To no one’s surprise, Margaux and I really liked last night’s Better Call Saul.
Trevor: What a bizarrely sad way to open the episode. At first, when I saw Chuck replacing light bulbs in his house, I thought he was better, but it turned out to be a flashback of Jimmy meeting Chuck’s wife, the titular Rebecca. And how weird was the lighting – Chuck’s house looked not haunted but alien. And such a nice touch at the end, when Chuck isn’t condemning Jimmy but actively imitating him, envious of his ease with people. Of course this envy will metastasize into animosity, but for now it’s just a brief, sad portrait of two brothers trying to make sense of each other.
Or maybe I’m reading too far into this and I sound like a douchebag! Could go either way. How did you like “Rebecca”?
Margaux: What was most striking, besides the look of the cold open being so desaturated that it almost appeared to be black-and-white, was how young in actual lighting (and weight of Chuck’s “disease” momentarily lifted) Michael McKean looked. The cold open took me by pleasant surprise, the story Chuck tells Kim at the end of “Rebecca” kind of helps to make sense as to why Chuck was so cold toward simpler, flashback time Jimmy (and why he never made it to Chuck and Rebecca’s wedding) and his endless barrage of lawyer jokes. It was nice to see Chuck in a different, softer light (pun intended), but ultimately raised more questions than answers.
Trevor: Well if there’s one thing we know about Vince Gilligan’s storytelling style, it’s that he doesn’t like to tell you everything at once. Better Call Saul now has three major characters to deal with, people who don’t end up in Breaking Bad, and that’s Kim, Chuck, and Rebecca.
Of course if Jimmy keeps burning bridges then Kim’s exit will come pretty naturally. I love that his answer to her troubles is to sue HHM, which Kim rightly says will be career suicide. “You don’t save me. I save me.” I’m not sure yet what’s going to happen to Kim, but I know I’ll miss Rhea Seehorn’s performance.
Margaux: And that Kim’s line, “you don’t save me, I save me” is juxtaposed with Jimmy coming into Davis & Main sporting his “World’s Second Best Lawyer” mug – not sure what that really means beyond his recognition that she’s right and he respects that. The montage of Kim trying to hustle new business not only for HHM, but to obviously save her own skin was fantastic and admirable. The way she just digs her heels in and refuses to give up was really well executed and I liked that we did get to see Hamlin’s tougher, unrelenting asshole side come through a little bit. I wasn’t sure he still had it in him after how nice he was Jimmy in the beginning, but I’d suppose you don’t get to cross Hamlin a second time.
Trevor: Keeping Kim on doc review was cold as ice. That shot of her standing beneath the HHM flag was the loneliest-looking we’ve ever seen her (by the way, HHM having a flag is a great touch, and I can almost guarantee whose idea it was).
I really enjoyed the scene of Kim and Chuck in the office near dawn. At first it was painfully awkward, with Chuck trying to replicate Jimmy’s easy banter, but it segued into something more substantial, as Chuck admitted that he more or less blames Jimmy for their father’s death. Kim, in Chuck’s eyes, is just more collateral damage, but he’ll put in a good word with her for Howard nonetheless. One thing that BCS excels at it is showing redemptive qualities to even those characters it treats as villains.
Margaux: Especially after Jimmy’s idea that Kim sue her way out of doc review, Jimmy not only makes what Kim is going through about him, he throws Chuck under the bus too, turning all of this into an extended family feud where the only thing Jimmy cares about is Chuck admitting that he’s not perfect. And you know what? The brothers McGill can do that without involving Kim. But I think after Chuck opens up to Kim in a mature way about the root cause of why he always keeps Jimmy at arms length, you end up feeling for Chuck and supporting (or at least, I do) why he’s so hard on Jimmy. It’s not just the “Slipping Jimmy” persona Chuck doesn’t approve of, it is something a lot more personal and hurtful. Couldn’t help but think that, whether it was intentional or not, Chuck’s talk with Kim could be one of the final nails in the relationship coffin of Kim and Jimmy.
Agreed. That monologue was pretty much perfectly sold by Michael McKean (I’m always amazed by the dramatic work of comedic actors on this show). I found it interesting that Kim told someone on the phone that she’s seeing someone, so I guess in the next few weeks we’ll see how true that remains.
Trevor: I want to switch gears for a sec and talk about something I truly didn’t see coming – Tio Salamanca! Surprise Tio is the best Tio. It was a wise move to keep Mark Margolis’ name out of the credits, and Breaking Bad fans won’t be used to hearing Tio speak, so the reveal worked really well for me.
Margaux: It was INSANE to see a walking, talking, non-bell-dinging Tio! We thought last week that Tuco (and Crazy Eight, who drops off cash before Mike gets the crap beaten out of him) was the last of the Breaking Bad characters we’d see, but we were wrong and in this instance, I am so happy that we were. Tio’s mere presence when he walked in made my heart jump into my throat, but his request that Mike “do the right thing” by taking the rap for the gun charge was fairly logical and the monetary incentive was must be hard to say no to, what with Stacy and Kaley staying in a hotel for the time being. But how does this impact Mike’s deal with Nacho?
Trevor: There was a very interesting dimension to Tio’s request; it hinged heavily on Mike’s sense of honor. But five grand for an 8-10 year stretch? That’s like $500 a year – what is Mike, a teacher? I see Tio complicating Mike’s life in the future. Normally this would be easy to predict (one of them dies), but knowing as we do that they both make it almost to the end of Breaking Bad, it’ll be interesting to see what narrative hoops the writers jump through to keep them alive. In many respects, Better Call Saul painted the writing staff into a corner, but it’s forced them to come up with interesting solutions to potential problems. I’m excited to see what they do with this.
Margaux: Gilligan has said in the past that he enjoys painting himself and his writers into difficult corners that they have to get out of, but I think the implication in Tio’s request is that because Mike is a former cop (and a white guy) that they will go easier on him than say methed out Tuco. Tio wasn’t arguing for no jail for Tuco, just not ten years worth. Whether Tuco stays in prison for five minutes or five years, I suspect won’t do too much to change Tuco (we all already know he never really kicks with the meth habit), I’d wager that Mike might not even see the inside of a jail cell should he feel like copping to that charge. But I do agree that if Mike doesn’t play nice and doesn’t go along with Tio’s request, there will be negative consequences, Tio comes across as a reasonable enough man when he respectfully approaches Mike in the diner, but I don’t think that would last if Mike doesn’t heed the “do the right thing” call.
Trevor: All good points. I love the casual way this show introduces conflict. Tio just moseys over to Mike’s booth, apologizes for his nephew, then asks him for a favor. On the surface, he’s very respectful, but we all know this is going to go south, fast. Maybe we’ll get to see how Tio wound up in that chair (we’re definitely going to see how Tio wound up in that chair).
Margaux: Oh, and we know that Mike knows enough to know that this is all an act that will end violently. One thing I did want to quickly touch base on is Jimmy’s D&M court appointed babysitter Erin, who is basically brunette Kim. Found all of their interactions to be hilarious, especially when Jimmy introduces Erin to Mike as such: “my babysitter Erin, my Grandpa Mike.” But what was most telling, besides Jimmy finally upholding the standards of the New Mexico bar for one day (whether he wanted to or not) was his run in with Bill. Holy shit, talk about the most depressing bathroom encounter ever, “I’d kill my Mother for a fireplace. Or a window”. I hope an exchange as disheartening as that one will help Jimmy appreciate his job a little more, but we all know he’s not. Poor, poor Bill.
Trevor: Some classic BCS black humor. Better Call Bill would be a much more depressing show.
Margaux: It would just be Bill getting thrown up on before trial and complaining how he doesn’t have an assistant or window. Jesus, Bill.
Trevor: I think you and I just accidentally wrote a sad short story.
Top to bottom, “Rebecca” was a solid episode that comes in a long line of them. It’s hard for this show to be anything less than compulsively watchable, and even in an episode like this, where less actual “plotting” occurs, it can still introduce conflicts and organically explain backstory. I’m thinking a solid four stars, but I’d be willing to listen to arguments against that.
Margaux: Sometimes I can’t tell if Better Call Saul is easier or harder to review because we end up in agreement so often. “Rebecca” is most certainly another four star episode, a show like BCS doesn’t really thrive on heavy-handed plotting and really excels when they let the story and the actors bring it to life, which is something they knock out of the park every single week. As usual, I’m excited to see how Tio ends up in that chair and discover what ultimately happens (or happened) to Rebecca and if that ties into Chuck and his illness in a significant way.
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