Better Call Saul 5.1. - 5.03
Aka, it's time to fret about Kim Wexler and her not-coverd-by-Breaking-Bad fate again.
The annual season opening flashforward to post Breaking Bad Cinnabon Gene felt longer than any previous installment, no idea whether that's true, but it certainly changed things. If the last flash forward left some ambiguity as to whether "Gene" was recognized or not, this time he got definitely marked, as he himself states, and even before he's sure, his instinct is to prepare his escape. But when talking to his old get out expert, last seen in El Camino helping Jesse, "Gene" changes his mind. This feeds into my current speculation that the show will end not just with the obvious - Jimmy completing his transformation into Saul in the past - but with Gene, having decided to stop running, facing his past and his responsibilities and becoming Jimmy again.
Mind you: I could be totally wrong, and "deal with it myself" just means low key Gene will go fast talking Saul again and deal with the guy who identified him in a criminal lawyer fashion. But I think the other possibility would fit better, thematically.
Especially since the first three episodes all confront our main characters in various ways with the fact they're kidding themselves when they think they can have it both ways. Mike, having committed his first "business" murder of a man he liked in the last season finale, thinks he can stay away from Gus thereafter, but the fact of the matter is that he's already behaving like an enforcer - intimidating the bar owner to remove the photo which disturbs him, dealing with the youthful thugs brutally which he finds finally cheers him up after having brooded for three episodes.
Nacho, who continues to be the sole non-lawyer related storyline I really care about, tries in vain to get his father out of town, which is sensible given he's just been told by Gus he's supposed to become Lallo Salamanca's bff in order to effectively spy on him, while last season's ending and this season's opening do their best to establish Lallo as the most dangerous Salamanca, what with being sane, unlike Tuco, not hubristic like Hector before his crippling, and smart enough to draw most of the right conclusions though he can't prove them yet. Unfortunately, since Gus is alive and well and powerful in Breaking Bad, we know Lallo is toast, so there's not much suspense in the question "will he survive?", but I suspect the series will basically do a Wiseguy season 1 with him and Nacho, i.e. a take on the "mole gets incredibly close to gangster he's supposed to spy" trope, which is great, and of course Nacho himself is someone whose fate is up for grabs, and we do care about him.
Most of all I care about Kim, though, who is still wavering on the Jimmy front, as well as on the eternal queston how willing she is to keep her own ethics flexible. Early on, it's illustrated by her first refusing Jimmy's little con since it would mean lying to her client but then going for the lie anyway in order to make the man accept the deal she's worked out for him. "It's for a good cause" isn't an excuse she's really buying for herself, though, otherwise she'd have admitted it to Jimmy. And in episode 3, she gets confronted between pro bono cases with a stint she has to do for her actual breadwinning job, Messa Verde, that involves somehow getting a stubborn farmer to give up his home - classic Western sitution - and gets confronted with the withering accusation that she's the type to soothe her conscience with the occasional good work so she can live with herself and doesn't have to look at what she does the rest of the time. In terms of how Kim proportions her time, it's unfair, but there's a gem of truth in it regardless that makes her chew on this.
"You'd say anything" the old guy tells her, and this is true - of Jimmy. Or is it? Jimmy of course goes far faster down the slippery slope; having gotten the permission to practice under the name of Saul Goodman, he blithely denies what he's offering will encourage his clients to be even more criminal, while the second episode illustrates just this happening, and then reunites him, at last, with Nacho who has reccommended him to Lallo Salamanca. At which point Jimmy is asked to use his attorney client privilege just to to cover past criminal deeds but to set up a new one, and you can tell he knows this is far beyond what he's told Kim being Saul would be like. The visual of the ice cream cone dropped at the end of 5.2. which by 5.03 has turned into a rotting heap eaten up by ants is a bit on the nose, but it fits, and he knows it.
Jimmy and Kim returning each from a day's work that makes them feel bad about themselves but finding they still have each other is bitter sweet, because of the audience awareness that here, too, the clock is ticking, one way or the other. One of the many things I hadn't expected this spin-off to provide was a romance involving Saul Goodman I would feel immensely moved.
Speaking of unexpected emotions: WHY HELLO HANK AND STEVE!!!! You know, much as otherwise I'm not really into Breaking Bad call backs and cameos, and spent last season growsing "less Gus, more lawyers", zomg Hank. Hank mentioning Marie. Oh, you two: starting out as seeming comic reliefs, ending up as wonderfully human and tragic and real and heroic. I appreciate, too, that Hank here is presented as smart enough to realise Jimmy and his "client" are conning him with their staged argument, he's just not aware there's a con beneath the con.
In conclusion: welcome back, spin-off of my heart!
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1387782.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
The annual season opening flashforward to post Breaking Bad Cinnabon Gene felt longer than any previous installment, no idea whether that's true, but it certainly changed things. If the last flash forward left some ambiguity as to whether "Gene" was recognized or not, this time he got definitely marked, as he himself states, and even before he's sure, his instinct is to prepare his escape. But when talking to his old get out expert, last seen in El Camino helping Jesse, "Gene" changes his mind. This feeds into my current speculation that the show will end not just with the obvious - Jimmy completing his transformation into Saul in the past - but with Gene, having decided to stop running, facing his past and his responsibilities and becoming Jimmy again.
Mind you: I could be totally wrong, and "deal with it myself" just means low key Gene will go fast talking Saul again and deal with the guy who identified him in a criminal lawyer fashion. But I think the other possibility would fit better, thematically.
Especially since the first three episodes all confront our main characters in various ways with the fact they're kidding themselves when they think they can have it both ways. Mike, having committed his first "business" murder of a man he liked in the last season finale, thinks he can stay away from Gus thereafter, but the fact of the matter is that he's already behaving like an enforcer - intimidating the bar owner to remove the photo which disturbs him, dealing with the youthful thugs brutally which he finds finally cheers him up after having brooded for three episodes.
Nacho, who continues to be the sole non-lawyer related storyline I really care about, tries in vain to get his father out of town, which is sensible given he's just been told by Gus he's supposed to become Lallo Salamanca's bff in order to effectively spy on him, while last season's ending and this season's opening do their best to establish Lallo as the most dangerous Salamanca, what with being sane, unlike Tuco, not hubristic like Hector before his crippling, and smart enough to draw most of the right conclusions though he can't prove them yet. Unfortunately, since Gus is alive and well and powerful in Breaking Bad, we know Lallo is toast, so there's not much suspense in the question "will he survive?", but I suspect the series will basically do a Wiseguy season 1 with him and Nacho, i.e. a take on the "mole gets incredibly close to gangster he's supposed to spy" trope, which is great, and of course Nacho himself is someone whose fate is up for grabs, and we do care about him.
Most of all I care about Kim, though, who is still wavering on the Jimmy front, as well as on the eternal queston how willing she is to keep her own ethics flexible. Early on, it's illustrated by her first refusing Jimmy's little con since it would mean lying to her client but then going for the lie anyway in order to make the man accept the deal she's worked out for him. "It's for a good cause" isn't an excuse she's really buying for herself, though, otherwise she'd have admitted it to Jimmy. And in episode 3, she gets confronted between pro bono cases with a stint she has to do for her actual breadwinning job, Messa Verde, that involves somehow getting a stubborn farmer to give up his home - classic Western sitution - and gets confronted with the withering accusation that she's the type to soothe her conscience with the occasional good work so she can live with herself and doesn't have to look at what she does the rest of the time. In terms of how Kim proportions her time, it's unfair, but there's a gem of truth in it regardless that makes her chew on this.
"You'd say anything" the old guy tells her, and this is true - of Jimmy. Or is it? Jimmy of course goes far faster down the slippery slope; having gotten the permission to practice under the name of Saul Goodman, he blithely denies what he's offering will encourage his clients to be even more criminal, while the second episode illustrates just this happening, and then reunites him, at last, with Nacho who has reccommended him to Lallo Salamanca. At which point Jimmy is asked to use his attorney client privilege just to to cover past criminal deeds but to set up a new one, and you can tell he knows this is far beyond what he's told Kim being Saul would be like. The visual of the ice cream cone dropped at the end of 5.2. which by 5.03 has turned into a rotting heap eaten up by ants is a bit on the nose, but it fits, and he knows it.
Jimmy and Kim returning each from a day's work that makes them feel bad about themselves but finding they still have each other is bitter sweet, because of the audience awareness that here, too, the clock is ticking, one way or the other. One of the many things I hadn't expected this spin-off to provide was a romance involving Saul Goodman I would feel immensely moved.
Speaking of unexpected emotions: WHY HELLO HANK AND STEVE!!!! You know, much as otherwise I'm not really into Breaking Bad call backs and cameos, and spent last season growsing "less Gus, more lawyers", zomg Hank. Hank mentioning Marie. Oh, you two: starting out as seeming comic reliefs, ending up as wonderfully human and tragic and real and heroic. I appreciate, too, that Hank here is presented as smart enough to realise Jimmy and his "client" are conning him with their staged argument, he's just not aware there's a con beneath the con.
In conclusion: welcome back, spin-off of my heart!
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1387782.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.