Maybe. If not then, then maybe after the curbside speech. So then who would have the PoA, would he have given it to Hamlin or would it fall to the State?
I think Howard already realizes it - his reaction when Chuck showed him the tape, then attitude towards Chuck hiring PIs says to me that he feels like Chuck is losing his grip and coming closer to being a liability to the firm. Howard is pretty coldly self-interested, he’s only been putting up with Chuck’s crazy because he needs Chuck’s expertise and the McGill name to keep going. If he starts to feel that he can’t rely on Chuck’s expertise because of the crazy, then I don’t think he’d hesitate in axing Chuck longer than it takes to make a plan for it.
Jimmy’s fear in S1 was that Howard was trying to pay Chuck a pittance and keep him on the books instead of ‘honestly’ buying him out. I think Howard actually has the means to buy Chuck out if he wants to, doesn’t Howard actually own 2/3 of the company (inheriting his father’s share)? Also there is probably some special procedure if Chuck is deemed incompetent - which I think is the direction the Chuck wagon is driving. If Howard does decide to cut Chuck loose, I also think he’d have no problem working with Jimmy to get Chuck out of the way with as little trouble as possible.
I’m not clear on all the legal ins and outs, but I do agree that Chuck, for all his canniness, is oblivious to the fact that Howard is cagey and willing to spin on a dime and sell him out in a hot minute if he has a good opportunity and has crossed the rubicon of believing Chuck is more of a liability than asset to the firm. He may have already gotten to that second part, and is just biding his time waiting for the right moment to make his move, perhaps as you say with Jimmy’s help.
ETA: So that makes me think: maybe Hamlin will go behind Jimmy’s back to help him kneecap Chuck, with the quid pro quo that Jimmy changes his name to sever all association/confusion with HHM (remember the whole billboard deal in S1?).
I bet Howard really didn’t like firing Ernesto as part of Chuck’s plan, if you remember the way he talked about Jimmy in the mail room he seemed to like and respect the low-level hard workers even if there was no chance they’d ever be a partner. Howard comes off as ruthless when he’s lawyering, but isn’t arbitrarily cruel to people under him (both socially and organizationally). Using Ernesto like a pawn, then discarding him when he ‘betrayed’ a confidence he was supposed to doesn’t really fit what we’ve seen.
Now that I think about it, Ernesto may play a big role in Chuck’s downfall too. If this does go to trial, an obvious question is ‘how did you know Jimmy knew about the tape’, and him ‘accidentally’ playing it for Ernesto then firing Ernesto looks pretty crazy, and make Chuck look much more like a plotter than a victim.
I doubt it, that’s too nice of an outcome for this show IMO. I strongly suspect Howard isn’t going to want anything to do with the McGill name by the time this is done, I think Jimmy taking off the gloves is going to destroy Chuck dramatically.
Howard has been used by Chuck to do his dirty work many times, typically when Chuck did not have the balls to do it himself. Whether its hiring Jimmy as an Associate, using him as Co-Counsel in the old homes RICO case. He has on multiple occasions made it clear he has done so out of the fact it’s his duty to support his partner, not because of some personal vendetta against Jimmy, and infact he kind of likes and admires Jimmy.
I suspect it will be Howard who will break.
The theme of loyalty seems to come up often in this show; Jimmy’s loyalty to Chuck, Chuck’s loyalty to the ideal principles of law, Kim’s loyalty to Jimmy, Kim’s loyalty to honour, Hamlin’s loyalty to Chuck and his firm, Mike’s loyalty to his son and family, Gus’s loyalty to his agenda. And it’s the testing of these loyalties that makes the stories interesting.
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Same here! I just assumed for some reason the opening scene was before the rest of the episode, and that the shoes were some sort of signal or indicator, and that Mike was replacing the shoes that fell. Which made me extremely confused as to why Mike was going after Gus’ people (since the truck in the opening is a Los Pollos Hermanos truck). But, if it’s the same shoes, much later, then it just shows that Gus later took over the route from the Salamancas. (Also then makes sense why the stop sign looked like it had more less bullet holes in Mike’s scene).
I had to review the episode. In the opening scene, one of the old weathered shoes has a bullet hole in its toe, though of course this wasn’t a detail I noticed on first viewing, or would have understood even if I had.
“It’s nice to fix something for once.”
The look on Mike’s face just before he said that was classic.
Another fantastic episode. Do we know exactly what Jimmy was after with Mike taking photos of Chuck’s place? He mentioned something about an address out of an address book, I think. But he must’ve been up to something more?
I loved Mike using the drill to drive Chuck out of the room so he could take pictures, and the disposable camera was a nice touch that was more common for the era than a phone camera. Looks like we did see the start of Mike working for Gus, and I did like Gus’s way of handling Hector and crew’s incursion. Probably he got the cartel to tell Hector to back off of his operation, since he was endangering the whole operation by showing up. I think the rest of the Cartel sees Gus as a now-loyal lackey who’s good at making money, and won’t like Hector messing with the cash cow just because he screwed up his own operation.
I didn’t expect Jimmy to confess, I thought he’d beat Chuck in an open trial. But HHM pointed out a good reason for him to want a bar hearing instead; the standards for admitting evidence are much lower. Jimmy and Kim clearly want the tape admitted to the hearing, Kim’s ‘objection’ followed by a ‘bingo’ out of sight was clearly her verifying that Chuck had a copy and that they planned to introduce it. I think Jimmy is planning to claim that Chuck is completely out of his mind, to use the pictures of his ripped wiring and fire hazards to show ‘danger to self’, to call the doctor to testify, and to then claim that what he said on the tape was a lie to try to help his brother recover. I think that the mystery info from Chuck’s address book was his ex- wife’s contact info, and that Jimmy plans to call her as a surprise witness about Chuck’s instability.
I think next week is going to be very interesting to watch. Not really sure what the spoiler etiquette for the ‘sneak peak at next week’ bit is, but:
In the preview, Kim tells Mesa Verde about Chuck’s accusation against Jimmy, and presents it as a false accusation by Chuck. She very much takes the ‘concerned citizen’ tone with them. So I think she’s bought in to telling the world that the admission on tape was just Jimmy trying to save his brother, even though she’s pretty sure he did modify the documents.
Great analysis, Pantastic. I think you’re dead on.
Thanks guys - now I’m unconfused.
Gus foreshadowed that he is going to do something unspeakable to Hector.
Crane
I know in BrBa it was said Hector has a stroke that made him wind up in that wheelchair, but I can’t help but wonder if Gus/Mike did something to precipitate that.
I can’t get over the fact that NO ONE called the cops at the restaurant. Not even the customers. It’s really pissing me off.
“It was said” is the right way to put it, it wasn’t an authoritative voice that said it. Would be perfectly consistent for Hector to say it’s a stroke, but it’s really caused by an injury, or a stroke engineered by Gus/Mike. Though it could just be that the stroke is just a consequence of the stress Hector gets under as Gus destroys him and his family, thematically it would work if Hector loses control of his body as he loses control of his empire.
I agree, I have to put that into the ‘magic’ category like some of Heisenberg’s chemistry tricks. The employees might trust Gus enough not to do so on his orders, but I can’t believe that all of the customers know Hector is untouchable. Even if they don’t have cell phones (not rare at the time the story is set), there are plenty of pay phones and other businesses.
Loved how he controlled the drill like a growl. Didn’t someone predict a Mike/Chuck interaction?
That “heartfelt” speech was perfect…the non-BB viewers should have a better taste of what Gus is capable of.
Also, the Don Eladio scene was phenomenal.
Initially, I thought the Assistant Manager would go to the phone and call the police (and who knows, he may have attempted to do so, we don’t know what may have happened between when Hector was walking behind the counter to the moment when Gus arrived and all the employees were sitting in a group in the restaruant) BUT I’m not surprised that the customers didn’t try and call the police. Many of them began reacting to Taco and the other guy before Hector started asking for Gus. They know of these drug types in their neighborhood and know that they don’t want anything to do with them.
As for where Jimmy may be going, with the photos Mike took, prior to last night’s episode I was reading the episode titles for the entire season. The finale is titled “Lantern”. They stuck with me after seeing that photo with the lantern and the newspapers. That may not mean anything (last night’s title in english meant “Tasty”) but it got my mind thinking…
There may be some other reason why it’s important that Chuck confirmed that the tape Jimmy destroyed wasn’t the only copy, but my thought was that it’s pretty simple: The existence of a back-up tape proves, or at least strongly implies, that Chuck set Jimmy up. If Jimmy can put that evidence in front of the board, it undermines the whole basis of Chuck’s case.
Love the Kim and Jimmy team. She’s whip-smart, has a professional poker player’s game face and an energizer-bunny work ethic. While on his own turf ( cons and conning ) Jimmy is slicker than teflon-coated goose shit. Their skills are entirely complementary and Chuck is in for a thrashing.
It’s been said many times before, but it is gonna be a heartbreaker when their relationship crashes and burns. Assuming it does, of course. I suppose Jimmy could thoroughly corrupt Kim and drag her down into Cinnabon purgatory with him, but I’m guessing not. I can’t imagine that “Gene” would be quite that miserable if he still had Kim with him.
Agreed. I think I saw recognition on a few faces before things started to escalate - I’m thinking locals that know who the bad guys are and don’t want any trouble. Still a stretch, but less of one.
I don’t see how the existence of a back-up tape proves or implies that Chuck set Jimmy up. Backing up a tape with valuable information is a good practice in general, and makes a lot of sense if you’re worried that your brother will be angry that you recorded it and break in to destroy it. All it implies is that Chuck thought Jimmy might decide to steal or damage the tape, which is hard to call an unwarranted assumption since Jimmy actually did destroy the tape. I don’t see how showing a ‘set up’ would hurt any case Chuck might make; it’s not like Chuck was doing something illegal or unethical in the ‘set up’ that would make it OK for Jimmy to commit felonies, and Chuck’s real case for the ethics hearing is ‘Jimmy altered documents and admitted it on tape,’ and the altering documents happened long before the setup.