Better Call Saul

[therewillbeblus]

Well, we need to see what makes Mike lose the trust of his daughter-in-law, and what prompts both Gus and Mike to recommit to their partnership, which is clearly fractured now and in a complacent rhythm of trust by the time of BB's events. I'm not saying those are as critical as the storylines of Jimmy/Kim, but they're important given all the time the show has taken to craft their dynamics, which would be ridiculous to just leave open now, even if I don't personally care to see it. But I'd rather see those loops get closed effectively than Walt/Jesse cameos for fan service, so whatchagonnado

[Kracker]

Supposedly Walt/Jesse won't be fan service but will be integral to the plot, like with Hank in the previous season, or may even be there to patch a BB hole.

I don't think Mike's daughter-in-law is that important to where we need to the show to connect the dots for us on that one. They didn't even have Kim finish walking out the door before zipping us into Breaking Bad. With that scene with Nacho's dad, Mike's arc is complete. We are left with that contention between Gus and Mike which may be addressed but its rather minor and can assume Mike gradually phases much like Saul did.

I did discuss the wine scene, which is being hailed as a master class in psychology through the panoply of Gus' microexpressions in response to key things, further with people. Surface level its Gus not wanting to put someone in danger by starting a relationship, followed by the realization that he needs to achieve his revenge in order have that peace again. I thought the waiter's story was allegorical and it's Gus that enjoyed a taste of expensive bottle of wine before rejecting it for the rum and diet coke.

[therewillbeblus]

I don’t think we need these dot-connections either, but I do think the show has built itself to a point where it wants to give them to us so badly that it’s a self-prescribed expectation

[Roscoe]

There was that odd little moment in Fun And Games where Kim, having gone to Gus's home with the gun, is asked who she was supposed to kill, and she points to a black guy with glasses in the room and says, "Him." Interesting that Lalo isn't the only one with a double in the series. I doubt anything further will come of it.

[Walter Kurtz]

If the GoT franchise is going to do The Further Adventures of Jon Snow... the BB franchise can do something similar with Kim Wexler. One of my three favorite TV characters ever. (Along with Raylan Givens and Omar.) This is a four-star show whenever Kim is involved... and something considerably less otherwise.

[pianocrash]

If the GoT franchise is going to do The Further Adventures of Jon Snow... the BB franchise can do something similar with Kim Wexler. One of my three favorite TV characters ever. (Along with Raylan Givens and Omar.) This is a four-star show whenever Kim is involved... and something considerably less otherwise.

Be careful what you wish for.

Also, back to Carol Burnett, isn't it strange that the one character that we've only heard about but never seen in this universe is Judge Papadoumian?

It could always end up being another Mr. Show alumn (Jill Talley, who is probably not old enough), I guess, but none of them seem to fit the bill (unless they lip sync dialogue read by Tom Kenny).

[Kracker]

Only the Jon Show is a bad idea and i dont know if I trust that actually have a good story for that. I'm hoping they really wrap up Kim's character so Vince can move on from the BB universe onto something new and great for us to get into. If that breakup scene is the last we see from her, then i guess seeing what Kim gets into after fleeing ABQ might be worth it.

[therewillbeblus]

If you want more Kim, you can watch the Ethics Training with Kim Wexler webisodes on YT, but I thought they were pretty lame

[Kracker]

"After all that, a happy ending"

SpoilerShow

People commented how "Fun and Games" could have served as a series finale and "Nippy" could have too as it wraps up the cab driver and Gene/Saul relishing in having gotten a taste of his old Saul life before walking off into the sunset, symbolically leaving that colorful shirt and tie behind. Not to mention it serves as a great bookend with Jimmy showing he still has a way with old people. It was Gene returning to Jimmy rather than picking Saul back up. It makes me even more curious as to what ending they have planned for us since it turned out this wasn't it. Will we spend the next three episodes in Saul timeline. or will there be another Gene episode and potential Kim reunion? A return to ABQ?

This might have been the most tense episode in the series. Jerry eating that Cinnabon gave me anxiety. Jeff slipping gave me a heart attack. Btw loved the subtle setup for that with the manager spotting the shoe scuff on the floor and demanding it be polished.

people thought Carol Burnett was going to play someone important or related but turns out she was just an unwittingly pawn in a classic scheme to take care of the cab driver. I pretty much knew neither character was going to be anyone important as its way too late to introduce someone like that.

Episode did have me confused because they changed actors on us. Previously the cab driver was played by Don Harvey, who does smaller parts in crime movies, whereas, this episode it's Pat Healy who plays a lot of slimy characters and I remember most from Compliance, which is a batshit crazy film. While I like Healy and he's right for this, I liked how threatening Harvey came across when he first introduced himself to Gene and wished he was the one having to frantically pull off the shopping spree. I wonder why he was changed out, likely scheduling or covid issues.


- Felt alot of cringe with Gene's fake breakdown but now thought he should have gone harder and all in since the breakdown would have made a great cover for not continuing the weekly hangouts.

- The look on Jeff's face as he left the department store having felt the thrill and satisfaction of the game.

- The role reversal at the end where Gene is the one telling Jeff to "Say it" as well as the full reversal of the "we're done when we say we're done". For Gene it was the thrill of taking the power back. This is also a contrast from the very beginning on the series. The series premiere, Gene was scared and paranoid about anybody passing by and noticing him. The end of this episode, he's enjoying his day and found peace making Cinnabons to the point of forgetting when its lunchtime, completing his story arc.

- Gene having it dawn on viewers how, really, he made Heisenberg in that surreal moment.

- Carol Burnett's look of dismay after Gene disabled her scooter was priceless and heartbreaking.

[therewillbeblus]

I felt crazy seeing Pat Healy referred to as a character played by someone else. I knew I wouldn't have failed to recognize him before, but glad to be assured. Also, pretty sure we'll get both timelines within the last three- maybe one of each and then a blended episode? The post-credits Better Call Saul: The Final Season advertisement was just some dialog over a b&w shot of a car in wintry rural Nebraska crossroad, and I doubt that's a ruse

[Kracker]

Maybe we'll get a Wizard of Oz moment. I almost expected the shirt and tie at the end to be in color, Im sure that crossed their minds but they decided against it.

The teasers do carry some weight. The one for "Fun and Games" was Jimmy's Mike advice over the shot of Saul's office, which is where we end. And the one for "Nippy" is the shot of the department store with Gene coaching through the megaphone. No telling without context. FWIW, the subtitle attributes the out-of-context line of dialogue to Saul, not Gene or Jimmy.

[therewillbeblus]

The episode was great though, and capitalized on Gilligan and Gould's strengths on calculated misdirection

SpoilerShow

Gene's anxiety as he hypervigiliantly focuses on the cutting of the cinnabun immediately prompts the idea of poison ('Uh oh, this guy cuts into his cinnanuns when he should be taking big bites, he's going to discover what I put in there!') but then I thought, Saul isn't so stupid as to 'out' himself unless he's completely self-destructive. Of course it's a long game with that look being one that patiently observes all the intricacies of the guard's eating habits to calculate a time window, just like Gilligan/Gould compute variable intents that they present as playful detours.

[Kracker]

The episode was great though, and capitalized on Gilligan and Gould's strengths on calculated misdirection

SpoilerShow

Gene's anxiety as he hypervigiliantly focuses on the cutting of the cinnabun immediately prompts the idea of poison ('Uh oh, this guy cuts into his cinnanuns when he should be taking big bites, he's going to discover what I put in there!') but then I thought, Saul isn't so stupid as to 'out' himself unless he's completely self-destructive. Of course it's a long game with that look being one that patiently observes all the intricacies of the guard's eating habits to calculate a time window, just like Gilligan/Gould compute variable intents that they present as playful detours.

SpoilerShow

I was pretty pleased to find that everything was really about calculation and undetectable manipulation. The former involving logging the guards routine over weeks in order to detect any deviations to writing down the prices of everything so that Jeff steals the minimum amount of merch for the maximum penalty to making sure the truck for the heist is rented out of state just to add another felony. The latter being everything from becoming an expert on the Nebraska Cornhuskers to the delivery guy actually indeed bringing the store manager flowers.

I absolutely cannot stand when poison/drugging is used as a plot device, it's the laziest sloppiest thing I see writers do in crime dramas and knew what i was seeing had to be extreme surface level.

Very reminiscent of "Dead Freight" where they had to be robbed without knowing they were robbed, except this was all about con itself.

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah, I find it amusing how these showrunners have been presenting us with material for so long that always wind up being red herrings for something more patient and less aggressive, and yet force us to confront our expectations for it to be one of those violent obvious outcomes- I don’t know if it says more about us and our conditioning from TV or their confident awareness of our fixed psychologies…

[starmanof51]

Maybe we'll get a Wizard of Oz moment. I almost expected the shirt and tie at the end to be in color, Im sure that crossed their minds but they decided against it.

I thought that too! I thought he was going to put them on the checkout counter and we're going color before the credits roll.

[cdnchris]

The setup with the mark on the floor:

SpoilerShow

I honestly thought it was setting up for some sort of showdown where the floor polisher would be there as the robbery was going down, only to have it lead to a hilarious prat fall and then that stressful sequence where Jerry/Gerry/Gary was holding off on finishing that last piece of Cinnabon. The whole thing was beautifully constructed.

[pianocrash]

The setup with the mark on the floor:

SpoilerShow

I honestly thought it was setting up for some sort of showdown where the floor polisher would be there as the robbery was going down, only to have it lead to a hilarious prat fall and then that stressful sequence where Jerry/Gerry/Gary was holding off on finishing that last piece of Cinnabon. The whole thing was beautifully constructed.

SpoilerShow

Hard to not see Jeff as a stand-in at that moment for Saul as Slippin' Jimmy (original Illinois era), Jimmy on the ground at the music store (commercial era), or Saul laying atop his plush purple office carpet w/ his foot machine in Breaking Bad, all while he poured his actual story out just to buy time. Incredible!

I was a little disappointed Don Harvey didn't return (he always pops up in seedier fare like The Deuce, as exactly the guy you'd guess he'd be), but at least the Cosby sweater was enough to carry the character through Healy.

[Kracker]

We're getting more Gene for sure:

SpoilerShow

I keep forgetting to look out for dates on things. Someone pointed out the date on the newspaper Gene is reading when he's studying sports is October 18, 2010.

Judging by the montage and the game they are referring to (according to sports nerds), the mall heist takes place on November 7th-8th

The call that Saul tells Francesca to pick up in "Quite a Ride" is on November 12, 2010, which by coincidence is Jimmy's 50th birthday (according the BB Wiki).

With the Jeff plotline resolved and the Gene story arc completed, giving us the impression of a finale, these final episodes might feel more like a coda.

[Roger Ryan]

We're getting more Gene for sure:

SpoilerShow

I keep forgetting to look out for dates on things. Someone pointed out the date on the newspaper Gene is reading when he's studying sports is October 18, 2010.

Judging by the montage and the game they are referring to (according to sports nerds), the mall heist takes place on November 7th-8th

The call that Saul tells Francesca to pick up in "Quite a Ride" is on November 12, 2010, which by coincidence is Jimmy's 50th birthday (according the BB Wiki).

With the Jeff plotline resolved and the Gene story arc completed, giving us the impression of a finale, these final episodes might feel more like a coda.

I'm trying to figure out the logic of this spoilered info...

SpoilerShow

... The flash-forward scene in the episode "Quite A Ride" takes place just before Saul changes his identity and makes his getaway to Omaha. How is that supposed to take place four or five days after the mall heist orchestrated by Gene who's clearly been living in Omaha for a while?

[Swift]

That scene doesn't take place on Nov 12, 2010. He tells Francesca to expect a call on that date. At least that's what I gleamed from googling it earlier. I don't remember that scene at all, and am overall pretty terrible at all these callbacks.

[dustybooks]

It’s been very interesting how different the response to this latest episode was here and among critics versus other places where it’s being greeted with some hostility. Personally I found it brilliant and almost ridiculously tense; maybe I was just triggered by how the setting reminded me of Nocturama!

[RIP Film]

I didn’t think much of it until I read the discussion here, you start to see how much they packed into this episode. Also just from the standpoint of misdirection and the conditioning from TV like others said— you half expect the security guard to have a heart attack on his nth Cinnabon, throwing Gene into a moral dilemma or some such to ratchet up the drama. Something does go wrong, but its used to throw a painful spotlight on Gene/Jimmy. That’s where the show excels, in guiding a thread between TV expectations and reality, while not denigrating TV’s place in culture but using it to confront our own narrative biases.

On an unrelated note, I can’t believe Rhea Seehorn is 50.

[Kracker]

Brace yourselves, the next episode of Better Call Saul is in fact titled *drumroll*...

SpoilerShow

"Breaking Bad"

with the description 'The partners escalate their enterprise to new levels.'

[Computer Raheem]

Brace yourselves, the next episode of Better Call Saul is in fact titled *drumroll*...

SpoilerShow

"Breaking Bad"

with the description 'The partners escalate their enterprise to new levels.'

Eagerly awaiting this to be a secret Kim episode and the internet loses it mind again

[black&huge]

that's too on the nose. I'm guessing a complete switcheroo where the entire ep takes place further ahead of Nebraska where Saul is attempting to be with Kim in another universe and has to fight a magic wielding doctor to do so. The ep is actually called "Love and Blunder"