# Better Call Saul: Season IV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792 "2018-07-30T04:48:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 38
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/743 "2018-09-20T04:40:56Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > But if there’s an elevator, why on Earth would they lift that huge laundry machine every day? I don’t think the elevator goes up to the level of the laundry, only to the top level of the lab where the catwalk is. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/744 "2018-09-20T04:41:45Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > One would think they’d have built the elevator first. Humping all of that dirt out of there can’t have been fun. I would think that the engines would have been put into the bare shaft along with a construction cage until the rest of the work was complete. > > But if there’s an elevator, why on Earth would they lift that huge laundry machine every day? Hmm. Good point. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/745 "2018-09-20T04:41:56Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > One would think they’d have built the elevator first. Humping all of that dirt out of there can’t have been fun. I would think that the engines would have been put into the bare shaft along with a construction cage until the rest of the work was complete. > > But if there’s an elevator, why on Earth would they lift that huge laundry machine every day? They might have been smart to build some mini temp elevator to truck out dirt but the final elevator is meant to be pristine cleanable lab equipment. You’d trash it hauling rocks up every day. The laundry machine opened up to a landing where you could take the stairs or elevator down the rest of the way to the lab floor. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/746 "2018-09-20T11:45:25Z")
I figured they each filled their pockets with dirt from the excavation and let it slowly fall out of their pants while walking around. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/747 "2018-09-20T12:43:35Z")
> [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](#): > > Plus with the team being based in Europe there’s probably no possibility of conflicts of interest or knowledge of where they are (they probably don’t even know what state their in let alone which town). The thing that bothers me about all of the secrecy is the working laundry. Remember, this is a legitimate business. Maybe some of the employees are illegally present, but that’s SOP for places like that at the time. Maybe La Migra shows up and hauls some of them away from time to time, but there weren’t really any consequences for the business. _However_, you don’t fuck with OSHA, NM OSHA, or New Mexico’s labor board. There will be documentation of the location all over the place. There will be the fair labor standards act official notification bulletin board. There will be NM OSHA bulletins. Hell, there will be service tags on the laundry equipment saying “call speed queen in Albuquerque for service.” They’ll know they’re in the southwest by seeing the employees. Maybe they won’t know they’re in Albuquerque, but there’s no way they won’t know they’re in New Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/748 "2018-09-20T12:50:34Z")
Just how familiar would the Germans be with the US and its geography and the local ethnicity and phenotype? What do they know? Or could tell? _Weeel, Herr Detektiv, some people spoke Spanisch, and es was a place both heisser and colder than Koln_. If Mike & Gus need them to go for R&R, just drive them to the airport from whence they came and then send them to Vagas, LA or New York for a few days. They won’t be able to tell the cops shit. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/749 "2018-09-20T13:22:03Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > I figured they each filled their pockets with dirt from the excavation and let it slowly fall out of their pants while walking around. They also hide the entrance to the secret lab behind a poster of Raquel Welch. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2018, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/750 "2018-09-20T13:22:42Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I don’t think the elevator goes up to the level of the laundry, only to the top level of the lab where the catwalk is. Not that you’re wrong (or right, I don’t remember), but why would you even need an elevator if all it did was bring you down a few feet to another set of stairs. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/751 "2018-09-20T14:01:10Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Now we’ve seen it, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense, at least to me. The level of security at different parts of the transfer seems wildly inconsistent. Yeah, my original thought was that they were building in a disused laundry facility, and if it was active that they’d be working only while the laundry is deserted. Having them come in every day while laundry work is still happening seems like you’re risking discovery. If they were just trying to keep the lab secret from the police and building inspectors I’d believe the security. Expecting a bunch of non-citizens not to talk to the police is not a stretch, but they want to keep the cartel from finding out too, and like you said that means keeping them from gossiping with friends. I suspect they enjoyed doing the ‘workers walking through the laundry’ thing too much and decided to film that instead of something more circumspect. > [@](#): > > When the Germans are boarding the van (which is indeed windowless) at the warehouse, they are careful to have them board inside so that no one can see them, despite the fact that they are in the middle of nowhere. (They are, however, going back and forth in daylight, despite the fact in the last episode they said they would be working at night.) The “showing up in daylight” thing doesn’t bother me - if you’re working 10 hours at night during most of the year, you’re going to hit daylight at one end or the other, and businesses like the laundry usually start work early. If you’re working from 7pm to 5am or 8pm to 6am most people would call that working at night , but it would probably be daylight at 6:30-6:45 or 7:30-7:45 when you show up except in winter. The fact that they’re using a van that says the location they don’t want the Germans to know is odd too - what happens if one of the guys is sick or injured and looks out his window when they close it up to take the rest in? It doesn’t seem to me that it would be that hard to film this with the holes closed - have the laundry deserted when the Germans come through, have the van marked with something non-local (doesn’t Los Pollos Hermanos do their laundry there?), and so on. They usually do better at making secrecy seem secret. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/752 "2018-09-20T14:23:15Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > I figured they each filled their pockets with dirt from the excavation and let it slowly fall out of their pants while walking around. Mike forgot to install the vaulting horse. > [@CarnalK](#): > > They might have been smart to build some mini temp elevator to truck out dirt but the final elevator is meant to be pristine cleanable lab equipment. You’d trash it hauling rocks up every day. > > The laundry machine opened up to a landing where you could take the stairs or elevator down the rest of the way to the lab floor. A [construction cage](http://www.lift-platforms.com/photo/lift-platforms/editor/20160125094636_44446.jpg) would have saved a lot of work, even if it only covered the first 20 feet of the lift. You just build the whole rest of the shaft, and the lifting engines, and install one of these cages where the final elevator cab would be installed at the end. If you’re right that the elevator stops under the laundry machine then it’s a huge waste to even have one. A dumbwaiter could solve the only real problems and wouldn’t require blasting. > [@Pantastic](#): > > . . . but they want to keep the cartel from finding out too, and like you said that means keeping them from gossiping with friends. I suspect they enjoyed doing the ‘workers walking through the laundry’ thing too much and decided to film that instead of something more circumspect. > . . . This is the biggest hole to my mind. Most of the LE possibilities are waved away with a simple “Poor, undocumented, people do not call the police if they can help it.” ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/753 "2018-09-20T14:23:35Z")
> [@soonerblue](#): > > A massager you say? I must’ve missed that BB episode. You wouldn’t believe the exotic ideas my gang came up with … especially with the button being on the floor. Thanks everyone. > > Yes, Pantastic, I take your point that Jimmy has a temper - and I’ve enjoyed each funny and witty blow-up - but he wasn’t really showing anger at the office party. He came out of Kim’s glossy new office after pacing it off and realizing that the one he was going to offer her is pathetic in comparison. (That the life she is carving out for herself is much better than the one he is planning.) > > So he walked back out to the party and joined a conversation about the upcoming work retreat. He suddenly drew a smiling crowd with his charisma and showmanship as he challenged Kim’s boss (who wasn’t smiling) to go bigger. “Fly everyone to Aspen. You’ve got the money, right?” Jimmy does this under the guise of being facetious, a fun riff … but Kim sees the spite, and is embarrassed. > > Yes, maybe he was a little drunk, and maybe a little sick and tired of trying to fit a mold of what others - Chuck and Kim - want him to be. Yes, I distinctly recall (I searched for a clip but couldn’t find one) an episode of BB where Saul has a full waiting room, and his secretary is telling everyone that he’s in a meeting. Cut to shot of inside Saul’s office, and he’s laying on the floor with his shoes off, using the massage tool. I think it actually was placed under his legs to help with lower back pain. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/754 "2018-09-20T14:25:11Z")
Fun fact: The prosecutor didn’t form her opinion of Jimmy as a ‘scumbag lawyer’ from the Chuck case or general rumors. And her reason for slamming Huell with 3 years is probably not because of his race or prior conviction. She was one of the two prosecutors against Tuco back in S2 who thought they were about to send him to prison for a long time based on him having a gun and beating up an old man. (Same actress, same character name). Jimmy came to her as Mike’s lawyer and told her that Mike was changing his statement ‘a tad’ by recanting the part about Tuco pulling the gun, which destroyed their case. So her opinion of Jimmy as a ‘scumbag’ is likely because she believes he helped Tuco push around an old man to escape serious charges. And she’s probably hitting Huell hard because he’s working with Jimmy, not because of anything about him personally. Kim’s statement about ‘you don’t know the whole story’ is humorously ironic, because she doesn’t know that whole story herself. This case could be a catalyst for her to find out about Jimmy’s side dealings while he was trying to go legit at Davis and Main, and could be wildly misinterpreted by her (she could see it as him trying to help a cartel guy rather than doing a favor for Mike). > [@USCDiver](#): > > If I recall from Breaking Bad there is no elevator so I wonder if that additional blasting gets scrapped. There is an elevator. Here’s a little thing about the set design of the superlab: > [@soonerblue](#): > > Yes, Pantastic, I take your point that Jimmy has a temper - and I’ve enjoyed each funny and witty blow-up - but he wasn’t really showing anger at the office party. He came out of Kim’s glossy new office after pacing it off and realizing that the one he was going to offer her is pathetic in comparison. (That the life she is carving out for herself is much better than the one he is planning.) I think that him losing his temper and suddenly making a really awkward attempt to get in a dig at her new boss is very clearly showing anger. He came out of Kim’s office after realizing this guy is offering more than he can, and in typical Jimmy style lost his temper and tried to score points on the guy (and failed miserably). It’s not just Kim spotting it, the office pretty clearly read to me as a bunch of people who found his rant about as obnoxious and unpleasant as the Bingo rant and were simply shocked that he was being a jerk. It wasn’t that people were being stuffy and disapproving of Jimmy having a little fun, it’s that Jimmy was being obnoxious out of the blue. ---
**Author:** ![Panthan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Panthan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panthan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/755 "2018-09-20T15:24:02Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > It’s not just Kim spotting it, the office pretty clearly read to me as a bunch of people who found his rant about as obnoxious and unpleasant as the Bingo rant and were simply shocked that he was being a jerk. It wasn’t that people were being stuffy and disapproving of Jimmy having a little fun, it’s that Jimmy was being obnoxious out of the blue. I saw the bingo rant and the ski trip rant as Jimmy intentionally making himself look bad in sort of a noble cause. The bingo rant was intentional, to make the old lady look good again in the eyes of her friends. And the ski trip rant came after he came out of Kim’s office, knowing he could never compete with that and wanting her to do what’s best for herself without worrying about him. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/756 "2018-09-20T15:31:25Z")
It was chair yoga not bingo and yes that rant was for show. The ski trip one did feel more like it came out of real jealousy to me. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/757 "2018-09-20T15:33:36Z")
> [@Panthan](#): > > I saw the bingo rant and the ski trip rant as Jimmy intentionally making himself look bad in sort of a noble cause. The bingo rant was intentional, to make the old lady look good again in the eyes of her friends. I’m not thinking about the one in season 3 where he fake-accidentally confessed on the mic so that Irene would be accepted by her friends (which was actually chair yoga like CarnalK mentioned). I’m thinking about the one in season 1 where he was hosting a Bingo game and went into a complete meltdown that included an explanation of a Chicago Sunroof [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkZ15zBcJTU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkZ15zBcJTU) ---
**Author:** ![Panthan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Panthan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panthan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/758 "2018-09-20T15:40:06Z")
Ahh, yes. Chair yoga. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/759 "2018-09-20T15:50:19Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > The “showing up in daylight” thing doesn’t bother me - if you’re working 10 hours at night during most of the year, you’re going to hit daylight at one end or the other, and businesses like the laundry usually start work early. If you’re working from 7pm to 5am or 8pm to 6am most people would call that working at night , but it would probably be daylight at 6:30-6:45 or 7:30-7:45 when you show up except in winter. The fact that they’re using a van that says the location they don’t want the Germans to know is odd too - what happens if one of the guys is sick or injured and looks out his window when they close it up to take the rest in? > > It doesn’t seem to me that it would be that hard to film this with the holes closed - have the laundry deserted when the Germans come through, have the van marked with something non-local (doesn’t Los Pollos Hermanos do their laundry there?), and so on. They usually do better at making secrecy seem secret. I postulated they would be working at night because Mike said “Work starts tomorrow night” when they first arrived. I agree that it would be much _less_ conspicuous for them to be arriving and leaving by day. A van entering and leaving an apparently inactive locality at night is going to raise more questions than one that does so by day. They could still work all night if the workers are there during the day and they arrive just after they leave and leave in the morning before they arrive. There’s more chance of an accident going back and forth due to more traffic, but less chance they will be noticed otherwise. Also, there’s no way they don’t figure out the name of the laundry, and probably that they are in Albuquerque, in 10 months of walking through the laundry. Maybe a discarded newspaper or flyer, maybe the logos on laundered uniforms (including Pollos Hermanos. The laundry is I believe owned by Madrigal, but it may be owned through Pollos Hermanos.) And all the Germans speak or at least understand English. Mike gave them their instructions in English when they arrived, and Werner didn’t need to translate. (And I almost all the Germans I have met spoke fluent English from learning it in school.) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/760 "2018-09-20T16:34:24Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Not that you’re wrong (or right, I don’t remember), but why would you even need an elevator if all it did was bring you down a few feet to another set of stairs. > [@TruCelt](#): > > If you’re right that the elevator stops under the laundry machine then it’s a huge waste to even have one. A dumbwaiter could solve the only real problems and wouldn’t require blasting. [quote=“Pantastic, post:754, topic:818792”] There is an elevator. Here’s a little thing about the set design of the superlab: [/QUOTE] As the video indicates, the lab is 25 feet underground. There does seem to be a lot of wasted space and the ceiling seems to be much higher than necessary (since several other labs haven’t had high ceilings). The video explains it is so deep to isolate it from the surface, but also makes it clear that a lot of the design of the lab, including the catwalk and spiral staircase, is for dramatic purposes. I said that the elevator doesn’t reach the surface because as far as I recall we never see anyone enter or leave the lab except by the entrance under the washer. But on reconsideration there must be some access at ground level that allows bringing in very large equipment. At the opening of _Box Cutter_, Gale is shown in the completed lab opening a crate that’s at least 10 feet tall containing a huge piece of equipment. This would never have fit in the entrance below the washer. But they evidently don’t use the elevator very often. In _Face Off_, the guard at floor level hears the elevator signal, and brings it down. He says to the other guard “What, you have a problem with stairs?” before Walt shoots him. (We see the entire elevator at this point and it is huge.) Since the point of having the entrance under the washer is to make it unlikely to be discovered, one wonders how they conceal the ground level entry to the elevator. But maybe they sealed it up once the equipment was delivered. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/761 "2018-09-20T16:44:20Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Fun fact: The prosecutor didn’t form her opinion of Jimmy as a ‘scumbag lawyer’ from the Chuck case or general rumors. And her reason for slamming Huell with 3 years is probably not because of his race or prior conviction. She was one of the two prosecutors against Tuco back in S2 who thought they were about to send him to prison for a long time based on him having a gun and beating up an old man. (Same actress, same character name). Jimmy came to her as Mike’s lawyer and told her that Mike was changing his statement ‘a tad’ by recanting the part about Tuco pulling the gun, which destroyed their case. > > So her opinion of Jimmy as a ‘scumbag’ is likely because she believes he helped Tuco push around an old man to escape serious charges. And she’s probably hitting Huell hard because he’s working with Jimmy, not because of anything about him personally. Kim’s statement about ‘you don’t know the whole story’ is humorously ironic, because she doesn’t know that whole story herself. This case could be a catalyst for her to find out about Jimmy’s side dealings while he was trying to go legit at Davis and Main, and could be wildly misinterpreted by her (she could see it as him trying to help a cartel guy rather than doing a favor for Mike). Nice catch. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/762 "2018-09-20T21:47:26Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Yeah, my original thought was that they were building in a disused laundry facility, and if it was active that they’d be working only while the laundry is deserted. Having them come in every day while laundry work is still happening seems like you’re risking discovery. If they were just trying to keep the lab secret from the police and building inspectors I’d believe the security. Expecting a bunch of non-citizens not to talk to the police is not a stretch, but they want to keep the cartel from finding out too, and like you said that means keeping them from gossiping with friends. I would also remind those who think that what the workers might see is of zero concern to anyone because they are illegal, that the twins slaughtered an entire truckload of migrants because one of them recognized their boots. Also, just on general principles, no matter how confident you might be that no one will talk, the fewer witnesses you have to any secret activity the better. The more moving parts there are, the more chance the wheels might come off. > [@](#): > > I suspect they enjoyed doing the ‘workers walking through the laundry’ thing too much and decided to film that instead of something more circumspect. When you come down to it, this is the answer to a lot of things in BB that don’t add up when you think about them. The rule of cool prevails.😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792.md?page=37) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792.md?page=39)