Better Call Saul 6.10.
Jul. 26th, 2022 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakBetter call Gene?
You know, I kept thinking "sure, he misses the thrill, but would he really, after all the Breaking Bad events - would he risk everything just for that? And then "Gene" started to rattle off the penalties, and I realised a second before he said it this was all about getting blackmail material on Jeff the taxi driver (and his pal) to ensure it's in their very best interest to remain silent.
Back to the start: for the first time this season, we flash forward to black-and-white Gene-in-Omaha territory. Which I had expected to happen, but not before there was an intervening episode about BB era Saul. However, thinking about it, it makes sense after Jimmy's journey was completed to go straight to the post BB era. We did see Saul Good in BB time. No need to repeat what we know already.
By itself, the episode is a heist/scam story, and it's intriguing to watch Gene go about it and see both the similarities and the differences to both Jimmy and Saul. He endears himself to Marian just as Jimmy did with his Sandpiper clients. He becomes best buddies with the security men. He suckers Jeff (previously an ominous figure treatening him in the s5 finale's flash forward) into committing a felony as expertly as Slippin' Jimmy ever did a mark. He even puts Marco's ring on his finger again. (And btw, that he still posesses it, i.e. took the time to include it in the stuff he packed when fleeing Alburquerque, is pretty telling.) But the giddy sense of joy Jimmy had after a successful con is entirely gone. (Outside of his roleplaying, he doesn't smile once.) As is Saul's smarminess and flash; Gene in the very last scene is tempted by a Saul-like outfit, but in the end doesn't buy it but leaves it behind.
The credits footage has been degrading more and more per episode until now it dissolves entirely. Since there are still episodes to go, I'm curious what will happen next week - rebuilding/restoring footage? No credits at all?
Also, I suspect the fact that Marian is so charmed by nice, helpful Gene - and has no idea what's going on - might prove Gene's undoing. After all, she has no motive for restraint if her son's new friend suddenly doesn't visit anymore. I can see her showing up at the mall to ask Gene what's the matter, mentioning his dog (which his co-workers probably know he doesn't have), etc.
The black and white filming of the Gene scenes has always been a deliberate contrast to Jimmy's life, but there has never been an entire episode in black and white, and together with the stark contrast to the life and death events the previous few eps, it enhances the feeling of emotional distance and freezing. (Even when Gene to distract the guard a few minutes longer uses some truths to lie - his parents and brother are dead, he doesn't have a wife - there is no sense of a genuine emotional connection.) And in contrast to most of the show where Bob Odenkirk has to play a man way younger than he is now, as Gene they really emphasize his age and ravages. I'm reminded a bit of Kai in The Snow Queen, who has a frozen heart due to the ice splinter, which begs the question whether Kim is Gerda, I suppose, and will show up again (if not to return color to Gene's life then so we find out what became of her). For I cannot imagine another entirely Kim-less episode - can you?
You know, I kept thinking "sure, he misses the thrill, but would he really, after all the Breaking Bad events - would he risk everything just for that? And then "Gene" started to rattle off the penalties, and I realised a second before he said it this was all about getting blackmail material on Jeff the taxi driver (and his pal) to ensure it's in their very best interest to remain silent.
Back to the start: for the first time this season, we flash forward to black-and-white Gene-in-Omaha territory. Which I had expected to happen, but not before there was an intervening episode about BB era Saul. However, thinking about it, it makes sense after Jimmy's journey was completed to go straight to the post BB era. We did see Saul Good in BB time. No need to repeat what we know already.
By itself, the episode is a heist/scam story, and it's intriguing to watch Gene go about it and see both the similarities and the differences to both Jimmy and Saul. He endears himself to Marian just as Jimmy did with his Sandpiper clients. He becomes best buddies with the security men. He suckers Jeff (previously an ominous figure treatening him in the s5 finale's flash forward) into committing a felony as expertly as Slippin' Jimmy ever did a mark. He even puts Marco's ring on his finger again. (And btw, that he still posesses it, i.e. took the time to include it in the stuff he packed when fleeing Alburquerque, is pretty telling.) But the giddy sense of joy Jimmy had after a successful con is entirely gone. (Outside of his roleplaying, he doesn't smile once.) As is Saul's smarminess and flash; Gene in the very last scene is tempted by a Saul-like outfit, but in the end doesn't buy it but leaves it behind.
The credits footage has been degrading more and more per episode until now it dissolves entirely. Since there are still episodes to go, I'm curious what will happen next week - rebuilding/restoring footage? No credits at all?
Also, I suspect the fact that Marian is so charmed by nice, helpful Gene - and has no idea what's going on - might prove Gene's undoing. After all, she has no motive for restraint if her son's new friend suddenly doesn't visit anymore. I can see her showing up at the mall to ask Gene what's the matter, mentioning his dog (which his co-workers probably know he doesn't have), etc.
The black and white filming of the Gene scenes has always been a deliberate contrast to Jimmy's life, but there has never been an entire episode in black and white, and together with the stark contrast to the life and death events the previous few eps, it enhances the feeling of emotional distance and freezing. (Even when Gene to distract the guard a few minutes longer uses some truths to lie - his parents and brother are dead, he doesn't have a wife - there is no sense of a genuine emotional connection.) And in contrast to most of the show where Bob Odenkirk has to play a man way younger than he is now, as Gene they really emphasize his age and ravages. I'm reminded a bit of Kai in The Snow Queen, who has a frozen heart due to the ice splinter, which begs the question whether Kim is Gerda, I suppose, and will show up again (if not to return color to Gene's life then so we find out what became of her). For I cannot imagine another entirely Kim-less episode - can you?
