Better Call Saul

EDIT: is that carpet new?
It's pretty obvious the current one needs to be replaced isn't it? One thing I have always loved about Vince Gilligan is his positive lust for continuity. The few continuity bloopers remind you the show is made by humans.
Or maybe Lalo takes Jimmy and Kim to the desert like Tuco took Jimmy and the skateboarders and threatens them.
One thing I haven't quite figured out yet is why he's doing that. Why did he feint at an immediate hit on Gus (that could not possibly have worked under the circumstances) to draw Mike's guys away from the "minor" targets? Why Jimmy and Kim? Just petty revenge isn't a Lalo thing, and from the scene with Werner's widow, I get the impression killing women is not something Lalo likes to do (he might make an exception for Kim though).

I don't see why Lalo would have killed Howard just to impress those two unless he had some use for them, and I doubt it's because of anything they actually know.

Also Kim is just fucking evil at this point.
 
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Ok, place your bets lads, Howard and Chuck are going to be used in the opening of the next episode, will it be Chuck getting his brother a job in the mail room to Howard's trepidation or Howard genuinely proud of Jimmy passing the bar and enthusiastically suggesting they hire him.'

Bonus the entire episode's subplot is around Lalo questioning Kim and Jimmy while disposing of the body out in the desert with progressive flashbacks of the one leading to the other.
1) Another Gene scene/post-BB flashfoward (unlikely).
2) Howard arguing with Chuck on hiring Jimmy after he passed the bar, showing he did believe in Jimmy at one point. Ties in with the celebration scene in the copy room from way back.
3) A flashback to an unseen scene with Howard and his therapist, with them talking about Jim and Kim. Same deal -- talking about how he used to believe in Charlie Hustle, etc.

None of these will likely happen, but I won't doubt they'll try to do something like showing Howard as sympathetic towards Jim to then smash cut to him with his brains blown out.
 
One thing I haven't quite figured out yet is why he's doing that. Why did he feint at an immediate hit on Gus (that could not possibly have worked under the circumstances) to draw Mike's guys away from the "minor" targets? Why Jimmy and Kim? Just petty revenge isn't a Lalo thing, and from the scene with Werner's widow, I get the impression killing women is not something Lalo likes to do (he might make an exception for Kim though).
Lalo had his hand forced when he knew that Gus was tapping Hector's phone. So Lalo had to proceed in a way where it seemed like he was oblivious to Gus listening on the phone and make it believable. Like those scenes in shows where characters know the police are listening and use code words or talk around a subject. Lalo knows Gus is being guarded on high alert and knows he is alive. Lalo wants to see how they react when Gus is threatened. Learn how his security responds and then get an opening if he sees a weakness in their pattern. Or also find out if Gus has so much security that it will be impossible to ever hit him directly unless someone like Eladio is involved. Most likely Lalo knows that his only real avenue to approach Gus would be over the phone or possibly diplomatically in person with a third party as a mediator (but not someone with a broken arm and gay mustache). Mike did similar things to the Salamancas before he made his moves each time. But with six episodes to spare they might write things more quickly.

Lalo knows Jimmy is connected to Gus indirectly. Jimmy represented Nacho. Jimmy represented Mike as a lawyer. Jimmy was involved with Tuco as well. Jimmy is deep into the game. Lalo can use Jimmy to get to Mike. And use Mike to get to Gus. And probably get walled inside the south end of the lab like literally everyone has been predicting the last two seasons now. And Jimmy is in no position to turn down Lalo at this point.

The ending is obvious at this point. Lalo dies and gets put into the meth lab. Jimmy does not know this. Kim is upset over Howard's death and the cartel violence and vacuums herself into Giselle. Gene and Giselle reunite in Omaha.

I don't see why Lalo would have killed Howard just to impress those two unless he had some use for them, and I doubt it's because of anything they actually know.

Also Kim is just fucking evil at this point.
If you take your Breaking Bad fanboy glasses off the writing is just pure garbage. Lalo kills a civilian, a high profile lawyer, with two witnesses, one whom we know he leaves alive, when already out on the run, with a cartel trying to chase him down and kill him. And this is after he lets his presence be known to Gus because he is recorded calling Hector and Lalo knows he was being recorded "Chicken Man!!". Lalo traveling with no backup but magically acquiring guns and cars and tools and phones like some James Bond character is getting tiresome. But Breaking Bad fans eat this shit up.

Lalo kills Howard for shock value. Just silly writing. It is one of those moments where the first time people watch it they do the 'soy' meme face like Ned dying on Game of Thrones. But on subsequent viewings unless you shut your brain off you realize the writing was just mindless shock value. Fake teenage edginess. And because we know Jimmy survives until BCS he and Kim will not do down for Howard's death nor will Lalo because the show telegraphed his meth lab death.
 
waltuh........ hrgn.... my breaking bad glasses ....... ... waltuh.. .... *snort*

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No mention of teleportation magic? From Mexico to Germany to the US as a wanted cartel criminal that skipped bail in the US for murder.
Airport securities primary purpose is to catch people trying to hijack flights or smuggle illegal goods.

Flying on a fake identity is actually a lot easier than you would imagine, especially given Lalo's charisma, intelligence, contacts and resources. He also flew out from Mexico to Germany and came into the US from Germany. Which generates far less suspicion in general than if he entered from Mexico to the US.
 
A "happy ending"?


EDIT: is that carpet new?
I hope it's him giving Kaylee whatever money he has left. presumably he had a lot more on him than what was in that shoebox, I think that'd be a nice little bookend to the whole thing about Mike getting his bank accounts for her drained every time he tried. Plus as far as I can see, that's pretty much the only "happy" thing that can happen from here on out.


I also thought for sure the D-Day shit couldn't possibly go off without a hitch too but we all saw what happened there, so who the fuck knows. I hope it's Kaylee related, though.
 
No mention of teleportation magic? From Mexico to Germany to the US as a wanted cartel criminal that skipped bail in the US for murder.
Unfortunately this ability of characters to magically teleport is pretty much standard in all shows now. Game of Thrones abused this to ways that are so absurd you almost just have to laugh at the audacity to not care about the plausibility of the show. You have the first few seasons of the show where things are a slow burn. Characters spend entire episodes or seasons working out one plot line or traveling to a new location. But by the end of the show when characters are developed the writers just want to hit the big set pieces and action moments and skip the smaller moments as the characters and settings are already established. This never works because the scale that was established is repeatedly getting violated.

We know Lalo. We know the laundry business. These are established to the viewers. Do we see need to see Lalo travel from Germany to ABQ and then get a car and tool and a gun and then hide in the sewer in real time? Not really. But when you skip all of that on the show and do not account for said time it makes the writing look sloppy. Lalo is ridiculously resourceful to the point that it strains credulity. But I understand that they are smashing the pace of the story because they are essentially doing three shows now. BCS as a prequel, the BB tie-in episode most likely, and then finally some Gene stuff. Six episodes to fit everything in so characters will not only be teleporting but behaving in very urgent ways when it makes no sense to. I can forgive it. But for the idiot fanboys to instead try to praise the poor writing is pathetic.
Airport securities primary purpose is to catch people trying to hijack flights or smuggle illegal goods.

Flying on a fake identity is actually a lot easier than you would imagine, especially given Lalo's charisma, intelligence, contacts and resources. He also flew out from Mexico to Germany and came into the US from Germany. Which generates far less suspicion in general than if he entered from Mexico to the US.
And? Flying to Germany and getting a gun? Transportation? Money? New clothes? Flying back to America and getting all of his tools, a car, another gun, new phone? Too much was just magically done without any explanation from the writers. We have an entire montage of Mike finding a GPS unit in his car. Nacho figuring out every detail to switch the pills on Hector. Yet the show skips literally crucial explanations of how Lalo can travel internationally and obtain firearms with seemingly no backup whatsoever. The show usually gives us the ways that these characters outsmart everyone. But this time the writers just laughably had Lalo teleport from Germany to ABQ and acquire all sorts of new gear with no help.

Part of watching the end of BB was seeing Walt struggle to barely be able to mail a package or get a drink at a bar or make a phone call without being swarmed by police. Lalo is basically announcing himself to Gus, and now Jimmy, and offing another civilian through murder, but the plot simply allows him to function like Jason Bourne without anyone finding him. Lalo's plot armor is obnoxious. Casper not killing him with the axe was like something out of a bad horror or action movie.

Airport security is to also make sure people get on the right flights. That no one tampers with the planes. That people do not bring dangerous materials on or even animals. That people who are overly sick or late term pregnant do not fly. That pilots do not fly drunk. That people do not bring invasive plants or species.

But do we know that he flew from the Mexico to Germany or from Germany to the US directly? I do not remember seeing his flight records on the show. You seem to be filling in holes for the writers that are not actually in the show to excuse the poor writing.
 
It's the early 2000's, here's a relevant article my dear clueless zoomer:

If the most wanted criminals in al Qaeda could do it, imagine a dead man according to the law then, using his self image passport for a return flight even. You don't need to be a genius to know this and the show doesn't need to show every little thing to you taking into consideration you have a functional brain.
 
I would totally watch a 20 year long show that just shows every minute in real time of characters figuring out how to get a fake passport, what positions they sleep in, whether they take a train or a cab or an airplane or a boat, what their small talk is like with various sandwich vendors, whether they get a hotel, is it a nice one or is it a crappy one, what condition was their cab or uber in, did they take the bus, when did they exchange currency, what kind, how much, do they pick their nose in public or do they do it discreetly in a bathroom stall, do they clear their throat a lot when they wake up, what do they have for breakfast, do they go for protein or fruit, do they skip certain meals zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
I would totally watch a 20 year long show that just shows every minute in real time of characters figuring out how to get a fake passport, what positions they sleep in, whether they take a train or a cab or an airplane or a boat, what their small talk is like with various sandwich vendors, whether they get a hotel, is it a nice one or is it a crappy one, what condition was their cab or uber in, did they take the bus, when did they exchange currency, what kind, how much, do they pick their nose in public or do they do it discreetly in a bathroom stall, do they clear their throat a lot when they wake up, what do they have for breakfast, do they go for protein or fruit, do they skip certain meals zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Yeah for a show people have bitched for years about being "too slow", why people think more monotony is the way to go is a mystery.
 
A "happy ending"?
If you watched BB you know that the two main characters sort of get happy endings.

Jesse sees his girlfriend get murdered, he gets tortured, and he leaves behind a trail of mayhem (drug overdoses, Gail, his family). But he escapes to Alaska with decent money and sees no jail time for his life of crime and mania. He thinks of Jane instead of Andrea even so he is over her death already and gets to live a peaceful life in his preferred location. Walt gets the same. His son hates him, Marie hates him, his daughter will probably hate him. But Walt's family gets millions of dollars and his wife will make sure of that, Walt gets to kill every single enemy he basically ever had in the drug game including Gus, Mike, the Nazis, and even Lydia, he frees his former protege, he gets to terrorize his old college enemies the Schwarz couple and force them to launder his drug money under the guise of "I helped build your company", and Walt dies without anyone knowing his blue meth formula, and he dies on his own terms instead of cancer or prison. All in all they did not really pay for their crimes. People like Hank or Mike pay for them instead.

Saul and Kim will get a similar happy ending. Everyone around them will get ruined like Hank, Howard, Nacho, Mike, Marie, Chuck, and so on. But they will emerge relatively victorious. This is how Vince Gilligan likes to write his favorite characters. He is like GRRM of A Song of Ice and Fire in that his main characters are fully plot-armored and everyone else dies no matter what. Midgets survive combat, a little girl destroys entire cities and hordes of bloodriders, a bastard comes back to life after actually being dead (despite the author saying that Gandalf coming back to life was poor writing).

Walt and Jesse reunited at the end of BB. Not under the best of circumstance mind you. But they were together at the end (of Walt's life). Kim and Jimmy will reunite. Almost assuredly as Gene and Giselle. The sinister cab driver is likely a friend of Kim or some type of impetus for Jimmy to seek out Kim and come clean to the world that he is a drug lawyer in hiding from a killer group of cartel experts. Jimmy can offer the DEA information on all sorts of stuff that they might now know about Lalo, Hector, Nacho, Gus, Mike, Walt, Jesse, and others. He might get prison and release or witness protection. And Kim's freedom can be part of the bargain.

But I doubt that Vince Gillian will do a Sopranos, Shield, OZ, Boardwalk Empire, ending where the characters are basically doomed or dead. Just as Walt came back with a vengeance and saved Jesse. Jimmy will come back and save Kim. "You don't save me....I save me". This time Jimmy will save them. But unlike Walt who died....only 'Saul' or 'Gene' will die. Jimmy will live on.

This seems very telegraphed to me and I would be surprised at an ending that is even partially different.
 
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