Better Call Saul 6.04.

[selenak]

Yes, Kim, if you and your husband are engaged in destroying another person's life for no better reason than resenting that guy, you're wicked. This was an episode in which outwardly, not much happens, but at the same time, it's a direly needed character episode, showing us the emotional toll of what's going on. Jimmy, who even at his most downtrodden has always been able to charm people and make them like him - precisely what irritated Chuck so much and made him jealous - now finds that all his chums at the courthouse do see a difference between bending the rules or helping out small time crooks as opposed to enabling a murderous kingpin to go free, and all the coffee and first name greeting in the world doesn't help there. At the same time, being seen as Lalo Salamanca's lawyer brings in lots of new paying customers. It's remarkable of how quickly Jimmy goes from snubbed-child-at-school like crushed (he's always thrived on being liked) to being in an excellent mood once the clients keep coming. (One difference between Breaking Bad era Saul and Jimmy McGill always was: Saul's no longer concerned about being liked and charming people.) Meanwhile, Kim notices she's being shadowed, assumes it's the police, and it does get her brooding - hence the question to Jimmy, turning his playful use of "wicked" into a serious question. But is Kim really feeling an awareness that what she's currently doing to Howard is wrong or is she just afraid of being caught?

(Between Wendy, the Crossroads Motel, "El Camino" and Jimmy finding Saul's new office, there are a lot of BB shoutouts in this episode.)

The Mike and Kim scene was great. At first I thought "but they did meet last season already, didn't they?", then realised that no, that was over the phone, they hadn't met face to face before, other than in ye early days when Mike was the Parking Booth guy in front of the court house. When Kim realises this at the end of their encounter, it brings home of how much has changed for both of them.

Meanwhile, Gus' domestic routine emphasizes the cost of (useful for survival) paranoia. I wonder, btw, whether it wouldn't have been a good idea NOT to show Lala's survival to the audience, in which case they'd have to wonder along with Mike whether Gus is correct in his guess or whether a life time of living on the edge has been getting to him. Speaking of "it's not paranoia when they're really after you" - I note Kim hasn't mentioned the possibility of Lalo's survival to Jimmy (yet?), thus iimplicitly agreeing with Mike's assessment that she can deal with that bit of news better than he could.

Lastly: we see in this episode Kim with one of her charity cases, and we also see her tell Wendy to come to her if Wendy needs legal help, free of charge. I think that's not just meant as a reminder of Kim not having gone all Dark Side yet but still invested in helping people, but also Chekov's gun, so to speak, because it would be fitting this show's sense of irony if Kim were to trip not over ruining Howard's life as such, but because of one of her good qualities, i.e. feeling sorry for Wendy and offering her help. (For example, this could enable the cops to connected Wendy to Kim (and thus also Jimmy) if someone actually investigates that little spectacle with Howard's stolen car.

Daughter of lastly: also: poor Howard. One of the show's surpises is how sorry they've made me feel for him, and how much I hope he won't end up destroyed by the end of it.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Yeah, that was the first thing I thought of when Kim noticed the car surveilling her -- that whoever it was saw her with Wendy and that was a direct link to the stunt Saul pulled with Howard's car.

In this episode you could feel them winding up the plot points that are going to lead to something dire for more than one person, for sure.

[selenak]

Indeed. And we know it can't be Saul who takes the fall for it, because he's free and practising law at the start of Breaking Bad.

[princessofgeeks]

The fact that it was Mike's guys and not the cops is a very good break for Kim.

But there are a lot of possibilities for how she can get caught and get in trouble now. I am very interested in her fate.

[hannah]

A small piece of me is rooting for Howard to lose his job, his status as a lawyer, and pretty much everything he was using to define himself, and end the series as the one person happier for it having happened to him - there's room for people to reinvent themselves in this show, and he might be able to pull it off.

[selenak]

Hm, put like that, you might be on to something. Reinvention is a big theme, and Howard was so defined by being his father's son and heir of the law firm and Chuck's partner that he may never have had the chance to wonder who he might be on his own.

[hannah]

I'm now remembering a line from "Falling for the First Time" by Barenaked Ladies: I'm so thrilled to finally be failing. Fabian's always been excellent at showing how much of Howard is surface and veneer, and how he's uncomfortable looking internally for what else might be in there. To have no choice could offer a slim ray of genuine hope he'll come out better for it.