Better Call Saul 4.02
In which I stand by my opinion that the Breaking-Bad-tied gangster stuff is the least interesting element of this show, whereas everything else is superb. Also, Rhea Seahorn is just so good, and I fear I know what… but that’s spoilery.
It’s not that Giancarlo Esposito isn’t in the usual fine form as Gus, ditto Banks as Mike, and good for Laura Fraser to have a few more scenes as Lydia. But. We’ve seen this all before. It doesn’t tell us anything new about those characters. Yes, we the audience know the irony that Gus, who otherwise is excellent as Overlord-dom, has failed to internalize the most significant of all rules - „death is not too good for my enemies“ -, and by not being satisfied with a coma or a similar vegitative state as his revenge on Hector Salamanca will seal his own fate in the end. But again: we knew that about him. What emotional investment I have in that part of the show is about Nacho, who’s just found out he’s gone from Don Hector’s Scylla to Gus Fringe’s Charybdis. And Gus is a modern slave owner in the not metaphorical way, so when he says „you’re mine now“, he means it.
Speaking of BB sealing fates: I suppose it wouldn’t be a comfort for Nacho to know that Victor, who just killed Arturo, will one day get his throat slit by Gus just to make a point to Walt and Jesse.
Anyway, I really hope that the writers have either come up with something about Gus that justifies his presence on the show beyond „fan favourite of yore“; meanwhile, I’m here for the lawyers.
Back in s2, Jimmy was in a well paid job in a good law firm, and he self sabotaged himself out of it because, essentially, the rule-bound-ness bored him. Turns out this was foreshadowing. Though what he does in this episode has, I fear, a far sadder and more malignant reason. The position at Neff’s might not be glamorous, but it would be good for the intermediary job it’s supposed to be until he can practice law again, and his talents are indeed ideal for it - he is a great salesman, as he demonstrates here, he does have the know how, he has the knack of being likeable if he wants to be. But. Back in his his conman days, Jimmy had always looked down on his marks - they deserved being tricked, they were suckers He didn’t look down on his clients as a lawyer; until so cruelly conning Irene and friends last season because he needed the payout, he really was acting in the best interests of his older clients above and beyond. That he’s back to regarding people as suckers bodes ill, and methinks it’s an expression of Chuck’s-Death-related self loathing. Basically: Chuck died because of me, I am all he’s accused me of being, fine, I’ll be that, and anyone who likes me has to be a sucker.
There’s no one who likes Jimmy more than Kim. Her barely represssed fury on his behalf that explodes into Howard’s face once Rebecca has left was another powerful performance by Rhea Seahorn. It’s a verbal evisceration of the type that puts Kim’s lawyer skills to devastating use, and on point in every regard. (I mean, I have sympathy for Howard re: the entire Chuck situation, but Kim wasn’t wrong in anything she said. And yet that very expression of love for and loyalty to Jimmy in an episode where Jimmy explodes at people for having been charmed by him is what made me wonder whether this is how their relationship will end: that he’ll conclude if Kim loves him that much if he’s not worthy of it, she’s a sucker, too.
The episode simultanously ends with them together, making love, and apart, because Jimmy has lied to Kim about how his job hunting day went, he’s already planning an illegal enterprise (presumably Mike’s supposed to steal the Hummel figurine and sell it?), and Kim so far has kept Chuck’s letter secret, and might decide to destroy it instead of handing it over, fearing that it will indeed be „a last screw you, little brother, from beyond the grave“.
Btw: it might not be. Not that Chuck wasn’t capable, he so was, but precisely because that’s what everyone expects by now, and because a letter with some actual affection might affect Jimmy even worse than the opposite, I suspect that if we ever find out what’s in the letter, it’ll be more something like that. And even if we don’t find out what was in it, i.e. if Kim decides to destroy it unread, Howard could accidentally bring it up (because Patrick Fabian is still a regular, so I doubt we’ve seen the last of Howrd), or Jimmy might run into Rebecca and she could know it existed. (After all, we don’t know just when Chuck wrote the letter.)
In conclusion: Saulification is ever closer for Jimmy, I’m worried about Nacho, and while I’m currently not afraid Kim could die, I’m newly anxious re: my current guess as to how her relationship with Jimmy might end.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1301643.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
It’s not that Giancarlo Esposito isn’t in the usual fine form as Gus, ditto Banks as Mike, and good for Laura Fraser to have a few more scenes as Lydia. But. We’ve seen this all before. It doesn’t tell us anything new about those characters. Yes, we the audience know the irony that Gus, who otherwise is excellent as Overlord-dom, has failed to internalize the most significant of all rules - „death is not too good for my enemies“ -, and by not being satisfied with a coma or a similar vegitative state as his revenge on Hector Salamanca will seal his own fate in the end. But again: we knew that about him. What emotional investment I have in that part of the show is about Nacho, who’s just found out he’s gone from Don Hector’s Scylla to Gus Fringe’s Charybdis. And Gus is a modern slave owner in the not metaphorical way, so when he says „you’re mine now“, he means it.
Speaking of BB sealing fates: I suppose it wouldn’t be a comfort for Nacho to know that Victor, who just killed Arturo, will one day get his throat slit by Gus just to make a point to Walt and Jesse.
Anyway, I really hope that the writers have either come up with something about Gus that justifies his presence on the show beyond „fan favourite of yore“; meanwhile, I’m here for the lawyers.
Back in s2, Jimmy was in a well paid job in a good law firm, and he self sabotaged himself out of it because, essentially, the rule-bound-ness bored him. Turns out this was foreshadowing. Though what he does in this episode has, I fear, a far sadder and more malignant reason. The position at Neff’s might not be glamorous, but it would be good for the intermediary job it’s supposed to be until he can practice law again, and his talents are indeed ideal for it - he is a great salesman, as he demonstrates here, he does have the know how, he has the knack of being likeable if he wants to be. But. Back in his his conman days, Jimmy had always looked down on his marks - they deserved being tricked, they were suckers He didn’t look down on his clients as a lawyer; until so cruelly conning Irene and friends last season because he needed the payout, he really was acting in the best interests of his older clients above and beyond. That he’s back to regarding people as suckers bodes ill, and methinks it’s an expression of Chuck’s-Death-related self loathing. Basically: Chuck died because of me, I am all he’s accused me of being, fine, I’ll be that, and anyone who likes me has to be a sucker.
There’s no one who likes Jimmy more than Kim. Her barely represssed fury on his behalf that explodes into Howard’s face once Rebecca has left was another powerful performance by Rhea Seahorn. It’s a verbal evisceration of the type that puts Kim’s lawyer skills to devastating use, and on point in every regard. (I mean, I have sympathy for Howard re: the entire Chuck situation, but Kim wasn’t wrong in anything she said. And yet that very expression of love for and loyalty to Jimmy in an episode where Jimmy explodes at people for having been charmed by him is what made me wonder whether this is how their relationship will end: that he’ll conclude if Kim loves him that much if he’s not worthy of it, she’s a sucker, too.
The episode simultanously ends with them together, making love, and apart, because Jimmy has lied to Kim about how his job hunting day went, he’s already planning an illegal enterprise (presumably Mike’s supposed to steal the Hummel figurine and sell it?), and Kim so far has kept Chuck’s letter secret, and might decide to destroy it instead of handing it over, fearing that it will indeed be „a last screw you, little brother, from beyond the grave“.
Btw: it might not be. Not that Chuck wasn’t capable, he so was, but precisely because that’s what everyone expects by now, and because a letter with some actual affection might affect Jimmy even worse than the opposite, I suspect that if we ever find out what’s in the letter, it’ll be more something like that. And even if we don’t find out what was in it, i.e. if Kim decides to destroy it unread, Howard could accidentally bring it up (because Patrick Fabian is still a regular, so I doubt we’ve seen the last of Howrd), or Jimmy might run into Rebecca and she could know it existed. (After all, we don’t know just when Chuck wrote the letter.)
In conclusion: Saulification is ever closer for Jimmy, I’m worried about Nacho, and while I’m currently not afraid Kim could die, I’m newly anxious re: my current guess as to how her relationship with Jimmy might end.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1301643.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.