Better Call Saul

Oh fuck I thought it was next week for some reason. Nice surprise.

So did Chuck intend for Ernesto to hear the tape?

On Mike's espionage, wouldn't they have just replaced the battery in the old bug rather than taken it away? Wasteful.

I was also thinking that, but I suppose when you trying to discreetly plant a tracker on someones car - speed and stealth will be more important. And the tape recorder being on play and the ott reaction deffo seemed contrived and part of some cunning plan.

Not to mention his smug move with the tongs once Ernie left

ulysses otm; the inching forward of the gene timeline (omg this has different timelines, how mindbending lol) is more impactful than any number of EXPLOSIVE season openings

I like the way Mike shows his ex-cop stakeout craft to perfection. Like he has the discipline to sit in a darkened room for hours (with just some pistachios for company!).

I suppose part of the reason Fring ends up employing him is that he realises Mike has skills way beyond any of his happy amateur goons.

Well, the full reason I should have said.

I just want to say how much I appreciate that the mechanics of the tracker switch-off were shown in loving detail but never overtly explained. It's so refreshing to have to actually think about what characters on a TV show are doing and why they're doing it rather than having the writers hammer it all into the brains of their half-engaged viewership. Mike is a smart and skilled dude, so I enjoy feeling like he's at least a step or two ahead of me, a decidedly less smart and skilled dude.

yep, it takes a strong creative team to trust that they're a little in front of you and show not tell

https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/1dkcej/never_eat_pistachios_in_the_dark/

protein

I think chuck's plotting will end up being like the ricin thing, one of those schemes that rely on everyone involved reacting in exactly the way the schemer predicts they will - I really have no idea where they're going with it though, apart from a vague idea that he's trying to foment discord between Jimmy & Kim.

Yeah. Agreed.

I am intrigued by what Chuck is planning. Suppose Ernesto does tell Jimmy about the tape--as Chuck and Howard already discussed, Jimmy will know that the tape wouldn't be useful in court. So other than having further proof that his brother is out to get him, why would Jimmy even be stressed about it?

Kim

I noticed there appears to be a companion Talking programme to this now. Is that new. Is that just becoming standard to everything remotely intriguing these days?
Things not cheapened by the gossip level?
Did Dr Who get one yet?

I've only noticed it with AMC shows (Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul... I think Preacher may have had one?)

Game of Thrones has one as well. Or maybe that's just in the UK?

Talking Dead and a few others too

Doctor Who has one in Australia now. The host opened the first episode by introducing the panel, then saying "Forget about the episode we just watched, [SCREAMS SPOILER ABOUT NEXT WEEK'S EPISODE], let's talk about that!"

The real eye opener is the accompanying podcast

For B.B./BCS I mean

The podcast is great

Are they doing one this season?

premiere was okay, obviously a slow burn w a specific focus. I did wonder what the point of all those shots of Kim deciding on whether or not to use a period, a semi-colon or an en-dash was though.

presumed it was playing on (and, not incidentally reminding the audience of) her obsession with doing things properly

a mountain that can be a rising line graph... or falling
the fuckup of the paint as jimmy veers away from his brother's method of patient methodical tape rolling
thug in the car circling "trajectory" on the word search
the tip off of just why the tape was made at the start of the episode leading to payoff IN THE SAME EPISODE so that we don't get in front of the story
the mirrored plots of mike and jimmy on opposite sides of the law
the obvious but teasing reveals of the Pollos Hermanos sign and of Esposito sweeping up
so many lengthy silent sequences, brilliantly framed with such an eye to detail... the out of focus spider running on the tarmac as mike's head breaks the rounded horizon line
just bravado work front to back

Gilligans direction was incredible this ep. I love that they're not afraid to be corny or obvious (trajectory, a little crooked) but with such panache

Saul's secretary! That was bigger than gus for me

I know! So unexpected.

There must have been, what, a full thirty dialogue-free minutes between the first two episodes of the season? That takes chutzpah. And to make it work takes serious skill.

I loved his oh so covert staking out of Pollos Hermanos, for a bit of comic relief. But overall, yeah that was a technically stunning and perfect ep.

My favorite little detail this week was the fact that Jimmy has a velcro wallet. That just seems so perfectly Jimmy.

"this guy REALLY doesn't want to talk about cracker barrel" got a belly laugh out of me

On a meta level I appreciate how chuck's brilliant genius plan was to use REALY SUBTLE REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY on derrrnie so Jimmy would immediately lose his shit and run into a trap, cause it's like a comical simplification of the ricin gambit for ppl who complained that that was too convoluted

On a non-meta level it was played so so well (hamyln's dorky little agitated run is cranstonesque) and I care much less about the mechanism than the outcome, I think being cornered like this is what leads to the first really big downward lurch for Jimmy

still don't see what Chuck pins on Jimmy - breaking + entering and assault, destruction of private property, etc.? OK whatever

Could that be enough to get him disbarred?

Whatever the particulars, I think the overall aim would be to get Jimmy disbarred — Chuck wants to take away Jimmy's one big life success. xp!

xpost Yeah it didnt seem that big of a GOTCHA tbh. 1st 2 episodes have been ok. I'm getting more of a kick out of Mike's long wordless scenes of covert stalking than Jimmy's story (which seems to be covering well trodden territory)

the reverse for me. Mike's plotline more closely mirrors BB's focus on mechanics and minutiae, but it's Jimmy's plotline that has the emotional resonance and depth of character

I agree, its just Jimmy's story has been less appealing so far this season

breaking and entering is enough to get him arrested, i think there's three people who now can prove admission of guilt to what's on that tape... no longer his story vs mine.
in any case, it's enough to force jimmy out of the law... under his own name at least.

i really really appreciate (as per the block quote up top) that they explained in the opening why the tape was made without explicitly telling the audience and then, in opposition to a zillion other hourlong dramas that would've made the buildup to Jimmy breaking the crux of the story for five more episodes ("THE SECRET TAPE SAGA FINALLY COMES TO A HEAD IN THE NEXT TO THE LAST EPISODE BEFORE THE LAST EPISODE"), bang, it's over.

i think there's three people who now can prove admission of guilt to what's on that tape

idk Jimmy's defense - that he was telling his totally nuts brother what he wanted to hear in order to restore him to some semblance of sanity - is totally believable. And the tape itself is destroyed, of questionable provenance etc.

I suppose it could come down to Ernie betraying Jimmy, which would be brutal andsad

you're assuming that actually was the tape, it clearly was not.
jimmy busted into the house screaming bloody murder, busting open the drawer with a fireplace poker and REadmitting to everything anyway; don't think the burden of sanity is on his bro anymore

That's assuming that is the tape/that it's the only copy

Xp

One thing that doesn't sit quite right with me: why is this the betrayal that provokes the big outburst from Jimmy? He didn't react like that when he found out that Chuck secretly stood in the way of his legal career from the beginning, nor when Chuck intervened to get Mesa Verda back from Kim.

So why does Jimmy freak out and accuse Chuck of ruining the family now--particularly since, as Chuck and Howard and Kim have all said, the tape is not likely to be admissable in court, let alone useful? The one thing I can think of is that Jimmy might be angry over having been out-grifted. The other stuff was just Chuck throwing his weight around. This time, Jimmy was actually deceived.

xposts: I think Jimmy can definitely still claim that he was just saying what he thought Chuck needed to hear, and that he was angry over having been recorded without his knowledge (by his own brother, who he had cared for in his time of need, etc. etc.)

REadmitting to everything anyway

this is not what happened

Yeah I think it's chuck being a faker re his breakdown: big betrayal, big hypocrisy xp

he charged into the room, explicitly referenced Chuck acting crazy, and yelled about the betrayal/being taped. He didn't say anything about the content of the tape being the truth.

Jimmy's behavior - freaking out over a family-member's insane and malicious behavior - looks way more rational than Chuck's "I'm allergic to electricity" nonsense tbh