S06.E11: Breaking Bad

[Cinnabon]

52 minutes ago, scenario said:

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

The critics disagree.

[Constantinople]

The reason that I didn't like not hearing Jimmy's conversation with Kim, or whomever, is I think it's arbitrary and inconsistent with previous episodes of BCS/BB.

I'm struggling to think of a single time in BCS/BB where a phone conversation takes place, but we don't hear either side. Sometimes we hear one side, sometimes both, but I can't think of any other time when we heard neither. So it feels like a cheat when we hear both sides of the Saul-Francesca conversation, but neither side of the Saul-Kim/Whoever conversation.

The closest scene that I can think that was comparable was in Granite State in BB. We see Walt yelling but don't hear him. But that makes sense because we're not in the room with Walt. We're in the room with Saul and Ed the Disappearer and they're watching Walt on CCTV with no sound.

[Dev F]

Quote

The impulsiveness wasn't exorcised. He called Kim and broke into Cancer Man's house, which also shows a lack of control.

What about his call to Kim struck you as impulsive? It's not like he drunk dialed her; he called her on the untraceable line he'd just used to make his planned call to Francesca, in response to Kim reaching out to him.

As for his insistence on going through with the Cancer Man burglary, that stuck me as the perfect embodiment of his newfound obsession with control. Neither Jimmy nor Saul ever fixated on one particular plan and demanded to see it through to its conclusion no matter how badly it was going. They were always skating from one contingency plan to the next, keeping one step ahead of disaster. (Indeed, that's the central difference between Jimmy and Kim in "Axe and Grind": Jimmy is the one who's like, oh well, if the plan isn't working, we'll figure out some other way to screw over Howard tomorrow, while Kim insists that, no, we need to do this plan and we need to do it today.) Gene isn't riding the waves of chaos anymore; he's got a plan and he demands everyone stick to it. It's the carefully timed Cinnabon plot last week, only curdled into something foolish and dangerous.

Quote

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

Yes, after he reaches out to Kim for the first time in who knows how long and it goes really badly. After years of convincing himself he was just a fun-time playboy, he dared to hope for a reconciliation with his one true love. And that hope is exactly what transforms his long-numbed feelings into phone-booth-destroying rage.

Quote

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.

I mean, I recognize the similarities, but as I said last week, I think such parallels often invite us to examine the ways in which the related scenes are different. Both characters end up entombed, but Walt is buried beneath a landslide of his own cascading bad choices, whereas Gene is encased in the icy grip of hopelessness.

If the episode wanted to show us that Gene was still anxiously looking over his shoulder, they could easily have done so, as they did in several earlier Gene flash-forwards. We instead see him eyeing the Cinnabon mixer with dread—which is not at all an image of "Omigod, I could still be found out one day!" nervousness. It's an image of churning, dreary sameness: this is how your life will be from now on, and there's no way to escape it.

Yet again, it's one of the positive developments of "Nippy" curdled into weakness and pain: because Gene is no longer preoccupied by the fear that he'll be found out, there's nothing to look forward to but endless days of empty mediocrity.

[Constantinople]

10 minutes ago, Dev F said:

What about his call to Kim struck you as impulsive? It's not like he drunk dialed her; he called her on the untraceable line he'd just used to make his planned call to Francesca, in response to Kim reaching out to him.

He called Kim at a business from a pay phone. I don't see what's untraceable about that. I'm not saying Kim's business phone is bugged because, as far as the feds know, Saul and Kim haven't been in touch in 4 years? 5? So they may not figure it's worth the effort. On the other hand, as far as we know they are still married, and it wouldn't be surprising if Saul reached out to someone from Albuquerque who wasn't mixedd up in the Heisenberg mess.

[Dev F]

18 minutes ago, Constantinople said:

He called Kim at a business from a pay phone. I don't see what's untraceable about that.

Right, it's not untraceable on her end. And I forgot that it's not the same pay phone either; he hangs up with Francesca and then drives around for a while before going to another pay phone to call Kim.

But if anything, that second part makes it seem less impulsive, since he wasn't like, While I'm here, I should call Kim . . . He drives around, ruminating; he stops and sits silently at a crossroads. The framing makes his choice look quite deliberate, not at all impulsive.

[PeterPirate]

1 hour ago, Cinnabon said:

1 hour ago, scenario said:

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

The critics disagree.

Greater peace and harmony.  Or, your mileage may vary.  

Personally, I think Better Call Saul ended with Fun and Games.  We got what we invested our time for: the backstory on Saul Goodman.  It was a fantastic ride and it stuck the landing.  These last four episodes are the coda, an extended version of El Camino. 

I've only watched EC twice.  I didn't I learn anything new about Jesse or Todd that I didn't know already, except for Jesse's new Social Security number.   

Thus far I've learned new things about Gene.  The old Saul is still there.  Indeed, the old Jimmy is there too, the one who kicked the crap out of a trash can in the very first episode.  And he's losing self-control over his losses.  Gene is worse than Saul or Jimmy.  So these two episodes have been valuable to me.  

[millennium]

3 hours ago, Constantinople said:

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.

I agree.   Though I hoped for more from this episode, I think it was the show's quiet way of bringing us back to the reality that despite the colorful personality, the witty dialogue, and the empathy we felt for him not so long ago, Jimmy/Saul/Gene is a despicable human being.   He is a cancer of the same type as Walter White, corrupting and destroying the lives of those in his proximity.

I'm sure someone reading this must know the hell that is identity theft.   It ruins innocent people's lives.   It's not like hustling a guy out of a hundred dollars in a bar, it's a nightmare that can go on and on for years.   And here's Gene getting rich off it, just as Saul got rich off the manufacture and distribution of highly addictive and destructive meth to young people including children.  I'm not sure Gene's determination to follow through on the cancer guy had anything at all to do with Walt; I think it was just to remind us that the man who used to be known as Slippin' Jimmy is a ruthless sociopath.

A man who doesn't deserve a happy ending.

[OutOfTheQuestion]

I doubt that the first (?) contact between Jimmy and Kim in years would be reduced to an unheard conversation.  It seems more likely that Jimmy was yelling at...

* an employee at the sprinkler company who told him Kim doesn't work there, and her new contact information isn't known
* an employee at the sprinkler company who told him Kim NEVER worked there, so whatever she might've told him about her whereabouts was a lie
* maybe speaking to a new husband or boyfriend of Kim, who is telling Jimmy to never get in contact again, and Jimmy then loses it.

Given the unpredictability of these last two episodes, I half-expect the next one to be entirely about Kim, catching up on her life since she broke it off with Jimmy.

[gallimaufry]

Although I agree this is a slow-burn for the final run, I'm enjoying it and I'm in no way willing to write off the final two.  It does remind me structurally of Season 1 though with "Marco" being the left-field coda.  This is how Jimmy reacts when he can't deal with things in his life.  He slips.

Where to begin?

The "Breaking Bad" flashbacks... I don't actually enjoy watching Walt and Jesse as much as the BCS cast, great characters though they are, but there were several funny moments here and it all worked well.  I agree they didn't add a lot to BB but BB was self-contained on its own.  I do think they added a lot to BCS, introducing us to the characters who led to his downfall and making clear it's a pretty horrible product.  We also saw Mike explicitly warn Saul off.  Which really makes Saul the one responsible for everything in "Breaking Bad" to a much larger degree than we had previously supposed.  Mike's judgment is pretty spot on: Walt would have been found and arrested pretty quickly going as clumsily as he was.

What I think is really clever for the narrative of BCS though is that we're not skipping over the dark side of Jimmy coming out -- we're just experiencing it through Gene.  Gene is breaking bad a second time and it's just as vile as the first.  The cancer thing was an opportunity for him to reflect and then rationalise his actions.  He knows there are innocent victims but he doesn't care.  He's all in.  

It's also clear that he really could make these two schmucks into a criminal enterprise of scale.  He's the magic man.  If he continues in this world, BB will just repeat all over again sooner or later.

This is where the black and white of Gene's world comes into its own.  Everything feels so claustrophobic and oppressive and Gene feels more sinister than ever as the spider in the web but without any of the flair or humour that made Saul at least fun to watch.

Mike's scene was good but I think it's a shame his storyline has been sidelined to this degree.  Admittedly, the meeting with Manuel is kind of a perfect bookend for him.  Nacho's father had the same moral clarity his son had and held a mirror up to who Mike has become -- perhaps who he always was.  However, he's been such a strong part of the show and it's sad that he seems to be pretty much done, though I expect/hope to get some wrap-up on Kayleigh before we're through.

I loved seeing Francesca.  The call was a good pay-off although it was a bit low-key than perhaps we'd been expecting.  Great character.  I love that there was a pay-off to Huell and Kuby.  We never identified if Danny was Wormald but I like to think he was.

Jeff and his brother(?) as a stand-in for Walt and Jesse were good value and the scam was entertaining to watch but with the sting in the tail.

Marion is great.  I really expected this episode to end with her breaking bad somehow.  I'm not sure this ends with her going to the police.  I could see her talking to Kim though if she tracks Gene down somehow (which, the way Jimmy's going, shouldn't be too difficult).

Kim... oh, Kim.  Look, muting one side of the phone call was frustrating but then I remembered 602 where this paid off in spades in 603.  I think it's kind of a parallel with that.  And it is the strongest hint of any so far that just as 603 was almost all-Nacho, 612 is going to be... if not almost all-Kim, then certainly we'll see a good deal of her.

There's so much to be written about the imagery of liquids in this show but the fact that she works for a sprinkler company I think tells us that she hasn't broken bad and is going to be what in this universe counts for justice (which isn't the same as legality).

A few other things:

- There are two seeds that I expected to see grow that were harvested here.  First the diamonds.  I assumed these were a set-up for something but I guess they're just a convenient way of transporting a large value in cash.  Also, I no longer expect to see the vet as the scene about Jimmy's book pretty much confirmed that he now made a deal for it. 

- So I guess Kim leaving was enough to turn Saul's mind to murder.  Wow.

- I didn't actually find the age of Aaron Paul as distracting here as "El Camino", partly because of the woolly hat but mostly because Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks' ages are so clearly out of whack with their BB characters and putting them in the BB world just makes that contrast all the worse.  Nothing they can do but it is unfortunately distracting and has been since at least S5.  Maybe one day de-ageing tech will be cheap enough that they'll be able to go back and tweak.

- What a great pay-off for Bill Oakley!  Absolutely terrific.

[Melonie77]

6 hours ago, Penman61 said:

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.

I agree. I thought perhaps he was prevented from speaking with her / she refused to get on the phone and he was arguing with who ever answered. Or he found out some bad news concerning her and lost his temper.

[Spartan Girl]

Holy crap, I just realized Gene’s first mark was Buzz on Home Alone!

[DrSpaceman73]

8 hours ago, Armchair Critic said:

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

Spoiler

Imdb says she is in two episodes so seems doubtful, unless they just don't list her until aired episodes. But it was 2 before this one

[DrSpaceman73]

Based on these last two episodes and the previews of the next one it just seems we aren't going to be given much of a resolution on what happens after Howard is killed in that timeline.  Imagine it will be a lot of implication and brief insights into the gaps between that and the breaking bad beginning.  Lots of it just left hanging. 

Maybe I'm wrong. We will see in a few weeks. 

[DrSpaceman73]

My primary problem with the last two episodes is its just a retelling of the same story we se told already several times. In breaking bad and better call saul. Jimmy Gene saul can't live a normal straight life.  We get it.  We don't need this long slow convincing of it all once again. We have seen this already.   And you just abruptly drop rhe prior storyline from part one of the season to do this.  

We get it gene is still the same person. I dont need to be beat to death with it

[Lonesome Rhodes]

How the heck did Gene have Kim's contact information?

I loved that Jesse asked Gene about Lalo.  

I am pretty sure that Mike simply did not trust Walt the teacher to be "solid."  He put great weight on dealing with reliable guys.  He was selling the other guy really hard, citing such.  The character of Mike is wonderful, imo.  For all his incredible abilities, he still makes significant mistakes.  In this case, missing on Hank was yooge.  As Mike himself might say, let's not put him on a pedestal of super villainhood.  

I instantly thought the broken window may have triggered an alarm.  But, most folks who went to that trouble to buy, say ADT, typically were sure to put out signage to that effect.

I didn't see a Marco in this ep.  None of the marks were themselves grifters.  None would engender the massive regard Jimmy had for Marco.  If there was a Marco, it was Gene.

Hard to believe that G&G would be so on the nose about it, but that was one heckuva crossroad that Gene came to.  

Francesca getting emotional about Kim was a bit of a shock.  She was so deeply angry with Saul and was determined to not give him anything.  Then came the Kim reveal bursting out.  Anyone have an estimate as to how much cash was in the pouch?  A large part of me believed that Saul was gonna screw her over.  But, I've decided that he wouldn't dare since she could still make his life really difficult.

My heart almost stopped when I saw a signature by "Kevin" on one of the business forms being photographed in the first scam.  Was that guy somehow mixed up with Kim's former POS client?  If so, he reeeeeeeally did have it coming, eh?  

I was not as enamored with this ep as I had hoped when I first heard that Walt and Jesse would make an appearance this season.   It was undeniably true, however, to the story G&G have been telling. 

[Lalo Lives]

6 hours ago, Dessert said:

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.

Yup.

[ShadowFacts]

38 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

  Reveal spoiler

Imdb says she is in two episodes so seems doubtful, unless they just don't list her until aired episodes. But it was 2 before this one

I think Jeffy giving Marion a computer and Gene helping introduce her to the internet is not for nothing. 

It's interesting that Gene knows where Kim is even though he hasn't been in contact for awhile. If they are divorced he could have gotten her address and workplace from court filings. 

[Blakeston]

9 minutes ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

My heart almost stopped when I saw a signature by "Kevin" on one of the business forms being photographed in the first scam.  Was that guy somehow mixed up with Kim's former POS client?  If so, he reeeeeeeally did have it coming, eh?  

I never thought Kevin Wachtell (the Mesa Verde guy) was so bad. His good ol' boy persona isn't my cup of tea, but he never did anything that made me think he was a shitty person. IMO, he was completely justified in using the land that old man lived on for the new bank location. That old man knew the terms of his lease, and he was far worse than Kevin ever was.

4 hours ago, millennium said:

I'm not sure Gene's determination to follow through on the cancer guy had anything at all to do with Walt; I think it was just to remind us that the man who used to be known as Slippin' Jimmy is a ruthless sociopath.

They went out of their way to remind us about Walt's cancer in this episode, so I think the parallel was intentional. That said, Gene is so callous that I doubt that any illness would have stopped him from ripping the guy off.

[nodorothyparker]

I thought the funeral with the reveal that HHM was finished and Howard's disappearance written off as a suicide was the resolution to that story. Or at least the public part of it, the bigger resolution being that Howard's murder and its aftermath being what finally made Kim see how far gone they were and end the Jimmy and Kim part of the story as well. At this point, the only unknowns left are Jimmy/Saul/ Gene's final fate and maybe if there's anything left for Kim beyond whatever she's doing in Florida.  We last saw Mike and Gus pretty much where they are when we meet them in BB and we know how they end up.

I remember reading an interview with Gilligan some time ago where he said the ending of this show would also reframe so much of what we already knew about BB and in thinking about it, it seems obvious that this was the episode attempting to do that. We already knew that BB was a story about a man whose cancer diagnosis unleashed the monster that had lain dormant within Walt through years and years of painful normalcy and mediocrity. To steal from another commenter elsewhere, now we also know that it was also a story about two men colliding as they were descending into the worst versions of themselves and the ruin that collision brought about. We see in the Saul/Mike scene that there was even then still a point that those paths could have not converged. Saul could have taken Mike's advice that Walt was small potatoes and Walt probably would have gotten caught sooner than later. But Saul at that moment had nothing left to lose and was looking for more and bigger things and so it eventually led to his knows a guy who knows a guy introducing Walt to He Who Shall Not Be Named and well, we know the rest.

I'm mostly just hoping for some resolution with Kim. We know she was right that she and Jimmy were poison together, but she was wrong that separately they're okay. She missed that Jimmy was only okay when he had a reason to try to be good, whether it was Chuck or her. And now we know she knows about the implosion of BB, enough so that something in her response or in her thwarting his attempt to contact her now set him furiously off down this final path.

[Lalo Lives]

For me it was just an overall sense of despair.

The grave “hint” was distinctly long and overdone. Usually these clues are more subtle. Weird.

The EXIT sign to Gene’s right as he watched the dough mixer was more in line with what we’ve seen over the years.

His impulsiveness to finish the scam reminded me of Kim’s insistence to finish the Howard scam right before her U-TURN. (I apologize if somebody has pointed that out. I’m sure it is obvious but for me a revelation.)

Right now I’m in a state where I’ve got fingers in my ears, shouting LA LA LA, I CAN’T HEAR YOU because I know this Hindenburg is going down and it bums me out.

No more ‘fun and games.’

No happy endings. Just spiteful suicidal insistence on seeing it through because he’s the anti-Midas and everything he’s touched has turned to crap.

————————-

Please help me on one note:

What is meant by a “2nd story guy; or is it “2nd storey?”

Is it a slang term re: scams, one who hangs out on the 2nd floor? I just have no clue, as usual.

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

Holy crap, I just realized Gene’s first mark was Buzz on Home Alone!

Knew he looked familiar.

[paigow]

5 minutes ago, Lalo Lives said:

Please help me on one note:

What is meant by a “2nd story guy; or is it “2nd storey?”

Is it a slang term re: scams, one who hangs out on the 2nd floor? I just have no clue, as usual.

A skilled cat burglar... gaining entry via windows  / balconies

[ctlady]

9 hours ago, Armchair Critic said:

Gene got greedy.

Because he's not just in the scam business - he's in the 'empire' business.  

[Lalo Lives]

I don’t see how Danny could be Wormald. That dude was just plain stupid. “Bone dumb” as the country boys would say. A clear case of Darwinism waiting to remove him from the reproductive ‘12 items or less’ aisle.

I see Danny as being a shifty, low profile, street-wise East Coast transfer used to scams, tax evasion, money laundering, but on a small (er) scale.

The Squat Cobbler would be eaten up quickly by either bad guys or the cops.

He was, however, one of the best sources of laughter on the show. The actor played him beautifully.

3 minutes ago, paigow said:

A skilled cat burglar... gaining entry via windows  / balconies

Thank you very much. I had a hunch, but that’s the limit of my intellect.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Lalo Lives
Erd worder

[Lalo Lives]

Quote

because Gene is no longer preoccupied by the fear that he'll be found out, there's nothing to look forward to but endless days of empty mediocrity.

Well said.

[Lalo Lives]

27 minutes ago, ShadowFacts said:

I think Jeffy giving Marion a computer and Gene helping introduce her to the internet is not for nothing. 

It's interesting that Gene knows where Kim is even though he hasn't been in contact for awhile. If they are divorced he could have gotten her address and workplace from court filings. 

Yeah, the computer thing is bad news for Gene potentially.

I don’t remember the efficacy of web searches back then, but the criminal history of an individual these days is literally seconds away.

[Chaos Theory]

I actually found both Nippy and Breaking Bad to be incredibly brilliant episodes.  I wonder if the people who don't like them are just not interested in "Gene" and want to see more of "Saul" and Mike as they merge into the Breaking Bad universe.  Was that what they were expecting?   A literal Breaking Bad episode?  Because I am finding Gene (don't even ask me to attempt to spell his last name) incredibly fascinating.  And I love the black and white filter because that is how Gene's life is.  There is no color in his life because he is neither Slippin Jimmy or Saul Goodman.    He would rather be in a makeshift grave in the desert then Gene.  

I loved watching the scenes with his initial introduction  of Walter and Jesse because it was shown through Jimmy's eyes and not Walter's and that is what BB was.  The world through Walter White's eyes.   This is through Jimmy's.   Everything is a con and a good con is everything.   And later being warned by Mike to avoid Heisenberg because he was an amateur while he provided him actual big time criminals to work with.   But for Jimmy it was never really about the crime it was about the con and everything is a con and a good con is everything.  

And yeah I think seeing the guy with cancer brought him right back to Heiseberg.  It is telling that the guy had cancer and not one of the million other diseases he could have had.  Because you may forget but from the minute the pilot of BB started Walter White was dying of lung cancer and he STILL managed to reek havoc on everyones  life he touched so "Gene" is right people with cancer can still be assholes.  But him going back could be what ultimately brings him down.   Because of course it does.  

I disagree that these last two episodes have been bad or even boring.  I think it just depends on how you view Gene in the scheme of things.  And I don't think the story of Jimmy or Saul Goodman end until we find out what happens to Gene.   

And we know now there is no happy ending for him.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Chaos Theory

[Lalo Lives]

45 minutes ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

How the heck did Gene have Kim's contact information?

I loved that Jesse asked Gene about Lalo.  

I am pretty sure that Mike simply did not trust Walt the teacher to be "solid."  He put great weight on dealing with reliable guys.  He was selling the other guy really hard, citing such.  The character of Mike is wonderful, imo.  For all his incredible abilities, he still makes significant mistakes.  In this case, missing on Hank was yooge.  As Mike himself might say, let's not put him on a pedestal of super villainhood.  

I instantly thought the broken window may have triggered an alarm.  But, most folks who went to that trouble to buy, say ADT, typically were sure to put out signage to that effect.

I didn't see a Marco in this ep.  None of the marks were themselves grifters.  None would engender the massive regard Jimmy had for Marco.  If there was a Marco, it was Gene.

Hard to believe that G&G would be so on the nose about it, but that was one heckuva crossroad that Gene came to.  

Francesca getting emotional about Kim was a bit of a shock.  She was so deeply angry with Saul and was determined to not give him anything.  Then came the Kim reveal bursting out.  Anyone have an estimate as to how much cash was in the pouch?  A large part of me believed that Saul was gonna screw her over.  But, I've decided that he wouldn't dare since she could still make his life really difficult.

My heart almost stopped when I saw a signature by "Kevin" on one of the business forms being photographed in the first scam.  Was that guy somehow mixed up with Kim's former POS client?  If so, he reeeeeeeally did have it coming, eh?  

I was not as enamored with this ep as I had hoped when I first heard that Walt and Jesse would make an appearance this season.   It was undeniably true, however, to the story G&G have been telling. 

Re: cash in the pouch. 
2 things- cash in the pouch sounds like a dirty phrase.

But more importantly, one of those bricks of cash had ones in it. 
One dollar bills?

If I were Francesca I’d be pissed. Maybe only the first few bills, but Geez, one dollar bills?

Or maybe I’m just seeing things.

[SnarkAttack]

Gene gets arrested and Kim comes to the rescue.

[Chaos Theory]

30 minutes ago, Lalo Lives said:

Re: cash in the pouch. 
2 things- cash in the pouch sounds like a dirty phrase.

But more importantly, one of those bricks of cash had ones in it. 
One dollar bills?

If I were Francesca I’d be pissed. Maybe only the first few bills, but Geez, one dollar bills?

Or maybe I’m just seeing things.

I am not sure what was in the pouch but I had a friend who says no one questioned a dollar bill.  Frencesca is less likely to be questioned with three thousand dollars worth of dollar bills then one thousand dollars worth of one hundreds.     Handing someone a hundred especially when you are on the laws radar will get questioned handing someone a stack of singles will likely go unnoticed.

[Lalo Lives]

5 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

I am not sure what was in the pouch but I had a friend who says no one questioned a dollar bill.  Frencesca is less likely to be questioned with three thousand dollars worth of dollar bills then one thousand dollars worth of one hundreds.     Handing someone a hundred especially when you are on the laws radar will get questioned handing someone a stack of singles will likely go unnoticed.

That makes sense. I’d be a terrible criminal.

[gallimaufry]

26 minutes ago, Lalo Lives said:

Yeah, the computer thing is bad news for Gene potentially.

I don’t remember the efficacy of web searches back then, but the criminal history of an individual these days is literally seconds away.

If it was 2010, internet search was substantially as it is now.  The difficulty is that she doesn't have anything to search - Gene won't come up with anything.  I agree the search has a pay-off but I don't think she can just search her way into it.  There needs to be some other clue.  Perhaps the pinky ring - if she searched "Abq criminal with pinky ring" she'd almost certainly happen across him.

38 minutes ago, Lalo Lives said:

I don’t see how Danny could be Wormald. That dude was just plain stupid. “Bone dumb” as the country boys would say. A clear case of Darwinism waiting to remove him from the reproductive ‘12 items or less’ aisle.

You're right.  But I still think it's fun to imagine.  Plus, I think Jimmy has a talent for manipulating these kinds of idiots.

1 hour ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

My primary problem with the last two episodes is its just a retelling of the same story we se told already several times. In breaking bad and better call saul. Jimmy Gene saul can't live a normal straight life.  We get it.  We don't need this long slow convincing of it all once again. We have seen this already.   And you just abruptly drop rhe prior storyline from part one of the season to do this.  

We get it gene is still the same person. I dont need to be beat to death with it

I think this is a really good point.

However, I do think the intention of this is to show that "Breaking Bad" wasn't the exception, a unique carnival of moral depravity, but Jimmy's norm.  Chuck absolutely right that he can't help himself but he was also wrong that he needs a law degree to be a chimp with a machinegun.

Also, it's not even like this is a response to his call with Kim.  He was asking about Huell and company because he clearly wanted reliable burglars for his plan until he had to fall back on Jeff.

I do wonder when/if they'll go back to colour.  As much as I love B&W films and B&W as a medium, the photography on this show and use of colour has always been so tremendously on-point.  (That said, I'm pleased B&W is getting more love.  I always thought it was a real shame that "The Walking Dead" was in colour as I thought the B&W aesthetic of the original comic was quite effective, even if it was originally done for budget).

[anoninrva]

1 hour ago, Lalo Lives said:

Please help me on one note:

What is meant by a “2nd story guy; or is it “2nd storey?”

Is it a slang term re: scams, one who hangs out on the 2nd floor? I just have no clue, as usual.

A burglar.  It probably is more colloquial, but at one point it meant literally what it implies - someone who breaks into a house from the second story door or window.

[gallimaufry]

Just now, anoninrva said:

A burglar.  It probably is more colloquial, but at one point it meant literally what it implies - someone who breaks into a house from the second story door or window.

I could be wrong but I feel like the same term was used in 502 of "Breaking Bad" about Ira's crew who Jimmy had been getting out of hot water for years and so I think it's also a bit of an Easter egg.

[jww]

Putting tape over the door frame only works on the door knob/spring locks not on a dead bolt.  You cannot lock a deadbolt from outside without a key. You can open a spring lock with a credit cart/driver's license.   Where did Gene get all of his information on these wealthy Omahians? All of them lived alone with  no alarm system or dogs?  They all went to the same bar and got s----faced drunk on a regular basis while taking to a stranger?

[peeayebee]

9 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

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. 

And at the beginning of this ep we hear Saul say again, "It wasn't me! It was Ignacio! He's the one!" Always blaming someone else.

10 hours ago, Armchair Critic said:

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

And it'll be Gene's fault for explaining how to search. I think she wasn't interested at all in using the computer until Gene showed her what it could do, so -- speculation -- when she uses it to find out more about him, that's on him.

It'll be interesting to see how she goes about looking him up. She's a smart cookie.

1 hour ago, Lalo Lives said:

The EXIT sign to Gene’s right as he watched the dough mixer was more in line with what we’ve seen over the years.

We've seen EXIT signs a few times this season, and Gene never chooses to use them.

7 minutes ago, gallimaufry said:

Also, it's not even like this is a response to his call with Kim.  He was asking about Huell and company because he clearly wanted reliable burglars for his plan until he had to fall back on Jeff.

I think Gene was just missing his old life. He first wanted to know about the Feds and what happened to all his 'investments.' Then he asked about the guys he used to work with. Seems like he wanted to chat, but Francesca hung up.

I was thinking it might not have been Kim he was actually having that unheard conversation with, but it doesn't make sense to me that a receptionist or whoever would stay on the phone for so long with an angry guy. I would have just hung up on him. Also, I could be wrong, but I don't think he gave his name to the person who answered the phone, so why would Kim refuse to pick up?

[Dianaofthehunt]

I can’t imagine what Gene and goons have in mind for the stolen cc numbers and social security numbers. That’s a lot of purchases from Zappos, but what else can he do with them? He already has a “new” identity.

[peeayebee]

3 minutes ago, jww said:

Putting tape over the door frame only works on the door knob/spring locks not on a dead bolt.  You cannot lock a deadbolt from outside without a key. You can open a spring lock with a credit cart/driver's license.   Where did Gene get all of his information on these wealthy Omahians? All of them lived alone with  no alarm system or dogs?  They all went to the same bar and got s----faced drunk on a regular basis while taking to a stranger?

And passed out in a way that their wallets were still accessible. :D

Yeah, there were a lot of conveniences here. As far as the tape on the locks, I don't mind that. The men were drugged when they got to their houses, so they wouldn't lock up as they perhaps normally would. As for choosing his marks, Gene knew how to pick 'em. He could tell who had money and which ones were open to conversations with strangers. We know he has a silver tongue, so I don't see a problem with how he pulled these scams off. Other than the convenient lack of alarms and dogs. And I believe he did say at one point that he chose guys who lived alone.

4 minutes ago, Dianaofthehunt said:

I can’t imagine what Gene and goons have in mind for the stolen cc numbers and social security numbers. That’s a lot of purchases from Zappos, but what else can he do with them? He already has a “new” identity.

They were selling them to a third party. We saw the guy sitting in a shady office as Jeff handed over the files, and the guy gave him a box of money.

[Dev F]

2 hours ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

I didn't see a Marco in this ep.  None of the marks were themselves grifters.  None would engender the massive regard Jimmy had for Marco.

The first mark was definitely a petty grifter in the same vein as Marco. In Marco's first scene in the episode that bears his name, he's using bar tricks to shake down credulous bar patrons just like the mark, snatching a twenty dollar bill from the top of a beer bottle without disturbing the pile of quarters on top of it, exactly like how the mark snatches a hundred dollars from beneath Gene's hand.

26 minutes ago, gallimaufry said:

I could be wrong but I feel like the same term was used in 502 of "Breaking Bad" about Ira's crew who Jimmy had been getting out of hot water for years and so I think it's also a bit of an Easter egg.

It's also, I think, another indication of the difference between original Saul and the Saulified Gene: Original Saul didn't want yet another reliable second story guy (yawn), he wanted a new, fun partner like Walt. Whereas Gene is going to force his guys to do the same goddamn scheme over and over again, and fuck them if they don't like it.

[Sailorgirl26]

I go back and forth on the past two episodes. I know they are leading to "something" -- these writers don't disappoint. 

For those who are saying we should have gotten "closure" on Mike -- we did -- in Breaking Bad. Remember, BCS is a prequel. They moved Mike's story along until it meshed with Breaking Bad. Any closure on Kaylie we got in Breaking Bad when Mike left her a safety deposit box of cash but it got raided. 

Other than knowing what happens with Kim and how Saul ends up destroying himself, this show isn't about closure as all the other characters still alive move into the world we've already seen in Breaking Bad. Howard's "suicide" isn't a driving factor in any of that. We've gotten the closure on Howard. He's yet another victim of the cartel world. Whether or not he deserved it. But that's kind of the point -- the victims of that world don't always deserve what they get. 

I take the crimes with Jeffy as Saul just not being able to be satisfied with being "safe" as Gene. As another poster stated in reference to the amazingly beautiful shot of Saul's desert grave from BB morphing into Gene laying in his bed, being Gene the Cinnabon manager from Omaha is its own kind of death for someone like Saul who raked in the cash and was living a luxury life. 

That some small (by comparison to his former life) crimes and his soft spot for senior citizens is looking like its going to be his downfall is completely fitting within this universe.

Walt, Gus, Saul -- none could stop when they were ahead and had achieved what they initially thought they wanted -- money.  Each beat their respective enemies and had all the money they would ever need. If that's what they truly wanted, they would have stopped there. 

But even though they fooled themselves into thinking it was just about money, each in turn eventually realized it was about something completely different. 

Remember: "I did it for myself. I was good at it. I liked it."

That applies to each of them. They are each ultimately a classic tale of the tragedy of lack of a soul. 

By all external appearances, Saul was safe. Most people would ask, "why couldn't he just leave it alone -- he was safe." The simplest answer is the right one: "because he couldn't." 
 

[PeterPirate]

Cancer Man was a particularly decent sort.  He said there was a special place in hell for the Bernie Madoffs of the world.  He also didn't have a woe-is-me attitude about his medical condition.  I wonder if that triggered Gene into needing to complete the scam.  

[Constantinople]

7 hours ago, Dev F said:

Yes, after he reaches out to Kim for the first time in who knows how long and it goes really badly. After years of convincing himself he was just a fun-time playboy, he dared to hope for a reconciliation with his one true love. And that hope is exactly what transforms his long-numbed feelings into phone-booth-destroying rage.

My original point is that Breaking Bad the episode obviates the need for Nippy. I think this observation supports that.

• Fun and Games (E9): Kim leaves Jimmy
• Fun and Games (E9): Jimmy bangs hookers in his house in Albuquerque
• Breaking Bad (E11): Kim isn't available again to Jimmy in some way
• Breaking Bad (E11): Jimmy bangs hookers in his house in Omaha

Note that Nippy isn't in this list.

More generally you can go straight from Fun and Games to Breaking Bad and hardly miss a beat. All you need is those few quick scenes introducing Marion and Jimmy telling Jeff he wants in the game.

[Ed-]

BB spoiler

Spoiler

Key key scene. Saul ignoring Mike's advice ultimately leads to Mike's death. Mike ignores his own advice and still works with Heisenberg. Walter kills Mike in the impulse of the moment. Walter doesn't have much to lose. Since Walter had family, Gene has arguably less to lose, especially after the phonecall with Kim. Gene also has the impulse of the moment with the new cancer guy.

Now Gene goes after the cancer guy, also ignoring advice [i.e. to skip him, since they have enough cash]. Gene feeling invincible will likely lead to his downfall. Marion can now google around and find out about Saul Goodman. A confrontation of Marion with Gene coming? Does Marion have a gun? (I hope the writers won't go for restoring the Gene timeline color with (anyone's) blood.)

Edited August 2, 2022 by Ed-

[bad things are bad]

2 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

She missed that Jimmy was only okay when he had a reason to try to be good, whether it was Chuck or her. 

It's a real contrast between Kim, who may have stepped back from the brink after she left Jimmy,  and Jimmy,  whose trajectory from Jimmy to Saul to Gene appears to be inexorably downward.  He knowingly rejected his chance to redeem himself 

[Penman61]

1 hour ago, gallimaufry said:

However, I do think the intention of this is to show that "Breaking Bad" wasn't the exception, a unique carnival of moral depravity, but Jimmy's norm.  Chuck absolutely right that he can't help himself but he was also wrong that he needs a law degree to be a chimp with a machinegun.

I don't disagree but would just add that the early seasons of BCS showed us that Chuck's treatment of Jimmy was a key catalyst in his reversion to Slippin' Jimmy/Saul. 

The beauty of this show, in my opinion, is that it leaves us with this accurate representation of how complex our motives are: Did Chuck make Jimmy slip again? Well, no, Jimmy had agency, free will, etc. But, boy, Chuck didn't help.

Maybe Chuck didn't hand Jimmy that machine gun, but he sure made Jimmy's trigger finger itch...

Edited August 2, 2022 by Penman61

[Simon Boccanegra]

2 hours ago, Blakeston said:

I never thought Kevin Wachtell (the Mesa Verde guy) was so bad. His good ol' boy persona isn't my cup of tea, but he never did anything that made me think he was a shitty person.

In fact, there were strong suggestions that he wasn't a shitty person. There was no good dirt to be dug up on him, despite exhaustive searches. Kim had to reach for the infringement thing with the firm's cowboy logo.  

I kind of liked Kevin, in part because even though he was a successful "good ol' boy" businessman out of central casting in his voice and some mannerisms, he was a bit progressive too. He thought so highly of Paige and Kim. He might not have agreed immediately to everything they suggested, but he always listened to them and valued their input. To the degree that he acted like a blowhard with them, it's the same way he'd have acted with male counsel.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Simon Boccanegra

[Constantinople]

During his call with Francesca, Saul asks about Danny

Thomas Schnauz confirmed in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter that Daniel Wormald a.k.a. Pryce, the guy who sells prescription drugs illegally and who has a large comic book collection, is Danny the laser tag guy

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/better-call-saul-bryan-cranston-aaron-paul-1235190687/

[Irlandesa]

3 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

  Hide contents

Imdb says she is in two episodes so seems doubtful, unless they just don't list her until aired episodes. But it was 2 before this one

IMDb is often wrong until after a show airs unless the show or the actor's representation deliberately update it. 

2 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

I disagree that these last two episodes have been bad or even boring.  I think it just depends on how you view Gene in the scheme of things.  And I don't think the story of Jimmy or Saul Goodman end until we find out what happens to Gene.   

And we know now there is no happy ending for him.

I never thought there would be but I do think that these episode reinforce it. 

And I also agree that these episodes haven't been bad or boring. I don't get the comparisons to Game of Thrones at all.  I've enjoyed both episodes.  They both narratively fit into what we know about Gene and build on what came before it.  There's no left turn, especially with the knowledge of the events of Breaking Bad. People might not want to spend time in Nebraska but the characterization feels on point.

To whoever said this is a bit of a coda like El Camino. I agree.  Except it's a deliberate miniseries.

30 minutes ago, Constantinople said:

My original point is that Breaking Bad the episode obviates the need for Nippy. I think this observation supports that.

• Fun and Games (E9): Kim leaves Jimmy
• Fun and Games (E9): Jimmy bangs hookers in his house in Albuquerque
• Breaking Bad (E11): Kim isn't available again to Jimmy in some way
• Breaking Bad (E11): Jimmy bangs hookers in his house in Omaha

Note that Nippy isn't in this list.

BCS and Breaking Bad often deliberately build their worlds.  Nippy was about convincing Jeff to get involved. It was about befriending Marion.  At this point, we don't know about how significant it is.  It was reestablishing Jimmy/Gene as a con man.  It was, in theory, about survival.

This episode was about the hunt.  They were different schemes with different motivations.  They could have maybe told the story more quickly but, IMO, there's nothing quite like Gilligan and Gould taking their time to be deliberate.

[scenario]

4 minutes ago, Penman61 said:

I don't disagree but would just add that the early seasons of BCS showed us that Chuck's treatment of Jimmy was a key catalyst in his reversion to Slippin' Jimmy/Saul. 

The beauty of this show, in my opinion, is that it leaves us with this accurate representation of how complex our motives are: Did Chuck make Jimmy slip again? Well, no, Jimmy had agency, free will, etc. But, boy, Chuck sure didn't help.

Maybe Chuck didn't hand Jimmy that machine gun, but he sure made Jimmy's trigger finger itch...

I look at Jimmy as a drug addict and the addiction was to the scam. His father shop was incredibly easy to scam. It was like training wheels for a scammer. Then his mother loved Slipping Jimmy more than she loved Jimmy. She encouraged his behavior.

Then he hit rock bottom. He knew what he was doing was wrong. He vowed to change. He moved to a new city to start his life and emulate his brother who lived his life on the straight and narrow. He lived his life on the clean and narrow for years. He didn't take his choice of drugs, the scam. He even met a woman he fell in love with.

But his brother, his guide in life told him that he was a criminal and no matter how hard he tried to get better he'd always be a criminal and there's no use of fighting against his addiction. You might as well just embrace it. So he turned to Kim. His life revolved around her. He was willing to die for her and proved it. 

But she was also an addict to the same drug. She was the worst possible choice for a partner. She realized it and got out. But Jimmy had nothing else. Everything in his life pushed him towards the life of crime so he said F-it and dove into a criminal life as Saul. 

Then that life fell apart because he always reached to high. No matter what he got it was not enough. He was Icarus, too much was not enough. He managed to run with half a million dollars. He spent half of that to pay the vacuum guy. He had enough to pay him a second time but not much more. He settled into a dull mundane life. He had no friends and was terrified of making any friends. He spent his life looking over his shoulder.

He had two dreams to cling to. He had hidden much of his fortune and he'd get it but Francesca ruined that dream when she told him the money was gone. And he dreamed of some day getting back with Kim. That dream was also crushed. We don't know how yet. I doubt she died. He was angry not crushed. He acted like a man betrayed again.

But at this point, Jimmy/Saul/Gene has absolutely nothing left. He has nothing to hope for. His life is going to be an endless stream of drudgery with no friends and nothing to look forward to. He decided F-it. He's a criminal and that's all he is and he's going to go out in a blaze of glory.

The more I thought about this episode the more I like it. This was Saul's last chance to redeem himself and he threw it away because he had nothing and no one left to live for. He just didn't give a damn anymore. 

[Rickster]

I wonder if part of the the issue with the last two episodes is the black and white photography. I understand “artistically” why they’re doing it, and it worked for the brief flash forwards earlier in the series, but here, it’s not connecting me to the story anymore. And it seems murkily shot for the most part, at least in the indoor and night scenes. I’d prefer to be watching this in color.

[Cinnabon]

4 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Holy crap, I just realized Gene’s first mark was Buzz on Home Alone!

IKR? I looked him up last night as well. And the actor was arrested last November for strangling his GF - yikes.