Better Call Saul 2.05
Kiiiiim!
She breaks my heart. There's this moment where you can pin point where Kim's belief that enough hard work will get you somewhere, that if only she works and works and works and does everything right, she will succeed and survive all temporary set backs, breaks apart, and it's when Howard after she's landed a major asset and been praised by their new associates casually informs her that after all this, she's still in the cornfield doc reviews. In another lawyer show, Kim would be the heroine, and all those days and nights of work and phone calls finally paying off, together with her refusal to let Jimmy White Knight her - "you don't save me, I save me!" - would be rewarded by a happy ending, a reinstatement, a promotion, even. But Kim's not in this kind of show. She's in one where she still needs a McGill to get the job she worked so hard for back, only it's Chuck, not Jimmy, complete with sibling grudge.
While Jimmy was wrong about the cause of Kim's demotion being Chuck, and Kim was right that it was Howard (as illustrated when we see the two of them talk alone, which I think was the purpose of that brief Howard visiting Chuck scene, otherwise it would have been Jimmy's guess versus Kim's), Chuck does use the situation, and thus the cold opening flashback - our first look at Chuck pre- electricity aversion since that grief glimpse via Jimmy's prison fllashback in s1 - tries with the closing scene between Kim and Chuck. The flashback reveals who "Rebecca Bois" (whose music we saw Chuck attempt to play and fail at some episodes ago) is; a violinist who used to be married to him. Obviously, something happened, and undoubtedly we'll find out what, but in the meantime, what the flashback illustrates isn't just Chuck's tendency to self righteousness (his remarks about the player in Rebecca's ensemble) but envy at Jimmy's gift of gab and charm, in this case illustrated by Jimmy effortlessly winning Rebecca over with lawyer joke after lawyer joke. (Whereas the one time Chuck attempts one, it falls flat.) 'Twas a great opening scene, and also the first time we see a bit passive aggressive behavior from Jimmy in that sibling dynamic as well, because you can't tell me he was unaware that that barrage of lawyer jokes was bothering Chuck (even before Rebecca got into it). It's the kind of needling that happens between siblings all the time, but it can also fester. The obvious class difference between Chuck and Rebecca living the rich life and Jimmy drinking beer made me wonder what Jimmy's and Chuck's family background was that Chuck worked himself up from, and lo and behold, in the last scene, we found out via Chuck's little story about their father as narrated to Kim.
About that story: do I think Chuck's lying? No. For a lawyer, Chuck is a very bad liar, see his immediate reaction when Jimmy confronts him with his phonecall to Howard in the late first season. So yes, I think that Jimmy took the money (it would be a Jimmy thing to do and tell himself he's going to pay it back once he gets rich with scheme x, and Dad would never notice anyway), and that Chuck completely blames their father's death on Jimmy. Otoh I also think it's not the complete story, because nobody is without sin - (certainly not Chuck, who in addition to self righteousness is also guilty of hypocrisy, because last season he could have told Jimmy the truth but instead used Howard as the bogeyman because he wanted a good relationship with Jimmy and Jimmy as something other than a lawyer at the same time) - and McGill Sr. probably had other reasons for despair as well. Not to mention that the reason why Chuck is telling Kim this story - and why he promises to plead her cause to Howard - isn't to warn her (she already knows Jimmy) or to because she deserves getting reinstated (though she does, and he can see what she brings to the firm), it's that for once, he wants someone whom Jimmy cares about to agree with him on Jimmy. He wants someone who's already been charmed by Jimmy to get un-charmed. Basically, he wants the reverse from the Rebecca situation in the opener. (All the more if Jimmy and Rebecca had an affair, which is possible. Guess we'll find out, like I said.)
Meanwhile, Jimmy continues to illustrate he just doesn't get the corporate life, and I don't mean the over the top rule obsessed second year assocciate Erin he's currently stuck with. I mean the idea of letting Kim sue HHM. As Kim says: even if she wins, which law firm is ever going to hire an associate who sued her old bosses? The subplot with Erin is comedy relief, except the episode also contrasts Jimmy's woes not only with Kim's (who has to put up with humiliations far worse than having a "pixie ninja" at her heel) but also with a previous colleague's from the ranks of the state-provided attorneys, complete with vomit of defendants on his jacket and full of envy of Jimmy's plush job, car, office and apartment, which suddenly brings home that what Jimmy's currently facing are the definition of first world problems.
Mike subplot: mercifully not much of it. I continue to be very much not a fan of how the show does a "Mike martyrs himself for his granddaughter and his daughter-in-law, who milks him all the time" storyline, but seeing Hector "Tio" Salamanca again was great. Complete with announcement by bell (of the diner, when he enters).
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1154934.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
She breaks my heart. There's this moment where you can pin point where Kim's belief that enough hard work will get you somewhere, that if only she works and works and works and does everything right, she will succeed and survive all temporary set backs, breaks apart, and it's when Howard after she's landed a major asset and been praised by their new associates casually informs her that after all this, she's still in the cornfield doc reviews. In another lawyer show, Kim would be the heroine, and all those days and nights of work and phone calls finally paying off, together with her refusal to let Jimmy White Knight her - "you don't save me, I save me!" - would be rewarded by a happy ending, a reinstatement, a promotion, even. But Kim's not in this kind of show. She's in one where she still needs a McGill to get the job she worked so hard for back, only it's Chuck, not Jimmy, complete with sibling grudge.
While Jimmy was wrong about the cause of Kim's demotion being Chuck, and Kim was right that it was Howard (as illustrated when we see the two of them talk alone, which I think was the purpose of that brief Howard visiting Chuck scene, otherwise it would have been Jimmy's guess versus Kim's), Chuck does use the situation, and thus the cold opening flashback - our first look at Chuck pre- electricity aversion since that grief glimpse via Jimmy's prison fllashback in s1 - tries with the closing scene between Kim and Chuck. The flashback reveals who "Rebecca Bois" (whose music we saw Chuck attempt to play and fail at some episodes ago) is; a violinist who used to be married to him. Obviously, something happened, and undoubtedly we'll find out what, but in the meantime, what the flashback illustrates isn't just Chuck's tendency to self righteousness (his remarks about the player in Rebecca's ensemble) but envy at Jimmy's gift of gab and charm, in this case illustrated by Jimmy effortlessly winning Rebecca over with lawyer joke after lawyer joke. (Whereas the one time Chuck attempts one, it falls flat.) 'Twas a great opening scene, and also the first time we see a bit passive aggressive behavior from Jimmy in that sibling dynamic as well, because you can't tell me he was unaware that that barrage of lawyer jokes was bothering Chuck (even before Rebecca got into it). It's the kind of needling that happens between siblings all the time, but it can also fester. The obvious class difference between Chuck and Rebecca living the rich life and Jimmy drinking beer made me wonder what Jimmy's and Chuck's family background was that Chuck worked himself up from, and lo and behold, in the last scene, we found out via Chuck's little story about their father as narrated to Kim.
About that story: do I think Chuck's lying? No. For a lawyer, Chuck is a very bad liar, see his immediate reaction when Jimmy confronts him with his phonecall to Howard in the late first season. So yes, I think that Jimmy took the money (it would be a Jimmy thing to do and tell himself he's going to pay it back once he gets rich with scheme x, and Dad would never notice anyway), and that Chuck completely blames their father's death on Jimmy. Otoh I also think it's not the complete story, because nobody is without sin - (certainly not Chuck, who in addition to self righteousness is also guilty of hypocrisy, because last season he could have told Jimmy the truth but instead used Howard as the bogeyman because he wanted a good relationship with Jimmy and Jimmy as something other than a lawyer at the same time) - and McGill Sr. probably had other reasons for despair as well. Not to mention that the reason why Chuck is telling Kim this story - and why he promises to plead her cause to Howard - isn't to warn her (she already knows Jimmy) or to because she deserves getting reinstated (though she does, and he can see what she brings to the firm), it's that for once, he wants someone whom Jimmy cares about to agree with him on Jimmy. He wants someone who's already been charmed by Jimmy to get un-charmed. Basically, he wants the reverse from the Rebecca situation in the opener. (All the more if Jimmy and Rebecca had an affair, which is possible. Guess we'll find out, like I said.)
Meanwhile, Jimmy continues to illustrate he just doesn't get the corporate life, and I don't mean the over the top rule obsessed second year assocciate Erin he's currently stuck with. I mean the idea of letting Kim sue HHM. As Kim says: even if she wins, which law firm is ever going to hire an associate who sued her old bosses? The subplot with Erin is comedy relief, except the episode also contrasts Jimmy's woes not only with Kim's (who has to put up with humiliations far worse than having a "pixie ninja" at her heel) but also with a previous colleague's from the ranks of the state-provided attorneys, complete with vomit of defendants on his jacket and full of envy of Jimmy's plush job, car, office and apartment, which suddenly brings home that what Jimmy's currently facing are the definition of first world problems.
Mike subplot: mercifully not much of it. I continue to be very much not a fan of how the show does a "Mike martyrs himself for his granddaughter and his daughter-in-law, who milks him all the time" storyline, but seeing Hector "Tio" Salamanca again was great. Complete with announcement by bell (of the diner, when he enters).
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1154934.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.