Better Call Saul

[RobBase]

Just a really well written series.
Odenkirk does an excellent job jumping back and forth between glum, down on his luck Jimmy McGill to energetic shyster Saul Goodman.

Now, we know how most of the story winds up from Breaking Bad.
But, the show remains impactful because there are several unknowns :

1) What happens to Kim Wexler? Will she survive? Will there be an event that just finally separates the two for good? If they are going for a more tragic ending, I think she helps Jimmy out of a jam and winds up getting disbarred, which then sees her leave for good when it all ends.

2) We know what happens with Gus and Mike, but there are still obstacles in their way before the events of Breaking Bad, which also include Nacho, as mentioned above.

3) How did Jimmy/Saul come across the ice that he has in the future scenes? And what will his fate be? I think the tragic ending is that his past catches up with him and he's wearing a pair of cement shoes at the bottom of a swimming pool. He went out of his way to relocated to Omaha and he's constantly nervous about getting made. Maybe he just thinks that someone is always looking for him and that's his tragic fate, but the diamonds suggest otherwise. On that note, maybe he winds up locked in a freezer somewhere as the show ends.

Thoughts?

I hope we don’t have to wait too long to see what happens between him and the shady cabby, Jeff.

 

[Sparhawk]

I hope we don’t have to wait too long to see what happens between him and the shady cabby, Jeff.

If he had recognized Jeff, would he so readily admit he is Saul Goodman and say the phrase?
It would be great if they had a backstory, but if Saul really knew that Jeff was bad news, why cancel the vacuum order???

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Just a really well written series.
Odenkirk does an excellent job jumping back and forth between glum, down on his luck Jimmy McGill to energetic shyster Saul Goodman.

Now, we know how most of the story winds up from Breaking Bad.
But, the show remains impactful because there are several unknowns :

1) What happens to Kim Wexler? Will she survive? Will there be an event that just finally separates the two for good? If they are going for a more tragic ending, I think she helps Jimmy out of a jam and winds up getting disbarred, which then sees her leave for good when it all ends.

2) We know what happens with Gus and Mike, but there are still obstacles in their way before the events of Breaking Bad, which also include Nacho, as mentioned above.

3) How did Jimmy/Saul come across the ice that he has in the future scenes? And what will his fate be? I think the tragic ending is that his past catches up with him and he's wearing a pair of cement shoes at the bottom of a swimming pool. He went out of his way to relocated to Omaha and he's constantly nervous about getting made. Maybe he just thinks that someone is always looking for him and that's his tragic fate, but the diamonds suggest otherwise. On that note, maybe he winds up locked in a freezer somewhere as the show ends.

Thoughts?

To add a little bit to number one, I’d like to know what happens to Howard as well. He seems to have been in a funk ever since Chuck died.

 

[Sparhawk]

To add a little bit to number one, I’d like to know what happens to Howard as well. He seems to have been in a funk ever since Chuck died.

I'm guessing Howard somehow plays a role in the split between Jimmy and Kim.
Is Howard married?
I don't remember if Howard ever pined after Kim.

We know there's animosity between Jimmy and Howard, so maybe that's just all it takes and Kim is the collateral damage.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

I'm guessing Howard somehow plays a role in the split between Jimmy and Kim.
Is Howard married?
I don't remember if Howard ever pined after Kim.

We know there's animosity between Jimmy and Howard, so maybe that's just all it takes and Kim is the collateral damage.

It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if Kim thinks Jimmy goes too far at some point and leaves with Howard and start their own firm.

 

[antone112]

 

[TheDayMan]

I would very much like to binge this and not have to wait a week please.

 

[Godstree]

I would very much like to binge this and not have to wait a week please.

I binged 1 and 2. Now I gotta wait another week to binge 2 episodes.


Not gonna do it........

 

[RobBase]

It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if Kim thinks Jimmy goes too far at some point and leaves with Howard and start their own firm.

What was the deal w the empty beer bottle she grabbed up so quickly?

 

[RobBase]

Another great episode. The Kim stuff is finally getting interesting. Really seems like she’s slowly moving away emotionally from Jimmy/Saul. Couple intense scenes where I was waiting for something really bad to happen to her and it didn’t. I think the old guy in the house might end up killing her in a murder suicide when they finally come to take his home.

 

[DrewScott]

I didn't understand the early Mike scene in the bar. What did he want the bartender to take off the wall?

 

[antone112]

I didn't understand the early Mike scene in the bar. What did he want the bartender to take off the wall?

Looked like a Sydney post card to me.

 

[wildturkey]

I didn't understand the early Mike scene in the bar. What did he want the bartender to take off the wall?

Sydney Opera House. The guy he killed last season, Werner, use to talk about how his dad helped build it. Seeing the picture reminded him of it and the guilt was too much

 

[calsnowskier]

Sydney Opera House. The guy he killed last season, Werner, use to talk about how his dad helped build it. Seeing the picture reminded him of it and the guilt was too much

Mike is in the process of breaking bad, but he still has a handful of humanity. That scene showed that he is losing his grip on his humanity, though.

 

[Sparhawk]

Another great episode. The Kim stuff is finally getting interesting. Really seems like she’s slowly moving away emotionally from Jimmy/Saul. Couple intense scenes where I was waiting for something really bad to happen to her and it didn’t. I think the old guy in the house might end up killing her in a murder suicide when they finally come to take his home.

I thought she was going to find the guy dead from suicide. That last line he rattles off just has to sting, because while it seemed like her statement was genuine, maybe she was trying a Jimmy/Saul tactic to save some face. Backfired.

It's an interesting dichotomy in how she sees Jimmy/Saul get so energized from his work and being really into it (without knowing the actual danger he could be in), whereas she has to play by the rules and she can't help the people she wants to help and instead has to take stuff away from people because of the law. I actually thought this might make her want to be like Jimmy/Saul more than ever.

It would be neat if Kim has a pro bono case to defend a drug dealer, but there were two of them and Jimmy/Saul is the lawyer for the other one.

Looks like Howard is back for the next episode.

Thank you @wildturkey for the postcard explanation. I couldn't figure that one out, either. Wouldn't have killed them to throw in a flashback of Werner talking about the SOH.

 

[RobBase]

Thank you @wildturkey for the postcard explanation. I couldn't figure that one out, either. Wouldn't have killed them to throw in a flashback of Werner talking about the SOH.

This went over my head too - missing most of last season didn’t help. I need to rewatch. But I read about it after the episode on some review. Some times reading a recap afterwards helps explains some small things. Though I’m still not sure what that that first beer bottle scene w Kim was? Was she drinking something other than beer and she didn’t want Jimmy to know? Was someone else (Howard) there before Jimmy showed up and the beer was his? I don’t get it.

Definitely agree that old dude will go out shooting, and might take someone w him.

 

[Sparhawk]

This went over my head too - missing most of last season didn’t help. I need to rewatch. But I read about it after the episode on some review. Some times reading a recap afterwards helps explains some small things. Though I’m still not sure what that that first beer bottle scene w Kim was? Was she drinking something other than beer and she didn’t want Jimmy to know? Was someone else (Howard) there before Jimmy showed up and the beer was his? I don’t get it.

Definitely agree that old dude will go out shooting, and might take someone w him.

Maybe she thinks Jimmy is being careless by leaving the bottle where it could easily fall and hurt someone.
This is Kim in 'help' mode. She wants to help her pro bono clients. She takes pride in that. But, she's always having to listen to somebody else telling her what to do. Which is now the opposite of Jimmy.

The second scene, she abandons help mode and is just pure anger. She doesn't know how to let off steam so this is it.

 

[RobBase]

Maybe she thinks Jimmy is being careless by leaving the bottle where it could easily fall and hurt someone.
This is Kim in 'help' mode. She wants to help her pro bono clients. She takes pride in that. But, she's always having to listen to somebody else telling her what to do. Which is now the opposite of Jimmy.

The second scene, she abandons help mode and is just pure anger. She doesn't know how to let off steam so this is it.

Oh jeez. That makes total sense.

 

[Sparhawk]

Oh jeez. That makes total sense.

Now, I'm not positive on the symbolism of the ice cream cone and the ants.

The ice cream is good and represents happiness and the ants are bad?
The ice cream is Jimmy and the ants are Saul eventually eating away at him?
The ants represent the swarm of evil that is about to come and swallow up this good thing?

In that way, maybe the beer bottles were good Kim/evil Kim.

Probably lots of ways to go on these, which maybe is the intent all along.
People break bad for all kinds of reasons.

 

[RobBase]

Now, I'm not positive on the symbolism of the ice cream cone and the ants.

The ice cream is good and represents happiness and the ants are bad?
The ice cream is Jimmy and the ants are Saul eventually eating away at him?
The ants represent the swarm of evil that is about to come and swallow up this good thing?

In that way, maybe the beer bottles were good Kim/evil Kim.

Probably lots of ways to go on these, which maybe is the intent all along.
People break bad for all kinds of reasons.

That’s what I read in a review. The ice cream representing the sweet spot Jimmy was in before he got in that car. The ants represent all the bad things about to eat away at the good thing he had going.

'Better Call Saul' Recap: Walking the Same Line