Better Call Saul 1.06

[selenak]

Aka, the one where we get the Mike Ehrmantraut Origin Story.



And the one scene at the preccint aside, Our (Anti)Hero of the show is entirely absent. This must have been the script they showed Jonathan Banks to get him on board and content to do all those one line cameos in the previous episodes. It's also hands down the best acting he's done on either show, and justifies his appearance in the spin-off as something other than fanservice. You couldn't have done this episode on Breaking Bad. Or, well, you could have, the way we got the Gus-centric episode with his backstory trauma, but it would have interrupted the flow of the present day action since there wouldn't have been a present day corresponding tale in either s4 or 5 to justify it. Since Better Call Saul is ony in its first season and far looser structured, and since here Mike's backstory gives Jimmy a present day reason to connect with him further, it fits perfectly.

You also have to love how the episode pulls off flashback within a flashback within a flashback, while telling an emotionally coherent tale. (And did I miss a few flashbacks, given that this entire show is one?) Mike's acceptance of the lousy job we and Jimmy find him in in the first episode as the result of terrible guilt - not over killing someone, but because "I broke my boy" - makes perfect sense. (Yes, he went to Alburquerque because his daughter-in-law and granddaughter had gone there after his son's death, but he could have lived from his retirement money, surely; that job in the parking booth is self punishment.) Not just in terms of the guilt trip, but in terms of future, Breaking Bad era Mike, who has zilch compunctions about killing and working for a drug kingpin but values personal loyalty and the very tight circle of people he gives it to. A lesser show(s) would have made Mike "break bad" because of his son's death and his subsequent revenge killings. Not this one; Mike was already a corrupt cop long before that, but his son didn't know; telling his son the truth, making him take the money as well is the guilt that haunts Mike. (And Jonathan Banks was fantastic in the confession scene with Kerry Condon.)

(Some future doctoral thesis is to be written, surely, about how Vince Gilligan's shows have this actually straightforward morality where yes, crime pays, but it also poisons everyone you hold dear, slowly or quickly?)

Because this was the Mike hour, no new developments on the Jimmy front, other than getting a glimpse into Mike's past and a little bonding over teaming up against the cops again. (Though otoh there's Mike's contempteous snort when Jimmy asks how Mike knew he'd go along with the coffee spilling scheme, which goes along with Betsy Kettelman's "you're the kind of lawyer guilty people hire" two episodes earlier. Presumably Chuck is the only one who thinks - thought? - that Jimmy can be different?)

Another thing: there is a small subsection of post Felina Breaking Bad tales where Jesse adopts Kaylee. (Though not nearly as many as where he adopts Brock.) Given that we meet her mother here, and she seems a very likeable, loving woman, there's really no need. (Leaving aside Jesse's own state post Felina.)

Comments

[likeadeuce]

Why would ... Jesse need to.... Oh never mind.

Fandom.

[selenak]

Oh, Jesse is quite busy adopting kids in fanfic, though Brock most often for obvious reasons. I mean, I can see the appeal in general, given Jesse's canonical fondness for children, but even letting aside his constitution post finale, Mike's granddaughter is certainly better off precisely where she is. (And without granddad's drug money, while we're at it.)

[likeadeuce]

And what we learned about her father's death certainly adds dimensions to Mike's persistence in trying to give her money.