Better Call Saul

an 89-year old woman playing an important role in this show
The character doesn't seem that old to me---but yeah CB 89, Seehorn 50, Odenkirk 59! No wonder Jimmy seems antsy---but none of them are playing their actual ages all that much? (Jonathan Banks 75, sure, Giancarlo Esposito 64, Tony Dalton 47! Looks older to me) Main reason I mention it is that Kim's flashback Mom doesn't look as old as Burnett would have been when Kim was in middle school oh well)

I thought of Kim as being maybe 37, Jimmy a trollish early or mid-40s.

‘Better Call Saul’ Writer on the ‘Maddening’ Pivot to Gene’s World
Alison Tatlock explains why the show’s creative team felt the time was right “to take a sharp turn in a different direction” with the black-and-white episode centered on a mall heist

I realise actors' ages often bear little relation to their character's age but Odenkirk was 46 when he first showed up on BB so Jimmy being early 40s in BCS fits (Cranston was I think 51 playing 50yo Walt at the start of BB) xp

Yeah, that's how I always thought of him. So maybe Burnett's character is considerably younger than 89 (I hadn't thought of Burnette herself as being that old, although she would pretty much have to be, as a cast member on The Gary Moore Show in the 50s etc). So maybe she could be Kim's mom. Either way, if she senses that Gene is some kind of menace or rival re her kid or kids, she could take him down, is what I get from what she says and how she says it, to him and the others.

I could buy Kim having a brother, being estranged from her ma, never mentioning them- but I can't buy Carol Burnett as Kim's ma after we've seen the younger version. Just no resemblance in character, mannerism or anything. That's a no from me Clive.

I do like the mix of “procedural episodes” where a whole episode is focused on a scam, but I’m not sure they’ll have the same re-watchability as other episodes if I re-visit BCS later.

Kim’s aunt maybe? Anyway...

I enjoyed this episode, but I'm really not sure, this far along, exactly what we learned about Saul that we didn't know already, which made it feel like a bit of a waste of time, which is disappointing this close to the end.

I mean we learned how he got back into the game, as Gene

also this is interesting

#BetterCallSaul 6x11 title revealed:
"BREAKING BAD" written and directed by @TomSchnauz pic.twitter.com/95OWpAt9X9

— Arabella ⚖️ BCS fan account ⚖️ (@homewardove) July 27, 2022

ooh

That's wild the timelines are so close together. The wistful Gene scenes plus that whole piece being in black and white gave me the feeling there was more time in between.

I mean we learned how he got back into the game, as Gene

I don't think it was about him getting back in the game at all, I thought it was just to show it takes all his energy *not* to revert to old ways, and the only reason he did it this time was out of emergency desperation. For sure this caper did not seem fun to him, and while in the past he got a kick out of it, this time he seemed really stressed out, kind of like an alcoholic struggling to stay on the wagon. That's why he was longing for that loud suit, it was a taste of what used to be but which he knew could never be again.

But of course we know all this. Clearly Jimmy/Saul/Gene prefers being alive to being rich, which we can assume is why he grew a mustache, moved to Omaha and lives in black and white in the first place.

sure but it kinda goes back to the thing with the Kettlemans in S1, he doesn't really want to take the money and he knows what he's doing is wrong but he finds a way to justify it to himself and from then on he's a different type of lawyer

so maybe he's in panicked self-preservation mode now, listening to the police scanner all day and what not, but it's also pretty close to the BB timeline. once things calm down he'll become himself again.

...but will things calm down? Will make for kind of a boring end to the show.

Y'all missing the forest for the trees.

In the next episode, we rise on the clothing store manager, who gets a call from an unheard caller, and breaks down in tears, and says "is this real?".

Cut away and we go to a team building meeting where the same manager chews out two of her Loss Prevention employees for being disruptive in the meeting. She pulls them aside and tells them to look at the shrinkage report. They protest they already did yesterday, but she wants to be rid of them for a few hours. So she makes them do it again.

One of them is on thin ice with his wife and cannot lose this job so he tries to buckle down. He furrows his brow, as if he's reading something troubling, and is re-reading it. Then he runs to the store manager.

He tells her that it's bizarre, that the sales and expected inventory don't line up, and weirdly, it seems the big ticket items are all off by three.

Suspecting a robbery, she calls Jerry to review the security tapes. He watches them and sees the robbery in all its glory and then sees the fall and pieces together that it happened around the time Gene broke down.

As he picks up the phone, he holds his chest dramatically and falls over, dead from all the Cinnamon. But no matter - his buddy sees the tape when he comes in, and sees Jeffie, but has no reason to suspect Gene.

They call the cops, who pay Jeffie a visit. Mom isn't home. He tries to run, trips, and falls and hits his head, dying instantly.

A distraught Burnett breaks down in a grocery store, when an unseen gentleman hands her a handkerchief. We hear the voice. A familiar voice, the same one that was on the phone with the manager. It couldn't be, could it?!

He asks her what's wrong and she tells the story, saying that Gene had been on the straight and narrow for so long and relapsed into crime. She said the cops said they had duh further and found it was an elaborate scheme, with a fake palette delivery from a fake shipping company. With a fake shipping manager who had a homely voice, friendly but vaguely slimy sounding, who sent flowers.

The off camera voice goes sotto voce, and you hear him say "Only one mo'fucker coulda been behind this", and asks Burnett if she's met any new friends lately.

Three days later, Jimmy is driving in a residential area when he is T-Boned by a truck at an intersection. It was intentional. Gene will not survive, his injuries are too severe.

We see the shoes of the unseen truck driver emerge from the vehicle and begin walking towards Jimmy, who is rapidly losing consciousness.

He knocks on the door, and his eyes bug out at seeing a familiar face, which appears on camera for the first time.

The man grins - "Huell be sorry"...and walks away, having carried out his revenge for having been needlessly languishing in hiding for the last few years.

I mean it's obv dudes

mods can the above please be put hidden under a spoiler tag

I know it’s fanservicey but I really would like to see what happened to Huell. And Bill Burrs character for that matter

he went on to rip on people from Philly

I think we all want more Huell!

Could be like Walt reeling Jesse's two stoner buddies back in once again? Huell doing a final gig for Saul-Gene? Although the revenge scenario is a compelling read!

Skinny Pete and Badger? Hell yeah

Getting tired of capers. At least we got to hear Bob sing.

Will greed be his downfall? Or an old lady watching cat videos? Tune in next week!

Tired of the capers too, but 1) nice ending to the episode, and 2) enjoyed the BB stuff, even though I know it wasn't anything special--that's just how much I like BB. (At this point, and especially the way this season has gone, I'm the rare person left who prefers BB.) I loved how they join Walt and Jesse mid-argument, sniping at each other like they always did.

Liked the ending too, but did no rich guys who go out to bars to get drunk and show off, and then go be home alone, apparently living alone, have home alarm systems, at least cameras, in 2010? Or is that just innocence of Omaha? I couldn't really make out a lot of the Walt and Jesse lines too well, voices seemed odd. I still prefer BB, considering tedious patches of BCS Seasons 5 & 6, but before that t was more frequently amazing, and overall still pretty watchable (most series don't end all that well, anyway, BB and Mad Men being satisfying exceptions).

Ex-secretary is housekeeper or once-a-week clean up woman for those bozos?

Property manager for the apt. complex, I assumed.

I've got to believe there will be one more Kim appearance after tonight's reference.

Although, I just remembered his tantrum at the phone booth, which we couldn't hear--that meant something.

The last straw, after finding out all that other stuff from ex-secretary. Screw it, he's goin' back in.

Elderly Jesse was hilarious.

Yeah elderly Jesse really broke the immersion on those scenes lol. As far as fan-service goes, I thought it was well done and purposeful

I guess I'm forgetting the timeline, does Saul actually recruit Walt & Jesse for Gus? I just remember he sends them to Los Pollos Hermanos, I don't recall him approaching him outside of the office

for me the thing with Jesse is his voice sounds totally different now. still I'm glad they did it, cool scene

due to some mishaps on my end, I didn't get the first ten minutes last night

just watched those to catch up. good to know Huell's back in New Orleans

i liked the episode, but it also bums me out that we didn't have more mike & saul buddy hijinx

just laughed imagining the noise Mike would make if you implied that he and Saul were buddies

what was the purpose of the dog?

I figured the dog was there to sound the alert if anyone else approached or if the mark started stirring from their drugged slumber

just laughed imagining the noise Mike would make if you implied that he and Saul were buddies

― mh, Tuesday, August 2, 2022 10:07 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

mike should really try one of those floor back massagers, would really cleanse his chi

did get a laugh outta Gene going "cancer patients can be assholes too!"

"i know from experience!"

My little headcanon pic.twitter.com/SajqGlTxLR

— Casey Nowak (@IgnatzHaderach) July 28, 2022

I guess I'm forgetting the timeline, does Saul actually recruit Walt & Jesse for Gus?

I think so, yes. The thing I couldn't remember was why Saul was about to be buried alive, and who was going to do it. That's the part where (in BB) Saul says "Did Lalo send you?"--but I can't remember the rest.

this is when Badger gets caught, he gets Saul as a lawyer who advises him to flip. so Jesse and Walt kidnap him, not planning to kill him but rather to threaten him with a bad time. iirc Saul has a buddy who loves going to jail so they pay him $100k or whatever to bust a fake Walter White.

The rendezvous at the park bench...I think I remember now.

Don't remember that at all! Also: buried alive, wha??

Anyone know offhand what BB season / ep dovetails with this BCS ep?

season 2, episode 8 - called better call saul