Better Call Saul 4.01
Aug. 7th, 2018 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWhich is mostly follow-up to last season's finale.
I question the point of the Gene the Cinnabon King black and white intros again; we already know our antihero is always looking over his shoulder in the post - Breaking Bad era of his life, and it didn't need yet another paranoid interlude to tell us that. Unless the taxi driver will actually turn out to be someone who recognized Gene as Saul, and thus important.
(Otoh, maybe the point was that being Gene actually makes Jimmy resemble Chuck the recluse, though for different reasons (it's not paranoia if they're really after you)? )
Anyway, everyone is moving on in this season opener: Nacho got away with, well, not murder, but incapacitating Don Hector for years until Walter White shows up, but because Tio Salamanca is but one wheel in the machinery, Ignacio is still expected to do his bit for the drug industry, plus he's got the interested Gus lookng over his shoulder, so it would be a stretch to say things are looking up for him.
Mike, otoh, says goodbye to his mundane job for good and upon finding his new employer Gus pays him via letting Lydia/Madrigal pay him as a "security consultant" actually does some security consulting. I have to admit I had no idea what Mike was up to in those scenes until the end - I mean, I thought he was curious about Madrigal, since they were the ones his future income will be paid by, but the point of his actions eluded me untl he actually said it. Mind you, I assume he mostly wants to talk to someone senior out of general caution, to get a feeling for how this situation will work, but his statements were all accurate and indeed what a security consultant should point out, so there's an outside chance he did want to do some legitimate work as opposed to settling for the sinister life for good, as we know he will.
(Oh, and Kaylee: still the most mysterious unaging/backwards aging/growing older really slow child this side of Vorenus' offspring from Rome.)
But the heart of the episode was of course the aftermath of Chuck's suicide. (BTW, I briefly wondered whether we'd get Michael McKean one more time as Chuck's corpse until I realised that if you burn alive, your body is in no condition for an open casket, and thus there's no point in hiring the actor.) Jimmy frozen throughout the episode was to be expected. What was surprising and character-wise captivating/intriguing/forward looking was when he unfroze out of his shock/brooding, and what he did then. When Howard confessed to essentially firing Chuck because of the insurance (but really because of Chuck's entire behavior up to that point though Howard didn't say so). Now Jimmy didn't need the gulit-tripping Howard to point out that Chuck knew how to handle a lantern carefully and thus the likelihood of an accident was microscopic small. But until Howard confessed, he could only speculate what had triggered the relapse he'd correctly deduced from all the electric instruments in the yard, he couldn't be sure, he didn't even know whether that stunt he'd pulled with the insurance actually worked. When Howard unwittingly confirms it did work, and that thus there's a direct chain of cause and effect between Jimmy's actions and his brother's suiicide, Jimmy does not brood even more in guilt, nor does he at least hint to Howard he's not alone in his self blame. Instead, he not only unfreezes but rubs it in - "well, that's your cross to bear, Howard" -, and then whistles as he makes some more coffee. At a guess, this is Jimmy's "I am determined to prove a villain" moment. Not in the sense that he'll join Team Criminal Enterprises tomorrow, but that he considers himself over the moral horizon now.
(Yes, in reality Chuck's death was Chuck's fault. I'm talking about Jimmy's likely perspective.)
Whether or not he was truly done with Chuck after their last argument,as long as Chuck lived, there was the (very remote) responsibility of reconciliation, or of Chuck at least admitting/acknowledging Jimmy as someone other than a destined-to-criminality disgrace to the legal profession. Now that's gone for good. And there has to be something strangely freeing in it - no more wondering, or feeling torn between trying to be moral and going for the con. Hence the whistling. Though post reveal in s1 Kim far more than Chuck had become Jimmy's moral compass, and he still has her, which is a problem with my interpretation of that last scene.
Oh, and sticking it to Howard: what little fanfic is in the fandom had Jimmy and Howard bonding over Howard realising via his argument with Chuck how Jimmy's side of things looked, and Howard might well feel that way, but Jimmy has loathed him for years, and miserly loves company. But I suspect Jimmy's reaction might alert Kim to the fact there's something odd about this insurance thing, because the reaction you'd have expected from Jimmy upon hearng this from Howard had he not known anything about it would have been either rage or sympathy, but not a blasé "well, that's your cross to bear".
Kim in this episode was mostly in a support mode (except at the start when Jimmy was supporting her in her post accident needs), but that look at Jimmy's words tells me there might be more to come. Kim has a lot of free time at her hands right now, due to the accident, and while she's not likely to idealiize Chuck post mortem, or forget what he did to Jimmy, I don't think letting Howard stew in guilt once she figures out about the insurance would be okay with her.
I question the point of the Gene the Cinnabon King black and white intros again; we already know our antihero is always looking over his shoulder in the post - Breaking Bad era of his life, and it didn't need yet another paranoid interlude to tell us that. Unless the taxi driver will actually turn out to be someone who recognized Gene as Saul, and thus important.
(Otoh, maybe the point was that being Gene actually makes Jimmy resemble Chuck the recluse, though for different reasons (it's not paranoia if they're really after you)? )
Anyway, everyone is moving on in this season opener: Nacho got away with, well, not murder, but incapacitating Don Hector for years until Walter White shows up, but because Tio Salamanca is but one wheel in the machinery, Ignacio is still expected to do his bit for the drug industry, plus he's got the interested Gus lookng over his shoulder, so it would be a stretch to say things are looking up for him.
Mike, otoh, says goodbye to his mundane job for good and upon finding his new employer Gus pays him via letting Lydia/Madrigal pay him as a "security consultant" actually does some security consulting. I have to admit I had no idea what Mike was up to in those scenes until the end - I mean, I thought he was curious about Madrigal, since they were the ones his future income will be paid by, but the point of his actions eluded me untl he actually said it. Mind you, I assume he mostly wants to talk to someone senior out of general caution, to get a feeling for how this situation will work, but his statements were all accurate and indeed what a security consultant should point out, so there's an outside chance he did want to do some legitimate work as opposed to settling for the sinister life for good, as we know he will.
(Oh, and Kaylee: still the most mysterious unaging/backwards aging/growing older really slow child this side of Vorenus' offspring from Rome.)
But the heart of the episode was of course the aftermath of Chuck's suicide. (BTW, I briefly wondered whether we'd get Michael McKean one more time as Chuck's corpse until I realised that if you burn alive, your body is in no condition for an open casket, and thus there's no point in hiring the actor.) Jimmy frozen throughout the episode was to be expected. What was surprising and character-wise captivating/intriguing/forward looking was when he unfroze out of his shock/brooding, and what he did then. When Howard confessed to essentially firing Chuck because of the insurance (but really because of Chuck's entire behavior up to that point though Howard didn't say so). Now Jimmy didn't need the gulit-tripping Howard to point out that Chuck knew how to handle a lantern carefully and thus the likelihood of an accident was microscopic small. But until Howard confessed, he could only speculate what had triggered the relapse he'd correctly deduced from all the electric instruments in the yard, he couldn't be sure, he didn't even know whether that stunt he'd pulled with the insurance actually worked. When Howard unwittingly confirms it did work, and that thus there's a direct chain of cause and effect between Jimmy's actions and his brother's suiicide, Jimmy does not brood even more in guilt, nor does he at least hint to Howard he's not alone in his self blame. Instead, he not only unfreezes but rubs it in - "well, that's your cross to bear, Howard" -, and then whistles as he makes some more coffee. At a guess, this is Jimmy's "I am determined to prove a villain" moment. Not in the sense that he'll join Team Criminal Enterprises tomorrow, but that he considers himself over the moral horizon now.
(Yes, in reality Chuck's death was Chuck's fault. I'm talking about Jimmy's likely perspective.)
Whether or not he was truly done with Chuck after their last argument,as long as Chuck lived, there was the (very remote) responsibility of reconciliation, or of Chuck at least admitting/acknowledging Jimmy as someone other than a destined-to-criminality disgrace to the legal profession. Now that's gone for good. And there has to be something strangely freeing in it - no more wondering, or feeling torn between trying to be moral and going for the con. Hence the whistling. Though post reveal in s1 Kim far more than Chuck had become Jimmy's moral compass, and he still has her, which is a problem with my interpretation of that last scene.
Oh, and sticking it to Howard: what little fanfic is in the fandom had Jimmy and Howard bonding over Howard realising via his argument with Chuck how Jimmy's side of things looked, and Howard might well feel that way, but Jimmy has loathed him for years, and miserly loves company. But I suspect Jimmy's reaction might alert Kim to the fact there's something odd about this insurance thing, because the reaction you'd have expected from Jimmy upon hearng this from Howard had he not known anything about it would have been either rage or sympathy, but not a blasé "well, that's your cross to bear".
Kim in this episode was mostly in a support mode (except at the start when Jimmy was supporting her in her post accident needs), but that look at Jimmy's words tells me there might be more to come. Kim has a lot of free time at her hands right now, due to the accident, and while she's not likely to idealiize Chuck post mortem, or forget what he did to Jimmy, I don't think letting Howard stew in guilt once she figures out about the insurance would be okay with her.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-07 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-07 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-07 02:09 pm (UTC)Very deft touch to communicate a lot.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-07 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-07 04:57 pm (UTC)(They also confused the crap out of me for a second, though, because he tells the taxi driver to take him to the Cottonwood Mall, which is a mall in Albuquerque. But maybe there's also one in Omaha, or wherever he is at that point? Or maybe they're just name-checking the Albuquerque one and didn't expect most people to notice.)
I sort of guessed that Mike was planning on showing up to do some actual work almost from the moment when he picked up the phone to find out where the company was. He just looked so bored and uncomfortable sitting there watching baseball. I think he's the kind of guy who really needs to have something to do, and, hell, maybe he'll feel a little better about this money and where it's coming from if he actually does something legit to earn it. I wasn't positive, though, until he came out with his list of problems. And then I laughed out loud.
Jimmy's reaction, on the other hand, carefree whistling and all, is downright chilling. I'm personally not at all sure exactly what's going on in his head at that moment. But, y'know, so much of the experience of watching this show is finding moments to point at and go, "Right here. This is where he becomes Saul." And damned if this doesn't seem to me to be an outstanding candidate for that moment. It's like he's making a deliberate choice not to care, to just deliberately shut down any feelings of empathy or guilt.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-08 09:17 am (UTC)Between Walt‘s whistling in s5 of Breaking Bad making Jesse realize that all his earlier words about how he, too, feels horrible about the kid they‘ve killed were faked, and now Jimmy‘s whistling, I‘d say whistling takes a ditinctly evil connotation in this ‚verse. What‘s next, Peter Lorre and The Halls of the Mountain King?