Better Call Saul 4.07
Sep. 18th, 2018 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWhich is heartbreaking in a very well done way. Also, Mike is learning German.
The Mike and Gus scenes continue to be in the small amount that makes them not just palpable but actually interesting to me. Incidentally, let's hear it for Mark Margolis. He first played Hector Salamanca as the barely able to move stroke victim, conveying malice and cunning through just facial expression and some finger lifts. Then he played Don Hector at his prime with a very different body language. And now we're back to post stroke Tio Salamanca, and while you can see the connection between those incarnations, they're still utterly different.
I knew that Gus would realize Hector is himself, alright, when figuring out he was deliberately being an ass with the nurse, but the unexpected addition of Gus dismissing the doctor when learning that she could actually get Hector to recover his speech and movability was a surprise, and yet, like last week's story about the hurt, broken animal, underlined Gus' own capacity for cruelty. His conclusion that being a prisoner in his body in this particular way is indeed just the perfect revenge on Hector Salamanca will eventually destroy him, and that seems the more fitting the more we see of Gus.
Mike and Werner Ziegler bonding similarly was neat to see (and logical, they're both no-nonsense professionals), even if you couldn't make "Mike will have to kill Kai" more obvious while all this is happening. It occurs to me that Werner and Kai are in a way foreshadowing Mike's first (mistaken) impression of Walt and Jesse - professional and young unreliable hothead who needs to go.
Meanwhile, in the main plot (and much as it's heartrendering, I am so glad it's the main plot again): Jimmy and Kim keep growing apart from each other without bad intentions on either side. The montage, which is also the show's way of skipping various months, gives us Kim managing to juggle her pro bono cases with her Mesa Verda duties as she hoped she would via working for Schweikart and Cokely, while Jimmy fills the boredom of his temporary job through the illicit burner phone sales as Saul Goodman, with his hope of using the money for another shared office with Kim growing ever fainter. The look on his face when he finds himself in Kim's office at S & C during the lawyer party said it all. This is different than her job at HHM. She's valued here, she can do what she loves, and there is nothing his idea of Wexler & McGill can offer to compete with that.
Things then come to a head when the incident with the cop ends with Huell's arrest and Jimmy having to come clean about the phone sales so she can represent Huell in court. In a way, that's everything in a nutshell: he pissed off the cop via being a smartass instead of just leaving or pretending to (and let's not forget, it was only a month more until he could work as a lawyer again, and he doesn't need the money), and while circumstances were against him (Huell mistaking the situation), in the end it happened because it wasn't in his nature to just endure the (paid) boredom for half a year.
Kim being visibly angry but not saying anything about this, focusing on the Huell situation instead was very Kim. I'm very curious what her plan is - and also whether Jimmy will, for once, desist instead of continuing the path of Sauldom ever faster. Meanwhile, it's on the one hand so sad to see these two drift from each other, but on the other so well written because what happens is entirely due to mutual characters, not due to some outside scheme to part them, and that's how it should be. Excuse me while I sniffle.
The Mike and Gus scenes continue to be in the small amount that makes them not just palpable but actually interesting to me. Incidentally, let's hear it for Mark Margolis. He first played Hector Salamanca as the barely able to move stroke victim, conveying malice and cunning through just facial expression and some finger lifts. Then he played Don Hector at his prime with a very different body language. And now we're back to post stroke Tio Salamanca, and while you can see the connection between those incarnations, they're still utterly different.
I knew that Gus would realize Hector is himself, alright, when figuring out he was deliberately being an ass with the nurse, but the unexpected addition of Gus dismissing the doctor when learning that she could actually get Hector to recover his speech and movability was a surprise, and yet, like last week's story about the hurt, broken animal, underlined Gus' own capacity for cruelty. His conclusion that being a prisoner in his body in this particular way is indeed just the perfect revenge on Hector Salamanca will eventually destroy him, and that seems the more fitting the more we see of Gus.
Mike and Werner Ziegler bonding similarly was neat to see (and logical, they're both no-nonsense professionals), even if you couldn't make "Mike will have to kill Kai" more obvious while all this is happening. It occurs to me that Werner and Kai are in a way foreshadowing Mike's first (mistaken) impression of Walt and Jesse - professional and young unreliable hothead who needs to go.
Meanwhile, in the main plot (and much as it's heartrendering, I am so glad it's the main plot again): Jimmy and Kim keep growing apart from each other without bad intentions on either side. The montage, which is also the show's way of skipping various months, gives us Kim managing to juggle her pro bono cases with her Mesa Verda duties as she hoped she would via working for Schweikart and Cokely, while Jimmy fills the boredom of his temporary job through the illicit burner phone sales as Saul Goodman, with his hope of using the money for another shared office with Kim growing ever fainter. The look on his face when he finds himself in Kim's office at S & C during the lawyer party said it all. This is different than her job at HHM. She's valued here, she can do what she loves, and there is nothing his idea of Wexler & McGill can offer to compete with that.
Things then come to a head when the incident with the cop ends with Huell's arrest and Jimmy having to come clean about the phone sales so she can represent Huell in court. In a way, that's everything in a nutshell: he pissed off the cop via being a smartass instead of just leaving or pretending to (and let's not forget, it was only a month more until he could work as a lawyer again, and he doesn't need the money), and while circumstances were against him (Huell mistaking the situation), in the end it happened because it wasn't in his nature to just endure the (paid) boredom for half a year.
Kim being visibly angry but not saying anything about this, focusing on the Huell situation instead was very Kim. I'm very curious what her plan is - and also whether Jimmy will, for once, desist instead of continuing the path of Sauldom ever faster. Meanwhile, it's on the one hand so sad to see these two drift from each other, but on the other so well written because what happens is entirely due to mutual characters, not due to some outside scheme to part them, and that's how it should be. Excuse me while I sniffle.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-18 04:08 pm (UTC)It's worth pointing out, I think, that that cop did absolutely nothing wrong. He didn't threaten Jimmy, he didn't verbally abuse him, and I think it's pretty clear he wasn't planning to plant evidence the way Jimmy accused him of. He was just trying to appeal to Jimmy's sense of human decency, and, of course, it didn't work.
And the Gus scene was just chilling. I mean, I knew Gus was a cold, vengeful son-of-a-bitch, but damn. That actually made me feel sorry for Hector, which does not seem remotely right. It certainly gives me new feelings about their mutual death scene in BB.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-20 05:06 am (UTC)Re: cop, indeed. They could have easily written him as overbearing and trying to strongarm Jimmy. But he didn’t, he asked for something understandable, and presented the request in a reasonable manner.
Hector: had himself no pity with anyone, but that’s not the point. Keeping someone in ongoing pain and helplessness for years is makes you a sadist, no matter who “someone” is. No wonder Hector jumped at the chance when Walt offered - taking Gus out and dying himself at the same time must have seemed like heaven at that point.