It really was. Both story lines were so engrossing that at one point I thought the programming got screwed up somehow. I was fast forwarding through the commercials after a Saul segment, and nearly blew through the next Mike segment before my wife said “Hey! Back up!” My confusion was real, as I thought that somehow a different series had been spliced into BCS. :smack:
My only nitpick on this episode was when Lalo climbed up into the ceiling to get behind the teller window. Suspended ceilings won’t hold that sort of weight.
Realistically, you’re correct. It was uncharacteristically dumb of Jimmy to deliver that speech in a place where he could be easily overheard. But dramatically I think it was the right call. The pace of the ending called for a quick transition between the fake sincerity of the courtroom to the emergence of Saul Goodman, with the corresponding emotional whiplash taking its toll on Kim. It has to hit her all at once or it doesn’t work as well. And then you needed another quick transition to spotlight the official ‘doing business as’ name change while Kim is still reeling. It would have been poor cinematography to have scene cuts between those last two points, even if it was just ducking into a stairwell.
I’m willing to extend a lot of suspension of disbelief in the service of a well-crafted scene. Mike shooting Werner in the head, for instance, was a beautifully done long-distance shot, even if it would have made more sense for him to shoot from closer range, or even to asphyxiate him with a plastic bag.
Was the coati in the game, Mr. Shine? But seriously, while this might be the first one onscreen, I’ve never seen any indication that Gus has a problem with killing anyone to advance his plans. He’s not randomly bloodthirsty like the Salamancas and doesn’t want the complications that killing people will cause if he can help it, but there’s nothing that indicates that he’d hesitate to kill a witness if he thinks it’s the best option. This is in contrast to Mike, who has actively tried to protect innocent people even when it exposes him to risk, and who was clearly very angry when it turned out Hector killed the good samaritan who found the truck. Gus’s speech to Walt about not using kids read to me as pure PR/manipulation, not something Gus has as a value, while his speech to sleeping Hector about how he enjoyed torturing an animal that got in the way of his goal seemed to reflect his real values.
Gus likely was going to have a henchman murder her to keep her from stirring up trouble. Mike didn’t want that to happen, so had Werner tell her to get on the plane both to prevent her causing trouble and to put her in a situation where Gus would not have a motivation to kill her.
I think it’s reading too much into it. That would be a cheap trick, and they have said they don’t like those and avoid using them in the show. They’re happy to misdirect, but it’s ‘fair’ misdirection, not the ‘Glen in the trash bin’ schlock. It would also break the dramatic irony they created for the end of the season/episode with Jimmy’s successful scam winning him the day but losing Kim, especially when people binge watch the whole series in the future. I’m also not sure what other ‘good news’ there would be since he’s either reinstated or not, they didn’t establish that there was some halfway point he might get. They’ve also heated up the Cartel side of the story by having Lalo realize that Gus is hiding something, have the immediate problem of Kim’s reaction to Jimmy, and haven’t laid any groundwork for what Jimmy would do for the next year as a non-lawyer, so they would stuck on him plot-wise but unable to just skip a year to the review board (which would be pretty pointless anyway).
30+ years as a lawyer and judge, and I’ve never heard a lawyer cite/discuss precedent the way Jimmy did (and the way generally shown on TV). IME, lawyers - and judges - refer to cases much more casually. It is rarely/never? Smith v Junes. Instead, it was “the Smith decision.” Just a small quibble. And others’ experience might differ.
And in IL, you do not need a lawyer to vouch for you to be admitted to the bar. I believe you DO need to have someone vouch for you to appear in certain courts - such as the federal circuits.
And I also was aghast when I realized Jimmy was crowing in the lobby of the building where the hrg was held. As we always used to tell our kids - “Wait til we get in the car.”
Thought that last scene was a tad rushed (especially when compared to the pace of so much of the rest of the show). When the clerk came down and said something like, “We have good news.” I thought it odd for Jimmy to say something like, “I know you do!” But maybe that was intended to show his overconfidence. I thought he would have been conniving enough to keep up the penitent act until he had the signed paper. Keep up the con until you have the mark’s cash, as it were.
And then for him to immediately say he wanted to change his name - in front of Kim and before the paperwork was finished. Again - seemed like possible celebrating before crossing the finish line.
Re: Werner, I got a kick out of it when he told Mike not to worry, he wouldn’t tell anyone. Hell, after he blabbed to the guys in the bar, and to the guy over the phone - seemed an impressive lack of insight that he would think his promise anything other than empty.
Found myself asking, if Jimmy had $23k to spend on the room naming/party, why hadn’t he gotten a more reliable car?
I thought the same thing! One scene he’s dropping $23k on a scam, the next he’s trying and failing to start the same car that didn’t even start back in Season 1. Sell a few more cell phones, Slippin’ Jimmy! I suspect it’s a purposeful symbolic frustration.
Simple: Gus was proud of the lab and he wanted to show it to someone who he knew would appreciate it, and who wouldn’t talk about it to anyone else. Gale is basically the only such person in existence.
Yeah. He was just giving him and update. Gale will get very involved in the end stages of the design. This will be the layout, the equipment, the power needed and the HVAC.
Gale is so anxious to get cooking he starts talking about a makeshift plan, Gus gives him “the look”, Gale (wisely) gets very nervous and scurries off.
And now the completion of the lab is kicked down the road to be closer to BB days. Wonder if Werner left a set of plans?
An echo of Lydia begging Mike to leave her body where her daughter can find her when Werner gets Mike to swear that there will be a cover story for his wife to believe…
Hmmmm…so now I’m anxiously awaiting the scene (if they make one) where Gus explains to Gale that he won’t be cooking in this super lab after all…because he’s found a better chef…
He’s not a car guy, I know a lot of people who will drive an old car into the ground rather than buy a new one, and I suspect Jimmy is the same way. The car isn’t that unreliable, it’s annoying but not usually actually broken down, IIRC this is the only big ‘car won’t start’ scene he’s had this season. He probably has done most of the damage to it himself, since it’s only 4 years old at the start of the series (1998 model in 2002) so whatever he did buy would probably not stay reliable long. Also, he has cash but no steady income right now, and the money is really earmarked to get his law career off the ground, not for a new car. (If I was in that situation, I’d put up with an annoying car for a few months until I got my new practice established).
Psychologically and narratively, the car is tied to his identity as Jimmy McGill, aspiring legitimate lawyer. He’s had this piece of junk the whole time he’s been trying to make a law practice work, and it fits him even if it’s not perfect. The one time he had a nicer car was when he was trying to make it at D&M, and neither the nice car or life fit to him. Keeping a comfortable car is, well, comfortable, so it makes sense for the person to do it, and symbolically the mismatched Esteem fits Jimmy Mcgill’s bad past and rough edges while trying to make it legitimately. I think that next season as he embraces really becoming Saul, he will ditch it and get a car that fits the Saul personality, quite possibly the Cadillac he cruises around in the BB era. I expect a scene where Kim is meeting Jimmy somwhere, looks for the old reliable Esteem and Jimmy in a quiet suit, and does a double take when he pulls up in his new slick ride wearing one of the ‘getting fired’ suits from D&M.
That plot line was explored in Breaking Bad. Gale tells Gus that he can’t match Walt’s quality; Gus then hires Walt despite his concerns regarding Walt’s lack of discretion. Gale is kept (at least initially) as Walt’s assistant.
From checking the Wiki, if you want to see this you should watch Breaking Bad Season 3 episodes 7 and 8. Gale actually recommends the better chef to Gus, but he does get to cook in the super lab for a while with Walt. Walt then decides that he wants Jessie back - on the surface to stop him from suing Hank, but really because Gale is too much on Walt’s level to suit Walt’s ego. Walt tells Gale the wrong temperature for a tank, then ‘fires’ Gale because he wants his own assistant. Gale is extremely confused by this, especially when Jesse walks in in full ‘chemistry, bitch’ appearance.
If I recall, Gale does actually cook in the lab but can’t match the quality the Walter is putting on the street (we never see this, but I believe it is implied). Hence Gus bringing Walter in to cook with Gale as his assistant.
I think there will likely be a time shift and they basically never explain anything about the German crew or how they sell it to Werner’s wife. I agree that this part of this season has been weak, I think a lot of the stuff around the German crew and the secret construction project ended up being really unrealistic and poorly thought out.
I think the whole point for that train of thought was just to help fill Mike’s backstory in, show Mike killing in cold blood to protect his criminal occupation for the first time (to my knowledge he’s not done a killing like this before–Mike was a dirty cop in Philadelphia, revenge killed his son’s killers, but I think this is his first cold blooded murder.) It was effective at that, especially since they did a pretty good job making Werner a likable character. But they skimped on parts of the narrative and it left me feeling several times that the scenarios involving the German crew just weren’t very realistic.
I have family that has done underground work, digging and blasting, albeit in a very different industry. There’s certainly some specialized skill here, but not “only can find a few small crews in the world that can do it” level of skill. The whole story makes a lot more sense if Gus found a South American or even Mexican crew that could do the work (and they would absolutely exist–they have mines everywhere and mining employs people with these skills); that sort of crew Gus could either probably find and control easier (like his Honduran cleaning ladies) or he could make them disappear easily and no one’s seriously going to be able to make a stink. Germany is a first world country, there would absolutely be stinks made if a German national disappears doing a secretive job in New Mexico and his wife goes to the authorities about it.
I think it’s harder with Bob Odenkirk whose age shows, like he looks visibly older now than he did in the beginning of Breaking Bad, even though they do specific tricks to try and make him look younger.
Jonathan Banks on the other hand, he’s one of those dudes that’s looked “vaguely older” for a long time. Like he could be anywhere from 50-75 based on his appearance, both now and back when Breaking Bad was airing. Before Breaking Bad I had two significant memories of Jonathan Banks.
I agree with this, and realized another weakness: Mike hasn’t had a real antagonist this season until Lalo in the last episode. In previous seasons Mike was squaring off with Pryce, Nacho, Tuco, Hector, and even Gus. (Pryce was not a direct enemy, but ‘ally so incompetent he needs to be overcome’ is still an antagonist). This season he annoyed Lydia for a bit, then created the security setup, which (like you said) was poorly thought out, but hasn’t had a real opponent. The Werner situation didn’t give him a real antagonist, and didn’t have any interesting problem solving (very unlike Pryce, Tuco, and Hector). I think that’s a big part of why I feel like the cartel side was flat this season compared to the excellent Saul side.
I don’t think Gus is sadistically cruel for the sake of being cruel, like Tuco or Hector. Instead I think Gus is profoundly amoral, but has a sort of code, and he also likes to do things very professionally and with a high attention to detail.
For that reason to Gus, murder and torture are tools to be used “as appropriate.” I don’t think he’d subject Werner or his wife to elaborate torture just for the sake of being cruel, but would he kill them? Yes, for the sake of his business, and he’d lose no sleep over it. He’ll use cruelty and violence if necessary as well, but not as ends in themselves. Examples being when he needs to send a message to someone.
The only person so far we’ve seen Gus go after in a truly depraved manner would be Hector, and there’s similarities to how Gus goes after Hector as to how he describes his interaction with the coati.
I think part of why Odenkirk looks older to me is because I think the heavier makeup and other effects they use on him to look more deliberately younger are actually jarring, especially if you watch an episode of BCS and compare it to an episode of BB season 2 with Saul in it.
They’re notorious about ages on this show. All of the flashbacks (except the childhood ones) even back into the 80s and 90s show Jimmy and Chuck to be essentially an unchanged 50 and 65 years old respectively. And Mike’s daughter is the worst example. She was supposed to be 6 years old in Breaking Bad which would make her an infant on BCS, but now she looks about 10-12 years old. And Gus and Gale both look noticeably older than they did in Breaking Bad.
As detailed as they usually are on this show, I don’t think a significant effort was made to make the actors look younger. Which is fine, I think any makeup or CGI tricks would look a lot worse than just having older actors play younger parts.