Better Call Saul 5.10
In which lines are crossed, and God knows when we'll get the next season given current circumstances, but gah, Gilligan & Gould, you and your unholy skills in character arcs!
And the pay-off for Jimmy's pranks on Howard, which at first seemed such an odd subplot this season, given that to all appearances, Jimmy had settled his Howard issues a good whle ago, is... not about Jimmy at all, really. It's about Kim.
Now, Jimmy was always going to turn into Saul; we knew that, it's the premise of the show. And even if the "how" was part of the interest - and dread - there could be only one ending. But Kim, as the character whose fate was not covered by Breaking Bad in any way whatsoever, was up in the air, and for most of the show, given tv habits especially with female characters, the fate most to fear for her was that she'd die in the interests of Jimmy's storyline. This looked less likely in the last few seasons, not least because the writers clearly saw what a powerhouse peformer they had with Rhea Seahorn, and also by the way they wrote Kim's development, which made it clear she wasn't going to be Embodiment of Love Of A Good Woman. Even so, among the various twists and curveballs the show threw at us with Kim this season - the marriage proposal instead of the breakup being but one - and even given the steady removals of boundaries and change of goal posts, the fact that what the season finale makes clear, that it's Kim who's gone further on the breaking bad road than Jimmy right now (at least in theory if not yet in practice) was one of those stunning yet entirely sense making conclusions. And the show managed to do it in a way that comes from Kim's own experiences throughout the seasons, not because, as Howard assumes, and as even Jimmy himself asks wiht his "am I bad for you?" question, Jimmy is corrupting her.
There's so much character development pay off here, including that of Howard, who started out as a seemingly one dimensional jerk boss and even within the same season turned out to be someone more complicated; now, several seasons later, he's endeared himself enough to the audience - which also is convinced of his essential non-malignity - that when Kim goes from playfully suggesting more pranks to suggesting a scheme that would, to quote the episode title, frame him for doing "something unforgivable", it's absolutely chilling. (And who'd have thought it back in mid season 2 when Kim had been put in "cornfield" drudgery by Howard that the show would turn emotions this way.) All the more so because what triggered it - Howard's patronizing, well, Howard-ness and complaint about Jimmy - is in no proportion to the result. And Jimmy, of all the peoples, sees this very clearly.
(I'm reminded of Skyler coldbloodedly destroying the gas station owner in order to get the gas station in s5 of Breaking Bad. Yes, the guy was an utter jerk in s1, but the delay, the reason and the execution ensured that it didn't come across as "earned" but as a signal of Skyler's own darkside capacity at that point.)
Meanwhile, on the Nacho side of things, the Lalo Salamanca tale climax provides some solid suspense as well, not to mention an unabashedly cheesy yet effective final shot of Lalo walking towards revenge, which bodes nothing good to Nacho in the future. It's another illustration of the impossibility of being a "good" gangster, too; no wonder the hit squad Gus hired didn't even bother to answer Nacho's request that the older civilians on Lalo's compound should be spared. (Mind you, Gus clearly wasted his money on those guys, given that Lalo could take them out all on his lonesome.) Last season ended with Mike having committed his first murder not for revenge or defense, but as a hitman; this season ends with Nacho, no matter his good intentions, just having gotten a bunch people killed and now the most dangerous of the Salamancas after him, while Gus the slave owner still wants to continue exploiting him. The seeming freedom into which he escaped in the finale has never been more illusory.
But as effective as the Nacho subplot was, the last conversation between Jimmy and Kim, her "wouldn't I?" was even more emotionally visceral. Here you have two people who really love each other, who contrary to expectations didn't break up this season, who just came through for each other (again) - but that is part of why Jimmy is horrified in that moment. If the last season ended with Kim being stunned through the realisation she can no longer tell when Jimmy is telling the truth and when he's lying, this season ends with Jimmy being stunned by something similar - he just doesn't know whether Kim is still joking, or whether she truly would destroy an innocent man's life in a "the end justifies the means" way. And that is an even more effective cliffhanger than the sight of Lalo walking towards the camera.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1394869.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
And the pay-off for Jimmy's pranks on Howard, which at first seemed such an odd subplot this season, given that to all appearances, Jimmy had settled his Howard issues a good whle ago, is... not about Jimmy at all, really. It's about Kim.
Now, Jimmy was always going to turn into Saul; we knew that, it's the premise of the show. And even if the "how" was part of the interest - and dread - there could be only one ending. But Kim, as the character whose fate was not covered by Breaking Bad in any way whatsoever, was up in the air, and for most of the show, given tv habits especially with female characters, the fate most to fear for her was that she'd die in the interests of Jimmy's storyline. This looked less likely in the last few seasons, not least because the writers clearly saw what a powerhouse peformer they had with Rhea Seahorn, and also by the way they wrote Kim's development, which made it clear she wasn't going to be Embodiment of Love Of A Good Woman. Even so, among the various twists and curveballs the show threw at us with Kim this season - the marriage proposal instead of the breakup being but one - and even given the steady removals of boundaries and change of goal posts, the fact that what the season finale makes clear, that it's Kim who's gone further on the breaking bad road than Jimmy right now (at least in theory if not yet in practice) was one of those stunning yet entirely sense making conclusions. And the show managed to do it in a way that comes from Kim's own experiences throughout the seasons, not because, as Howard assumes, and as even Jimmy himself asks wiht his "am I bad for you?" question, Jimmy is corrupting her.
There's so much character development pay off here, including that of Howard, who started out as a seemingly one dimensional jerk boss and even within the same season turned out to be someone more complicated; now, several seasons later, he's endeared himself enough to the audience - which also is convinced of his essential non-malignity - that when Kim goes from playfully suggesting more pranks to suggesting a scheme that would, to quote the episode title, frame him for doing "something unforgivable", it's absolutely chilling. (And who'd have thought it back in mid season 2 when Kim had been put in "cornfield" drudgery by Howard that the show would turn emotions this way.) All the more so because what triggered it - Howard's patronizing, well, Howard-ness and complaint about Jimmy - is in no proportion to the result. And Jimmy, of all the peoples, sees this very clearly.
(I'm reminded of Skyler coldbloodedly destroying the gas station owner in order to get the gas station in s5 of Breaking Bad. Yes, the guy was an utter jerk in s1, but the delay, the reason and the execution ensured that it didn't come across as "earned" but as a signal of Skyler's own darkside capacity at that point.)
Meanwhile, on the Nacho side of things, the Lalo Salamanca tale climax provides some solid suspense as well, not to mention an unabashedly cheesy yet effective final shot of Lalo walking towards revenge, which bodes nothing good to Nacho in the future. It's another illustration of the impossibility of being a "good" gangster, too; no wonder the hit squad Gus hired didn't even bother to answer Nacho's request that the older civilians on Lalo's compound should be spared. (Mind you, Gus clearly wasted his money on those guys, given that Lalo could take them out all on his lonesome.) Last season ended with Mike having committed his first murder not for revenge or defense, but as a hitman; this season ends with Nacho, no matter his good intentions, just having gotten a bunch people killed and now the most dangerous of the Salamancas after him, while Gus the slave owner still wants to continue exploiting him. The seeming freedom into which he escaped in the finale has never been more illusory.
But as effective as the Nacho subplot was, the last conversation between Jimmy and Kim, her "wouldn't I?" was even more emotionally visceral. Here you have two people who really love each other, who contrary to expectations didn't break up this season, who just came through for each other (again) - but that is part of why Jimmy is horrified in that moment. If the last season ended with Kim being stunned through the realisation she can no longer tell when Jimmy is telling the truth and when he's lying, this season ends with Jimmy being stunned by something similar - he just doesn't know whether Kim is still joking, or whether she truly would destroy an innocent man's life in a "the end justifies the means" way. And that is an even more effective cliffhanger than the sight of Lalo walking towards the camera.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1394869.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.