Better Call Saul

First of all it’s giselle now

She moves to Sweden and changes her name to Robyn

― Evan, Monday, July 11, 2022 11:38 AM bookmarkflaglink

wait, so then who was "Show Me Love" Robyn?

I mean it's been like 6-7 years of "oh god what's gonna happen to Kim"

True, and weird, because whatever happens to Kim, it happened before the first time we ever see her.

One thing that makes it tenser than Peggy, I'd say, is that we're not sure if her ending will be happy or sad. I felt close to 100% confident that, whether it involved love or work or both, Peggy was going to be granted a happy ending--maybe not Don, that was up in the air, and maybe not Kim, either.

She calls the vacuum cleaner guy, I’ll wager $$ on it.

Who's the vacuum cleaner guy? I still think the New Mexico cabbie who just happens to have relocated to Omaha takes or leads ex-Jimmy/Saul to---Kim, who is pissed---and maybe with Lalo. Or, Lalo's secretly watching her, and he's the one who sent the cabbie to get the manager. Who has a gun, we now know. Although it's just a regular pistol, right? He's no marksman; he needs a semi-automatic.

The two big seeds planted last season that haven’t been addressed: gene’s “I’ll fix it myself” re getting made, & Saul telling Francesca to make/take a call at a certain time & to “tell them jimmy sent you”

I think how Kim’s story shakes out (partic wrt Ed’s vacuum cleaner repair) kinda depends on how they handle the time-jumps. Saul doesn’t become Gene until the shit hits the fan with the Heisenberg business, something like a year after he’s in the desert thinking he’s getting whacked by lalo (which itself is a little bit later than the main bcs timeline, although I think we’re catching up) - so, what, Kim has to use the disappearer due to a crime committed in the current now of the show (Howard’s murder or something else proceeding from it) but Saul is able to stick around and build his low rent criminal lawyer business up to an empire?

I think the fact that Saul isn’t on trial for murder in bb is a good indication that they manage to clean up the crime scene after they concluded their business with lalo (I’d guess with Mike’s help and/or with kim taking charge, as she’s made of sterner stuff). I also reckon if Kim skips town just out of fear of the cartel she will just, like, skip town, not use the vacuum guy. idk this all depends on whether it turns out kim was around during breaking bad

Who's the vacuum cleaner guy? I still think the New Mexico cabbie who just happens to have relocated to Omaha takes or leads ex-Jimmy/Saul to---Kim, who is pissed---and maybe with Lalo. Or, Lalo's secretly watching her, and he's the one who sent the cabbie to get the manager. Who has a gun, we now know. Although it's just a regular pistol, right? He's no marksman; he needs a semi-automatic.

whats interesting to me is in the BB timeline Saul thinks that Lalo is still alive while Gus thinks he's dead. obviously Gus would have to be pretty damn sure given what went down the first time. so either Lalo is about to be killed unbeknownst to Saul or something happens to him during the BB timeline.

They seemed to be telegraphing that Lalo breaks into the under construction dry cleaner meth lab, gets killed by Gus, and gets buried when they pour the concrete floor for the lab.

Yeah that seems to be the direction

Honestly I can see Saul never seeing lalo again and just assuming he’s still out there, at least up to that moment in the desert - but that only works if he also has no more dealings with Mike between last seeing lalo & calling Mike to clean up janes od, because wouldn’t Mike tell him lalo was dead?

Although I guess I could see a situation where Mike thought it a good idea for Saul to believe lalo was dead

It must be such a hard job writing these things lol - I have no idea how I’d resolve some of this stuff

I admit it would be pretty funny if Lalo just wasted Kim in the first 30 seconds of this episode

last half of the season is Saul waiting on hold calling 911

Oh yeah, that would be good, in between other stuff: still holding? Yep.
re Omaha finale, my original picture didn't incl. Lalo, but a sense that Kim would end up blaming Jimmy for leading her into a folie à deux/bringing out her old bad side, from the confusing upbringing w her sociopathically/klepto-inclined mother---in Nebraska, as we now know...or that she wants them to reunited there, getting back to twisted roots, which they both have, although young Jimmy always seemed the more clearly willful, at least in reaction to lofty Chuck and their old man, who trusted people too much.

Jimmy is actually worse, more dangerous in terms of what his underdoggedness brings out in others (look out for Mrs. Kettleman), than Kim, though she's prob got the higher IQ.

Wow

Thought that was a very pedestrian episode. Drawing out the Lalo-Gus showdown for 10 minutes just didn't work for me. Gus lives, Lalo dies--we know that already.

I loved the way they drew it out though. we knew he planted the gun in the previous episode, and it was a pretty badass way to take him out. plus Seehorn and Odenkirk's PTSD was played very well

is ten minutes really that drawn out? no patience these days, you kids

Ten minutes can feel like 20, though, when the end result is pre-ordained.

in any case, I loved the ep. poor Howard though :/

The look on Saul and Kim's faces when Mike said "that was the route you were setting up for him, right?" (or whatever his exact words were) was pretty crushing. Like, oh shit, this is how his loved ones are going to remember him now.

With the result preordained, I enjoyed the skillful execution.

Seems to me that a possible dangling thread with Mike's plan is Clifford Main, who certainly seemed like he was coming around to Howard's explanation of Jimmy's scam and is likely to ask some uncomfortable questions in the wake of these most recent events.

Yeah, that was very well done xp

The Kim scenes felt pretty tense because we don't know what happens to her.

When we see Kim talking to Gus through the security camera (or whatever it was), distorted and grainy, that looked good--like Lynch, almost.

Really glad to see Seehorn nominated for this, she's long overdue for an Emmy for this series, but not sure why she only qualifies as a Supporting Actress. Or is this one of those things where they lobbied for this category because she's more likely to win?

Ten minutes in the dark; they musta had bat vision. Also, I wouldn't think Gus is any more of a marksman than Kim, even under optimum conditions, and to get him in the neck like that, apparently---so Lalo was just sending whichever, as bait/distraction? He knew Gus wasn't gonna answer the door. But he sounded pleasantly surprised to have Gus actually show up at the laundry; what had he planned to do there?

Sorry if too many spoilers, but not much quality- or surprise-wise to spoil. Also now 5 more eps with one less compelling character---bring back Mrs. Kettleman!

So Don Eladio is gonna make Gus run meth for him, despite the latter's insults (DE couldn/t be surprised, having plugged the other Chicken Brother in front of Gus, out of the blue)(as revealed in BB]

I wasn't sure if those insults were being transmitted live, or if Lalo was recording for later use.

Definitely recording. Some ca. 2005 digital camcorder.

fwiw We see him recording across from the laundromat in a previous episode and he scraps that.

Of course...forgot the timeline. Which would explain why Gus was so free with the insults.

Oh yeah, I guess it would have to be recording back then---thanks, please explain more!

Lalo almost always had that sweet air of purpose in life: he wanted to be the guardian of Cartel-Salamanca Values and family, even fireside, lower-case values---also he envied Gus's own cool and mastery---but Lalo could never be all that, because of his bloody outbursts, just enough of them to mess things up for him. Still, righteous revenge, explained so nicely to Jimmy, was so sweet for him. Lalo's Song. "Let's talk."

Gus's little eyebrow raise when it was revealed that Lalo was talked out of sending Jimmy and letting Kim go instead was a great "this is a ruse, time for the next phase of the plan" moment

I have no idea what Jimmy would have done had he been the one to go to the house, but the writing kept them both true to character -- Jimmy wanted Kim to escape or find help even if it meant Lalo would kill him, and Kim absolutely would compromise her morals and safety to keep Jimmy safe by going through with Lalo's orders. She was going to fire that gun!

Mike's team looked like a black ops operation compared to Kim and Jimmy's well-planned but goofy framing of Howard

Oh yeah, they've been way out of their depth, like sociopathic Jack and Jill. All those comments are otm, thanx.

Lalo is such a little shit for making them think they were going to have to kill someone. I was laughing despite the dire nature of the whole situation when Mike's team disarmed Kim and shoved her in the house

Ten minutes in the dark; they musta had bat vision. Also, I wouldn't think Gus is any more of a marksman than Kim, even under optimum conditions, and to get him in the neck like that, apparently---so Lalo was just sending whichever, as bait/distraction? He knew Gus wasn't gonna answer the door. But he sounded pleasantly surprised to have Gus actually show up at the laundry; what had he planned to do there?

― dow, Tuesday, July 12, 2022 12:52 PM bookmarkflaglink

Lalo definitely sent Kim as bait to pull Mike and his team away, so that he could visit the lab. He expected Gus would figure it out at or before the point Mike's team showed up to find no Lalo at Jimmy's house, and that he'd show up at the lab, and though it probably wasn't necessary for him to keep Gus alive long enough to give him a tour of the facility on camera, he probably enjoyed it from a humiliation perspective, making Gus be the star of his own execution video as revenge for his attempted murder. and sure, Gus would know where things were and make it easier to find and display them.

Obv Lalo had to make the video because if he just gave his word or killed Gus without the video, Eladio would probably whack him in retaliation for doing so without permission, whereas this would be seen as initiative and he'd be rewarded.

*doing so without CAUSE or permission

I was saying to mom "see he can't be livestreaming, this is like 2002", and she was like "yeah, see, we didn't always have stuff like you have today" and I was like "I didn't even have a cell phone that took pics in 2002, mom, much less when I was a kid"

the luxury meth bunker, now with wifi and cell phone signal repeaters for livestreaming your assassinations

lol

Thought that was a very pedestrian episode. Drawing out the Lalo-Gus showdown for 10 minutes just didn't work for me. Gus lives, Lalo dies--we know that already.

I was thinking that they seem to be taking steps to not have Kim meet Gus right now. Thinking the henchman (was he an actual decoy?) was the target, then having Gus speak to her over the phone.

whats interesting to me is in the BB timeline Saul thinks that Lalo is still alive while Gus thinks he's dead.

Good spot. I thought it was notable how Mike says 'he's not coming back' - euphemistic but without explicitly saying what happened.

next they kill Cliff

xp and yeah, really awful how they have to keep going with their horrible Howard lies.

i'm glad they dispatched Lalo now. there was zero drama to gain by drawing it out over the remaining episodes. just do it and be legends, man

She moves to Sweden and changes her name to Robyn

― Evan, Monday, July 11, 2022 11:38 AM bookmarkflaglink

wait, so then who was "Show Me Love" Robyn?

Ah, there's a spare one just for this purpose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_Me_Love_(Robin_S._song)

I love how they go right up to the line where Lalo seems to have superhuman abilities, and then very briefly cross it in the scene where he pops out to effortlessly take out three of Gus's goons instantly at the laundry