Holy shit. This is the best episode of the show in a while. Mike is a badass.
Highlights of the episode : the string and Mike gaining access to the cop car. You the viewer are wondering “why did he do it”?
Mike feigning drunkeness.
Dead Eye Mike.
It was an amazing episode. Loved the scene with Jimmy and Saul & Philly PD at the police station.
Best episode yet, by far.
“What?”
“You look like Matlock.”
“No, I look like a young Paul Newman dressed as Matlock.”
Yep, best episode yet!
The look on the cops face when Mikes gun didn’t fire.
That was a badassed Episode, Mikes back story could have been one of those things best left imagined but once again I am reminded of why I watched Breaking Bad so intently.
I just realized that Mike didn’t just have an empty gun. That would be too likely to go wrong. He tamped with the striker or he removed the powder from each bullet, I bet.
Is Kaylee’s mom still around in Breaking Bad? I don’t remember her appearing, and I had the impression Mike was taking care of her by himself.
Kaylee didn’t live with Mike in Breaking Bad. I remember a scene where Mike took her home but I’m pretty sure we never saw the mother.
We definitely never saw the mother in Breaking Bad. I would have remembered, because the actress who plays her was part of the cast of Rome.
Truly a great episode. So nuanced, down to how Mike had the wherewithal to get himself a fresh bandage.
It’s the little details in support of fantastic drama that makes this stuff so amazing.
I’m pretty sure that I recall them showing the mother in Breaking Bad. Mike had his granddaughter in the car and dropped her off and her mother was outside and greeted them.
And yes, this was a great episode. It appears that Mike’s going to be such a big part of the show rather than a minor character with a cameo here and there. That’s definitely a good thing since he’s such a great character.
If Mike is going to have a big part in it, I have to wonder if we’re going to start seeing Gus at some point since Mike does eventually become such an important part of his organization.
I think its 95 percent certain to happen simply because Gus was such a fan favourite and they’ve set up so much potential for his back story. I can see the last shot of Season 1 being Gus stepping forward out of the shadows in a meeting with Mike.
This episode should be the one that wins Banks his Emmy.
Kaylee’s mom was portrayed by a non-speaking extra with similar coloring to the actor they are using here. I have seen some people praising this actor and others criticizing her acting ability; I am In the latter camp, as I thought she kind of came across as someone visibly trying to act, rather than just naturalistically pulling me into the scene.
I am seeing a lot of these incredibly enthusiastic “best so far” reactions to this episode on various sites. Which is actually starting to turn me against the episode, and not just because of my ornery, contrarian nature. (After all, I loved me some “Ozymandias” along with everyone else.)
I liked the episode fine as a brief diversion from the main through line of the show. But my favorite episode of the series so far is last week’s, which I think a lot of the same people overpraising this week’s episode may have actually disliked. And although they may not admit it, I suspect that TV show runners get influenced by the things people say online. So I am going to try my best to stand up for the viewpoint that last week’s episode is a much better exemplar of what I want this show to be (most of the time) than this week’s is.
Great episode, and great work by Jonathan Banks. Mike showed more emotion here than maybe ever before. His explanation at the end of the episode about what happened with his son was heartbreaking.
I was quite impressed with his plan when watching the episode. I was even more impressed when reading someone’s theory online that it was somewhat of a long plan by Mike. He knew immediately who killed his son. It would have been difficult to get the guys back immediately, and they would have been on their guards. But by waiting for a few months and by seeming to be a hopeless drunk, they let their guards down and he was able to kill them. Also it provided a pretty good alibi, in that he seemed too drunk to function, much less get the drop on two cops much younger than him.
Maybe. I think what might happen is we’ll see a beginning of episode flashback of him back in Chile, maybe in his position in the Pinochet government, or showing how he and his partner decided to get into the meth business.
I’m with you completely.
I find the mom exactly as you do - someone visibly trying to act.
And the episode was just okay, to me. I like Mike as a character, and the actor is pretty great, but the storyline was totally mediochre to me, and I found his endless exposition at the end tedious and clumsy. Also, I want far more Saul in my Better Call Saul.
I was wondering if maybe Mike was 80% sure it was them, and then set the plan up in a way that if they did NOT do it they would think “oh, crazy old sad drunk guy” and just ignore it, but if they DID do it then they would get worried and have to take action, which of course they did, confirming their guilt for him.
The reviewer over at the AV club made an interesting point, which is that this episode, more than others of the series, gets much of its pathos and power from what we already know about Mike from Breaking Bad. To someone watching Better Call Saul on its own it would just be giving a weirdly detailed backstory to someone we’ve barely met.
Any Breaking Bad non-watchers in this thread want to comment on that?
I’ve only seen about a quarter of all the BB episodes, so although I recognize the character, I didn’t really know much about him.
I don’t think one needed to see BB to understand the character. Mike has been, I think, in every episode of BCS so far, and the producers have been careful to explain enough of his backstory to lead logically into the events of the most recent ep, and just why he’s manning a parking lot in Albuquerque.
Overall, I quite liked the episode, although it definitely seemed like a digression from the main story line. It looks, however, like Jimmy will have some more lawyerin’ to do on Mike’s behalf next week, so it seems like there’s a bigger reason for following this plot line.
Oh, yeah. The scene with the two cops from Philly.
Cops: “C’mon, Mike, help us out here, yadda yadda yadda…”
Mike: “Lawyer”.
Cracked me right up, that did.