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BETTER CALL SAUL


Jay

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42 minutes ago, Anthony said:

Today I was thinking "what might a satisfying end for Lalo look like?", and then it occured to me.

 

What if: Lalo eventually finds Gus's secret underground meth lab, but Mike is one step ahead of him and has him corned.  Gus shows up and kills him and then get buried under some more concrete, since it isn't finished being built yet, so there's still pouring to do

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Take what I said but set it in the meth lab!

 

The lab, or anything associated with it - Gale perhaps - has got to be the proof, or the proof will eventually lead to it/him, and that's what Lalo will use as leverage or evidence.

 

Also, I'm expecting a confrontation between Cliff and Howard soon. The whole thing about Howard's wife and Cliff's son with an addition problem is going to fuel that fire.

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I have to wonder if Lalo is going to track down Kai or someone else who worked on the job, and that's how he finds out where it is.  Or even... Mrs Ziegler!

 

 

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6 hours ago, Edmilson said:

According to Wikipedia, BCS will end with 63 episodes aired. That is one episode longer than Breaking Bad, which finished its run with 62 episodes.

 

But the same amount if you count El Camino as a bonus!

 

I think BCS will still end up being longer, given they're been far less restricted on episode length.

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Some good observations from the recap podcast I listened to:

 

-So after "Howard" kicks Wendy out of his car in the street and Kim and Clifford both react, the next time wee see Wendy is when Kim is dropping her off.  Does that imply Kim told Cliff something like "let me go help that woman, I'll take her home" or whatever?  If so, wouldn't Clifford followup with her later, like "Hey did you ask that girl if that was really Howard?"

 

-I know get why in the previous episode they said their next step had to happen on the 18th - Clifford isn't often in Albuquerque, so there was a rush to get the car key copied by that day for his visit for everything to line up

 

 

Another thing I forgot to mention when I watched the episode was at the end when they talk about going to get tacos.... do these people ever eat home cooked meals?  100% of their meals seem to be at a restaurant, or take-out from a restaurant.  What's up with that?

 

On 03/05/2022 at 6:11 PM, Anthony said:

I wasn't sure of the relevancy of his mention of his son's drug addition (given Kim and Jimmy are trying to frame Howard as having a coke habit, I thought that might send Kim off in a different direction), but then when he acknowledged he was connected and could help Kim out with her pro bono practice....something happened. She realised he was serious, and she and Jimmy should maybe have played it straight all along.

 

I wonder about Cliff Main's son being a drug addict thing.  First of all, I hope they don't make his son be Badger or Skinny Pete or something like that :p  But more seriously, you have to wonder if Jimmy and Kim already knew about that, or if Kim just learned it at that lunch.  If they already knew about it, it adds an extra level to their con; Out of all the ways they've chosen to frame howard, making it both drug related and having Cliff be present when various parts of the scheme happen could all be because they know about his son.  If they didn't know about it, then it might have only been mentioned as reason why he'd be willing to fund her firm.


But yes, it should be tough for Kim now to decide if she keeps wanting to go through the scam or not now that this legit offer from Cliff is on the table.  I hope this comes up next week!

 

 

On 03/05/2022 at 6:11 PM, Anthony said:

But although Jimmy is now viewed as this pariah at the courthouse, he's suddenly got all this new business because word has spread that he got Lalo off. So he's now happy and confident, and pressing on finding a new office. (It's a mirror of the "It was one of the best days of my professional life..." scene from 6.01). However, Kim is now the one (literally) looking over her shoulder at the end of the episode. They've switched places.

 

Nice observation!

 

On 04/05/2022 at 3:45 PM, Anthony said:

Neat!

 

This exchange has got to be some big clue to unlocking the ending of this thing.

 

 

Who's the attorney that Jimmy recommends to Francesca?

 

And who's gonna be calling a specific phone on November 12th at 3pm?

 

Wow, I hadn't watched that episode since it aired.  What a cool little scene. Of course it has nothing to do with the rest of that episode, or that season, or this season so far.  But now that we are getting closer to the downfall its fun to revisit.  But of your questions are a good one and I can't see what the writers came up with to answer them.

 

On 05/05/2022 at 1:44 PM, LSH said:

I really enjoyed this episode. Top marks to Seehorn for her direction... 

 

I'd say the episode wasn't just directed well, it was directed very well.  Perhaps the episode so far this season with the most interesting camera work and staging of scenes.  It helps that it didn't have a major event happen, or unusual location like Mexico, the desert, etc.  It was nice to see a whole hour of scenes in and around Albuquerque!  Some of the shots were so cool, like when the camera was mounted on the car door, the long oner through the tunnel between the houses, the overhead shot of Jimmy pulling up on the sign, and the pan to Mike sitting at the bar.  I look forward to Seehorn's acting career, but without the safety net of the crew she'd already been working with for 5 years I wonder what her next directing work will look like

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4 hours ago, Jay said:

So after "Howard" kicks Wendy out of his car in the street and Kim and Clifford both react, the next time wee see Wendy is when Kim is dropping her off.  Does that imply Kim told Cliff something like "let me go help that woman, I'll take her home" or whatever?  If so, wouldn't Clifford followup with her later, like "Hey did you ask that girl if that was really Howard?"

 

This hadn't occured to me. Can't say for sure, but my impression is Wendy probably hung around close by waiting for Kim to finish her meeting with Cliff. And only when they were done, did Kim meet Wendy and drive her back to the motel.

 

4 hours ago, Jay said:

Another thing I forgot to mention when I watched the episode was at the end when they talk about going to get tacos.... do these people ever eat home cooked meals?  100% of their meals seem to be at a restaurant, or take-out from a restaurant.  What's up with that?

 

Cereal and home made orange juice. ;)

 

4 hours ago, Jay said:

I wonder about Cliff Main's son being a drug addict thing.  First of all, I hope they don't make his son be Badger or Skinny Pete or something like that

 

Ha! I don't think the show would be that silly. I don't think this was brought up in conversation by accident though. It didn't seem like small talk. Kim's expression doesn't really change when she hears it, so it's difficult to tell if it's new information to her. I wondered if it would start her questioning whether what they are doing is wrong...but it sounded more like the sort of situation where she wants to help out. Anyway, by the end of the episode, it comes across like Kim is now less enthralled with her own plan than Jimmy. But as I said, they've gone too far to stop.

 

The thing I'm still not exactly clear on, is why does Kim want to create this flamboyant Saul character? I get the whole scam thing to get the Sandpiper money to set up a law practice and help people. But why does creating Saul Goodman help with that? Aren't there plenty of clients that need help that clearly aren't guilty criminals? It's not like Kim needs to drum up business.

 

4 hours ago, Jay said:

I'd say the episode wasn't just directed well, it was directed very well.  Perhaps the episode so far this season with the most interesting camera work and staging of scenes.  It helps that it didn't have a major event happen, or unusual location like Mexico, the desert, etc.  It was nice to see a whole hour of scenes in and around Albuquerque!  Some of the shots were so cool, like when the camera was mounted on the car door, the long oner through the tunnel between the houses, the overhead shot of Jimmy pulling up on the sign, and the pan to Mike sitting at the bar.  I look forward to Seehorn's acting career, but without the safety net of the crew she'd already been working with for 5 years I wonder what her next directing work will look like

 

This is the thing...how badly could directing an episode of BCS really go? Firstly, Vilce and Peter aren't stupid and wouldn't let someone direct who they didn't think could do a good job anyway. But - and Rhea even says it in the podcast - the crew are so competent, that she could have passed out on day 1 and they would still have gone on and shot the episode. As viewers, we get impressed by the flashy visuals, but I imagine most of that is actually courtesy of the DP. I imagine a director is more involved in guiding the actors? I would be curious to see an episode re-made with a new director but entirely different crew to see how the results differ. Maybe Metastasis is the outcome of that. :D

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Some cool tidbits from the Insider podcast

 

-Since Seehorn is an actor on the show (and lives in Albuquerque the entirety of each filming season), she couldn't be in LA to work on the edit of her episode with Chris McCaleb; They did all their collaboration of the edit through Zoom!

 

-Gus's house is the same real world house they used for Breaking Bad, and the new neighbor house is actually the neighboring house in real life.  So the exteriors, as well as the first floor interiors, where shot in those real houses; The basements and connecting tunnel was a huge set built on the soundstage.  So somewhere in that long oner they masked a transition from the set to the real house!

 

-A lot of the artwork seen in Kim's condo (where Kim and Jimmy live together now) are original pieces by Seehorn herself.  The single shot of her at home in season 1 was just a quick partial set built in an abandoned building near the nail salon; For season 2 they built her whole condo set and when staging it, they asked her if she had anything she thought would work well there and she provided the artwork and they liked it and used it.  Apparently one of them is a lady on a bed, and Seehorn lied on the bed the same way in this episode.  Seehorn also felt that Kim would not be the kind of person to have pictures of her family, her younger self, or anything at all, which is why there isn't anything like that.

 

-They had a nice discussion about how everyone shows vulnerability in this episode; Hamlin at therapy, Gus of course, Kim thinking she's being watched, Jimmy ostracized at work, etc etc.

 

I wish they let these podcasts go for 90 minutes instead of 60, because it really felt like they just barely covered all the biggest stuff and another half hour of discussion would have been very fruitful

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38 minutes ago, Jay said:

Seehorn also felt that Kim would not be the kind of person to have pictures of her family, her younger self, or anything at all

Really hope they continue exploring that before her sendoff this season, whatever and whenever it may be.

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On 08/05/2022 at 2:58 AM, Anthony said:

This hadn't occured to me. Can't say for sure, but my impression is Wendy probably hung around close by waiting for Kim to finish her meeting with Cliff. And only when they were done, did Kim meet Wendy and drive her back to the motel.

 

Oh, yea that makes sense!

 

On 08/05/2022 at 2:58 AM, Anthony said:

Cereal and home made orange juice. ;)

 

Ha!

 

On 08/05/2022 at 2:58 AM, Anthony said:

Ha! I don't think the show would be that silly. I don't think this was brought up in conversation by accident though. It didn't seem like small talk. Kim's expression doesn't really change when she hears it, so it's difficult to tell if it's new information to her. I wondered if it would start her questioning whether what they are doing is wrong...but it sounded more like the sort of situation where she wants to help out. Anyway, by the end of the episode, it comes across like Kim is now less enthralled with her own plan than Jimmy. But as I said, they've gone too far to stop.

 

Yea I think you're right, I think Kim is now on a new level of really and truly wanting to do good, and is feeling less into the scamming than ever before.  This is going to cause a rift between her and Jimmy soon I think.

 

On 08/05/2022 at 2:58 AM, Anthony said:

The thing I'm still not exactly clear on, is why does Kim want to create this flamboyant Saul character? I get the whole scam thing to get the Sandpiper money to set up a law practice and help people. But why does creating Saul Goodman help with that? Aren't there plenty of clients that need help that clearly aren't guilty criminals? It's not like Kim needs to drum up business.

 

Good point. I wonder if there will be more of an explanation for this coming

 

On 08/05/2022 at 2:58 AM, Anthony said:

This is the thing...how badly could directing an episode of BCS really go? Firstly, Vilce and Peter aren't stupid and wouldn't let someone direct who they didn't think could do a good job anyway. But - and Rhea even says it in the podcast - the crew are so competent, that she could have passed out on day 1 and they would still have gone on and shot the episode. As viewers, we get impressed by the flashy visuals, but I imagine most of that is actually courtesy of the DP.

 

Good point.  In the podcast she even said it was the DP's idea for that cool shot where the camera was on the car door.

 

On 08/05/2022 at 2:58 AM, Anthony said:

I imagine a director is more involved in guiding the actors? I would be curious to see an episode re-made with a new director but entirely different crew to see how the results differ. Maybe Metastasis is the outcome of that. :D

 

I mean it's a million things.  Rehearsing the scenes with the actors before filming, deciding on the blocking and staging, approval different options presented for set design and location choice and all kinds of other stuff

 

6 minutes ago, Holko said:

Really hope they continue exploring that before her sendoff this season, whatever and whenever it may be.

 

Hell yea!  I hope they are not saving a deeper insight into her backstory for a Kim Wexler spinoff show :) 

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5 hours ago, Jay said:

So somewhere in that long oner they masked a transition from the set to the real house!

 

They hinted in the podcast that it was impossible to notice, but it's obvious - it's when Gus starts walking up the stairs into the neighbours house. The camera zooms in on his back and ther's an obvious cutting point where the screen goes black for a moment.

 

The only recent movie or show that has done a oner that's left me totally baffled is Boiling Point. I won't say any more, but go watch the movie (it's great), and only after look up how they did it!

 

image.png

 

Hmm, "Hello, my name is B.".

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5 hours ago, Jay said:

-Gus's house is the same real world house they used for Breaking Bad, and the new neighbor house is actually the neighboring house in real life.  So the exteriors, as well as the first floor interiors, where shot in those real houses; The basements and connecting tunnel was a huge set built on the soundstage.  So somewhere in that long oner they masked a transition from the set to the real house!

 

That is super cool.

 

48 minutes ago, Anthony said:

The only recent movie or show that has done a oner that's left me totally baffled is Boiling Point. I won't say any more, but go watch the movie (it's great), and only after look up how they did it!

 

The restaurant one? I loved it too... and, as someone who worked in upmarket bars and restaurants in my late teens / early twenties, it hit quite close to home!

 

But yeah, technically it is very impressive. Apparently they had planned to do eight takes, could only do four (due to Covid), and ended up using the third.

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I like that your description still doesn't fully reveal the technical mind-fuck that the movie pulls! In fact, I was struggling to find out how they made it appear to be one long continous take, until I found out the truth.

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Wow I'm surprised you didn't pick up on it on your rewatch

 

I think I learned about it from the Insider podcast years ago

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I didn't mean to laugh, sorry. It won't be on UK Netflix until tomorrow (today) evening. 

 

Cannot wait.

 

This next episode is directed by Melissa Bernstein. She has one other director credit in the show: Season 5 Episode 7, which I think was the episode with Lalo in court.

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It worked fine a few attempts later

 

WTF is up with Gus

 

I think "Black and Blue" is for Jimmy's black eye and Lalo's blue balls :lol: 

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10 hours ago, Jay said:

WTF is up with Gus

 

I suspect he's plotting a trap to kill Lalo. He knows Lalo was already joining the dots with the underground lab. Why do I have a feeling Lalo might end up becoming a permanent addition to that lab he's been so desperate to uncover? There's an awfully large slab of concrete that needs to be laid down there...

 

The teaser was intriguing. Not sure what that measuring device proves (or the sticker for wherever it was made). Have we seen that device before? Clearly it's the next lead for Lalo to follow, so will he track down the plant where it was made? Did every member in Werner's construction team get the same thing? Werner's wife mentioned that the rest of his team survived the "cave in" incident...

 

The Howard/Jimmy/Kim plot has me stumped. Clearly they left a trail of breadcrumbs (and don't care that Howard knows they're responsible) but still none the wiser on their next move. It must involve Sandpiper and destroying Howard publicly, somehow?

 

And with Howard only just hiring a PI to keep an eye on Jimmy now, it rules him out as the mystery car stalker from episode 2.

 

Why do I have a feeling the Kim/Jimmy being watched by Mike's men subplot will somehow tie into Howard's PI? What if Jimmy or Kim spot this new PI but ignore him, assuming it's Mike's guys? Feels like worlds are about to collide inadvertently here...

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Better Call Saul 6x05 Black and Blue

 

Cold open - I love these openings that just feature images you have no context for set to music, no other sounds.  This was a fun little one.  I wonder if I'm the only one that briefly thought it was gonna be meth related?

 

Jimmy & Kim - I could watch Kim at home in tank tops forever. Their first scene confused me.  OK, so Kim couldn't sleep because she now knows Lalo is alive, put the chair on the door (as if that would actually help in any way), and then tried to pretend she was just doing work when she realized Jimmy was awake now too.  So far so good.  Then he comes out and sees the chair and says something like "I thought it was just me", which to me implied he was nervous about the Hamlin scam, since he thinks Lalo is dead.  But then he goes "thank god he's dead", so it WAS Lalo he meant when he saw the chair... but why?  If he thinks he's dead, why is he concerned about their safety?  I liked that Kim seemed to mull over in her head for just a second telling him the truth, and then didn't.


Gus - I loved the montage of him trying to go about his day, and loved the way everything changed when he said "spicy curls".  My immediate thought was that scene at Madrigal a season or two ago with all the execs trying out new products they were gonna roll out, etc... Any thoughts on why that meeting made him realize Lalo was going back to investigating the underground lab?  Just because that meeting was in Germany, and the team that was working on the lab was from there too?  There's gotta be a stronger connection than that.  The scene where he has Mike take him to the lab was interesting.  They basically confirmed they already have guys watching the laundromat that it is under, and the bit where he did something being the excavator was a little confusing.  Did he just stash his gun in the barrel and then count how many steps away the barrel is from the excavator, so he could find the gun in the dark?

 

Jimmy & Francesca - I can't believe he called her in to help before he even had any real furniture in that space, sheesh.  I also wish we got a better look at how much of a "sign on bonus" he gave her in cash, because I can't imagine she's be willing to work for this guy for anything less than a pretty decent chunk of change.

 

Howard & Cliff - I loved the way Howard saved the meeting with disgruntled Sandpiper residents.  Reminds me of when Jimmy summed Howard up expertly a season or two ago, saying he's a shitty lawyer but a great salesman.  I loved the bit where Howard's leg was twitching and Cliff assumed it was drug related.  We know Howard's not on drugs, so is the leg twitch a result of his problems with his wife at home, or just something he does?  It was nice that they worked in Cliff's son by him saying he recognized the signs, etc.  I am surprised Howard didn't grasp until now that Jimmy was behind the recent incidents, and also that he didn't explain it to Cliff right there instead of leaving Cliff hanging!

 

Howard & Jimmy - the whole boxing scene was so much fun!  I loved Howard's response to what Jimmy's doing to him, everything he said makes sense, and he's so right!  Strangely, I'm pretty sure Howard injuring Jimmy in some way that is visible seems to be part of their plan?  Or maybe they are now working that into their plan?  I loved that Howard is now stooping to paying people to follow Jimmy around.  I now predict that at some point Kim will notice people following them again and confront them, assuming it's Mike's guys, but it's really Hamlin's guy... and something bad will happen as a result!  

 

Lalo - The whole sequence of Lalo Ben in Germany was so much fun!  We know from the TravelWire incident that he already knew Werner's home address so it's not at all inconceivable that he'd go find Mrs Ziegler; How he crossed multiple borders and got a gun after landing is significantly more unrealistic though.  I guess it's best not to think about it.  As far as I can tell the two things he learned was that none of his team showed up at his funeral, which I guess implies they don't know he's dead? And all the "gifts" they sent were actually from Gus?  Or are we to understand they did send the gifts, but Gus paid them all not to attend?  And the second thing was the sticker he found on the bottom of the ruler thingy from the cold open, which I think was just the company that manufactured it.  So he'll go there next and learn who paid for the ruler gift, whether it be an actual guy on the team or a front of Gus will lead him back to the lab either way I suppose?  Can't wait!  I'm starting to feel like Lalo will be dead by the mid-season break!

 

 

I thought the camera tricks were far less effective this week than last week.  Last week, the camera attached to the car door, long oner through the tunnel, and long pull-back shot of Kim approaching the car were all spectacular.  This week, the shot of Kim's face reflected in the coffee cup went on way too long, the camera attached to the garage door closing was too over the top, and I think there was another reflection thing somewhere that didn't quite work for me.  On the other hand, the shot that showed the passing of time overnight outside of Mrs Ziegler's house was awesome!

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4 hours ago, crumbs said:

I suspect he's plotting a trap to kill Lalo. He knows Lalo was already joining the dots with the underground lab.

 

I suspect so too.  Basically, let Lalo find the lab, but be waiting for him inside it.

 

4 hours ago, crumbs said:

Why do I have a feeling Lalo might end up becoming a permanent addition to that lab he's been so desperate to uncover?

 

Probably because I predicted it in the first post on this page :) 

 

4 hours ago, crumbs said:

The teaser was intriguing. Not sure what that measuring device proves (or the sticker for wherever it was made). Have we seen that device before?

 

I don't think we've seen it before.  I think it was simply a gift that an engineer would give to their boss that they respected.  I think the sticker is just the name of the company that made it.

 

4 hours ago, crumbs said:

The Howard/Jimmy/Kim plot has me stumped. Clearly they left a trail of breadcrumbs (and don't care that Howard knows they're responsible) but still none the wiser on their next move. It must involve Sandpiper and destroying Howard publicly, somehow?

 

I mean, the main plot is spelled out exactly without any mystery: They want to defame Howard so the Sandpiper case gets settled sooner instead of later, and therefore they get the payout money sooner rather than later.  But yes, the details of this plot are very nebulous to the viewer right now, and certainly on purpose.  It does indeed seem like they assumed all along that Howard would figure out they were behind these recent incidents and they wanted him to confront Jimmy about it.  But we don't know if they wanted that to result in a physical altercation or not, or if they wanted him to hire guys to follow them around or not, yet.

 

4 hours ago, crumbs said:

And with Howard only just hiring a PI to keep an eye on Jimmy now, it rules him out as the mystery car stalker from episode 2.

 

Wait, what?  We learned who was following them last week, when Mike told Kim it was his guys.  

 

4 hours ago, crumbs said:

Also, why do I have a feeling the Kim/Jimmy being watched by Mike's men subplot will somehow tie into Howard's PI now watching them? Feels like worlds are about to collide inadvertently...

 

Yes!  I thought the exact same thing!

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Oh man, this was the slowest episode of the season so far, and probably my least favourite, but it had so much going on.

 

  • Loved the teaser with it's Breaking Bad cooking montage style shots. I swore this was Gale cooking a meth sample for Gus, but then I was like "What's with this ruler? Why are they sanding it down?", only for it to leave me in my favourite position at the end of a teaser:

    the-simpsons-krusty-the-clown.gif
     
  • I didn't know what "In Liebe... Deine Jungs" ("Love... your boys")" meant, but then it was revealed at near the end it was a gift from Werner's crew. I presume it was actually sent by Gus, as a gift to Margarethe after Wener's death. But then it does say "your boys" - so perhaps it was given to Werner by them?
     
  • Was there a reason Kim removed - and then put back - the appliance on the chair she used to prop the door with?
     
  • Why did Kim remove the chair at the end of the scene? Did she put it there at the beginning to "protect" Jimmy? Then when she realised he was anxious too, thought "we'll be okay if we're both on the same page. We can protect eachother"? This was a little confusing.
     
  • Gus is going nuts! His usual keep-things-busy and keep-things-perfect is getting the better of him! I never though I'd see the greatest villain of Breaking Bad...scrubbing limescale from a shower. :lol:
     
  • Howard's sales pitch at Sandpiper was great! Jimmy did tell him he's a shitty lawer but a great salesman after all!
     
  • Loved how the knee-twiching was probably nothing (do this!), but Cliff interpreted it as something else
     
  • Cliff's confrontation was great, but I don't really understand why Howard didn't explain the situation to Cliff better. Overcome with anger perhaps?
     
  • Cliff's son's drug problem comment pays off here...
     
  • "What Colonel Sanders is to chicken, Saul Goodman is to the law." :lol:
     
  • I swear most Francesca scenes in BCS and BB involve her extorting more money out of people!
     
  • SHE is responsible for the eventual office decor?! Surely not!
     
  • Viola coming back was a neat touch - don't feel like we ever got to know her before, but this scene was nice. Great how she looks up to Kim, who's actually turning into a shitty person.
     
  • The boxing so match was so surreal. It's not even a metaphor...they are literally punching the shit out of each other. Loved the Howard POV shot!
     
  • So Howard has now hired a PI to follow Jimmy, yet Jimmy and Kim still have more of the con to come. I like that Howard is now in on it (or at least thinks he is) so he can put up a fight.
     
  • I wonder what's so important about this retired judge that Kim got the name of from Viola
     
  • Lots of camera angles with reflections this episode - the coffee cup, in puddles, in the Camino bar - not sure of the relevance, but it stood out
     
  • The garage door camera shot had me grinning. At first I thought "this is just showing off", but then when it was revealed Mike was in the trunk and the shot actually served a purpose, I loved it.
     
  • The superlab returns! I CALLED THIS! THIS is the proof that Gus believes Lalo is going to eventually find. Mike gets the impression Gus is considering using the lab as a hiding place, but with Gus hiding his gun under the excavator, it suggests he's setting a trap for Lalo and expects he'll need to use it. You wouldn't set this up if there wasn't going to be confrontation down there!
     
  • Holy shit! I didn't call this, but someone else (Jay?) DID! Germany! Werner's wife! I never thought they'd do this, but Lalo's following the trail! So glad to see him again. Creepy yet suave at the same time as always. Very tense. Loved this, even though it was very un-Better Call Saul ish.
     
  • The label on the resin thing does say "Voelker's" which suggests it's German. I guess Lalo might have a few more leads to follow in Germany before coming back to the US?
     
  • I guess the only reason he was able to travel so easily was because he's not a wanted man - the world thinks he's dead.
     

I'll reply to other comments tomorrow.

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8 minutes ago, Anthony said:

Was there a reason Kim removed - and then put back - the appliance on the chair she used to prop the door with?

 

Because you can't use a chair to prop a door if it has shit on it

 

8 minutes ago, Anthony said:

Why did Kim remove the chair at the end of the scene? Did she put it there at the beginning to "protect" Jimmy? Then when she realised he was anxious too, thought "we'll be okay if we're both on the same page. We can protect eachother"? This was a little confusing.

 

I read it more as "yea, this is silly, this doesn't accomplish anything"

 

8 minutes ago, Anthony said:

Cliff's confrontation was great, but I don't really understand why Howard didn't explain the situation to Cliff better. Overcome with anger perhaps?

 

I think so

 

8 minutes ago, Anthony said:

I wonder what's so important about this retired judge that Kim got the name of from Viola

 

Well I think they had no clue who the judge would be for the case until that moment.  But when they were talking about his mustache, I got the impression they were going to impersonate him.  Get ready for another Jimmy disguise?

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I'm in a bit of a weird place with the show now. I simultaneously feel that these last eps are a bit empty and that they left themselves too short of a time with too much to wrap up, develop, reintroduce, reveal, continue. S5 progressed so well, all the separate storylines starting to bleed into each other - but now they're all separate again, nacho thrown to the side with no Lalo, Lalo not even present or just away somewhere not even being himself, Saul's still not connected with Gus.

 

The show also has wonderful visual storytelling and a perfect example of show don't tell - but the drawback is that a ton of character personalities and motivations are left implied or to be concluded for yourself, and now by the end we still don't explicitly know a lot of them well enough. What makes Kim tick? We just see her planning to do stuff we don't know about. Jimmy's still his down and low self from the last 1-1.5 seasons, but also has throwaway Saul scenes for no good reason - where is he on the scale? Is there even a scale? Is he this same way in BB behind the scenes too? Why did we need scenes of him getting his office and Francesca over more important stuff, such physical aspects could've been done in maybe some montage of him dealing with Kim's death or whatever by fully hiding in his Saul persona and getting to BB.

 

We don't have many episodes left and even big events will feel rushed because of how little time they can get, even now already we had things like Kim and Jimmy fearing Lalo, finding out he's dead, Kim immediately finding out he's not. Nacho's run felt similar and disconnected to me too. BB was done so perfectly, we knew the characters well, the supervillain was dispatched in S4, 5.1 was spent with Walt becoming the villain, 5.2 already started with him being found out and had plenty of episodes for the consequences and the details of his downfall.

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13 hours ago, Alex said:

Yeah, Lalo is definitely ending up under that lab.

 

I was thinking about that. Obviously, Jimmy will get to know that he's still alive soon, given his remark in that episode of BB that was previously mentioned. On the other hand, since he mentions him in that episode, does it mean that Lalo will not be killed in the show at all? Or that he's killed, but Jimmy won't know?

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I guess he will be killed and Jimmy won’t know. I just can’t see how Lalo could possibly be alive during BB (unless he’s being held captive by Gus?)

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There's no chance Lalo is alive by the time of the big scene between Gus and Hector in the nursing home with the bomb, because Gus tells Hector that every other Salamanca is dead or whatever the exact line is. 

 

But perhaps Lalo will survive into the start of the BB timeline and die later, it's technically possible. But to me it seems likely he's done for either next week or the week after. 

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3 hours ago, Holko said:

Saul's still not connected with Gus.

 

I'm pretty sure that's never gonna happen. I always thought the connection was via Mike aka "the guy who knows a guy".

 

The thing I'm most anxious about is there's still a four year gap between what we're witnessing now and the start of Breaking Bad. And we know (redacted name) and (redacted name) are due to make an appearance. How on earth will that be handled? And when?

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Margarethe butting in with the correct answer to the quiz question was like when Werner corrected the pronouniation of the guy ordering "hefeweizen" at the German bar.

 

They were obviously a very precise and particular couple!

 

I didn't realise Gus was counting the number of steps between the cable and the excavator in the superlab. But knowing this now, it also makes sense why he picked up the cable to check how easy it was to disconnect. I suppose he is planning to lure Lalo down to the lab, cut the power, and shoot him.

 

Quite how all of that is going to be pulled off is a mystery.

 

Also, I love how Gus figured out that Lalo is probably looking for the superlab again while he was serving the customer in Pollos Hermanos. He said "May I recommend our signature spice curls?", which is exactly what he gave to Peter Schuler to sample when he was last at Madrigal HQ.

 

Spice Curls > Schuler > German > German connection > Werner > LAB!

 

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Saul in Breaking Bad specifically does not know Gus, but knows that Mike knows him

 

I think the season 3 scene of Jimmy interacting with Gus in Los Pollos Hermanos is the only time they'll share a scene

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I realise this season is a slow burn, but the whole series has been like this.

 

It is building up to a Ozymandies-level episode, I can feel it!

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5 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

Yay! Only a few weeks ago, Dave Porter was saying he didn't know if he would do any more BCS albums as they are a lot of work to put together.

 

I'm actually really bad with knowing which episodes the tracks are from - the score is so low-key it doesn't often stand out. I'm guessing this is music up to the end of season 5 (even though the cover is season 6 artwork). So sadly, the cues that have stood out so far this season (the country club locker room, Jimmys stealing Howard's car) won't be on it.

 

I hope there will be vol. 3 as well. 

 

Pretty sure "Too Hot For Snakes" is an inside joke from the podcast. I think it might have been Jenn Caroll (Producer) who once said they were shooting on a really hot day in the desert (I forget which scene) and they were concerned about snakes. But the snake wrangler they had was really chilld and not doing much, and when they asked him why, this was his response.

 

 

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Forgot to mention, in the last episode we got another one of the poster images.

 

Although I don't recall seeing this exact angle, which we have done with the others.

 

FQZ83lFX0Ag8r_R.jpeg

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Not too many interesting tidbits in the Insider podcast.  Again it felt like if they could have just talked for 90 minutes instead of 60 we would have gotten some good stuff

 

The Ziegler's house was an actual house they found in Albuquerque.  The big overnight shot was basically accomplished by having a visual effects company in Canada add in the tram and German city background, which took months.

 

Odenkirk had undergone fight training for Nobody that he had to "un learn"; For example he knew the "proper" fight stance but Jimmy wouldn't.  Luis Moncado (who plays one of hte cousins) was the fight coordinator for the boxing match. It wasn't a real venue, they built it in a building with high ceilings so they could get the camera angles they wanted

 

They indicated all the scenes filmed at the exterior strip location had to be filmed close together and early on, so for example this week's scenes there were filmed during 604's production.  I wonder if this is because there is some extensive set dressing coming that was gonna take months to build?  Other than the inflatable statue of liberty I can't remember the BB version of the strip mall looking that different from how it does in these two BCS episodes so far.

 

They did mention that they were lucky to get the same location again because since filming BB there'd been a ton of turnover of the various stores in that strip mall, and the specific part that had been Saul's office had been a restaurant for many years that had closed not long before they needed it for BCS.  They had to demolish some huge patio they had built for outdoor eating to make it look like it looked in BB.

 

The random toilet inside was a reference to an incident from Vince's past, where he tagged along with a buddy who was looking at apartments once and they were brought to one that had a random, un-plumbed toilet in the middle of the living room (that had been used).  Gross!

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I'm surprised you never had any commentary on some points I brought up in my post about last week's ep

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Let's fix that then! The problem is, you get to watch the episode about 24 hours before I do. I ignore the thread on Tuesdays, so if you post too fast, I read your commentary in the evening as soon as I'm done watching, quickly post my own, then go to bed. I intend to discuss any other points on the Wednesday. I just ran out of time this week, plus nothing new really occured to me after letting the episode sit with me for a while.

 

On 10/05/2022 at 4:42 PM, Jay said:

Jimmy & Kim - Their first scene confused me. 

 

This didn't confuse me at the time, but you're right. It doesn't really make sense. Is Jimmy worried someone is going to come after them for what they're doing to Howard?

 

On 10/05/2022 at 4:42 PM, Jay said:

Did he just stash his gun in the barrel and then count how many steps away the barrel is from the excavator, so he could find the gun in the dark?

 

That's the impression I got. It's likely also why he loosened the power cable. Quite how he calculates things are going to go down exactly how he plans is beyond me.

 

Do you think Lalo being killed by Gus or Mike (or someone else) would be more satisfying?

 

On 10/05/2022 at 4:42 PM, Jay said:

Strangely, I'm pretty sure Howard injuring Jimmy in some way that is visible seems to be part of their plan?

 

What gave you that impression?

 

On 10/05/2022 at 4:42 PM, Jay said:

As far as I can tell the two things he learned was that none of his team showed up at his funeral, which I guess implies they don't know he's dead? And all the "gifts" they sent were actually from Gus?  Or are we to understand they did send the gifts, but Gus paid them all not to attend?  And the second thing was the sticker he found on the bottom of the ruler thingy from the cold open, which I think was just the company that manufactured it.  So he'll go there next and learn who paid for the ruler gift, whether it be an actual guy on the team or a front of Gus will lead him back to the lab either way I suppose?  Can't wait!  I'm starting to feel like Lalo will be dead by the mid-season break!

 

I think Werner's guys knew he was dead when Mike sent them home. They all hated Mike. (Except the annoying one who thought Werner deserved what happened, if I remember correctly).

 

I assumed Gus told them not to attend a funeral. Did they go into hiding, or just back home? And you're right - it's not clear whether the ruler gift is actually from the guys or Gus. I assumed Gus. I'm not sure I actually want to see Lalo following up too many more leads in Germany. I want him to get back stateside. However, I hope he doesn't die in this half of the season. We haven't had enough of him yet! Then again, we haven't had any Gene yet, and we've still got to fill in the 4 years between now and Breaking Bad.

 

On 10/05/2022 at 4:42 PM, Jay said:

I thought the camera tricks were far less effective this week than last week.  Last week, the camera attached to the car door, long oner through the tunnel, and long pull-back shot of Kim approaching the car were all spectacular.  This week, the shot of Kim's face reflected in the coffee cup went on way too long, the camera attached to the garage door closing was too over the top, and I think there was another reflection thing somewhere that didn't quite work for me.  On the other hand, the shot that showed the passing of time overnight outside of Mrs Ziegler's house was awesome!

 

I somewhat agree. I found there to be many entertaining camera shots, but they felt a bit more "showy" this week, rather than being used to convey something in the story. There seemed to be a "reflection" theme going on, although I can't quite tell why. The timelapse shot was good, but it lasted so long I started looking for obvious signs it was a matte/CG shot. The fact that none of the leaves on the trees were moving made it feel a little unnatural.

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2 minutes ago, Anthony said:

This didn't confuse me at the time, but you're right. It doesn't really make sense. Is Jimmy worried someone is going to come after them for what they're doing to Howard?

 

That was what I thought when he started talking, but then their actual dialogue made it sound like they were worried about Lalo, even though he's supposed to think he's dead, so shouldn't be worried.  It was weird.

 

2 minutes ago, Anthony said:

That's the impression I got. It's likely also why he loosened the power cable. Quite how he calculates things are going to go down exactly how he plans is beyond me.

 

I think the power cable thing was him counting how many steps until the part he has to pick up to unplug to cut the power and shroud the room in darkness, then he can follow one end to the barrel.


Strange thing is, every commentary I heard about the episode said Gus stashed the gun in the treads of the excavator... so then what did he put in the barrel?

 

 

2 minutes ago, Anthony said:

Do you think Lalo being killed by Gus or Mike (or someone else) would be more satisfying?

 

Great question.  Of course it'd be satisfying for Gus to do it, since he hates the Salamancas, and we've seen him be so uncomfortable these past few eps due to having to carry a gun, etc.  But then again we need Mike to get more towards the really cold-blooded killer he is in BB, and he hasn't actually killed that many people in  BCS yet.

 

2 minutes ago, Anthony said:

What gave you that impression?

 

There was some dialogue Jimmy and Kim had that seemed to imply they were happy about the injury, or at the very least could work it into their plans.  But since I think their plan involves getting Howard to come after them to later make it look like he has a vendetta against them in court, it all fits.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Anthony said:

I think Werner's guys knew he was dead when Mike sent them home. They all hated Mike. (Except the annoying one who thought Werner deserved what happened, if I remember correctly).

 

I assumed Gus told them not to attend a funeral. Did they go into hiding, or just back home?

 

Ah, ok, it's been a whopping 4 years since I saw Season 4 so didn't remember all that. Hmmm, I'd say they probably got to go home scott free, under the assumption none of them actually truly knew where it was they were working (or living).  Only Werner knew more details because when he escaped he would have gotten the full lay of the land, and probalby had more details than the rest of the crew the whole time anyway.

 

2 minutes ago, Anthony said:

And you're right - it's not clear whether the ruler gift is actually from the guys or Gus. I assumed Gus.

 

Yea, it's a tough one.  The recap podcast I listen to seemed to be sure it was a true gift from the team, but they have missed some other obvious things (like that Kim met with Viola in order to get the Judge's name.  Like, how could you miss that?  Anyways, I suppose we'll find out soon what he learns from the gift's manufacturer.

 

2 minutes ago, Anthony said:

I'm not sure I actually want to see Lalo following up too many more leads in Germany. I want him to get back stateside. However, I hope he doesn't die in this half of the season. We haven't had enough of him yet! Then again, we haven't had any Gene yet, and we've still got to fill in the 4 years between now and Breaking Bad.

 

Hmmm, yea it's hard to say if we'll only see Lalo solo this week or if we'll finally see him interact with the cast this week.  Either way, I think he's dead next week for sure.  Well, I guess I think the Lalo subplot will end next week, leaving the Howard thing to be the main story to start 6B until all the BB-era stuff and then Gene stuff takes over.  Maybe Lalo's story now doesn't necessarily end with his death, maybe something else happens that could enable to him to pop up again later in 6B, in any of the potential timelines...

 

2 minutes ago, Anthony said:

I somewhat agree. I found there to be many entertaining camera shots, but they felt a bit more "showy" this week, rather than being used to convey something in the story. There seemed to be a "reflection" theme going on, although I can't quite tell why. The timelapse shot was good, but it lasted so long I started looking for obvious signs it was a matte/CG shot. The fact that none of the leaves on the trees were moving made it feel a little unnatural.

 

Exactly!  I easily picked up on the "reflection" theme throughout the episode, but to what end was all that implemented?  The storyline didn't involve self-reflection or anything.  Twas weird.

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Wow! I wouldn't have guessed I was at the end of the episode yet when all of a sudden I was. 

 

Oh, Jimmy. You could have let Kim have her day... 

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Crap just finished watching. Such a heartbreaking scene with Mike and his daughter in law and grand daughter.  
 

Lalo got the wind knocked the fuck out of him!  Shit that was tense.  
 

the dude pissing in the waterfall feature was absolutely hilarious!  😂

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Is anyone else a little disappointed by the final season so far?


We're now 6 episodes into the final 13 of the series and it doesn't feel like Jimmy/Kim's storyline has progressed much. I don't mind being fed breadcrumbs about the plot to destroy Howard but it feels like we're also being kept in the dark about their motivations. It's like their soul focus is destroying Howard's career and forcing Sandpiper to settle, at the expense of character development.


Part of me is almost rooting against them, hoping the plan backfires. I guess a similar transformation happened with Walt > Heisenberg in BB, so credit to the writers for toying with my emotions this way... but it feels like there's holes in the characterization of Jimmy & Kim this year. Appreciated seeing more of Howard's home life (and his frosty marriage – that poor latte!) and it feels like the writers are building sympathy for Howard.


We're devoting a lot of time to the Lalo/Gus plot but it's moving at a glacial pace. I appreciate they're building tension but it's felt like 3 straight episodes of half the cast in hiding, just waiting for Lalo to show up. Lalo was one of the best characters in S5 but he's spent the entire season separated from all the characters we want to see him sharing scenes with. Clearly he unravels the mystery of Gus' lab but ultimately we know Gus wins. I get they can't bring him back to ABQ too soon considering he's a high-profile fugitive, but I'm wondering how much can realistically play out except him returning > finding the lab > falling into Gus' trap. Maybe just a reflection of prequels, where we know the fates of certain characters (and the broad strokes of others).

 

Don't get me wrong, this is still brilliant TV. Maybe I set my expectations a little too high after Breaking Bad's final season (which escalated the story at a breakneck pace). But S6 feels like a heavy step down from S5 at this stage. One of the things I appreciated most about S5 was that, after 4 seasons of two parallel storylines (Jimmy/Howard/Kim/Chuck and Mike/Gus/Cartel), worlds finally collided in spectacular fashion... only for the final season to separate those story threads again, send half the characters into hiding, and almost nothing occurring in one storyline affects the other. Yeah there's still 7 episodes for that to change, but IMO it's a strange narrative choice after very deliberately blurring those lines in S5.


All that said, this episode was excellently directed by Giancarlo, impressive work throughout. And there's an undeniable sense of darkness and dread pervading the season, which I haven't felt in a long time watching a TV show. Maybe I'm just a little underwhelmed that we spent 5 seasons getting to know these characters so intimately, only to have the narrative climax of the series revolve around two protagonists scheming to destroy another character's career. I assume things will go spectacularly wrong (To'hajiilee style, hence the mid-season break), but there's a lot of ground to cover in the final 6 episodes...

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Better Call Saul 6x06 Axe and Grind

 

Young Kimmy - Another awesome background tidbit about Kim.  I hope there's more of these coming!  The actress they got to play Kim's mom was so similar looking and sounding to grown up Kim, I honestly thought it was Rhea Seehorn a few times!  So the fact that Kim's been running scams her whole life re-contextualizes her entire relationship with Jimmy and all the scams they've done.  Really cool.

 

Mike - Adorable scene with Kaylee, and I love the way he stood up to Tyrus

 

Hamlin - What a sad scene between him and Cheryl!  She just seems so done with him for whatever reason.  It was so sad to see him go to all that effort to make a nice latte with a peace symbol in the foam, only for her to dump it into a travel mug without as much of a thanks.  I wonder if we'll ever find out what happened to these two.  Do they have kids?

 

Dr Caldera - Pretty clever to set up that the vet wants out of the "underground" biz but has all his contacts in a single book, so now we know that's how Jimmy becomes a guy who knows guys by Breaking Bad.  And of course, we saw the team taking this book out of his mansion in the 601 cold open

 

Kim & Cliff - Oh man, Cliff was super serious about teaming up with Kim for major pro bono work.  I can't believe after he keeps putting these opportunities in front of her, she continues to want to go through with the Hamlin scam.  She can't help herself :(

 

Lalo - I kind of wish they spelled out how he went from the name of the company that made the gift to this dude (who looked like Keanu Reeves lol), but I guess Dalton was limited due to filming Hawkeye or something?  I was genuinely surprised and pleased when he got the one-up on Lalo and seemingly left him in rough shape on the floor - for a second I thought it would be a bold choice to have Lalo die at the hands of someone else, out of country!  But of course Lalo got the other hand, and I guess now he'll learn more info... but what can he learn!?  How much did this guy know about the operation?  Did the team know they were going under a laundromat?  Or were they tunneling in from a distance away?  I don't remember now.

 

Francesca - I had quite a laugh at her decorating style, and liked that we got to see it for the first time the same time Kim is seeing it for the first time so we can see on her face how she knows it isn't right for the Saul image and of course we know its all going to change in the future. I didn't like seeing Jimmy bully her into making that phone call, but its inevitable their relationship would get like that based on how it is in BB.  That was nicely juxtaposed with how warm and kind Kim and her were to each other.

 

The Scam - OK, so it appears the next part of the plan is slipping Hamlin a drug that will make him seem high on coke (dilated pupils, nervous energy) during the Sandpiper hearing, and also slipping him photos that makes it look like Jimmy is trying to bribe the judge, so Hamlin will accuse Jimmy of that while "on coke", but the judge will know it isn't true.  And all of this will somehow get the Sandpiper case settled sooner.  And now the last minute issue is the judge has a cast so the pictures have to be taken anew.  All good.  But I am left with questions about the PI Howard is using and how it relates to everything Jimmy and Kim are doing.

 

The way I see it there are two possibilities about the private eye:

 

1 The private eye Hamlin hired has actually been working for Jimmy and Kim the entire time.  Everything he told them (Jimmy follows a routine of only seeing clients, except for this one time he picked up $20k at a bank!) is exactly what Jimmy and Kim want him to tell Howard, so the plan was he'd give the new bribe photos to Hamlin on D-Day saying he took them.  This is the cleanest option, but it seems like if that PI was really working for Jimmy and Kim, we should have been told that already?

 

2 The private eye Hamlin hired is only working for Howard and isn't also working for Jimmy and Kim.  Somehow Jimmy was planning on slipping the fake bribe pictures to Hamlin in an envelope and hope Hamlin assumed it was from that PI?  This seems to be implausible as well because how would this PI not have noticed the lookalike judge and film crew coming into Jimmy's office, or Jimmy and Kim having drinks on HHM's lawn at night?

 

I also wonder if Hamlin is one step ahead of them and asked the judge to put a cast on and go into the liquor store to ruin the plan?  Seems unlikely, but so was the coincidence of Jimmy running into him there.  If the PI is only working for Howard and did see the lookalike and film crew go into Jimmy's office (and we just didn't see him tell Howard that), then I guess it's plausible he figured out Jimmy's plan, told the judge, and had him go into the liquor store.  If not, and the liquor store meetup was a total coincidence and Howard doesn't know the next step of the plan, then maybe they'll be able to fix things with some quick photography next week.

 

Man, my head hurts with all these possibilities!

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