Better Call Saul 2.09
Apr. 12th, 2016 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakYou and Mozart, Jimmy.
That was a standout scene in many ways (watch me rave about Kim in a moment), but what I loved about Chuck's Mozart comparison is that picks up on something we've seen in the last of the Rebecca flashbacks, when Chuck is trying to tell a lawyer joke like Jimmy and Rebecca did earlier, and utterly fails at it. Here, he's making one of the pop culture references/comparisons which Jimmy employs frequently, and it's so left field and unapropos that Jimmy, in between being worried because of Kim, is just honestly bewildered what hell he's talking about, so Chuck has to explain.
From the minor to the major: if 1.09. was the mental agony episode for Jimmy, where he went from the height of expectations (he's landed the Sandpiper deal, he expects to work with Chuck on HHM on it) to the hell of humiliation, discovery and disillusionment (first Howard rejects him, then he figures out it's not really Howard but that Chuck did, then when he confronts Chuck he gets an The Reason You Suck speech of the worst kind), 2.09. is this for Chuck, with parallel storybeats - starting out on a high of expectation, he's gotten Mesa Verda back for HHM, legal triumph is impending, going through humiliation (he looks like an incompetent fool in front of the Mesa Verda people, even Howard believes him to be) to figuring out the truth (even humiliated, Chuck is sharp; once he starts to think about it, takes him all of a minute to figure out both what happened and exactly how Jimmy must have done it) to getting a bracing The Reason You Suck speech (from Kim, which is important - it wouldn't have been nearly as effective if Jimmy had said it, or something similar) when he confronts his brother. (The end of the episode is where the parallels part ways, obviously.)
For Kim, the episode isn't parallel to 1.09. at all, unless you stretch it and say that in 1.09., she found out the truth about what was really going on with the McGill brothers (when confronting Howard about his seeming inflexibility re: Jimmy), and in 2.09. she finds out the truth again during a confrontation. (Because I think Rhea Seaborn's acting makes it very clear even before the aftermath in the car that Kim when Chuck monologues does realise this is indeed what Jimmy did and what happened. But she makes a decision right then and there that she will not acknowledge it out loud because she knows this is a criminal offense, it's forgery.) But her emotional position is quite different. She's no longer a sympathetic bystander in the drama playing out in front of her. She's a participant, and in this situation spefically, a judge. When she gives Chuck her reply, the narrative doesn't frame it just as Kim covering up for Jimmy because she loves him. (Though mind you, that she does cover for him here and makes an informed decision on how to proceed and not to proceed will inform their relationship in the long run.) It frames it as Kim, who is the "good" type of lawyer Chuck sees as an ideal, laying out Chuck's own guilt (not legal, but moral guilt) in front of him in no uncertain terms. As I said, it's really important here that Kim does it, not Jimmy (who after some initial protests is mostly silent throughout the scene). On a Watsonian level because Kim is someone whose judgment Chuck can't dismiss, and on a Doylist level because Kim, while she's at it, also rejects possible trapping roles (the innocent corrupted by Jimmy which Chuck first casts her at, but also the to-be-protected-naive Jimmy is sometimes in danger of seeing her at - as her silently hitting him in the car makes clear, she knows exactly what he's done, and it's later Kim, who has the methodical kind of mind Chuck does, who points out to Jimmy he'll have to cover his tracks), and because the audience needs to know she is making her decision on what to do here clear-eyed, not manipulated by one or both of the brothers.
Because this is an offspring of Breaking Bad, I have no doubt that Kim's decision will have consequences for her. Not necessarily on the same level Skyler's big s3 step (not to divorce Walt when he finally gives in and signs the papers, and to use the money) has in terms of accumulating her own sins via moral compromises, then active deicsions), but it will certainly have consequences. (Not legal ones; legally, Kim is still in the clear because she can claim not to have believed Chuck about the forgeries, and that Jimmy never admitted making them to her. But moral ones.)But it was her own decision, and I continue to love the way the show is handling her story within the larger narrative.
Meanwhile, brace yourself: I liked Mike's scenes this week. It helped that there was no "Mike the martyr" scene among them. Instead, he took his revenge on Hector Salamanca, but still without committing to full measures, and sure enough, Nacho (so far the smartest and most even tempered gangster we've seen on this show) immediately figures out it had to be him. The scene also made me feel a bit better about where the show is going with Mike. Because it had Nacho pointing out he could understand if Mike had done it for the money, but to start a feud with Hector was beyond him, because Hector Salamanca would have just forgotten about Mike (now that he had what he wanted); that there was no need for any of this. Now undoubtedly Mike thinks he wanted Tio Salamanca out of the way for having threatened Kaylee, but you know, Nacho is not wrong. And that means Mike's future career as a cleaner and professional assassin is on him, not Stacey.
Speculation: Hector Salamanca has a rendezvous with a stroke which will render him near immobile, obviously, but presumably not before alerting someone in the Cartel to Mike's existence, at which point Mike will meet Gus.
Now, as to the cliffhanger scene: do I think Chuck is dead? I'm torn, two thirds yes, one third no. On the one hand: Chuck is a major source of emotional conflict in Jimmy's life, and if he's dead, then this role will be down to Kim, and I don't think the show will have her and Jimmy fall out before they know their final season is coming. (Howard Hamlin by himself isn't a major source of emotional conflict for Jimmy.) On the other hand: hard to see how a living Chuck's storyline could continue without the show getting repetitive from this point onwards, and the guilt about indirectly causing Chuck's death (I hasten to add: as Jimmy would see it, not literally, it was Chuck's decision to not let matters lie and go into the copy shop) could become a major push for Jimmy's development.
So: I have no idea. Don't spoil me!
Trivia: Jimmy and Kim cleaning and repainting their acquired dentist office into a lawyer office was another scene of them being adorable together with the subtext of "damm, they're so good together, why must Saul Goodman happen!"
That was a standout scene in many ways (watch me rave about Kim in a moment), but what I loved about Chuck's Mozart comparison is that picks up on something we've seen in the last of the Rebecca flashbacks, when Chuck is trying to tell a lawyer joke like Jimmy and Rebecca did earlier, and utterly fails at it. Here, he's making one of the pop culture references/comparisons which Jimmy employs frequently, and it's so left field and unapropos that Jimmy, in between being worried because of Kim, is just honestly bewildered what hell he's talking about, so Chuck has to explain.
From the minor to the major: if 1.09. was the mental agony episode for Jimmy, where he went from the height of expectations (he's landed the Sandpiper deal, he expects to work with Chuck on HHM on it) to the hell of humiliation, discovery and disillusionment (first Howard rejects him, then he figures out it's not really Howard but that Chuck did, then when he confronts Chuck he gets an The Reason You Suck speech of the worst kind), 2.09. is this for Chuck, with parallel storybeats - starting out on a high of expectation, he's gotten Mesa Verda back for HHM, legal triumph is impending, going through humiliation (he looks like an incompetent fool in front of the Mesa Verda people, even Howard believes him to be) to figuring out the truth (even humiliated, Chuck is sharp; once he starts to think about it, takes him all of a minute to figure out both what happened and exactly how Jimmy must have done it) to getting a bracing The Reason You Suck speech (from Kim, which is important - it wouldn't have been nearly as effective if Jimmy had said it, or something similar) when he confronts his brother. (The end of the episode is where the parallels part ways, obviously.)
For Kim, the episode isn't parallel to 1.09. at all, unless you stretch it and say that in 1.09., she found out the truth about what was really going on with the McGill brothers (when confronting Howard about his seeming inflexibility re: Jimmy), and in 2.09. she finds out the truth again during a confrontation. (Because I think Rhea Seaborn's acting makes it very clear even before the aftermath in the car that Kim when Chuck monologues does realise this is indeed what Jimmy did and what happened. But she makes a decision right then and there that she will not acknowledge it out loud because she knows this is a criminal offense, it's forgery.) But her emotional position is quite different. She's no longer a sympathetic bystander in the drama playing out in front of her. She's a participant, and in this situation spefically, a judge. When she gives Chuck her reply, the narrative doesn't frame it just as Kim covering up for Jimmy because she loves him. (Though mind you, that she does cover for him here and makes an informed decision on how to proceed and not to proceed will inform their relationship in the long run.) It frames it as Kim, who is the "good" type of lawyer Chuck sees as an ideal, laying out Chuck's own guilt (not legal, but moral guilt) in front of him in no uncertain terms. As I said, it's really important here that Kim does it, not Jimmy (who after some initial protests is mostly silent throughout the scene). On a Watsonian level because Kim is someone whose judgment Chuck can't dismiss, and on a Doylist level because Kim, while she's at it, also rejects possible trapping roles (the innocent corrupted by Jimmy which Chuck first casts her at, but also the to-be-protected-naive Jimmy is sometimes in danger of seeing her at - as her silently hitting him in the car makes clear, she knows exactly what he's done, and it's later Kim, who has the methodical kind of mind Chuck does, who points out to Jimmy he'll have to cover his tracks), and because the audience needs to know she is making her decision on what to do here clear-eyed, not manipulated by one or both of the brothers.
Because this is an offspring of Breaking Bad, I have no doubt that Kim's decision will have consequences for her. Not necessarily on the same level Skyler's big s3 step (not to divorce Walt when he finally gives in and signs the papers, and to use the money) has in terms of accumulating her own sins via moral compromises, then active deicsions), but it will certainly have consequences. (Not legal ones; legally, Kim is still in the clear because she can claim not to have believed Chuck about the forgeries, and that Jimmy never admitted making them to her. But moral ones.)But it was her own decision, and I continue to love the way the show is handling her story within the larger narrative.
Meanwhile, brace yourself: I liked Mike's scenes this week. It helped that there was no "Mike the martyr" scene among them. Instead, he took his revenge on Hector Salamanca, but still without committing to full measures, and sure enough, Nacho (so far the smartest and most even tempered gangster we've seen on this show) immediately figures out it had to be him. The scene also made me feel a bit better about where the show is going with Mike. Because it had Nacho pointing out he could understand if Mike had done it for the money, but to start a feud with Hector was beyond him, because Hector Salamanca would have just forgotten about Mike (now that he had what he wanted); that there was no need for any of this. Now undoubtedly Mike thinks he wanted Tio Salamanca out of the way for having threatened Kaylee, but you know, Nacho is not wrong. And that means Mike's future career as a cleaner and professional assassin is on him, not Stacey.
Speculation: Hector Salamanca has a rendezvous with a stroke which will render him near immobile, obviously, but presumably not before alerting someone in the Cartel to Mike's existence, at which point Mike will meet Gus.
Now, as to the cliffhanger scene: do I think Chuck is dead? I'm torn, two thirds yes, one third no. On the one hand: Chuck is a major source of emotional conflict in Jimmy's life, and if he's dead, then this role will be down to Kim, and I don't think the show will have her and Jimmy fall out before they know their final season is coming. (Howard Hamlin by himself isn't a major source of emotional conflict for Jimmy.) On the other hand: hard to see how a living Chuck's storyline could continue without the show getting repetitive from this point onwards, and the guilt about indirectly causing Chuck's death (I hasten to add: as Jimmy would see it, not literally, it was Chuck's decision to not let matters lie and go into the copy shop) could become a major push for Jimmy's development.
So: I have no idea. Don't spoil me!
Trivia: Jimmy and Kim cleaning and repainting their acquired dentist office into a lawyer office was another scene of them being adorable together with the subtext of "damm, they're so good together, why must Saul Goodman happen!"
no subject
Date: 2016-04-12 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-12 04:23 pm (UTC)I hadn't thought about the casting of Clea Duvall, though, and that makes me wonder: if Chuck survives into the next season, will it be in a mental hospital against his will? Because Dr. Clea Duvall had offered this to Jimmy as his next of kin, and now Chuck has behaved seemingly irrationally in public and has harmed himself, so there would be grounds. Of course, if Jimmy does that now, it will be a big step to Saul-dom, because he'd do it in the context of his escalating argument with his brother and the fact Chuck now knows Jimmy has committed a crime.