S06.E11: Breaking Bad

[PeterPirate]

8 hours ago, Armchair Critic said:

It would be something if Marion called the cops

Or if she insisted Jeff tell her what was going on.  Either the cops are responding to a burglar alarm or they were told where to go.  

Or maybe the cops are actually coming to Marion's house.  

Edited August 2, 2022 by PeterPirate

[hecter salmonca]

Gene has become a mix of Slippin Jimmy and Saul Goodman

[Andre LaPlume]

Gene - you stupid bastard.     Was he trying to get enough info to make new identifications for himself so he could disappear again?    But clearly must be stealing enough to make it worthwhile for his crew?      
 

I’m glad nothing happened to the dog!   My biggest worry

[peeayebee]

So Kim is working at a sprinkler company. I didn't expect that. I liked that we didn't actually hear their conversation.

I can't wait to see how Marion finally reacts. She knows something is up, first with Gene going into the garage with the peach schnapps to talk with Jeff, and then at night when the three guys go into the garage. I hope she's as smart as I've been expecting her to be.

I liked Gene's scam, but boy I didn't expect him to be so cold with the guy who had cancer. For a while it looked like Gene was going to back out. He was definitely having regrets. When Gene asks him if he should be drinking, the guy says, "You only go around once." This seems to be a little push the Gene needs to proceed. And yet, y'know, Jimmy/Saul/Gene has "gone around" more than once. 

Then of course he gets a second chance to back out when Jeff's friend (name?) couldn't go thru with it. Why is Gene so determined to get this one guy? There's really no good reason. The guy was nice and honest. He had cancer. The drugs Jeff gave him in the water may have worn off. The friend took the tape off the door. So Gene would have to actually break into the house. Which he did. ARGH! It's almost like he's trying to destroy himself.

As far as the Breaking Bad scenes, I don't know that I got much out of them... yet. (I look forward to everyone's comments.) We saw new scenes from that time, like Saul in the RV and then Walt, Jesse, and Saul in there. We saw Saul with Mike. We heard how Saul was more interested in getting involved with Walt than Mike thought wise. I'll just need to let this stew in my head for a while.

I thought it was an interesting choice to have Gene get out of Jeff's cab, and then a quick cut to Gene getting out of the cab at Walt's high school, and then back to Gene breaking into the house. I'm not sure what the purpose of such editing is.

[nodorothyparker]

I don't know how much it really added to see those scenes from the Better Call Saul episode told from Saul's POV, but they were fun nonetheless. I always figured Mike was Saul's unnamed PI who found Walter White in probably a third of the hours he billed for, but imagine how much grief and destruction a whole lot of people could have been saved had Saul listened to Mike. Still, it's kind of mind boggling that Mike could find out what kind of cancer Walt had but either fail to learn or fail to mention his DEA brother-in-law.

As for the black and white Gene saga, we get confirmation that Kim is still alive post BB, and I guess we're to think in Florida? So she got away more or less clean. Huell also eventually got away clean. This also confirms my thought from last week that the small potatoes mutual destruction mall heist awakened something in Jimmy/Saul/Gene and now he can't so easily put it back to sleep again. And it looks like it might be his final undoing.

[Constantinople]

Another underwhelming episode.

I enjoyed the phone call with Francesca, but it didn't really add anything. It's not exactly a shock that the federal government found all his money. The one interesting tidbit was the Kim called.

I thought it was cop out not to let us hear the telephone call with Kim. Obviously it didn't go well, but I think we should have heard it.

One question I wondered about is what if Kim's  (office?) phone was tapped? The authorities will know Kim is Saul's wife. Granted he called from a pay phone, but that still gives a place to start.

The scenes with Walt, Jesse and Mike were fan service that didn't tell us anything other than Saul's allusion to Gus.

The Gene scenes were as interesting as Nippy 2: Electric Boogaloo. And now Gene/Saul/Jimmy is acting like an idiot by breaking the glass in the door. And it's super convenient that none of their victims have any kind of alarms in their house.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Constantinople

[sistermagpie]

2 minutes ago, nodorothyparker said:

I don't know how much it really added to see those scenes from the Better Call Saul episode told from Saul's POV, but they were fun nonetheless. I always figured Mike was Saul's unnamed PI who found Walter White in probably a third of the hours he billed for, but imagine how much grief and destruction a whole lot of people could have been saved had Saul listened to Mike. Still, it's kind of mind boggling that Mike could find out what kind of cancer Walt had but either fail to learn or fail to mention his DEA brother-in-law.

Mike thought he was small potatoes, so it might not have occurred to him to look at his family. He's just an amateur chem teacher. 

[WritinMan]

1 hour ago, SimplexFish said:

Why was Francesca such a horses ass to Gene on the phone?  

Is this a serious question?

[DrSpaceman73]

Well pretty underwhelming.  This better be building to something.  

Carol burnett brought back for a second episude to watch cat videos. Waste.

Also gene looks just like Marc macron

They leave in the middle of a great story for two episodes of breaking bad Omaha.  

These last two episodes better be great. But it appears the next episode is again Omaha 

[sistermagpie]

2 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

These last two episodes better be great. But it appears the next episode is again Omaha 

I think all the last eps will be at least partly in the black and white world.

[CynicalGirl]

Tapioca Tundra!

[peeayebee]

12 minutes ago, WritinMan said:

I would say yes (in addition to Saul being someone who just doesn't like to give up). I think despite all the terrible things he's done, Saul sees Walt as the source of his ultimate downfall.

You could be right. That would also explain the cut quicks betw BB time and Gene time before he breaks into the guy's house.

I can't remember if we saw the high school science fair during BB's run. 

When Gene is asking Francesca about some people, he mentions Kuby and Huell, who I remember, but also Danny and Ira. Who were they?

Oh, before the scene with the cancer guy in the bar, there was a scene of Gene at Cinnabon watching the mixer work. He's making dough in more ways than one.

[Armchair Critic]

7 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Carol burnett brought back for a second episude to watch cat videos. Waste.

It may be building to her character having a large part in bringing down Gene.

[nodorothyparker]

I fully expect the bulk of the final two episodes to be Gene's story in Omaha. Didn't we always sort of know the show would be ending with what happened with Gene Takovic? It feels more than fitting to me for the person Jimmy to Saul became if he did get away more or less safe to the monochrome life of Gene but in the end, as Chuck predicted, just couldn't help himself. That seemed to be what that long shot of Gene staring at the Cinnabon mixer was about. One scam to neutralize a small-time guy became another and now he's being completely reckless and sloppy breaking into a house rather than let the con go. 

[Irlandesa]

Potentially unpopular opinion:  So far, I prefer the Gene In Nebraska episodes to the beginning part of the season.

The scams in these past two episodes have felt more authentic and less writerly than the scam against Howard. And for me, there's more genuine suspense since we all knew what would happen with Mike, Gus and Saul.  The only questions were going to be about Kim and Howard.  And only Kim really needed to be explained as why she wasn't in Saul's life anymore.  Howard could have easily been on the periphery in Breaking Bad.

I love the visuals aspect of the past two episodes.  I like the guest stars.  And the not knowing has injected some actual suspense into the last our episodes.   I kept waiting for the first guy they scammed to wake up.  Or the dog to bark.  Or for the guy they scammed to accidentally die because of the barbituates.  In fact, I wonder if that's what will happen to cancer guy. A mix of alcohol, cancer drugs and barbituates can't be a good mix.

In terms of interest, what they're doing in Nebraska is more interesting than what Breaking Bad did with the Nazis.

[Lola82]

The image of Gene lying on the bed as his grave reminded me of Walt in his crawl space.

[chick binewski]

26 minutes ago, WritinMan said:

I would say yes (in addition to Saul being someone who just doesn't like to give up). I think despite all the terrible things he's done, Saul sees Walt as the source of his ultimate downfall.

9 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

You could be right. That would also explain the cut quicks betw BB time and Gene time before he breaks into the guy's house.

I can't remember if we saw the high school science fair during BB's run. 

When Gene is asking Francesca about some people, he mentions Kuby and Huell, who I remember, but also Danny and Ira. Who were they?

I think the implication that Walt turned Saul's life sour bugged me. Chuck, Howard, the demise of HHM and his marriage all happened well before Walt. Idk, maybe Saul is resentful that Walt caused his anonymity.

Danny was Laser Tag guy we never saw - but there was some internet speculation hes actually the Squat Cobbler/Hummer guy. IRA stole the Hummels and eventually moved on to Todd's extermination supervisor.

Edited August 2, 2022 by chick binewski

[Penman61]

Do we know whether Gene actually spoke with Kim? I wouldn’t have pegged them for an escalate-to-yelling-in-no-time divorced couple.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Penman61

[WritinMan]

6 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

When Gene is asking Francesca about some people, he mentions Kuby and Huell, who I remember, but also Danny and Ira. Who were they?

Danny owned the laser tag place Saul wanted Walt to invest in.

Ira was a burglar and owned the pest control company that was another front for Walt.

[Constantinople]

11 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

When Gene is asking Francesca about some people, he mentions Kuby and Huell, who I remember, but also Danny and Ira. Who were they?

Danny is Pryce, the guy who sells prescription drugs illegally. Presumably Saul found out about him via the black book that he at some point must buy from the veterinarian.

Ira is the guy who stole the Hummel figurine for Saul and apparently is also the guy who owned the pest control company.

And No, I didn't remember. I looked it up in the Breaking Bad wiki.

ETA: I'm wrong about Pryce. His name was Daniel. As WritinMan said, Danny is the laser tag guy.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Constantinople

[Chaos Theory]

Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad have officially melded.   At this point BCS will actually need to have a fantastically craptacular finale to not end up on every ones top ten best show ever lists.

It was nice to see Franscesca in Gene's timeline and having her give the lowdown on what happened to everyone.   I am actually kinda glad that Skyler White got her deal.   But then Franscesca brings up Kim.

In retrospect Jimmy should have followed Mike's advice and let it go with that Heisenberg guy.   But then Mike has always been right about alot of things hasn't he?    All this could have been avoided it Jimmy had just listened to Mike and just gone with his 2nd story guy and left the stupid chemistry teacher alone.

But then Jimmy could never leave anything alone..  I think that is what going after the cancer man in this was about as well.  it would be easy to let the guy go.  But Jimmy/Saul/Gene whatever just can't let it go.   And from the looks of the next episode I am thinking it is what might just get him caught,

Edited August 2, 2022 by Chaos Theory

[MJ Frog]

30 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

It's almost like he's trying to destroy himself.

Yup. I think that's the point. And really, for anyone as addicted to risk as he has always been, walking that tightrope has always been the point. Which is inherently self-destructive. And of which there are numerous examples in the Breaking Bad/BCS universe.

Edited August 2, 2022 by MJ Frog
Had to add an "and"

[Starchild]

9 minutes ago, Penman61 said:

Do we know whether Gene actually spoke with Kim? I wouldn’t have pegged them for a escalate-to-yelling-in-no-time divorced couple.

I thought the same, that maybe he was arguing with the operator because he ran out of coins before getting to speak to Kim.

Speaking of calls, everyone speculating about the call Francesca was waiting for, and I don't think anyone guessed it would be Saul himself, not that I saw anyway.

So, Jeff is the new Marco to Gene's Saul-fueled Slippin' Jimmy.

I had always thought that Saul was kind of going along with Walt for the money, but it looks like he took a much more active role in the partnership. Unsurprisingly, now that we know him better.

Gene wasn't worried that "Stuart" was going to wake up when he broke in. Is he going to kill him? If he does, there is no turning back for that soul.

I wonder if the film will go back to colour when we see Kim again.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Starchild

[bad things are bad]

Had to look up that song playing while Gene was running his cons, I was pretty sure it was Mike Nesmith. Someone likes the Monkees! 

[Sharper2002]

My lesson from this ep is when Mike tells you something is a bad idea, you listen. 

[peeayebee]

17 minutes ago, chick binewski said:

I think the implication that Walt turned Saul's life sour bugged me. Chuck, Howard, the demise of HHM and his marriage all happened well before Walt. Idk, maybe Saul is resentful that Walt caused his anonymity.

Or, whether or not it's true, he blames Walt for ruining his life. (Maybe that's what you mean by causing his anonymity?) Seems like Saul could have had a nice, lucrative criminal law practice without Heisenberg. But he was greedy.

Edited August 2, 2022 by peeayebee

[MrWhyt]

1 hour ago, SimplexFish said:

Why was Francesca such a horses ass to Gene on the phone?  

cause he got her in trouble with The Law.

[CynicalGirl]

Ok, well everyone who wanted Walt and Jesse to show up finally got their wish. Can't say I was thrilled but I guess it shored up their timelines if nothing else.

[peeayebee]

Of course she was like that before Saul had to hightail it outta there. She was perfectly pleasant and happy when she first started working for him, but then she saw what kind of practice he was going for, what with people peeing in the water features and so forth.

[Dev F]

31 minutes ago, WritinMan said:

I would say yes (in addition to Saul being someone who just doesn't like to give up). I think despite all the terrible things he's done, Saul sees Walt as the source of his ultimate downfall.

It's not just the cancer guy who's Walt. Jeff and his buddy are Walt and Jesse too. And the first mark, a big round guy with a gravelly voice who's a petty con artist, is Marco. It's their fault. They wanted this. They're the ones who broke bad. He's feeding them all to the darkness to keep it from swallowing him: "It wasn't me, it was Ignacio!"

[Armchair Critic]

Maybe Marion's laptop and learning how to use the search bar may come into play.

[Jodithgrace]

I suspect that Saul/Gene never got to speak to Kim. He hit some kind of firewall, which is why he was so angry and frustrated. I can imagine Kim having all sorts of measures in place to make sure he can’t reach her, even though he knows where she is. He can’t leave and track her down in Florida so he turns his frustration into a new scam. 

Because He just can’t do it. Saul just cannot live a normal life. And we have seen time and again that he is incapable of leaving well enough alone. He and the guys had a well oiled racket with the stolen identities, but in the end, he had to sabotage it. If Kim had answered him, he might have kept going, but without her, he is heading straight down the tubes.

[MrWhyt]

24 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

Or for the guy they scammed to accidentally die because of the barbituates.  In fact, I wonder if that's what will happen to cancer guy. A mix of alcohol, cancer drugs and barbituates can't be a good mix.

I was expecting Jeff to return to the garage with a dead guy

[Irlandesa]

35 minutes ago, chick binewski said:

I think the implication that Walt turned Saul's life sour bugged me. Chuck, Howard, the demise of HHM and his marriage all happened well before Walt. Idk, maybe Saul is resentful that Walt caused his anonymity.

I don't think the show is implying that but I do think this is perhaps how Gene is looking at things. To Jimmy, Saul or Gene, it's always someone else's fault.  It's not his fault that his father was such an easy mark.  It's not his fault that his brother didn't think having a a probably-not-reformed con man should work at his practice.  It's not his fault that Howard is dead or that Kim left him. 

22 minutes ago, bad things are bad said:

Had to look up that song playing while Gene was running his cons, I was pretty sure it was Mike Nesmith. Someone likes the Monkees! 

Alan Sepinwall has a review up and mentions that it's the original Nesmith demo for the song and that Schnauz is a fan. 

21 minutes ago, Sharper2002 said:

My lesson from this ep is when Mike tells you something is a bad idea, you listen. 

Yep.  Although he should have listened to his own advice but didn't.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Irlandesa

[nodorothyparker]

Watching the repeat, I love the details of Saul creeping back in more and more as the con continues: the Bluetooth, the hookers, the massager, the utter callousness, etc. Gene's been living a pretty careful low-key life, which Saul just isn't.

[Starchild]

And he's only been Gene a few months.

[Constantinople]

Another problem with Breaking Bad the episode, is that it completely undermines the need for Nippy.

I'm sure some will argue that Nippy was a kind of warm up for Jimmy. But that's not how it was intended, and they were completely different types of scams. At the very least, if it only took 20 or 30 minutes of episode time for home-invasion-financial-information-theft scam, it shouldn't have taken 70 minutes for the Great Mall Caper. 

I really don't see why Nippy and Breaking Bad couldn't have been combined into one episode.

[Gemma Violet]

33 minutes ago, Starchild said:

I thought the same, that maybe he was arguing with the operator because he ran out of coins before getting to speak to Kim.

20 minutes ago, Jodithgrace said:

I suspect that Saul/Gene never got to speak to Kim. He hit some kind of firewall, which is why he was so angry and frustrated. I can imagine Kim having all sorts of measures in place to make sure he can’t reach her, even though he knows where she is.

I agree that he probably didn't get to speak with Kim.  The receptionist told him to hold one moment, and then after speaking with Kim probably came back and told him, "Uh, well, uh...I thought you said Jim.  There's no Kim here."

[Dev F]

14 minutes ago, Constantinople said:

Another problem with Breaking Bad the episode, is that it completely undermines the need for Nippy.

I'm sure some will argue that Nippy was a kind of warm up for Jimmy. But that's not how it was intended, and they were completely different types of scams. At the very least, if it only took 20 or 30 minutes of episode time for home-invasion-financial-information-theft scam, it shouldn't have taken 70 minutes for the Great Mall Caper. 

I really don't see why Nippy and Breaking Bad couldn't have been combined into one episode.

I don't think they could've been combined at all, since they serve essentially opposite purposes. "Nippy" was about Gene exorcising a big part of the ghost of his past—the anxiety, the impulsiveness, the emotional deadness, the lack of control—while "Breaking Bad" was about him realizing what still hangs over him even when that's all gone. Gene needed to get to the tentatively okay place he reached at the end of "Nippy" in order to get to the really awful place he got to tonight, bitter and cold and malicious in a way we've never really seen him before.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Dev F

[sistermagpie]

4 minutes ago, Dev F said:

I don't think they could've been combined at all, since they serve essentially opposite purposes. "Nippy" was about Gene exorcising a big part of the ghost of his past—the anxiety, the impulsiveness, the emotional deadness, the lack of control—while "Breaking Bad" was about him realizing what still hangs over him even when that's all gone. Gene needed to get to the tentatively okay place he reached at the end of "Nippy" in order to get to the really awful place he got to tonight, bitter and cold and malicious in a way we've never really seen him before.

Yeah, Nippy needed to be a con where Gene was terrified, thinking it was going to fall apart. That wouldn't, imo, work in the same ep as he's being completely wreckless, breaking into a house 3 hours after they drugged the guy and just saying it's fine.

[thuganomics85]

Man, I can't believe they spent all that time on that chemistry teacher Gene mentioned last week and his meth head sidekick.  Was this a backdoor pilot for a potential spin-off?  Not sure if there would be any interest in watching those two characters.  Neither one seemed very likable.  Plus, with respect to Bryan Cranston, will he ever not be the dad from Malcolm in the Middle?!

Okay, on a more serious note, while it mainly came off like fan service (for now?), it was fun seeing Walter White and Jesse Pinkman again.  Cranston and Aaron Paul both seem to easily slip right back into their characters and brought back that insta chemistry with Bob Odenkirk.  Cranston pretty much looked the same as well, but while Paul obviously looks good for his age, it was a little obvious that he isn't the young whippersnapper he was back in Breaking Bad!  Curious to see if more appearances will be down the line for them and if they'll have more of an impact for these final two episodes, but I enjoyed the scene overall.

Hey, another Mike appearance too!  On one hand, Mike was so on the money about how Saul was going to rue the day he ever got involved with "Heinsberg."  On the other hand, it was still funny how he kind of dismissed him as a "small fish", when you know what Walt is going to end up doing to both him and, to quote Saul, "He Who Must Not Be Named."

As for the Omaha stuff, I'm sure it will all come around at the end, but for now, I think it's just continuing to show how far Jimmy has fallen and that there is no redemption for him.  Not only is Gene going back into the scam game, but the way he not only continued his act on the cancer victim, but went out of his way to keep it going, was ice cold.  And you just know it will backfire on him.  The whole idea behind it is to leave no trace and for the victims to not know what happened, but he's already torpedoed that just by breaking the glass door.  Yep, this won't be good.  I'm also in the camp that Marion will always play a part in his downfall.

Still not sure of this potential spin-off though.  They really think the creepy dentist from Seinfeld can headline a gritty crime drama?!

[Cthulhudrew]

I was pretty disappointed in last week's episode (even fell asleep). It seemed incongruous to me that the Gene storyline teased out over the past several seasons would end so blandly.

Happy to see that it wasn't the end of that story, though. I suspect something big must have happened to throw "Gene" over the edge. My bet: either the receptionist told him Kim remarried or that Kim passed away, and now Jimmy has no reason for hope and is completely reckless.

I'm still disappointed that Mike's storyline, that Jonathan Banks has so profoundly, empathically captured these past few seasons, seems to be just getting shuffled to the sidelines for the finale (I suppose the writers felt that his coda was adequately captured in Breaking Bad's final seasons? I disagree, and I still think JB should have gotten an Emmy for his S2 performance).

[anoninrva]

2 hours ago, Armchair Critic said:

Is Marion going to be Gene's downfall?

It looks like Gene being a dumbass and breaking into the house after the barbiturates wore off is going to be his downfall.  This whole episode felt dirty, like the end of BB with all the killings.  Now I *want* Gene to get caught to stop the identity thefts and general ugliness. 

[Constantinople]

53 minutes ago, Dev F said:

Nippy" was about Gene exorcising a big part of the ghost of his past—the anxiety, the impulsiveness, the emotional deadness, the lack of control

The impulsiveness wasn't exorcised. He called Kim and broke into Cancer Man's house, which also shows a lack of control. But if that's control vis-à-vis Jeff, that could have been established via the actual criminal partnership in this episode as the fake one in the last episode. Hence this episode undercuts the previous one.

Nor is the emotional deafness exorcised in Nippy. In this episode he's visiting strip clubs and hiring hookers. 

And I'm not sure Gene is less anxious. Lola82 here already compared the shot of him on his bed to Walt in Crawl Space. And Walt was quite anxious at the time.

53 minutes ago, Dev F said:

Gene needed to get to the tentatively okay place he reached at the end of "Nippy" in order to get to the really awful place he got to tonight, bitter and cold and malicious in a way we've never really seen him before.

He was cold and malicious with Howard and Irene, and we've seen a number of times where his first piece of advice was to murder someone.

Nor, in my opinion, does it add anything to say it was Gene. Jimmy, Saul and Gene are not three separate people or one person suffering from multiple personality disorder. They're just three separate names for the same person. Sometimes he can be thoughtful or charming, but often he's a selfish asshole with no regard for others.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Constantinople

[Cinnabon]

1 hour ago, WritinMan said:

Is this a serious question?

You beat me to it.

[Constantinople]

1 hour ago, Chaos Theory said:

At this point BCS will actually need to have a fantastically craptacular finale to not end up on every ones top ten best show ever lists.

Games of Thrones reputation took a huge hit with their last 4 episodes. We've now seen 2 of the last 4 episodes of BCS. It's not as bad as GoT yet, but it's not headed in a good direction. Let's just say the phrase "Wayfarer 515" comes to mind.

The best BCS/BB episodes are both good as standalone episodes and good as bridge episodes to expand upon what came before, and to develop what comes next. Nippy was, in my opinion, one of the worst BCS episodes and now Breaking Bad hasn't salvaged Nippy, it made it superfluous.

I just hope they can right the ship in the last two episodes.

[scenario]

1 minute ago, Constantinople said:

Games of Thrones reputation took a huge hit with their last 4 episodes. We've now seen 2 of the last 4 episodes of BCS. It's not as bad as GoT yet, but it's not headed in a good direction. Let's just say the phrase "Wayfarer 515" comes to mind.

The best BCS/BB episodes are both good as standalone episodes and good as bridge episodes to expand upon what came before, and to develop what comes next. Nippy was, in my opinion, one of the worst BCS episodes and now Breaking Bad hasn't salvaged Nippy, it made it superfluous.

I just hope they can right the ship in the last two episodes.

The last two weren't horrible. They were forgetable. 

[Neiman]

I was disappointed in the episode. Never would have guessed that it would have gone this way. Not sure what I was expecting, but this seemed rather underwhelming.

[PeterPirate]

2 hours ago, hecter salmonca said:

Gene has become a mix of Slippin Jimmy and Saul Goodman

After this episode, I think Gene is worse than either.  

[Dessert]

They could easily have named this episode “Death Wish”. Saul looking into the grave he avoided in The New Mexico desert and seeing Gene says it all. Life as Gene is a living death for Saul/Jimmy. 

Something about the mall scam and, finally, the phone calls to Kim and Francesca sparked an explosion of pure self-destruction on his part. He’s chewing off his foot to get out of the trap of “Gene”. His insistence on carrying out that final con made no sense. When he smashed that window he knew he would be caught. He wants it to be over.