Summary: Jimmy officially settles into Davis and Main and continues to do his job. Chuck still doesn't approve of Jimmy and there is some tension when he joins in on a Sandpiper meeting. Mike runs into Daniel and realizes the situation he got himself into. Mike makes a deal with Nacho to return the baseball cards in exchange for Daniel's Hummer and he agrees to the terms. Mike hires Jimmy to help exonerate Daniel from the police's eyes. Jimmy does this by making a fake video of Daniel performing "squat cobbler", but Kim doesn't approve of this as it's falsifying evidence.
The Good: This was another great episode of Better Call Saul which closes out one storyline and does a lot of set up for future episodes. There are a lot of conflicts and storylines to address in this episode, so I'll start with the big one that reached its conclusion in this episode: the Daniel story. In just 3 episodes of screentime, Daniel's character was clearly identified and he got a complete storyline that fit in with other major characters, offered tons of humour and set up for more storytelling down the road. It's very impressive and I'm beyond impressed that the writers pulled it off without the story ever feeling rushed or cramped for time. Every step was organic and the final scenes of this storyline closed it out very nicely and satisfyingly. I think Daniel's love for his baseball cards was hilarious and his idiocy brought loads of laughs, especially when he's dealing with somebody like Mike, who makes hilarious faces when dealing with Daniel's amateur nature. I also do like that Daniel's love for baseball cards got a little bit of backstory when he says some cards were his fathers; it's a brilliant little touch that makes the storyline feel a little more realistic. The actual conclusion as played out excellently throughout the episode. There was some tension when Mike was talking to Daniel since we don't know if Daniel will screw this up, but there was also tons of humour to ensure scenes stay lighthearted. This show isn't Breaking Bad and so far it has carefully avoided using tension so frequently to keep itself from being compared with Breaking Bad, the show which I believe has the greatest tension-based scenes of all time. Mike's plan came together nicely in his scene with Nacho too, a scene which I think was beautifully written and executed. The dialogue, situations and character behaviour felt so organic and the scene was pure joy to behold from a writing perspective. And then of course there was the amazing "squat cobbler" scene, but more on that later (see: Best Moment). I thought Daniel's final scene of giving up the Hummer was brilliant and Nacho calling it "a school bus for 60 year old pimps" had me laughing almost as much as the squat cobbler. So first I have examined a storyline that concluded, but it also brilliantly set up some other conflicts. The obvious one is a storyline of some kind between Mike and Nacho. I'm not sure when or how it will happen, but I'm positive that we can chalk in these two crossing paths again as Nacho is a series regular along with Mike. The other more interesting storyline that benefitted from this is Kim and Jimmy. We have seen how these 2 are officially a couple now, and we have a good understanding of these characters' morals. Jimmy's final conversation with Kim could potentially be hinting at how these 2 may ultimately end up tragically splitting: Jimmy will likely do something questionable and will pay the price for it, but Kim will get roped into it too, causing her to leave Jimmy. The seed has been planted in that last scene as we see the first of what will likely be many arguments between Jimmy and Kim about Jimmy's real nature. Another conflict that ties into that one is Jimmy at Davis and Main. To put it simply, Jimmy is evidently not as happy as he would like at Davis and Main. We can see him trying, because he wants Kim to be happy, but Bob Odenkirk has done a terrific job emoting Jimmy's displeasure at working there in several scenes with Kim and one great scene with Clifford Main. And we were brilliantly told that Kim vouched for Jimmy to get the job, so if he blows it like we all know he will, Kim would be in the heat too. By connecting the dots, it's possible that this will be the event that causes the break between Kim and Jimmy. And as a side note, I really enjoyed the metaphor of Jimmy not quite fitting in at Davis and Main when he can't get his lawyer mug to fit in the new office car, yet it fits in his junk yellow car (which will be sorely missed, I got quite attached to that piece of junk, much like with the RV in Breaking Bad). The final conflict that was examined was Chuck and Jimmy's. This was a bit of a surprise for me as Chuck hadn't appeared at all in the last episode, so I had assumed that he would be a background player. But after seeing that tense and brilliant meeting scene when Chuck walked in, it seems clear to me that there will be much more story to tell with the feelings shared between these 2 brothers. The opening scene was nice too as it reintroduced Chuck in a good way, showing us more of how Jimmy bothers him. The Bad: Nothing much really. Like last season, these episodes suffer from being slow and mostly set up. Though I really enjoy episodes like this, it's practically impossible to give episodes like these scores of 70 or higher since they are essentially just moving story arcs along for more memorable scenes later on. The Unknown: Could Jimmy assisting Mike by doing the squat cobbler story come back to haunt him later on? With this show, anything could return later on. Maybe we will see Daniel again too at a later point. Have we seen the starting hints of the Kim/Jimmy split in this episode. How long will it be until it happens? It seems possible that the end of this season could see the destruction of that relationship. Will Mike and Nacho cross paths again in the future? Best Moment: The squat cobbler scene. This is humour at its absolute finest as it gives us such an absurdly hilarious, yet still plausibly realistic story to explain Daniel's secret cubby. The cops reactions to Jimmy's claims was brilliant and felt realistic, which is the best part of the whole scene. Also, I loved how every detail just slowly added to the intense laughter I was giving off. A brilliantly executed comedy scene. Character of the Episode: Jimmy. Conclusion: This is another set up episode, but the comedy was on a whole other level which made his better than it should have been. This episode is proof that brilliant writing an storytelling can make any storyline in a TV show easily enjoyable. Season 2 is off to a strong start. Score: 69
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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