Better Call Saul

I had the same thought re the relative lightness of this ep and how needed it was

the only really dark turn was Jimmy explaining that he'd done all of the normal tricks and they were entering a different phase, only for Kim to immediately jump on board

I feel like there's this balance right now where he and Kim are going to end up pushing each other closer to the edge

Oh yeah, egging each other on in mutual bottle-throwing is not a path that ends anywhere good I fear. I love that they’ve gone this way with Kim and it isn’t merely jimmy dragging her unwilling into his bullshit

So I guess mike hooks up with gus out of count of Monte cristo game recognise game. Also I can’t remember how long he’s lived in New Mexico but I would have expected him to have at least a little Spanish - then again he doesn’t talk to that many people

The fall of Slippin' Kimmy is going to be so painful. This is the best tv show ever invented.

Agreed. I'm scared that the last time we see her is going to be in a dark alley where she's just handing goons envelopes of cash to go break someone's legs. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the picture

Getting bored of the Acker storyline tbh. I couldn't give a fuck whether the old bastard gets kicked out of his house or not

Then think of it as the Kim storyline, since it is.

Is it me or was that last episode really boring?

It was you.

This storyline isn’t about Acker, it’s about Kim’s self-destructiveness, her frustration, and her moral compass

it was boring

So who was Max? Did I miss something?

yeah that escaped me also, so many details lost over the seasons

https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Max_Arciniega

my presumption is that they were a couple prior to Salamanca murdering him; the internets generally agree but it's open to interpretation

ah, thanks, never would have dug that one out

I should watch this show w/ the wiki open

yeah that was my interpretation too

it explains the deeeeeep need for revenge & the way the Salamancas have always treated Fring

Somebody, I think Lalo, referred to Fring with a homophobic slur and referred to Max's murder earlier this season. They're laying out there for the attentive viewer.

Which would make Gale Boetticher on Breaking Bad kind of an echo of Max? (Gus also paid for his education, I think...or least he said something about a scholarship when he tried to explain their relationship to Hank.)

yep

I never suspected a sexual relationship between gus and gale tbh

yes me neither

i dont get that vibe from them at all

Between gus and max otoh, definitely

def

Even if there wasn't a sexual relationship--and I don't rule it out (Gale was gay, right?)--Gus still may have viewed Gale as some kind of stand-in for Max...Or maybe it was more of a father-son relationship. There seemed to be something there in the way Gus treated Gale (conceding he did cut him loose at one point).

So I guess mike hooks up with gus out of count of Monte cristo game recognise game.

Kind of amazing that you referred to it this way, because the actor who played Mike's doctor also played Luigi Vampa, the captain of the ship that rescued Edmond Dantes (played by Jim Caveziel) after he escaped from the Chateau D'If in 2002's The Count of Monte Cristo!

A reminder to myself that this is on tonight (almost forgot last week). "Wexler vs. Goodman"--major turning point? Too soon if there's still a season-and-a-half.

not if Better Call Saul

Haven't been as big on the recent episodes as some of the rest of you, but that one was excellent. Great opening, great closing, and the shot just before the commercial break of Kim walking in to help Jimmy clean up the commercial shoot was a great MacGuffin (unless it wasn't). Trying to stay vague.

I actually didn't get what Jimmy was up to till he explained at the end. Rotten, but it made perfect sense.

Just read the Rolling Stone recap. I took absent-minded notice of the song Jimmy was strumming on his guitar but forgot the significance of it, especially at that particular moment.

Not sure what Kim was thinking at the end there

she's only human and... god, we do stupid things for love

plus, spousal privilege

otm I was thinking we might get a legal justification next week but mainly she loves jimmy so “what is she thinking” is the exact point and beside it

he's doing exactly what he's always done, and said he'd do, and it's heartbreaking

I could use a better memory--I find it so hard to retain details from previous seasons. Clearly Nacho and Mike have a lot of history. None of which I remember now.

lol

Speaking of that plotline, lalo is clearly about to call his new hotshot lawyer so things are about to get complicated for jimmy/saul, also lalo is still in play in breaking bad and it doesn’t feel like the timelines are near joining up yet

So we’re still about four years from the start of Breaking Bad. Plenty of time for Jimmy to ruin Kim’s life over the next two seasons and still be an established success & singleton by the time he first appeared

― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Wednesday, February 26, 2020 6:37 AM (four weeks ago)

Noticed Saul and Gus were wearing pretty much the exact same blazer.

I have enjoyed this season so far (with some reservations), but this last episode was bad. I am an attorney and for the most part have found the show's legal elements to be decent, at least compared to most television shows. It actually showed grunt attorneys doing document production! But Jimmy's entire scam and the way Mesa Verde just says, "we love Kim so much we'll let her boyfriend sue us" is some of the dumbest shit ever.

I'm not an attorney but felt the same way.

As for the ending, yes, the human heart is complex and we contain multitudes etc. but to spend so much time across so many episodes engineering this eviction plotline in the service of the Kim-Saul dynamic, and then just blow up all of those details in the last five seconds on a mysterious (and to me unconvincing) whim of the heart was to me a letdown.

Most any other actress in this role couldn't care Kim's complexity across a single season of this show, but I'm starting to feel like they're making Rhea Seehorn run in circles for no good reason. Like, yes, we *know* already that Jimmy is a corrupting influence and she'd be better off w/o him but damnit just can't seem to let the rascal go, etc. This plotline is starting to feel to me like in GoT when they just had those kids wandering around in the snow for five years.

the opening shot with Kim not getting in the car with her alcoholic mom, who is lying to her, is meant to mirror the ending imo

Jimmy's like an alcoholic for hijinks

Was it Rhea in some kind of prosthetics playing Kim's mum? Her voice was indentical.

No--the Rolling Stone piece thought so too.

Ha yes the casting of Kim's mother was so good I thought they may be related IRL

I disagree with posts above about weakness/unmotivated nature of plotting. I think it's pretty obvious that this is Kim doubling down in a desperate attempt to get Jimmy to reform. The Mesa Verde plot is there to illuminate their relationship, and to show how both of them respond to escalating stakes with more and more addictive behaviors. Not unlike Adam Sandler in UNCUT GEMS. She has just as bad a gambling problem as he does, in fact he brings it out of her and makes it worse. In this sense you need the Mesa Verde to move Kim inexorably down her trajectory. She's not running in circles at all.

The two posts this morning did give me pause about the latest episode--"Yeah, they sure did buckle to such a slapdash, borderline ridiculous threat." I think I just mostly check credulity at the door with not just this show but other TV shows I enjoy. (I like Ozark, which is preposterous.) There was the roadside lineup for cell phones and legal advice earlier...I just go with it.

i thought they dubbed Seehorn's voice as the mother.

I'm re-watching from the start so not keeping up with this thread. Just up to the s4 episode where they make all the provisions for the German lads to be isolated inside for 8-10 months. Such foresight!