I agree - this episode certainly had some amusing parts but overall it was pretty slow and the first episode so far I’ve disliked. I don’t find the plotline with Jimmy’s brother very interesting - I’d rather we stick with the Kettlemans, but it looks like that one might be over with and dropped.
As far as the cops and the house go - I’d certainly want to do more research, but my initial inclination is that the cops were in the wrong. First thing is that a police officer can’t arrest you (warrantlessly) for a misdemeanor unless it’s committed in his presence - that’s why they need to have the victim/witness sign an arrest form (even if the cop is the one who physically does the arrest in reality). So the cops could go up to the front door and knock on it and ask him to come out, but that’s it - once he refused, that should’ve been it (unless/until the cops got a warrant). Certainly the officer couldn’t decide to go around back - that’s certainly part of the ‘curtilage’ and falls within the area of the home.
Whether they could bust in after they saw the gas/lanterns/wiring and such, that’s a bit more up in the air - it would go down to reasonability and whether the cops had a good reason to think there were exigent circumstances to enter. Merely seeing evidence of a crime, though, isn’t usually enough, unless there’s reason to think 1) the evidence is about to be destroyed or 2) someone is about to get hurt. Based on what we saw, I don’t think there’s enough (though there’s likely enough to get a search warrant, especially after the cop inserts a bunch of language of “blah blah I have all this narcotics training and 10 years on the force and these items often indicate meth lab”), but either way the police already were in the wrong in the first place by going around to the back.
I brought up the sticker in regards to the conversation about the granddaughter’s age (posts 20, 24, others), hoping it may clarify the issue as to when this is taking place vis-a-vis Breaking Bad.
The answer being that she last had that car inspected in PA in Dec 2002 so presumably she left PA sometime in 2003. How long it’s been since then can’t be determined from the stickers.
Also, he was about to start with his “I’m borrowing my assistant’s car, my fancy car is in the shop” story, but when he heard what the rancher was saying, he figured a better way to spin things. I liked seeing that.
They also established a timeline for Chuck’s condition – about 2 years – so I wonder if the onset is tied to Jimmy moving to Albuquerque. I don’t recall if any of the flashbacks to Cicero indicator how long ago they were, but the one with Chuck visiting Jimmy in jail probably ties in with Jimmy’s move and ultimately with Chuck’s condition.
He acted like he knew those cops. I figured it was his old Philly PD buddies. He said something like “You’re a long way from home” when he saw them. I guessed maybe an old friend from Philly has recently died. Their Police Chief maybe?
I don’t think Mike was in trouble with the Albuquerque police in that scene. Maybe he broke a restraining order when he visited his daughter, though?
Someone would travel from Philly to Albuquerque to tell him an old friend died? That seems unlikely.
You may be right that it has something to do with a restraining order from his daughter (daughter-in-law? I’m not sure which). Maybe she didn’t even know he was in town until she saw him parked outside her house.
But I question the idea that a violation of a PA restraining order in another state would prompt a visit from a Philly cop.
I don’t know if they (assuming the show creators) got “hung up” on the emission sticker, but it they were displayed rather prominently on the screen, so I would assume the person who’s job it is to think about such things (set designer? Director?) would at least make sure the stickers matched the in-show reality. After all, if one of them had said 14-5, and BB took place in 2012 (I guess)… well, that wouldn’t be good for a show that’s a prequel.
Anyway, enough about the stickers.
I would assume that something in Mikes past has come up to bite him in the ass - like davidm says, you don’t exactly have Philly cops fly across the country to arrest somebody breaking a restraining order.
The cop that was in the front at the door talking to Mike looked very familiar, wasn’t he the one that worked with Hank? The one who visited him at home when he was hurt and brought the file that inspired Hank to start looking into Heisenburg again?
There was another cop that I think was the Philly cop. They showed him from behind in focus, and then he was out of focus when Mike was talking to the cop I mentioned above. I’m probably wrong, but was that “The Chairman” from Iron Chef?
I was trying to clarify the timeline, since someone asked about it. The stickers were displayed very prominently, and Gilligan and crew seem to be sticklers about such details, so it seems like they probably showed them for a reason.
The reason that the Philly police come to visit Mike is in regards to his missing son, Matt. We gather this from the sneak-preview shown during the credits. There is mention of Matt being a police officer in the sneak preview AMC has online here.
If you listen to the pod cast from Breaking Bad or Just Call Saul, they get hung up about everything. Rhea (Kim) was saying how amazed she was that her office was decorated properly. Not just random stuff, but right down to year books from when her character would have been in high school. All the paper on the desk had actual words on it. Every newspaper article was an actual article and not just a bunch of gibberish.
Regarding the emissions stickers, someone went and got that car and put those stickers on them, that person either went to the DMV or made the stickers themselves and in doing that had to pick the date(s). The dates they chose weren’t accidents.
Vince often speaks about people (fans) pausing the show just to look for all those details so he makes sure they do the best they can to get every one of them perfect.
Not a big deal for me, but be aware that not everyone watches those previews. This is the sort of thing that can set off epic battles royale in some threads; here it’s probably fine (though a spoiler box might be a courtesy).