Better Call Saul 2.06
Mar. 22nd, 2016 09:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakSecond Kim-centric episode in a row. I love it.
Obviously Chuck got Kim her old office back, but Howard continues to be an ass to her, in petty ways that feel incredibly true to corporate life (not letting Kim take a lunch break, not talking to her except in front of clients). Then he sends her to argue a losing position alone in the ongoing Sandpiper struggle. However, this leads to Kim getting a job offer from the Sandpiper defending firm, from one of its bosses, no less, and I can't decide whether Rick Schweikert (spelling?) was truly impressed with Kim and even meant the "fast track to partnership" promise, or whether he simply wanted to weaken the opposition, no matter what he's saying about not questioning her about HHM tactics if she accepts. Either way, on the one hand, it's a good offer (unless they're planning to dump her as soon as the Sandpiper deal is over, which would be awful) and career move, on the other, moving to the firm your own firm is currently engaged in a lawsuit with feels somewhat unethical. It triggers some "what do I really want?" brooding in Kim, complete with venting, Slippin' Jimmy way, when a jerk hits on her in a bar, and she decides to become Giselle again, call Jimmy and play a con on the guy.
This was an exquisitely torn emotions moment, for me, because on the one hand, hurray for Jimmy and Kim reconciliation, and after the last couple of days she had, where all her hard work kept getting thrown back in her face and she could see corporate life at its worst, I could understand why she wants to do something crazy and bolt; on the other, this really is the kind of thing that could get her disbarred, and Kim loves being a lawyer so much. And I don't think she'd be happy living the con woman life. (As opposed to doing something wild very occasionally, to vent the pressure.) So I was very relieved when, the next morning, she decided not to cash in the check she and Jimmy got out of the mark, just keep it as a souvenir. (Which means she still hasn't done anything illegal. Mind you, this could be Chekov's cheque; if someone else cashes is in ignorance of its origin later the season, a crime will have been committed.)
In the end, of course, none of this solved anything (though it did lead to her patching things up with Jimmy); she's still undecided whether or not to leave HHM by the end of the episode. She had so much of her life invested in HHM, has been dreaming of a career there, not in some other firm, that it's really hard to let go, which leads me to speculating that Kim's fate might be better than what I could fear from her non existence in Breaking Bad world; maybe her arc is to be able to let go, free herself ("you don't save me, I save me") and found her own firm somewhere, not with Jimmy as he's once dreamed because he'll be Saul by then, but her own so the false alternative "HHM or Schweikert?" won't be an issue anymore.
Meanwhile, in the Mike storyline: since the local goons aren't any good at intimidating Mike (btw: nice touch of showing, after Mike got read of said goons seemingly effortlessly, that his hand is trembling when he washes it; it humanizes him to make it clear he's not Cool Competent Guy Without A Flaw, but can be scared like the rest of us), Hector "Tio" Salamanca brings in the big guns. That reveal shot of showing the Cousins on the roof of the church where they would have a clear shot on Kaylee in the pool was awesome, I'll admit. I had expected the intimidation to be stepped up, but hadn't expected the Cousins, though they make perfect sense for Tio to use. Anyway, Mike ends up taking the money to falsely confess to gun possession after all (after impressing Salamanca with his courage enough so his "50.000" demand is met), and pays Nacho 25.000 because that means Tuco will be out of jail sooner. Since Nacho didn't ask for this, he ends up even more impressed by Mike's criminal code of honor, and at a guess, this is how Mike will eventually end up with Gus. Thankfully, the Mike subplot this week did not include another scene where the narrative frames his daughter-in-law as the bad woman who fleeces him into criminality, and so I could watch it unannoyed. But cool Cousins reveal not withstanding, my heart was with Kim and Jimmy, from the morning where she listens to his voice singing on her voice mail to the morning where they're together again but still with the same basic problems re: their work situations. Jimmy gets pointed out again in this episode, this time by the head of the nail salon he used to live at, that his current unhappiness is a privileged problem if ever there was one, compared to other people's drudgery, but that doesn't make it less frustrating for him.
"It's what you wanted, isn't it?" he says to Kim re: the Schweikert offer, and it is - a fast track to partner in a big law firm, just like a solid well paid job at a law firm like the one he has now was what he wanted in season 1. But it also really isn't, as it turns out, for both of them. I think it comes down to being valued for what you're good at. Jimmy watching the dull advertisement in the middle of the night gets one more confirmation of how alien he and the firm are to each other, and how what he enjoys best isn't what they let him do; Kim gets the offer, but it's from the wrong firm, and it may not even be due to all the work she did or because she's good at her job but simply as part of a power game, while said hard work and years or loyalty count for nothing with her old boss. Figuring out what you really want is tricky enough, but getting it...
Obviously Chuck got Kim her old office back, but Howard continues to be an ass to her, in petty ways that feel incredibly true to corporate life (not letting Kim take a lunch break, not talking to her except in front of clients). Then he sends her to argue a losing position alone in the ongoing Sandpiper struggle. However, this leads to Kim getting a job offer from the Sandpiper defending firm, from one of its bosses, no less, and I can't decide whether Rick Schweikert (spelling?) was truly impressed with Kim and even meant the "fast track to partnership" promise, or whether he simply wanted to weaken the opposition, no matter what he's saying about not questioning her about HHM tactics if she accepts. Either way, on the one hand, it's a good offer (unless they're planning to dump her as soon as the Sandpiper deal is over, which would be awful) and career move, on the other, moving to the firm your own firm is currently engaged in a lawsuit with feels somewhat unethical. It triggers some "what do I really want?" brooding in Kim, complete with venting, Slippin' Jimmy way, when a jerk hits on her in a bar, and she decides to become Giselle again, call Jimmy and play a con on the guy.
This was an exquisitely torn emotions moment, for me, because on the one hand, hurray for Jimmy and Kim reconciliation, and after the last couple of days she had, where all her hard work kept getting thrown back in her face and she could see corporate life at its worst, I could understand why she wants to do something crazy and bolt; on the other, this really is the kind of thing that could get her disbarred, and Kim loves being a lawyer so much. And I don't think she'd be happy living the con woman life. (As opposed to doing something wild very occasionally, to vent the pressure.) So I was very relieved when, the next morning, she decided not to cash in the check she and Jimmy got out of the mark, just keep it as a souvenir. (Which means she still hasn't done anything illegal. Mind you, this could be Chekov's cheque; if someone else cashes is in ignorance of its origin later the season, a crime will have been committed.)
In the end, of course, none of this solved anything (though it did lead to her patching things up with Jimmy); she's still undecided whether or not to leave HHM by the end of the episode. She had so much of her life invested in HHM, has been dreaming of a career there, not in some other firm, that it's really hard to let go, which leads me to speculating that Kim's fate might be better than what I could fear from her non existence in Breaking Bad world; maybe her arc is to be able to let go, free herself ("you don't save me, I save me") and found her own firm somewhere, not with Jimmy as he's once dreamed because he'll be Saul by then, but her own so the false alternative "HHM or Schweikert?" won't be an issue anymore.
Meanwhile, in the Mike storyline: since the local goons aren't any good at intimidating Mike (btw: nice touch of showing, after Mike got read of said goons seemingly effortlessly, that his hand is trembling when he washes it; it humanizes him to make it clear he's not Cool Competent Guy Without A Flaw, but can be scared like the rest of us), Hector "Tio" Salamanca brings in the big guns. That reveal shot of showing the Cousins on the roof of the church where they would have a clear shot on Kaylee in the pool was awesome, I'll admit. I had expected the intimidation to be stepped up, but hadn't expected the Cousins, though they make perfect sense for Tio to use. Anyway, Mike ends up taking the money to falsely confess to gun possession after all (after impressing Salamanca with his courage enough so his "50.000" demand is met), and pays Nacho 25.000 because that means Tuco will be out of jail sooner. Since Nacho didn't ask for this, he ends up even more impressed by Mike's criminal code of honor, and at a guess, this is how Mike will eventually end up with Gus. Thankfully, the Mike subplot this week did not include another scene where the narrative frames his daughter-in-law as the bad woman who fleeces him into criminality, and so I could watch it unannoyed. But cool Cousins reveal not withstanding, my heart was with Kim and Jimmy, from the morning where she listens to his voice singing on her voice mail to the morning where they're together again but still with the same basic problems re: their work situations. Jimmy gets pointed out again in this episode, this time by the head of the nail salon he used to live at, that his current unhappiness is a privileged problem if ever there was one, compared to other people's drudgery, but that doesn't make it less frustrating for him.
"It's what you wanted, isn't it?" he says to Kim re: the Schweikert offer, and it is - a fast track to partner in a big law firm, just like a solid well paid job at a law firm like the one he has now was what he wanted in season 1. But it also really isn't, as it turns out, for both of them. I think it comes down to being valued for what you're good at. Jimmy watching the dull advertisement in the middle of the night gets one more confirmation of how alien he and the firm are to each other, and how what he enjoys best isn't what they let him do; Kim gets the offer, but it's from the wrong firm, and it may not even be due to all the work she did or because she's good at her job but simply as part of a power game, while said hard work and years or loyalty count for nothing with her old boss. Figuring out what you really want is tricky enough, but getting it...
no subject
Date: 2016-03-22 04:06 pm (UTC)I kept going back to the "half-measures" idea that Mike lays out in BB and he's learning so much here. In his case he tries to have it both ways and it gets him into more trouble and doesn't really solve the problem. Kim and Jimmy also kind of want it both ways at this point.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-22 06:39 pm (UTC)Half-measures and wanting it both ways: true for all three of them, yes. Jimmy's long term solution to this will be that since he wants to be a lawyer (independent from any bosses) AND a conman, he needs the creation of Saul Goodman, criminal lawyer, but much as Kim enjoyed her two cons so far, I don't think something similar would work for her. In a not prequel ordained world, I'd vote for starting their own law firm together as Jimmy wanted in s1, where they'd be small fishes for a while, but swimming in their own pool, so to speak. But that wouldn't solve the problem of Kim's debts at HHM, which presumably Howard would make her pay to the last dime if she leaves, and without Schweikert to pay them for her, she'd have to get the money herself. And not in a con way.