Is there any chance that as the bank expands into Nebraska Kim would have to undergo some other kind of background check in that state which would expose her past? I don’t know if that makes any sense legally, but it seems narratively possible, which would lead to her panic attack when she learned about the planned expansion.
Also, it was certainly dramatic but it seems a little odd that Kim would only find out about the expansion plans after Kevin had a whole room of the firm taken over and filled with intricately detailed models. I guess maybe this was supposed to be a big surprise for the board meeting, but it doesn’t seem to me like boards of directors are really keen on surprises in general.
Interesting fact: The “You are mine now” scene was done in one take! You’d think for something that tense with that many people they’d have to try multiple times, but apparently not.
I think Kim dying would be way too easy on Jimmy for this show, and I don’t think they’ll pull punches for him that way. I think she’s going to choose to leave him for something related to his more Saul-like behavior, and her choosing to leave him is going to hurt him much worse than a simple, clean ending through death would. I think Chuck’s death is already the catalyst that has triggered him shifting from ‘generally lovable con-man Jimmy’ to amoral, money-grubbing Saul mode, and that the first big step on that path is the Hummel burglary.
I would love that. Everyone I know loves to speculate about Kim. I was reminded that she said she didn’t stay in that small town because she would’ve ended up married to the owner of the gas station. She wanted “more.”
Anybody remember if that strip mall cell phone store is the same place that Saul’s constitution-wallpapered office is located in Breaking Bad? It didn’t seem like the exact same location, but the whole strip mall vibe reminded me of it anyway.
Glad to see that Kim isn’t angry at Jimmy and that there isn’t some weird thing with a fake Chuck letter going on; she’s clearly concerned about him and the way he’s dealing with Chuck’s death. I don’t remember the pdoc’s name, is he the same one that Mike’s been going to group therapy with? I like the judge who pulls her into chambers to snap her back to reality. When he started describing the case he had for her it seemed way too cliche for this show, and too convenient for her, so when she called it out as a movie plot I was happy.
I don’t know what Jimmy’s plan was when he woke up, he seems to be trying to run a con on Kim about how he’s feeling. IMO it’s telling that he’s disappointed that the job is so quiet - a quiet job sitting in a cell phone store for 10 months while he waits for his probation to clear is the perfect situation for him right now, so of course he hates it. I think he’s going to energize that store as the ‘get your burner phone’ location, and start taking over the vet’s ‘criminal connection’ job. We also see where he got his love of the burner phones that he had a drawer full of in BB.
I agree that the cold open was weird this week, I couldn’t put my finger on why but it seemed out of place but it seemed off. I liked the scene with Mike blowing up in group therapy, but it seemed a bit disjoint from the rest of the Mike storyline. Probably will drive something between him and his daughter in law next week. I think Gus is actually getting good use out of his “Security Consultant”, double-stacking that crushes a random box is no big deal, but you really don’t want to do that if it’s one of Gus’s special deliveries that has drugs hidden in it. I think Gus’s job for Mike involves taking over the new territory the cartel is about to hand him, and I like that Mike completely blew off Gus’s intimidation attempt.
Really, this series and BB have a lot of fantasy/RPG elements hidden in modern/real world trappings. In BB, Chemistry works like magic and Jessie is Walt’s apprentice. In the real world purity of meth is not actually that important, and cooking it is a pretty ‘industrial’ process, you don’t need a specific person for it, but in the show Walt has special abilities that no one can really match, which means people put up with his dysfunctional personality. And a lot of the things Walt does with “Science, bitch” don’t really work in real life but make sense as spells, like the explosion that blows out the windows in a room but doesn’t injure him at ground zero. Saul has a supernatural talent for lying to people and having them believe it, while Mike has the counter of a supernatural ability to read the truth in people (and complete immunity to Saul).
I thought the stunned looks on the faces of the group members in the open was because Mike had just unloaded ALL the details of Matty’s death and aftermath. “…You asked me to talk.” Also, when Jimmy was painting the new sign, I was sure that when they pulled back it would reveal his storefront “Saul Goodman” sign, because the closeups of him painting seemed to be showing those letters.
By the way, I spent the past three weeks binge watching, for the first time, all five seasons of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul up to this point. So Monday was my first time watching a new-to-everyone episode in the Breaking Bad universe.
I thought this was a pretty dull episode. If you exclude the shootout, we have Jimmy moping around in the cell phone store and Kim hanging out in a courtroom; their stories didn’t advance much but I’m sure we’re being prepared for their next moves. Mike appears to be burning some bridges, such as Stacy and his lady friend, by calling out the phony guy at the group share meeting. I’m looking forward to next week when all of this setup work yields some results.
So, did anyone else get the vibe that the phone store is actually a front for money laundering?
He gets a call in the morning, and by afternoon, he’s there, all alone, in complete charge of the whole store. The only contact we see with his boss is over the phone. There’s literally no customers, and the boss doesn’t seem to mind at all. Who operates a real business like that?
And think about it: burner and pay-as-you-go phones would be perfect for laundering money. Mostly cash payments, because the people who use pay as you go often don’t have great finances, and so aren’t set up to use credit cards. Sign up a couple of dozen fake accounts per month, then have them pay $20-40-60 a month for usage. Cancel a few every month to make it look real, and just keep turning over the money.
