Better Call Saul 6.08.
We're in the endgame now.
The show is really clearing the tables. Howard before the hiatus, Lalo directly after - wow. I mean, it was clear due to Breaking Bad continuity that Lalo would die and Gus would live, but the way the episode worked on me still managed to make it feel suspenseful. It occurs to me that Lalo and Gus both share the same flaw which will did (or will, in Gus' case) get them killed. They both are clever and able to think in a wheels within wheels way, hence Lalo hidiing his actual assassination plan behind the way he uses Kim and Jimmy. (Irony of fate: one of Gus' employees will die this way a few years later, just opening the door and getting shot by someone else who was asked to do this.) Hence Gus able to turn the tables at the proverbial last moment. Because Lalo made the quintessential Evil Overlord mistake of being unable to resist the gloating speech, as opposed to immediately killing his enemy the moment he has the chance. (Gus, in turn, can't resist leaving Hector Salamanca alive, so he can torment him and gloat some more as part of his revenge, and this will end him just as Lalo has been ended.)
For Kim and Jimmy, though, the fact that they're both safe and alive by the end of the episode is anything but a happy ending. Because Howard is dead. And Mike using the way they have set him up to look like an unstable cocaine addict as a cover story is like a slap in both their faces, underlining what they did. No, they didn't intend him to die. But they deliberately set out to ruin his life, and this is the consequence. It's also the consequence of not outing Lalo Salamanca when they could have, of choosing to be "a friend of the Cartel" rather than tell the law alll they knew just a few episodes earlier. It's the consequence of all those increasing cons. Howard is dead, his reputation will remained destroyed, and they will never be able to reverse this.
I think it's somewhat different for Kim than for Jimmy, because in Jimmy's case, Chuck is already dead, and he probably does feel that death as the consequence of their earlier showdown. (Though in that case, Chuck chose to die, and also Chuck was the one creating their argument to begin with, but emotions aren't logical.) But Howard's death is the first time Kim has metaphorical blood on her hands. She also would have had literal blood on her hands in order to save Jimmy. I honestly have no idea how she'll react, whether she'll double down in Macbeth fashion or whether this will shock her into taking up another life. Her story is still the only one not governed by prequel law, and that's marvellous. (Deeply worrying, but marvellous.)
Lastly, because Gus throughout BCS has mostly been in a position where the pov characters were afraid of him and/or he had authority over them, this is the first episode where Giancarlo Esposito gets to show his stuff the way he did mid s4 in Breaking Bad when we got the Gus flashbacks, cutting lose with the truth of his motivataions and his loathing for Eladio and the Salamancas. And instead of his eternally composed face, there was an actual moment of fear. But for Lalo's need to shoot that vid and make that speech, he'd have been dead and he knew it.
The opening image of the beach with Howard's car, the shoes and the wallet which Mike had taken from him is only explained in the final sequence and becomes gut wrenching, as does the image of Howard and Lalo buried in the same grave in a very Wilfrid Owen poem fashion. What an episode!
The show is really clearing the tables. Howard before the hiatus, Lalo directly after - wow. I mean, it was clear due to Breaking Bad continuity that Lalo would die and Gus would live, but the way the episode worked on me still managed to make it feel suspenseful. It occurs to me that Lalo and Gus both share the same flaw which will did (or will, in Gus' case) get them killed. They both are clever and able to think in a wheels within wheels way, hence Lalo hidiing his actual assassination plan behind the way he uses Kim and Jimmy. (Irony of fate: one of Gus' employees will die this way a few years later, just opening the door and getting shot by someone else who was asked to do this.) Hence Gus able to turn the tables at the proverbial last moment. Because Lalo made the quintessential Evil Overlord mistake of being unable to resist the gloating speech, as opposed to immediately killing his enemy the moment he has the chance. (Gus, in turn, can't resist leaving Hector Salamanca alive, so he can torment him and gloat some more as part of his revenge, and this will end him just as Lalo has been ended.)
For Kim and Jimmy, though, the fact that they're both safe and alive by the end of the episode is anything but a happy ending. Because Howard is dead. And Mike using the way they have set him up to look like an unstable cocaine addict as a cover story is like a slap in both their faces, underlining what they did. No, they didn't intend him to die. But they deliberately set out to ruin his life, and this is the consequence. It's also the consequence of not outing Lalo Salamanca when they could have, of choosing to be "a friend of the Cartel" rather than tell the law alll they knew just a few episodes earlier. It's the consequence of all those increasing cons. Howard is dead, his reputation will remained destroyed, and they will never be able to reverse this.
I think it's somewhat different for Kim than for Jimmy, because in Jimmy's case, Chuck is already dead, and he probably does feel that death as the consequence of their earlier showdown. (Though in that case, Chuck chose to die, and also Chuck was the one creating their argument to begin with, but emotions aren't logical.) But Howard's death is the first time Kim has metaphorical blood on her hands. She also would have had literal blood on her hands in order to save Jimmy. I honestly have no idea how she'll react, whether she'll double down in Macbeth fashion or whether this will shock her into taking up another life. Her story is still the only one not governed by prequel law, and that's marvellous. (Deeply worrying, but marvellous.)
Lastly, because Gus throughout BCS has mostly been in a position where the pov characters were afraid of him and/or he had authority over them, this is the first episode where Giancarlo Esposito gets to show his stuff the way he did mid s4 in Breaking Bad when we got the Gus flashbacks, cutting lose with the truth of his motivataions and his loathing for Eladio and the Salamancas. And instead of his eternally composed face, there was an actual moment of fear. But for Lalo's need to shoot that vid and make that speech, he'd have been dead and he knew it.
The opening image of the beach with Howard's car, the shoes and the wallet which Mike had taken from him is only explained in the final sequence and becomes gut wrenching, as does the image of Howard and Lalo buried in the same grave in a very Wilfrid Owen poem fashion. What an episode!