Better Call Saul

#BreakingBad 509 x #BetterCallSaul 612 pic.twitter.com/Yb4hsXN40A

— Brian Davids (@PickYourBrian) August 9, 2022

Some interesting shot comparisons in this thread, not sure I'm down with all of them though.

I think this is the most anyone has ever subverted Carol Burnett's persona (~2:15):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uqLRkQ7OSA

xxp Even though it was a slight recontextualisation and fit perfectly into a bcs episode it really felt like an outtake from the original bb ep, in a good way - obv the actors are older than they were in the past, they flagrantly & correctly have never given a shit about this & I am rooting for the inevitable chuck appearance in the finale to be a classic “odenkirk plays a 13-year-old Jimmy and they just put him in a propellor beanie” deal

xxxpost looked like he would have clocked the guy w urn of doggie ashes, if the guy hadn't passed out ( prob hoping just to knock him out), so that helped make the possibility of strangling Carol seem more likely (that, and actually wrapping the cord around his hands or through his fingers)
Jimmy (as “Saul”) was pretty constantly suggesting murder as a solution in breaking bad Yeah! But not doing it himself.
Totally hoping for classic “odenkirk plays a 13-year-old Jimmy and they just put him in a propellor beanie” deal

Gag, that guy as a first blood murderer would have been clumsy, painful, but she might could have shoved him away, kneed him in the crotch, obv., as written & played, still had some moxie (hell, give her an Emmy too: BCS better sweep it this year, acting-wise, anyway)

She goes to jail for murdering Jimmy and an ex-lawyer familiar with the deceased gains back her law license to defend one last client.

Not familiar with her tbh but she’s been great. Really sold the corny gag that she asked Jeeves Albuquerque + conman

re Saul murder, I remember a couple episodes ago confirmed that he took it upon himself to make the Walt/Gus connection. I think we're being led to believe that his processing of this fact, in the aftermath, has only made him a worse person.

Loved this episode

yup, he totally thinks he's a smart crime matchmaker/guy behind the scenes for hooking up Walt and Paul, having a guy that'd do someone else's jail bid, a series of second floor guys in the rolodex, etc.

he's a pretty good con man and a decent lawyer and his strengths combined the two!

the scene in BB when the patsy gangster in the park rapidly surrenders practically before the cops tell him he's under arrest still makes me laugh.

could be remembering wrong, but ah.. so, we've heard the other end of the call with Kim that made Jimmy smash up the phone booth. Not only was she generally unmoved by the occasion, but she might've made him think that she was going to turn herself in... as she does.

Right after that call, he decided to start smooth talking well-to-do singles in bars and stealing and selling their identities? Is he looking to pick one to steal for himself? Does he think Gene might get tracked down through Francesca/Kim? There was probably a quicker way to go about becoming someone else?

the idea that he had to think for an hour about how exactly he would act for Kim when signing the divorce papers was really funny

I think the idea was more “fuck your judgment, I’m good at the game and there’s nothing wrong with that”

The phone call seemed to be the last straw, after what Francesca reported to him, which was stuff he should have figured on---he calls Kim as I-can-still-blow-minds bold move/desperate need for reassurance, though I don't know what he consciously expected her to do for him, how she should respond---so, beyond the tantrum, maybe she did rattle him---after all, back when they were a team, she did reassure him, and encourage him, tell him, to go farther.

And I'm sure that's a big part of the guilt and self-image she carries around now, and can't really lay down in the Halls of Justice, not with 0 physical evidence, it seems---so----do something else---? Maybe if she finds out that Jimmy's been captured, unmasked, she can---testify against him? Not so much about Howard, but other stuff, cartel stuff, and she can get Jimmy to rat after all, and they can go into witness protection, though probably not together---naaa, he won't do that, will he? But she already knows something like xpost Ray Liotta's Goodfellas suburbia, so (and that could be the spin-off, with her trying to be good, but things get complicated)(from Breaking Bad to Making Good)

The whole point of the Jesse cameo was that Kim had the opportunity to tell him Saul was garbage and didn’t right? I wonder if that’s something that would eat at her. If she remembered who that guy was that is.

gene's at the absolute hilarious rock-bottom going back into the rolodex and deciding it was best time to combine the slippin' jimmy/walter white personas only to tragic results.

Definitely felt like that xp

Not sure she'd have twigged (months) later it was Jesse she'd been talking too though.

Not sure how you get to season 6 of this show before realising this

Have to admit the black and white tripped me. My brain assumed: b&w = Saul’s pre-Breaking Bad past. Instead, it’s the post Breaking Bad “present”. Gotta rewatch last few episodes now.

— Eric Frazier (@ericfraz) August 9, 2022

Jesse's cameo value was only to remind the BB nation of how great Combo's run was.

Kim seemed to have a lobotomy like personality bypass. Like not sure to what extent she had intellectual pursuits but this eventuality seemed to drop her IQ multiple double digits. Like she embraced banality wholesale. So yeah must be purgatory or is that just the supposed expectation for non feminist behaviour in the Midwest of the time or something. Anything to stop oneself being noticed. So wonder how long she would have kept that up if Gene hadn't rung.
No wonder she had a meltdown.

Jesse seemed to be stoned or something.

To me her personality bypass seemed like a combination of not wanting to be noticed and depression

Surely partly that if you make no waves at all you don’t inadvertently hurt anyone.

Don't think it would've mattered if Kim tried to tell Jesse that Saul sucked. fwiw the guy Jesse was there with us the guy they melted back at the start of Breaking Bad. Looks like this is 4 years and change after Kim left him.

*is the guy

Kim pitching her voice up in Florida was a nice touch

Think the Jesse cameo was mostly just that, a cameo.

Of course Kim (not least based on her breakdown on the bus) has been holding on to a lot of shit (and punishing herself) for years. Jimmy triggered her collapse by calling out of nowhere and telling her she's the one that feels guilty, not him, making her realize the extent of the lie she's been living (and the heartbreaking realization of what he's become, and what she was a part of). No coincidence her confession was essentially contrasted with Jimmy going back to rob a sick man, going full whiskey/cigar/heartless/greedy arrogant, and then twice in the episode coming close to (as far as I recall) committing an act of violence on either show for the first time. But I mean

“Is he good?” “He was when I knew him”

What a great exchange recontexualized from practicing law to a broader assessment of morality.

When I knew him, he was. Then I guess he… broke bad

(Jesse looks thoughtful)

I used to be a lawyer, too. But then I made ... a better call.

Kim not being able to choose a flavor of ice cream was a pretty good moment, she's still so shellshocked that she can't make a single decision anymore

Good thing it was dark so we couldn’t make out Jesse’s old man face
Such an awkward scene

I realize now the key part of the Gene/Kim phone call is Gene confirming that everyone is dead, which gives Kim the courage to go 'public' with what happened

really good episode, probably Rhea Seehorn's best performance yet. I'm really glad they're sticking with her to the end and giving her the chance to be the one character here with a somewhat happy ending

happy ending?

*sobs on bus*

hadn't thought of it that way, but after that she might be able to move on

Like feel-good romp "El Camino"

Move on? The confession has left her stranded, the act of doing it, and having it on paper, in the hands of the widow and the prosecutor---what's the future, what can it be? Like I said, maybe she'll get involved in Jimmy-Saul-Gene's case, as that gets peeled, unless he weasels his way out of it---but meanwhile, can she manage to go back to her Normal life, back to that "yep yep yep" guy, her friends at work? Can she look them in the eye, does she want to?

having it on paper, but with no physical evidence---

Maybe break up with the guy, resign, get back on the bus, go be someone else---

or just go be her well-behaved self, now with some irrigation company office experience back in Titusville. "Why'd you leave?" She'll think of something.

More Goodfellas-like resignation: Henry Hill wants marinara sauce, he gets ketchup; Kim wants mayonnaise, her husband brings home Miracle Whip.

Move on in some way... feel more feelings and make more decisions. It seemed pretty clear she had not managed to move on whatsoever and the bus episode after the confession was the start of some release.

Clearing Hamlins name would probably help ease her conscience but ultimately I suspect where this is going is she’s gonna have to turn in Jimmy, knowing the sort of harm he’s gonna cause if he’s on the loose

But now it looks like they have him, so will she come forward as witness for prosecution--?

Maybe. I think there’s a chance he gets away but who knows if he’s gonna be able to take any of his stuff with him.

Wow, just go off to the hobos, start over from nuthin? "Pick a card---" That could be a good ending!

Gene is moving to move to Tarsus, Turkey, and will refer to himself as

idk why but seeing Jesse reminded me of this age old meme which still makes me laugh every time I see it

https://i.imgur.com/uzR2G0T.jpg

just remembered that Kim Wexler was into Stereolab. man she is the coolest

Imagining her crawling into the attic to her secret CD stash to dig out Refried Ectoplasm whenever her husband goes to a football game or whatever

Having to deal with the endless banality must have been torture. Don't think the guy she wound up with looked much like he was an indie rock nerd but obviously not so easy to tell.
The torture never stops.

Enjoyed this. Kim's deliberate attempt at living in dullsville, almost fearful of presenting any opinion, reminded me a bit of the Kate flashback episode in Lost where she's settling down with a guy and doing 'taco night' in an attempt to stop the FBI or whatever continuing to go after her.

BTW I also enjoyed this take from a commenter on another site:

Something I just realized after finishing this episode: Jimmy is always at his most vengeful when people attempt to hold themselves accountable. Note how his true rage at Howard started when Howard confessed that he felt responsible for Chuck’s death. When Kim comes in to sign the divorce settlement, his performance of stone-cold indifference—“Well, have a nice life, Kim!”—is because she’s actually trying (somewhat) to take responsibility for what they’ve done. Jimmy’s actually not too bothered when people try to hold him accountable, with the exception of Chuck. He’ll still do everything in his power to weasel out of the consequences, but he generally doesn’t take it too personally. But when people try to answer for their own bad actions, that’s when Jimmy feels truly, personally attacked. That is the only kind of choice that makes him feel genuinely morally implicated because he knows it’s the one thing he’ll never voluntarily do himself. It’s even worse if Jimmy can tell himself the other person’s choice is actually just an act of self-serving hypocrisy—as when Buddy refuses to rob a man battling cancer after having robbed so many others, or when Kim resigns as a member of the bar association and turns down the Sandpiper money, but doesn’t actually turn herself in. (It’s the mark of how complex the BCS/BB ethical matrix is that the writers actually allow those kinds of actions to be both self-serving and genuinely driven by conscience at the same time.)

I think the reason for this is because of a feeling that started creeping up on me while watching “Nippy”: it doesn’t matter how sweet and kindhearted Jimmy can be at an interpersonal level, his addiction to pulling off these kinds of schemes reveals the con artist’s basically malevolent orientation toward the universe. What I mean is that, in order to do this over and over again, you have to believe, deep down in your soul, that a person’s willingness to trust you isn’t just a reason, but a justification for lying to them, stealing from them, and taking things that aren’t yours to take. If somebody trusts you, it means they deserve to be hurt by you. Remember the flashback scene where a young Jimmy watches his father get conned and then starts stealing from the register that very day? That looked an awful lot like the birth of a lifelong contempt for the world, and the thing about contempt is that it has nothing to do with affection or attachment. Contempt is about an absence of respect, not an absence of liking—you can like people just fine and still have no respect for them, or conversely, absolutely despise someone and still have a basic respect for them. (Recall what Jimmy says to Cliff Main after he manages to scam his way into getting fired and still keeping his severance: “For what it’s worth, Cliff, I think you’re a decent guy.” Cliff: “Yeah, well, for what’s it’s worth, Jimmy, I think you’re an asshole.”) What makes Jimmy’s contempt for the world different from Chuck’s is that Chuck’s vengeance and pettiness is activated when people don’t defer to him (he’s a lot like Walt that way), whereas Jimmy’s is activated by its opposite, when people act in good faith and assume he is as well.

So it makes sense that Jimmy is so infuriated by other people’s attempts to take responsibility for themselves, especially if he considers them to be just as compromised as he is. To admit that you’ve done wrong, or that there are lines you won’t cross is to agree that there are ethical and moral standards that go beyond interpersonal kindness, and that adherence to those standards might require some kind of sacrifice. When you’re willing to cross a line and the other person isn’t, who looks like the asshole?