# Better Call Saul 1.10 "Marco" 4/6/15 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987 "2015-04-06T19:58:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/21 "2015-04-07T15:44:19Z")
For many of the reasons already mentioned above. Pure Corn. > [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > Found it slow, dull, and not terribly satisfying as to his apparent transformation. Not to mention about 45 minutes of stupid filler. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/22 "2015-04-07T15:52:22Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > Jimmy still has an interest in the case against Sandpiper, but with that case being big enough that it requires HHM to partner with a bigger law firm, it is going to takes years to resolve. So long, in fact, that when Jimmy is due his share of the settlement, he’s running a Cinnabon. Perhaps next season we’ll start to see more of what happens post BB. Maybe the lure of the big payoff from that case and how to get it will form that storyline. I really, \*really \*hope not. I’ve said it before, but I’m really surprised how many fans expect or hope for the show to go back to Omaha. I thought it was clear that this was our one glimpse, never again (except maybe for a minute or two in the series finale). I am positive Vince Gilligan didn’t intend to ever go back there on any ongoing basis, and I hope he resists the temptation to give in to all this fan agitation to do so, because I think it would be a terrible idea for a number of reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/23 "2015-04-07T16:07:00Z")
This episode was a disapointment, and particularly after the spectacular fireworks of the previous episode. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/24 "2015-04-07T16:41:34Z")
I guess I’m in the minority then… I quite liked it. I liked that he went back for “one last fling” and it ended up with his friend dead so he realized for sure it wasn’t for him, but then again his friend said how much better it was than a regular job. He had an option for a real job and turned down and realized he doesn’t really want to run cons anymore, but wants to make money “honestly” but still with some thrills. Again, I enjoyed it and look forward to where it will go next season. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/25 "2015-04-07T16:57:23Z")
Will there be a second season? Is that when we’ll see him meet up with dark side and have more roles for Mike? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/26 "2015-04-07T17:20:18Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > Will there be a second season? Yes, it has already been picked up. > [@Spud](#): > > I guess I’m in the minority then… I quite liked it. I’m another one, more or less. It worked fine for me and I prefer a choice to a force on the ‘breaking bad’ front. Saul/Jimmy ultimately made the cinnamon-scented bed he’s sleeping on and I’m good with that. Best episode ever? Not at all. But decent enough. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/27 "2015-04-07T17:28:37Z")
What did Marco ever get out of the Rolex scam anyway? I mean, in terms of thrills. He spent most of it on his back, with Jimmy doing all the work. Much like my second ex-wife. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/28 "2015-04-07T17:35:00Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Also, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an actor look that realistically dead. I know! I was watching him, he was speaking, eyes were open…and then he died. You could pinpoint the moment when he went. I also must say that, IMO, Bob Odenkirk is a perfectly beautiful man. It was a weak episode, yeah, but I would watch that guy do anything…even the fabled Chicago sun roof. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/29 "2015-04-07T18:01:57Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > What did Marco ever get out of the Rolex scam anyway? I mean, in terms of thrills. He spent most of it on his back, with Jimmy doing all the work. Much like my second ex-wife. But that was just one. Based on the montage it, they must have had at least 20 or 30 regular scams. Maybe there were some that had Jimmy just standing around doing nothing for a half hour. Also, Marco really just had to show up there 10 minutes before he knew Jimmy was going leave the bar, it’s not that he was waiting around all night. My question is, how much did they make? I mean, in a week did the two of them bring in five or ten grand or was that just a whole lot of work to bring in a six hundred dollars and then split it? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/30 "2015-04-07T19:14:24Z")
Was Saul wearing that ring during Breaking Bad, I wonder? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/31 "2015-04-07T19:17:05Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > But that was just one. Based on the montage it, they must have had at least 20 or 30 regular scams. Maybe there were some that had Jimmy just standing around doing nothing for a half hour. > Also, Marco really just had to show up there 10 minutes before he knew Jimmy was going leave the bar, it’s not that he was waiting around all night. > > My question is, how much did they make? I mean, in a week did the two of them bring in five or ten grand or was that just a whole lot of work to bring in a six hundred dollars and then split it? In the first episode that they show that particular scam, they show Jimmy complaining that basically their scamming brings in “beer money”. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/32 "2015-04-07T19:51:27Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Was Saul wearing that ring during Breaking Bad, I wonder? [He did wear a ring in BB, yes](http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/q103albany.com/files/2013/09/saul1-630x322.jpg). [Not sure if it was _that_ ring though](http://www.modernreaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/content_Saul-Goodman-Breaking-Bad.jpg). He said “I’m not much of a ring guy” at the funeral, so maybe the ring is what makes him Saul (like how Superman is just Clark Kent when he’s wearing glasses.) ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/33 "2015-04-07T19:53:12Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Was Saul wearing that ring during Breaking Bad, I wonder? [Yep, it’s the same ring](http://i.imgur.com/wGwkO8b.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/34 "2015-04-07T20:21:21Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > In the first episode that they show that particular scam, they show Jimmy complaining that basically their scamming brings in “beer money”. I remember that comment, I thought they were just talking about the Rolex scam though. In this episode it was implied that they basically spent the entire week scamming from morning until they went to bed. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/35 "2015-04-07T20:28:24Z")
I was so hoping that Ernesto’s last name was going to be Fring. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/36 "2015-04-07T20:31:32Z")
Something I wondered about the ring, though: Marco was a _big_ guy and Jimmy isn’t. Unless he had particularly small hands, would his pinky be likely to fit on Jimmy-Saul’s pinky? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/37 "2015-04-07T20:59:56Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I remember that comment, I thought they were just talking about the Rolex scam though. In this episode it was implied that they basically spent the entire week scamming from morning until they went to bed. Well yes, but making a few reasonable assumptions, it would make sense that their scamming isn’t bringing in _really_ big bucks. First, I would assume that this particular scam pays at least as well as any other that they routinely pull, and probably better (else they would not do it - it requires access to a ready supply of fake Rolexes, so presumably they go through some trouble setting it up). Second, it evidently takes some time to execute - Jimmy has to find a mark with cash in wallet and befriend him to the extent that they are like drinking buds, and entice them to leave the bar with him. Say we assume that takes three hours (probably an underestimate, but hey). They got something like $600 or so from that guy’s wallet (can’t remember). But setting up the scam also cost some cash - buying drinks and the watch. Say $100. So the scam netted $500 - for six man-hours of work. Or around $80 an hour, more or less. I assume this isn’t unusual for that scam. That’s pretty good as pay (if you can keep it up consistently without burning out, getting caught, or running out of bars), but hardly making “fuck-you” money. A solid 40-hour work-week of scamming at that rate would earn them each $3,200. But I’m betting it would be a lot less, as this figure requires a steady stream of marks to be available. ---
**Author:** ![soonerblue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soonerblue/32/3302_2.png) [@soonerblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soonerblue)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/38 "2015-04-08T00:51:50Z")
Well hell, I didn’t know what to think about the finale, so I did a little serious Spring housecleaning while I thought it over. The last episode of a season is supposed to be where sh\*t gets real …secrets get revealed, the stage gets set with a crescendo sort of cliffhanger … such as the final ring of Hector Salamanca’s bell. We just got Jimmy driving off into the sunset in his sad-sack Susizi Esteem with a smile on his face, headed for … trouble? We would’ve liked a hint about what sort of trouble … something to hold onto for a year. You can tell that Kim deeply cares for Jimmy as they hug goodbye in the parking lot (boy, this show knows all about parking lots and film noir), I like her reason for not telling Jimmy about Chuck - "I didn’t want you to hate your own brother.” Upstairs bygones are bygones with Howard, Jimmy knows who the real villain was, and I liked it when Howard realized how much Jimmy has done for Chuck over the past year … and Jimmy’s smile when Howard called him “Charlie Hustle” as sincere praise of his tenacity, and not a put-down about his former life. Then there’s a disturbing Bingo meltdown at the old folks home …where we hear about brothers and wives who betray us. Yes, there was indeed a Mrs. Slippin’ Jimmy … who slept with a guy who had a shiny white BMW … ah well, now I know what a Chicago Sunroof is, and how the registered sex offender part came about. Feeling worthless, Jimmy decides to go back to Cicero to find the one guy who has always worshipped him, his biggest fan, Marco … and he took up hustling again with his old friend. Not because he needed the money, he has $20,000 in his pocket - but partly to get back at Chuck, and partly because he missed the thrill of the grift. All this first season we saw a man realizing that the universe didn’t want him to be good. Jimmy kept fighting to rise above his worst impulses, but whenever he did the right thing, he ended up losing something …getting hurt. I guess that’s why we had to see that kaleidoscope bender of Jimmy and Marco at ‘play’ …we needed to see how much fun they have and how good they are at their little games. We see Jimmy relaxed and just having fun … when he no longer cares about respectability, when he’s not trying to impress Chuck, The happiest week of Marco’s life. (Great death scene) I’d say Jimmy’s final barfly scam died with Marco. So Jimmy heads west thinking about maybe a new gig that Kim told him about on the phone. But while walking to the courthouse meeting, he freezes in his tracks, closes his eyes and runs his thumb over Marco’s ring. So many times in the last 10 years has he squelched his natural instincts and tried to do the right thing, trusted the wrong people …and where has it gotten him? At the end of the episode, Jimmy drives off into his future … happy with a renewed faith in himself, humming the opening riff of “Smoke on the Water” (which I’ll never hear again without thinking ‘butt butt hole, butt butt butt hole’). Good for Jimmy getting out from under Chuck’s control … for finally realizing he has to be true to his own nature no matter how audacious and shady it is …living on the edge, but living his own life his own way. He’ll still be the “good man” from Mike’s soliloquy. I’m so glad that Chuck didn’t open the door in time to ask him in. Run Jimmy run. Chuck’s hard-to-please controlling nature was evident as he coached Ernesto about the proper newspaper, soy milk and Fuji apples. Hamlin was thought to be a jerk, but he was a pretty good guy; Chuck was thought to be a good guy, but was really a jerk. That Jimmy will turn down the dream job with the large Santa Fe firm offering him a partnership which Kim scared up, will not set well with her. She will lose respect for him when he skips out on one last chance at the big leagues I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a TV couple to ride off into the sunset together more than Jimmy and Kim …but really, what kind of exciting tension-driven TV show would that be? I wanted him to accept that job and make good, show them all what a brilliant lawyer he can be, even with the colorful speech and rough edges. But that wouldn’t make for a compelling enough character, or very exciting TV show either … or fulfill the destiny of Better Call Saul. I must not forget that this is all about the journey. And I’m still along for the ride. This was an entertaining and powerful debut season, and in many ways better than the first year of BB … maybe because the creative team has worked together for so long. Second season will even be stronger, just you wait and see. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/39 "2015-04-08T01:02:44Z")
If I heard two guys talking a rare coin with the figure facing the other direction, I’d be tempted to check it out on the internet. This would have just been possible in 2002. Unlike taking a drunk’s watch, though, as soon as the mark finds out his coin is not rare at all, he’d likely be tempted to come back angry. As a minor note, I seem to recall the factoid that of all common U.S. coins, only the penny had a profile that faced to the right. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987/40 "2015-04-08T01:35:59Z")
> [@soonerblue](#): > > Feeling worthless, Jimmy decides to go back to Cicero to find the one guy who has always worshipped him, his biggest fan, Marco … and he took up hustling again with his old friend. Not because he needed the money, he has $20,000 in his pocket - but partly to get back at Chuck, and partly because he missed the thrill of the grift. Even more importantly because he wanted to be with somebody (Marco) who _valued_ him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-1-10-marco-4-6-15/716987.md?page=3)