S05.E09: Bad Choice Road

[Dev F]

1 minute ago, ShadowFacts said:

I get the immediate need, but when able, get that wreck out of there. It's still traceable to Jimmy via VIN number.

True, but I assumed Mike removing the license plate was shorthand for a more elaborate sequence of anonymization precautions, including wiping down any fingerprints and stripping off the VIN, that presumably took place off screen.

[Auntie Anxiety]

The same opening song (Something Stupid) was used in a prior season with the same kind of split screen going on, Jimmy on one side and Kim on the other. I’ll leave it to you smart posters to unearth the significance of it all. 

[kieyra]

2 hours ago, qtpye said:

I thought it was interesting the way Jimmy was absolutely stunned and not particularly supportive about Kim quitting her job. It was a great contrast to how Kim is almost blindly supportive of Jimmy, even if she does not understand his choices.

Jimmy quit an amazing job at Davis and Main because he could not stand the environment of Big Law. He is also aware of how unhappy Kim had been with her job since her car accident. Why was her actions such a surprise? I mean what’s good for the gander is also good for the goose.

I was wondering what everybody else thought of his reaction to her big news.

I thought it was strangely vehement, yeah. My gut reaction was that he didn’t want to lose their line to legit business (and money) since he was having serious second thoughts about being “in the game”. 

[qtpye]

4 minutes ago, kieyra said:

I thought it was strangely vehement, yeah. My gut reaction was that he didn’t want to lose their line to legit business (and money) since he was having serious second thoughts about being “in the game”. 

Kim is so damn supportive of anything Jimmy does she seemed almost stunned that it was not reciprocated. The fact that he could not see how miserable she was in her job made him seem very obtuse.

I began to think about Chuck and how Chuck specifically hated it that their mother loved Jimmy more. He also got very annoyed that his ex wife also found Jimmy quite charming.

I imagine that Jimmy has always had a way with the ladies due to his charm and probably boyish good looks.

It is almost weird that he never tried any type of love scam and instead went for the more physically grueling "Slippin Jimmy" type cons. He would of probably been quite natural at scamming a lot of ladies out of tons of money.

[Kath94]

15 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

The Lalo/Jimmy/Kim scene was indeed edge of the seat stuff. I was also worried that Lalo would kill the fish just to be mean. 😏

The make-up artists did great work giving Mike and Jimmy the burnt to a crisp sunburns. I hurt just looking at them. 😬

Was Kim an equity partner? Will the firm have to buy her out? 
only one more episode! ☹️

I was worried for the fish, too!  They've spent so much camera time on it that I fear it won't last the season.  😞

[Joimiaroxeu]

You'd think the government would have a limit on how much cash they would accept at a detention center. For that kind of money wouldn't they be susceptible to robbery or embezzling?

Lalo might be too analytical for his own good.

Good thing Saul realized that Lalo recognized that the story sounded rehearsed. He made a noble effort of trying to switch up the details to make his remarks sound more off-the-cuff.

Move, Kim! Get out the way! So why didn't Mike take the shot when he had it? Is the plan still to let the people south of the border handle getting rid of Lalo?

Quote

I also thought that when Saul told Lalo the money was in the other room that he would take it and find the travel mug with the bullet hole. 

That's probably why Kim stepped in. Saul was lucky she found that mug. I wonder if she ever would've mentioned it to him.

[Ed-]

1 hour ago, Ohwell said:

Lalo jumping down onto that Esteem was kinda hot.  He really is...ummm....talented.

We haven't seen much of Lalo's backstory, but based on his overall skills, this jump, and his jumps when he killed Fred in season 4, I suspect he could have been an athlete in his younger years, possibly even in high jump or pole vault. Possibly even got a medal.

26 minutes ago, qtpye said:

It is almost weird that he never tried any type of love scam and instead went for the more physically grueling "Slippin Jimmy" type cons. He would of probably been quite natural at scamming a lot of ladies out of tons of money.

I think you may be right. Where I live, there was a story about a 47-year old man who scammed 16 women for about $1 million total. For example, one of them gave him about $180,000 in cash to buy a house, under the pretext of needing this money to buy a company stake from a dead partner's wife. At least two of the women he scammed were friends, and they checked his ID while he was asleep. True story. Though, I found the man quite average-looking, but then again I am not interested in men. 😀 (He got 3 years jail, and only $3,600 was collected).

Edited April 14, 2020 by Ed-

[qtpye]

29 minutes ago, Ed- said:

We haven't seen much of Lalo's backstory, but based on his overall skills, this jump, and his jumps when he killed Fred in season 4, I suspect he could have been an athlete in his younger years, possibly even in high jump or pole vault. Possibly even got a medal.

I think you may be right. Where I live, there was a story about a 47-year old man who scammed 16 women for about $1 million total. For example, one of them gave him about $180,000 in cash to buy a house, under the pretext of needing this money to buy a company stake from a dead partner's wife. At least two of the women he scammed were friends, and they checked his ID while he was asleep. True story. Though, I found the man quite average-looking, but then again I am not interested in men. 😀 (He got 3 years jail, and only $3,600 was collected).

Most of these of type con men wish they had Jimmy's looks and charm.

Edited April 14, 2020 by qtpye

[ShadowFacts]

23 minutes ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Move, Kim! Get out the way! So why didn't Mike take the shot when he had it? Is the plan still to let the people south of the border handle getting rid of Lalo?

It seemed like he had a clear shot some of the time, so I thought he was only going to do it if Lalo pulled his gun on Kim or Jimmy.  Gus has said he would be blamed if anything happened to Lalo up north, I don't think that's changed.  So Mike was only going to do it defensively on their behalf if necessary.  He wanted to be able to hear what Lalo was saying through Jimmy's phone, to be ready to pull the trigger. That Mike, he must spend most of his time tailing people and having his weaponry at the ready.

[Lone Wolf]

Liked the split screen contrast between what was going on with Jimmy and Kim at the beginning.  Felt bad for Kim, the way she broke down when she finally heard from him.

Mike and Saul reminded me of these guys after their little adventure:

"Dorks! They look like dorks!"  

Lalo and the Parkour.  That was quite a jump.

I need a Kim Wexler in my life...

[nodorothyparker]

3 hours ago, qtpye said:

Jimmy quit an amazing job at Davis and Main because he could not stand the environment of Big Law. He is also aware of how unhappy Kim had been with her job since her car accident. Why was her actions such a surprise? I mean what’s good for the gander is also good for the goose.

I was wondering what everybody else thought of his reaction to her big news.

He probably shouldn't have been surprised, given how unhappy and disengaged Kim has been with both Mesa Verde and S&C for awhile. Her extracurricular shenanigans with Jimmy aside though,  Kim has forged a fairly respectable Big Law career with all the respectability markers of that and a lot of people probably wouldn't understand someone who had to claw her way up from the HHM mailroom willingly throwing that away.  Remember how openly envious the squirrelly DA whose name I can't remember was of Jimmy when he was slowly suffocating at Davis & Main. Jimmy was clearly unhappy when Kim went to S&C rather than revive Wexler McGill in a move he probably interpreted at the time as choosing respectability over him, at least on a professional level, and it seems like that's how he took it in thinking that she wanted to remain a part of that world.

He was awfully quick to point out that she can't live on pro bono cases, which is certainly a fair point to raise, but it comes at the same time that he just scored 100 grand getting deeper into the illegal end of lawyering and seemed to be grasping that being a "friend of the cartel" wasn't as glamorous or desirable as he might have thought.  She's right that it's not his decision, but if they were truly a marriage of equals it might have been worth a discussion before she acted.  He seemed to be picking up on that as well.

I did wonder when Kim was so blithely going on about dumping Mesa Verde if it even crossed either of their minds the lengths Jimmy went to to get that client back for her or the role that played in rapidly escalating his war with Chuck that eventually ended in Chuck's death.  Probably not, but there's your bad choice Mike was talking about.

 

[DangerousMinds]

2 hours ago, Ohwell said:

Lalo jumping down onto that Esteem was kinda hot.  He really is...ummm....talented.

It was a stuntman, not Tony Dalton.

Edited April 14, 2020 by DangerousMinds

[DangerousMinds]

22 minutes ago, Lone Wolf said:

Liked the split screen contrast between what was going on with Jimmy and Kim at the beginning.  Felt bad for Kim, the way she broke down when she finally heard from him.

Mike and Saul reminded me of these guys after their little adventure:

"Dorks! They look like dorks!"  

Lalo and the Parkour.  That was quite a jump.

I need a Kim Wexler in my life...

Same! I immediately thought of this and am quite surprised that no one else has mentioned it.

[ruby24]

I would have liked it if Kim snapped back at him that they can live off his cartel money when he asked her what she's going to do for money now.

This is like the third time we've seen Bob Odenkirk naked this season- what's that about?

Looking at the preview for next week, I have this feeling like Kim will go work for HHM at Howard's request and that's what Jimmy will find "unforgivable," based on the title. Just a wild guess, but if he's a Buddha now and really wants to help the little guy like he said...seems like it could happen.

[Bannon]

2 hours ago, ShadowFacts said:

I get the immediate need, but when able, get that wreck out of there. It's still traceable to Jimmy via VIN number. If it's found later, and I assume there must be some kind of patrolling, he's then in the position of having to explain why a good citizen leaves his junk littering the desert. His junk with bullet holes.

Saul will report the car stolen now that he is back in Albuquerque, a city with an inordinate volume of car thefts.

[Bannon]

4 hours ago, qtpye said:

 

 

I thought it was interesting the way Jimmy was absolutely stunned and not particularly supportive about Kim quitting her job. It was a great contrast to how Kim is almost blindly supportive of Jimmy, even if she does not understand his choices.

Jimmy quit an amazing job at Davis and Main because he could not stand the environment of Big Law. He is also aware of how unhappy Kim had been with her job since her car accident. Why was her actions such a surprise? I mean what’s good for the gander is also good for the goose.

I was wondering what everybody else thought of his reaction to her big news.

Jimmy is thoroughly traumatized by the violence he witnessed, and by nearly dying, in the desert. He's badly, badly, frightened. He's learned that Lalo has met Kim, which frightens him more. Now he learns that Kim has resigned from a lucrative partnership. He's scared out of wits. This will change as he goes through the mental process that Mike described, but right now he is a terrified little man.

[Ohwell]

1 hour ago, DangerousMinds said:

It was a stuntman, not Tony Dalton.

But was it Lalo we saw landing on the car?  In any case, it was made to look like him and that's what was intended, as with all stunts.  So I'm good with pretending it was Lalo.

[SoWindsor]

I’m still confused as to how Mike knew about the money and killed the guys. Is this something that Gus ordered him to do?

I saw someone mention that Mike put a tracker on Saul’s car but I assume he wouldn’t have done all that without Gus’s approval first. 
 

 

[Blakeston]

6 hours ago, Ohwell said:

I don't think Lalo believed Kim's explanation.  I think he was impressed with her having the balls to stand up to him, and with her loyalty to Jimmy.  The question is, will he try to get rid of her and Jimmy?  

I think Kim convinced Lalo that he shouldn't be bothering Jimmy, when his bigger problem is that he can't trust his own men.

If Lalo was just giving Jimmy a free pass because his woman has guts, then Lalo would have just gone back to Mexico the way he planned. But instead he had Nacho drive him there.

I think he did that because he believed what Kim had just told him - that he couldn't trust the cartel, and he needed to sort that out ASAP.

[PeterPirate]

4 hours ago, Adiba said:

People like to talk, even criminals. 

They're just like a sewing circle when they get together.  🙂

I'm wondering if Jimmy has to think Lalo is unhappy with him just before he gets kidnapped.   If Kim is working for the cartel, he might take the kidnapping as a sign that something has gone wrong down south, but he doesn't know what it is.  And in a panic, he'll blurt out something about Ignacio.

Edited April 14, 2020 by PeterPirate

[nodorothyparker]

48 minutes ago, SoWindsor said:

I’m still confused as to how Mike knew about the money and killed the guys. Is this something that Gus ordered him to do?

I saw someone mention that Mike put a tracker on Saul’s car but I assume he wouldn’t have done all that without Gus’s approval first. 

Since it's all part of Gus's long game to get Lalo arrested to force him to jump bail back to Mexico, we can probably assume that Gus was having Mike keep an eye on things to make sure the bail money got to its intended location.  Mike didn't know who the road bandits were when it happened, but he surely did know if he didn't intervene Jimmy would end up dead in short order and the bail money would be gone, leaving Lalo to sit in jail now knowing that someone was gunning for him.  So he acted.  Gus didn't seem surprised this episode that Mike was there, just that it had nearly gone off the rails.

It's kind of the same thing with Mike scoping out the Lalo-Jimmy-Kim scene.  Gus has said repeatedly that they can't do anything to Lalo on the U.S. side of the border without bringing all kinds of heat down on themselves.  So it's highly unlikely Gus sent him after Lalo to take him out.  But if things got out of hand at Kim and Jimmy's, there's always the danger that someone's going to get hurt and Jimmy might under duress spill that Mike is involved, which leads straight back to Gus.  In the absolute worst case scenario where Mike did have to kill him, they would have had to do a lot of improvising awfully fast.

[nuraman00]

15 hours ago, DangerousMinds said:

By hiring people to steal the $7 million he needed to get out of jail. No bail money and he would have remained in jail.

Why does he want Lalo to remain in jail though?

14 hours ago, GussieK said:

No, it wasn’t her first. That’s what I call great lawyering, and it echoed what Kim did two episodes back to convince that asshole Kevin of Mesa Verde to keep them on. And what she did to convince the guy who was holding out on his house. And what she said to Schweikart when he was accusing her of unethical behavior. She just gets in their face and they back down.  She has a real talent for it. She is saying something that is not true but it has elements of truth. 

BTW, what was the cork she went back for in her office?  Was that a souvenir of their first con with the expensive liquor?  I just love Kim. 

You're right, this is comparable to what she said to Kevin.

 

I would say it's not as comparable to the one with Ackerman, because the stakes were not as high.  The way I see it.

[nuraman00]

13 hours ago, Ed- said:

Oranges that were left unpeeled were also seen in the previous episode. This episode, they were peeled and crushed. Definitely a nod to Godfather (Oranges appear whenever death is in the air).

Can you list the scenes / times, from the previous episode, and this episode?  With the oranges.

[scenario]

2 hours ago, ShadowFacts said:

It seemed like he had a clear shot some of the time, so I thought he was only going to do it if Lalo pulled his gun on Kim or Jimmy.  Gus has said he would be blamed if anything happened to Lalo up north, I don't think that's changed.  So Mike was only going to do it defensively on their behalf if necessary.  He wanted to be able to hear what Lalo was saying through Jimmy's phone, to be ready to pull the trigger. That Mike, he must spend most of his time tailing people and having his weaponry at the ready.

I'm beginning to think that he wanted to hear the conversation to see what Saul said. He didn't really care if Lalo killed Saul. He cared that Saul would tell Lalo something that led back to Gus. If that happened he'd kill Lalo and then maybe Saul and Kim to keep them quiet. 

[nuraman00]

11 hours ago, Bannon said:

As to Kim's car, I assume S&C leases cars for partners, and she turned it in.

So what was her car before S&C?  What happened to that?

11 hours ago, gallimaufry said:

And of course her squaring up to Lalo was absolutely fantastic and of a piece with her past takedowns of Howard, Chuck, Rich and others. 

When was her takedown of Chuck?  Or was that in the courtroom?

[nuraman00]

11 hours ago, gallimaufry said:

I've always looked at the juicer as a kind of metaphor for the ugly side of Saul -- Jimmy used it to basically scam Davis & Main and it featured prominently when he was getting ready to pull the Hummel heist last year. 

What previous episodes had the juicer?  Is there a story behind it?

[ahmerali]

5 hours ago, scenario said:

Where does it get disposed of? If Lalo is suspicious I think it would go something like this:

"Where's your car?"

"The mechanic said its not worth fixing. I got rid of it."

"What's the name of the mechanic? What junk yard is the car at?"

You don't want to do anything that would cause Lalo to start asking questions. Because once he starts, he's not going to stop. It's a chance either way. 

People who buy cheap disposable cars aren't as likely to have a sentimental attachment to them. 

 

Could have gone to Old Joe, who would have turned it into a cube.

[nuraman00]

11 hours ago, gallimaufry said:

Lalo's "family is everything" showed a morality of some kind at least. 

This is a callback to Breaking Bad, when Hector said it to the Cousins when they were little.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

19 hours ago, MrWhyt said:

sooooooooooooo tense. I was pretty sure once we saw that Mike had his sights on Lalo that no harm would come to Saul and Kim, but he might have had to shoot Lalo in front of Kim, which would drag Kim even further down bad choice road.

 

19 hours ago, Pike Ludwell said:

OK I'm 5 minutes from the end. And the most satisfactory thing that could happen ... that would make this series truly great... is that Mike or Kim has a gun and puts a bullet through Lalo's head.

 

19 hours ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

Credit to G/G that I actually believed Lalo could shoot Kim there and then.  I was metaphysically screaming at Mike to take Lalo out when he had the freaking chance! 

 

18 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Obviously, I knew Jimmy was going to make it out no matter what, but I really was preparing myself to for this to be the end of Kim at worst or the end of Lalo at best,

Lalo couldn't have been killed in any manner that Jimmy was aware of, since he references him in Breaking Bad in a way that suggests he's still alive.

10 hours ago, gallimaufry said:

Speaking of Bolsa, I loved his role in this episode.  It surprised me last week that they brought a new party into the mix so late on, and so against the way BCS has handled the cartel plot which is very much about fleshing out characters we have already met. 

Do you mean new to BCS?  Because he's in Breaking Bad.

[ahmerali]

3 hours ago, Kath94 said:

I was worried for the fish, too!  They've spent so much camera time on it that I fear it won't last the season.  😞

My bigger worry was that the aquarium would maybe reflect the light from Jimmy's cell phone, deliberately left running so Mike could hear what was going on. That would have negated any rhetoric from Kim, for sure.

 

[ahmerali]

21 minutes ago, nuraman00 said:

Why does he want Lalo to remain in jail though?

 

Bolsa believes that this 'helps' Gus's operation , which is profitable to the cartel. On the surface, he's right, but doesn't see the whole picture.

15 minutes ago, nuraman00 said:

So what was her car before S&C?  What happened to that?

When was her takedown of Chuck?  Or was that in the courtroom?

It was back in Season 2 (I think) where she chastised Chuck for making Jimmy what he is...Jimmy was just looking for his approval, and Chuck always had the holier-than-thou attitude that Jimmy wasn't good enough.

[shapeshifter]

What struck me most about Kim and Jimmy's relationship in this episode was how codependent they are. Neither of them have any living blood relatives that we know of. They've been together so long on the same road. And now, as far as it being the "Bad Choice Road," for Kim it seems like she was on a major highway that petered off into one of those unpaved roads that early Map Quest would direct to which could tear out the bottom of a car.

6 hours ago, qtpye said:

I thought it was interesting the way Jimmy was absolutely stunned and not particularly supportive about Kim quitting her job. It was a great contrast to how Kim is almost blindly supportive of Jimmy, even if she does not understand his choices.

Jimmy quit an amazing job at Davis and Main because he could not stand the environment of Big Law. He is also aware of how unhappy Kim had been with her job since her car accident. Why was her actions such a surprise? I mean what’s good for the gander is also good for the goose.

I was wondering what everybody else thought of his reaction to her big news.

Jimmy's negative reaction to Kim quitting baffled me for the reasons above, but now I see it as Jimmy realizing that when he quit Davis and Main and also when he turned down Howard's offer at HHM, it was a Bad Road Choice that led him to the current, untenable situation, and he did not want that for Kim.

 

 

 

 

11 hours ago, ShadowFacts said:

17 hours ago, TVFan17 said:

As Lalo was walking out of Casa Tranquila, he looked at Hector as though it would be the last time he would ever see him... so I am guessing that is exactly what happens. 

That was some really fine acting with Lalo's almost imperceptible look of pain there. 

Maybe I'm projecting, but I interpreted Lalo's look back at Hector in the Rest Home as seeing Hector robbed of his last shred of dignity with the party hat on his head , and Lalo feeling guilty and inadequate himself. Lalo acted as if it was nothing to get $7 mil for bail, but, if that is true, then couldn't he buy a home for Hector and pay for a private nurse? Maybe that's why in BrBa we see Hector in a house with Tuco?

Lalo leaving Hector and also later walking away from Kim's tirade both seemed like unfinished business he regretted because he had to leave the country in a hurry.

 

 

5 hours ago, Ohwell said:

Lalo jumping down onto that Esteem was kinda hot.  He really is...ummm....talented.

Lalo's jump was "magical realism."

 

 

4 hours ago, Auntie Anxiety said:

The same opening song (Something Stupid)

Thank you, @Auntie Anxiety. I knew it was a song I used to hear on the radio decades ago, but no matter how much I was able to hum the tune, I couldn't recall the words or title. 
♪ ♫ ♬ "...and then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like 'I love you.'"♪ ♫ ♬

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Kath94 said:

I was worried for the fish, too!  They've spent so much camera time on it that I fear it won't last the season.  😞

Yes, let's hope the Chekhovian fish and Lalo's Chekhovian gun don't get together. But, like @ahmerali, my

11 minutes ago, ahmerali said:

...bigger worry was that the aquarium would maybe reflect the light from Jimmy's cell phone, deliberately left running so Mike could hear what was going on. That would have negated any rhetoric from Kim, for sure.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by shapeshifter

[JudyObscure]

1 hour ago, Bannon said:

Jimmy is thoroughly traumatized by the violence he witnessed, and by nearly dying, in the desert. He's badly, badly, frightened. He's learned that Lalo has met Kim, which frightens him more. Now he learns that Kim has resigned from a lucrative partnership. He's scared out of wits. This will change as he goes through the mental process that Mike described, but right now he is a terrified little man.

I agree, I thought his shock and upset over Kim quitting was Jimmy thinking his life was rapidly flooding into the gutter and this was just  proof that he was  taking Kim with him.  He was already feeling tremendous guilt over inadvertently bringing Lalo into her life.

------------------

One thing that bothered me; I grew up watching "lost in the desert" scenes in TV shows, movies, and cartoons (even Bugs Bunny took a wrong turn at Albuquerque) and  the  big moment of relief was always when they came over a ridge and saw civilization.  So I was disappointed when Mike and Saul's big moment was when they got cell reception.  I know Kim was worried, but after 36 hours one more didn't seem as important to me as them finding that truck stop.  What good did it really do to talk to Kim if they still weren't sure where they were or when they would be able to get water and be safe?  Probably only Chuck would understand my irritation over this.

[nuraman00]

2 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

Her extracurricular shenanigans with Jimmy aside though,  Kim has forged a fairly respectable Big Law career with all the respectability markers of that and a lot of people probably wouldn't understand someone who had to claw her way up from the HHM mailroom willingly throwing that away. 

Did Kim actually work at the HHM mailroom?

 

I thought she was already an intern, or an associate, when Jimmy moved from Chicago to Albuquerque and worked at the mailroom. 

[nuraman00]

15 minutes ago, ahmerali said:

Bolsa believes that this 'helps' Gus's operation , which is profitable to the cartel. On the surface, he's right, but doesn't see the whole picture.

It was back in Season 2 (I think) where she chastised Chuck for making Jimmy what he is...Jimmy was just looking for his approval, and Chuck always had the holier-than-thou attitude that Jimmy wasn't good enough.

 

Thanks for the 2nd paragraph.

 

Isn't Bolsa close to Lalo though?  So wouldn't Bolsa still want Lalo to succeed over Gus?  Wasn't there a scene with them together, a few episodes ago?

 

Wasn't there a scene about how Gus would never really be one of them, even though he brought in money?

[EtheltoTillie]

4 minutes ago, nuraman00 said:

Did Kim actually work at the HHM mailroom?

 

I thought she was already an intern, or an associate, when Jimmy moved from Chicago to Albuquerque and worked at the mailroom. 

I believe she also started in the mailroom and then went to law school while still working there. The firm might even have paid her tuition. I’m not double checking, though. 

[Pooky]

This is the first time I have actually seen Jimmy and Kims love towards each other, and I think they have just realised how deeply they do care for one another, which is a bit sad as things can only really go downhill from here

[ahmerali]

1 minute ago, nuraman00 said:

 

Thanks for the 2nd paragraph.

 

Isn't Bolsa close to Lalo though?  So wouldn't Bolsa still want Lalo to succeed over Gus?  Wasn't there a scene with them together, a few episodes ago?

 

Wasn't there a scene about how Gus would never really be one of them, even though he brought in money?

Bolsa probably has his own angle in order to keep his place in Eladio's organization. I'm sure a big component of that is to keep the various factions in check and at each other's throats - stir the pot, slap them down, etc. in various forms, stages, and levels.

 

[Lone Wolf]

35 minutes ago, ahmerali said:

My bigger worry was that the aquarium would maybe reflect the light from Jimmy's cell phone, deliberately left running so Mike could hear what was going on. That would have negated any rhetoric from Kim, for sure.

 

We saw the light go out after a few seconds - I thought at first that he lost the connection.  Speaking of that, I need to sign up with Jimmy's carrier - Lalo sounded like he was mic'd when Mike had a bead on him.  I don't think the phone I have now would pick up a conversation from across the room that clearly, let alone one of those antenna phones from The Dark Ages.   

Edited April 14, 2020 by Lone Wolf

[SoMuchTV]

54 minutes ago, nuraman00 said:

Can you list the scenes / times, from the previous episode, and this episode?  With the oranges.

 

4 hours ago, Auntie Anxiety said:

The same opening song (Something Stupid) was used in a prior season with the same kind of split screen going on, Jimmy on one side and Kim on the other. I’ll leave it to you smart posters to unearth the significance of it all. 

They touched on both these topics in the Insider podcast, if you’re interested in that kind of thing. 

[Sam Spayaid]

And here I thought Mike was going to shoot Lalo for wearing that shirt.

If Kim weren't so fast on her feet, Jimmy would be in a morgue. He owes her. She was amazing in that scene!

[Sam Spayaid]

2 hours ago, nuraman00 said:

This is a callback to Breaking Bad, when Hector said it to the Cousins when they were little.

Was that before or after he tried to drown one of them? Vile old prick!

[Penman61]

Relatively trivial, but I was glad to have somebody in-show finally acknowledge the substantial looks gap between Jimmy and Kim. 

Of course Lalo was a bro-dick about it, but the disparity is a fact that no one else in the show universe has ever remarked on (that I can recall, anyway).

[preeya]

19 hours ago, nuraman00 said:

So did they really accept the $7 million?  Are they going to do an investigation as to the where it came from?

There is no way in hell that they would accept $7mil in cash without calling in the Feds. There would be a gazillion questions asked and I'm certain Lalo would not just walk out of custody. All cash transaction over $9,999. are supposed to be reported.

[thuganomics85]

Quote

This is like the third time we've seen Bob Odenkirk naked this season- what's that about?

AMC executive: "Hey, guys!  The network still wants to push boundaries on the whole nudity thing, so if you want maybe get us a few ass shots, that would be great!  If Rhea Seehorn doesn't want to do it, maybe some recurring prostitutes or something!  Or if you want some male nudity, you can always ask Michale Mando if he wants to drop trou.  What do you say, guys?"

(Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould turn to Bob Odenkirk.  All three of them smirk.)

(Weeks later)

AMC executive: "That wasn't what we wanted, guys!"

Jonathan Banks: "Well, for the right price, I can always...

AMC executive: "Never mind!  Full Odenkirk it is!"

 

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Relatively trivial, but I was glad to have somebody in-show finally acknowledge the substantial looks gap between Jimmy and Kim. 

Of course Lalo was a bro-dick about it, but the disparity is a fact that no one else in the show universe has ever remarked on (that I can recall, anyway).

Hey now!  It's already been established that Jimmy is a splitting image of Kevin Costner, right?!

 

 

 

[Clanstarling]

22 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

But, holy shit, Kim was not fucking around!  While I still think she is destined to go down a tragic path, she really is going all in here.  Even though she knew Jimmy was lying to her about what really happened in the desert, she just straight-up got in the face of a fucking cartel gangster to pull her husband's ass out of the fire, and said cartel gangster actually backed down (for now?!)  You know, if one where to look past... well, all of the shady and illegal shit that is going on here, Kim is certainly going above and beyond being a supportive spouse.  Damn!

I thought she was being one hell of a lawyer.

19 hours ago, nuraman00 said:

So did they really accept the $7 million?  Are they going to do an investigation as to the where it came from?

Saul said as much to Lalo, that they were going to look into where that money came from.

14 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

Good recap of Kim's style.  I'm not sure it would work for a man, particularly with someone like Lalo.  Lalo's macho self-image would never let another man talk to him as if he was being stupid, he couldn't even bear Saul telling him not to tease the fish and had to go do it again just to show he wasn't letting Saul boss him around, but he could let himself shrug off Kim's rant by telling himself she was just an hysterical woman.

She wasn't ranting. She made a clear case - just like defense lawyer, only under a tad more pressure than in the courtroom.  Not sure why, but I think Lalo likes women who have a little fire int hem.

14 hours ago, Bannon said:

As to Kim's car, I assume S&C leases cars for partners, and she turned it in.

She did.

9 hours ago, scenario said:

Someone whose just made $100,000 willing to pay $50 to tow a $100 car would be suspicious in itself. He could afford a car that costs twice as much. 😊

Unless they can get a good look alike car, there's no good solution. 

Would it even be as little as $50? 30 or so miles out in the desert in no man's land? I'd expect it would cost more than the car was worth. And yeah, Saul's Esteem with his primer colored door would be hard to replicate.

9 hours ago, Eulipian 5k said:

Wasn't it just teetering on the edge when Mike & Jimmy left it? It's probably easier for the clean-up crew to push it over than try to tow it when they didn't need to.

Nope, they pushed it in.

6 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

You'd think the government would have a limit on how much cash they would accept at a detention center. For that kind of money wouldn't they be susceptible to robbery or embezzling?

Seems to me that if they set a 7 million dollar cash bail, they should be prepared to accept it (and yes, they'd expect a check, but still). They set it that high because they didn't think he'd ever come up with it.

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Jimmy's negative reaction to Kim quitting baffled me for the reasons above, but now I see it as Jimmy realizing that when he quit Davis and Main and also when he turned down Howard's offer at HHM, it was a Bad Road Choice that led him to the current, untenable situation, and he did not want that for Kim.

I like that insight.

Kim's been wanting out for quite a while now. I wasn't too surprised when she quit. One person's great job is another person's straitjacket.

[Joimiaroxeu]

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Seems to me that if they set a 7 million dollar cash bail, they should be prepared to accept it (and yes, they'd expect a check, but still). They set it that high because they didn't think he'd ever come up with it.

Whether they thought he'd come up with it or not, I'd still think they'd already have set limits on how much cash they'd actually accept at the window. They could have alternate procedures established for dollar amounts in excess of some posted limit. A lot banks won't ever accept a jar of coins anymore (even if the coins are rolled) because they don't have the automated counting machines. If a bank can balk at a few hundred dollars worth of coins I should think a detention center could decide not to take millions of dollars in cash.

[JudyObscure]

7 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

She wasn't ranting. She made a clear case - just like defense lawyer, only under a tad more pressure than in the courtroom.  Not sure why, but I think Lalo likes women who have a little fire int hem.

Yes, I didn't make myself clear, I didn't think Kim was a ranting, hysterical woman, I thought Lalo was telling himself that to save face, so he could alow himself to turn and walk out rather than make the noisy mess of having to shoot the two of them -- because I think if Saul had said the same thing ('you don't understand how things are north of the border, you don't have control of your people') he would have probably, at the least, hit him. He may have heard the truth in some of her words but Lalo isn't Kevin, he isn't looking for advice or constructive criticism, he probably wouldn't take that from anyone other than someone like Hector who he clearly idolized at one time.

My husband agrees with you and thought her speech made Lalo "respect" Kim.  I don't agree.  If Lalo was going to respect Kim he would have already after she, a highly educated lawyer came to jail to talk to him, but even after that he was dismissive of her and shushed her. I don't think his type ever respects women. I think his idea of a firey woman would be one who does a little yelling before he slaps her.  

[gallimaufry]

11 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Lalo couldn't have been killed in any manner that Jimmy was aware of, since he references him in Breaking Bad in a way that suggests he's still alive.

Do you mean new to BCS?  Because he's in Breaking Bad.

My theory is that Lalo's death will be roughly concurrent with BB S3.  Clearly in S2 Saul considers Lalo a very real and curent threat but by S4 Gus says the Salamacas are all dead.

Bolsa has been in BCS before (304 at least) but I mean his men last episode were new to the show.  Introducing a completely new element, especially this late in the game, isn't like BCS (unlike BB which introduced characters like Victor, Lydia and the Nazis relatively late on).  However, typing the crew to Bolsa is very elegant as it actualluy expands and deepens the character of Bolsa.

11 hours ago, nuraman00 said:

What previous episodes had the juicer?  Is there a story behind it?

Jimmy got the juicer as part of his plot to get himself fired from Davis & Main (207 I think?).  It's been in the kitchen since and he's used it quite a bit.  There's no more story per se.

However I do think water imagery is very significant to the show.  Very roughly, it seems to me that snow or pure water is linked to respectability and decency or at least the appearance of it -- Gene in his ice box prison, the water running down the drain after Chuck's death in 401, the dripping tap in Gene's house and Chuck's, Kim's shower on the day she goes to (try to) become Jimmy's white knight in 303, the soapy water overflowing in 401 as Gene seems overwhelmed by the pressure of this new, "decent" life, Jimmy trying to save water as he leaves Davis & Main while he is holding back on his ethical choices.  Whereas coffee, juice and waste or contaminated water usually show impurity and corruption -- the money in the culvert, Jimmy dumping the coffee beans after telling Howard Chuck's death was Howard's cross to bear, the overfeeding of the fish so it drowns in his own excrement, the juicer, Chuck obliging Kim to make coffee for him in 205(?).  And of course, Jimmy goes from using clean water to clean his shoes to drinking his own urine in 508.

11 hours ago, nuraman00 said:

So what was her car before S&C?  What happened to that?

When was her takedown of Chuck?  Or was that in the courtroom?

208?  "I feel sorry for him.  And I feel sorry for you."

[nodorothyparker]

16 hours ago, GussieK said:

16 hours ago, nuraman00 said:

Did Kim actually work at the HHM mailroom?

 

I thought she was already an intern, or an associate, when Jimmy moved from Chicago to Albuquerque and worked at the mailroom. 

I believe she also started in the mailroom and then went to law school while still working there. The firm might even have paid her tuition. I’m not double checking, though. 

They did meet each other working in the mailroom.  HHM clearly saw something in her because the firm at some point picked up her tuition to law school and she advanced from there. After Kim leaves HHM, she makes a point of trying to pay Howard back but he refuses her check.