Better Call Saul 2.07
Mar. 29th, 2016 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which our hero and heroine make some decisions.
But first, re: the teaser - in a way we're seeing the flip side to Chuck's story about their father here. Not quite what I expected, in that the man apparently really was a saint. And then again what I expected because I didn't think Chuck was lying re: Jimmy having taken the money. We see how it starts here: with child!Jimmy incredibly embarrassed by his father's gullibility and the way he can easily be tricked by a con man. I think, growing up, Jimmy would come to see the kindness of his father as something admirable despite the naivete, because kindness is a rare thing. But not right then and there, when Dad falls for a hard luck story even a child can see through. The con man swaggers off telling Jimmy he has to decide what he wants to be, a sheep or a wolf.
"Who do you want to be?" seems to be the question of the season, for both Jimmy and Kim. Finding out via helpful and hot Omar (Jimmy: should have kept Omar as a secretary/P.A.) that he can't quit Davis and Main without losing his bonus, Jimmy gets inspired to a campaign of how to drive his boss Cliff crazy without actually breaking any firm rules. Acquiring his later trademark Saul Goodman brightly colored suits is just the first stepping stone. It makes for a hilarious sequence, and yet, if you think about it, a sad one, because Cliff, as Jimmy says when he finally gets his wish, actually is a good guy: he was truly trying to make it work with Jimmy. And the job at Davis & Main may have been boring and constricting, but it sure as hell beats life as Gene the Cinnabon man, which is what Jimmy's life as Saul Goodman will eventually get him.
But Jimmy is right about something he says in his later conversation with Kim, looking at Marco's ring: he can't go through his life trying to live up to someone else's idea of who he should be, be that someone Chuck or Kim. And here's when the episode delivers another reason for me to love the show and the Jimmy/Kim relationship: it makes very clear this is true for Kim as well. She can't twist herself to fit Jimmy's dream, either. Jimmy pitches his idea of a shared law firm to her for the second time, and it's clearly his dearest dream, but becoming partners with Jimmy, whose idea of being a lawyer simply isn't, and never will be Kim's, wouldn't work (not to mention it would likely get her implicated in illegal schemes galore). On the other hand, Kim also considers what Jimmy said about Rick Schweikert being simply Howard in another form and the move from HMM to Schweikert's being maybe a financial improvement, not not really something truly different. The Freudian slip of addressing Mr. Schweikert as "Howard" is telling of what's going on in her mind, even while she aces her auditioning. Kim keeps thinking about what she truly wants through the episode, and comes up with a a great compromise that allows both Jimmy and her to keep being their true selves and allows her to strike out on her own : working both as solo practioners, each having their own firm, but sharing the money for the office space. If this weren't a prequel, I'd jump up and down cheering. I mean, striking out o her own is what I hoped for in terms of Kim's fate at the end of the show. And it's such a great compromise, allowing, as I said, both Kim and Jimmy to follow their hearts while also being a sensible arrangement that makes neither of them responsible for the other.
But this is a prequel, and thus we know the practices of Wexler and of McGill will not stay in the same office space for many years, if they even make it through one. But I'm so rooting for them. So much. (Incidentally: not working in the same firm also is far better for their love life. Being 24 hours together with someone can drive you crazy.)
Mike: sigh. Da capo, al fine. I'm so beyond tired of the Martyr Mike and The Exploitatory Daughter-in-Law storyline and blame throwing. And t his week we didn't even have some entertaining villain from BB to enliven it. Otoh Mike got to be a jerk to Jimmy, rejecting the later's attempt at commiseration at best because he feels humiliated and at worst on a snobbish "how far have I sunk that this man is feeling sorry for me" point. Which was a good reminder that Mike's sense of being infinitely superior to the criminals he interacts with is a consistent character trait from show to show.
But first, re: the teaser - in a way we're seeing the flip side to Chuck's story about their father here. Not quite what I expected, in that the man apparently really was a saint. And then again what I expected because I didn't think Chuck was lying re: Jimmy having taken the money. We see how it starts here: with child!Jimmy incredibly embarrassed by his father's gullibility and the way he can easily be tricked by a con man. I think, growing up, Jimmy would come to see the kindness of his father as something admirable despite the naivete, because kindness is a rare thing. But not right then and there, when Dad falls for a hard luck story even a child can see through. The con man swaggers off telling Jimmy he has to decide what he wants to be, a sheep or a wolf.
"Who do you want to be?" seems to be the question of the season, for both Jimmy and Kim. Finding out via helpful and hot Omar (Jimmy: should have kept Omar as a secretary/P.A.) that he can't quit Davis and Main without losing his bonus, Jimmy gets inspired to a campaign of how to drive his boss Cliff crazy without actually breaking any firm rules. Acquiring his later trademark Saul Goodman brightly colored suits is just the first stepping stone. It makes for a hilarious sequence, and yet, if you think about it, a sad one, because Cliff, as Jimmy says when he finally gets his wish, actually is a good guy: he was truly trying to make it work with Jimmy. And the job at Davis & Main may have been boring and constricting, but it sure as hell beats life as Gene the Cinnabon man, which is what Jimmy's life as Saul Goodman will eventually get him.
But Jimmy is right about something he says in his later conversation with Kim, looking at Marco's ring: he can't go through his life trying to live up to someone else's idea of who he should be, be that someone Chuck or Kim. And here's when the episode delivers another reason for me to love the show and the Jimmy/Kim relationship: it makes very clear this is true for Kim as well. She can't twist herself to fit Jimmy's dream, either. Jimmy pitches his idea of a shared law firm to her for the second time, and it's clearly his dearest dream, but becoming partners with Jimmy, whose idea of being a lawyer simply isn't, and never will be Kim's, wouldn't work (not to mention it would likely get her implicated in illegal schemes galore). On the other hand, Kim also considers what Jimmy said about Rick Schweikert being simply Howard in another form and the move from HMM to Schweikert's being maybe a financial improvement, not not really something truly different. The Freudian slip of addressing Mr. Schweikert as "Howard" is telling of what's going on in her mind, even while she aces her auditioning. Kim keeps thinking about what she truly wants through the episode, and comes up with a a great compromise that allows both Jimmy and her to keep being their true selves and allows her to strike out on her own : working both as solo practioners, each having their own firm, but sharing the money for the office space. If this weren't a prequel, I'd jump up and down cheering. I mean, striking out o her own is what I hoped for in terms of Kim's fate at the end of the show. And it's such a great compromise, allowing, as I said, both Kim and Jimmy to follow their hearts while also being a sensible arrangement that makes neither of them responsible for the other.
But this is a prequel, and thus we know the practices of Wexler and of McGill will not stay in the same office space for many years, if they even make it through one. But I'm so rooting for them. So much. (Incidentally: not working in the same firm also is far better for their love life. Being 24 hours together with someone can drive you crazy.)
Mike: sigh. Da capo, al fine. I'm so beyond tired of the Martyr Mike and The Exploitatory Daughter-in-Law storyline and blame throwing. And t his week we didn't even have some entertaining villain from BB to enliven it. Otoh Mike got to be a jerk to Jimmy, rejecting the later's attempt at commiseration at best because he feels humiliated and at worst on a snobbish "how far have I sunk that this man is feeling sorry for me" point. Which was a good reminder that Mike's sense of being infinitely superior to the criminals he interacts with is a consistent character trait from show to show.
