Summary: Jimmy eventually makes it back to Albuquerque, and Kim is relieved. Mike tells Jimmy to keep things quiet and lie about what happened. Jimmy pays the bail money and says he had car trouble. Nacho picks up Lalo who is ready to go back to Mexico. Jimmy returns to Kim and doesn't tell her about the shootings, but Kim find Jimmy's mug with a bullet hole in it. Eager to hide his PTSD from Kim, Jimmy goes back to work and finds it difficult to recover. Kim reflects on everything and decides to quit Schweikart & Cokely and pursue her pro bono work. Meanwhile, Mike informs Gus about what happened and Gus deduces that Bolsa sent out the attack to help protect Gus' business. Nacho drops Lalo off at the same border crossing but Lalo decides to stick around when he realizes that he didn't pass Jimmy's car and eventually finds it in a ditch with bullet holes in it. Lalo drops by Kim and Jimmy's place and interrogates Jimmy, asking him to tell the story of what happened over and over again. Mike watches over everything with a sniper. Jimmy is intimidated but Kim steps in and chastises Lalo for his sloppy operation. Lalo leaves and tells Nacho that he has a new plan and that they are going to Mexico.
The Good: What a terrific episode. The central theme of this one is obviously choices, more specifically bad choices. This episode is spent examining the consequences to Jimmy's choices, showing us how his involvement with the cartel has thrown his life into complete chaos. On the other hand, we get to see Kim making some bad decisions which will likely result in serious blowback, similar to what Jimmy is going through right now. The episode is gorgeously executed, exploring this theme in visually impressive ways with some outstanding pieces of editing. Jimmy's dilemma is easy to understand. We saw what he went through and we understand what the problem is for him. He needs somebody to talk to about what he experienced, but having been given a reality check from Mike about involving Kim, he can't afford to go to her. The bulk of the episode is spent exploring this conflict inside of Jimmy. We can see him dealing with PTSD in numerous scenes and he is desperately searching for an escape, even going as far as to go to Mike for help with it. But nothing is helping, and his lies to Kim feel half-baked at best as he tries to will himself to leave her out of it, horrified of the consequences of bringing her into the criminal underworld. Their argument towards the end of the episode is a wonderful exploration of this idea. We can see Jimmy desperately trying to keep Kim distant to protect her, which is why he is so insistent that Kim stays with Mesa Verde. In a way, he's talking to his past self in this scene, trying so desperately to prevent Kim from making the same horrible mistake he made, trying to keep her out of this life. Because he knows better than anyone right now that becoming a friend of the cartel was a significant mistake, one that he can never undo. But unfortunately for Jimmy, Kim has already made her choice. We've seen Kim's appreciation for Jimmy's cons since the beginning of the show, going all the way back to Jimmy's billboard stunt in "Hero". She started off completely opposed to going against the law, but as she spent more time with Jimmy, she grew more and more attached to the life of scheming and conning. If she was going to exit this world, she would have done so back in "Wexler v. Goodman", but instead she married Jimmy. She has made the same mistake that Jimmy did, walking into the morally questionable world with open arms, and it's already too late for her to go back. Her meeting Lalo and quitting Mesa Verde is just putting the nail in the coffin. And I pray that this won't end up being a literal metaphor for Kim. She has been the heart of the entire series, and one of the main hooks of the show is hoping against all logic that somehow there is a way out of the incoming tragedy for Kim. But as the show has progressed, the threat has become more and more real. At first it was just a fear of Kim being heartbroken, but now I am genuinely concerned for her life. This episode legitimately made me think that Kim may die, which is an amazing accomplishment. Despite this being a prequel, I did not have any idea what was going to happen in the final 15 minutes of this episode, and that gave me some of the absolute best tension-based drama I have ever seen, up there with some of the most brilliant moments of "Breaking Bad". With Kim quitting Mesa Verde and dedicating everything to Jimmy, this felt like it could be the end of her character arc. There was very real suspense in the final sequence, and that made the whole thing so much more visceral than I thought it would have been. The build up for the final 15 minutes is tremendously well done. Jimmy begins the episode cooking up lies for everyone, and yet nobody ends up believing it. There are always holes (literally), and both Kim and Lalo are able to see through them quite easily. The basis of these two lies is crucial for the final scene to work as well as it does, so these lies needed to be established and seen through in a logical fashion. And the writers absolutely nail that aspect. Kim stumbling upon the mug with the bullet holes makes perfect sense as the mug would be the least of Jimmy's concerns after what he went through. And Kim not telling Jimmy anything fits with what we know of her. She is genuinely scared about what he has to say, but she isn't able to forget about it and tries to gently prod him into telling her. Lalo on the other hand also gets some nice development. We see him prepare to go back to Mexico, but one last visit with the poor, helpless Hector neatly demonstrates why Lalo really does not want to leave. Does he really want to leave his uncle in the hands of Gus Fring? And so Lalo is hunting for any reason to stay in New Mexico, and he gets his reason when he starts thinking about Jimmy's story. After a little investigating, he quickly finds some concerning evidence, and now the stage is set for a nail-biting final confrontation, a life-or-death interrogation scene in which everybody has pieces of the puzzle, but nobody can see the clear picture. The question quickly becomes what pieces are going to be revealed, and who is going to be hurt/killed in the ensuing chaos. The sequence in the apartment executes this suspense masterfully. The scene starts out as an argument between Jimmy and Kim and it makes you think that the argument is going to play a significant part in the climax of the episode. But then Jimmy keeps getting phone calls and it's clear that something is about to happen. The there's a knock on the door and Jimmy picks up a call from a desperate Mike, who is desperately trying to get to Kim's apartment before things go too badly. It's Lalo at the door and the stakes of the scene are immediately apparent. Tony Dalton puts in a tremendous performance here and Lalo is terrifying to watch as he pokes around like he owns the place, even going as far as to terrorize Jimmy's fish. The scene is so frightening because of its implications. The last 2 episodes saw the wall go down between the legal world and the criminal underworld, the wall that had been established since season 2. And in this episode we get to see elements from both sides mix together and interact. Lalo feels like an invader in this scene, and the clear-cut boundaries between the two worlds of this show are no more. The entire time I've watched this series, I was looking forward to seeing how both worlds would eventually come together. I didn't think that it would be so well done that I would find myself yearning for both worlds to be separate once again so that Kim would no longer be in such danger. This fear added so much to the suspense in the interrogation. The fear, mixed with the sense that Kim's life is in danger, mixed with the lies that established the foundation of this interrogation, led to a scene that had nail-biting tension. What's more, this scene managed to maintain that tension for 15 minutes, which felt like an absolute eternity (in a good way). The resolution of the scene was also perfectly done. Jimmy is evidently shaken, and he isn't capable of making stories like he usually is. His fear is palpable and it's causing him to stop working. And so Kim steps in, and she tells Lalo off the way that she may deal with anyone else in her world. It's an outstanding character moment that both amps up the tension and shows us how largely out of her depth Kim would be if she were to get involved in the criminal underworld. Luckily for her, Lalo didn't do anything stupid, but who knows what Kim will get mixed up in next. There were a few smaller things that made this episode even better. The score throughout the episode was fantastic and built dread in a wonderfully subtle way. The opening montage was a terrific callback to "Something Stupid" and was also quite rich in symbolism, going as far as to show us a wall being broken down with Kim covering both sides of the screen by the end of the sequence, symbolic of how Kim is now part of both halves of the show. I do like the reveal that Bolsa sent the men to take Lalo's money. I wonder how this will play into the overall arc of the story, but it does complicate the cartel drama which is becoming more and more prevalent as the show goes on. Lastly, I liked seeing Mike stand up for Nacho, who is unfortunately finding himself more and more trapped in his current life. Here Nacho gets a moment of bliss when it seems like Lalo is finally out of his hair, but it's a literal moment as Lalo quickly returns and Nacho now finds himself taking a drive to Mexico. At least Mike is on his side, but Gus isn't relenting about keeping Nacho as his guy. Mike even tells Gus a version of the iconic "fear" line from "Breaking Bad", which raises a very interesting question (see: The Unknown). The Bad: Nothing. The Unknown: How does Gus come to believe that fear is not an effective motivator? Does his affiliation with Nacho backfire somehow? What does this mean for Nacho? What are Jimmy and Kim going to do next? How will they react to Lalo's interrogation? Will Jimmy end up telling Kim the truth? Will we be seeing Tuco again? It's mentioned that he will be out of prison in about a year. What is Lalo planning to do now? Why is he going to Mexico? Best Moment: Everything in the final 15 minutes. Simply spectacular television. Character of the Episode: Kim. Conclusion: Another outstanding episode. This season started patiently, but these last 4 episodes have been incredible with some of the best character writing and drama the show has put out. This episode was a masterclass in tension and it provided what I think is the most memorable sequence of the entire series. I wasn't sure how the show was possibly going to be able to follow "Bagman", but this was a near-perfect follow-up that has me extremely excited for whatever is going to happen in the season finale. So far, this season is looking like it could very well be an all-time classic. Score: 85
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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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