Better Call Saul

I'm also surprised that Kim is apparently OK with Jimmy working for the goddamn cartel

thought for a minute that they were gonna kidnap Kim

Now that everyone seems to be caught up, wasn't there a shot in the previous to last episode--when Jimmy was shooting the get-Verde video, and Kim offered to come in and help clean up--that suggested Kim was being followed and watched? I kept waiting for either her boss or the Mesa Verde guy to say "Oh Kim, by the way..." at some critical point.

I don't think she knew about the video's contents, or even that it was about Mesa Verde. It was part of what seemed to genuinely shock her at the meeting.

I got the impression that the copyright infringement charge was her idea, but not the commercial

yup, that picture was the thing she saw in the dossier delivered by the guy who broke into the house

I thought she was all-in on the videos/copyright infringement accusation and then decided against that play at the eleventh hour. She was shocked because Jimmy disregarded her decision.

agreed with old lunch

I'd buy that

I didn't explain clearly. When Kim entered the place where Jimmy was doing the shoot, we saw her enter in longshot, as if from the point of view of a car across the surveilling her.

"across the road"

It's been great re-watching this, actually - I realise how much of my mindgrapes were spent trying to work out 'what's Mike doing?' 'what's this scam' etc (sooo many sequences were set up to reveal themselves slowly) and this time I can sit back and enjoy watching it a bit more? Although I'm still trying to work out, e.g. 'hang on, does Gus know Mike and Nacho were working together before?' Obv now I'm back to 'what's he doing now?' mode.
The bit with Jimmy going further than Kim supposedly wanted with the Mesa Verde stuff - I found that almost physically painful to watch.

I liked we got a reference to the 'two previous dissolutions' for Jimmy (I hadn't remembered at all, but there was a ref in BB about Saul's 'second wife slept with my stepdad'.) https://screenrant.com/breaking-bad-better-call-saul-vince-gilligan-plot-hole/

Also, lol @ Lydia keenly piping up to suggest a prison shanking

very onbrand lol

shank or a shiv or whatnot

I liked we got a reference to the 'two previous dissolutions' for Jimmy (I hadn't remembered at all, but there was a ref in BB about Saul's 'second wife slept with my stepdad'.)

I still think about this scene a lot, there's no way they had any clue where the story was going 10 years later when this was filmed. hard to think of another example of a throwaway line leading to such an expansive plot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gM6_FCeiBA

is he saying 'lalo didn't send you"?

"What can I do for you gentleman?!"--Jimmy/Saul, always polite.

I did a double take at Luftwaffle

I couldn't believe that!

Please explain significance of that scary clip?

it's a scene from S2 of Breaking Bad with a throwaway line that references characters who wouldn't be written into the series for 6-8 years

obviously its just sort of a writers trick, leave a breadcrumb that can be referenced later (afaik the writers have admitted a few times they don't really plan things out in advance), but still pretty cool to see that develop into basically half of the show

‘So you’re his *wife* and you *love him* and he didn’t come home last night’

love Lalo’s line delivery

Seems to me that they sort of set Lalo up to just be one of these creepy intense, rando villain type characters that’s terrifying because you never know what he’s going to do, except instead he keeps doing this super sharp, sees through everything, evil genius thing that’s actually a lot more scary.

The Lalo-Kim scene was great, the rest was a long time in the desert minus any and all suspense of will-they-survive? Great hip-hop lesson, though.

?

I'm guessing clemenza is referring to the fact that the episode used "I Got The..." by Labi Siffre, famously sampled in "My Name Is" by Eminem.

Gertcha.

Yeah--I guess that's common knowledge, but it's the first time I'd heard it. Took me a couple of minutes to track it down; I initially googled Lalo Schifrin.

(Because I glanced at the name that came back for "My Name Is sample" too quickly--which I now realize is a Lalo too!)

I appreciated the fact that the space blanket/Chuck connection was pretty obvious but they refrained from spelling it out.

I have a friend who missed that--I'll tell him.

I found the desert trek appropriately tedious x agonizing, even tho of course I knew they weren't gonna die.
Mike, the Complete Pro, acknowledges that he didn't bring more guys (and the one guy just shot and drove off, what the heck?), because he didn't expect all *that* much of an ambush, why not?
Wondering if Lalo didn't send the bushwhackers, so he could get but maybe conceal his bail money--for a while---and see what Gus would do? Since Gus wanted him bustes but then released(why? So Lalo would Feel the Power of Gus?) This would go with getting Gus to torch his own place (Lalo guffawing at "Arson Suspected" headline). Getting Gus to jump through hoops, and prob knows What'sHisName is double-agent (triple, in the sense that he hates Gus for making him work with-against Lalo, though as Mike points out, all this goes back to choices he was warned against).
Lalo does seem like the long-game mastermind at times, but then there's that goofy giggle: "What Fools These Mortals Be"? Was Travel Wire freak-out spontaneous, or part of the long game? Both? Does he fold mistakes into the flow, like the best kind of musician?

"busted," that is.

I don’t think lalo knows that nacho is working with gus

Kim senses that Lalo is responsible for more than Jimmy knew, could even bring Jimmy back? Which would fit w my own "theory."

Why doesn't he know, hasn't supposed it? Things are going the way he wants and/or has turned to his own advantage (folding mistakes into the game etc) Not saying you're wrong, but I haven't noticed anything against my own suspicions.

I meant to mention that I did enjoy the return of Breaking Bad's extremely focused twins.

http://i.pinimg.com/564x/92/b1/0e/92b10e8eebe73abebe2a2dd45e13bad3.jpg

Yes!
xp Or it could be he's just allowing for the odds of Nacho being double.

It’s just the sense I get - I think he will figure it out, I just don’t think he has yet. Although i can’t really account for the ambush at all so I should prob buy into your reasoning. He’s certainly very smart. Did you think he reacted much to Nacho’s name coming up in his meeting with Saul?

(I read the chuckle at the headline l pretty straight, that he was just laughing at the arson he ordered without knowing of gus’s involvement)

The guys laying in wait to bushwack Saul definitely throws a monkey wrench into things. Who sent them?

idk - lalo didn’t seem that bothered about the money not showing up which suggests that it could be him, but I’m at a bit of a loss as to why. I don’t buy that it’s to mess with gus/flush him out

Since Gus wanted him bustes but then released(why? So Lalo would Feel the Power of Gus?)

Gus wanted Lalo put away to get him out of the picture, and only wanted him released when it was clear he would still be a problem in prison (and no shanks or shivs without starting a war)

But why would he not think that Lalo would still be a prob in prison?? As with not making sure Mike took more backup along---is Lalo also that stupid, did he really think that Jimmy the first-time bagman would have no prob solo? Somebody was using Jimmy as bait, as test case. (Of course he was bait for luring the last bushwhacker: they shoulda thought of that sooner, but so should I: we were all sunstruck!)

But then, as on BB, sometimes the writers just want to go from here to there, jumping over the in-between.

I think Lalo doesn't give a shit because he thinks he's worth $14 million to the cartel as easily as he's worth $7 million

just send another dude

additionally, it might possible sending Saul all the way to pick it up was much a test of his resourcefulness as it was an actual run to get bail money

Mike was tracking Saul's car, right?
I really thought Saul had been used (by Lalo) as bait to pickup the cash and draw out the bad guys (whoever they were). I guess not though.

Too bad there was no relish or ketchup in that van for mike and Saul to banter over

Yes I was reminded of The Pine Barrens, and that episode of BB where Walt and Jesse are stuck in out in the desert in the RV. Not as successful as either of those, but I enjoyed it nontheless - I've a soft spot for this kind of episode. I wish Jimmy had managed to talk his way out of being murdered by the comically large outlaw gang rather than the old last minute rescue, though.

Definitely not "Pine Barrens" level, but I thought it was a pretty great episode. Watching Mike just barely contain his complete disdain for Jimmy and his stupid decisions, surely wishing he didn't need him to carry the money back out again.