S06.E11: Breaking Bad

[peeayebee]

4 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Is it wrong that I'm fine not seeing Kim again? It's only because it would be more satisfying to me if we never find out what happened to her. Closure is all well and good, but I think a little ambiguity would more fitting at this point. 

If we see Kim again, fine. If we don't, fine. I'm confident the writers have made the best decision re this.

[Colorado David]

ok crunched. no kim or skylar spinoffs. i hope this vampire show stands up well. (maintain little hope, as i find the story boring as heck.) 

Edited August 3, 2022 by Colorado David

[Penman61]

21 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

If we see Kim again, fine. If we don't, fine. I'm confident the writers have made the best decision re this.

I do think the writers owe us more about how Kim ended besides "She left her man for moral/ethical reasons." 

We got two substantial Kim childhood flashbacks. She's such a developed character on her own that it matters to me to know her character's outcome, separate from Jimmy's. 

I mean, we don't even know if she was on the phone in this ep's call.

Anyway, I'd bet that we get more Kim before this is all over. #TellKimsStory

Edited August 3, 2022 by Penman61

[PeterPirate]

45 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

If we see Kim again, fine. If we don't, fine. I'm confident the writers have made the best decision re this.

I agree.  If she ends up as the cashier at a sprinkler company, that will be a satisfactory end.  I wouldn't call it redemption (whatever that means), but it would be karmic retribution if she has to spend the rest of her days as a nobody.  

That said,

Spoiler

IMDb lists Sandrine Holt, aka Cheryl Hamlin, in the credits for next weeks episode.   

[PeterPirate]

Courtney's analysis of the episode, part 1.  Her best one yet.

[ShadowFacts]

9 hours ago, Penman61 said:

Does it matter which particular barbiturate it is? In the scene where Gene was mixing the drug into the water bottles, you could see a partial label that read "[something] sodium." Which barbiturate might that be?

I don't think it matters, any one of them can suppress respiration and its effects can be compounded by alcohol which is also a depressant. A person might also be on other medications, and have who knows what medical conditions.  Drugging somebody is pretty heinous.  I really can't stand Gene anymore at all.  He's a menace to society, his humanity is gone.

[paigow]

Gene seemed to hesitate slightly when he found out those were cancer pills... I thought Jimmy / Saul was surfacing to throw the game...

[gallimaufry]

5 minutes ago, ShadowFacts said:

I don't think it matters, any one of them can suppress respiration and its effects can be compounded by alcohol which is also a depressant. A person might also be on other medications, and have who knows what medical conditions.  Drugging somebody is pretty heinous.  I really can't stand Gene anymore at all.  He's a menace to society, his humanity is gone.

In many respects, while tragic, this would be the most interesting follow-on - if he enters and the guy is already dead.

[peeayebee]

1 hour ago, PeterPirate said:

Courtney's analysis of the episode, part 1.  Her best one yet.

That was great. I look forward to Part 2 of her breakdown.

[Cosmocrush]

6 hours ago, scenario said:

I don't think Gene would react the way he did if she was dead. He was reacting frustrated or angry. Either he couldn't get in touch with her or he found out something about her like she'd remarried. 

Good point.  

[MBayGal]

On 8/1/2022 at 7:10 PM, Penman61 said:

I’ll wait for more payoff next week, but, boy, so far not seeing the story/character value of bringing back Walt & Jesse. On a lesser show, I’d call it fanservice.

It is fanservice.  Or fan pandering.  This ep and the last have done nothing for me. Seems like an inglorious ending so far. i'd love to be proved wrong!!!

[Dev F]

21 hours ago, Tuggy said:

On the other hand, I might be in the minority but I did not care at all for the Jesse and Walt cameo. In addition to Aaron Paul not looking and sounding like Jesse in Breaking Bad, which was distracting, this scene did not bring much to the story.

On the other other hand, the montage between Saul going to Walt's school and Gene breaking into the marks's house felt way more momentous, even if maybe a bit too on the nose. In both cases, he could have backed up, as someone was urging him too, but he chose to pursue it no matter what. I think the take-away message is that in both cases, this will ultimately mean his downfall.

Interestingly, writer Tom Schnauz has mentioned in post-episode interviews that the scene with Walt and Jesse was written and shot out of sequence: "We had a very small window, and I had to write the scene way ahead of the actual [611] script. And we shot it in April of 2021 while Vince [Gilligan] was shooting episode two." So it makes sense that it feels a little generic, since it couldn't be tailored to fit the precise contours of an episode that hadn't been written yet!

The rest of the Breaking Bad flashbacks fit much more snugly, not just the closing scenes at Walt's school, which you mentioned, but also the teaser over the open grave, which sets up the theme of Saul displacing blame when confronted with his own annihilation, and the scene with Mike, which reintroduces Saul's dumb foot gizmo and lays the groundwork to compare and contrast his reactions to a dangerous new criminal opportunity.

[Lalo Lives]

12 hours ago, PeterPirate said:

Courtney's analysis of the episode, part 1.  Her best one yet.

This was good. I see her views are much lower #’s-wise than other YouTubers.

I just cannot stomach most of them as they either yell, have machines doing the talking, their voices are prepubescent, or they just cobble together clips with banal commentary.

Courtney does thinking and I find that refreshing in this day and age. And since I do very little of it.

Glad PeterPirate told us about her.

[Lalo Lives]

I also hope that when everything is complete that the writers, directors, and producers provide a detailed “how we did it, why we did it, what we were thinking” type of thing concerning the entire BCS series.

I’m often curious if the various writers and directors have some particular guiding principles when doing these individual episodes.

One can see in some movie franchises where different directors and writers alter the tone drastically: Marvel, Mission Impossible, Star Wars, 007, to name just four.

Not high art, but famous and in some cases enjoyable. In some other cases I’d rather get a barbed wire prostate exam than watch the works or particular writers or directors.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Lalo Lives
Pluralisms’s’es

[Sailorgirl26]

13 hours ago, PeterPirate said:

I agree.  If she ends up as the cashier at a sprinkler company, that will be a satisfactory end.  I wouldn't call it redemption (whatever that means), but it would be karmic retribution if she has to spend the rest of her days as a nobody.  

At least she's likely to be wearing her hair down, instead of that pulled-tight ponytail. It will be interesting to see if/when she shows up, her hair is down but then if she represents Saul/Gene/Jimmy, the ponytail reemerges and we know Kim is "back." 

[Tuggy]

@Lalo Lives I agree that Courtney's videos are very rich and that she analyses in depth the character's evolution and the choices of words in the dialogs. Very high-quality stuff indeed, I hope she continues with other series after that.

It reminds me a bit of the Polite Fight videos that were produced by the AVClub website at some point and which I loved watching after an episode of BCS. Their analysis of the choices in terms of camera angles and image colours were mindblowing, to me. Searching very quickly I found this example of these videos, about the Kim montage : 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Tuggy

[SunnyBeBe]

17 hours ago, Dobian said:

I'm looking for Carol to do the famous ear tug at the end!

Chuck and his ex wife talk about Carol Burnette and the ear tug in a scene as they prepare dinner for Jimmy.  I recently saw it rewatching…season 3 I think.  Man, that’s pre planning.  Lol 

[peeayebee]

1 hour ago, Lalo Lives said:

This was good. I see her views are much lower #’s-wise than other YouTubers.

I just cannot stomach most of them as they either yell, have machines doing the talking, their voices are prepubescent, or they just cobble together clips with banal commentary.

Courtney does thinking and I find that refreshing in this day and age. And since I do very little of it.

Glad PeterPirate told us about her.

Completely agree. Not only is Courtney very perceptive and interesting, but she's easy to listen to. As I've said before, the other YouTubers have monotone voices and don't really incorporate the video portion into their narration. Maybe there are others I haven't watched -- I can only watch so many -- but these other guys force me to close my eyes (since the visuals are irrelevant) so I can concentrate on what they're saying. 

I'm surprised Courtney's viewership is lower than others.

[PeterPirate]

37 minutes ago, Sailorgirl26 said:

At least she's likely to be wearing her hair down, instead of that pulled-tight ponytail. It will be interesting to see if/when she shows up, her hair is down but then if she represents Saul/Gene/Jimmy, the ponytail reemerges and we know Kim is "back." 

I want Kim to take off those damned earrings.  They are her Heisenberg Hat, her Goodman Ring of Power.  

36 minutes ago, Tuggy said:

@Lalo Lives I agree that Courtney's videos are very rich and that she analyses in depth the character's evolution and the choices of words in the dialogs. Very high-quality stuff indeed, I hope she continues with other series after that.

It reminds me a bit of the Polite Fight videos that were produced by the AVClub website at some point and which I loved watching after an episode of BCS. Their analysis of the choices in terms of camera angles and image colours were mindblowing, to me. Searching very quickly I found this example of these videos, about the Kim montage : 

I'm pretty sure the guy on the left has his own channel called Ological, which is excellent.  However it takes him many weeks to craft his analyses, and this season he's only done the first two episodes.  Courtney is new on the scene and she gets comments about being Ological's successor. 

[Eulipian 5k]

On 8/2/2022 at 9:03 AM, Chaos Theory said:

handing someone a stack of singles will likely go unnoticed.

No one makes fake singles:

• How many do you have to pass to make it worth the time & expense?
• Why risk 10 years in jail, and the Secret Service after you, for ONE dollar?
• You make 20 times more money with one fake $20.
• You make the same money collecting 20 discarded soda cans, with no overhead!

[Eulipian 5k]

14 hours ago, PeterPirate said:

If she ends up as the cashier at a sprinkler company, that will be a satisfactory end.  I wouldn't call it redemption (whatever that means), but it would be karmic retribution if

Remembering the devastating fire, Pollos' new CEO, Lyle, installs the bestest sprinkler system evah from a little company in Florida.

[Tuggy]

20 minutes ago, PeterPirate said:

I'm pretty sure the guy on the left has his own channel called Ological, which is excellent.  However it takes him many weeks to craft his analyses, and this season he's only done the first two episodes.  Courtney is new on the scene and she gets comments about being Ological's successor. 

Thanks, @PeterPirate! I'll be sure to check Ological's videos too, I already enjoyed some of his comments on Courtney's ones 😅. I loved the tone and style of the Polite Fights videos, though, I miss them quite a bunch...

By the way, shouldn't this forum get threads like the ones on Slack, Discord or Disqus? It would make reading the comments much easier and faster as you could focus on the topics that are the most interesting to you...

[Penman61]

1 hour ago, peeayebee said:

I'm surprised Courtney's viewership is lower than others.

I think she's only been posting for a few months, and in that time her viewership has grown pretty fast. 

This week her video's interpretive frame of Frankenstein was fascinating (and, to me, unexpected). The BB/BCS universe is so much about shifting identities, and the idea that Jimmy/Saul/Gene has "devolved" into something else, something monstrous was, for me, very illuminating. 

Like a lot of viewers, I was casually thinking that what we'd see over the course of this series is "Jimmy becoming Saul." 

Well, we got that, but now we've also gotten this other thing, someone obviously still tethered to those previous identities, but someone who, at least as of this episode, seems is willing to seriously risk someone else's health or even life, and is less and less heedless of his own. "Saul" was, if nothing else, a survivor, la cucaracha, but that seems to be gone now.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Penman61

[scenario]

1 hour ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Chuck and his ex wife talk about Carol Burnette and the ear tug in a scene as they prepare dinner for Jimmy.  I recently saw it rewatching…season 3 I think.  Man, that’s pre planning.  Lol 

I doubt they'd hired Carol that far in advance. But it does show how much they respect her. I wouldn't be surprised if they put this in in homage to her and she commended somewhere that she said she was honored to be mentioned and it got back to them. When they had a part that they thought perfectly fit her they figured they'd give her first crack at it. 

[PeterPirate]

9 hours ago, Dev F said:

Interestingly, writer Tom Schnauz has mentioned in post-episode interviews that the scene with Walt and Jesse was written and shot out of sequence: "We had a very small window, and I had to write the scene way ahead of the actual [611] script. And we shot it in April of 2021 while Vince [Gilligan] was shooting episode two." So it makes sense that it feels a little generic, since it couldn't be tailored to fit the precise contours of an episode that hadn't been written yet!

The rest of the Breaking Bad flashbacks fit much more snugly, not just the closing scenes at Walt's school, which you mentioned, but also the teaser over the open grave, which sets up the theme of Saul displacing blame when confronted with his own annihilation, and the scene with Mike, which reintroduces Saul's dumb foot gizmo and lays the groundwork to compare and contrast his reactions to a dangerous new criminal opportunity.

Taken as a whole, I think the flashbacks were a net positive.  The scenes with Walt and Jesse didn't really add any new information to the mix, but it was entertaining to see them in action. 

And they add context to the Gene timeline.  Whatever "good heart" that even Chuck acknowledged Jimmy had is buried, and buried deep.  

And only Kim can dig it up and give it life again.  

Edited August 4, 2022 by PeterPirate

[Penman61]

9 minutes ago, PeterPirate said:

And only Kim can dig it up and give it life again.  

I want this to be true, but I just don't see how Kim will get within a country mile of Jimmy unless he's shown significant progress, and he's showing very much the opposite.

I also feel like this flirts with Good Woman Savior tropes, i.e., all Jimmy needs is the love of a good woman to save him. He needs to start by trying to save his own damn self, and that is not what's happening so far.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Penman61

[scenario]

12 minutes ago, Penman61 said:

I want this to be true, but I just don't see how Kim will get within a country mile of Jimmy unless he's shown significant progress, and he's showing very much the opposite.

I also feel like this flirts with Good Woman Savior tropes, i.e., all Jimmy needs is the love of a good woman to save him. He needs to start by trying to save his own damn self, and that is not what's happening so far.

Kim's problem with Jimmy isn't even Jimmy. It's her. She knows he brings out the worst in her and she brings out the worst in him. They are toxic for each other.

Once Jimmy became Saul, the chance of him meeting the type woman who could be good for him dropped. He's much more likely to meet women who are looking at him as a sugar daddy. And most of the good women he did meet wouldn't be interested in him. 

If Kim hadn't been just as flawed as he was, she might have been able to turn him around. 

[Penman61]

4 minutes ago, scenario said:

Kim's problem with Jimmy isn't even Jimmy. It's her. She knows he brings out the worst in her and she brings out the worst in him. They are toxic for each other.

Once Jimmy became Saul, the chance of him meeting the type woman who could be good for him dropped. He's much more likely to meet women who are looking at him as a sugar daddy. And most of the good women he did meet wouldn't be interested in him. 

If Kim hadn't been just as flawed as he was, she might have been able to turn him around. 

100%. And if we accept that it was Kim on the other end of the line in this ep (I don't yet), then I think only a brisk, blanket, self-saving, unadulterated rejection from Kim could have made Jimmy so mad so fast that he became violent. Good for her. If true. :)

[PeterPirate]

10 minutes ago, Penman61 said:

I want this to be true, but I just don't see how Kim will get within a country mile of Jimmy unless he's shown significant progress, and he's showing very much the opposite.

I also feel like this flirts with Good Woman Savior tropes, i.e., all Jimmy needs is the love of a good woman to save him. He needs to start by trying to save his own damn self, and that is not what's happening so far.

I've been working on my preferred ending scenario.  I still think Kim has to come clean in order to "save herself".  But maybe she works out a deal with the authorities to get Jimmy to turn himself in, in return for a reduced sentence for her.  

And let's say Jimmy doesn't have to turn himself in.  He gets away with his current scams and nobody knows who Gene Takavic really is.  He also has to make the choice to come clean and save himself.  Even if he does so to make Kim's life better, he's still choosing to break good.  

Again, this is how I want this show to end.  I realize this is the Gilliverse and all.  But hope springs eternal.  

[Penman61]

16 hours ago, ShadowFacts said:

I don't think it matters, any one of them can suppress respiration and its effects can be compounded by alcohol which is also a depressant. A person might also be on other medications, and have who knows what medical conditions.  Drugging somebody is pretty heinous. 

(Emphasis added.)

Yes, it really is. We saw Walt take this to the extreme with the drugging/poisoning of Brock. 

I was LIVID when Kim and Jimmy put the topical on Howard's photos. I realize Jimmy "testing" it on himself helped him rationalize using it, but different people respond differently. 

And now we have this wholesale drugging of what, at least a dozen unsuspecting men? Yes, they are riding in a cab, so at least not driving while drugged, but once they're home, they could fall and injure/kill themselves. And then of course there's each person's possible reaction to the barbiturates + alcohol + whatever other meds the person is taking + possible allergic reaction + on and on and on. Huge risk, serious crime here.

So thanks for foregrounding how truly appalling this drugging is. It's way worse than the identity theft that follows.

[gail56]

30 minutes ago, scenario said:

If Kim hadn't been just as flawed as he was, she might have been able to turn him around. 

This got me thinking. If Kim hadn't had "Giselle" lurking inside of her would Jimmy have even been interested in her? Until she pulled the first scam with Jimmy, I thought she was as straight laced as Chuck and Howard. If she had been, would there have even been a Jimmy and Kim?

[SimplexFish]

3 hours ago, Eulipian 5k said:

• How many do you have to pass to make it worth the time & expense?

I can only think of one place for this to happen... 😄

Edited August 4, 2022 by SimplexFish

[Cinnabon]

1 hour ago, Penman61 said:

I want this to be true, but I just don't see how Kim will get within a country mile of Jimmy unless he's shown significant progress, and he's showing very much the opposite.

I also feel like this flirts with Good Woman Savior tropes, i.e., all Jimmy needs is the love of a good woman to save him. He needs to start by trying to save his own damn self, and that is not what's happening so far.

Exactly. She must now be aware of much of what Saul was involved in during the BB years. Why on earth would she ever get involved with him again?

Edited August 4, 2022 by Cinnabon

[SimplexFish]

I think the man with cancer is going to be dead when Jimmy arrives...maybe he calls the police himself and leaves right away or comes up with a story why he is there seeing his "friend" home

[Chaos Theory]

1 hour ago, scenario said:

Kim's problem with Jimmy isn't even Jimmy. It's her. She knows he brings out the worst in her and she brings out the worst in him. They are toxic for each other.

Once Jimmy became Saul, the chance of him meeting the type woman who could be good for him dropped. He's much more likely to meet women who are looking at him as a sugar daddy. And most of the good women he did meet wouldn't be interested in him. 

If Kim hadn't been just as flawed as he was, she might have been able to turn him around. 

50 minutes ago, gail56 said:

This got me thinking. If Kim hadn't had "Giselle" lurking inside of her would Jimmy have even been interested in her? Until she pulled the first scam with Jimmy, I thought she was as straight laced as Chuck and Howard. If she had been, would there have even been a Jimmy and Kim?

1 hour ago, Penman61 said:

I want this to be true, but I just don't see how Kim will get within a country mile of Jimmy unless he's shown significant progress, and he's showing very much the opposite.

I also feel like this flirts with Good Woman Savior tropes, i.e., all Jimmy needs is the love of a good woman to save him. He needs to start by trying to save his own damn self, and that is not what's happening so far.

It goes back to Howard’s description of them as Leopold and Leob.    I think it would be far more interesting if we found out that Kim lead a perfectly nice and boring existence during the BB years.   But once Gene manages to get in touch with her and convinces her to rescue from whatever fresh hell he causes for himself it brings back all the things in Kim that made her dangerous but…..fun.     Kim was never Jimmy’s “good woman savior” if anything she is the Bonnie to his Clyde.  And it would be an interesting ending to have them go out in a hail of bullets……or something to the like…..but together.  

Edited August 4, 2022 by Chaos Theory
Content and spelling

[peeayebee]

22 hours ago, Dobian said:

I'm looking for Carol to do the famous ear tug at the end!

The director (or writer?) of 'Nippy' asked Carol if she'd subtly tug her ear, I believe in the grocery store part. Carol happily obliged, and it was filmed, but it didn't end up in the final cut.

[Penman61]

1 minute ago, peeayebee said:

The director (or writer?) of 'Nippy' asked Carol if she'd subtly tug her ear, I believe in the grocery store part. Carol happily obliged, and it was filmed, but it didn't end up in the final cut.

This is fun. VERY glad they cut it. I mean, if she wants to wheel by a Tarzan or GWTW bluray at check-out, ok, but an actual ear-tugging? Too much, imho. But fun that they considered it.

[gallimaufry]

1 hour ago, scenario said:

Kim's problem with Jimmy isn't even Jimmy. It's her. She knows he brings out the worst in her and she brings out the worst in him. They are toxic for each other.

I don't know about that.  Jimmy's biggest dark turns were completely self-initiated and were spiteful towards Chuck: the Mesa Verde fraud, the insurance "slip up", isolating Irene, deciding to hawk cellphones as Saul Goodman, threatening the street punks, representing a cartel lawyer, becoming a bagman for a cartel lawyer.  He has consistently been way, way, way ahead of her and although she softened along the way, she always went with a version of the plan that was less vindictive and more positive: building Huell up rather than tearing down a cop.  Jimmy was the one who suggested making it personal with Kevin and although she agreed, she then got cold feet.

The only time she has proposed something that would harm someone else was against Howard and I think she genuinely believes her rationale that it's "a career setback for one lawyer" and that in a Robin Hood sense it's still using their powers for good.  And sure, that was bad -- but not a patch on how Jimmy normally acts.  Jimmy even admitted: "this isn't you, you wouldn't be able to live with yourself" and it was Kim who made the shift.

I think it suits Kim's ego to think that she could modulate Jimmy and that she is in control of her own destiny.  And it's certainly true that she made terrible choices and bears responsibility.  But I think he drew her way further down a dark path than she would ever have conceived of otherwise while she kept the genie in the bottle on a lot of occasions when he could have become truly chaotic and vile at an earlier stage.

[Colorado David]

so fun and  weird choosing nesmtih as a tune. i love the guy since the monkees. why not light or rrio?

Edited August 4, 2022 by Colorado David

[Dev F]

So last night I was trying to put together some thoughts about Gene's second mark in this episode, the guy at the start of the montage who laughs at Gene for not knowing what "diversification" is. I didn't get very far except to note the weird way in which he embodies several of Jimmy's previous connections and experiences: He's an older guy who lectures Gene on his stupid choices and tries to shame him into doing better, sort of like Mike or Chuck. Gene is apparently running the same con on him that Jimmy and Kim ran on "Ken Wins" back in "Switch"; he even provokes the same line from the mark: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." And Gene and the guy are both drinking Moscow mules, just like Jimmy and Kim were when they were conning the amorous engineer in "Bali Ha'i."

I don't know what to make of all that, but one thing jumped out at me as I was looking over the related earlier moments. Dale the engineer in "Bali Ha'i" has a very specific specialization: "spillways and drainage fields, mostly." I wonder if there's going to end up being some strange connection between him and Kim's new job at Palm Coast Sprinklers and the title of the next episode, "Waterworks."

Edited August 4, 2022 by Dev F

[Eulipian 5k]

2 hours ago, Penman61 said:

A person might also be on other medications, and have who knows what medical conditions.  Drugging somebody is pretty heinous. 

Oy! Drugging Howard was harmless. Nothing bad happened to him, (from the drug, /s).

[Spartan Girl]

On 8/3/2022 at 3:09 PM, Wiendish Fitch said:

Is it wrong that I'm fine not seeing Kim again? It's only because it would be more satisfying to me if we never find out what happened to her. Closure is all well and good, but I think a little ambiguity would more fitting at this point. 

I’d be fine with not seeing Kim again either. I mean, I do want to know what was said on that call, but other than that, I think we’ve taken Kim as far as she can go here. My one hope is that Howard haunts her for the rest of her life so she doesn’t completely escape karma.

Yup there is no redemption for Gene at this point, but you know what? Let’s stop treating his identities like they’re separate people. Saul, Gene…the one thing that has been made clear in these past few episodes is that it was ALWAYS Jimmy. He’s the same person he was back when he was a two-but hustler. The only difference is that anything good about him is long gone.

[SunnyBeBe]

I did laugh at Gene’s comment when defending his decision to go after the cancer patient, by saying that cancer patients aren’t necessarily all nice.    (Referring to Walt)

[Wiendish Fitch]

Just now, SunnyBeBe said:

I did laugh at Gene’s comment when defending his decision to go after the cancer patient, by saying that cancer patients aren’t necessarily all nice.    (Referring to Walt)

I mean, he ain't wrong... but he's still a loathsome prick.

[Penman61]

33 minutes ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

I mean, he ain't wrong... but he's still a loathsome prick.

Yeah, let's be clear, that's some victim-blaming bs Gene is spewing. Chances are VERY high that at least one of his other middle-aged male victims has some other significant disease, loss, setback...Gene just wasn't told about them.

But they are ALL human, and not drugging and scamming one because he has cancer isn't morally praiseworthy; drugging and scamming ANY of them is despicable.

[lilysmom]

I love watching the show, then reading these posts and then, watching the show again! (And I mostly say to myself, "Oh, yeh, I did miss that!"  So thanks to all you wonderful posters.

On a lighter note, I have noticed that Saul/Gene has not brushed his teeth ONCE since Kim left. 

Also, I am thinking that Bob O deserves a grammy nomination for his rendition of Brandy. I think it's pretty hard to be that off key on purpose.

[EtheltoTillie]

7 minutes ago, lilysmom said:

I love watching the show, then reading these posts and then, watching the show again! (And I mostly say to myself, "Oh, yeh, I did miss that!"  So thanks to all you wonderful posters.

On a lighter note, I have noticed that Saul/Gene has not brushed his teeth ONCE since Kim left. 

Also, I am thinking that Bob O deserves a grammy nomination for his rendition of Brandy. I think it's pretty hard to be that off key on purpose.

Ah, the toothbrushing!  I'd just love to have a commentary track for this whole series when it's done.  Doubt they would do it.

[SoMuchTV]

8 minutes ago, lilysmom said:

Also, I am thinking that Bob O deserves a grammy nomination for his rendition of Brandy. I think it's pretty hard to be that off key on purpose.

Ooh.  Working on that EGOT!

[Smok44]

On 8/2/2022 at 8:13 AM, 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.

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.

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

Danny is in fact Wormald. The director confirms it in this article

 https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/better-call-saul-breaking-bad-references-in-breaking-bad/

[Lalo Lives]

7 hours ago, Penman61 said:

(Emphasis added.)

Yes, it really is. We saw Walt take this to the extreme with the drugging/poisoning of Brock. 

I was LIVID when Kim and Jimmy put the topical on Howard's photos. I realize Jimmy "testing" it on himself helped him rationalize using it, but different people respond differently. 

And now we have this wholesale drugging of what, at least a dozen unsuspecting men? Yes, they are riding in a cab, so at least not driving while drugged, but once they're home, they could fall and injure/kill themselves. And then of course there's each person's possible reaction to the barbiturates + alcohol + whatever other meds the person is taking + possible allergic reaction + on and on and on. Huge risk, serious crime here.

So thanks for foregrounding how truly appalling this drugging is. It's way worse than the identity theft that follows.

Kind of interesting for me…I just didn’t really pay attention to the barbiturates thing. Kind of like Dumbo getting hammered back in the day. Cute, funny…but a cartoon. In many ways Jimmy is a live action cartoon.

BUT you guys are bringing up good points.

Perhaps had the victims been women I would have been creeped out. Then visions of Bill Cosby would have popped into my head. And the injury potential is there. Probably a mile-long list of medical conditions people have that are adversely affected by downers.

A question for me is this:

Will Jimmy EVER have an event happen that causes some serious introspection?

Or is he just a little boy with a sling shot and everything else is a potential target?