He left them right there. IIRC, they even showed the manager picking one up and looking at it before seemingly thinking nothing of it. If this heist is going to fall apart, I have to assume that’s going to be what puts it in motion. Maybe she’ll ignore one, but if she finds a bunch she might start looking into it.
I also mentioned upthread that she might still have the “dispatcher’s” phone number. I have to assume Gene used a burner for that, but I still feel like it might come back to bite him somehow. Especially considering they could have just left that whole part out (and just had the driver say he’d swing back in the morning and grab it).
Maybe he did that as well, but I am certain I remember there were also shots of him removing the security tags.
I assume that was a joke, but that made me think he could have dumped them in the bathroom trash can. If he made sure they were well buried under all the paper towels the custodian would likely just come in, grab the bag, and take it to the dumpster without even noticing the security tags in there. But, does the custodian take the trash out through the loading dock, or out the front?
Here’s the scene, you can see him removing the security devices with a security device remover tool (around 1:50 with the shoes and around 3:15 with the briefcases)
I think because he genuinely likes old people and wants her to get a happy ending to the story. Jimmy is a complicated character and it’s really difficult sometimes to parse out what’s real and what’s bullshit con man behavior with him. That’s what makes this such a fascinating and compelling show–people can go on and on about plot points and blah blah blah but far as I’m concerned what makes a show memorable is the characters. I mean, I’ve watched House all the way through about six times now and the patient of the week stuff is just noise to me–what I watch for is the character interactions and House is such a multi-layered and complex character I can never quite decide if he’s a genuine curmudgeonly damaged kind person or a total asshole. So I have to watch again and every time I come up with a different opinion, usually because I am in a different emotional space than the last time I binged it. Same with Breaking Bad, same with Better Call Saul. Every time I feel slightly different about what the motivations and drives of the characters are and every time I find some nuance I missed previously.
Plot point obsessives really miss a lot in entertainment, because once you know what’s going to happen, you’re done. Character obsessives, however, can enjoy an entertainment a million times if the characters are well enough written and performed.
Everything you said I’m 100% with. I couldn’t care less about realism from this universe (ice blue pure meth??). It’s been remarkably internally consistent for as complicated and long running, and I just love spending time with these characters.
He didn’t have a whole lot of time to spare though (unless, as we found out, Gene could keep the security guy occupied a bit longer). But as mentioned before, he could have just left them on. Hell, he could have just thrown them in the bathroom garbage and let an employee walk them out them back door for him. He could have just stuck them under a pile of folded up sweaters on a shelf where they wouldn’t have been found for a few days or weeks.
Between all the things he could have done with them (most notably, IMO, leaving them on instead of dealing with them while the clock is ticking) and that, IIRC, we saw the manager find one the next morning, I have to assume it’s a plot point. Perhaps kicking off the final major plot/con for the show.
Especially when you consider that they could have just left that entire part out. They could have just picked items without the security devices (not everything had them) or just pretend like they didn’t exist in this world.
Now that I think about it was there an endgame to all this? Did Gene have a fence lined up so he could make some money or did he go through all this to make sure he had dirt on Jeffie (which I’m not even sure he does)?
I wouldn’t bet against this. Nor would I bet against those who believe that the Carol Burnett character may be on to Jimmy/Gene. On second viewing of the episode, her questions to him (about both Albuquerque and Nippy) did seem rather pointed.
As for people wanting to believe that Jimmy felt nothing except relief after the heist: people will believe what they want or need to believe. That’s just a fact of human nature. As has been said, this show embodies the kind of superior writing that bears many interpretations. The high level of emotional complexity and skillful storytelling lends itself to time spent thinking about the show (in a way that a more conventional and superficial show does not).
The way this show will end matters to a lot of people. The same was true for Breaking Bad, of course. But the ending of Breaking Bad was the end of a character who, no matter how much people sympathized with him, was a killer. Walt not only killed people himself, but was responsible for the deaths of many more, through his manufacture and (later) distribution of meth.
The ending of Better Call Saul concerns the fate of a character who, while he’s done some pretty ethically-questionable things, is not an actual killer.
So it matters to that ending whether not Jimmy is a con artist on top of everything and basically untouched by it, or a man suffering from regret over the way he’s lived his life. If the former, the ending would likely either show him riding off into the sunset with a big grin, or sitting in a jail cell with a big grin because he’s just thought of an exciting way to con the guards.
If it’s the latter, though, this is a character who is faced with what virtually every human being is faced with: a decision. The way I’ve been living my life is not making me happy–so what do I need to do differently?
That was never the question for Walt. He was, in essence, a damned soul—and there was no redemption for him.
There could be redemption for Jimmy.
For many viewers, the suspense of these last few episodes is: will this smart, capable man find a way to live in a way that lets him leave regret behind? Or will he go from small con to small con, seeking a quick shot of the thrills he gets from making it work, until the despair sets in again and he has to find another con to distract himself from what he’s made of his life?
I would argue that redemption was 100% part of Walt’s ending–he came back from exile sick and dying to make absolutely sure that his children would be taken care of, as was the entire reason for his journey in the first place, and to rescue Jesse. He loved Jesse, felt responsible for him and there’s no doubt that Jesse was where he was because of Walt. Walt did what he could to redeem himself and I think to whatever extent it was possible, he did. As for his body count, with the exception of Jane and Hank (and Walt didn’t actually kill either one of them) there’s quite a bit of justification for the murders he committed and it can be argued that even Jane and Hank were in the game enough to be able to understand they were likely to come to an untimely end. Jane was shooting heroin and playing with blackmail, Hank was a DEA agent and when he died it wasn’t by any means his first trip to the rodeo.
Walt is another complicated character with complex motivations and drives and there was nothing simple about him at all. Yes, he had an overweening pride that proved to be his ultimate downfall but then again, if he’d never gotten slapped with the cancer bat he probably would never have stepped out of line in his life–just gone on with his quiet desperation and dissatisfaction but taking care of business nonetheless.
If Walt gets bodies on his list because the meth game is dangerous and it’s part of the business, Saul also has bodies on his list. For one, he was also part of the meth business. For a second he cheated to get a person that he knows is a murderer out on bail, which directly contributed to more murders.
Really enjoyed this episode. Maybe we don’t see Kim again? Are the cops in the preview showing up for a body / is the cancer man dead? Jessie looked old as shit.
Indeed it was; Kevin Sussman is the actor’s name. By the way, the first guy the ruse was run on was Devin Ratray a.k.a. Buzz McCallister from Home Alone.
I have to think that we are going to see Kim again. If anything, we need to learn how she ended up working for Palm Coast Sprinklers of Titusville, Florida. We may also get to learn what was said in that phone call that got Gene so hot and bothered.
The way he went after that phone booth reminded me of De Niro in Goodfellas after he learned Tommy got whacked.
Bryan Cranston has publicly said that there will be individual scenes featuring Walt and Jesse alone with Saul, in addition to the scenes from tonight of all of them together (from the “Better Call Saul” episode of Breaking Bad). Can’t wait to see what those will contain.
This episode ultimately drove home a point that I have been ruminating on, which is that being Saul Goodman is an addiction for Jimmy McGill. Last week was the relapse, and this week he is fully back on the horse. There are numerous moments where he should just stop, but he can’t bring himself to do it. This is the case in the Gene timeline and during BB.
That was great! Slowly showing Gene turning back into Saul, by using Jimmy like scams. And they interlaced the Breaking Bad stuff really great as well. Having the masks pushed up also allowed Cranston’s bald cap to be obscured and not be such a talking point as it was in El Camino
Yeah I was wracking my brain to figure out where I’d seen the first mark from… he played Sam, the gun nut in Blue Ruin who shot the hillbilly that Dwight let out of the trunk. When Dwight was left almost speechless on what had been left of the hillbilly’s head (not much), Sam remarked, quite matter-of-factly, “that’s what bullets do”.
It’s interesting that Jimmy went back to using the Viktor name he invented back in season 2, the first time he got Kim (Giselle) to join a scam with him.
Just went online and learned that next week’s episode is entitled “Waterworks.” I’m guessing this is going to be a Kim heavy episode; hopefully, some questions will get answered.
I thought they looked the part. But they sounded older, especially Jesse. Both their voices sounded deeper to me.
But I chalk that up to Saul’s perspective. In that moment, he still thinks they’re big, tough gangsters, who just got done threatening to execute him. Before Mike confirms they’re somewhat bumbling dilettantes. It works for me.
That scene in the Crystal Ship is literally the first time in 6 3/4 seasons I feel like I’ve missed something never having watched BB, so I guess I have to go back and watch BB now. But it was obvious 30 seconds into the second part of the scene that Saul was way ahead of Walt & Jesse in criminal knowledge, and he knew it.
