Summary: Jimmy and Kim get married and they vow to communicate better with each other. Kim patches things up with Mesa Verde after Kevin blames her for what went down by fighting back against him. Jimmy is immediately called by Nacho and goes to meet the imprisoned Lalo who wants out on bail. Jimmy and Kim have sex later and Jimmy tells her about the Lalo case. Meanwhile, Nacho reports to Mike that Lalo has ordered him to be in charge and to burn down a Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant. Mike decides to take a new approach to deal with Lalo and he meets with Jimmy. Gus has a Madrigal meeting and meets with Peter Schuler regarding their plans. He assures him that things will go smoothly. Gus and Nacho work together to burn down one of the restaurants. Jimmy follows Mike's instructions and manages to get Lalo out on bail by bringing up witness tampering by Dave Clark. Howard confronts Jimmy about how he has been getting attacked, Jimmy responds by lashing out at him.
The Good: This was the most united episode the show has had since season 1 outside of "Chicanery". The major storylines all intersected each other and events in one half of the episode ended up directly influencing the other, which was immensely satisfying to watch. Even though Jimmy did join up with the cartel storyline back in "The Guy for This", that episode didn't feel like it was the momentous combination of the Jimmy half and the cartel half of the show. On the other hand, this episode does feel like that combination, and because of that it somehow manages to feel even more significant than last week's fantastic episode. This episode was doing a whole lot of things. First up, it explored the fallout of two key moments in the previous episode: Kim's proposal of a marriage and Lalo's arrest. The episode wastes no time in jumping right to it. The cold open is a lengthy sequence of Jimmy and Kim's wedding. There's no fanfare, no guests, no honeymoon, not even any rings. It's as cold and rushed as a wedding could possibly be and it is plainly quite awkward. Jimmy and Kim are happy enough, but you can see Jimmy's worries that perhaps this should have been a bigger moment. The fact that Jimmy is only communicating to Kim about her desires on the day of their wedding is telling enough of the problems in their relationship. This wedding is an attempt to rectify that since they have both vowed to tell each other everything going on in their lives, but if they aren't even communicating the day of their wedding, who's to say that they ever will communicate properly? This wedding seems like a horrible idea and even though both Jimmy and Kim are hopeful, it's hard to imagine this ending well. The key tragedy of Kim is that every time we think she's getting closer to finally leaving Jimmy for good, she ends up sinking even deeper with him. It hasn't had any major consequences yet, but now with Jimmy being open to Kim about his newly made cartel connections, there has never been more danger for her. The other big fallout was from Lalo's arrest. This was such a pivotal moment in the last episode because it completely upended and opened up the Gus vs Lalo conflict in a new way, promising something fresh and unexpected in the continuation of this storyline. And that's exactly what we got here. Lalo's arrest has ramifications on everyone because it didn't end up being a solution. It just changed what the problem is, and now everyone is left scrambling trying to come up with an actual solution. Nacho hoped that he could get out, but Mike immediately shuts down any chance of that happening in the near future once it becomes apparent that Lalo is still a threat. Gus thought that he would soon be able to resume business on the meth lab, but at the end of the episode he finds himself angrily burning down one of his own establishments with Nacho to keep Lalo at bay, taking yet another hefty business loss. And Jimmy is getting it worst of all, as his job to represent Lalo leads him into a whole new conflict that is an absolute joy to explore. It's fair to say that Jimmy McGill hasn't emerged too much this season. Much of what we have seen is the vile nature of Saul Goodman at work, following nobody's rules but his own with one goal: profit, no matter what he has to do to ensure that he does. But now Jimmy is faced with a serious moral dilemma, one that he hasn't had to face before. He has a massive opportunity to earn more money than he has ever desired, but to do so he has to join up with the cartel, crossing a bridge into dangerous territory he never even imagined he would explore. Saul is more than willing to join forces with Lalo and do this, but Jimmy is very skeptical. We get to see his morality come back in the intimate scene with Kim. Instead of continuing to keep his secrets, he actually opens up to Kim about how Lalo offered him to become a friend of the cartel. Ironically, being pushed further into being Saul Goodman has brought back a little bit of Jimmy to the surface. And unfortunately the two opposing sides of Jimmy make him more unstable than ever. The final few scenes of the episode are outstanding television. We see Jimmy flicking between himself and Saul Goodman at a moment's notice, first in the courtroom, and then later with Howard. His guilt that he feels for Fred's family is contested with his desire to earn Lalo's respect and make a truckload of money for himself. There's a fantastic reflective shot, one of the best shots of the series, that perfectly shows how fragmented Jimmy is with his two personas pulling at him. And it's here, at the worst possible time, that Howard shows up and Jimmy launches an incredible speech on him, the episode's defining moment (see: Best Moment). Jimmy isn't the only character being explored in meaningful ways. Kim gets a fair amount of development as she deals with the failure of the Acker case. Kevin is understandably angry and shames Kim and Rich for their poor performance, and the meeting ends on uncertain terms. But then Kim does something really surprising. Taking a page out of Jimmy's book, she loses her professionalism and goes back to Kevin's office, telling him how things really are. Rich evidently feels quite awkward about Kim's unprofessional display and is left gaping as Kim rips on Kevin. And yet, the honesty works. Kevin decides to continue with Schweikart & Cokely and Kim gets a taste of the success that Jimmy's methods bring. It's a very interesting development that continues to send Kim further and further away from being a good, ethical lawyer, into something more questionable. Mike also gets some really good content here. I've been critical on how poorly his early season arc was handled, but this episode resolves some of my biggest issues with his character. In his scene with Stacey we finally get a good reason why Mike decided to join up with Gus, and it makes far more sense than anything else I had thought up. Mike simply decided to stop pitying himself and trying to be righteous. He simply has to do his best with the options he has, and his time spent reflecting at the village in Mexico allowed him to come to this conclusion, deciding that even though Gus' cause may not be the right one, it's the best option that he has. I still feel that this explanation did come too late and that this story could have been told in a much clearer way back in "Dedicado a Max", but this explanation did improve my views on Mike's overall story. Looking back, I can now understand the purpose of Mike's time in the village and it does have more emotional resonance now than it did during my first watch of the episode. Every time I question the writing team's decisions, they always manage to make up for it and I'm left trying to remind myself not to doubt them because there is always a satisfying story being told. There were plenty of other little things I really liked about this episode. The presentation of this was spectacular and it was the most visually striking episode of the season thus far. I was pleased to see Mike and Jimmy reconnecting again, and Jimmy's response to him on the phone was perfect comedy. The cameo of Peter Schuler was a wonderful addition to the episode that allowed some more insight into the business side of Gus' operation while also hinting even more at his mysterious past in Chile (see: The Unknown). I also loved the callback to Schuler's food tasting that he did in "Breaking Bad". Another really great callback was the mention of Jimmy's two former marriages. Lots of people were theorizing that Kim may become Saul's second ex-wife who was described in "Breaking Bad" as having been caught having sex with Saul's step-dad. Confirming that Kim would be Jimmy's third wife both served as a fun Easter Egg and also gets people to stop thinking about the possibility of such an absurd event happening in the show. Finally, I'm once again wowed by this show's continuity, using minor story beats previously used to play a major role. I would never have imagined Mike's role as Dave Clark to be used in such a big way to get Lalo out on bail, and the pieces slid into place so perfectly in this episode. Little details like this really raise the show to a whole new level. The Bad: Nothing I would call bad. The Unknown: What is Gus' relationship with Schuler? What happened between them in Santiago? The show has been giving us more and more teases of Gus' past and I'm starting to think that we may actually learn about what happened in Chile. Why does Mike want Lalo out of jail? Does he have a plan to take care of him? If so, what is he going to do? Where is the money that Jimmy has to pick up? I imagine that transporting $7 million would be quite complicated. Why is Jimmy feeling so much guilt about Fred's family? Does it have something to do with the plan that Mike gave him? What is Jimmy going to do to clear Lalo's name? Best Moment: Jimmy's encounter with Howard was absolutely fantastic. I'm really glad that the show didn't portray Howard as a fool and that he was able to figure out that Jimmy was the one who was sabotaging his life. It made sense for Howard to confront him to inquire about answers, but you also get the feeling that Howard maybe wanted to help as well, talking about how Jimmy is in pain. But unfortunately, bringing up pain was the worst thing he could have done. Jimmy is frustrated by Howard's ability to have moved past Chuck's death, which already gives him plenty of reason to despise him. But also, Howard is the biggest reminder that Jimmy has of Chuck. So now when he is caught in this vicious moral struggle, the shadow of Chuck is the worst thing he could possibly see. So Jimmy completely lashes out. He is vicious and hateful towards Howard, spitting venomous words at him, even doubling down on blaming him for Chuck's death. This isn't entirely rage directed at Howard though, it's also rage directed at Chuck. He's trying to show superiority over Chuck, embracing his new persona as Saul Goodman and ragefully shouting down at Howard how he has ascended to a whole new level that doesn't need to be held back by any ghosts of his past. The scene is masterfully executed and is a definite highlight of the series for me. Character of the Episode: Jimmy. Conclusion: Another absolute cracker of an episode. While this one didn't quite have the emotional intensity of the previous episode, it delivered in other departments, providing us with an outstanding examination of Jimmy's internal conflict while advancing the story in clever new ways that leave you craving for more. This season is firing on all cylinders now. Score: 76
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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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