Summary: Jimmy starts putting legal roadblocks on the eviction of Acker, frustrating Kevin who simply wants to get the place torn down. Kim lets him know that Jimmy is working for Acker but Kevin refuses to take her off the case. Kim tries to get him to consider relocation, but Kevin is too stubborn and the plan backfires. Kim decides to take things a step further and gets Jimmy to find someone to investigate Kevin's personal life. While working on the investigation, Rich visits Kim and reveals that he suspects that she is up to something. Caught off guard by this, Kim lashes out at Rich. Meanwhile, Mike stays at the small village and recovers, helping the old lady taking care of him. Gus eventually comes by to visit and they speak. Gus asks Mike to work with him, using Mike's understanding of revenge as a motive.
The Good: This is a very focused episode, only cutting between two storylines: Jimmy and Kim's attempt to get Mesa Verde to relocate and Mike's stay at the Mexican village. Both storylines are similar in how they get the central characters, Kim and Mike, to make some critical decisions that will have a huge impact on their futures. Kim's story is easily the highlight of the episode. Kim has been one of the biggest dramatic hooks in the series since we are completely unaware of what awaits her in the future, and we can only hope that it isn't anything too bad. But she always seems to be at risk for something going wrong, and it usually seems to be Jimmy's fault. But now things are quite different. This hole that Kim finds herself in is entirely of her making. She didn't need to work against Mesa Verde but she chose to do it anyways, and now when faced with every opportunity to stop, she continues to push it further and further. Kim is risking so much for such little reward and it's scary to watch her make what could be a series of fatal mistakes that may cost her the career she has worked so hard to build. This episode builds up that tension so well as Kim continues to make bad choice after bad choice, and it all culminates in horrifying fashion when Kim learns that her boss has not been fooled by Kim's plan. Bubbling with fear and anxiety, she explodes at him in front of everyone, leaving her poised in a very uncomfortable position heading into the next episode. Where the episode works so well is that is makes us understand why Kim is making these horrible decisions. We know that she empathizes with Acker and doesn't really care much for Kevin, so emotionally she wants Acker to have some sort of victory. But she is stuck representing the wrong side. Realizing how far she is from the job she wanted to do (representing the little guy) is soul-crushing for her, so even if she isn't aware of it herself, it's clear that a part of Kim is trying to tank her own career to punish herself for joining up with the rich and ignoring the poor. She has betrayed her own morals already, and that's why she now finds it so easy to bend the rules and break some laws in this episode. For once it isn't Jimmy that's making the choice to cross the line, it's Kim. And it's all because she regrets all the decisions she has made to come this far. It's tragic, it's relatable and it's scary to watch. We can only hope for the best for Kim, but with her current mindset she seems well on her way towards tragedy. The episode had a lot of humour as well which I appreciated. It's always a joy to see Jimmy and Kim at work on a con. We never really know what Jimmy is planning, but seeing the results of his schemes is always a blast. His escalating stunts to fight off the construction crew were hilarious with some really absurd jokes. The imitation scene was brilliant and it nicely displayed how much closer together Jimmy and Kim always are whenever they are working a con. Lastly, Mr. X's cameo was an excellent piece of comedy, and a welcome return of a character we last saw in "Pimento". Lastly we get to Mike's storyline, which is pretty solid. This isolation is exactly what Mike needs to get over his self-pity and start returning to the man he is supposed to be. Following a nice cameo from Dr. Goodman, Mike is forced to accept that he can't go anywhere and he is annoyed by this. Being as stubborn as he is, the fact that he is being taken care of by somebody else is frustrating for him and he makes every attempt to find a way out before settling in. When he settles in, we see him acting like himself again. He helps the lady taking care of him and keeps him self busy doing handyman jobs, and all seems fine. Then Gus arrives and we can see the rage on Mike's face when he hears his voice. Mike doesn't respect Gus at all. To Mike, Gus is simply a business associate, a man he doesn't even like. Their relationship is quite far from what we see in "Breaking Bad". The final scene of the episode gives us a hint of how they will end up making peace. Gus once again shows a deeper side to him by revealing that he funds this village as a memorial to Max. I can only imagine that Max had a desire to help the poor, having been poor himself and Gus is keeping Max's dream alive by donating to this village. Of course he doesn't explicitly say any of this to Mike (see: The Bad), but it's a nice touch to his character. The final moment of the episode shows us what I can presume is the reason why Mike joins up with Gus and it makes sense. Mike has been motivated by revenge for much of the series (revenge against Matty's killer and against Hector) so he will understand Gus' plight. The Bad: Unfortunately I feel like Mike's story didn't quite work. This episode was the perfect opportunity to stage a transformational arc for Mike to make us understand why he would join Gus and to make us emotionally invested in their relationship. But the episode just didn't commit enough to do that. What we got was a simplistic story that works well enough. But considering the standards that this show sets, that is nowhere near enough. The problem is that we don't have enough context for why either character would trust the other. Mike can understand revenge, but is that really enough for him to set everything aside and go back to working for Gus, the man whose work lead to Mike having to kill Werner. And why does Gus care so much about Mike anyways? We need to know more about these two characters to make this relationship work. If this scene is just the start of their relationship, I suppose it's fine. But the way the scene is presented, it feels like this is supposed to be the big moment where Mike chooses to work for Gus, and I just don't buy it. I think that it would have been better had Gus been more open to Mike about his past and who he really is. That could have helped build a bond between them, but the show is far too interested in keeping Gus mysterious which I feel isn't necessary at this point in the story. In the end, I'm left very disappointed by Mike's story in this episode since it should have been so much more powerful than what we got. The Unknown: Would Stacey really be okay with Mike suddenly vanishing like that? Presumably it has been a few days since she last saw him. What did Kim discover that gave her hope for framing Kevin? Is it something to do with copyright infringement involving the Mesa Verde logo? Now that Rich knows about Kim's schemes, what is he going to do about it? What is Kim going to do? Is she going to try to back out or will she keep on recklessly trying to save Acker? Best Moment: Kim lashing out at Rich in front of the whole firm for telling her his suspicions was a brutally tense scene to watch. I'm afraid for Kim and I can tell that she's afraid for herself in this scene, having to directly face how unethical and self-destructive her actions have been. Character of the Episode: Kim. Conclusion: The idea of running two parallel character stories was excellent and it should have resulted in one of the show's better episodes. But this ended up being another middle of the road episode due to the drastic difference of quality between both stories. Kim's story was fantastic, with some of the season's best content, but the Mike story was disappointing. Hopefully it's just a fluke and the rest of this season can deliver much stronger content. Score: 66
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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