Meme results, playlists and a tv review
First, re: yesterdays ships-as-emoticons meme, the two which no one has identified were Quark/Dax from Star Trek: DS9, and, as the bonus ship, from Penny Dreadful, Vanessa Ives (refered to as "my little scorpion" by Joan the witch all through her flashbacks) and Malcom Murray (deconstructed Victorian explorer, hence the map).
Secondly, along with primary sources transcribing, excerpting and debating, my two Frederician buddies & self have been engaging in such classical fannish endeavours as Hogwarts House sorting, "who tops/bottoms" debates and, most recently, the assembling of a playlist. Click on the links and enjoy the song mix, if you don't know anything about the history; if you do know something about the history, we hope you'll be into the character arc they form as well.
Now, on to the Better Call Saul review.
In which Lalo is a cat, Nacho is a dog, and Kim is the best lawyer in Albuquerque, our titular antihero included.
Before I talk about the nerve-wrecking, brilliant climactic scene, though, a couple of other observations:
1.) The "Something Stupid" soundtrack to the double screen showing Jimmy and Kim wa a great introduction, driving home once again how deeply they care, how connected they are, and how scary this experience was. Given the non- or crosscommnication through most of the episode, this was important.
2.) Jimmy dealing (or not) with PTSD following his experience of barely surviving a shoothout with lots of corpses, a day and a half in the desert, and luring a man to his death. This is the kind of thing which makes the universe so emotionally believable. Gilligan did it with Hank in s2, and now here again. Most shows don't bother if the characters who died aren't main characters, or at least characters the regular character who gets the PTDSD cared fo. If they are certified villains, and redshirt villains to boot, who don't even have a personality, the regular character is okay with it most of the time. Not in BB or BCS, though. Jimmy going the "not talking about it, pretend it never happened" road at first isn't surprising, see also Chuck, and he probably would have even if Mike hadn't insisted on him getting his (Mike-less) cover story straight. But Jimmy, despite all his criminal background, really has not experienced anything like this before (whereas Mike has), and given his "friend of the Cartel" situation now there is no P to this TSD in sight, so no wonder repression doesn't work this time.
3.) Mike having the delusion that Gus would let Nacho go once Lalo is out of the country: yeah, no, and he's quickly disabused of it. Gus might reward loyalty, but he's a slave owner, and people who are still useful to him don't get to quit unless they assassinate him. It shows Mike's continuing soft spot for young troubled men that he made the request/suggestion, of course, but he is quite capable of deluding himself just like Jimmy, solely in different ways. (See also all this "in/out of the game" talk - as Jimmy points out, the late killed by Lalo Fred was not in anyone's game. The idea that you can keep people out of gangster crossfire is really not verified on either show.
4.) Lalo continues to be one of the most scary and most smart Salamancas. I like how this series shows you people thinking - just think several seasons back, the sequence when Jimmy realises Chuck, not Howard is his enemy at the firm - and here you can see something is still bothering Lalo about Jimmy's story right until he jumps into the ravine to check out the car. I would say: poor Nacho, so close to being free and then not, but he wouldn't have been free, he'd still have been owned by Gus. Gus vs Nacho is a bit like Skylla and Charybdis in terms of choices, of course.
And then we're all set up for the great climax of Lalo returning to Albuquerque and showing up at Kim's and Jimmy's place, menacing their gold fish and them alike. It was outstanding, and sublimely performed by all three actors - four if you count the quick cuts to Mike - , but most of all it was a show case for Rhea Seahorn. The episode had taken care to establish that she knows Jimmy has been lying to her (again), even if this time she's writing it off as the result of his desert experience. It also had them in an argument about someting else, Kim quitting her (well paying) job. Which in a way the season has been driving towards - we did see in several episodes Kim really is not happy in it. Jimmy isn't wrong that her pro bono work by definition does not pay, but he's missing the larger point she makes - it wasn't his decision to make, it was hers.
"You don't save me, I save me", was one of Kim's defining lines in this show (said in mid s2), and in this episode, she makes good of her claim, and then some, as she saves not only herself but Jimmy from Lalo by the power of lawyer-fu and courage. (BTW: Jimmy famously has the gift of gab, and if he wasn't in such a bad state right then, he might have been able to come up with a convincing excuse for Lalo in terms of his own survival. Would he have been able to save Kim, though? Debatable. Kim has the advantage of Lalo not having been prepared for her to be anything but leverage against Jimmy, but it needed her courage, smarts and ability to bluff to use it. It was dazzling and not a little heartbreaking at the same time, because both Kim and the audience knew that "...and he doesn't lie to me" - was not true even while she was saying it.
Kim Wexler, ladies and gentlemen. I think by now I've fallen for her as deeply as Jimmy has.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1393692.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Secondly, along with primary sources transcribing, excerpting and debating, my two Frederician buddies & self have been engaging in such classical fannish endeavours as Hogwarts House sorting, "who tops/bottoms" debates and, most recently, the assembling of a playlist. Click on the links and enjoy the song mix, if you don't know anything about the history; if you do know something about the history, we hope you'll be into the character arc they form as well.
Now, on to the Better Call Saul review.
In which Lalo is a cat, Nacho is a dog, and Kim is the best lawyer in Albuquerque, our titular antihero included.
Before I talk about the nerve-wrecking, brilliant climactic scene, though, a couple of other observations:
1.) The "Something Stupid" soundtrack to the double screen showing Jimmy and Kim wa a great introduction, driving home once again how deeply they care, how connected they are, and how scary this experience was. Given the non- or crosscommnication through most of the episode, this was important.
2.) Jimmy dealing (or not) with PTSD following his experience of barely surviving a shoothout with lots of corpses, a day and a half in the desert, and luring a man to his death. This is the kind of thing which makes the universe so emotionally believable. Gilligan did it with Hank in s2, and now here again. Most shows don't bother if the characters who died aren't main characters, or at least characters the regular character who gets the PTDSD cared fo. If they are certified villains, and redshirt villains to boot, who don't even have a personality, the regular character is okay with it most of the time. Not in BB or BCS, though. Jimmy going the "not talking about it, pretend it never happened" road at first isn't surprising, see also Chuck, and he probably would have even if Mike hadn't insisted on him getting his (Mike-less) cover story straight. But Jimmy, despite all his criminal background, really has not experienced anything like this before (whereas Mike has), and given his "friend of the Cartel" situation now there is no P to this TSD in sight, so no wonder repression doesn't work this time.
3.) Mike having the delusion that Gus would let Nacho go once Lalo is out of the country: yeah, no, and he's quickly disabused of it. Gus might reward loyalty, but he's a slave owner, and people who are still useful to him don't get to quit unless they assassinate him. It shows Mike's continuing soft spot for young troubled men that he made the request/suggestion, of course, but he is quite capable of deluding himself just like Jimmy, solely in different ways. (See also all this "in/out of the game" talk - as Jimmy points out, the late killed by Lalo Fred was not in anyone's game. The idea that you can keep people out of gangster crossfire is really not verified on either show.
4.) Lalo continues to be one of the most scary and most smart Salamancas. I like how this series shows you people thinking - just think several seasons back, the sequence when Jimmy realises Chuck, not Howard is his enemy at the firm - and here you can see something is still bothering Lalo about Jimmy's story right until he jumps into the ravine to check out the car. I would say: poor Nacho, so close to being free and then not, but he wouldn't have been free, he'd still have been owned by Gus. Gus vs Nacho is a bit like Skylla and Charybdis in terms of choices, of course.
And then we're all set up for the great climax of Lalo returning to Albuquerque and showing up at Kim's and Jimmy's place, menacing their gold fish and them alike. It was outstanding, and sublimely performed by all three actors - four if you count the quick cuts to Mike - , but most of all it was a show case for Rhea Seahorn. The episode had taken care to establish that she knows Jimmy has been lying to her (again), even if this time she's writing it off as the result of his desert experience. It also had them in an argument about someting else, Kim quitting her (well paying) job. Which in a way the season has been driving towards - we did see in several episodes Kim really is not happy in it. Jimmy isn't wrong that her pro bono work by definition does not pay, but he's missing the larger point she makes - it wasn't his decision to make, it was hers.
"You don't save me, I save me", was one of Kim's defining lines in this show (said in mid s2), and in this episode, she makes good of her claim, and then some, as she saves not only herself but Jimmy from Lalo by the power of lawyer-fu and courage. (BTW: Jimmy famously has the gift of gab, and if he wasn't in such a bad state right then, he might have been able to come up with a convincing excuse for Lalo in terms of his own survival. Would he have been able to save Kim, though? Debatable. Kim has the advantage of Lalo not having been prepared for her to be anything but leverage against Jimmy, but it needed her courage, smarts and ability to bluff to use it. It was dazzling and not a little heartbreaking at the same time, because both Kim and the audience knew that "...and he doesn't lie to me" - was not true even while she was saying it.
Kim Wexler, ladies and gentlemen. I think by now I've fallen for her as deeply as Jimmy has.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1393692.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.