Summary: Mike sabotages one of Hector's trucks, leaving the driver alive and takes his money with intent of having the cops discover the scene. Mike learns from an angry Nacho that Hector escaped the cops by killing a good citizen who freed the driver. Chuck overreacts after the error in his paperwork and loses Mesa Verde to Kim. Chuck immediately suspects Jimmy but is unable to prove t anybody that he is responsible. Chuck goes to the copy shop where Jimmy copied the papers to get Lance to ID Jimmy, but Jimmy pays him off. Chuck gets frustrated and with all the electricity in the area, he passes out and hits his head off the counter.
The Good: This was an amazing climactic episode. There has been a lot of build up, and this was all pay-of as we went from one terrific scene to the other in an episode which was absolutely filled with tension. I'll start where the episode opened up: Mike extracting sweet vengeance upon Hector. We got a lovely Breaking Bad-esque scene where Mike sabotages a Regalo Helado truck and takes the money. It was a very cool scene, but the highlight for the Mike storyline was absolutely what came afterwards. We get to see more consequences come Mike's way as a result of his half measures as this time his sparing of the driver caused an innocent civilian to lose his life. It's a rather tragic twist and is a very real way to keep the storyline going. Surely Mike isn't done with Hector since he didn't get the intended result of turning the cops onto his business. Perhaps there will be a continuation in the finale and I'm excited to see it. Now onto the Jimmy storyline, which took up most of the episode and was the best part easily. I'll tackle each scene chronologically, starting with Chuck heading to court and realizing the errors in his work. The scenes before the court scene were great as they built up Chuck's hubris nicely, which made him insulting Kevin and Paige seem more realistic without it losing its power as a major mistake from Chuck. When you realize that had Chuck not been so proud and had simply stayed home, he would have caught Jimmy in his tracks and this wouldn't have gone so badly for him. This was a good way to work in Chuck's pride as his downfall here, and it makes it more believable that Howard doesn't believe his accusations against Jimmy since he knows Chuck is a proud man who wouldn't easily own up to the fact that he made a mistake. The actual court scene was well done too and there was a nice air of tension involving the changed address and Michael McKean played Chuck very well. I was also pleasantly impressed with Howard attempting to keep things happy and calm in the courtroom. We have always seen Howard attempting to be overly friendly to his clients and it was lovely to see him continuing this even when there is conflict arising. I really enjoyed the court scenes, but they were almost instantly one-upped by what came next. Jimmy and Kim are instantly sent over to Chuck's house to collect the papers where we get a tremendously powerful scene between Jimmy, Chuck and Kim which I believe is the first time that just the three of them have talked together. The scene was truly excellent and did a fantastic job at exploring how each of the characters will be feeling after the situation. This was shown with Chuck's anger and betrayal, Jimmy's frantic attempts to keep his relationship with Kim under control, and Kim in a stunned silence trying to process what exactly Chuck is saying. It was a big conversation and the acting involved was tremendous. But I think it peaked at the perfect time when Kim sided with Jimmy over Chuck and completely called him out for being a terrible brother. It was a powerful scene and while Kim technically lied to keep Jimmy safe, she was completely right about the entire brotherly relationship. It's really sad to see these 2 brothers in such a hateful relationship and Kim was able to highlight its problems in a quick and emotional speech, while also continuing to show her loyalty to those she is close too. I really enjoyed the brief car scene where Kim lets out her frustrations letting us know that Kim is aware of Jimmy's ways by now and is just accepting that she has to live with them. I think what this scene nails (see what I did there), is that each of these 3 characters have been completely put through the wringer as a result of this conflict. Following up this scene was the commercial scene. This scene did feel a touch awkward (see: The Bad), but I loved it overall. It gave us a great moment of levity in a very tense and serious episode and had me laughing at numerous points. I would honestly love it if there are just clips released over youtube or something of Jimmy just filming commercials with these guys. This material is hysterical. Lastly, I finally get to the copy shop scenes and man were they fantastic. First we got Jimmy bribing Lance to tell Chuck he isn't recognized which I loved (more on Lance later). It was a very fun scene and got some laughs as we got the necessary build up to the episode's big climax. Chuck's arrival was humourous at first but it quickly became tense when Jimmy was shown watching and with the fantastic cuts showing the electricity affecting Chuck. In quick time I was on the edge of my seat wondering if Lance would cave in udner pressure or if Ernie would say something that pisses Chuck off. The scene quickly gripped me and when Chuck hit his head, it was a legitimate shock to the system and ended the episode on a brutal cliff-hanger. Everything here was executed beautifully and built up an incredible sense of tension for that shocking ending. For those who say nothing ever happens in Better Call Saul, I will say that this season has developed the characters an absolute ton in just 10 episodes, whereas other shows would take seasons to accomplish this much with its characters. And every little detail that happened in previous episodes always progresses the plot and adds on to some major character developments. It's not that nothing happens in this show; rather it's that this show is able to make small occurrences very important to the plot, allowing them to honestly effect a ton, without anybody ever realizing it. Season 2 has been masterful at progressing the story and deepening the characters and because of that, I would say it has improved on season 1 in an excellent way and has really fleshed out the story to make me even more excited to learn the fates of all these characters. Speaking of characters, I love the way this show handles its side characters. They are given basic motivations and likeable traits which makes them memorable and enjoyable whenever they appear. Daniel, Steven Ogg's character and Omar were excellent in previous episodes, and this episode really does a great job with Lance and Ernie. Their roles are minimal but they still feel like real people with a purpose in their lives, rather than plot devices used to progress the story. The Bad: The commercial filming scene's timing was a little weird because we had just seen Jimmy get out of a tense conversation with Chuck. To show him completely unaffected literally a minute later felt rather cheap and it really felt like the scene should have taken place in the last episode but was shifted for some reason. This was a rare moment of poor organization in a show which I would say is the best put together show on television. The Unknown: What is Chuck's fate? Will he survive the hit? That seemed like a really bad head injury, and it could have possibly been fatal. It would be a real shock to lose Chuck tragically as a result of Jimmy's actions and would give him some real drive to become Saul. Whatever happens to him, I'm sure he, and everyone else, won't be unaffected by it. There will certainly be consequences, as there always is on this show. Will Jimmy go in and save Chuck? Or will he keep his position seek and only watch? Either way it will make sense for him and he is left with a terrible decision here. It should be exciting to pick up with his decision in the finale. What will Mike do to get back at Hector? I'm willing to bet he's not just going to forget about Hector now. Will Nacho be involved with this at all? Or will he be affected by whatever Mike has in store? Best Moment: We are truly spoilt for choice but I'll pick the final copy shop scene as it was a masterpiece of tension and had a truly stunning ending. I can't imagine not wanting to watch the next episode after this scene. Character of the Episode: A VERY difficult choice. Everyone has a claim to this, even Lance. I will narrowly pick Chuck for this one I think. Michael McKean is just too good. Conclusion: What a fantastic episode, one of the very best from this show. This was powerful and climactic, delivering a huge exclamation point to this season after tons of excellent set up. This exceeded my expectations and is my favourite episode thus far. Score: 83
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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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