Well, Salamancas will be Salamancas…
I’m not sure about that one, but the massager appears in S3E13 Full Measure. Saul is on the floor with the massager under the backs of his heels when his secretary calls him, and he says “Tell him I’m in conference.” Mike comes in anyway and interrogates him about the whereabouts of Jesse.
Earlier in the thread I was wondering why Tuco was hiding Hector in a house way out in the desert (in BB), when the authorities apparently had no interest in him after he was found. I think it’s clear now that Tuco must have been hiding Hector from Gus. After getting out of prison, he figured out what Gus was doing and rescued his uncle.
And yet, as I noted earlier in the season, Vince Gilligan explicitly insists on the BCS podcast that he hates the idea of doing something because it’s “cool”, even if it doesn’t organically flow from the characters’ realistic actions.
Definitely. I have never missed an episode of this series (or BB), but I did not remember those details. Why did Mike change his story? I thought the whole point was to get Tuco out of commission without killing him.
Does Jimmy suspect that Kim was lying to him when she told him that S&C initiated the partnership offer? I’m thinking that Jimmy doesn’t suspect, but will find out that Kim went to S&C with the proposal. That might be the final push to Saul Goodman, Esq.
Also, when Jimmy was showing Huell the potential new office I wasn’t seeing some low-end office arrangement, I was seeing pretty much every lawyer’s office I’ve been in. The lawyers handling everyday legal matters - wills, powers of attorney, home sales, divorces - are frequently located in offices that were converted residences. Just an observation.
Hector threatened Mike’s family via the cousins. Mike managed to get Hector to back off his family (and give Mike $50k, I think) in order to lie about Tuco’s gun. Tuco still went to prison, but for a far shorter sentence than if he had been in possession of the gun.
Well, then, maybe they do it because Mike and Werner think it’s cool.
A lot of the twins’ actions are illogical, but maybe they “organically flow” from them because they’re psychopaths.
(I wonder if your subconscious path to this connection could have been the scenes of Jimmy bouncing that ball off the walls?)
The thing is, Vince Gilligan isn’t running the show any more, he has other projects and stepped down before this season started, and only directs occasionally. Peter Gould is the sole show runner, so while Vince was one of the original creators, he hasn’t had a direct role in anything but the one episode he directed this season.
It is the core reason why Mike got started on the path to attempt to kill Hector. Hector approached Mike and offered him money to testify that the gun was his. Mike refused, so they sent some guys to intimidate him, and he beat them up. Then they sent the cousin to threaten his granddaughter, and that was too much. So he went to Hector and agreed to change his testimony, but only for more money than Hector asked originally. After that, he started attacking Hector’s shipping as revenge.
Ah, right. Thanks.
That’s how I saw it - being a jerk on purpose with a little bonus of spite thrown in, to make the inevitable break easier for Kim. I’m having a hard time accepting the clueless boor theory. Maybe, like Kim, I’m still looking for the good and noble in Jimmy… something redeemable.
Yes. He was mocking Schweikert. Oh you think your little trip is so cool. If you were a real law firm, you’d take them somewhere actually nice.
Agreed. Not just lashing out at their being able to offer so much more than he can, accepting that fact. More telling is his behavior after that point. If he was still dedicated to earning Kim’s respect and winning her to his fantasy office together he’d have had some hesitation about coming to her for help with Huell (and therein admitting to his selling drop phones to lowlifes for no real reason other than the fun of living the hustle side of the fence). The line in context was Kim’s understanding that he was about to do something unethical regarding Huell but that line near the end was the episode’s conclusion: Kim will do what she does and he will do what he does. They may still love each other but those are incompatible paths. He realized that in her office. And he is not hiding it from her.
I think he’s actually making quite a nice profit off of the phone business. He was paying about $20/phone and seemed to be charging $40/phone when he sold them. Even paying he on-etime fee for the business license and covering sales tax, that’s a pretty good profit when he’s moving them by the pallet load and his only expenses are hiring Huell and renting/buying an old van.
The problem isn’t that Jimmy has nothing good and noble, his Elder law practice clearly shows that he has a good side, the problem here is that he has a big dose of ‘obnoxious asshole with poor impulse control’. I mean we’re talking about a guy who picked a physical fight with Mike because he was angry that Mike was doing his job properly and Jimmy didn’t want to put in the minor effort to get stickers. Who took a shit through the sunroof of a car that had two cub scouts in it because he realized the guy was cheating with his wife. Who broke down and told that story to a roomful of elderly potential clients because he was stressed when he found out about Chuck’s dickishness (and incidentally never even accepted the concept of ‘yeah, shitting in a sunroof is something you just shouldn’t do’).
As far as the ‘redemmable’ bit goes, much like Walt in Breaking Bad Jimmy had multiple opportunities to turn away from the path he’s on and have a well-paying legitimate life, but continually chooses to throw them away because he likes excitement. His Elder law practice was like a well-oiled machine, he had a dream job at Davis and Main, and he got offered a decent sales job at the copier place. The noble sacrifices he makes sound great, until you realize that they are just him fixning a problem he created in the first place, like coming clean for Irene or finding the Kettlemans money. One on hand, I feel bad for Jimmy, but on the other he definitely made the bed he’s lying in, it’s not circumstances conspiring against him.
And more so he was ruining the trip by oversetting the expectations. No matter what he does now, Schweikert and all the people listening will find it disappointing.
Mostly and maybe entirely.
However I do wonder if he had been hired by Howard with Chuck’s blessing, had Chuck actively in his corner encouraging him as a lawyer and if he still had Kim, if he would have been able to sublimate his impulse control issues. Maybe it would have come out ten years later as marital difficulties. Or maybe like at Davis and Main he would have found himself bored and deliberately sowed chaos just for the sake of fun.
On the other hand he could have become Chuck’s courtroom partner. Chuck supplying the legal brilliance and Jimmy supplying the clever salesman personality. And maybe that combined with his older brother’s respect would have satisfied most of Jimmy’s drive to wheel and deal.
I guess I’m just not quite willing to let Chuck off the hook for helping to create a monster ;).
I kind of doubt it. No one is going to be disappointed that they don’t all get identical law firm logo parkas.
I’m sure he is. But the nice profit is not the reason he is doing it and in context is chump change. He has a job that contributes his share of the rent and take-out food. He isn’t lusting to afford a nicer car. But he is risking his reinstatement by consorting with a known criminal element. Why?
I think this depends on the definition of “associating with known criminals.” With the cell phones, he is running a legitimate (licensed and permitted) business. Some of his customers might have records or be engaged in illegal activity. I don’t think a salesman/customer relationship can rise to the level of “association” - otherwise a person in his situation could never get a public-facing job. If he stayed in the cell phone store and the same clients walked in to buy a phone, would he be barred from serving them? What if he were a waiter in a restaurant? Manning Mike’s old parking lot booth?
I think Jimmy is clearly smart enough to know exactly how close to the line he can operate. The problem is Huell - he is clearly publicly associating with Huell. However, anyone challenging Jimmy on this would have to prove that Jimmy knew Huell was a known criminal.
As to why he is doing it? He told Huell when they were touring the potential office that the purpose of selling the phones was to afford an office when his suspension was over. Plus he is grooming a potential client base.