning to that shot.Saul Goodman is the ice cream.And they’re now all coming for him and his sweet, sweet rotten sense of justice.
That was totally ridiculous and self-indulgent and wonderful and perfect.
It was maybe the most self-indulgent thing either BB or BCS has done. I’m not sure how I feel about it. Normally things like that are a bit more important. Yeah it is a metaphor for how a world of bugs will come out to devour sweetness or goodness or whatever, but IMO it’s a kinda broad point that doesn’t tie in as well as lots of those visual openings do.
It got me wondering how they did it because does this show have the budget for CGI? The special types of lenses needed to film insects that up close are insane, and this was BBC Earth-level stuff, lol. But by the end, I liked the visual metaphor: All of a sudden, being “Saul Goodman” isn’t so much fun anymore…and here come the ants…
I don’t think it was CGI. It might have been accentuated by some, but I’d bet a lot of that was shot with crazy macro cameras. If you listen to the BCS podcast, Vince is always going on about how he’s amazed that AMC pays for all these incredible cameras for them to use.
There’s a BCS podcast?!
There is! It’s called the Better Call Saul Insider Podcast. It’s on a lot of the podcast apps, so give it a look. Some of them are on YouTube, as well. It’s really good. Vince and Peter are regulars, editor Kelley Dixon is often the host, lots of crew and cast members, the works. The new one for episode 3 was released yesterday.
I had no idea. Thanks for the heads up!
I’m jealous of you not having heard any of it yet! I think there was one for Breaking Bad with the same people, if you look hard enough.
So that’s why they couldn’t afford a decent showrunner for TWD after Darabont left (apologies if the last couple seasons are actually good again, but I highly doubt it).
Darabont left in 2011. Better Call Saul started in 2015.
Just listened to the podcast, and yup, there was no CGI. All shot in-camera. Apparently they got some master ant handler from LA to do it. It looked great! They should hire him for the next Ant-Man movie.
It reminded me of when I was about two years old and I fed ants on the sidewalk in front of my house grains of sugar from a sugar bowl. I had several columns of those little suckers stretched out as far as the eye could see, until my mom caught on to what I was doing and made me come inside. But yeah, ants love them some sugar.
Real ants.
https://www.amc.com/shows/better-call-saul/talk/2020/03/how-better-call-saul-pulled-off-that-opening-scene-without-cgi?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
It was cool photography. Too bad it made me feel like stuff was crawling on my skin for 15 minutes afterwards
It also explained why pest extermination was such a booming business in Albuquerque a few years later.
Vamanos Pests!
Not a lot of shows would kick off an episode with a 2-minute sequence of ants swarming over ice cream just to make a metaphorical point.Also: this is apparently how you get ants.
If, like me, you were wondering where you’ve seen that old man before:
He was also Maurice on Northern Exposure
And the old uncle cat-man in the wheelchair in “No Country for Old Men”.
And he was a real scene-stealer as our heroine’s dad on a baker’s dozen episodes of “The Closer.” (Just to name one of the gadzooks things he’s been in — IMDB lists 220 credits since the mid 70s and hasn’t even caught up with “Better Call Saul” yet, never mind accounting for his stage roles).
Holy shit! That was him! I didn’t even recognize him!
I feel ooooooooooooold.
also:
And about a thousand other character roles in TV and movies.
One of Charlie Sheen’s patients on Anger Management.
Hey, yeah! I knew I recognized that pig-eyed sack of shit from somewhere. Good call.
Oh, I was hoping for something a little better than that from you, sir. A man of your education.
I would pay $10,000 to have Dabney Coleman call me a pig-eyed sack of shit. Are you listening, Cameo?
There was a period in the early ‘80s when Dabney Coleman was in every movie that came out.
He was also Uncle Bob in Urban Cowboy.
“I got caught in a chute — fell off the bull — stomped me real good. I got a plastic bone in my leg, aplastic plate in my head, and…one plastic nut.”
I hate Barry Corbin beyond logic and reason, so I was rooting for Mesa Verde all the way, even though it wasn’t the point.
Urban Cowboy
I may be forgetting Kim’s backstory, but I got the feeling that her story about blue toes was just another grift. The old guy clearly thought so.
That was my first take too. But the alternative is that it was truth but thrown back in her face as if it were a con. Which would turn Kim’s world/moral compass upside down . . . when her lies are believed and her truths are dismissed.
We know Kim was from a tiny town on the Kansas-Nebraska border that no one’s ever heard of, and that she knew she had to leave or she’d end up working as a cashier at the Hinky Dinky and married to the guy who ran the gas station. That sort of background seems totally in keeping with how she describes her childhood here.
I totally agree that Kim was telling the truth. The best con involves using the truth to sell your story.
Yeah, my sense was that the mumble-ese at the end was her failing to convince herself as much or more than the stubborn owner/tenant. Based on what we know about her character, his soliloquy about “giving a little money to charity” so she could think of herself as the “good rich” is totally off (she fights hard to do good deeds despite her bad impulses and feels deeply ashamed for her occasional slips as opposed to celebrating herself for performative good works), but it speaks to her guilt, so she goes back to convince both of them that his first read of her was wrong. It’s the exact inverse of what happens in 50% (there she gets a good result by reluctantly embracing the wrong method, here she eagerly does the right thing to no effect), and it may be her attempt to make up for duping her client. I’m still not sure whether her bottle throwing at the end of the episode is an embrace of the utterly false notion that she’s just as bad as Jimmy, so she might as well give into her worse impulses or just an expression of frustration that her attempt symbolically “make up” for her earlier slip. Either way, she might be falling victim to the slippery slope fallacy, conflating her work for the bank/firm with Jimmy’s active facilitation of crime because she feels just as bad about it even though there are obvious and important differences in terms of not only degree but type.
She had a huge grin on her face when running inside their apartment after the beer bottles to the ground, bigger than Jimmy’s. (I’ll call him Jimmy until nobody at all calls him Jimmy, which reminds me, Kim hasn’t called him by his name, any name so far this season).
The guy was exactly right and Kim knew it. That was the point
The part about not owning a house, maybe, but the rest of it doesn’t work in a small town. You would run out of rentals and need to change towns.
We know that Kim came from a working class or even poor background but that doesn’t necessarily equate to getting evicted so often it becomes the norm. It certainly could, but it doesn’t have to. Having said that I guess I’m naive because I never once imagined Kim wasn’t telling the truth. I thought the moral was that her childhood didn’t absolve her of the fact that she’s an agent of the rich and powerful now
And weirdly enough, it happens at her corporate client vs the pro-bono work.
I’m with you there. The Blue Toes line kind of died in her mouth and she gave the guy a look that said, “None of this is working on you, is it?” Still, a great Kim monologue. All earnestness, with a little flip at the end to let you know – yep, she was trying to pull a “Jimmy.”
She could still have been pulling a Jimmy without lying. Putting on a show and trying to win the guy over with flair.
True enough.
She can still have been pulling a Jimmy without lying. Putting on a show and trying to win the guy over with flair/personal colour.
Yeah, I think most of that is true or at least truth in it, even the blue toes. But I feel like the line if she had a home, she’d never want to leave. I think he saw through that, it’s something she says, but doesn’t actually believe. She can run if she has too.
I took it and his response… You will really say anything wont you? To mean that she was telling the truth but it was in service to a monster…
One of the big questions that needs resolving is why Kim isn’t in Breaking Bad and I was thinking when she went back to that guy’s house at night she was going to die in some ‘stand your ground’ assclownery.
I was so worried about that! I get the feeling her time is limited too. Kim Wexler is probably my favourite character in a television show right now and I’m not ready to say goodbye yet.
Whereas I assumed she’d find that the owner had shot himself…
Fuck yes. I thought exactly the same. I think they somehow hinted that in some way I’m too dumb to understand.
She’s not under any threat from anyone, and Jimmy survived to be in Breaking Bad. I think the tragedy will be her losing her law license, breaking up with Jimmy and leaving. If she dies I can’t see how Jimmy deals with it, esp if it happens this season.
You’re right, I don’t think she’ll die, I think the people running the show are better than taking the easy way out of the Kim question, it’s just when she walked through that gate with everything that happened with that guy before I had a bad feeling.
But we know from this episode Jimmy is being used to help screw Gus’ operation over, and by Breaking Bad he’s not exactly unfamiliar with it. Something tells me Gus may forgive him but with his usual penance…
I don’t see her losing her license but I do predict she finally leaves Jimmy and leaves New Mexico.
I don’t think she’s going to die. Probably will get caught lying/scheming/taking a metaphorical bullet for Jimmy, get in trouble and disbarred or lose her practice, and leaves him forever.
I’m hoping she bails before it comes to that. They need public defenders at the Kansas/Nebraska border too.And I’m very much hoping that the final scene of the series, after Jeff cashes in on the reward, is Jimmy being led out of jail, after the cops realize they can’t make a case against him without Jesse Pinkman, and seeing Kim waiting for him.
This. That Jimmy will ask her to take the metaphorical bullet for him to cheat/lie/scheme and she flat out refuses and walks out on him and moves to Omaha which is the real reason why Jimmy went up there. He probably stalks her house or office when not at Cinnabun.
I like that one too. It totality fits Jimmy’s character.
Still hoping Kim leaves town and lives a full, happy life elsewhere. A man’s got to have hope.
My (based on nothing, really) theory is that she and Jimmy were together during the events of Breaking Bad and when Jimmy called the vacuum cleaner, he left her without saying a word. That is the most heartbreaking outcome to me.
The way things are going, I think Kim is still alive in BB time. But by the only BB flash-forward scene we have seen, the way Francesca is acting, not even returning a hug…I think it’ll end with Kim begrudgingly still working sometimes as one of Saul’s many many contacts, but not in ABQ, and the reason for that will be how Jimmy/Saul getting slimier and slimier to degrees Kim can’t enjoy here and there anymore because of what turns out to be the catalyst of this whole universe, Nacho Varga and bringing Saul from a single day of happy cheap but slick dirty lawyer spending his time at the courthouse to the one dealing with criminals and with Mike as his P.I.Reminds me that I can’t wait for the time Mike meets Kim or vice versa, that’ll be somethin’.
I know, I half expected him to greet her at the door with a shotgun.
I was expecting that she would discover that he had ommitted suicide, and she would be racked with guilt over that.
I was sure she was going to find his body.
I think she probably loses her license to practice law in New Mexico but not necessarily anywhere else, so she moves back to Nebraska and practices there. People tend to forget law licenses are generally issued for one state, not the whole country. She might already even have a license to practice law in Nebraska.
OMG she’s from Nebraska! Jimmy is IN NEBRASKA!!!
Her backstory is that she was from some small town near Nebraska and left because there weren’t any career opportunities. Beyond that, it’s pretty vague.
I don’t think so, at all. That’s the irony; she was trying to open up to him but by virture of who she was working for and why she was there, he wasn’t gonna have it.
I just loved the second encounter. Especially when it’s such a TV/movie trope that her heartfelt personal story would melt the old man’s heart and make him see reason. Nope, he turns it right around and says “you’d say anything to get what you want”. I think the old man is going to lose big in the end, but he has a point about not wanting to be manipulated by rich corporations any longer.
Kim’s going to lose either way. She’s pissed at him because he is dragging her away from what she really wants to be doing…which is helping people like him.
Well, hello ASAC Hank Schrader. Great introduction of two classic characters from Breaking Bad, and Hank’s rapport with Gomie was just flash-forward like in how natural, effortless, and of course entertaining as always.The writing so far this season has been at a top level. Speaking of things at top level—I feel like if I were paid by the dollar every time I mention the excellent direction and cinematography on this show, I’d have thousands—the shots are so sublime from Nacho’s father leaving his son’s pad with both in full view, accenting the emotion of the scene we just witnessed, to the crosstalk between Hank and Gomie from the lockers’ point of view, as they wax poetic about (bad)food or something. Just amazing.
100% agree
My favorite thing about the writing is that they never really use the short cut of random chance. Saul ends up getting picked up by Nacho because his promotional stunt was the catalyst for a crime spree that ends with Domingo getting arrested. It’s never predictable but cause and effect is always plainly laid out.
Plus Nacho’s earlier association with Jimmy in the first season that brought McGill to the cartel’s attention in the first place. Evidently the “biznatch” incident made a big impression on the Salamanca familia.
This is a really excellent point! I love how BB & BCS are so focused on process, on working out the details. I started watching an Australian series on Netflix called “Wanted” (two women on the run after witnessing a murder), and had to bail on it because the plot is constantly advanced through ridiculous coincidences or lucky breaks. Pursued by an armed killer? No worries, just hop in the truck which happens to be sitting there on the side of the road with the keys in it! It was ridiculous & makes me appreciate even more the way BB & BCS refuse to take such lazy shortcuts.
So many shots in this show and BB are like elaborately constructed paintings.
Also, Lalo’s scene where he’s cleaning up, not saying a word, and just exchanges glances with Jimmy. Totally felt like that moment in boxcutter where Victor meet his demise. Gus didn’t have to say anything to Walt, his face summed it up perfect. Same here with Lalo I felt.
I’d just like to mention that quick shot of Gus standing in front of his half-built chiller, illuminated by lights, with his back to the camera. It was gone too quick, but it was absolutely goddamn magnificent.
Barry Corbin giving me big time No Country For Old Men vibes out there on that land in the middle of the desertNo clue if Kim was lying to Mr Acker or not with her sob story, it’s awesomeSaul is never at a loss when it comes to talking himself out of a tough situation, and yet the best he can do with Lalo is “you can’t afford me” and “my schedule is too busy”…..his powers are useless against psycho drug lords! 50+ shows in to a prequel and this show continues to be a treasure, really amazing
“It ain’t all waitin’ on you. That’s Vanity”….
Awesome! Love that whole dialogue: “What you got ain’t nuthin new….this country’s hard on people…..you can’t stop what’s comin”There is quite a bit of No Country for Old Men DNA woven into what Vince Gilligan has created with Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul…..its fantastic.
“What you got ain’t nuthin new….this country’s hard on people…..you can’t stop what’s comin”That’s pretty much Cormac McCarthy’s mission statement right there…
I recognized Barry Corbin by his voice before his face! Makes me think of Northern Exposure, which when it was at it’s best, was as good as TV was in it’s era.
Interesting how protective Gus and Tyrus were of the drop money. Shows that Gus isn’t as rich now as he will be when showering Walter White with funds for his services.
Perhaps Walt convinced Tio by telling him about Saul’s discount.
Nice.
Jimmy wasn’t savoring Krazy-8’s performance like a director. He was looking down in uncomfortable shame over committing a crime like that. Further evidence is when he tries to tell Lalo he is out.Whether it’s for Kim or for some other reason, Jimmy is still trying to lead a life and career with at least some principles. Cutting corners is one thing. Fleecing the DEA and risking his license all over again is another, at least for now.
Love the ant visuals in the cold open, but the squishy-crunchy sound effects are ewwwwwwww.I know AV Club is contractually obligated to praise Vince Gilligan at every turn, but that cold open was useless and lazy. Gilligan and AMC are simply trying to squeeze more bullshit minutes out of their shows now. It was probably the most pointless cold open between both Breaking Bad and BCS
The scene I found useless was the kids underestimating Mike and then he kicked one of their asses. Hasn’t this happened like three times already?
Does anyone else get the symbolism behind the ice cream? In “50% Off,” while explaining his half off scheme to Kim in their apartment Jimmy has two scoops of ice cream whereas Kim has just one. Just like how in old westerns bad guys order two whiskys while good guys order one. The ice cream cone Jimmy is eating towards the end of “50% Off” that gets dumped on the pavement is a single scoop. And now we see that single scoop being devoured by ants in this episode. It’s the death of Jimmy and the true birth of Saul. He’s finally transitioned into becoming a full on bad guy.
Does anyone look cooler at ‘just sitting’ than Nacho?I can’t deny that Mike’s scene, walking down a bad neighborhood as if looking for trouble, reminded me of a certain Liam Neeson interview…
We saw at least 3 Kims in this episode, and every version is the real deal because she believes in what she’s doing, and it’s hard to be that in a world like this sometimes. At the start of this episode, she basically loses in court, but she still has the dignity to compliment the judge to her client, and she insists the fight isn’t over. These small pro bonos show Kim is great at what she does. Though for as good as she tries to be, later, she’s dressed down by that home owner, and got me wondering if he had a point. But she fires back with an epic speech that is the honest truth of the situation. These bigger Mesa Verde cases show Kim is great at what she does. Yet she STILL went back (breaking in, mind you- because she’s a boss) to try and smooth things over, even being vulnerable when she totally didn’t have to. Whatever they’re paying her it’s not enough. This show works for a lot of reasons, but the biggest might be Kim Wexler. She’s my hero.
She does kill it. Every guy who watches this show knows Kim is the girlfriend they wish they’d had, and they would never screw it up like Jimmy.
It would be a fascinating study to compare and contrast Kim Wexler and Skylar White.Both of them are the “straight” love interests to a man who’s dabbling with the wrong side of the law. Both of them effectively nag their man to stay in line, although both of them are at times hypocritical, and see the appeal of his approach, even if they don’t like to admit it.But almost everyone disliked Skylar (and a lot of people outright hated her). Whereas everybody loves Kim. I imagine a lot of film students will be trying to work out why relatively small differences in the characters result in such a total difference in response…Simplistic suggestion: it’s because we see Kim actually doing things, for herself, working to improve her situation. So we learn to view her as a protagonist. Whereas we never really saw Skylar as something more than a part of Walt’s story. Plus, Kim actually seems to genuinely care about Jimmy, whereas Skylar… it seems like any real affection or understanding in that marriage ended a long time ago.
Am I the only one who has no idea what she sees in Jimmy?
wanna bet?
Nah, she’d leave me in a week.
I just hope that, at the end of BCS, Kim decides to move out of ABQ and on to better things somewhere else…but not Belize.
So many people who could go to Belize on this show, and I don’t want to see it happen to Kim or Nacho. Especially frightening when tonight we saw two beloved characters for the first time since we found out they eventually went to Belize.
I doubt Nacho dies – Saul tries to throw him under the bridge in his first appearance when he thinks Walt and Jessie were sent by Lalo.
Which may be why Saul does that. Because Nacho’s dead and so no longer around to dispute Saul when he throws him under the bus.Lalo we know for a fact is dead by then, based on what Gus said to Don Hector about him being the only Salamanca left alive. Nacho, it’s not so clear. It could go either way.
But Saul thinks Lalo might be alive and Gus seems sure he isn’t. So Saul thinking Nacho is alive isn’t a guarantee he is.
Shock twist: Kim actually does move to Belize to become a human rights lawyer. And that’s why it’s the remote country that pops into Saul’s head when he’s having that talk with Walter later on…
Prediction: Kim will leave ABQ, but she will eventually be part of the Gene storyline, somehow.
Of all the characters, Kim was the one I was most pleased to see in the season premiere.
It wasn’t as if Mike was looking for a fight. He was.
I’m not saying they cast him for his looks, as he’s a tremendous actor too, but Michael Mando is literally one of the most attractive men I’ve seen on TV
When Mike got into his confrontation with the local toughs, I was absolutely sure that *this* was the scene where he was finally going to lose a fight. There were just too many of them, and Mike was drunk, and his judgement was off.
Instead we got another scene of Mike being a badass— and, man, that just never gets old. Although they’ll have a hard time topping the scene in “Pimento”.
Lalo cooks food. Lalo kills without guilt. Lalo differentiates his own drugs vs. competitors’ stuff just by looking at it. Lalo swaps in a new carburetor in a muscle car. Lalo is one talented sociopath.
Next episode: He performs successful heart by-pass surgery … just for kicks!
He does everyone’s taxes. “Ignocio, you can deduct your gun and bullets as business expenses. And we really need to maximize your deductions with some charitable contributions next year, you hear me?”
Engineering as well. He took one look at Gus’ poultry chiller installation and knew there was some discrepancy with the whole “south wall” business.
I think a lot of that is fueled by his hate and mistrust of Gus. Gus could have shown them the actual work site and Lalo would still probably thought that it was a cover story.
Wasn’t the “south wall” a reference to what Ziegler spilled about the accident at the lab construction site? Lalo was pumping Ziegler for information while Ziegler was unaware that Gus had rivals in the cartel.
Apparently he’s also a big fan of corridos because he’s also singing to himself in almost every scene he’s in. He takes great pleasure in this gangster shit.
Or, maybe, he’s just ‘the most interesting man in the world.’(comment sponsored by Dos Equis)
(Lalo speaking directly at the camera, mariachi music playing in the background)“I don’t always commit murder, but when I do, I like to jump down from the ceiling to surprise my victim. Stay blood-thirsty, my friend.”
Stay thirsty, my friends….
If you can get over the “evil” thing the guy’s a real catch.
Yeah, it’s really amazing that that someone could be really good at their job and have a couple of hobbies that aren’t particularly difficult to learn.
Hank! Gomey!
Shit, Dean Norris looks old. First time an actor aging in real time has
looked so noticeable to me in this series, even more than Huell.
It was sad seeing the two of them, though, knowing what’s going to happen in a few years.
The cinematography in this show continues to amaze. The reflection of
Nacho’s driver in the steering wheel hub, the reflection of Kim in the
window of Mr. Acker’s house after he closes the door on her. Wonderful
stuff.
Idk for me the actor who plays hank has looked the same for like 30 years.
When Kim was threatening that the offer would go down the longer Corbin’s character waited: All the time he spent trying to get back what they took, more’s going out the door.
I read the great visual of the ants all over the ice cream as our characters being careful in getting what they want, since it’ll backfire on them, as it did in this episode. Because, and I have no idea, consuming that much sugar for such a tiny body can harm an ant? I don’t know.A more conventionally cliched show would have had the old man listen to Kim’s pained backstory and then ask something like “Ms. Wexler, who are you and who do you want to be?” Or Kim would have found him a suicide in the house and felt terrible. Good writing is he didn’t believe her, making her feel worse.This was a superbly photographed hour. Loved the sunset as Kim stopped her car.No Latin American chicken food porn this week. Dammit.Nacho’s dad saying to his girl, “Nice to meet you, young lady!” was heartbreaking. Even under emotional stress he remembers to be nice.
I think the symbolism is that once you get what you want, someone is going to be there to eat away at it. Lalo pulling Jimmy/Saul into his service. Kim’s law firm pulling her away from her pro bono work that actually fulfills her to kick an old man out of his home. Nacho has all the money he could ever spend, but he’s walking a tightrope between Gus and Lalo to stay alive. And all that money can’t get his father out of harms way.
Great review for that paragraph alone. It’s difficult for a TV show to make such sharp points about the desire for belonging and security alongside the desire for autonomy. And they’ve done it with Kim so effortlessly, without repetition, and in the most mundane way. This is a Kim episode and it’s basically her day “off” that gets interrupted by work. Not the most exciting story arc in a vacuum but damn if it doesn’t pull at something deeper.
To piggyback on Donna’s theme, the constant buzzing of Kim’s assistants and the phones they keep shoving at her seem to never stop. Maybe next movie night will be “Scarface” or bootleg concert footage of “Welcome to the Machine,” but I really enjoyed the gendered dynamics behind the process of Saul and Kim getting pulled in deeper. While Saul is kidnapped and uses his silver tongue to juke out of it (for now), Kim is expected to be at the beck and call of her various bosses so she can ultimately be, sorry for the word, the bitch who kicks a man out of his house while providing either clean hands or a clean conscience for her bosses. I like the contrast with Kim and the short haired Mesa Verde lady, she’s a company woman to the bone and would never let pro bono mess with her real job. At least, she sure as hell would never pull over on the highway to reflect on her life decisions. Kim’s lot is to be crawled all over by ants if she wants power and prestige. She’s as good of a lawyer as Chuck but she’ll almost never get that independence of tradecraft she wants. It may not be as glamorous or high stakes as Saul, but the battle for Kim’s soul is of much greater concern than who wins the drug war or anything else on this show.
Saul didn’t talk his way out of it. He did what Nacho and Lalo told him to do, committing a very serious crime in the process (using attorney client privilege as a tool to communicate a serious criminal conspiracy)
I love that Steve Gomez showed up despite being an active politican in New Mexico. Nice one Vince Gilligan.
Well, if THE DEMON KANE can do it then so can Steve Q.
True true.
Just this weekend I was talking to a friend who lives in TN. He was with his boss for a meeting with some committee member when in walks Mayor Glenn Jacobs. He said that he was doing his absolute best to keep from geeking out and yelling out “IT’S KAAAANNNNNEEEEEE!!!”
I got I got to tell you. I work for him in Knoxville. Your comment tickled me
He also does stand-up on Carnival Cruises, so I think we know what his real priority is.Love Gomie. Good to see him back.
I missed Gomie!
Lalo’s tacos or Gus’ chicken? I really don’t know who to root for here.
That IS a really difficult choice!
It’s likely that eventually Lalo will be buried in a vaguely taco-shaped hole where Gus’s chickens can shit on him. So that’s the probable outcome, whoever we root for.
Why not both?
That sounds good, but we’ll see how it plays out for Nacho.
I hope there’s a Breaking Bad Universe cookbook when all this is done.
The Salamanca family recipes, Gus’s famous chicken (and Chilean food for the adventurous diner), breakfast with Walt Jr., etc.
Lalo will good decent tacos, but mostly just something he likes. Gus’s chicken is going to be meticulously crafted down to the microgram of every herb and spice.
It’ll be very interesting to see when Howard Hamlin returns and where he fits into the picture now. They didn’t just bring him back in that brief appearance last week for no reason.
He was literally offering him a job at HHM by trying to invite him to dinner! Yet, Saul told him he’d talk to him later and went on to his target ADA Ericsen very swiftly leaving Hamlindigo shocked. That was hilarious.
Question: what did Nacho take off the countertop and hand to his GF when his dad visited? I rewound it a few times but no dice.
I think bra or panties.
Makes sense. Thanks much.
Amazing episode, great shots galore as mentioned. Anyone notice that the Crown Vic that pulled up to the court house, the “police interceptor” label on it was worn, and only said “ICE Interceptor”?
Holy shit that was Barry Corbin on Better Call Saul. The years, they sure go by.
Did you notice the second beer that was on the balcony rail when Jimmy was talking to Kim. Kim kept looking at it when Jimmy was talking? Was someone else there or been there?
intentional parking lot shot outside Nacho’s place -That big ugly truck from the Pharmacy nerd, that guy who was also in The Office
So good to see ASAC Motherfucking Schrader back on my screen. Such a kick-ass entrance for both he and Gomie, and to see them both right back at their shit-talking ways in the cell with Saul and Crazy 8 was all kinds of fun.I can’t wait to see how they’re going to have Walt and Jesse somehow back in the mix next season. You know it’s coming.
You’re betting on that being a sure deal? I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up never appearing at all.
The way the show is morphing into the early days of Breaking Bad from a different perspective, I wouldn’t be surprised. They wouldn’t need to be major characters in it or anything, but a cameo or two along the way would be fun. I don’t think Walt or Jesse ever met Saul before their introductions in BB, so they couldn’t cross things over too much anyway.
They could bring in Walt by way of Hank, I suppose. If they do go to the effort of bringing in Cranston for a cameo I’m sure they’ll do it right, it won’t be pointless fanservice… but the show absolutely doesn’t need it.As for Jesse, I think he’s still in high school at the time the show is taking place so he’s just some kid, it’d take some kind of miracle to work him into BCS plausibly.
Oh, they absolutely don’t need it, but it would be fun just to have him pop up totally unexpectedly, walking down a hallway or something. Maybe in his school, or at the Aztec dealership. Heh.You’re right about Jesse. Unless Aaron Paul has a younger relative, perchance.
I think we’re getting closer to the final exit (in this timeline) of Kim, probably at the end of this season or the beginning of next. Because BCS has a different tone and outlook about it’s characters lives, I’m making a bold guess that Gene ends up reuniting with Kim, who has gone back to live near Nebraska. Jimmy picked Omaha for a reason.
I’m rooting for that resolution, but I know deep down it’s not happening.
I didn’t say it would be a happy ending. But, here’s the thing – it’s Saul/Jimmy/Gene. A man from Chicago with roots in the Southwest who eventually gets weirdly worldly. Why Omaha? He could hide in lots of other places. Maybe it was a random choice in BB but then they chose to make KW from Nebraska. That doesn’t feel random.
Forster sent him there, you didn’t get to pick where you went, except for Jesse. But remember….”Nebraska? What’s in Nebraska?” Forster : “You from now on”, something like that, in the cold open of Granite State. Walt didn’t pick where he went either, it’s whatever the Disappearer happens to have available for the disappearee (I want that to be a word damnit) seems to me, turns out Saul when joking about being nobody’s lawyer who might if he’s lucky get to be a manager at a Cinnabon in Omaha when telling Walt it was over in that hidey hole under the store.
Once again, beneath all the other stories and layers at work in this episode, is the developing chess game between Gus and Lalo. They are two of a kind and know that each has moles in the other’s operations—if not, there soon will be. And those moles, once discovered, can actually be more useful as conduits to feed disinformation than as corpses. Simply killing them would be an amateur move and tip their respective hands.While Lalo sometimes kills people who don’t figure into his plans, like the clerk at the check cashing store, he more often considers how he can use them to his advantage before he’s going to pull the trigger. In Gus’ case, he seems to use murder to bring others in line with what he wants them to do.Nacho and Krazy-8 are definitely pawns, but smart ones. They’ve both been in the game long enough to understand where they are in the food chain.
Lalo doesn’t really have a mole in Fring’s operation. He just had one of his own guys give up Gus’s money.
Lalo doesn’t have a mole yet, but I’m guessing it’s something that’s on his agenda.
Maybe Victor. If Gus never found out for sure before Lalo was killed but still suspected him, it would explain a lot.
That most definitely would explain a lot.
The ants have to be one of the best opening shots of any Vince Gilligan/Marshall work , the slow discovery the camera work and sounds. beautiful piece of cinematography
Vince Gilligan corrected a longtime BB/BCS oversight, by previously featuring so many tough bald dudes without including Barry Corbin.So, there really isn’t enough open land out there for Mesa Verde to build a call center without taking people’s homes?
People use Vince Gilligan’s name pretty freely, but he really isn’t involved in the writing process for BCS anymore.He probably had little to do with Corbin’s casting.
I mean he’s still the executive producer. He may not be involved in the day-to-day process as he was on Breaking Bad, but I think it’s safe to assume he still has a hand in what we end up seeing on television.
The ants were also reminiscent of the opening scene of The Wild Bunch.
I love the character development on this show. None of it feels like filler and it’s all well acted entertainment. This season is a solid A for me so far.
Well, the Saul/Lalo/Nacho connection is now official. Now we have to see where Saul becomes deathly afraid of Lalo and why he passed the buck to Ignacio when we first encounter him in BB.It’s obvious Gus will prevail in his war with Lalo but I wonder how he kept himself secret from Saul and pretty much everybody in law enforcement. I’m guessing in deciding to be a pillar of the community he will thwart Lalo somehow.
I’m guessing Saul is involved in some Lalo/Nacho gambit to take down somebody (probably gus). And when he’s brought to the desert he assumes it failed and so he passes the buck to them. I don’t know how much Saul knows of Gus, still it’s a little hard to assume Walt/Jesse could be mistaken for the type of people Gus would use to kill Saul.
Well, the Saul/Lalo/Nacho connection is now official. Now
This is one of very few shows that I watch the cold open/opening credits for cautiously, all because of [extremely occasional] close-ups of bugs (but that tarantula could appear again, and I cannot deal with it). The second I saw the ant I yelled “NOPE!” and ducked my head under my laptop.
Very solid comment. Added a lot to the discussion of an intelligent show.
I know they’re just ants, but they were scary looking! Especially with the music and the crazy sound editing in that whole scene. Little monsters!
Yeah, I did not recognize Maurice Minnefield at all. Kim should have just said “When you stepped on the law, you stepped on me.”One thing that keeps striking me about Kim is how alone she is. She’s dealing with all this shit and she’s got absolutely no one to talk to about it. She can’t talk to Jimmy about it because he’s part of the problem. And yet he’s all she has. Something’s gotta give. Does she not have any other friends in Albuquerque?
I like that they de-emphasized Hank’s predilection for Latino-focused “humor” in his banter with Steve. I think we’ve all had enough of that.
So we know Jesse was working with Domingo and the long-forgotten Emilio (have we seen him yet?) at the beginning of Breaking Bad, so it wouldn’t be too surprising to see him show up at some point. That said, it may be too early for that, as this Saul doesn’t feel like Breaking Bad Saul yet. We’ve got a ways to go from Saul negotiating with a feared drug kingpin to keep his client alive, to him offhandedly advising Walt and Jesse to have Badger shanked in prison. I’m still not quite sure how I see them pulling that off in 2 seasons, but we’ll see.I was watching an interview with Bob Odenkirk and he talks about how the Saul persona is all surface and we rarely got to see Jimmy locked underneath in Breaking Bad, except for a few quick peeks. One other thing about Saul that I haven’t heard discussed that much is the desperation. He enjoys what he does, sure, but there is a frantic, overcompensating quality to it. He’s always got to be the loudest, most cheerful guy in the room, the suits, the sad combover, he’s forever the guy trying too hard at the party. It ultimately shows that what he’s doing more than anything is running away from himself. It’s a testament to the writers’ instincts that they were able to install such subtle hints of this all along in order for it to be fully explored now.
I think this episode was a major turning point in the whole Jimmy/Saul’s series arc. As far as I know this was the first time that Saul was willing to straight up act as a “criminal, lawyer” and not merely a criminal lawyer. He’s messed around the edges of it before but Nacho and Lalo are asking him to use attorney client privilege to communicate information about a criminal conspiracy to one of their associates in prison. I’m not a lawyer but i’m pretty sure this is a serious crime and obvious grounds for disbarment. And Jimmy doesn’t even balk at it! I guess it’s out of fear but he doesn’t even try to talk his way out of it or anything. There’s no coming back from this
To be fair, this isn’t the first time Jimmy has ignored the law as part of his practicing; the Squat Cobbler comes to mind, as well as the breaking and entering that Chuck got him on. But it’s probably the most dramatic.
Right that’s the kind of stuff I was thinking of. I don’t really count the Chuck breaking and entering thing because that was all ginned up by Chuck. Jimmy had had access to Chuck’s house for years because he took care of him. Chuck was keeping him out just to get that reaction. I confess I forgot most of the details of the squat cobbler situation but I remember it did involve him blatantly lying to cops. This still seems like a pretty big leap to me: using his status as a lawyer to pass messages between a couple violent drug lord types and their guy in prison. And what was striking to me was that Jimmy/Saul didn’t even try to get out of it. Maybe that was supposed to convey his understandable fear of Nacho and Lalo but he didn’t even try to talk his way out of it or figure out some angle. The implication seemed to be that this is the kind of thing that Saul Goodman does
I think he seemed to be weighing his options when Lalo made his initial proposal and quickly realized that his gift of gab wasn’t going to get him very far with this guy, so he decided he might as well take the money. But I think we’re supposed to realize he’s already got some pretty big misgivings about it and has a fair idea what will happen to him once he’s no longer useful to Lalo.
Disagree about Hank. For better or worse that’s where he was when he started BB. To negate his flaws in the prequel is to negate the growth he does in BB.He was never a bad cop, but I’m worried they made him a bit too much like Season 4 Hank rather than Season 1 or before Hank.Hanks casual racist humor was never supposed to be straight up funny to the audience but rather a comment on his character. So I hope they don’t erase all his S1 flaws in BCS.
Metamorphosis: the suit is still Jimmy, but the shirt and tie are Saul.Given what we know of Kim’s history, I believed her hard-luck childhood story was authentic. But the corporate machine can use “authenticity” for its own purposes—and the old man knows it, even if Kim doesn’t.“When you’re in, you’re in.” And nobody but Nacho’s father has unambiguously stayed out. I fear for the old guy.I think last episode’s offer from Hamlin for a lunch meeting is bad news. Jimmy’s supposedly owed a huge finder’s fee from HH&M. I doubt he’ll see it.Manic puzzle girl is exactly the type of woman I’d have hooked up with in my younger days. Fun, scary times.
I love your recaps and I love the show (of course I read through every comment too, its a great escape). My own minor $.02 was this episode wasn’t an A- for me; it was my least favorite of the season. On my DVR it was either 1:16 or 1:20 minutes- I love that they are allowed to go long but I felt that this episode abused it a little. It wasn’t quite tightly paced enough. Just my minor relative opinion, I still loved it.
It’s Breaking Bad canon that Krazy 8 is a good actor. He was moments away from convincing Walt to let him go until the plate puzzle epiphany.
Best episode of the season so far, the humour might have been a bit toned down, but crucial events that have the characters get where they are going, through the unknown fate of the closest-to-heroes Kim and Nacho. This gets an A for me. Also, that old guy was so wrong about Kim, she started doing pro bono cases because she actually cares, but he just pulled the clichés on her and Kim is a much more real person than say, company-woman lawyer cliché through and through. She was way too nice to the man even if she seemed to have added a little to her not-so-great childhood tale about how she never had a house. A episode
Donna, your recaps are akin to the always-consistent dessert upon which you can count on and anticipate after dining in your favorite restaurant.One subplot only hinted at in “Breaking Bad” that I’m dying to see revealed this season or next is the origin of the relationship between Tuco and Skinny Pete while in prison. For Tuco to willingly arrange a meet-and-greet as a favor to Skinny Pete suggests that Skinny must have ingratiated himself to Tuco while serving time together. My guess is Skinny witnessed an act of violence by Tuco but kept his mouth shut or directed the guards to look elsewhere. But knowing the creative team, it will no doubt be more elaborate and creative.
“rhubarbing his way” First time I have ever seen rhubarb as a verb,
I can understand having a little sympathy for the old guy, but he is clearly in the wrong and being offered a generous buyout of his home at FMV + $18K. They are being overly nice to this guy.