Amph Better Call Saul (Spoilers within)

Breaking Bad flashback! ...Er, flash forward! Something!

Also, yikes Howard's guilt is really eating at him. I wouldn't be surprised if HHM implodes.

 

The morals of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are probably identical: we all die in the end, but very few of us will have as much fun in the middle as Walter White and Jimmy McGill.

 

He gave his secretary a lawyers card, and said tell them Jimmy sent you.

I assume it was either for Kim, HHM or Kim at HHMW. And assume we will find out.

 

The secretary knows Kim though so it's most likely HHM, assuming HHM isn't going to implode with the way Howard is acting at the moment.

 

So why exactly is Kim defending low-level criminals? My interpretation is that Mesa Verde seems meaningless to her and she wants to actually do something good and help people. She already blew Mesa Verde off once, so I think she's going to walk away at some point.

 

I think the car crash definitely shifted the goalposts in the priorities in Kim's life.

The Breaking Bad era scene was great but, spoilers for a show I already watched, what was it that made Saul have to become Cinnabon Gene aside from just doing money laundering for Walt and Jessie but what specifically spooked him. Or was it because Walt was outted as Heisenberg so Saul figured that they were coming for him. Also I loved how he even had a moment to shout out his Jimmy days there.

So I guess the guy who told Mike he could build Gus' underground bunker in "7 months" was just completely full of it which is why Mike dropped him too quick ("thought so!") and the German guy offered up actual stats on the job.

 

It was good but strangely kind of slow compared to recent episodes, I thought. I knew last week’s episode was setting up Saul having a desk full of burner phones, but I was surprised that was the main theme of this episode. Totally agreed on the sad contrast between Saul in that BB scene at the start (and his “it was quite a ride” line before calling the guy to help him disappear) compared to enthusiastic Jimmy at the end of the episode. And it was kind of cool seeing Mike find the right guy for Gus to hire to build the underground meth lab under the laundry place.

 

Watching it again now, he also tells her to be at a phone on November 12, at 3PM. Presumably a payphone. That has to have some pay out.

 

Looking at the Breaking Bad wiki and refreshing my memory, Saul was spooked when Huell disappeared. He also was wearing a bullet proof vest worried that Jesse would be coming after him. If you recall, Jesse and Walt have a falling out in BB Season 5 and then Jesse was working with the DEA so they know that Saul was an associate/working with Walt. Then when Hank and Steve were killed, Saul knew the full force of the DEA would be going after Skylar and Walt Jr and anyone associated with Walt, so his frantic fleeing, shredding, and all that great stuff from the first scene of BCS "Quite a Ride" is what he was doing probably while Walt was running around like crazy, kidnapping his own daughter, and then eventually calling Ed the vacuum guy. Walt is already at Ed's establishment there when Saul gets there.

Fun fact: Saul says to Walt in Ed's bunker, "If I'm lucky, a month from now, best case scenario, I'm managing a Cinnabon in Omaha."

Yeah, as revealed towards the end of the episode, Gus was there the whole time listening in the shadows to what is being said to Mike by the potential contractors. When Gus realizes the first guy was full of it, he called Mike on the phone and Mike responded accordingly.

This has been my favorite episode of the season thus far with all the BB connections.

 

I commented on Kim on the previous page and said something similar to the effect where she's dissatisfied with her job with Mesa Verde. I thought the scene were Kim was looking at the building models planned for Mesa Verde's expansion was very telling. As well as the fact she was begging for the judge to put her to work.

Well, going for a ride with Mike in the van with no windows definitely added to the slow burn of this episode. Additionally, it didn't have the high tension and hard pounding drama of the previous episodes' drug wars.

I never really gave much thought how the meth lab came to be under the clothes laundry business. I always assumed that space was there to begin with. Anyway, I did notice the license plate on the rent-a-car the guys used had Colorado license plate, which explains the very long car ride.

I'm imagine Hank would appear at some point in this series.

I don't remember if it was ever revealed in Breaking Bad, but I'm very curious was in the package that Jimmy pulled out of the wall.

 

The package contains mementos including VHS tapes of his commercials. We see it in the first episode.

 

Also, I believe there was something saying that the guy landed at Colorado International, unless I imagined it.


I think Kim is a little disenfranchised with the Mesa Verde stuff because of her roll in Chucks downfall. She’s possible making amends with the court stuff, following the letter of the law as he did.

 

Great points about Chuck's death. Please refresh my memory, but does Kim know that Jimmy changed the addresses on the Mesa Verde contracts to which Chuck to the fall for?

 

I hope there's a scene with Kim sees Howard and the guilt ridden condition he's in. I wonder if this will create a wedge between Kim and Jimmy.

 

Tonight's episode:
Season 4, Episode 6: Piñata

Official AMC plot summary:

Spoiler

While Jimmy daydreams about reconstituting Wexler-McGill, Kim sets out to secure her own future; Mike puts a plan into motion for Gus.

While last week's episode had some great development, I think it was possibly an intentional breather as far as the intensity of it went. I wouldn't be surprised if things are now back to the "hurtling towards Breaking Bad" feeling we've been getting lately in this season.

 

Last night's episode was directed by Andrew Stanton of Wall-E and Finding Nemo / Dory fame

"***** you, Jimmy!"

I was thinking, while people want Walt and Jessie to pop up, I think having them in the prequel-timeframe of the show would be pointless but hopefully there's a great "lost" Walt/Jessie/Saul/Mike scene they can integrate into an episode like this episode Chuck flashback for the Saul flashforward last week.

 

Pinata
- I watched the episode on the AMC app and I was kind of upset with them that their choice of thumbnail kind of ruined the end of the episode a little bit. It was great seeing Heull but I didn't recognize the other guy. It's probably someone from BB, I'm guessing. Anyway...

• It was great seeing Chuck again, essentially in his prime. It's funny to see that Chuck inspires Kim who ultimately inspires Jimmy to follow the path of lawyer. [According to IMDb the scene takes places in 1993, based on Jimmy's comment about Scent of a Woman from 1992.]
• I liked all the Mike scenes. I wonder how much of a pain Kai is going to be. I guess there has to be some drama with the project otherwise it's boring as we know it gets built. If anything, this project will show Gus that Mike can be fully trusted and he'll be working for him full time.
• The Gus scene with Hector was kind of needed / kind of not. Sure we haven't seen Hector in a while so it's nice to get a "wellness" check on him even though we know he's going to wake up. And we also know the type of man Gus is: his intelligence, patience, carefulness with everything he is planning. I couldn't tell when they zoomed in on Hector's hand if it twitched or moved or not at the end of the scene.
• Kim seeing Jimmy's notebook and knowing his vision made her decision to go see Rick Schweikart all the more heartbreaking. She loves Jimmy, I truly believe that, but at the same time she knows what kind of man he is and she doesn't want to be associated with him professionally. That scene with Jimmy at the kitchen and it hitting him was very powerful. (I wonder if the card
• Jimmy / Howard scene was fantastic! Is the big death this season not Kim but HHM? [I read on IMDb that Howard delivered the first uncensored F bomb in this show's broadcast history.] I noticed watching FX that Mayans and Sunny wasn't censored either. Is this a new thing?

 

Well, Scent of a Woman was release in December 1992, and the Oscars would have been held in 1993, so the timeline is accurate.

I can't say is was great seeing Chuck again because of the heavy make up and hair piece. To me, it looked like a bad face lift. But whatever. I thought the scene was pretty cool, because I didn't recall that Kim started off in the mail room like Jimmy. But I don't recall a lot of elements of the show. Additionally, did show how interested and enthusiastic Kim was with the litigation side of the law, as oppose to the corporate side when she's looking over regulations regarding building codes. I know this feeling all too well. It's great to see a woman character pursue her aspirations as so often they're written in the opposite; sacrificing their own goals to support the significant other. And not only does she purse her passion, but also manages to take care of her commitments to Mesa Verde.

Mike's character is so well written, as well as the characters that support him, in that he's well respected by them. I mean, the way Gus listens to him and takes in all his advice helps create more depth and nuance to his character. It was also nice to see Mike apologize to his daughter-in-law and admit the time and place of his outburst was wrong, which adds another layer to his character. As such, if I ever watch Breaking Bad again, I won't look at Mike the same way, which as a type of villain. And his death would probably effect me moreso.

I like the scene with Gus and Hector as it explains why Gus didn't kill Hector as he has the opportunity to do so. Gus tells that story of the animal that was eating his fruit and how he tried and capture it but initially failed. That story was part of Gus' origin story and why he was patient and why he doesn't kill Hector, as it would be considered merciful in Gus' mind. Thus, keeping Hector alive is not act of merci by Gus. And therefore, Gus sits in Hector's hospital room hoping that he wakes up and watches for any sign it will happen, whether it be a simple hand twitch. I think Gus wants Hector to see that he has taken over the operations and is doing ten times better than he could ever dream of. This scene was great as it show the inner thinking of Gus and how diabolical he is.

Man, Mike and Gus are the best villain duo ever.

I was kind of surprised that Jimmy supported Howard (in his own special way) to stop wallowing in his set back and get back up. I mean, there was that certain level of animosity between Jimmy and Howard. And Howard's response was both surprising and pitch perfect because of said animosity between the two. I would expect that Jimmy's "advice" does help Howard snap out of his funk and Howard get things back on track. On a side note, I'm surprised that Howard's law firm took a fast and hard nose dive.

 

HUELL!

@Sith_Sensei__Prime I agree about Mike and Gus. I love love love the setup for the German construction crew and I'm excited to see what goes down with this part of the plot.

I liked that we were all probably so stoked to see Hector's bell-ringing finger twitch and it didn't! Ha.

 

Yeah, I figured one of Jimmy's "friends" was Huell. I wonder how much Jimmy paid his two friends. I was surprised how fast Jimmy can run. Dude looked like Usain Bolt. I mean, sure Jimmy had a head start on those kids, but it seemed like he was able to extend the gap between him and the kids, rather than the kids closing in on him.

Too bad for those kids that they couldn't come to an understanding with Jimmy.