Better Call Saul

It's such a masterful act to have slowly set D-Day up as both an exciting + intricate heist-like scam that we can't wait to see unfold and a thing that's probably going to ruin one or more protagonist's lives, maybe forever.

Yeah, Kim turning the car around when she is on the precipice of fulfilling her pro bono/criminal justice dreams and really help people in order to get at Howard is something else.

I'm in the middle of Todd Haynes' Mildred Pierce remake for the fourth or fifth time--just love it, gets better every time I go back. Mildred's boss when she takes her first waitressing job, Mr. Chris, looked familiar, but it took me a while to place him--Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis)! I think Mr. Chris is supposed to be Greek.

Pretty interesting filmography. His first credit goes back to 1952, one of the network soaps. There's a 24-year gap after that, and his next credit is The Opening of Misty Beethoven, from the chic-porn era. Also, in the next few year after that, Short Eyes, Going in Style, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, and The Cotton Club

Well I'll be goddamned

I flipped the first time I saw/heard the real Margolis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OHIoPK6wC8

i just saw him in an old law and order

Yeah, Kim turning the car around when she is on the precipice of fulfilling her pro bono/criminal justice dreams and really help people in order to get at Howard is something else.

“MIRA…
EL SECRETO DE FRING”

sometimes they deliver everything you expected and maybe a little bit you feared, and now I just want more

Definitely the best ep of the season

HOLY SHIT

I do hope that smothers the pace complaints.

That last line, three words, up there with "Are you alone?" from Mad Men as one of the best season (or half-season) closing lines.

was weirdly not shocked but i don't thing i've wrapped my head around the episode as a whole.

i think i'm at the point where there are very few BB episodes i would consider above this show as a whole.

I take back every bad word I ever said about this season

Justice in the timing in that last scene. Jimmy and Kim touched the same fire everyone in the drug side of this show touched with their scams. the different sides meeting together and some poor civilian being caught in the crosshairs. A great explanation for how Jimmy and Kim got to where they are. They were always there from their first scam, just took a while for the stakes to catch up

good post

Great speech by Howard too. For the first time I've felt like Jimmy and Kim are actually the baddies. Up until now I've always felt they're more loveable rogue types

I mean I don't think they're 100% bad. They're not in the same league as someone like Lalo or Fring. But now I feel like they do have that badness in them

You might say this season they truly …broke bad

I texted my brother just now about the show (missed last night) and autocorrect renamed the show “Better Calm Saul”

Great speech by Howard too.

Wanted to say the same thing. The way he put everything together--going all the way back to sending Kim to that room to check dockets, which felt indefensible at the time--I really felt sympathy for him. I have to believe that Kim will battle massive guilt over what happened more than Jimmy will.

Jimmy will rationalize it as he always does to avoid the feeling of guilt. Don't get me wrong, his worry about Howard's safety when Lalo showed up was genuine, but he's going to bury those feelings deep, whereas Kim might be permanently changed by it.

Lalo slipped through because Mike diverted all of the resources on the street to protect the lab/Gus's house, right?

Why were Jimmy and Kim so shocked by Lalo's reappearance? Hadn't Mike given them advance warning?

Kim knew he was still alive, but didn't pass that info on to Jimmy.

Ah, okay...A good parallel for the last line might be Samuel Jackson's "Oh, I'm sorry--did I break your concentration?" in Pulp Fiction.

Mike's entire conversation with Kim ended with him saying that she had the spine to handle the news that Lalo was alive, where he didn't think Jimmy had it in him

Which was followed by several conversations where Jimmy said things like "Don't worry, at least Lalo is dead!" and "At least we don't have to worry about Lalo!" while Kim looked spooked

omfg

Lalo you lil stinker

When you see howards pi pull up to take the envelope and the last puzzle piece of the scam clicks into place, real clockwork plotting - & yet as I was saying the other day the satisfaction of the caper rings so hollow cause it’s like Howard says, what’s the point? Two broken ppl throwing bottles off balconies. Also once you get into the conference room it is fundamentally a retread of the humiliation of chuck, another big downer. The last scene was played perfectly, Kim & jimmy’s taunting sangfroid when facing him down was chilling

Yeah, played perfectly all around (and agree that probs with pace have recently gone away)---Howard goes out great, Lalo the masterful minimalist ov delivery, another thing which reminds us that gloatin' Jimmy and Kim are, however reckless, Little League sociopaths in comparison (like Lalo will prove to be in comparison to the Cartel). But also yeah, hollow: having the whole thing come down to gaslight gone rong, this whole plotline that's taken over, with Kim and Jimmy going over the sympathy line, also the interest line, two little Walts, just as I figured---"Something will happen to Howard, Kim will probably freak out and run away"---not even helping Jimmy dispose of the body, I hope, but he can always award free legal services for life to someone who will help---she may go back to Nebraska, and Cinnabon X-Jimmy may encounter her there, not nec in a happy way; that could be good.

(I figure the Cartel will choose between Lalo and Fring, if they haven't already; not much suspense in that, but some interest in Lalo's means of demise).

I'm also interested in exactly what Lalo wants to talk to his lawyers about (Howard: "You need better lawyers!"), and how that will go, under the circumstances, and how they fit into his Plan A.

woah
Poor Howard
Annoyingly I didn't recognise the PI when Jimmy hands him the photos. Duh.

It only just occurred to me another motive behind Kim's U-turn last week was it suddenly clicking that knowing Lalo was out there this may be the only opportunity to get the payout money and scram (with or without Jimmy, heh)

People have been retweeting this December 2021 photo from the set for, uh, no reason today:

Happy birthday pally! pic.twitter.com/hfMuhl911t

— Mr. Bob Odenkirk (@mrbobodenkirk) December 8, 2021

I do hope that smothers the pace complaints.

One really funny detail to me was Lalo emerging from the sewer in the beginning of the episode, whereas the last time we saw him was in Germany, implying that he just took the sewer all the way back to America like he’s Super Mario

lol that's exactly what I said. did he just take a shortcut back from Germany?

also, are we not going to mention the Dark Crystal: The Musical gelfling?

I think I may need to watch BB through again cos i'm not remembering who does and doesn't appear in that as opposed to early seasons of BCS.

Lalo emerging from the sewer reminded me, of all things--you'll know what I mean if you've seen the film--the Beatles' Help!.

wasnt he looking for evidence that Gus ordered the hit on him? and then he started producing a documentary on how cool his secret lab is?

One really funny detail to me was Lalo emerging from the sewer in the beginning of the episode, whereas the last time we saw him was in Germany, implying that he just took the sewer all the way back to America like he’s Super Mario

― frogbs, Wednesday, May 25, 2022 12:22 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

he has the stache for it

It's-a me, Lalo!

*Blam*

come to think of it, how does he get to Germany and back? he doesn't exactly have cartel resources, and I assume it's too risky to just fly commercial, even if the Feds think he's dead.

there's a post credits teaser I had missed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL7ADEs-0oI

I'd guess Lalo has a nice cache of passports and money and airport security is generally just for show anyway

Lalo took an international cab

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyR3fSiwItw