Better Call Saul

how did Walt get the ricin into Lydia's stevia packets?

That didn't seem that difficult for someone like Walt. Lydia was very much a creature of habit (think Walt even remarks something about her being "schedule oriented") so doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility for Walt to have sealed the doctored packet at home and slipped it into the box of condiments on the table Lydia always sat at before she arrives.

Yeah I think it’s pretty easy to supply the character doing diy montage™️ in your imagination there and (as with the brock thing ppl go nuts about it) they could have shown it but giving the game away would have taken from the reveal

it

That pic of Howard and Lalo is really quite sweet

but geez I got tired of seeing Gus standing around looking worried---enjoyed the character much more in BB.

― dow, Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:18 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This entire show messed up the Gus character. He was so much more compelling as the tidy unassuming businessman that drives a station wagon and makes all decisions in a cold businessman like way, which includes murdering an employee in front of the others to make a point, with the attitude of a corporate professional. In BCS he’s wearing dark suits with slicked back hair and getting driven around in black SUVs and scowling... just another cliche crime lord.

Agree with that. You'd expect the character to make the transition in the opposite direction...anyway, much more interesting in Breaking Bad.

one thing I don't really get is how he figured out that Lalo being talked into sending Kim = him going for the lab

Lalo being talked into a thing means that thing isn't important to him. So, what is important to him? Gotta be the lab. I agree it takes some squinting to make it look not-silly.

Talked out of a thing, I guess would be more accurate.

It's the whole Lalo-vs-Gus chess thing. If it doesn't matter which piece you've moved to make your play, then that move is probably part of something else and not relevant in itself

didn’t an earlier episode show gus obsessively measuring and studying every corner of the lab in anticipation with a confrontation with lalo?

yep

and pre-planting his gun

A probably stupid question: in Breaking Bad, when Gus meets his end, would he actually be able to walk out of that room under his own power?

it was than than a little fantastical, but the human body is capable of some wild things

when he died, his sphincter released and he farted and it propelled him out the door

The lengths people go to save face right? If only he'd turned the other cheek. Escalation just results in a blow up. If it happens, just walk away.

Was that not the two guys who were guarding Jesse that Walt shoots in the finale of Season 4? xp

― groovypanda, Wednesday, July 13, 2022 8:07 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Yes. Definitely not Lalo and Howard.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the only charater I think Carol Burnett can play, with the time the show has left, is Kim's mom. We never found out her first name, right? Or did we?

If it is Marion Wexler and she's still in Nebraska, she could work pretty easily into Gene's storyline since he decided not to disappear after being made by the taxi driver (still think he's going back to ABQ though). Now, is Kim is still alive at this point? Doubt it, but I wouldn't hate it. Maybe Kim's mom gets to redeem herself in some way.

I am getting nervous that there are 5 episodes left and the Gene storyline hasn't moved all season. How are they going to fit all this in??

I'm wondering whether there'll be a large chunk of the final episode dedicated to the Gene storyline?

Also, 5 episodes left but other than Jimmy/Kim what else is there to resolve?

The last couple of seasons have been building toward the Lalo/Fring showdown and Kim & Jimmy vs Howard and both of those are now done.

Do the cartel even know Lalo survived the raid? He spoke to Hector but not sure he spoke to anyone else?

So we could even have four episodes of Jimmy & Kim and then the final one all Gene?

I can foresee Cliff Main factoring into the next episode or two. Didn't Howard actually have proof that he was set up?

wishlist:
• 1 more pre-BB
• 1 set during BB, filling in some stuff, with the Walt/Jesse cameos
• 3 with Gene and hopefully Giselle

Giselle, Kim's initial nom de scam, "Victor's sister"? How else does it apply?
(now I get the stevia thing, thanks)

its gonna be weird that Jimmy is gonna be getting over a major trauma here and in a few episodes he'll be even more shook up and getting over something else entirely. I'm curious how they'll handle the time jump, if they want to rehash the events of BB or if they just flash forward like "well, Jimmy's on the run now". the fact that Gus winds up getting suicide-bombed via the wheelchair he put Hector in - the ultimate "sangre por sangre" - is what half this show has been leading to

Also, Jimmy still isn't really Saul yet. And Kim's going to most likely die so that's going to take some time to set up.

Oh yeah, guess we're not concerned with xpost interseries spoilers here, so I'll say that those who haven't seen BB yet, or all of it, will be rewarded for hanging in with this show first: in no small part, with theBB blossoming of Gus, as written and performed. If you dug the crucial way Gus xpost Gus said that about Jimmy getting Lalo to change his mind, there's all sorts of minimalist eloquence in BB Gus's ever-receptive soldier stance---also his crucial trauma-in-the-making reaction to what otherwise seems like cartoon villainy, when his fellow Chicken Brother is suddenly beeg joek popped--and, writing-wise, that time he actually takes one of his associates home to dinner with Mrs. Fring and the kiddie Frings---in a very nice, homey home---and it seems like an extension of the way he is with the young employees at Pollos Hermanos, his home away from home. And when he's bringing food and monetary contributions to civic occasions, maybe especially involving law enforcement.

Other plot points that need resolving: when dies saul get his giant Statue of Liberty from the kettlemans

i enjoyed Lalo a lot, but getting rid of him this soon into the last run of episodes bodes well for how quick things are going to move. Won't be surprised if we don't hear a peep from Cliff flipping Main

he goes back in time and becomes the drummer for Spinal Tap

Yeah, but before that, the authoritahs are gonna interview him, at least after somebody, prob the judge-mediator, tells them how Howard was acting at the mediation. Also, we may see Howard's wife being interviewed as well.

Cliff Main's the only other character who knows what Jimmy's capable of. I mean maybe he just goes "huh guess he was messed up after all" but I can see him getting suspicious

The law is probably going to take an interest in Jimmy but it can't be too suspicious or else he'd never be hired as a cartel lawyer.

Probably enough to scare Kim off from the life. I feel like she will leave him through mortality or fear and that will leave him feeling like he has nothing left to lose

That sounds likely as hell!

But---I still think she won't be done with him quite yet. Hope not, anyway.

What if: next ep starts with them living happily ever after, Little House On The Prairie, in Nebraska, maybe, and then we go back to how they got there, and then, something else happens on the prairie---and/or in real/"real" life

Hell attacks

*Huell

I think cliff will ask some awkward questions (it already looked like he was coming around when Howard convincingly laid out the details of the plot, plus there’s Kim’s no-show at the meeting for her pro bono dream which will get back to him) and so might Howard’s wife (guest house or not, she lived with the guy). Obv they get away with it, they’ll hold the line & mike’s coverup is airtight* and also Howard was acting erratically (the boxing match ffs)

Still interesting how they’ll deal with it, they’re about to get $2m after doing the worst thing and experiencing the worst thing as a result (Hell attacks indeed!); jimmy already had ptsd before this and I guess we can suss his trajectory from here - the fearful cringing that is always just underneath the bluff Saul persona; gene is nothing BUT fear - tbh tho idk why everyone’s so sure this is a wake up call for Kim. Her actions in the last couple of seasons have been believable but always slightly opaque to me & I could see her going either way: she was all in on destroying Howard while grimly acknowledging how unpleasant it would be (“you know what’s coming next”). Obv the situation got a lot more drastic & even if it hadn’t there may have been *jordan peterson voice* post coital regret from the Kim who said “all we did was tear down a sick man”

buuuut I can still see her going all in on the Saul project - can also see her getting killed tho I’d like it if they could find a non-corny way to get her into the gene timeline

Oh asterisk, *mike was being very pointed with his “isn’t this the story you were setting up?” - kinda judgy for a psychopath’s button man lol, think that was a counter-reproach to Kim’s reproach “where were you!” which clearly hit home

Hell attacks

― We were clothed, except for Caan, who was naked. Don't know why. (Neanderthal), Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:50 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

*Huell

― We were clothed, except for Caan, who was naked. Don't know why. (Neanderthal), Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:51 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

lol

Please refresh my memory of details about recent request for Kim to help/spill to prosecutor's staff about Lalo, who jumped bail and so on; think they didn't realize who he was when bail was granted or something---? Seemed a bit potentially sticky for them if this came to light locally, prob the DEA etc. is already unhappy. I'm wondering how this might affect Gus's evaluation of her. Was thinking he might pay her to go away (Mike: "You will tell Jimmy to fuck off, that he's a crazy-making influence"). Or that, as with the head engineer, Gus might want to have her killed, Mike tries to persuade her to stay gone, maybe with whatever funds he can tap---although reminder of the xpost share of coming settlement makes financial incentive less powerful---still, Mike, at least, should be able to read her state of mind, know she's prob ready to go/traumatized anyway, more money could just be a "sensible" tip of the scales, excuse, really. "Yeah, I'll go--I'll go somewhere and do something good with the money." The legit money from the settlement, anyway, nothing suspicious.

And then live modestly on whatever other money she gets.

(In a prairie shack, for inst.)

So the prosecutor wanted kim to have a word with Jimmy because if he didn’t know de Guzman was actually lalo then confidentiality wouldn’t apply, Kim’s response was just “fyi he goes by Saul now” - and I think it was after that that Saul accidentally referred to his client as lalo giving the game away. So everyone at the courthouse kind of knows they’re compromised but I never really thought about what that does for Kim’s rep in either the corporate or public realm, that’s interesting

Failing to see why any of that means gus would want her (and not Saul) dead or out of the picture tho, unless it’s just that she came to his house to shoot him

Hopefully it doesn't mean that! But if Mike studies the situation enough/questions Jimmy closely enough, he might suspect she's more of a wild card than J., bad influence, though how he would present this to Gus, knowing it might mean a death sentence? Also if they become aware of the prosecuter's office keeping an eye on her, hoping to squeeze her to get to Jimmy, for inst---that could be part of the incentive to do something with her(although her disappearance would add to interest of law)(but what could they do about any of this, or be actively interested in doing, in the long run)

I’m guessing we might get another glimpse at the Saul Goodman Mansion

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.

― When the Pain That You Feel is the Bite of an Eel, That's a Moray (Old Lunch), Tuesday, July 12, 2022 11:10 AM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

huh, seemed to me he was buying it?

Great flash forward

Is that actually it--the Kim explanation/resolution everyone's been waiting two or three seasons for? I realize understatement is preferable to some gimmicky, over-the-top resolution, but talk about anti-climactic.

I thought it was great. it's all in the performance. might not be the absolute last we see of her, but I'd rather this than some "oh holy shit Badger accidentally ran Kim over while he was stoned" type dispatch