Better Call Saul 6.06.
In which Kim has her Walter White, season 1, moment.
By which I mean: in Breaking Bad's first season, Walt initially is given some sympathetic motivation - in the pilot, he doesn't just get a lethal cancer diagnosis, he has two jobs to make ends meet, one of which he gets fired from, his wife is pregnant, his son has a disability, and the US health care system is of course godawful for people like him. While using his chemistry skillls to produce meth isn't a "good" financial solution, the viewer, not knowing Walt very well yet, is ready to believe he's doing it out of this awful set up. However, mid s1, an old friend shows up with whom our antihero has had a fallout, and he's ready, willing and able to pay for Walt's cancer therapy, to provide for Skyler and the kids. This is the turning point of the show, because by rejecting Eliot's (and Gretchen's) money due to the bad blood between them, Walt makes it clear his now begun career in crime is more fueled by his ego than by the need to protect his family.
Now, in this episode, Kim gets her better alternative served on a silver plate. Cliff, impressed by her lawyer-fu in service of the little guy and greater justice, secures her an appointment with a charity organisation specializing in pro bono lawyers. The grand scheme she and Jimmy have been working on can get halted at the last minute because Jimmy discovers he's made a mistake, one of the actors he's hired for the yet to be disclosed big plan was lacking the broken arm the man said actor is supposed to be impersonating has. The both smart and morally right thing to do, if Kim really cares more for greater jiustice than for petty grievances, would be to continue driving to her appointment and be grateful that Jimmy found out in time. She doesn't do that. Instead, she turns around, back to Albuquerque, just as Walt told Eliot to go to hell.
(BTW, Rhea Seahorn's tormented face, while Kim listens to Jimmy and makes her decisionn, was a masterclass in acting!)
A tragedy is only a tragedy, says good old Ariistotle, if its hero is brought down by a combination of circumstance and their own flaws. Whatever will happen to Kim from now on, by turning around, she's made it her fault.
The opening teaser is only the second flashback to Kim's chilldhood we got in six seasons, and btw, speaking of acting, congrats to the girl playing young Kim, that was a great body language adaption. Kim's mother (last seen to be an alcoholic) only pretending to be angry as young Kim gets caught having stolen at a department store and in reality using that play to ensure her daughter gets away free, as well as stealing something of her own, and the very mixed feelings Kim appears to have about this was intriguing, and I'm still chewing on it.
I also continue to marvel that Lalo, wanted fugitive, was able to travel to Germany. With a gun. Now strolling through the woods, finding his man (one of Werner's workers). Lalo, considering you don't speak German and such huts are usually not encircled in a navigation system, how did you track the man down? I'm asking as someone who in the past occasionally lost her way in the woods despite having a map and speaking German. Just saying. Aaaaaanyway.
Howard and - is this his wife? Did we know he has a wife? I don't think so? Anyway, Howard's orderly preparation of the coffee and the table wiping afterwards are so very him.
Francesca: I think that scene shows her going from the goodwill she's displayed towards Kim and then Jimmy to the disdain she shows for Saul, despite working for him, at the end when she says "you wipe it".
Mike and his immortal, backwards-aging granddaughter: it's not that the scene by itself isn't "aw" worthy, and of course he wants to protect her and her mother from getting drawn into Gus' feud with the Salamancas, but because of the weirdness in Kaylee's age her vs her age in BB, I can never quite buy into this plot element the way the show wants me to.
By which I mean: in Breaking Bad's first season, Walt initially is given some sympathetic motivation - in the pilot, he doesn't just get a lethal cancer diagnosis, he has two jobs to make ends meet, one of which he gets fired from, his wife is pregnant, his son has a disability, and the US health care system is of course godawful for people like him. While using his chemistry skillls to produce meth isn't a "good" financial solution, the viewer, not knowing Walt very well yet, is ready to believe he's doing it out of this awful set up. However, mid s1, an old friend shows up with whom our antihero has had a fallout, and he's ready, willing and able to pay for Walt's cancer therapy, to provide for Skyler and the kids. This is the turning point of the show, because by rejecting Eliot's (and Gretchen's) money due to the bad blood between them, Walt makes it clear his now begun career in crime is more fueled by his ego than by the need to protect his family.
Now, in this episode, Kim gets her better alternative served on a silver plate. Cliff, impressed by her lawyer-fu in service of the little guy and greater justice, secures her an appointment with a charity organisation specializing in pro bono lawyers. The grand scheme she and Jimmy have been working on can get halted at the last minute because Jimmy discovers he's made a mistake, one of the actors he's hired for the yet to be disclosed big plan was lacking the broken arm the man said actor is supposed to be impersonating has. The both smart and morally right thing to do, if Kim really cares more for greater jiustice than for petty grievances, would be to continue driving to her appointment and be grateful that Jimmy found out in time. She doesn't do that. Instead, she turns around, back to Albuquerque, just as Walt told Eliot to go to hell.
(BTW, Rhea Seahorn's tormented face, while Kim listens to Jimmy and makes her decisionn, was a masterclass in acting!)
A tragedy is only a tragedy, says good old Ariistotle, if its hero is brought down by a combination of circumstance and their own flaws. Whatever will happen to Kim from now on, by turning around, she's made it her fault.
The opening teaser is only the second flashback to Kim's chilldhood we got in six seasons, and btw, speaking of acting, congrats to the girl playing young Kim, that was a great body language adaption. Kim's mother (last seen to be an alcoholic) only pretending to be angry as young Kim gets caught having stolen at a department store and in reality using that play to ensure her daughter gets away free, as well as stealing something of her own, and the very mixed feelings Kim appears to have about this was intriguing, and I'm still chewing on it.
I also continue to marvel that Lalo, wanted fugitive, was able to travel to Germany. With a gun. Now strolling through the woods, finding his man (one of Werner's workers). Lalo, considering you don't speak German and such huts are usually not encircled in a navigation system, how did you track the man down? I'm asking as someone who in the past occasionally lost her way in the woods despite having a map and speaking German. Just saying. Aaaaaanyway.
Howard and - is this his wife? Did we know he has a wife? I don't think so? Anyway, Howard's orderly preparation of the coffee and the table wiping afterwards are so very him.
Francesca: I think that scene shows her going from the goodwill she's displayed towards Kim and then Jimmy to the disdain she shows for Saul, despite working for him, at the end when she says "you wipe it".
Mike and his immortal, backwards-aging granddaughter: it's not that the scene by itself isn't "aw" worthy, and of course he wants to protect her and her mother from getting drawn into Gus' feud with the Salamancas, but because of the weirdness in Kaylee's age her vs her age in BB, I can never quite buy into this plot element the way the show wants me to.